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 17 April 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
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 4 3
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 69 38 70
As % of all contract jobs in South Wales 16.79% 14.67% 20.17%
As % of the Vendors category 39.88% 38.38% 50.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 45 26 57
10th Percentile £213 £171 £201
25th Percentile £290 £194 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £325 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -36.89% -1.90%
75th Percentile £488 £530 £625
90th Percentile £574 £568 £654
Wales median daily rate £310 £263 £515
% change year-on-year +17.66% -48.84% +8.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 8 8
10th Percentile - £12.21 £11.00
25th Percentile £12.21 £15.05 £11.11
Median hourly rate £21.25 £16.00 £49.68
Median % change year-on-year +32.81% -67.79% +191.72%
75th Percentile - £19.82 £87.80
90th Percentile £21.75 £23.75 £87.86
Wales median hourly rate £21.25 £16.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year +32.81% -15.79% +5.20%

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 173 99 138
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in South Wales 42.09% 38.22% 39.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 108 66 106
10th Percentile £275 £180 £188
25th Percentile £311 £240 £392
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £394 £513
Median % change year-on-year +20.63% -23.17% +7.89%
75th Percentile £575 £489 £570
90th Percentile £775 £587 £625
Wales median daily rate £475 £405 £508
% change year-on-year +17.28% -20.20% +6.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 13 10
10th Percentile £12.21 £12.97 £11.00
25th Percentile £13.79 £16.00 £11.95
Median hourly rate £21.13 £22.50 £72.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.11% -68.75% +298.67%
75th Percentile £21.25 £41.25 £87.35
90th Percentile £67.08 - £87.82
Wales median hourly rate £21.25 £21.76 £39.50
% change year-on-year -2.32% -44.92% +118.72%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 17 April 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 54 £310 -27.06% 32
Newport - 7 £550 - 23
Glamorgan - 7 - - 36
Caerphilly -1 1 - - 8
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 8 (11.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (8.70%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.45%) Apache
3 1 (1.45%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 13 (18.84%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (5.80%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (2.90%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 34 (49.28%) Azure
2 18 (26.09%) Power Platform
3 17 (24.64%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (17.39%) Azure DevOps
5 9 (13.04%) Dynamics 365
5 9 (13.04%) Power Automate
5 9 (13.04%) PowerApps
6 4 (5.80%) Azure Service Bus
6 4 (5.80%) GCP
6 4 (5.80%) GitHub
7 3 (4.35%) Azure AI
7 3 (4.35%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (4.35%) Microsoft Copilot
7 3 (4.35%) OneDrive
8 2 (2.90%) Azure Event Grid
8 2 (2.90%) Azure Machine Learning
8 2 (2.90%) Copilot Studio
9 1 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (1.45%) Azure Storage
9 1 (1.45%) IBM Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
2 2 (2.90%) DNS
3 1 (1.45%) DHCP
3 1 (1.45%) Firewall
3 1 (1.45%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (7.25%) SQL Server
2 4 (5.80%) Azure SQL Database
3 3 (4.35%) Power BI
4 2 (2.90%) MS Access
5 1 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (1.45%) DB2
5 1 (1.45%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 4 (5.80%) Postman
2 3 (4.35%) Cucumber
2 3 (4.35%) JMeter
3 1 (1.45%) Git
3 1 (1.45%) LoadRunner
3 1 (1.45%) MSTest
3 1 (1.45%) Selenium
3 1 (1.45%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3 1 (1.45%) Visual Studio
General
1 32 (46.38%) Social Skills
2 10 (14.49%) Public Sector
3 3 (4.35%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (4.35%) Finance
4 2 (2.90%) Legal
4 2 (2.90%) Military
5 1 (1.45%) Aerospace
5 1 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (1.45%) Law
