Microsoft Contract Job Trends in South Wales

Microsoft
Wales > South Wales

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in South Wales 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 24 August 2026, 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
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 2
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 88 53 72
As % of all contract jobs in South Wales 17.85% 21.12% 22.02%
As % of the Vendors category 41.12% 47.75% 54.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 35 43
10th Percentile £240 £168 £140
25th Percentile £306 £190 £173
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £419 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +39.58% +11.11% -41.62%
75th Percentile £538 £461 £541
90th Percentile £583 £513 £580
Wales median daily rate £419 £298 £248
% change year-on-year +40.76% +19.83% -41.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 8 5
10th Percentile £14.78 £12.21 £23.74
25th Percentile £18.25 £14.30 -
Median hourly rate £19.50 £16.00 £25.60
Median % change year-on-year +21.88% -37.50% -1.54%
75th Percentile £21.25 £17.38 £85.00
90th Percentile - £19.81 £86.68
Wales median hourly rate £19.50 £17.25 £25.60
% change year-on-year +13.04% -32.62% -1.54%

All Vendors
South Wales

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 South Wales.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 214 111 131
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in South Wales 43.41% 44.22% 40.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 66 82
10th Percentile £302 £180 £144
25th Percentile £331 £233 £209
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £375 £395
Median % change year-on-year +26.67% -5.06% -21.00%
75th Percentile £566 £475 £550
90th Percentile £721 £500 £599
Wales median daily rate £475 £338 £400
% change year-on-year +40.74% -15.63% -15.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 13 10
10th Percentile £15.85 £12.77 £25.29
25th Percentile £18.25 £16.00 £31.70
Median hourly rate £21.00 £18.51 £51.25
Median % change year-on-year +13.45% -63.88% +114.30%
75th Percentile £21.25 £20.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £55.00 - £85.28
Wales median hourly rate £21.25 £20.50 £37.28
% change year-on-year +3.66% -45.01% +55.89%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in South Wales

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

Microsoft job vacancy trend in South Wales

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in South Wales

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in South Wales citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in South Wales

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in South Wales over the 6 months to 24 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in South Wales

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in South Wales

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in South Wales citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in South Wales

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in South Wales over the 6 months to 24 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in South Wales

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in South Wales

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 Wales region over the 6 months to 24 August 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
Cardiff +2 61 £325 +5.26% 45
Glamorgan 0 7 - - 66
Newport -6 6 £538 +235.94% 20
Bridgend - 6 £600 - 7
Neath Port Talbot - 5 - - 4
Gwent 0 1 - - 19
Blaenau Gwent - 1 £450 -
Microsoft
Wales

