Windows Contract Job Trends in the North West

Microsoft Windows
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Windows skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 16 13 14
Rank change year-on-year -3 +1 -5
Contract jobs citing Windows 239 208 261
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 9.52% 9.66% 9.94%
As % of the Operating Systems category 68.88% 71.97% 72.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 179 114 164
10th Percentile £134 £150 £172
25th Percentile £163 £188 £233
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £305 £350 £400
Median % change year-on-year -12.86% -12.50% +13.48%
75th Percentile £456 £501 £550
90th Percentile £550 £576 £622
England median daily rate £388 £400 £400
% change year-on-year -3.13% - -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 23 27
10th Percentile - £15.27 £16.82
25th Percentile £15.50 £16.75 £17.72
Median hourly rate £18.87 £21.59 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.60% +10.72% -
75th Percentile £21.46 £24.18 £37.18
90th Percentile £41.94 £31.80 £46.28
England median hourly rate £22.00 £24.18 £22.00
% change year-on-year -9.02% +9.91% +7.98%

All Operating Systems
North West

Windows falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring operating system skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 347 289 358
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.82% 13.42% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 164 224
10th Percentile £150 £156 £186
25th Percentile £178 £245 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £358 £400 £438
Median % change year-on-year -10.50% -8.57% -2.78%
75th Percentile £478 £538 £538
90th Percentile £623 £588 £600
England median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 25 34
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.33 £17.08
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £20.73 £22.00 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -5.77% +2.33% -18.36%
75th Percentile £61.25 £24.18 £46.88
90th Percentile £69.35 £61.31 £76.38
England median hourly rate £25.15 £56.20 £32.50
% change year-on-year -55.25% +72.92% +30.00%

Windows
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Windows job vacancy trend in the North West

Windows
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

Windows
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows in the North West over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Windows in the North West

Windows
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

Windows
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows in the North West over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows in the North West

Windows
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 Windows within the North West region over the 6 months to 20 December 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
Cheshire -1 81 £335 -29.47% 18
Merseyside 0 67 £173 -13.75% 22
Manchester -21 53 £436 +9.00% 60
Lancashire +1 18 £550 +120.00% 30
Cumbria +11 17 £433 +293.18% 7
Windows
England

