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 13 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 122 120 168
Rank change year-on-year -2 +48 +27
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 57 59 43
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.44% 1.44% 0.81%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.51% 3.61% 1.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 45 30
10th Percentile £219 £200 £118
25th Percentile £269 £313 £227
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £375
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% +26.67% -21.88%
75th Percentile £650 £525 £500
90th Percentile - £630 £700
England median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 1
10th Percentile £76.59 - -
25th Percentile £84.97 - -
Median hourly rate £89.63 £12.00 £56.40
Median % change year-on-year +646.92% -78.72% +25.33%
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £25.47 £21.46 £27.50
% change year-on-year +18.69% -21.96% +77.42%

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 1,623 1,634 2,245
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 41.01% 39.80% 42.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,068 1,054 1,333
10th Percentile £222 £278 £215
25th Percentile £406 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £528 £535
Median % change year-on-year -5.21% -1.40% +1.90%
75th Percentile £589 £638 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £688
England median daily rate £525 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 102 139
10th Percentile - £22.67 £26.59
25th Percentile £18.87 £31.25 £49.84
Median hourly rate £25.15 £58.34 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.89% -2.77% +33.33%
75th Percentile £40.33 £67.76 £71.90
90th Percentile £81.00 £87.36 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% -4.76% +16.67%

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 13 November 2025.

