Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the South East

Microsoft
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East 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 September 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 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 6 5
Rank change year-on-year +2 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 557 622 910
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 16.20% 13.55% 16.15%
As % of the Vendors category 31.56% 27.38% 30.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 386 406 581
10th Percentile £185 £200 £175
25th Percentile £222 £350 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £452
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% +2.44% +0.33%
75th Percentile £569 £588 £588
90th Percentile £623 £661 £650
England median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 30 42
10th Percentile £13.60 £11.71 £14.00
25th Percentile £14.20 £16.69 £15.50
Median hourly rate £17.00 £45.00 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -62.22% +157.14% +6.06%
75th Percentile £32.05 £58.49 £50.53
90th Percentile £81.15 £61.20 £62.44
England median hourly rate £22.63 £16.23 £22.00
% change year-on-year +39.43% -26.23% +25.28%

All Vendors
South East

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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 1,765 2,272 2,948
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 51.34% 49.51% 52.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,184 1,371 1,941
10th Percentile £205 £255 £205
25th Percentile £361 £408 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £630 £600
90th Percentile £650 £700 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -1.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 102 118 138
10th Percentile £14.20 £16.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £14.75 £27.13 £18.50
Median hourly rate £18.87 £57.35 £51.96
Median % change year-on-year -67.10% +10.37% +159.80%
75th Percentile £35.89 £61.60 £64.31
90th Percentile £80.28 £70.00 £75.08
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -17.65% +77.75%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Microsoft as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 15 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 15 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
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 within the South East region over the 6 months to 15 September 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 0 264 £450 -6.25% 415
Berkshire 0 158 £469 -10.60% 227
Hampshire +4 136 £539 -2.09% 195
Buckinghamshire -1 66 £410 -4.65% 121
Surrey -1 61 £235 -32.86% 149
Oxfordshire +2 40 £250 -37.50% 80
West Sussex +4 37 £210 -48.40% 48
Kent 0 37 £263 +36.36% 121
East Sussex +6 12 £431 +1.47% 62
Sussex +4 1 - - 37
Home Counties - 1 £550 -
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 75 (13.46%) Microsoft Exchange
2 53 (9.52%) SharePoint
3 20 (3.59%) Skype for Business
4 16 (2.87%) IBM Domino
5 14 (2.51%) Exchange Server 2010
5 14 (2.51%) Exchange Server 2013
6 13 (2.33%) Exchange Server 2003
6 13 (2.33%) Exchange Server 2007
6 13 (2.33%) Office Communications Server
6 13 (2.33%) SharePoint Server
7 7 (1.26%) Mattermost
8 4 (0.72%) Apache
8 4 (0.72%) CMS
9 2 (0.36%) BizTalk Server
9 2 (0.36%) IIS
10 1 (0.18%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.18%) Confluence
10 1 (0.18%) Mule
10 1 (0.18%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.18%) nginx
Applications
1 93 (16.70%) Microsoft Office
2 59 (10.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (3.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.97%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.90%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.44%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.90%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.72%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.36%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.36%) SAP Oil and Gas
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Payroll
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.18%) Primavera
6 1 (0.18%) SAP EWM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.18%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 139 (24.96%) Azure
2 132 (23.70%) Microsoft 365
3 42 (7.54%) Entra ID
4 41 (7.36%) AWS
5 37 (6.64%) Power Platform
6 31 (5.57%) Dynamics 365
