Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the South West

Microsoft
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South West 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 11 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
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 6 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 327 259 481
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 10.36% 15.11% 15.00%
As % of the Vendors category 32.03% 33.51% 36.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 245 189 327
10th Percentile £199 £200 £180
25th Percentile £325 £220 £285
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.11% -5.00% -3.15%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £715 £675 £700
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 15 46
10th Percentile £13.69 £15.90 £12.50
25th Percentile £15.26 £18.13 £13.69
Median hourly rate £29.25 £18.51 £14.54
Median % change year-on-year +58.02% +27.30% -74.11%
75th Percentile £54.69 £27.00 £48.72
90th Percentile £65.00 £37.50 £51.25
England median hourly rate £20.09 £21.46 £15.00
% change year-on-year -6.38% +43.07% -30.23%

All Vendors
South West

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 the South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 1,021 773 1,323
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.35% 45.10% 41.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 662 524 858
10th Percentile £263 £220 £202
25th Percentile £400 £400 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -
75th Percentile £600 £613 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% -4.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 50 167
10th Percentile £17.00 £17.76 £13.69
25th Percentile £23.16 £18.51 £27.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £56.25 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +2.22% +18.42% -25.91%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.56 £69.38
90th Percentile £74.68 £70.50 £76.00
England median hourly rate £27.50 £28.75 £22.50
% change year-on-year -4.35% +27.78% -41.75%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the South West

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South West over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South West

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South West over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the South West