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
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 13 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
Thames Valley +1 28 £325 -20.92% 60
Hampshire +14 25 £625 +25.00% 23
Berkshire +25 22 £270 -38.64% 30
Oxfordshire -11 5 £325 +103.13% 12
Surrey -1 4 £284 -29.06% 10
Buckinghamshire -17 1 £475 +0.53% 21
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 4 (7.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.75%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.75%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.75%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 27 (47.37%) Azure
2 20 (35.09%) AWS
3 10 (17.54%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (10.53%) Entra ID
5 4 (7.02%) Power Platform
6 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Purview
7 2 (3.51%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 2 (3.51%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (3.51%) GCP
7 2 (3.51%) IaaS
7 2 (3.51%) PaaS
7 2 (3.51%) SaaS
8 1 (1.75%) Azure AKS
8 1 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (1.75%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (1.75%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (1.75%) GitHub
8 1 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (1.75%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 20 (35.09%) DNS
2 17 (29.82%) DHCP
3 15 (26.32%) Fibre Channel
3 15 (26.32%) iSCSI
3 15 (26.32%) TCP/IP
4 11 (19.30%) VLAN
5 9 (15.79%) Firewall
6 5 (8.77%) VPN
7 4 (7.02%) Wireless
8 3 (5.26%) VSAN
8 3 (5.26%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (1.75%) Kerberos
9 1 (1.75%) Network Security
9 1 (1.75%) SAN
9 1 (1.75%) Skype
9 1 (1.75%) SSL
9 1 (1.75%) Structured Cabling
9 1 (1.75%) Unified Communications
9 1 (1.75%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (5.26%) Relational Database
2 2 (3.51%) Amazon RDS
2 2 (3.51%) Apache Cassandra
2 2 (3.51%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (3.51%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (3.51%) MongoDB
2 2 (3.51%) MySQL
2 2 (3.51%) NoSQL
2 2 (3.51%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (3.51%) RDBMS
2 2 (3.51%) SQL Server
3 1 (1.75%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (7.02%) JIRA
General
1 20 (35.09%) Social Skills
2 17 (29.82%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (8.77%) Finance
4 4 (7.02%) Organisational Skills
5 3 (5.26%) Aerospace
5 3 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (5.26%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.75%) Back Office
6 1 (1.75%) Banking
6 1 (1.75%) Military
6 1 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (1.75%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 24 (42.11%) Architect
2 15 (26.32%) Infrastructure Architect
2 15 (26.32%) Support Engineer
3 14 (24.56%) VMware Architect
4 12 (21.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 11 (19.30%) Infrastructure Support
5 11 (19.30%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
6 4 (7.02%) Analyst
6 4 (7.02%) Solutions Architect
7 3 (5.26%) Consultant
8 2 (3.51%) 1st Line Support
8 2 (3.51%) 1st Line Support Analyst
8 2 (3.51%) Database Specialist
8 2 (3.51%) Delivery Manager
8 2 (3.51%) Network Engineer
8 2 (3.51%) Security Architect
8 2 (3.51%) Service Analyst
8 2 (3.51%) Service Delivery Manager
8 2 (3.51%) Service Manager
8 2 (3.51%) Service Support Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.51%) OAuth
1 2 (3.51%) OpenID
1 2 (3.51%) SAML
2 1 (1.75%) Azure Blueprints
2 1 (1.75%) LDAP
2 1 (1.75%) OAuth2
2 1 (1.75%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 12 (21.05%) Analytical Mindset
2 4 (7.02%) Replication
3 2 (3.51%) Clustering
3 2 (3.51%) Data Centre
3 2 (3.51%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (3.51%) PKI
3 2 (3.51%) Security Operations Centre
3 2 (3.51%) Video Conferencing
4 1 (1.75%) Cloud Native
4 1 (1.75%) Cyber Defence
4 1 (1.75%) Fat Client
4 1 (1.75%) iPad
4 1 (1.75%) iPhone
4 1 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (1.75%) Operational Technology
4 1 (1.75%) Private Cloud
4 1 (1.75%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 40 (70.18%) Windows
2 16 (28.07%) Windows Server
3 15 (26.32%) Windows Server 2019
4 12 (21.05%) Linux
5 8 (14.04%) Mac OS
6 7 (12.28%) Windows 10
7 1 (1.75%) Apple iOS
7 1 (1.75%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (43.86%) Problem-Solving
2 21 (36.84%) ITIL
3 15 (26.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 15 (26.32%) Service Management
4 13 (22.81%) Disaster Recovery
5 11 (19.30%) Preventative Maintenance
5 11 (19.30%) Virtual Infrastructure
6 8 (14.04%) Edge Virtualization
6 8 (14.04%) Mentoring
6 8 (14.04%) Performance Analysis
7 7 (12.28%) Application Packaging
7 7 (12.28%) Computer Science
7 7 (12.28%) Customer Requirements
7 7 (12.28%) Customer Service
7 7 (12.28%) ITSM
8 6 (10.53%) Continuous Improvement
8 6 (10.53%) Stakeholder Management
9 5 (8.77%) Cybersecurity
9 5 (8.77%) User Experience
10 4 (7.02%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 18 (31.58%) SQL
2 6 (10.53%) PowerShell
3 4 (7.02%) Bash
4 2 (3.51%) Python
5 1 (1.75%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 35 (61.40%) Security Cleared
2 20 (35.09%) MCSE
3 19 (33.33%) SC Cleared
4 17 (29.82%) Azure Certification
5 15 (26.32%) DV Cleared
6 12 (21.05%) Degree
6 12 (21.05%) Network+ Certification
7 11 (19.30%) Server+ Certification
7 11 (19.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 9 (15.79%) VCP5
8 9 (15.79%) VCP6
9 7 (12.28%) A+ Certification
10 6 (10.53%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (7.02%) CCNA
11 4 (7.02%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (5.26%) Citrix Certification
12 3 (5.26%) Master's Degree
13 2 (3.51%) CISSP
13 2 (3.51%) OCP
13 2 (3.51%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (21.05%) GDPR
2 9 (15.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (5.26%) NIST
4 2 (3.51%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (1.75%) Government Security Classifications
5 1 (1.75%) JSP 440
5 1 (1.75%) NCSC
5 1 (1.75%) PMO
System Software
1 30 (52.63%) VMware Infrastructure
2 17 (29.82%) VMware ESXi
3 16 (28.07%) vSphere
4 15 (26.32%) Active Directory
4 15 (26.32%) NFS
5 12 (21.05%) Hyper-V
6 3 (5.26%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 7 (12.28%) SCCM
2 4 (7.02%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (5.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 2 (3.51%) vCenter Server
5 1 (1.75%) CSIRT
5 1 (1.75%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.75%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.75%) Terraform
Vendors
1 55 (96.49%) Microsoft
2 32 (56.14%) VMware
3 17 (29.82%) Splunk
4 15 (26.32%) NetApp
4 15 (26.32%) Veeam
5 6 (10.53%) CheckPoint
5 6 (10.53%) ServiceNow
6 5 (8.77%) Cisco
7 4 (7.02%) Palo Alto
8 3 (5.26%) Citrix
9 2 (3.51%) Fortinet
9 2 (3.51%) Oracle
9 2 (3.51%) Tenable
10 1 (1.75%) CyberArk
10 1 (1.75%) Dell
10 1 (1.75%) Polycom
10 1 (1.75%) Thales