Windows
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 35 (14.64%) SharePoint
2 26 (10.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (6.28%) JBoss
4 14 (5.86%) WebSphere
5 12 (5.02%) Apache
5 12 (5.02%) IIS
6 11 (4.60%) Confluence
7 10 (4.18%) iPlanet
7 10 (4.18%) WebSphere Application Server
8 5 (2.09%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.42%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.42%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 45 (18.83%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (2.51%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 99 (41.42%) Microsoft 365
2 50 (20.92%) Azure
3 25 (10.46%) AWS
4 19 (7.95%) Entra ID
5 17 (7.11%) OpenShift
5 17 (7.11%) SaaS
6 9 (3.77%) OneDrive
7 8 (3.35%) GCP
7 8 (3.35%) IaaS
7 8 (3.35%) PaaS
7 8 (3.35%) Power Platform
8 4 (1.67%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (1.26%) Azure Logic Apps
9 3 (1.26%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.26%) Google Workspace
10 2 (0.84%) Dynamics 365
10 2 (0.84%) Nutanix
11 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (0.42%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.42%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 30 (12.55%) Firewall
2 23 (9.62%) DNS
3 19 (7.95%) VPN
4 15 (6.28%) VLAN
5 14 (5.86%) Network Security
5 14 (5.86%) TCP/IP
6 13 (5.44%) Wi-Fi
7 11 (4.60%) SSH
8 10 (4.18%) Kerberos
9 9 (3.77%) DHCP
9 9 (3.77%) LAN
9 9 (3.77%) Skype
10 8 (3.35%) WAN
11 7 (2.93%) Internet
11 7 (2.93%) SSL
12 6 (2.51%) BGP
12 6 (2.51%) Software-Defined Networking
12 6 (2.51%) WebEx
13 5 (2.09%) SAN
13 5 (2.09%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.02%) Oracle Database
2 8 (3.35%) Relational Database
3 3 (1.26%) RDBMS
4 2 (0.84%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.42%) BusinessObjects
5 1 (0.42%) Oracle Discoverer
5 1 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.42%) Power BI
5 1 (0.42%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (6.69%) JIRA
2 14 (5.86%) Git
2 14 (5.86%) Jenkins
3 13 (5.44%) Bitbucket Server
3 13 (5.44%) CA Release Automation
4 11 (4.60%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (1.26%) SonarQube
5 3 (1.26%) TeamCity
6 2 (0.84%) MSI
6 2 (0.84%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.42%) Ant
7 1 (0.42%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.42%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.42%) InstallShield
7 1 (0.42%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.42%) JUnit
7 1 (0.42%) NUnit
General
1 98 (41.00%) Social Skills
2 26 (10.88%) Finance
3 24 (10.04%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (8.37%) Public Sector
5 19 (7.95%) Legal
6 12 (5.02%) Banking
7 9 (3.77%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.93%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.67%) Military
10 2 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.84%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.84%) Japanese Language
10 2 (0.84%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.84%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.42%) Electronics
11 1 (0.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.42%) Marketing
11 1 (0.42%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.42%) Spanish Language
11 1 (0.42%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 48 (20.08%) IT Support
2 38 (15.90%) Analyst
2 38 (15.90%) Support Engineer
3 23 (9.62%) IT Engineer
4 20 (8.37%) IT Support Engineer
5 18 (7.53%) 2nd Line Support
5 18 (7.53%) Platform Engineer
6 15 (6.28%) Deployment Engineer
7 14 (5.86%) 1st Line Support
8 12 (5.02%) Architect
8 12 (5.02%) Desktop Engineer
8 12 (5.02%) Support Technician
9 11 (4.60%) Desktop Support
9 11 (4.60%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 11 (4.60%) Senior
10 10 (4.18%) IT Technician
10 10 (4.18%) Service Analyst
11 9 (3.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 9 (3.77%) Service Desk Analyst
12 8 (3.35%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (5.44%) LDAP
2 11 (4.60%) OAuth
2 11 (4.60%) OpenID
2 11 (4.60%) SAML
3 6 (2.51%) XMPP
4 5 (2.09%) AngularJS
4 5 (2.09%) Node.js
5 4 (1.67%) Middleware
6 3 (1.26%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (1.26%) JSON
6 3 (1.26%) Spring Boot
7 1 (0.42%) .NET Core
7 1 (0.42%) Hibernate
7 1 (0.42%) JavaBeans
7 1 (0.42%) JMS
7 1 (0.42%) JSTL
7 1 (0.42%) Kafka
7 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.42%) Spring
