Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the North West

Microsoft
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 5 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
5 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 3 7 4
Rank change year-on-year +4 -3 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 443 290 412
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.44% 12.34% 15.00%
As % of the Vendors category 36.70% 28.49% 31.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 306 166 270
10th Percentile £200 £232 £199
25th Percentile £330 £365 £236
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £432 £450 £406
Median % change year-on-year -4.06% +10.77% -9.72%
75th Percentile £498 £575 £533
90th Percentile £604 £659 £619
England median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 22 56
10th Percentile £13.50 £16.30 £15.75
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.83 £17.14
Median hourly rate £22.63 £30.50 £26.27
Median % change year-on-year -25.80% +16.12% +50.09%
75th Percentile £31.88 £35.75 £46.18
90th Percentile £73.29 £46.18 £51.42
England median hourly rate £22.32 £21.23 £23.00
% change year-on-year +5.11% -7.70% +18.71%

All Vendors
North West

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 1,207 1,018 1,290
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 50.25% 43.32% 46.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 813 531 856
10th Percentile £270 £325 £225
25th Percentile £375 £413 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £603 £593 £588
90th Percentile £700 £675 £663
England median daily rate £506 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.71% - -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 51 94
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.00 £16.20
25th Percentile £19.07 £23.00 £17.55
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% +2.94% +43.49%
75th Percentile £54.00 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £55.79 £52.85
England median hourly rate £25.08 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.36% -21.35% +73.08%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the North West

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the North West over the 6 months to 5 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the North West

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the North West over the 6 months to 5 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the North West

