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 17 August 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 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 5 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 447 282 430
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.29% 14.80% 15.52%
As % of the Vendors category 37.34% 35.47% 35.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 286 167 279
10th Percentile £228 £184 £180
25th Percentile £358 £235 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £435 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.05% -13.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £730 £675 £727
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 43 35
10th Percentile £13.24 £18.13 £12.98
25th Percentile £14.00 £18.51 £14.60
Median hourly rate £18.00 £18.87 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.61% -60.27% +99.12%
75th Percentile £25.75 £28.38 £65.00
90th Percentile £64.38 £36.75 £77.00
England median hourly rate £21.50 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -4.99% +39.43% -26.23%

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 1,197 795 1,195
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.92% 41.73% 43.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 719 458 774
10th Percentile £300 £219 £237
25th Percentile £400 £355 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.62% - -
75th Percentile £603 £626 £638
90th Percentile £716 £688 £700
England median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 157 106 139
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.89 £13.82
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.51 £44.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £21.76 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +49.39% -67.77% +19.49%
75th Percentile £58.75 £64.69 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.00 £70.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £33.98 £25.15 £30.00
% change year-on-year +35.11% -16.17% -20.00%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 17 August 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
Bristol -2 126 £500 +33.33% 164
Somerset -1 85 £450 +63.64% 69
Wiltshire +5 78 £550 - 48
Gloucestershire +2 78 £410 +17.14% 137
Devon -2 42 £398 -0.63% 52
Dorset -3 24 £515 +21.18% 48
Cornwall -4 2 £525 - 6
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 65 (14.54%) SharePoint
2 23 (5.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (3.58%) Confluence
4 4 (0.89%) CMS
4 4 (0.89%) Skype for Business
5 2 (0.45%) Apache
5 2 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
5 2 (0.45%) Sitecore CMS
6 1 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.22%) Appian
6 1 (0.22%) ColdFusion
6 1 (0.22%) IIS
6 1 (0.22%) JBoss
6 1 (0.22%) Moodle
6 1 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
6 1 (0.22%) Totara
6 1 (0.22%) Umbraco
Applications
1 64 (14.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (13.20%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (6.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 19 (4.25%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (2.01%) MS Visio
6 8 (1.79%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.45%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.22%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.22%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 10 (2.24%) NetSuite
2 8 (1.79%) Oracle Payables
2 8 (1.79%) Oracle Receivables
3 7 (1.57%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.67%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.45%) assyst
5 2 (0.45%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.45%) Magento
5 2 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.45%) SAP CRM
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.22%) SAP Hybris
6 1 (0.22%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 164 (36.69%) Azure
2 100 (22.37%) Microsoft 365
3 52 (11.63%) Power Platform
4 49 (10.96%) Entra ID
5 30 (6.71%) AWS
6 28 (6.26%) Azure DevOps
7 23 (5.15%) Dynamics 365
7 23 (5.15%) GitHub
8 16 (3.58%) Power Automate
9 15 (3.36%) PowerApps
10 14 (3.13%) SaaS
11 13 (2.91%) Azure Key Vault
12 12 (2.68%) Serverless
