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 27 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
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 8 14 5
Rank change year-on-year +6 -9 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 102 118 182
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 15.09% 10.67% 17.62%
As % of the Vendors category 22.72% 21.77% 33.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 75 84 148
10th Percentile £255 £366 £205
25th Percentile £349 £430 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £574 £500
Median % change year-on-year -16.34% +14.75% +5.69%
75th Percentile £588 £650 £600
90th Percentile £622 £689 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £480 £525 £465
% change year-on-year -8.57% +12.84% +3.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 2 3
10th Percentile - £44.10 £25.45
25th Percentile £14.50 £46.50 £38.37
Median hourly rate £48.39 £50.50 £60.14
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% -16.04% +65.40%
75th Percentile £88.25 £54.49 £62.70
90th Percentile £99.50 £56.89 £64.08
Berkshire median hourly rate £20.79 £56.75 £60.70
% change year-on-year -63.36% -6.51% +66.93%

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 449 542 549
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 66.42% 49.01% 53.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 320 329 361
10th Percentile £306 £382 £213
25th Percentile £450 £500 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £598 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.54% +13.90% -0.94%
75th Percentile £610 £663 £623
90th Percentile £650 £718 £691
Berkshire median daily rate £511 £565 £500
% change year-on-year -9.51% +13.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 8 14
10th Percentile £14.55 £24.60 £59.09
25th Percentile £14.75 £28.31 £60.88
Median hourly rate £55.00 £50.50 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +8.92% -20.22% +24.10%
75th Percentile £81.00 £64.92 £65.19
90th Percentile £97.00 £78.66 £67.36
Berkshire median hourly rate £21.40 £56.75 £62.40
% change year-on-year -62.30% -9.06% +78.83%

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 27 November 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 27 November 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 9 (8.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (4.90%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.98%) Confluence
3 1 (0.98%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (12.75%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (7.84%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (6.86%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (3.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (1.96%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.98%) Oracle EBS
1 1 (0.98%) Oracle ERP
1 1 (0.98%) SAP HCM
1 1 (0.98%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 26 (25.49%) Azure
2 21 (20.59%) Microsoft 365
3 18 (17.65%) Entra ID
4 15 (14.71%) AWS
5 14 (13.73%) OneDrive
6 8 (7.84%) Power Platform
7 7 (6.86%) SaaS
8 5 (4.90%) Power Automate
9 4 (3.92%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (3.92%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (2.94%) GitHub
10 3 (2.94%) IaaS
10 3 (2.94%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (2.94%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (2.94%) PowerApps
11 2 (1.96%) Azure Functions
11 2 (1.96%) Copilot Studio
11 2 (1.96%) Serverless
11 2 (1.96%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 10 (9.80%) Unified Communications
2 9 (8.82%) 4G
2 9 (8.82%) Wi-Fi
3 8 (7.84%) Firewall
4 6 (5.88%) DNS
4 6 (5.88%) TCP/IP
5 5 (4.90%) DHCP
6 4 (3.92%) Network Security
6 4 (3.92%) WebEx
7 2 (1.96%) BGP
7 2 (1.96%) IPsec
7 2 (1.96%) MPLS
7 2 (1.96%) SD-WAN
7 2 (1.96%) SNMP
7 2 (1.96%) TACACS
7 2 (1.96%) WAN
8 1 (0.98%) Broadband
8 1 (0.98%) H.323
8 1 (0.98%) SSL
8 1 (0.98%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.94%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.96%) Power BI
3 1 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.98%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.98%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.98%) GIS
3 1 (0.98%) Metadata
3 1 (0.98%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.98%) MySQL
3 1 (0.98%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.98%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.98%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.98%) RDBMS
3 1 (0.98%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.98%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 5 (4.90%) JIRA
2 2 (1.96%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.98%) Android Studio
3 1 (0.98%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.98%) Subversion
General
1 42 (41.18%) Social Skills
2 14 (13.73%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (9.80%) Finance
4 9 (8.82%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (6.86%) Legal
5 7 (6.86%) Public Sector
6 5 (4.90%) Marketing
7 3 (2.94%) Billing
7 3 (2.94%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.98%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.98%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.98%) Electronics
8 1 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.98%) Law
