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 15 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
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 3 2
Rank change year-on-year +2 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 87 51 72
As % of all contract jobs in South Wales 18.20% 20.40% 22.22%
As % of the Vendors category 42.03% 47.22% 54.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 32 46
10th Percentile £240 £180 £140
25th Percentile £306 £190 £188
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £419 £300 £408
Median % change year-on-year +39.58% -26.38% -14.21%
75th Percentile £538 £455 £542
90th Percentile £583 £526 £606
Wales median daily rate £413 £295 £325
% change year-on-year +39.83% -9.23% -27.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 9 6
10th Percentile £14.78 £12.21 £16.75
25th Percentile £18.25 £15.00 £23.28
Median hourly rate £19.50 £16.00 £25.60
Median % change year-on-year +21.88% -37.50% -1.54%
75th Percentile £21.25 £18.51 £70.63
90th Percentile - £23.02 £86.40
Wales median hourly rate £19.50 £16.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year +21.88% -36.00% -3.85%

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 207 108 132
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in South Wales 43.31% 43.20% 40.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 115 62 85
10th Percentile £293 £180 £150
25th Percentile £388 £233 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £381 £425
Median % change year-on-year +28.52% -10.29% -16.05%
75th Percentile £569 £475 £550
90th Percentile £755 £500 £600
Wales median daily rate £483 £375 £450
% change year-on-year +28.67% -16.67% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 14 11
10th Percentile £15.85 £13.05 £22.50
25th Percentile £18.25 £16.00 £25.60
Median hourly rate £21.00 £19.51 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.66% -60.99% +117.39%
75th Percentile £21.25 £20.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £55.00 £22.21 £85.00
Wales median hourly rate £21.25 £20.50 £37.80
% change year-on-year +3.66% -45.77% +64.35%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 £348 +12.55% 67
Glamorgan 0 7 - - 85
Newport -4 6 £538 - 18
Bridgend - 6 £600 - 9
Neath Port Talbot - 4 - - 5
Gwent 0 1 - - 11
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 (3.45%) Exchange Server 2010
1 3 (3.45%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (3.45%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (11.49%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (9.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (2.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (2.30%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (2.30%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (1.15%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 41 (47.13%) Azure
2 26 (29.89%) Power Platform
3 17 (19.54%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (11.49%) PowerApps
5 9 (10.34%) Azure DevOps
6 7 (8.05%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (6.90%) GCP
8 4 (4.60%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (2.30%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (2.30%) Azure Monitor
9 2 (2.30%) GitHub
9 2 (2.30%) Google Workspace
10 1 (1.15%) AWS
10 1 (1.15%) Azure Machine Learning
10 1 (1.15%) Azure Service Bus
10 1 (1.15%) BlazeMeter
10 1 (1.15%) IaaS
10 1 (1.15%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 4 (4.60%) DNS
2 2 (2.30%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (11.49%) Power BI
2 7 (8.05%) SQL Server
3 6 (6.90%) Azure SQL Database
4 4 (4.60%) Data Mining
4 4 (4.60%) MS Access
5 3 (3.45%) Data Lake
6 2 (2.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 1 (1.15%) Git
1 1 (1.15%) JIRA
1 1 (1.15%) JMeter
1 1 (1.15%) LoadRunner
1 1 (1.15%) Postman
General
1 29 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 8 (9.20%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (6.90%) Finance