13 10 (2.24%) Microsoft Purview
13 10 (2.24%) PaaS
14 9 (2.01%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 9 (2.01%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 9 (2.01%) Cloud Computing
14 9 (2.01%) Microsoft Copilot
14 9 (2.01%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 19 (4.25%) WAN
2 17 (3.80%) DNS
3 16 (3.58%) Firewall
4 11 (2.46%) DHCP
4 11 (2.46%) VPN
5 10 (2.24%) Skype
5 10 (2.24%) TCP/IP
6 8 (1.79%) LAN
6 8 (1.79%) SAN
7 7 (1.57%) Ethernet
8 5 (1.12%) BGP
8 5 (1.12%) VoIP
8 5 (1.12%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (0.67%) VLAN
9 3 (0.67%) VSAN
10 2 (0.45%) Kerberos
10 2 (0.45%) NAS
10 2 (0.45%) SSL
11 1 (0.22%) HTTP
11 1 (0.22%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (8.95%) Power BI
2 24 (5.37%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.91%) Geospatial Data
3 13 (2.91%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (2.68%) Metadata
5 8 (1.79%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (1.79%) GIS
6 6 (1.34%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.12%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.12%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.89%) Spatial Data
9 3 (0.67%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.67%) Redis
9 3 (0.67%) Star Schema
9 3 (0.67%) Tableau
10 2 (0.45%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
10 2 (0.45%) MySQL
10 2 (0.45%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 36 (8.05%) JIRA
2 20 (4.47%) Git
3 12 (2.68%) MSI
4 10 (2.24%) Visual Studio
5 6 (1.34%) AdminStudio
5 6 (1.34%) Eclipse
5 6 (1.34%) GitLab
5 6 (1.34%) InstallShield
6 4 (0.89%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.22%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.22%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.22%) HP UFT
7 1 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.22%) Selenium
7 1 (0.22%) webpack
General
1 180 (40.27%) Social Skills
2 60 (13.42%) Analytical Skills
3 53 (11.86%) Finance
4 50 (11.19%) Public Sector
5 38 (8.50%) Organisational Skills
6 34 (7.61%) Military
7 16 (3.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 15 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (3.36%) Legal
9 14 (3.13%) Local Government
10 10 (2.24%) Aerospace
10 10 (2.24%) Retail
11 9 (2.01%) General Ledger
12 8 (1.79%) Presentation Skills
13 6 (1.34%) Manufacturing
13 6 (1.34%) Marketing
14 3 (0.67%) Aviation
14 3 (0.67%) Influencing Skills
15 2 (0.45%) Advertising
15 2 (0.45%) Police
Job Titles
1 66 (14.77%) Architect
2 48 (10.74%) Lead
3 41 (9.17%) Consultant
4 37 (8.28%) Developer
5 30 (6.71%) Senior
6 29 (6.49%) Support Engineer
7 27 (6.04%) Analyst
8 20 (4.47%) Administrator
8 20 (4.47%) IT Support
9 17 (3.80%) Project Officer
10 16 (3.58%) Solutions Architect
11 15 (3.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 15 (3.36%) IT Engineer
12 14 (3.13%) Data Engineer
12 14 (3.13%) Desktop Support
12 14 (3.13%) Microsoft Consultant
12 14 (3.13%) Technical Architect
13 12 (2.68%) Azure Consultant
13 12 (2.68%) DBA
13 12 (2.68%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (7.83%) .NET
2 25 (5.59%) .NET Framework
3 24 (5.37%) REST
4 19 (4.25%) HTML
5 18 (4.03%) .NET Core
6 16 (3.58%) RESTful
7 14 (3.13%) CSS
7 14 (3.13%) GeoJSON
8 13 (2.91%) CSS3
8 13 (2.91%) HTML5
9 12 (2.68%) ATL
9 12 (2.68%) COM
9 12 (2.68%) MFC
10 11 (2.46%) WPF
11 9 (2.01%) Web Services
12 8 (1.79%) LDAP
12 8 (1.79%) SailPoint
13 7 (1.57%) JDO
14 6 (1.34%) JSON
14 6 (1.34%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 35 (7.83%) Onboarding
2 28 (6.26%) Cloud Native
3 19 (4.25%) Legacy Systems
4 18 (4.03%) Product Ownership
5 14 (3.13%) Virtual Team
6 13 (2.91%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (2.91%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (2.91%) Management Information System
7 11 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (2.24%) Blackberry
9 8 (1.79%) EPoS
10 7 (1.57%) Wiki
11 6 (1.34%) Clustering
11 6 (1.34%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.34%) Data Structures
11 6 (1.34%) Driving Licence
11 6 (1.34%) Legacy Applications
11 6 (1.34%) Low-Code
12 5 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (1.12%) Freedom of Information
