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 1 March 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
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 6 4
Rank change year-on-year +2 -2 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 69 46 66
As % of all contract jobs in South Wales 17.47% 15.70% 17.84%
As % of the Vendors category 44.52% 39.66% 50.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 36 55
10th Percentile £275 £171 £197
25th Percentile £290 £207 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £370 £438 £515
Median % change year-on-year -15.43% -15.05% +3.00%
75th Percentile £488 £550 £611
90th Percentile £571 £588 £637
Wales median daily rate £310 £413 £513
% change year-on-year -24.85% -19.51% +5.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 3 7
10th Percentile - £17.05 £11.00
25th Percentile £12.21 £18.63 £11.08
Median hourly rate £14.32 £22.50 £14.36
Median % change year-on-year -36.34% +56.69% -15.68%
75th Percentile £22.88 £23.75 £87.90
90th Percentile £31.13 - £115.20
Wales median hourly rate £19.00 £22.50 £16.68
% change year-on-year -15.56% +34.89% -7.64%

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 155 116 131
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in South Wales 39.24% 39.59% 35.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 98 85 103
10th Percentile £275 £185 £192
25th Percentile £304 £231 £383
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £409 £513
Median % change year-on-year +10.02% -20.20% +7.89%
75th Percentile £574 £538 £573
90th Percentile £641 £594 £625
Wales median daily rate £422 £450 £500
% change year-on-year -6.22% -10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 8 8
10th Percentile - £19.68 £11.00
25th Percentile £12.21 £21.25 £11.11
Median hourly rate £15.70 £32.50 £49.18
Median % change year-on-year -51.71% -33.92% +188.78%
75th Percentile £30.00 £41.25 £87.85
90th Percentile £86.00 £42.38 £108.40
Wales median hourly rate £18.50 £25.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year -26.00% +31.58% +11.57%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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 +1 59 £348 -34.43% 47
Newport +6 6 £550 +201.37% 39
Caerphilly +1 2 £160 -11.11% 2
Glamorgan - 2 - - 34
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 11 (15.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (13.04%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.45%) Apache
3 1 (1.45%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 18 (26.09%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (7.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (2.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (2.90%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (2.90%) Dynamics AX
1 2 (2.90%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (2.90%) Odoo
Cloud Services
1 37 (53.62%) Azure
2 19 (27.54%) Microsoft 365
3 17 (24.64%) Power Platform
4 13 (18.84%) Azure DevOps
5 12 (17.39%) Power Automate
6 11 (15.94%) PowerApps
7 6 (8.70%) GitHub
8 5 (7.25%) Dynamics 365
8 5 (7.25%) GCP
9 3 (4.35%) Azure AI
9 3 (4.35%) Azure Service Bus
9 3 (4.35%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (4.35%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (4.35%) OneDrive
10 2 (2.90%) Azure Event Grid
10 2 (2.90%) Azure Functions
10 2 (2.90%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (2.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 2 (2.90%) Copilot Studio
10 2 (2.90%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 9 (13.04%) 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 6 (8.70%) Azure SQL Database
1 6 (8.70%) SQL Server
2 5 (7.25%) Power BI
3 3 (4.35%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (2.90%) Data Lake
4 2 (2.90%) Spotfire
4 2 (2.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (2.90%) Tableau
5 1 (1.45%) DB2
5 1 (1.45%) MS Access