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in South Wales 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 3 (3.41%) Exchange Server 2010
1 3 (3.41%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (3.41%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (11.36%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (7.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (2.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (3.41%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (2.27%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (1.14%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 41 (46.59%) Azure
2 25 (28.41%) Power Platform
3 19 (21.59%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (11.36%) PowerApps
5 8 (9.09%) Azure DevOps
5 8 (9.09%) Dynamics 365
6 6 (6.82%) GCP
7 4 (4.55%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (3.41%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (3.41%) GitHub
9 2 (2.27%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (2.27%) Google Workspace
10 1 (1.14%) AWS
10 1 (1.14%) Azure Machine Learning
10 1 (1.14%) Azure Service Bus
10 1 (1.14%) BlazeMeter
10 1 (1.14%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (4.55%) DNS
2 2 (2.27%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (10.23%) Power BI
2 6 (6.82%) Azure SQL Database
2 6 (6.82%) SQL Server
3 4 (4.55%) Data Mining
4 3 (3.41%) Data Lake
4 3 (3.41%) MS Access
5 2 (2.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 1 (1.14%) Git
1 1 (1.14%) JIRA
1 1 (1.14%) JMeter
1 1 (1.14%) LoadRunner
1 1 (1.14%) Postman
General
1 29 (32.95%) Social Skills
2 8 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (6.82%) Finance
4 3 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (3.41%) Manufacturing
4 3 (3.41%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.14%) Automotive
5 1 (1.14%) Environmental Health
5 1 (1.14%) Legal
5 1 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
5 1 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
5 1 (1.14%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 14 (15.91%) Analyst
2 13 (14.77%) IT Support
3 9 (10.23%) Developer
4 7 (7.95%) Architect
4 7 (7.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 7 (7.95%) Senior
5 6 (6.82%) 1st Line Support
5 6 (6.82%) Project Manager
6 5 (5.68%) Support Engineer
6 5 (5.68%) Technical Architect
7 4 (4.55%) 2nd Line Support
7 4 (4.55%) Applications Developer
7 4 (4.55%) Applications Support
7 4 (4.55%) Business Analyst
7 4 (4.55%) DevOps Engineer
7 4 (4.55%) Infrastructure Architect
7 4 (4.55%) Infrastructure Technical Architect
7 4 (4.55%) Network Engineer
7 4 (4.55%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (4.55%) Technical Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (12.50%) Terraform
2 5 (5.68%) .NET
3 3 (3.41%) YAML
4 2 (2.27%) ADO
4 2 (2.27%) RESTful
5 1 (1.14%) .NET Core
5 1 (1.14%) AngularJS
5 1 (1.14%) ASP.NET Web API
5 1 (1.14%) HTML5 Canvas
5 1 (1.14%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (1.14%) React
5 1 (1.14%) Taurus
Miscellaneous
1 19 (21.59%) NHS
2 6 (6.82%) PKI
3 3 (3.41%) Data Centre
3 3 (3.41%) Data Protection Act
3 3 (3.41%) Low-Code
3 3 (3.41%) Mobile App
4 1 (1.14%) Algorithms
4 1 (1.14%) CMDB
4 1 (1.14%) Data Structures
4 1 (1.14%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.14%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.14%) Enterprise Storage
4 1 (1.14%) Fat Client
4 1 (1.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 1 (1.14%) Security Posture
4 1 (1.14%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 18 (20.45%) Windows
2 10 (11.36%) Windows Server
3 4 (4.55%) Windows Server 2016
4 3 (3.41%) Android
5 2 (2.27%) Windows 10
5 2 (2.27%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (17.05%) DevOps
2 14 (15.91%) Migration
2 14 (15.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 12 (13.64%) Data Protection
4 11 (12.50%) CI/CD
5 9 (10.23%) Technical Leadership
6 8 (9.09%) Agile
6 8 (9.09%) Business Intelligence
6 8 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
7 7 (7.95%) Customer Service
7 7 (7.95%) Infrastructure as Code
7 7 (7.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 7 (7.95%) Validation
7 7 (7.95%) Workflow
8 6 (6.82%) Continuous Improvement
8 6 (6.82%) Data Science
8 6 (6.82%) Incident Response
8 6 (6.82%) Knowledge Transfer
8 6 (6.82%) Mentoring
8 6 (6.82%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 7 (7.95%) PowerShell
1 7 (7.95%) Python
2 6 (6.82%) SQL
3 2 (2.27%) C#
3 2 (2.27%) JavaScript
3 2 (2.27%) T-SQL
4 1 (1.14%) C
4 1 (1.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 1 (1.14%) Java
4 1 (1.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 10 (11.36%) SC Cleared
1 10 (11.36%) Security Cleared
2 6 (6.82%) Microsoft Certification
3 4 (4.55%) Computer Science Degree
3 4 (4.55%) Degree
4 3 (3.41%) MCSE
5 1 (1.14%) Azure Certification
5 1 (1.14%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.41%) SLA
2 2 (2.27%) PMO
2 2 (2.27%) QA
3 1 (1.14%) GDPR
System Software
1 12 (13.64%) Active Directory
2 8 (9.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.55%) Docker
3 4 (4.55%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 12 (13.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (4.55%) Ansible
2 4 (4.55%) Kubernetes
3 3 (3.41%) Nessus
3 3 (3.41%) SCCM
3 3 (3.41%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.14%) Forefront Identity Manager
Vendors
1 8 (9.09%) Google
1 8 (9.09%) VMware
2 6 (6.82%) Databricks
3 4 (4.55%) NetApp
4 2 (2.27%) MuleSoft
4 2 (2.27%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.14%) Adobe
5 1 (1.14%) Citrix
5 1 (1.14%) IBM
5 1 (1.14%) Oracle
5 1 (1.14%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.14%) SAP
5 1 (1.14%) Snow