8 1 (0.98%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.98%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 14 (13.73%) Analyst
2 13 (12.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 11 (10.78%) Consultant
3 11 (10.78%) Senior
4 10 (9.80%) Architect
5 9 (8.82%) SOC Analyst
6 8 (7.84%) Support Engineer
7 7 (6.86%) Infrastructure Support
7 7 (6.86%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
7 7 (6.86%) Project Manager
7 7 (6.86%) Solutions Architect
8 6 (5.88%) Windows Engineer
8 6 (5.88%) Windows Infrastructure Engineer
8 6 (5.88%) Windows Support Engineer
9 5 (4.90%) Administrator
9 5 (4.90%) Cybersecurity Architect
9 5 (4.90%) Lead
9 5 (4.90%) Security Architect
9 5 (4.90%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 4 (3.92%) Accounts Payable Clerk
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.92%) OAuth
1 4 (3.92%) SailPoint
2 3 (2.94%) OpenID
2 3 (2.94%) React
2 3 (2.94%) SAML
3 2 (1.96%) .NET
3 2 (1.96%) NETCONF
3 2 (1.96%) OAuth2
3 2 (1.96%) OpenConfig
3 2 (1.96%) RESTCONF
3 2 (1.96%) YANG
4 1 (0.98%) .NET Core
4 1 (0.98%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.98%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.98%) CSS
4 1 (0.98%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.98%) HTML
4 1 (0.98%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.98%) PySpark
4 1 (0.98%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.80%) Security Operations Centre
2 9 (8.82%) PKI
3 7 (6.86%) Management Information System
4 6 (5.88%) Cyber Threat
4 6 (5.88%) Operational Technology
5 5 (4.90%) Driving Licence
5 5 (4.90%) Handset
6 4 (3.92%) Onboarding
7 3 (2.94%) Data Centre
7 3 (2.94%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (2.94%) Product Ownership
7 3 (2.94%) Replication
7 3 (2.94%) SCADA
7 3 (2.94%) Security Posture
7 3 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.96%) IoT
8 2 (1.96%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.96%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 32 (31.37%) Windows
2 15 (14.71%) Linux
3 12 (11.76%) Windows 10
4 2 (1.96%) Mac OS
4 2 (1.96%) Unix
4 2 (1.96%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.98%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
2 18 (17.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 17 (16.67%) Cybersecurity
3 17 (16.67%) SIEM
4 13 (12.75%) Continuous Improvement
4 13 (12.75%) Incident Response
5 12 (11.76%) Security Operations
6 11 (10.78%) Stakeholder Management
7 10 (9.80%) Risk Management
7 10 (9.80%) Threat Intelligence
8 9 (8.82%) Change Management
8 9 (8.82%) CI/CD
8 9 (8.82%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
8 9 (8.82%) Forensic Analysis
8 9 (8.82%) Identity Management
8 9 (8.82%) Mentoring
8 9 (8.82%) Project Management
8 9 (8.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 8 (7.84%) Roadmaps
9 8 (7.84%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 21 (20.59%) PowerShell
2 20 (19.61%) Python
3 6 (5.88%) Bash
4 4 (3.92%) SQL
5 2 (1.96%) C#
5 2 (1.96%) Java
5 2 (1.96%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.98%) Go
6 1 (0.98%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.98%) Perl
6 1 (0.98%) PHP
6 1 (0.98%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 41 (40.20%) Security Cleared
2 29 (28.43%) SC Cleared
3 15 (14.71%) CISSP
4 10 (9.80%) GCFA
4 10 (9.80%) GCIH
5 9 (8.82%) Degree
6 8 (7.84%) GCIA
6 8 (7.84%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (6.86%) PMI Certification
8 6 (5.88%) Azure Certification
8 6 (5.88%) CFCE
8 6 (5.88%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (5.88%) GIAC
9 5 (4.90%) AWS Certification
9 5 (4.90%) PMP
10 4 (3.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (2.94%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (2.94%) DV Cleared
11 3 (2.94%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (9.80%) NIST
2 9 (8.82%) GDPR
3 8 (7.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (6.86%) PMO
5 4 (3.92%) HIPAA
6 2 (1.96%) Accessibility
6 2 (1.96%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.96%) SLA
7 1 (0.98%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.98%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.98%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 34 (33.33%) Active Directory
2 6 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (4.90%) Hyper-V
4 4 (3.92%) Docker
5 1 (0.98%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.98%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.98%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.98%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (13.73%) SCCM
2 9 (8.82%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (7.84%) Terraform
4 6 (5.88%) Ansible
4 6 (5.88%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (4.90%) Kubernetes
6 4 (3.92%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 3 (2.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (2.94%) Cisco CUCM
8 2 (1.96%) EnCase
8 2 (1.96%) FTK
9 1 (0.98%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 16 (15.69%) ServiceNow
2 12 (11.76%) CrowdStrike
3 10 (9.80%) Splunk
4 7 (6.86%) Cisco
5 6 (5.88%) ArcSight
5 6 (5.88%) VMware
6 5 (4.90%) CyberArk
6 5 (4.90%) LogRhythm
7 4 (3.92%) Fortinet
8 3 (2.94%) Databricks
8 3 (2.94%) Oracle
8 3 (2.94%) Salesforce
8 3 (2.94%) SAP
9 2 (1.96%) CheckPoint
9 2 (1.96%) Darktrace
9 2 (1.96%) F5
9 2 (1.96%) Juniper
9 2 (1.96%) Tenable
10 1 (0.98%) Coverity
10 1 (0.98%) Polycom