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 11 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
Wiltshire +3 96 £550 - 33
Gloucestershire 0 72 £410 -3.53% 69
Bristol -20 65 £506 +32.53% 76
Somerset -2 48 £450 +4.35% 57
Devon +3 29 £220 -35.77% 45
Dorset -18 7 £395 -16.95% 35
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 45 (13.76%) SharePoint
2 18 (5.50%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.83%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.53%) Confluence
5 2 (0.61%) Apache
5 2 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.31%) IIS
6 1 (0.31%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 40 (12.23%) Microsoft Excel
1 40 (12.23%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (5.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (3.36%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (2.14%) Spreadsheet
5 6 (1.83%) MS Visio
6 4 (1.22%) Adobe Captivate
6 4 (1.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.61%) InDesign
7 2 (0.61%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.31%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.31%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 7 (2.14%) Maximo
2 6 (1.83%) NetSuite
3 5 (1.53%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.61%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.61%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.61%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.61%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.31%) assyst
5 1 (0.31%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 108 (33.03%) Azure
2 62 (18.96%) Microsoft 365
3 45 (13.76%) Power Platform
4 32 (9.79%) Entra ID
5 25 (7.65%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (6.12%) Power Automate
7 19 (5.81%) AWS
8 18 (5.50%) GitHub
9 16 (4.89%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (4.59%) Azure Monitor
10 15 (4.59%) PowerApps
11 14 (4.28%) Azure Sentinel
12 10 (3.06%) Azure AKS
13 9 (2.75%) PaaS
13 9 (2.75%) Serverless
14 8 (2.45%) Azure Data Factory
14 8 (2.45%) Azure Key Vault
14 8 (2.45%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 8 (2.45%) GCP
15 7 (2.14%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 26 (7.95%) DNS
1 26 (7.95%) Firewall
2 21 (6.42%) VPN
3 15 (4.59%) DHCP
4 10 (3.06%) TCP/IP
5 9 (2.75%) Skype
6 5 (1.53%) Network Security
6 5 (1.53%) Unified Communications
7 4 (1.22%) Ethernet
7 4 (1.22%) WAN
8 3 (0.92%) LAN
8 3 (0.92%) VLAN
8 3 (0.92%) VoIP
8 3 (0.92%) Wireless
9 2 (0.61%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.61%) H.323
9 2 (0.61%) HTTP
9 2 (0.61%) RTP
10 1 (0.31%) Internet
10 1 (0.31%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.09%) Power BI
2 14 (4.28%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.83%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (1.53%) Metadata
4 5 (1.53%) Redis
4 5 (1.53%) Star Schema
5 4 (1.22%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (1.22%) Delta Lake
5 4 (1.22%) MySQL
6 3 (0.92%) GIS
6 3 (0.92%) Power Query
6 3 (0.92%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.61%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.61%) Electronic Patient Records
7 2 (0.61%) Spatial Data
7 2 (0.61%) Tableau
8 1 (0.31%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.31%) Oracle ODI
8 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 24 (7.34%) JIRA
2 7 (2.14%) Git
3 4 (1.22%) AdminStudio
3 4 (1.22%) Artifactory
3 4 (1.22%) Eclipse
3 4 (1.22%) GitLab
3 4 (1.22%) InstallShield
3 4 (1.22%) Visual Studio
3 4 (1.22%) Visual Studio Code
4 3 (0.92%) MSI
5 1 (0.31%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.31%) DBeaver
5 1 (0.31%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.31%) Maven
5 1 (0.31%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.31%) webpack
General
1 135 (41.28%) Social Skills
2 53 (16.21%) Analytical Skills
3 41 (12.54%) Finance
4 32 (9.79%) Public Sector
5 22 (6.73%) Organisational Skills
6 17 (5.20%) Military
7 16 (4.89%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (4.59%) Legal
9 9 (2.75%) Manufacturing
10 8 (2.45%) Marketing
10 8 (2.45%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.22%) Electronics
11 4 (1.22%) Police
11 4 (1.22%) Telecoms
12 3 (0.92%) Back Office
12 3 (0.92%) Banking
12 3 (0.92%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.92%) Local Government
13 1 (0.31%) Publishing
13 1 (0.31%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (13.76%) Architect
2 33 (10.09%) Support Engineer
3 32 (9.79%) Developer
4 23 (7.03%) Analyst
5 20 (6.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 18 (5.50%) Solutions Architect
7 17 (5.20%) Azure Engineer
7 17 (5.20%) Desktop Engineer
7 17 (5.20%) Desktop Support
7 17 (5.20%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 15 (4.59%) Senior
9 14 (4.28%) Project Officer
10 13 (3.98%) Administrator
10 13 (3.98%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.67%) IT Support
12 11 (3.36%) Microsoft Engineer
13 10 (3.06%) DevOps Engineer
13 10 (3.06%) Lead
14 9 (2.75%) Consultant
15 8 (2.45%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.81%) OAuth
2 18 (5.50%) OAuth2
2 18 (5.50%) SAML
3 16 (4.89%) OpenID
4 14 (4.28%) REST