7 20 (3.59%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (3.23%) GCP
8 18 (3.23%) IaaS
9 16 (2.87%) SaaS
10 14 (2.51%) PaaS
11 13 (2.33%) OpenShift
12 11 (1.97%) Microsoft Copilot
13 10 (1.80%) Azure Sentinel
13 10 (1.80%) Sauce Labs
14 9 (1.62%) PowerApps
15 6 (1.08%) Azure Monitor
15 6 (1.08%) OneDrive
16 5 (0.90%) Google Workspace
16 5 (0.90%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 63 (11.31%) Firewall
2 55 (9.87%) DNS
3 47 (8.44%) VPN
4 45 (8.08%) DHCP
5 32 (5.75%) SAN
6 24 (4.31%) TCP/IP
7 22 (3.95%) Wireless
8 20 (3.59%) Fibre Channel
9 17 (3.05%) iSCSI
10 16 (2.87%) Cisco IOS
11 14 (2.51%) WebEx
12 13 (2.33%) DDNS
12 13 (2.33%) WAN
13 12 (2.15%) LAN
13 12 (2.15%) MPLS
14 11 (1.97%) VLAN
14 11 (1.97%) Wireshark
15 10 (1.80%) Frame Relay
15 10 (1.80%) LTE
15 10 (1.80%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (7.90%) SQL Server
2 23 (4.13%) Power BI
3 17 (3.05%) Oracle Database
4 16 (2.87%) Relational Database
5 13 (2.33%) MySQL
6 8 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (1.44%) Big Data
6 8 (1.44%) Elasticsearch
7 5 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.90%) Crystal Reports
7 5 (0.90%) Metadata
8 3 (0.54%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 3 (0.54%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.54%) GIS
8 3 (0.54%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.36%) MS Access
9 2 (0.36%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 17 (3.05%) JIRA
2 15 (2.69%) MSI
3 12 (2.15%) Browser DevTools
4 10 (1.80%) Android Studio
4 10 (1.80%) Eclipse
4 10 (1.80%) Xcode
5 5 (0.90%) Git
5 5 (0.90%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.72%) Robot Framework
6 4 (0.72%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.72%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.36%) Postman
7 2 (0.36%) QARun
7 2 (0.36%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.36%) Vite
7 2 (0.36%) WinRunner
8 1 (0.18%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.18%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 203 (36.45%) Social Skills
2 82 (14.72%) Finance
3 66 (11.85%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (5.75%) Public Sector
5 28 (5.03%) Telecoms
6 27 (4.85%) Organisational Skills
7 19 (3.41%) Legal
8 16 (2.87%) Games
9 15 (2.69%) Documentation Skills
9 15 (2.69%) Manufacturing
10 11 (1.97%) Automotive
11 6 (1.08%) Law
11 6 (1.08%) Marketing
12 5 (0.90%) Aerospace
12 5 (0.90%) Billing
12 5 (0.90%) Electronics
12 5 (0.90%) Local Government
13 4 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 89 (15.98%) Analyst
2 86 (15.44%) Support Engineer
3 49 (8.80%) Architect
4 39 (7.00%) IT Support
5 34 (6.10%) Consultant
6 29 (5.21%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 26 (4.67%) Developer
7 26 (4.67%) Senior
8 25 (4.49%) Support Analyst
9 24 (4.31%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 22 (3.95%) 2nd Line Support
10 22 (3.95%) Infrastructure Architect
11 21 (3.77%) Applications Support
11 21 (3.77%) Platform Engineer
12 20 (3.59%) Exchange Engineer
12 20 (3.59%) Infrastructure Support
13 19 (3.41%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
14 18 (3.23%) Desktop Engineer
14 18 (3.23%) Desktop Support
14 18 (3.23%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (4.13%) React
2 15 (2.69%) .NET
2 15 (2.69%) CSS
3 11 (1.97%) Ajax
3 11 (1.97%) AngularJS
3 11 (1.97%) GraphQL
4 10 (1.80%) Middleware
5 6 (1.08%) Web Services
6 5 (0.90%) ADO
6 5 (0.90%) HTML
6 5 (0.90%) JSON
6 5 (0.90%) OAuth
6 5 (0.90%) SOAP
7 4 (0.72%) .NET Core
7 4 (0.72%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.72%) WebdriverIO
8 3 (0.54%) RESTful
8 3 (0.54%) SailPoint
8 3 (0.54%) SAML
8 3 (0.54%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (3.95%) PKI
1 22 (3.95%) Self-Motivation
2 18 (3.23%) Management Information System
2 18 (3.23%) Onboarding
3 16 (2.87%) Data Centre
4 15 (2.69%) Replication
5 12 (2.15%) Analytical Mindset
6 11 (1.97%) Mobile App
6 11 (1.97%) Security Posture
7 10 (1.80%) Clustering
7 10 (1.80%) Operational Technology
7 10 (1.80%) Security Operations Centre
8 8 (1.44%) Cyber Threat
9 7 (1.26%) CMDB
9 7 (1.26%) Cyber Defence
9 7 (1.26%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (1.26%) Life Science
9 7 (1.26%) Private Cloud
10 6 (1.08%) Fat Client
10 6 (1.08%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 235 (42.19%) Windows
2 77 (13.82%) Linux
3 60 (10.77%) Windows Server
4 48 (8.62%) Windows 10
5 30 (5.39%) Mac OS
