Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Reading

Microsoft
Berkshire > Reading

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Reading 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 15 October 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
15 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 8 13 6
Rank change year-on-year +5 -7 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 77 132 184
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 12.94% 12.09% 16.80%
As % of the Vendors category 20.32% 23.61% 31.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 82 141
10th Percentile £160 £344 £205
25th Percentile £255 £431 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £575 £514
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +11.87% +14.22%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £600
90th Percentile £655 £688 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £480 £520 £461
% change year-on-year -7.69% +12.74% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 1
10th Percentile £16.95 £47.30 -
25th Percentile £20.63 £54.49 £16.84
Median hourly rate £28.50 £59.55 £17.34
Median % change year-on-year -52.14% +243.40% -68.47%
75th Percentile £34.34 £60.72 £17.84
90th Percentile £36.79 £60.92 -
Berkshire median hourly rate £19.83 £57.40 £39.30
% change year-on-year -65.45% +46.06% -32.54%

All Vendors
Reading

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 Reading.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 379 559 581
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 63.70% 51.19% 53.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 313 388
10th Percentile £293 £350 £218
25th Percentile £450 £480 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £585 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.98% +6.36% +7.32%
75th Percentile £620 £663 £632
90th Percentile £663 £738 £699
Berkshire median daily rate £525 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +0.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 16 11
10th Percentile - £14.50 £47.50
25th Percentile £14.75 £19.19 £59.90
Median hourly rate £24.13 £59.55 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -59.48% -5.92% +19.42%
75th Percentile £45.23 £61.60 £67.09
90th Percentile £65.00 £68.23 £75.25
Berkshire median hourly rate £20.79 £58.30 £62.40
% change year-on-year -64.34% -6.56% +17.73%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Reading

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Reading

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Reading

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Reading

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Reading over the 6 months to 15 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Reading

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Reading

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in Reading

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in Reading over the 6 months to 15 October 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in Reading