5 12 (3.67%) ARM Templates
6 10 (3.06%) .NET
7 9 (2.75%) CSS
7 9 (2.75%) HTML
8 7 (2.14%) JDO
8 7 (2.14%) Web Services
9 6 (1.83%) .NET Framework
10 5 (1.53%) CSS3
10 5 (1.53%) FastAPI
10 5 (1.53%) Flask
10 5 (1.53%) HTML5
10 5 (1.53%) JSON
10 5 (1.53%) Spring
10 5 (1.53%) Spring Boot
10 5 (1.53%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.12%) Hybrid Cloud
2 14 (4.28%) Blackberry
2 14 (4.28%) Cloud Native
3 13 (3.98%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.67%) Enterprise Software
5 11 (3.36%) Onboarding
6 8 (2.45%) Data Structures
6 8 (2.45%) Management Information System
6 8 (2.45%) Replication
6 8 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (2.14%) Private Cloud
8 6 (1.83%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.53%) Driving Licence
9 5 (1.53%) Legacy Applications
9 5 (1.53%) Low-Code
9 5 (1.53%) PKI
10 4 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.22%) Mobile App
10 4 (1.22%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.92%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 112 (34.25%) Windows
2 39 (11.93%) Windows Server
3 30 (9.17%) Windows 10
4 21 (6.42%) Android
5 18 (5.50%) Linux
6 16 (4.89%) Apple iOS
7 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.92%) CentOS
9 2 (0.61%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (25.69%) Problem-Solving
2 49 (14.98%) Agile
3 41 (12.54%) ITIL
4 38 (11.62%) DevOps
5 36 (11.01%) Analytics
6 34 (10.40%) Continuous Improvement
6 34 (10.40%) RBAC
7 33 (10.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 32 (9.79%) CI/CD
8 32 (9.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 30 (9.17%) Identity Access Management
9 30 (9.17%) Stakeholder Management
10 28 (8.56%) Business Intelligence
11 24 (7.34%) Project Management
12 23 (7.03%) Change Management
12 23 (7.03%) Migration
13 22 (6.73%) Customer Service
14 20 (6.12%) Project Delivery
15 19 (5.81%) PRINCE2
16 18 (5.50%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 64 (19.57%) PowerShell
2 41 (12.54%) SQL
3 27 (8.26%) Python
4 24 (7.34%) JavaScript
5 16 (4.89%) Bicep
6 12 (3.67%) C#
7 10 (3.06%) Java
8 5 (1.53%) C++
8 5 (1.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 5 (1.53%) Go
8 5 (1.53%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.92%) PHP
9 3 (0.92%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.61%) VBA
11 1 (0.31%) Bash
11 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.31%) VB
Qualifications
1 173 (52.91%) Security Cleared
2 121 (37.00%) SC Cleared
3 63 (19.27%) DV Cleared
4 41 (12.54%) Microsoft Certification
5 34 (10.40%) Degree
6 24 (7.34%) Azure Certification
7 8 (2.45%) CISSP
8 7 (2.14%) CISM
8 7 (2.14%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 6 (1.83%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 4 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (1.22%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (1.22%) MCSE
11 3 (0.92%) APMP
11 3 (0.92%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.92%) PMP
12 2 (0.61%) ACCA
12 2 (0.61%) CBAP
12 2 (0.61%) CIMA
12 2 (0.61%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.98%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.36%) PMO
3 10 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (3.06%) NIST
4 8 (2.45%) GDPR
5 7 (2.14%) Accessibility
5 7 (2.14%) NIST 800
6 3 (0.92%) NCSC
6 3 (0.92%) QA
7 2 (0.61%) HL7
7 2 (0.61%) SNOMED CT
8 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.31%) GRC
8 1 (0.31%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.31%) SLA
8 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 87 (26.61%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.98%) Hyper-V
3 12 (3.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.75%) Docker
5 5 (1.53%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.92%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.92%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.31%) KVM
7 1 (0.31%) UAG
7 1 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.31%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.31%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 43 (13.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (9.17%) Single Sign-On
3 29 (8.87%) Terraform
4 24 (7.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 20 (6.12%) Kubernetes
6 12 (3.67%) SCCM
7 5 (1.53%) Ansible
7 5 (1.53%) Grafana
7 5 (1.53%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.53%) WSUS
8 3 (0.92%) VxRail
9 2 (0.61%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.61%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.61%) McAfee ePO
9 2 (0.61%) Norton AntiVirus
9 2 (0.61%) Puppet
10 1 (0.31%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.31%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.31%) SCOM
10 1 (0.31%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 34 (10.40%) VMware
2 16 (4.89%) Citrix
3 14 (4.28%) MobileIron
4 12 (3.67%) Red Hat
4 12 (3.67%) SAP
5 10 (3.06%) McAfee
5 10 (3.06%) ServiceNow
6 9 (2.75%) Adobe
6 9 (2.75%) Cisco
6 9 (2.75%) Databricks
7 8 (2.45%) Oracle
8 7 (2.14%) Google
8 7 (2.14%) IBM
8 7 (2.14%) Starlink
9 5 (1.53%) Blue Prism
9 5 (1.53%) NetApp
10 4 (1.22%) Apple
11 3 (0.92%) Dell
11 3 (0.92%) Thales
11 3 (0.92%) Workday