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 14 October 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
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 3
Rank change year-on-year +1 +1 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 95 58 73
As % of all contract jobs in South Wales 19.71% 20.42% 20.92%
As % of the Vendors category 44.39% 46.03% 55.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 66 39 42
10th Percentile £240 £181 £140
25th Percentile £306 £216 £162
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £308 £298
Median % change year-on-year +34.15% +3.36% -25.63%
75th Percentile £538 £478 £548
90th Percentile £600 £532 £593
Wales median daily rate £413 £308 £298
% change year-on-year +34.15% +3.36% -15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 5 3
10th Percentile £13.10 £16.80 £23.12
25th Percentile £14.08 £19.50 £24.05
Median hourly rate £18.50 £22.84 £25.60
Median % change year-on-year -19.00% -10.78% -71.56%
75th Percentile £19.75 £30.00 £26.55
90th Percentile - £32.25 £27.12
Wales median hourly rate £18.50 £21.00 £25.60
% change year-on-year -11.90% -17.97% -71.56%

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 214 126 132
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in South Wales 44.40% 44.37% 37.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 119 74 81
10th Percentile £296 £190 £160
25th Percentile £325 £291 £209
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £394 £400
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -1.56% -20.00%
75th Percentile £575 £488 £550
90th Percentile £643 £598 £594
Wales median daily rate £455 £375 £450
% change year-on-year +21.33% -16.67% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 12 7
10th Percentile £13.74 £15.23 £24.36
25th Percentile £17.00 £18.95 £25.60
Median hourly rate £19.50 £20.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.88% -59.00% +109.07%
75th Percentile £55.00 £21.27 £51.88
90th Percentile £73.10 £29.28 £54.25
Wales median hourly rate £19.50 £20.50 £30.00
% change year-on-year -4.88% -31.67% +25.44%

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 14 October 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
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 14 October 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 72 £325 -18.75% 60
Bridgend - 6 £600 - 5
Neath Port Talbot - 6 - - 2
Newport -7 5 £538 +235.94% 24
Gwent - 3 - - 15
Blaenau Gwent - 1 £450 -
Rhondda Cynon Taff - 1 £90 -
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 (3.16%) Exchange Server 2010
1 3 (3.16%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (3.16%) SharePoint
Applications
1 14 (14.74%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (8.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (2.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (6.32%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (2.11%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (1.05%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 47 (49.47%) Azure
2 27 (28.42%) Power Platform
3 21 (22.11%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (14.74%) PowerApps
5 7 (7.37%) Dynamics 365
6 6 (6.32%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (5.26%) Azure Monitor
7 5 (5.26%) GitHub
7 5 (5.26%) Microsoft Purview
8 4 (4.21%) GCP
9 2 (2.11%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (2.11%) Azure Databricks
9 2 (2.11%) dbt
9 2 (2.11%) Google Workspace
10 1 (1.05%) AWS
10 1 (1.05%) Entra ID
10 1 (1.05%) IaaS
10 1 (1.05%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 4 (4.21%) DNS
2 2 (2.11%) SAN
3 1 (1.05%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (9.47%) Power BI
2 7 (7.37%) Azure SQL Database
2 7 (7.37%) SQL Server
3 4 (4.21%) Data Mining
4 3 (3.16%) Data Lake
4 3 (3.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 2 (2.11%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 3 (3.16%) JIRA
2 1 (1.05%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.05%) Git
2 1 (1.05%) Snyk
General
1 25 (26.32%) Social Skills
2 8 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (7.37%) Finance
4 6 (6.32%) Public Sector
5 4 (4.21%) Military
6 3 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.16%) Manufacturing
