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 3 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 174 121 164
Rank change year-on-year -53 +43 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 39 31 37
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.66% 1.06% 0.66%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.45% 2.64% 1.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 28 23 32
10th Percentile £126 £192 £300
25th Percentile £128 £232 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £256 £525 £481
Median % change year-on-year -51.19% +9.09% -11.90%
75th Percentile £588 £650 £556
90th Percentile £640 - £616
England median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 0
10th Percentile £39.55 - -
25th Percentile £41.50 - -
Median hourly rate £45.38 £19.97 -
Median % change year-on-year +127.22% - -
75th Percentile £49.88 - -
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 2,689 1,175 2,526
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.23% 40.13% 44.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,823 749 1,460
10th Percentile £313 £263 £349
25th Percentile £438 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £675 £731
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 274 81 220
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £17.80
25th Percentile £26.94 £28.00 £29.38
Median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year - -4.10% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £77.19 £87.46
England median hourly rate £47.54 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.28% -18.75% -27.27%

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 3 June 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 3 June 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 3 June 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 -19 18 £129 -80.23% 6
Thames Valley -52 18 £550 +7.32% 32
Oxfordshire -17 8 £238 -52.50% 6
Buckinghamshire -33 8 £613 -0.41% 11
Berkshire -30 2 £467 +42.60% 15
West Sussex -19 1 £105 -48.02% 3
Surrey -23 1 - - 4
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
2 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 20 (51.28%) Azure
2 10 (25.64%) Entra ID
3 7 (17.95%) AWS
3 7 (17.95%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (15.38%) OneDrive
5 3 (7.69%) IaaS
5 3 (7.69%) SaaS
6 2 (5.13%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (5.13%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (5.13%) PaaS
6 2 (5.13%) Power Platform
7 1 (2.56%) Azure AI
7 1 (2.56%) Azure Cognitive Services
7 1 (2.56%) Azure Functions
7 1 (2.56%) Azure Logic Apps
7 1 (2.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 1 (2.56%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (2.56%) Power Automate
7 1 (2.56%) PowerApps
7 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 2 (5.13%) DNS
6 1 (2.56%) BGP
6 1 (2.56%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (2.56%) Firewall
6 1 (2.56%) IPsec
6 1 (2.56%) IPv6
6 1 (2.56%) MPLS
6 1 (2.56%) Multicast
6 1 (2.56%) Network Security
6 1 (2.56%) OSPF
6 1 (2.56%) SNMP
6 1 (2.56%) VoIP
6 1 (2.56%) VXLAN
6 1 (2.56%) WAN
6 1 (2.56%) Wireless
6 1 (2.56%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.13%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.56%) Data Lake
2 1 (2.56%) Metadata
2 1 (2.56%) Oracle Database
2 1 (2.56%) Oracle Database 12c
2 1 (2.56%) Power BI
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 14 (35.90%) Analytical Skills
2 9 (23.08%) Public Sector
2 9 (23.08%) Social Skills
3 3 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (2.56%) Aerospace
4 1 (2.56%) Finance
4 1 (2.56%) Manufacturing
4 1 (2.56%) Military
4 1 (2.56%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 16 (41.03%) IT Engineer
2 11 (28.21%) Field Engineer
2 11 (28.21%) Field Service Engineer
3 9 (23.08%) IT Support
4 8 (20.51%) Architect
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%) Senior
7 3 (7.69%) SOC Analyst
8 2 (5.13%) Cloud Architect
8 2 (5.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 2 (5.13%) VMware Architect
9 1 (2.56%) Oracle DBA
9 1 (2.56%) Senior Oracle DBA
9 1 (2.56%) Senior Technical 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%) PKI
5 1 (2.56%) Cyber Kill Chain
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%) Life Science
5 1 (2.56%) Management Information System
5 1 (2.56%) Onboarding
5 1 (2.56%) Operational Technology
5 1 (2.56%) Private Cloud
5 1 (2.56%) Replication
5 1 (2.56%) SCADA
5 1 (2.56%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 9 (23.08%) Windows
2 2 (5.13%) Linux
2 2 (5.13%) Windows 10
2 2 (5.13%) Windows Server 2019
3 1 (2.56%) Mac OS
3 1 (2.56%) Unix
3 1 (2.56%) VMS
3 1 (2.56%) Windows 7
3 1 (2.56%) Windows Server
3 1 (2.56%) Windows Server 2008
3 1 (2.56%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (43.59%) Customer Service
2 14 (35.90%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (28.21%) Break/Fix
4 9 (23.08%) Analytics
5 8 (20.51%) DevOps
6 6 (15.38%) Agile
6 6 (15.38%) CI/CD
6 6 (15.38%) Infrastructure as Code
6 6 (15.38%) TOGAF
7 5 (12.82%) Containerisation
7 5 (12.82%) Enterprise Architecture
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%) Incident Response
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 9 (23.08%) PowerShell
2 5 (12.82%) Python
3 3 (7.69%) 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 19 (48.72%) MCSE
2 17 (43.59%) Cisco Certification
3 12 (30.77%) CCNA
4 11 (28.21%) A+ Certification
4 11 (28.21%) Network+ Certification
4 11 (28.21%) Security Cleared
5 8 (20.51%) SC Cleared
6 7 (17.95%) Degree
6 7 (17.95%) DV Cleared
7 6 (15.38%) CCNP
8 3 (7.69%) Azure Certification
8 3 (7.69%) MCSA
9 1 (2.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (2.56%) CCDA
9 1 (2.56%) CCDP
9 1 (2.56%) CCIE
9 1 (2.56%) CCIP
9 1 (2.56%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (2.56%) OCP
9 1 (2.56%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (23.08%) 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 15 (38.46%) Active Directory
2 3 (7.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (5.13%) VMware ESXi
3 2 (5.13%) VMware NSX
4 1 (2.56%) Docker
4 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%) SCOM
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 8 (20.51%) VMware
4 3 (7.69%) LogRhythm
5 2 (5.13%) Cisco
5 2 (5.13%) Juniper
6 1 (2.56%) Ab Initio
6 1 (2.56%) Apple
6 1 (2.56%) Aruba
6 1 (2.56%) CheckPoint
6 1 (2.56%) Fortinet
6 1 (2.56%) HP
6 1 (2.56%) Informatica
6 1 (2.56%) Meraki
6 1 (2.56%) Oracle
6 1 (2.56%) Palo Alto
6 1 (2.56%) Remedy
6 1 (2.56%) ServiceNow
6 1 (2.56%) SolarWinds
6 1 (2.56%) Wonderware