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 3 December 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
3 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 3 4 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 +1 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 65 69 66
As % of all contract jobs in South Wales 18.16% 18.65% 17.65%
As % of the Vendors category 46.10% 52.27% 39.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 44 39 53
10th Percentile £183 £156 £161
25th Percentile £290 £165 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £308 £325 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.38% -27.78% +5.88%
75th Percentile £498 £550 £588
90th Percentile £573 £594 £649
Wales median daily rate £298 £325 £335
% change year-on-year -8.46% -2.99% -16.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 3 2
10th Percentile £15.11 £23.12 £38.60
25th Percentile £16.29 £24.05 £57.50
Median hourly rate £21.42 £25.60 £90.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.33% -71.56% +462.50%
75th Percentile £28.21 £26.55 £123.50
90th Percentile £31.88 £27.12 £143.00
Wales median hourly rate £21.00 £25.60 £90.00
% change year-on-year -17.97% -71.56% +462.50%

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 141 132 168
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in South Wales 39.39% 35.68% 44.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 84 126
10th Percentile £226 £162 £188
25th Percentile £293 £210 £289
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £400 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -20.00% +8.70%
75th Percentile £526 £550 £623
90th Percentile £604 £644 £656
Wales median daily rate £381 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -19.74% +2.70% +2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 7 7
10th Percentile £13.91 £24.36 £16.00
25th Percentile £16.78 £25.60 £19.03
Median hourly rate £20.50 £50.00 £23.92
Median % change year-on-year -59.00% +109.07% +32.86%
75th Percentile £24.63 £51.88 £26.62
90th Percentile £59.38 £54.25 £78.75
Wales median hourly rate £20.50 £30.00 £23.92
% change year-on-year -31.67% +25.44% +32.86%

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 3 December 2025.

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 3 December 2025.

