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 1 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
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 0 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 325 254 486
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 10.68% 14.95% 15.06%
As % of the Vendors category 32.44% 33.16% 36.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 242 184 330
10th Percentile £205 £207 £185
25th Percentile £350 £220 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £594
90th Percentile £724 £682 £700
England median daily rate £492 £476 £488
% change year-on-year +3.36% -2.36% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 12 49
10th Percentile £14.19 £18.14 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.94 £18.43 £13.69
Median hourly rate £32.75 £21.76 £14.54
Median % change year-on-year +50.54% +49.62% -74.64%
75th Percentile £62.81 £37.00 £48.72
90th Percentile £65.00 £37.45 £51.25
England median hourly rate £19.96 £22.27 £15.25
% change year-on-year -10.40% +46.03% -27.42%

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 1,002 766 1,333
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.94% 45.09% 41.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 646 520 857
10th Percentile £259 £220 £205
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -
75th Percentile £594 £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 132 44 173
10th Percentile £18.87 £18.29 £13.69
25th Percentile £23.50 £24.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £60.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +26.32% -24.88%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.68 £73.50 £77.50
England median hourly rate £25.77 £29.07 £24.00
% change year-on-year -11.35% +21.13% -33.33%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 0 103 £550 - 33
Gloucestershire +1 73 £400 -5.88% 69
Bristol -13 68 £500 +37.93% 76
Somerset -3 41 £475 +10.14% 57
Devon +5 23 £220 -35.77% 45
Dorset -18 7 £409 -13.89% 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 46 (14.15%) SharePoint
2 26 (8.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (3.08%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.54%) Confluence
5 2 (0.62%) Apache
5 2 (0.62%) Oracle Application Server
5 2 (0.62%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.31%) CMS
6 1 (0.31%) IIS
6 1 (0.31%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.31%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 35 (10.77%) Microsoft Excel
1 35 (10.77%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (3.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (3.38%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (2.46%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (1.54%) Adobe Captivate
5 5 (1.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 5 (1.54%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.62%) InDesign
6 2 (0.62%) InfoPath
7 1 (0.31%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.31%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 7 (2.15%) Maximo
2 5 (1.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.54%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.62%) Dynamics AX
3 2 (0.62%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.62%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.62%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.31%) assyst
4 1 (0.31%) Oracle General Ledger
4 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 104 (32.00%) Azure
2 61 (18.77%) Microsoft 365
3 38 (11.69%) Power Platform
4 33 (10.15%) Entra ID
5 28 (8.62%) Azure DevOps
6 23 (7.08%) AWS
7 20 (6.15%) Power Automate
8 18 (5.54%) GitHub
9 17 (5.23%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (4.62%) Azure Monitor
10 15 (4.62%) PowerApps
11 14 (4.31%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (2.77%) Azure AKS
12 9 (2.77%) Azure Key Vault
12 9 (2.77%) Serverless
13 8 (2.46%) GCP
13 8 (2.46%) GitHub Actions
13 8 (2.46%) PaaS
14 7 (2.15%) Azure Data Factory
14 7 (2.15%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (8.92%) DNS
2 26 (8.00%) Firewall
3 21 (6.46%) VPN
4 17 (5.23%) DHCP
5 14 (4.31%) Skype
6 13 (4.00%) TCP/IP
7 5 (1.54%) Network Security
7 5 (1.54%) Unified Communications
8 4 (1.23%) Ethernet
8 4 (1.23%) WAN
9 3 (0.92%) LAN
9 3 (0.92%) VLAN
9 3 (0.92%) VoIP
9 3 (0.92%) Wireless
10 2 (0.62%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.62%) H.323
10 2 (0.62%) HTTP
10 2 (0.62%) RTP
11 1 (0.31%) SMTP
11 1 (0.31%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (8.00%) Power BI
2 14 (4.31%) SQL Server
3 8 (2.46%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.85%) Redis
4 6 (1.85%) Star Schema
5 5 (1.54%) Data Warehouse
5 5 (1.54%) Metadata
6 4 (1.23%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (1.23%) Delta Lake
6 4 (1.23%) MySQL
7 3 (0.92%) GIS
7 3 (0.92%) Power Query
8 2 (0.62%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.62%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
8 2 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (0.62%) Spatial Data
9 1 (0.31%) Snowflake Schema
9 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (8.31%) JIRA
2 9 (2.77%) Git
3 4 (1.23%) AdminStudio
3 4 (1.23%) Artifactory
3 4 (1.23%) Eclipse
3 4 (1.23%) GitLab
3 4 (1.23%) InstallShield
3 4 (1.23%) Visual Studio
4 3 (0.92%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.92%) MSI
4 3 (0.92%) Visual Studio Code
5 2 (0.62%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.31%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.31%) Maven
6 1 (0.31%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.31%) webpack