6 29 (5.21%) Unix
7 28 (5.03%) Android
8 23 (4.13%) Windows Server 2019
9 16 (2.87%) Windows Server 2003
10 9 (1.62%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (1.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 6 (1.08%) Windows 7
12 6 (1.08%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (0.72%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.72%) CentOS
14 2 (0.36%) Debian
14 2 (0.36%) Ubuntu
15 1 (0.18%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (24.60%) Problem-Solving
2 88 (15.80%) ITIL
3 66 (11.85%) Agile
4 60 (10.77%) Migration
5 55 (9.87%) DevOps
6 49 (8.80%) Customer Service
7 39 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
8 38 (6.82%) Business Intelligence
9 36 (6.46%) Continuous Improvement
10 33 (5.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 33 (5.92%) Stakeholder Management
11 30 (5.39%) ERP
11 30 (5.39%) Project Management
12 28 (5.03%) SIEM
13 27 (4.85%) High Availability
14 26 (4.67%) Roadmaps
14 26 (4.67%) Validation
15 25 (4.49%) Change Management
15 25 (4.49%) Time Management
16 24 (4.31%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 99 (17.77%) PowerShell
2 88 (15.80%) SQL
3 45 (8.08%) Python
4 35 (6.28%) Java
5 30 (5.39%) C#
6 20 (3.59%) JavaScript
7 15 (2.69%) VB
8 13 (2.33%) Perl
9 9 (1.62%) Bash
10 8 (1.44%) Bicep
11 5 (0.90%) X++
12 4 (0.72%) PHP
13 3 (0.54%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.54%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.54%) R
14 2 (0.36%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.36%) Go
14 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
15 1 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.18%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 132 (23.70%) Security Cleared
2 61 (10.95%) DV Cleared
2 61 (10.95%) SC Cleared
3 54 (9.69%) Microsoft Certification
4 52 (9.34%) Degree
5 20 (3.59%) MCSE
6 18 (3.23%) Cisco Certification
7 15 (2.69%) Azure Certification
7 15 (2.69%) CISSP
8 14 (2.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 13 (2.33%) A+ Certification
10 11 (1.97%) CCNP
10 11 (1.97%) GCIH
10 11 (1.97%) ISEB
10 11 (1.97%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 11 (1.97%) VCP5
10 11 (1.97%) VCP6
11 10 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.80%) ISTQB
12 9 (1.62%) GCFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (6.10%) GDPR
2 24 (4.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.69%) NIST
4 14 (2.51%) SLA
5 11 (1.97%) Data Quality
6 8 (1.44%) QA
7 7 (1.26%) HIPAA
7 7 (1.26%) PMO
8 5 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.72%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.54%) ECSS
10 3 (0.54%) ISO 9001
10 3 (0.54%) RMADS
11 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 19770
11 2 (0.36%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.36%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.18%) ISO 19650
12 1 (0.18%) NCSC
12 1 (0.18%) PSD2
System Software
1 161 (28.90%) Active Directory
2 64 (11.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (5.57%) VMware ESXi
4 27 (4.85%) Hyper-V
5 26 (4.67%) vSphere
6 17 (3.05%) NFS
7 13 (2.33%) Brightmail
7 13 (2.33%) ISA Server
7 13 (2.33%) Terminal Services
8 9 (1.62%) Docker
8 9 (1.62%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (1.44%) BitLocker
9 8 (1.44%) Microsoft App-V
10 5 (0.90%) DFS Replication
11 4 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.54%) VMware NSX
13 2 (0.36%) XenApp
14 1 (0.18%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 53 (9.52%) SCCM
2 52 (9.34%) Microsoft Intune
3 23 (4.13%) Kubernetes
4 20 (3.59%) Ansible
5 17 (3.05%) Terraform
6 14 (2.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 14 (2.51%) Microsoft Clustering
7 12 (2.15%) vCenter Server
8 10 (1.80%) SCOM
9 8 (1.44%) Nagios
9 8 (1.44%) Puppet
9 8 (1.44%) vMotion
9 8 (1.44%) WMI
10 7 (1.26%) HP SiteScope
11 4 (0.72%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 4 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.54%) Grafana
12 3 (0.54%) Prometheus
13 2 (0.36%) EnCase
13 2 (0.36%) FTK
Vendors
1 76 (13.64%) VMware
2 66 (11.85%) Splunk
3 49 (8.80%) Cisco
3 49 (8.80%) ServiceNow
4 45 (8.08%) Citrix
5 40 (7.18%) Oracle
6 26 (4.67%) SAP
7 18 (3.23%) Meraki
7 18 (3.23%) NetApp
7 18 (3.23%) Veeam
8 14 (2.51%) Google
8 14 (2.51%) Sage
9 12 (2.15%) CrowdStrike
9 12 (2.15%) Remedy
9 12 (2.15%) Salesforce
10 11 (1.97%) Symantec
11 10 (1.80%) HP
11 10 (1.80%) Juniper
12 9 (1.62%) Red Hat
13 7 (1.26%) CyberArk