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the North West region over the 6 months to 5 November 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester +6 196 £440 -3.56% 395
Cheshire +2 141 £431 -11.27% 162
Lancashire +3 44 £450 +9.09% 259
Merseyside -2 37 £358 +43.00% 82
Cumbria +18 18 £470 -1.05% 11
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 53 (11.96%) SharePoint
2 39 (8.80%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (4.06%) Confluence
4 16 (3.61%) Apache
4 16 (3.61%) JBoss
4 16 (3.61%) Skype for Business
5 15 (3.39%) IIS
6 12 (2.71%) WebSphere
7 10 (2.26%) iPlanet
7 10 (2.26%) WebSphere Application Server
8 8 (1.81%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (1.58%) Exchange Server 2013
10 5 (1.13%) CMS
10 5 (1.13%) Exchange Server 2010
11 4 (0.90%) Tomcat
12 3 (0.68%) Mattermost
13 2 (0.45%) NetWeaver
14 1 (0.23%) CICS
14 1 (0.23%) SAS
14 1 (0.23%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 72 (16.25%) Microsoft Office
2 58 (13.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (4.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (3.84%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.68%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.68%) Siemens NX
6 3 (0.68%) Sketch
7 2 (0.45%) Simulink
7 2 (0.45%) Trello
8 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (2.71%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (0.90%) Advent Geneva
2 4 (0.90%) assyst
3 3 (0.68%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.45%) Kondor
4 2 (0.45%) Maximo
4 2 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.23%) Loan IQ
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.23%) Primavera
5 1 (0.23%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 109 (24.60%) Azure
2 108 (24.38%) Microsoft 365
3 57 (12.87%) Power Platform
4 48 (10.84%) AWS
5 28 (6.32%) Entra ID
6 20 (4.51%) Power Automate
7 19 (4.29%) PowerApps
8 18 (4.06%) OneDrive
9 17 (3.84%) SaaS
10 16 (3.61%) Dynamics 365
10 16 (3.61%) OpenShift
11 15 (3.39%) Azure DevOps
12 11 (2.48%) GCP
12 11 (2.48%) GitHub
13 9 (2.03%) Azure Sentinel
13 9 (2.03%) Microsoft Purview
14 8 (1.81%) Azure Logic Apps
15 6 (1.35%) Figma
16 5 (1.13%) Lucidchart
16 5 (1.13%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 20 (4.51%) Firewall
2 19 (4.29%) DNS
3 16 (3.61%) Skype
4 13 (2.93%) LAN
5 12 (2.71%) Unified Communications
5 12 (2.71%) Wi-Fi
6 11 (2.48%) VPN
6 11 (2.48%) WAN
6 11 (2.48%) WebEx
7 10 (2.26%) Kerberos
7 10 (2.26%) Network Security
8 9 (2.03%) DHCP
9 8 (1.81%) VLAN
10 5 (1.13%) Internet
11 4 (0.90%) SSL
11 4 (0.90%) TCP/IP
12 3 (0.68%) Softphone
12 3 (0.68%) SSH
13 2 (0.45%) VoIP
13 2 (0.45%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (7.67%) Power BI
2 22 (4.97%) SQL Server
3 14 (3.16%) Relational Database
4 12 (2.71%) Oracle Database
5 10 (2.26%) MySQL
6 8 (1.81%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.81%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (1.58%) DB2
8 5 (1.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (0.90%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.90%) Looker
9 4 (0.90%) MS Access
9 4 (0.90%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.68%) Tableau
11 2 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.45%) Big Data
11 2 (0.45%) Metadata
11 2 (0.45%) Snowflake Schema
11 2 (0.45%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 33 (7.45%) JIRA
2 25 (5.64%) Git
3 22 (4.97%) Jenkins
4 12 (2.71%) Sonatype Nexus
5 11 (2.48%) Bitbucket Server
5 11 (2.48%) CA Release Automation
6 9 (2.03%) GitLab
7 5 (1.13%) Gradle
7 5 (1.13%) JUnit
8 3 (0.68%) Maven
8 3 (0.68%) Selenium
8 3 (0.68%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.45%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.45%) Hudson
9 2 (0.45%) Storybook
9 2 (0.45%) Xcode
10 1 (0.23%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.23%) MSI
10 1 (0.23%) Subversion
10 1 (0.23%) TeamCity
General
1 173 (39.05%) Social Skills
2 125 (28.22%) Finance
3 85 (19.19%) Analytical Skills
4 44 (9.93%) Public Sector
5 30 (6.77%) Banking
6 20 (4.51%) Legal
6 20 (4.51%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (3.61%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (3.16%) Manufacturing
9 12 (2.71%) Influencing Skills
9 12 (2.71%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (1.58%) Retail
12 6 (1.35%) Aerospace
12 6 (1.35%) Local Government
13 5 (1.13%) Military
13 5 (1.13%) Publishing
13 5 (1.13%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.68%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.68%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 87 (19.64%) Analyst
2 44 (9.93%) Developer
3 34 (7.67%) IT Support
4 32 (7.22%) Administrator
5 31 (7.00%) Support Analyst
6 25 (5.64%) Architect
7 21 (4.74%) Lead
7 21 (4.74%) Support Engineer
8 20 (4.51%) Senior
9 17 (3.84%) IT Engineer
10 16 (3.61%) Business Analyst
10 16 (3.61%) Support Technician
11 15 (3.39%) Consultant
11 15 (3.39%) SAP Administrator
11 15 (3.39%) SAP Support
12 14 (3.16%) Desktop Support
12 14 (3.16%) Security Engineer
13 12 (2.71%) DevOps Engineer
13 12 (2.71%) IT Support Engineer
14 11 (2.48%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.84%) OAuth
2 15 (3.39%) REST
3 12 (2.71%) .NET
3 12 (2.71%) HTML