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 31 (44.93%) Social Skills
2 9 (13.04%) Public Sector
3 5 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (7.25%) Finance
4 4 (5.80%) Manufacturing
5 3 (4.35%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.90%) Legal
6 2 (2.90%) Military
6 2 (2.90%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.45%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.45%) Law
7 1 (1.45%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 18 (26.09%) Analyst
2 11 (15.94%) Developer
2 11 (15.94%) Lead
3 9 (13.04%) Support Analyst
4 6 (8.70%) Applications Developer
4 6 (8.70%) Power Apps Developer
5 5 (7.25%) IT Support
6 4 (5.80%) Consultant
6 4 (5.80%) Senior
7 3 (4.35%) Business Analyst
7 3 (4.35%) Data Engineer
7 3 (4.35%) IT Support Technician
7 3 (4.35%) IT Technician
7 3 (4.35%) Support Technician
7 3 (4.35%) Tester
8 2 (2.90%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
8 2 (2.90%) Azure Engineer
8 2 (2.90%) IT Engineer
8 2 (2.90%) Performance Test Leader
8 2 (2.90%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (15.94%) .NET
2 3 (4.35%) Playwright
2 3 (4.35%) RESTful
2 3 (4.35%) SPFx
3 2 (2.90%) .NET Core
3 2 (2.90%) ADO
3 2 (2.90%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (2.90%) REST
3 2 (2.90%) Web Services
4 1 (1.45%) HTML5 Canvas
4 1 (1.45%) React
4 1 (1.45%) Taurus
4 1 (1.45%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (17.39%) NHS
2 6 (8.70%) Low-Code
3 4 (5.80%) Management Information System
4 3 (4.35%) AI Agents
4 3 (4.35%) Product Ownership
5 2 (2.90%) Algorithms
5 2 (2.90%) Data Centre
5 2 (2.90%) Data Structures
6 1 (1.45%) Driving Licence
6 1 (1.45%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.45%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (1.45%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.45%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 18 (26.09%) Windows
2 4 (5.80%) Windows Server
3 2 (2.90%) Windows 10
3 2 (2.90%) Windows 7
3 2 (2.90%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (1.45%) Linux
4 1 (1.45%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (1.45%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (21.74%) Agile
2 14 (20.29%) DevOps
3 12 (17.39%) Migration
4 10 (14.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 9 (13.04%) Mobile Device Management
5 9 (13.04%) Scrum
6 8 (11.59%) CI/CD
6 8 (11.59%) Problem-Solving
7 6 (8.70%) Analytics
7 6 (8.70%) Customer Service
7 6 (8.70%) ITIL
8 5 (7.25%) AI
8 5 (7.25%) Business Intelligence
8 5 (7.25%) Change Management
8 5 (7.25%) Statistics
8 5 (7.25%) Test Automation
8 5 (7.25%) Test Strategy
9 4 (5.80%) ERP
9 4 (5.80%) Machine Learning
9 4 (5.80%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 10 (14.49%) SQL
2 6 (8.70%) C#
3 5 (7.25%) PowerShell
3 5 (7.25%) Python
4 3 (4.35%) Ruby
5 2 (2.90%) JavaScript
5 2 (2.90%) R
5 2 (2.90%) T-SQL
5 2 (2.90%) TypeScript
6 1 (1.45%) Bicep
6 1 (1.45%) C
6 1 (1.45%) Java
Qualifications
1 6 (8.70%) Degree
1 6 (8.70%) SC Cleared
1 6 (8.70%) Security Cleared
2 3 (4.35%) Master's 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 15 (21.74%) 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 3 (4.35%) SCCM
2 2 (2.90%) Kubernetes
2 2 (2.90%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (1.45%) Ansible
3 1 (1.45%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (1.45%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
3 1 (1.45%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
3 1 (1.45%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (1.45%) Terraform
Vendors
1 10 (14.49%) Apple
2 9 (13.04%) HP
2 9 (13.04%) MobileIron
3 5 (7.25%) Google
4 2 (2.90%) OpenAI
4 2 (2.90%) Oracle
4 2 (2.90%) ServiceNow
4 2 (2.90%) TIBCO
4 2 (2.90%) VMware
5 1 (1.45%) Citrix
5 1 (1.45%) Foundry
5 1 (1.45%) Freshdesk
5 1 (1.45%) IBM
5 1 (1.45%) McAfee
5 1 (1.45%) Splunk
5 1 (1.45%) Veeam