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 30 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
30 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 3 2
Rank change year-on-year +2 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 92 52 73
As % of all contract jobs in South Wales 18.85% 20.63% 21.99%
As % of the Vendors category 43.19% 48.60% 56.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 34 42
10th Percentile £240 £166 £140
25th Percentile £306 £190 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £300 £248
Median % change year-on-year +37.50% +20.83% -44.83%
75th Percentile £538 £468 £542
90th Percentile £582 £517 £584
Wales median daily rate £413 £300 £227
% change year-on-year +37.50% +32.42% -43.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 7 5
10th Percentile £13.44 £12.21 £23.74
25th Percentile £18.25 £13.61 -
Median hourly rate £19.50 £16.00 £25.60
Median % change year-on-year +21.88% -37.50% -1.54%
75th Percentile £21.25 £17.76 £85.00
90th Percentile - £20.24 £86.68
Wales median hourly rate £19.50 £18.51 £25.60
% change year-on-year +5.38% -27.71% -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 213 107 130
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in South Wales 43.65% 42.46% 39.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 121 65 79
10th Percentile £300 £180 £142
25th Percentile £331 £241 £198
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £375 £390
Median % change year-on-year +26.67% -3.85% -22.00%
75th Percentile £563 £475 £550
90th Percentile £725 £500 £600
Wales median daily rate £475 £350 £400
% change year-on-year +35.71% -12.50% -17.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 12 10
10th Percentile £14.61 £12.49 £25.29
25th Percentile £18.25 £15.75 £31.70
Median hourly rate £20.87 £19.51 £51.25
Median % change year-on-year +6.97% -61.94% +114.30%
75th Percentile £21.25 £20.75 £62.50
90th Percentile £55.00 - £85.28
Wales median hourly rate £21.25 £20.50 £43.64
% change year-on-year +3.66% -53.02% +82.48%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 +3 64 £325 +5.26% 42
Glamorgan 0 7 - - 59
Newport -6 6 £538 +235.94% 25
Bridgend - 6 £600 - 3
Neath Port Talbot - 6 - - 3
Gwent 0 1 - - 18
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 (3.26%) Exchange Server 2010
1 3 (3.26%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (3.26%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (13.04%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (8.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (2.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (3.26%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (2.17%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (1.09%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 41 (44.57%) Azure
2 26 (28.26%) Power Platform
3 21 (22.83%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (10.87%) Dynamics 365
4 10 (10.87%) PowerApps
5 7 (7.61%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (5.43%) GCP
7 4 (4.35%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (3.26%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (3.26%) GitHub
9 2 (2.17%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (2.17%) Azure Databricks
9 2 (2.17%) Google Workspace
10 1 (1.09%) AWS
10 1 (1.09%) Azure Machine Learning
10 1 (1.09%) Azure Service Bus
10 1 (1.09%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (4.35%) DNS
2 2 (2.17%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (9.78%) Power BI
2 7 (7.61%) Azure SQL Database
2 7 (7.61%) SQL Server
3 4 (4.35%) Data Mining
4 3 (3.26%) Data Lake
4 3 (3.26%) MS Access
4 3 (3.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 1 (1.09%) Git
1 1 (1.09%) JIRA
General
1 28 (30.43%) Social Skills
2 8 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (6.52%) Finance
4 3 (3.26%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (3.26%) Manufacturing
4 3 (3.26%) Public Sector
5 2 (2.17%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.09%) Automotive
6 1 (1.09%) Environmental Health
6 1 (1.09%) Legal
6 1 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
6 1 (1.09%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 16 (17.39%) Analyst
2 13 (14.13%) IT Support
3 11 (11.96%) Developer
4 7 (7.61%) Architect
4 7 (7.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 7 (7.61%) Senior
5 6 (6.52%) 1st Line Support
5 6 (6.52%) Project Manager
6 5 (5.43%) Support Analyst
6 5 (5.43%) Support Engineer
6 5 (5.43%) Technical Architect
7 4 (4.35%) 2nd Line Support
7 4 (4.35%) Administrator
7 4 (4.35%) Applications Developer
7 4 (4.35%) Applications Support
7 4 (4.35%) Business Analyst
7 4 (4.35%) Infrastructure Architect
7 4 (4.35%) Network Engineer
7 4 (4.35%) Systems Analyst
7 4 (4.35%) Systems Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (11.96%) Terraform
2 5 (5.43%) .NET
3 3 (3.26%) YAML
4 2 (2.17%) ADO
4 2 (2.17%) RESTful
5 1 (1.09%) .NET Core
5 1 (1.09%) AngularJS
5 1 (1.09%) ASP.NET Web API
5 1 (1.09%) HTML5 Canvas
5 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (1.09%) React
Miscellaneous
1 20 (21.74%) NHS
2 6 (6.52%) PKI
3 3 (3.26%) Data Protection Act
3 3 (3.26%) Low-Code
3 3 (3.26%) Mobile App
4 2 (2.17%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.09%) Algorithms
5 1 (1.09%) CMDB
5 1 (1.09%) Data Structures
5 1 (1.09%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.09%) Enterprise Storage
5 1 (1.09%) Fat Client
5 1 (1.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 1 (1.09%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.09%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 18 (19.57%) Windows
2 10 (10.87%) Windows Server
3 4 (4.35%) Windows Server 2016
4 3 (3.26%) Android
5 2 (2.17%) Windows 10
5 2 (2.17%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (15.22%) DevOps
1 14 (15.22%) Migration
2 13 (14.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 12 (13.04%) Data Protection
4 10 (10.87%) CI/CD
5 9 (9.78%) Agile
5 9 (9.78%) Technical Leadership
6 8 (8.70%) Business Intelligence
6 8 (8.70%) Problem-Solving
7 7 (7.61%) Customer Service
7 7 (7.61%) Infrastructure as Code
7 7 (7.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 7 (7.61%) Validation
7 7 (7.61%) Workflow
8 6 (6.52%) Continuous Improvement
8 6 (6.52%) Data Science
8 6 (6.52%) Incident Response
8 6 (6.52%) Mentoring
8 6 (6.52%) Platform Engineering
8 6 (6.52%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (8.70%) Python
2 7 (7.61%) PowerShell
2 7 (7.61%) SQL
3 3 (3.26%) T-SQL
4 2 (2.17%) C#
4 2 (2.17%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.09%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 1 (1.09%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 10 (10.87%) SC Cleared
1 10 (10.87%) Security Cleared
2 6 (6.52%) Microsoft Certification
3 4 (4.35%) Computer Science Degree
3 4 (4.35%) Degree
4 3 (3.26%) MCSE
5 1 (1.09%) Azure Certification
5 1 (1.09%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.26%) PMO
1 3 (3.26%) QA
1 3 (3.26%) SLA
2 1 (1.09%) GDPR
System Software
1 12 (13.04%) Active Directory
2 8 (8.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.35%) Docker
3 4 (4.35%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 12 (13.04%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (4.35%) Ansible
2 4 (4.35%) Kubernetes
3 3 (3.26%) Nessus
3 3 (3.26%) SCCM
3 3 (3.26%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.09%) Forefront Identity Manager
Vendors
1 8 (8.70%) VMware
2 7 (7.61%) Google
3 6 (6.52%) Databricks
4 4 (4.35%) NetApp
5 2 (2.17%) MuleSoft
5 2 (2.17%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.09%) Adobe
6 1 (1.09%) IBM
6 1 (1.09%) Oracle
6 1 (1.09%) Salesforce
6 1 (1.09%) SAP
6 1 (1.09%) Snow