6 3 (3.16%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.05%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.05%) Automotive
7 1 (1.05%) Environmental Health
7 1 (1.05%) Legal
7 1 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.05%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 16 (16.84%) Analyst
2 10 (10.53%) Developer
3 9 (9.47%) Architect
3 9 (9.47%) DevOps Engineer
3 9 (9.47%) IT Support
3 9 (9.47%) Senior
4 7 (7.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 6 (6.32%) Administrator
6 4 (4.21%) 1st/2nd Line Support
6 4 (4.21%) Azure Engineer
6 4 (4.21%) Data Scientist
6 4 (4.21%) Developer Analyst
6 4 (4.21%) Infrastructure Technical Architect
6 4 (4.21%) Security Analyst
6 4 (4.21%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 4 (4.21%) Support Analyst
6 4 (4.21%) Systems Analyst
6 4 (4.21%) Systems Support
6 4 (4.21%) Technical Architect
6 4 (4.21%) Technical Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (13.68%) Terraform
2 7 (7.37%) .NET
3 5 (5.26%) YAML
4 2 (2.11%) ADO
5 1 (1.05%) .NET Core
5 1 (1.05%) AngularJS
5 1 (1.05%) ASP.NET Web API
5 1 (1.05%) React
5 1 (1.05%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 26 (27.37%) NHS
2 6 (6.32%) PKI
3 5 (5.26%) Data Structures
4 4 (4.21%) Mobile App
5 3 (3.16%) Low-Code
5 3 (3.16%) Security Posture
6 2 (2.11%) Data Centre
6 2 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (2.11%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.05%) CMDB
7 1 (1.05%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (1.05%) Fat Client
7 1 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (1.05%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 10 (10.53%) Windows
1 10 (10.53%) Windows Server
2 4 (4.21%) Windows Server 2016
3 2 (2.11%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (1.05%) Linux
4 1 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (20.00%) DevOps
2 17 (17.89%) CI/CD
3 14 (14.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 13 (13.68%) Migration
5 9 (9.47%) Agile
5 9 (9.47%) Incident Response
5 9 (9.47%) Platform Engineering
5 9 (9.47%) Technical Leadership
6 8 (8.42%) Business Intelligence
6 8 (8.42%) Continuous Improvement
6 8 (8.42%) CRM
6 8 (8.42%) Data Protection
6 8 (8.42%) Workflow
7 7 (7.37%) Analytics
7 7 (7.37%) Infrastructure as Code
7 7 (7.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 7 (7.37%) Mentoring
7 7 (7.37%) Stakeholder Management
7 7 (7.37%) Validation
8 6 (6.32%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 7 (7.37%) PowerShell
1 7 (7.37%) Python
1 7 (7.37%) SQL
2 3 (3.16%) T-SQL
3 2 (2.11%) C#
3 2 (2.11%) Data Analysis Expressions
3 2 (2.11%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.05%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 18 (18.95%) SC Cleared
1 18 (18.95%) Security Cleared
2 6 (6.32%) Microsoft Certification
3 4 (4.21%) Computer Science Degree
3 4 (4.21%) Degree
4 3 (3.16%) MCSE
5 2 (2.11%) Azure Certification
5 2 (2.11%) DBS Check
6 1 (1.05%) CEH
6 1 (1.05%) CompTIA Security+
6 1 (1.05%) CSSLP
6 1 (1.05%) GWAPT
6 1 (1.05%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (5.26%) QA
2 3 (3.16%) GDPR
2 3 (3.16%) PMO
2 3 (3.16%) SLA
3 2 (2.11%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (2.11%) GRC
3 2 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (1.05%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.05%) NIST
System Software
1 8 (8.42%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (6.32%) Active Directory
2 6 (6.32%) Docker
3 4 (4.21%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 9 (9.47%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (6.32%) Kubernetes
3 4 (4.21%) Ansible
4 3 (3.16%) Nessus
4 3 (3.16%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.05%) Forefront Identity Manager
5 1 (1.05%) HP Fortify
5 1 (1.05%) QRadar
Vendors
1 8 (8.42%) VMware
2 6 (6.32%) Databricks
2 6 (6.32%) Google
3 4 (4.21%) NetApp
4 3 (3.16%) ServiceNow
5 2 (2.11%) MuleSoft
5 2 (2.11%) SAP
6 1 (1.05%) Adobe
6 1 (1.05%) ArcSight
6 1 (1.05%) Checkmarx
6 1 (1.05%) Citrix
6 1 (1.05%) IBM
6 1 (1.05%) Oracle
6 1 (1.05%) Rapid7
6 1 (1.05%) Salesforce
6 1 (1.05%) Snow
6 1 (1.05%) Splunk
6 1 (1.05%) Veracode