4 3 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (3.45%) Manufacturing
4 3 (3.45%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.15%) Automotive
5 1 (1.15%) Environmental Health
5 1 (1.15%) Legal
5 1 (1.15%) Pharmaceutical
5 1 (1.15%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 14 (16.09%) IT Support
2 13 (14.94%) Analyst
3 9 (10.34%) Developer
4 7 (8.05%) Architect
4 7 (8.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 7 (8.05%) Senior
5 6 (6.90%) 1st Line Support
5 6 (6.90%) Project Manager
6 5 (5.75%) Applications Developer
6 5 (5.75%) Power Apps Developer
6 5 (5.75%) Support Engineer
6 5 (5.75%) Technical Architect
7 4 (4.60%) 2nd Line Support
7 4 (4.60%) Applications Support
7 4 (4.60%) Business Analyst
7 4 (4.60%) Infrastructure Architect
7 4 (4.60%) Lead
7 4 (4.60%) Network Engineer
7 4 (4.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (4.60%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (6.90%) .NET
2 2 (2.30%) ADO
2 2 (2.30%) RESTful
2 2 (2.30%) YAML
3 1 (1.15%) .NET Core
3 1 (1.15%) AngularJS
3 1 (1.15%) ASP.NET Web API
3 1 (1.15%) HTML5 Canvas
3 1 (1.15%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (1.15%) React
3 1 (1.15%) Taurus
Miscellaneous
1 16 (18.39%) NHS
2 6 (6.90%) PKI
3 4 (4.60%) Low-Code
4 3 (3.45%) Data Centre
4 3 (3.45%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (3.45%) Mobile App
5 1 (1.15%) Algorithms
5 1 (1.15%) CMDB
5 1 (1.15%) Data Structures
5 1 (1.15%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.15%) Enterprise Storage
5 1 (1.15%) Fat Client
5 1 (1.15%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 1 (1.15%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.15%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 18 (20.69%) Windows
2 10 (11.49%) Windows Server
3 4 (4.60%) Windows Server 2016
4 3 (3.45%) Android
5 2 (2.30%) Windows 10
5 2 (2.30%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (1.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (16.09%) DevOps
1 14 (16.09%) Migration
1 14 (16.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 12 (13.79%) Data Protection
3 9 (10.34%) Agile
3 9 (10.34%) Business Intelligence
3 9 (10.34%) CI/CD
3 9 (10.34%) Technical Leadership
4 8 (9.20%) Customer Service
4 8 (9.20%) Problem-Solving
4 8 (9.20%) Validation
5 7 (8.05%) Infrastructure as Code
5 7 (8.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 7 (8.05%) Workflow
6 6 (6.90%) Continuous Improvement
6 6 (6.90%) Data Science
6 6 (6.90%) Knowledge Transfer
6 6 (6.90%) Mentoring
6 6 (6.90%) Statistics
7 5 (5.75%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 7 (8.05%) PowerShell
1 7 (8.05%) Python
2 6 (6.90%) SQL
3 3 (3.45%) C#
4 2 (2.30%) JavaScript
4 2 (2.30%) T-SQL
5 1 (1.15%) C
5 1 (1.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 1 (1.15%) Java
5 1 (1.15%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 10 (11.49%) SC Cleared
1 10 (11.49%) Security Cleared
2 6 (6.90%) Microsoft Certification
3 4 (4.60%) Computer Science Degree
3 4 (4.60%) Degree
4 3 (3.45%) MCSE
5 1 (1.15%) Azure Certification
5 1 (1.15%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.45%) SLA
2 2 (2.30%) PMO
2 2 (2.30%) QA
3 1 (1.15%) GDPR
System Software
1 12 (13.79%) Active Directory
2 8 (9.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.60%) Hyper-V
4 3 (3.45%) Docker
Systems Management
1 12 (13.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (11.49%) Terraform
3 4 (4.60%) Ansible
4 3 (3.45%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.45%) SCCM
4 3 (3.45%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (2.30%) Nessus
6 1 (1.15%) Forefront Identity Manager
Vendors
1 8 (9.20%) Google
1 8 (9.20%) VMware
2 6 (6.90%) Databricks
3 4 (4.60%) NetApp
4 2 (2.30%) MuleSoft
4 2 (2.30%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.15%) Adobe
5 1 (1.15%) Citrix
5 1 (1.15%) IBM
5 1 (1.15%) Oracle
5 1 (1.15%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.15%) SAP
5 1 (1.15%) Snow