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Reading 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 8 (10.39%) SharePoint
2 5 (6.49%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 8 (10.39%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (9.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (7.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (1.30%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (1.30%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (1.30%) SAP HCM
1 1 (1.30%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 17 (22.08%) Azure
1 17 (22.08%) Microsoft 365
2 15 (19.48%) Entra ID
3 12 (15.58%) OneDrive
4 8 (10.39%) AWS
5 5 (6.49%) Power Platform
6 4 (5.19%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (3.90%) PowerApps
8 2 (2.60%) Contentstack
8 2 (2.60%) GitHub
8 2 (2.60%) Google Workspace
8 2 (2.60%) Power Automate
8 2 (2.60%) SaaS
9 1 (1.30%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (1.30%) Azure Machine Learning
9 1 (1.30%) GCP
9 1 (1.30%) IaaS
9 1 (1.30%) Slack
9 1 (1.30%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 8 (10.39%) Wi-Fi
2 6 (7.79%) 4G
3 4 (5.19%) Network Security
4 3 (3.90%) Unified Communications
5 2 (2.60%) IPsec
5 2 (2.60%) SD-WAN
5 2 (2.60%) WebEx
6 1 (1.30%) Broadband
6 1 (1.30%) DHCP
6 1 (1.30%) DNS
6 1 (1.30%) Firewall
6 1 (1.30%) H.323
6 1 (1.30%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.19%) SQL Server
2 2 (2.60%) GIS
2 2 (2.60%) Metadata
2 2 (2.60%) Power BI
2 2 (2.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 1 (1.30%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (1.30%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (1.30%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.30%) MongoDB
3 1 (1.30%) MySQL
3 1 (1.30%) NoSQL
3 1 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (1.30%) RDBMS
3 1 (1.30%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 2 (2.60%) JIRA
General
1 26 (33.77%) Social Skills
2 9 (11.69%) Analytical Skills
2 9 (11.69%) Public Sector
3 7 (9.09%) Legal
4 6 (7.79%) Organisational Skills
5 5 (6.49%) Finance
5 5 (6.49%) Marketing
6 4 (5.19%) Telecoms
7 3 (3.90%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (2.60%) Billing
8 2 (2.60%) Publishing
9 1 (1.30%) Electronics
9 1 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (1.30%) Law
9 1 (1.30%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 18 (23.38%) Analyst
2 11 (14.29%) Consultant
3 10 (12.99%) Architect
4 8 (10.39%) SOC Analyst
5 7 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 6 (7.79%) Solutions Architect
6 6 (7.79%) Support Engineer
7 5 (6.49%) Infrastructure Support
7 5 (6.49%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
7 5 (6.49%) Project Manager
7 5 (6.49%) Senior
8 4 (5.19%) Administrator
8 4 (5.19%) Business Analyst
8 4 (5.19%) Service Analyst
8 4 (5.19%) Windows Engineer
8 4 (5.19%) Windows Infrastructure Engineer
8 4 (5.19%) Windows Support Engineer
9 3 (3.90%) Security Consultant
9 3 (3.90%) Service Desk Analyst
9 3 (3.90%) Solutions Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (5.19%) SailPoint
2 3 (3.90%) React
3 2 (2.60%) OAuth
3 2 (2.60%) SOAP
4 1 (1.30%) .NET
4 1 (1.30%) CSS
4 1 (1.30%) FHIR
4 1 (1.30%) HTML
4 1 (1.30%) Hugging Face
4 1 (1.30%) OpenID
4 1 (1.30%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (7.79%) Management Information System
1 6 (7.79%) Security Operations Centre
2 5 (6.49%) Cyber Threat
2 5 (6.49%) Operational Technology
3 4 (5.19%) SCADA
4 3 (3.90%) Product Ownership
4 3 (3.90%) Replication
5 2 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (2.60%) IoT
5 2 (2.60%) PMI
5 2 (2.60%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.30%) Clustering
6 1 (1.30%) CMDB
6 1 (1.30%) Data Centre
6 1 (1.30%) Data Structures
6 1 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.30%) NHS
6 1 (1.30%) PKI
6 1 (1.30%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 24 (31.17%) Windows
2 10 (12.99%) Linux
3 9 (11.69%) Windows 10
4 3 (3.90%) Mac OS
5 2 (2.60%) Unix
6 1 (1.30%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (15.58%) Problem-Solving
2 10 (12.99%) Customer Service
2 10 (12.99%) Incident Response
2 10 (12.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 10 (12.99%) SIEM
3 9 (11.69%) Stakeholder Management
4 8 (10.39%) Task Automation
5 7 (9.09%) Cybersecurity
5 7 (9.09%) Forensic Analysis
5 7 (9.09%) Threat Intelligence
6 6 (7.79%) Continuous Improvement
6 6 (7.79%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 6 (7.79%) Migration
6 6 (7.79%) Security Operations
7 5 (6.49%) Behavioural Analysis
7 5 (6.49%) Data Privacy
7 5 (6.49%) Malware Analysis
7 5 (6.49%) Mentoring
7 5 (6.49%) Risk Management
7 5 (6.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 13 (16.88%) PowerShell
2 10 (12.99%) Python
3 4 (5.19%) SQL
4 2 (2.60%) Kusto Query Language
4 2 (2.60%) Perl
4 2 (2.60%) PL/SQL
5 1 (1.30%) Bash
5 1 (1.30%) C#
5 1 (1.30%) Go
5 1 (1.30%) Java
5 1 (1.30%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 24 (31.17%) Security Cleared
2 15 (19.48%) SC Cleared
3 8 (10.39%) CISSP
3 8 (10.39%) GCFA
3 8 (10.39%) GCIH
4 6 (7.79%) GCIA
4 6 (7.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (6.49%) CFCE
6 4 (5.19%) GIAC
7 3 (3.90%) Azure Certification
7 3 (3.90%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (3.90%) Degree
7 3 (3.90%) PMI Certification
8 2 (2.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 2 (2.60%) A+ Certification
8 2 (2.60%) CCSP
8 2 (2.60%) CISM
8 2 (2.60%) GCFE
8 2 (2.60%) GREM
8 2 (2.60%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (12.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (9.09%) GDPR
3 6 (7.79%) NIST
4 4 (5.19%) HIPAA
4 4 (5.19%) PMO
5 2 (2.60%) Accessibility
5 2 (2.60%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (2.60%) ISO 9001
5 2 (2.60%) SOC 2
6 1 (1.30%) SLA
6 1 (1.30%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 23 (29.87%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.30%) Hyper-V
2 1 (1.30%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (1.30%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (1.30%) VMware NSX
2 1 (1.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 9 (11.69%) SCCM
2 7 (9.09%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (7.79%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (5.19%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 2 (2.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (2.60%) Cisco CUCM
5 2 (2.60%) EnCase
5 2 (2.60%) FTK
5 2 (2.60%) Terraform
6 1 (1.30%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 12 (15.58%) CrowdStrike
1 12 (15.58%) ServiceNow
2 10 (12.99%) Splunk
3 8 (10.39%) CyberArk
4 5 (6.49%) ArcSight
4 5 (6.49%) Cisco
4 5 (6.49%) LogRhythm
5 3 (3.90%) Broadcom
5 3 (3.90%) Salesforce
5 3 (3.90%) SAP
5 3 (3.90%) Symantec
6 2 (2.60%) Citrix
6 2 (2.60%) Darktrace
6 2 (2.60%) OpenAI
6 2 (2.60%) Oracle
6 2 (2.60%) Qualys
7 1 (1.30%) Databricks
7 1 (1.30%) HubSpot
7 1 (1.30%) Progress
7 1 (1.30%) Workday