Microsoft Certification Contract Job Trends in the South East

Microsoft Certification
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 170 114 160
Rank change year-on-year -56 +46 +6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 39 39 37
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.66% 1.30% 0.67%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.45% 3.21% 1.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 28 30
10th Percentile £126 £197 £298
25th Percentile £128 £400 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £238 £525 £456
Median % change year-on-year -54.76% +15.07% -16.48%
75th Percentile £563 £650 £556
90th Percentile £644 £743 £596
England median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 2
10th Percentile £39.55 - -
25th Percentile £41.50 - £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.38 £19.97 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +127.22% +14.11% -
75th Percentile £49.88 - £18.75
90th Percentile £52.20 - -
England median hourly rate £63.14 £16.30 £16.30
% change year-on-year +287.33% - +5.16%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

Microsoft Certification falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the South East.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,681 1,216 2,459
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.59% 40.49% 44.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,814 775 1,427
10th Percentile £309 £300 £329
25th Percentile £431 £425 £449
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 80 210
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.82 £17.38
25th Percentile £24.41 £28.00 £25.70
Median hourly rate £55.00 £57.13 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -3.72% -0.39% -1.97%
75th Percentile £84.00 £71.88 £66.94
90th Percentile £89.46 £78.52 £85.65
England median hourly rate £48.05 £40.84 £40.00
% change year-on-year +17.65% +2.10% -23.81%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Microsoft Certification job vacancy trend in the South East

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification in the South East over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the South East

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft Certification

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Certification in the South East over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the South East

Microsoft Certification
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the South East region over the 6 months to 12 May 2026. 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
Hampshire -13 18 £129 -80.23% 6
Thames Valley -44 18 £503 -11.06% 21
Oxfordshire -12 9 £238 -52.50% 3
Buckinghamshire -38 6 £628 -15.55% 6
Berkshire -34 3 £474 -9.81% 12
Surrey -11 1 - - 9
West Sussex -15 1 £105 -50.93% 3
Home Counties - 1 - -
Microsoft Certification
England