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 3 December 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
Cardiff -2 47 £308 -41.43% 60
Glamorgan - 11 £200 - 65
Newport +9 5 £550 +197.30% 15
Caerphilly +1 2 £160 -
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 9 (13.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (10.77%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.54%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 24 (36.92%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (9.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (7.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (6.15%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (3.08%) Dynamics AX
1 2 (3.08%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (3.08%) Odoo
Cloud Services
1 24 (36.92%) Azure
2 22 (33.85%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (15.38%) Power Platform
4 6 (9.23%) GitHub
5 5 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
5 5 (7.69%) PowerApps
6 4 (6.15%) Power Automate
7 3 (4.62%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (4.62%) Entra ID
7 3 (4.62%) GCP
7 3 (4.62%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (4.62%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (3.08%) Azure Data Factory
8 2 (3.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 2 (3.08%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (1.54%) AWS
9 1 (1.54%) Azure Functions
9 1 (1.54%) Azure Logic Apps
9 1 (1.54%) Azure Service Bus
9 1 (1.54%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 10 (15.38%) Wi-Fi
2 4 (6.15%) Firewall
3 3 (4.62%) DNS
4 2 (3.08%) LAN
4 2 (3.08%) Network Security
4 2 (3.08%) WAN
5 1 (1.54%) DHCP
5 1 (1.54%) TCP/IP
5 1 (1.54%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (9.23%) Power BI
2 4 (6.15%) Spotfire
2 4 (6.15%) Tableau
3 3 (4.62%) SQL Server
4 2 (3.08%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (3.08%) Data Lake
4 2 (3.08%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (3.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (1.54%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 3 (4.62%) Cucumber
1 3 (4.62%) Postman
2 2 (3.08%) Cypress.io
3 1 (1.54%) Git
3 1 (1.54%) JIRA
3 1 (1.54%) JMeter
3 1 (1.54%) MSTest
3 1 (1.54%) Selenium
3 1 (1.54%) Visual Studio
General
1 31 (47.69%) Social Skills
2 8 (12.31%) Public Sector
3 7 (10.77%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (10.77%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (9.23%) Manufacturing
5 3 (4.62%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (4.62%) Legal
6 2 (3.08%) Finance
6 2 (3.08%) Law
6 2 (3.08%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (1.54%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.54%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 20 (30.77%) Analyst
2 10 (15.38%) Support Analyst
3 6 (9.23%) Support Engineer
4 5 (7.69%) 1st Line Support
4 5 (7.69%) Consultant
4 5 (7.69%) Data Analyst
4 5 (7.69%) Lead
5 4 (6.15%) IT Support
5 4 (6.15%) Senior
6 3 (4.62%) Developer
6 3 (4.62%) IT Engineer
6 3 (4.62%) IT Support Engineer
6 3 (4.62%) Project Manager
7 2 (3.08%) 2nd/3rd Line Support
7 2 (3.08%) 2nd/3rd Line Support Engineer
7 2 (3.08%) 2nd/3rd Line Technical Support
7 2 (3.08%) 3rd Line Technical Engineer
7 2 (3.08%) SOC Analyst
7 2 (3.08%) Team Leader
7 2 (3.08%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (4.62%) .NET
1 3 (4.62%) Playwright
1 3 (4.62%) React
1 3 (4.62%) SPFx
2 2 (3.08%) .NET Core
2 2 (3.08%) .NET Framework
2 2 (3.08%) ADO
2 2 (3.08%) Entity Framework
2 2 (3.08%) Jest
2 2 (3.08%) Next.js
2 2 (3.08%) REST
3 1 (1.54%) ASP.NET Web API
3 1 (1.54%) HTML5 Canvas
3 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (1.54%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 10 (15.38%) NHS
2 4 (6.15%) Algorithms
2 4 (6.15%) Management Information System
3 3 (4.62%) Product Ownership
4 2 (3.08%) Cyber Defence
4 2 (3.08%) Data Structures
4 2 (3.08%) Onboarding
4 2 (3.08%) Operational Technology
5 1 (1.54%) AI Agents
5 1 (1.54%) Client/Server
5 1 (1.54%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (1.54%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.54%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 1 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.54%) PKI
5 1 (1.54%) Reference Data
5 1 (1.54%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.54%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 21 (32.31%) Windows
2 3 (4.62%) Windows 10
3 2 (3.08%) Windows 7
3 2 (3.08%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.54%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.54%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (1.54%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (1.54%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (18.46%) Problem-Solving
2 11 (16.92%) Agile
3 10 (15.38%) Mobile Device Management
4 8 (12.31%) DevOps
5 7 (10.77%) CI/CD
5 7 (10.77%) Migration
6 6 (9.23%) Analytics
6 6 (9.23%) Machine Learning
6 6 (9.23%) Scrum
7 5 (7.69%) Change Management
7 5 (7.69%) Cybersecurity
7 5 (7.69%) Data Analysis
7 5 (7.69%) Data Science
7 5 (7.69%) Test Automation
7 5 (7.69%) Test Strategy
8 4 (6.15%) Business Intelligence
8 4 (6.15%) ITIL
8 4 (6.15%) Operations Research
8 4 (6.15%) Risk Management
8 4 (6.15%) Statistics
Programming Languages
1 10 (15.38%) SQL
2 7 (10.77%) Python
3 4 (6.15%) PowerShell
3 4 (6.15%) R
4 3 (4.62%) Ruby
4 3 (4.62%) TypeScript
5 2 (3.08%) C#
5 2 (3.08%) JavaScript
5 2 (3.08%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (9.23%) Degree
2 5 (7.69%) Master's Degree
2 5 (7.69%) SC Cleared
2 5 (7.69%) Security Cleared
3 2 (3.08%) CISMP
3 2 (3.08%) GSEC
4 1 (1.54%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (1.54%) CompTIA Security+
4 1 (1.54%) HND
4 1 (1.54%) ISTQB
4 1 (1.54%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Certification
4 1 (1.54%) PMI Certification
4 1 (1.54%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (6.15%) QA
2 3 (4.62%) GDPR
2 3 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (3.08%) Accessibility
3 2 (3.08%) NIST
3 2 (3.08%) WCAG
4 1 (1.54%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.54%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 1 (1.54%) PMO
System Software
1 13 (20.00%) Active Directory
2 4 (6.15%) BitLocker
2 4 (6.15%) Firmware
3 3 (4.62%) Docker
4 2 (3.08%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (1.54%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.54%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 5 (7.69%) SCCM
2 4 (6.15%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
3 1 (1.54%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 11 (16.92%) Apple
1 11 (16.92%) HP
2 10 (15.38%) MobileIron
3 4 (6.15%) McAfee
3 4 (6.15%) ServiceNow
3 4 (6.15%) TIBCO
4 3 (4.62%) Freshdesk
4 3 (4.62%) Google
5 2 (3.08%) Cisco
5 2 (3.08%) Sophos
5 2 (3.08%) VMware
6 1 (1.54%) Foundry
6 1 (1.54%) Veeam