5 1 (1.45%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 15 (21.74%) Analyst
2 12 (17.39%) Developer
3 9 (13.04%) Lead
4 8 (11.59%) IT Support
5 7 (10.14%) Applications Developer
5 7 (10.14%) Power Apps Developer
5 7 (10.14%) Support Analyst
6 4 (5.80%) 1st Line Support
6 4 (5.80%) Applications Support
6 4 (5.80%) IT Engineer
6 4 (5.80%) IT Support Engineer
6 4 (5.80%) IT Support Technician
6 4 (5.80%) IT Technician
6 4 (5.80%) Senior
6 4 (5.80%) Support Engineer
6 4 (5.80%) Support Technician
7 3 (4.35%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
7 3 (4.35%) Project Manager
7 3 (4.35%) Service Analyst
7 3 (4.35%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (17.39%) .NET
2 4 (5.80%) RESTful
3 3 (4.35%) Microsoft Graph
3 3 (4.35%) Playwright
4 2 (2.90%) .NET Core
4 2 (2.90%) HTML5 Canvas
4 2 (2.90%) Web Services
5 1 (1.45%) ASP.NET Web API
5 1 (1.45%) SPFx
5 1 (1.45%) Taurus
5 1 (1.45%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 7 (10.14%) NHS
2 6 (8.70%) Low-Code
3 3 (4.35%) AI Agents
3 3 (4.35%) Product Ownership
4 2 (2.90%) Data Centre
4 2 (2.90%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (2.90%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.45%) Algorithms
5 1 (1.45%) Data Structures
5 1 (1.45%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.45%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.45%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 1 (1.45%) Greenfield Project
5 1 (1.45%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.45%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 21 (30.43%) Windows
2 4 (5.80%) Windows Server
3 3 (4.35%) Android
3 3 (4.35%) Windows 10
4 2 (2.90%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.45%) Linux
5 1 (1.45%) Windows 7
5 1 (1.45%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (1.45%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (20.29%) Agile
2 13 (18.84%) DevOps
3 12 (17.39%) Migration
4 11 (15.94%) Customer Service
5 10 (14.49%) Problem-Solving
5 10 (14.49%) Scrum
5 10 (14.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 8 (11.59%) CI/CD
6 8 (11.59%) Data Protection
6 8 (11.59%) ITIL
7 6 (8.70%) AI
7 6 (8.70%) ITSM
7 6 (8.70%) Mobile Device Management
8 5 (7.25%) Test Automation
8 5 (7.25%) Test Strategy
9 4 (5.80%) Regression Testing
9 4 (5.80%) SDLC
9 4 (5.80%) Ticket Management
10 3 (4.35%) Kanban
10 3 (4.35%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 7 (10.14%) C#
2 6 (8.70%) SQL
3 3 (4.35%) JavaScript
3 3 (4.35%) PowerShell
3 3 (4.35%) Ruby
4 2 (2.90%) Python
5 1 (1.45%) Bicep
5 1 (1.45%) C
5 1 (1.45%) Java
5 1 (1.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 6 (8.70%) SC Cleared
1 6 (8.70%) Security Cleared
2 3 (4.35%) Degree
3 2 (2.90%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (1.45%) CompTIA Security+
4 1 (1.45%) ISTQB
4 1 (1.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 1 (1.45%) Microsoft Certification
4 1 (1.45%) PMI Certification
4 1 (1.45%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.35%) QA
2 2 (2.90%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 2 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.45%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.45%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (26.09%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.35%) Docker
3 2 (2.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (1.45%) BitLocker
4 1 (1.45%) Firmware
4 1 (1.45%) Hyper-V
4 1 (1.45%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 6 (8.70%) SCCM
2 5 (7.25%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (2.90%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.45%) Ansible
4 1 (1.45%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.45%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
4 1 (1.45%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 1 (1.45%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.45%) Terraform
Vendors
1 7 (10.14%) Apple
2 6 (8.70%) HP
2 6 (8.70%) MobileIron
3 4 (5.80%) Google
4 2 (2.90%) OpenAI
4 2 (2.90%) Oracle
4 2 (2.90%) VMware
5 1 (1.45%) Citrix
5 1 (1.45%) Foundry
5 1 (1.45%) IBM
5 1 (1.45%) McAfee
5 1 (1.45%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.45%) Splunk
5 1 (1.45%) Veeam