7 1 (0.42%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 20 (8.37%) Onboarding
2 14 (5.86%) Clustering
3 11 (4.60%) Enterprise Software
3 11 (4.60%) Product Ownership
3 11 (4.60%) Tandem
4 9 (3.77%) Data Centre
5 8 (3.35%) Driving Licence
6 6 (2.51%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (2.51%) Private Cloud
6 6 (2.51%) Replication
7 5 (2.09%) Low-Code
7 5 (2.09%) PKI
7 5 (2.09%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (1.67%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.26%) Cloud Security Posture
9 3 (1.26%) Legacy Applications
9 3 (1.26%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.84%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (0.84%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 80 (33.47%) Windows 10
2 56 (23.43%) Windows Server
3 55 (23.01%) Linux
4 27 (11.30%) Apple iOS
5 26 (10.88%) Android
5 26 (10.88%) Unix
6 15 (6.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (4.18%) Mac OS
8 6 (2.51%) Windows 7
9 4 (1.67%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.84%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.42%) Solaris
11 1 (0.42%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (27.20%) Customer Service
2 45 (18.83%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (12.97%) ITIL
4 30 (12.55%) ITSM
5 26 (10.88%) Service Management
6 23 (9.62%) Containerisation
6 23 (9.62%) Stakeholder Management
7 22 (9.21%) Continuous Improvement
7 22 (9.21%) Cybersecurity
8 20 (8.37%) CI/CD
8 20 (8.37%) DevOps
9 18 (7.53%) Identity Access Management
9 18 (7.53%) User Experience
10 17 (7.11%) Change Management
10 17 (7.11%) Customer Experience
10 17 (7.11%) Migration
10 17 (7.11%) Platform Engineering
10 17 (7.11%) Project Delivery
11 16 (6.69%) Incident Response
11 16 (6.69%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 48 (20.08%) PowerShell
2 33 (13.81%) Python
3 23 (9.62%) Bash
4 15 (6.28%) Perl
5 11 (4.60%) Groovy
6 8 (3.35%) Shell Script
6 8 (3.35%) SQL
7 5 (2.09%) PHP
7 5 (2.09%) VB
7 5 (2.09%) VBScript
8 4 (1.67%) Java
8 4 (1.67%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.42%) C#
9 1 (0.42%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.42%) R
9 1 (0.42%) VBA
Qualifications
1 60 (25.10%) Security Cleared
2 45 (18.83%) SC Cleared
3 35 (14.64%) Degree
4 13 (5.44%) Microsoft Certification
5 12 (5.02%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (4.60%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (2.93%) CCDP
7 7 (2.93%) CCNA
7 7 (2.93%) CCNP
7 7 (2.93%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (2.93%) CISSP
7 7 (2.93%) MCSA
7 7 (2.93%) MCSE
8 6 (2.51%) AWS Certification
8 6 (2.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 5 (2.09%) A+ Certification
9 5 (2.09%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (2.09%) DBS Check
9 5 (2.09%) DV Cleared
10 4 (1.67%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.93%) GDPR
2 4 (1.67%) SLA
3 3 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.26%) NIST
4 1 (0.42%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.42%) QA
System Software
1 103 (43.10%) Active Directory
2 30 (12.55%) Docker
3 25 (10.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (4.60%) vSphere
5 8 (3.35%) Tivoli Directory Server
6 7 (2.93%) Hyper-V
7 5 (2.09%) BitLocker
7 5 (2.09%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (2.09%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (1.67%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.84%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 36 (15.06%) SCCM
2 32 (13.39%) Microsoft Intune
3 17 (7.11%) Kubernetes
4 13 (5.44%) Progress Chef
5 12 (5.02%) Ansible
6 11 (4.60%) CA Single Sign-On
7 10 (4.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 10 (4.18%) CA Wily
7 10 (4.18%) Terraform
8 8 (3.35%) Microsoft Clustering
8 8 (3.35%) Tivoli
9 7 (2.93%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (2.51%) Nagios
11 5 (2.09%) Grafana
11 5 (2.09%) Norton AntiVirus
11 5 (2.09%) vCenter Server
12 3 (1.26%) CASB
12 3 (1.26%) Kibana
12 3 (1.26%) Nessus
12 3 (1.26%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 133 (55.65%) Microsoft
2 35 (14.64%) VMware
3 34 (14.23%) ServiceNow
4 25 (10.46%) IBM
5 21 (8.79%) Oracle
6 20 (8.37%) Cisco
6 20 (8.37%) Citrix
7 18 (7.53%) AppDynamics
8 16 (6.69%) Splunk
9 15 (6.28%) Red Hat
10 11 (4.60%) Broadcom
11 10 (4.18%) Remedy
12 9 (3.77%) Apple
12 9 (3.77%) SolarWinds
13 6 (2.51%) F5
13 6 (2.51%) Gemalto
13 6 (2.51%) Google
13 6 (2.51%) Thales
14 5 (2.09%) iManage
14 5 (2.09%) Veeam