3 12 (2.71%) LDAP
3 12 (2.71%) SAML
4 11 (2.48%) OpenID
5 10 (2.26%) JSON
5 10 (2.26%) SOAP
5 10 (2.26%) XMPP
6 9 (2.03%) Web Services
7 7 (1.58%) Kafka
7 7 (1.58%) React
7 7 (1.58%) RESTful
7 7 (1.58%) Spring Boot
8 6 (1.35%) CSS
8 6 (1.35%) HTML5 Canvas
8 6 (1.35%) Spring
9 5 (1.13%) .NET Framework
9 5 (1.13%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 27 (6.09%) Onboarding
2 21 (4.74%) Product Ownership
3 15 (3.39%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (3.16%) Management Information System
5 12 (2.71%) Low-Code
6 9 (2.03%) Data Centre
7 8 (1.81%) Cloud Native
8 7 (1.58%) Mobile App
9 6 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (1.35%) CMDB
9 6 (1.35%) Video Conferencing
10 5 (1.13%) Clustering
10 5 (1.13%) Driving Licence
10 5 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
11 4 (0.90%) PKI
11 4 (0.90%) Security Operations Centre
11 4 (0.90%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.90%) Virtual Team
12 3 (0.68%) Distributed Computing
12 3 (0.68%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 114 (25.73%) Windows
2 38 (8.58%) Linux
3 37 (8.35%) Windows 10
4 25 (5.64%) Windows Server
5 18 (4.06%) Unix
6 17 (3.84%) Apple iOS
7 14 (3.16%) Android
8 6 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (1.35%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.90%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.23%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.23%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.23%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (22.35%) Problem-Solving
2 63 (14.22%) ITIL
3 61 (13.77%) Agile
4 56 (12.64%) Stakeholder Management
5 53 (11.96%) DevOps
5 53 (11.96%) Service Management
6 52 (11.74%) Customer Service
6 52 (11.74%) ITSM
7 48 (10.84%) Change Management
8 46 (10.38%) Migration
9 42 (9.48%) Cybersecurity
9 42 (9.48%) Project Management
10 41 (9.26%) Business Intelligence
11 36 (8.13%) CI/CD
12 34 (7.67%) Analytics
13 28 (6.32%) Continuous Improvement
14 26 (5.87%) User Experience
15 25 (5.64%) Validation
16 23 (5.19%) Problem Management
16 23 (5.19%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 45 (10.16%) SQL
2 36 (8.13%) PowerShell
3 31 (7.00%) Python
4 16 (3.61%) Java
5 14 (3.16%) JavaScript
6 11 (2.48%) Shell Script
7 10 (2.26%) Groovy
8 8 (1.81%) Bash
8 8 (1.81%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (1.81%) Perl
9 7 (1.58%) C#
10 5 (1.13%) VB
10 5 (1.13%) VBScript
11 4 (0.90%) TypeScript
12 3 (0.68%) VBA
13 2 (0.45%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.45%) PHP
13 2 (0.45%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.45%) T-SQL
14 1 (0.23%) Scala
Qualifications
1 86 (19.41%) Security Cleared
2 64 (14.45%) SC Cleared
3 60 (13.54%) Degree
4 28 (6.32%) BPSS Clearance
5 25 (5.64%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (2.48%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (2.26%) ITIL Certification
8 9 (2.03%) DV Cleared
9 8 (1.81%) CISSP
10 6 (1.35%) AWS Certification
10 6 (1.35%) CISM
11 5 (1.13%) CCNP
11 5 (1.13%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (1.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 5 (1.13%) PMI Certification
12 4 (0.90%) A+ Certification
12 4 (0.90%) CCDP
12 4 (0.90%) CCNA
12 4 (0.90%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (4.29%) Accessibility
2 17 (3.84%) QA
3 12 (2.71%) Data Quality
3 12 (2.71%) GDPR
3 12 (2.71%) NIST
4 7 (1.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (1.35%) PCI DSS
6 4 (0.90%) HIPAA
6 4 (0.90%) PMO
6 4 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (0.90%) SLA
7 2 (0.45%) Basel III
7 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.45%) ISO 8583
7 2 (0.45%) MiFID
8 1 (0.23%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.23%) P3O
8 1 (0.23%) PMBOK
8 1 (0.23%) PSD2
8 1 (0.23%) SEPA
System Software
1 85 (19.19%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.61%) Docker
3 8 (1.81%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 5 (1.13%) BitLocker
5 4 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.45%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.23%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.23%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (9.26%) SCCM
2 35 (7.90%) Microsoft Intune
3 11 (2.48%) Progress Chef
4 10 (2.26%) CA Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.26%) CA Wily
4 10 (2.26%) Kubernetes
5 9 (2.03%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (1.81%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (1.81%) Tivoli
7 6 (1.35%) QRadar
8 5 (1.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 4 (0.90%) Ansible
9 4 (0.90%) Jamf Pro
9 4 (0.90%) Norton AntiVirus
10 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Clustering
10 3 (0.68%) SCOM
10 3 (0.68%) Terraform
11 2 (0.45%) Grafana
11 2 (0.45%) Nessus
11 2 (0.45%) WSUS
Vendors
1 49 (11.06%) ServiceNow
2 29 (6.55%) Oracle
3 25 (5.64%) SAP
4 22 (4.97%) Splunk
5 20 (4.51%) IBM
6 13 (2.93%) Cisco
6 13 (2.93%) Citrix
7 12 (2.71%) AppDynamics
7 12 (2.71%) VMware
8 11 (2.48%) Google
9 10 (2.26%) Broadcom
10 9 (2.03%) Red Hat
11 8 (1.81%) Apple
12 7 (1.58%) Zscaler
13 5 (1.13%) Darktrace
14 4 (0.90%) ArcSight
14 4 (0.90%) Axway
14 4 (0.90%) McAfee
14 4 (0.90%) Salesforce
14 4 (0.90%) Symantec