Microsoft Certification
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 5 (12.82%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (2.56%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 21 (53.85%) Azure
2 9 (23.08%) Entra ID
3 8 (20.51%) AWS
4 7 (17.95%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (15.38%) OneDrive
6 3 (7.69%) IaaS
6 3 (7.69%) SaaS
7 2 (5.13%) Azure Data Factory
7 2 (5.13%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (5.13%) Azure Functions
7 2 (5.13%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (5.13%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (5.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 2 (5.13%) PaaS
7 2 (5.13%) Power Platform
7 2 (5.13%) Serverless
8 1 (2.56%) Azure Cognitive Services
8 1 (2.56%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (2.56%) Power Automate
8 1 (2.56%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 11 (28.21%) SAN
2 7 (17.95%) VPN
3 6 (15.38%) Wi-Fi
4 5 (12.82%) LAN
5 1 (2.56%) BGP
5 1 (2.56%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (2.56%) Firewall
5 1 (2.56%) IPsec
5 1 (2.56%) IPv6
5 1 (2.56%) MPLS
5 1 (2.56%) Multicast
5 1 (2.56%) Network Security
5 1 (2.56%) OSPF
5 1 (2.56%) SNMP
5 1 (2.56%) SSL
5 1 (2.56%) VoIP
5 1 (2.56%) VXLAN
5 1 (2.56%) WAN
5 1 (2.56%) Wireless
5 1 (2.56%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.13%) Data Lake
1 2 (5.13%) Metadata
1 2 (5.13%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.56%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.56%) Oracle Database
2 1 (2.56%) Oracle Database 12c
2 1 (2.56%) Power BI
2 1 (2.56%) Semantic Layer
2 1 (2.56%) Snowflake Schema
2 1 (2.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 1 (2.56%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 1 (2.56%) MLflow
1 1 (2.56%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 13 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
2 9 (23.08%) Public Sector
3 8 (20.51%) Social Skills
4 3 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (2.56%) Aerospace
5 1 (2.56%) Finance
5 1 (2.56%) Manufacturing
5 1 (2.56%) Military
5 1 (2.56%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 16 (41.03%) IT Engineer
2 11 (28.21%) Architect
2 11 (28.21%) Field Engineer
2 11 (28.21%) Field Service Engineer
3 9 (23.08%) IT Support
4 8 (20.51%) IT Support Engineer
4 8 (20.51%) Support Engineer
5 5 (12.82%) Technical Architect
6 4 (10.26%) Analyst
7 3 (7.69%) Field Support Engineer
7 3 (7.69%) IAM Specialist
7 3 (7.69%) Operations Analyst
7 3 (7.69%) SOC Analyst
8 2 (5.13%) Cloud Architect
8 2 (5.13%) Cybersecurity Architect
8 2 (5.13%) Data Architect
8 2 (5.13%) Security Architect
8 2 (5.13%) Security Solutions Architect
8 2 (5.13%) Solutions Architect
8 2 (5.13%) VMware Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (7.69%) LDAP
1 3 (7.69%) OAuth
1 3 (7.69%) OAuth2
1 3 (7.69%) OpenID
1 3 (7.69%) SailPoint
1 3 (7.69%) SAML
1 3 (7.69%) Web Services
2 2 (5.13%) .NET
3 1 (2.56%) 802.1X
3 1 (2.56%) ARM Templates
3 1 (2.56%) Middleware
3 1 (2.56%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 12 (30.77%) Data Centre
2 11 (28.21%) Analytical Mindset
3 4 (10.26%) Public Cloud
4 2 (5.13%) Cloud Native
4 2 (5.13%) Legacy Systems
4 2 (5.13%) Operational Technology
5 1 (2.56%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 1 (2.56%) Data Fabric
5 1 (2.56%) Data Structures
5 1 (2.56%) Driving Licence
5 1 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (2.56%) Greenfield Project
5 1 (2.56%) Hybrid Cloud
5 1 (2.56%) IoT
5 1 (2.56%) Life Science
5 1 (2.56%) Onboarding
5 1 (2.56%) PKI
5 1 (2.56%) Private Cloud
5 1 (2.56%) SCADA
5 1 (2.56%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 8 (20.51%) Windows
2 2 (5.13%) Linux
3 1 (2.56%) Mac OS
3 1 (2.56%) Unix
3 1 (2.56%) VMS
3 1 (2.56%) Windows 10
3 1 (2.56%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (43.59%) Customer Service
2 13 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (28.21%) Break/Fix
4 10 (25.64%) Analytics
5 8 (20.51%) DevOps
5 8 (20.51%) TOGAF
6 6 (15.38%) Agile
6 6 (15.38%) CI/CD
6 6 (15.38%) Enterprise Architecture
6 6 (15.38%) Infrastructure as Code
7 5 (12.82%) Containerisation
7 5 (12.82%) Microservices
7 5 (12.82%) Security Operations
7 5 (12.82%) SIEM
8 4 (10.26%) Computer Science
8 4 (10.26%) Cybersecurity
8 4 (10.26%) IT Strategy
8 4 (10.26%) ITIL
8 4 (10.26%) Security Monitoring
8 4 (10.26%) Trend Analysis
Programming Languages
1 8 (20.51%) PowerShell
2 6 (15.38%) Python
3 4 (10.26%) SQL
4 1 (2.56%) C#
4 1 (2.56%) JavaScript
4 1 (2.56%) PL/SQL
4 1 (2.56%) T-SQL
4 1 (2.56%) X++
Qualifications
1 17 (43.59%) Cisco Certification
1 17 (43.59%) MCSE
2 12 (30.77%) CCNA
3 11 (28.21%) A+ Certification
3 11 (28.21%) Network+ Certification
4 9 (23.08%) Security Cleared
5 7 (17.95%) Degree
6 6 (15.38%) CCNP
6 6 (15.38%) SC Cleared
7 5 (12.82%) Azure Certification
7 5 (12.82%) DV Cleared
8 2 (5.13%) CISSP
8 2 (5.13%) TOGAF Certification
9 1 (2.56%) AWS Certification
9 1 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (2.56%) CCDA
9 1 (2.56%) CCDP
9 1 (2.56%) CCIP
9 1 (2.56%) OCP
9 1 (2.56%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (25.64%) NIST
2 6 (15.38%) NCSC
3 4 (10.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (5.13%) SLA
5 1 (2.56%) Data Quality
5 1 (2.56%) NIST 800
System Software
1 13 (33.33%) Active Directory
2 2 (5.13%) VMware ESXi
2 2 (5.13%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (5.13%) VMware NSX
3 1 (2.56%) Docker
3 1 (2.56%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 5 (12.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (7.69%) QRadar
3 2 (5.13%) Terraform
4 1 (2.56%) Ansible
4 1 (2.56%) CASB
4 1 (2.56%) Cisco CUCM
4 1 (2.56%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (2.56%) Kubeflow
4 1 (2.56%) Kubernetes
4 1 (2.56%) Oracle RMAN
4 1 (2.56%) SCCM
4 1 (2.56%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (2.56%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 23 (58.97%) Microsoft
2 12 (30.77%) Dell
3 7 (17.95%) VMware
4 3 (7.69%) LogRhythm
5 2 (5.13%) Cisco
5 2 (5.13%) Databricks
6 1 (2.56%) Ab Initio
6 1 (2.56%) Apple
6 1 (2.56%) Arista
6 1 (2.56%) CheckPoint
6 1 (2.56%) Fortinet
6 1 (2.56%) HP
6 1 (2.56%) Informatica
6 1 (2.56%) Juniper
6 1 (2.56%) Oracle
6 1 (2.56%) Palo Alto
6 1 (2.56%) Remedy
6 1 (2.56%) Thales
6 1 (2.56%) Wonderware
6 1 (2.56%) Zscaler