Operating Systems
1 117 (26.17%) Windows
2 43 (9.62%) Windows 10
3 30 (6.71%) Android
4 22 (4.92%) Windows Server
5 20 (4.47%) Linux
6 13 (2.91%) Apple iOS
7 6 (1.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.67%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.45%) VMS
9 2 (0.45%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.22%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (21.48%) Problem-Solving
2 70 (15.66%) Continuous Improvement
3 67 (14.99%) Agile
4 66 (14.77%) Stakeholder Management
5 52 (11.63%) Project Delivery
6 50 (11.19%) CI/CD
6 50 (11.19%) DevOps
7 49 (10.96%) Migration
8 47 (10.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 41 (9.17%) ITIL
10 38 (8.50%) Technical Leadership
11 37 (8.28%) Customer Service
12 36 (8.05%) Decision-Making
12 36 (8.05%) Project Management
13 35 (7.83%) PRINCE2
14 31 (6.94%) Roadmaps
14 31 (6.94%) Validation
15 30 (6.71%) Analytics
15 30 (6.71%) Infrastructure as Code
16 28 (6.26%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 52 (11.63%) SQL
2 38 (8.50%) Python
3 34 (7.61%) C#
4 29 (6.49%) JavaScript
4 29 (6.49%) PowerShell
5 16 (3.58%) Bicep
6 13 (2.91%) Java
7 12 (2.68%) TypeScript
8 8 (1.79%) C++
9 7 (1.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (1.12%) Bash
10 5 (1.12%) BeanShell
11 3 (0.67%) Go
12 2 (0.45%) VB
13 1 (0.22%) Ada
13 1 (0.22%) Ada 95
13 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.22%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.22%) VBA
13 1 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 198 (44.30%) Security Cleared
2 141 (31.54%) SC Cleared
3 58 (12.98%) DV Cleared
4 37 (8.28%) Degree
5 17 (3.80%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (3.36%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (2.68%) Azure Certification
8 10 (2.24%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 9 (2.01%) PMP
10 8 (1.79%) ACCA
10 8 (1.79%) CIMA
11 5 (1.12%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (1.12%) DBS Check
12 4 (0.89%) CISSP
12 4 (0.89%) TOGAF Certification
13 3 (0.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 3 (0.67%) ACSP
14 2 (0.45%) A+ Certification
14 2 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
14 2 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (4.70%) Data Quality
2 17 (3.80%) Accessibility
3 16 (3.58%) QA
4 15 (3.36%) NCSC
4 15 (3.36%) SLA
5 14 (3.13%) PMO
6 12 (2.68%) GDPR
7 11 (2.46%) WCAG
8 5 (1.12%) ISO 9000
9 3 (0.67%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.45%) HL7
10 2 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 2 (0.45%) NIST
10 2 (0.45%) SNOMED CT
11 1 (0.22%) GRC
11 1 (0.22%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.22%) JSP 440
System Software
1 79 (17.67%) Active Directory
2 22 (4.92%) Docker
3 17 (3.80%) Virtual Desktop
4 15 (3.36%) Hyper-V
5 13 (2.91%) VMware Infrastructure
6 7 (1.57%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.89%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.89%) vSphere
8 2 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.22%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.22%) zsh
Systems Management
1 40 (8.95%) Microsoft Intune
2 36 (8.05%) Terraform
3 23 (5.15%) Kubernetes
4 22 (4.92%) SCCM
5 7 (1.57%) Ansible
6 6 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.12%) Failover Clustering
7 5 (1.12%) FortiGate
7 5 (1.12%) Grafana
7 5 (1.12%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 5 (1.12%) WSUS
8 3 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.67%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.67%) VxRail
9 2 (0.45%) Argo
9 2 (0.45%) McAfee ePO
10 1 (0.22%) Podman
10 1 (0.22%) PTC Integrity
10 1 (0.22%) SELinux
10 1 (0.22%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 28 (6.26%) VMware
2 25 (5.59%) Oracle
3 16 (3.58%) ServiceNow
4 15 (3.36%) Apple
5 12 (2.68%) Cisco
5 12 (2.68%) SAP
6 11 (2.46%) Citrix
6 11 (2.46%) Google
6 11 (2.46%) HP
6 11 (2.46%) McAfee
7 10 (2.24%) Databricks
7 10 (2.24%) MobileIron
8 9 (2.01%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.57%) Starlink
10 6 (1.34%) BiZZdesign
11 5 (1.12%) CyberArk
11 5 (1.12%) Informatica
11 5 (1.12%) InterSystems
11 5 (1.12%) NetApp
11 5 (1.12%) Zscaler