General
1 136 (41.85%) Social Skills
2 57 (17.54%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (12.31%) Finance
4 31 (9.54%) Public Sector
5 15 (4.62%) Documentation Skills
5 15 (4.62%) Legal
5 15 (4.62%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (3.69%) Military
7 9 (2.77%) Manufacturing
8 8 (2.46%) Marketing
9 7 (2.15%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (2.15%) Telecoms
10 4 (1.23%) Banking
10 4 (1.23%) Electronics
10 4 (1.23%) Police
11 3 (0.92%) Back Office
11 3 (0.92%) Local Government
12 2 (0.62%) General Ledger
12 2 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.62%) Retail
Job Titles
1 38 (11.69%) Architect
2 34 (10.46%) Support Engineer
3 32 (9.85%) Developer
4 29 (8.92%) Analyst
5 19 (5.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 17 (5.23%) Desktop Engineer
6 17 (5.23%) Desktop Support
6 17 (5.23%) Desktop Support Engineer
6 17 (5.23%) Solutions Architect
7 15 (4.62%) Azure Engineer
7 15 (4.62%) Senior
8 14 (4.31%) Microsoft Engineer
9 13 (4.00%) Data Engineer
10 11 (3.38%) Administrator
10 11 (3.38%) Consultant
10 11 (3.38%) IT Support
11 10 (3.08%) DevOps Engineer
12 9 (2.77%) Lead
12 9 (2.77%) Project Officer
13 8 (2.46%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.85%) OAuth
2 18 (5.54%) OAuth2
2 18 (5.54%) SAML
3 17 (5.23%) REST
4 16 (4.92%) OpenID
5 12 (3.69%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.38%) CSS
6 11 (3.38%) HTML
7 9 (2.77%) .NET
8 7 (2.15%) JSON
8 7 (2.15%) Web Services
9 6 (1.85%) FastAPI
9 6 (1.85%) Flask
9 6 (1.85%) GraphQL
9 6 (1.85%) gRPC
9 6 (1.85%) JDO
9 6 (1.85%) WebSockets
10 5 (1.54%) CSS3
10 5 (1.54%) HTML5
10 5 (1.54%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 19 (5.85%) Hybrid Cloud
2 14 (4.31%) Blackberry
3 13 (4.00%) Cloud Native
3 13 (4.00%) Onboarding
3 13 (4.00%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.69%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.77%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.77%) Replication
6 8 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (2.15%) Data Structures
7 7 (2.15%) Private Cloud
8 6 (1.85%) Driving Licence
8 6 (1.85%) PKI
8 6 (1.85%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.54%) Legacy Applications
9 5 (1.54%) Low-Code
9 5 (1.54%) Mobile App
10 4 (1.23%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.62%) Data Centre
11 2 (0.62%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 113 (34.77%) Windows
2 38 (11.69%) Windows Server
3 32 (9.85%) Windows 10
4 21 (6.46%) Android
5 18 (5.54%) Linux
6 16 (4.92%) Apple iOS
7 5 (1.54%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (1.23%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.92%) CentOS
10 2 (0.62%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (27.69%) Problem-Solving
2 47 (14.46%) Agile
3 42 (12.92%) ITIL
4 39 (12.00%) DevOps
5 35 (10.77%) Stakeholder Management
6 34 (10.46%) Analytics
6 34 (10.46%) CI/CD
6 34 (10.46%) RBAC
7 32 (9.85%) Continuous Improvement
7 32 (9.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 28 (8.62%) Change Management
8 28 (8.62%) Identity Access Management
9 27 (8.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 26 (8.00%) Business Intelligence
11 23 (7.08%) Migration
12 22 (6.77%) Customer Service
13 20 (6.15%) Project Delivery
13 20 (6.15%) Project Management
14 19 (5.85%) Knowledge Transfer
15 17 (5.23%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 73 (22.46%) PowerShell
2 40 (12.31%) SQL
3 30 (9.23%) Python
4 26 (8.00%) JavaScript
5 15 (4.62%) Bicep
6 12 (3.69%) C#
7 10 (3.08%) Java
8 6 (1.85%) Go
9 5 (1.54%) C++
9 5 (1.54%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.92%) PHP
11 3 (0.92%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.31%) Bash
12 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.31%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.31%) VBA
Qualifications
1 175 (53.85%) Security Cleared
2 123 (37.85%) SC Cleared
3 68 (20.92%) DV Cleared
4 40 (12.31%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (7.69%) Degree
6 23 (7.08%) Azure Certification
7 8 (2.46%) CISSP
8 7 (2.15%) CISM
8 7 (2.15%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 6 (1.85%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (1.54%) ACCA
11 4 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.23%) MCSE
12 3 (0.92%) APMP
12 3 (0.92%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (0.92%) PMP
13 2 (0.62%) CBAP
13 2 (0.62%) CIMA
14 1 (0.31%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 1 (0.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (3.38%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.38%) PMO
3 10 (3.08%) NIST
4 9 (2.77%) GDPR
5 7 (2.15%) NIST 800
6 6 (1.85%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.92%) GAAP
7 3 (0.92%) IFRS
7 3 (0.92%) NCSC
7 3 (0.92%) QA
8 2 (0.62%) HL7
8 2 (0.62%) SLA
8 2 (0.62%) SNOMED CT
9 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.31%) GRC
9 1 (0.31%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 88 (27.08%) Active Directory
2 14 (4.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (4.00%) Hyper-V
4 9 (2.77%) Docker
5 5 (1.54%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (1.23%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (1.23%) 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 44 (13.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (9.23%) Single Sign-On
3 27 (8.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 27 (8.31%) Terraform
4 21 (6.46%) Kubernetes
5 13 (4.00%) SCCM
6 6 (1.85%) Grafana
6 6 (1.85%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.54%) Ansible
7 5 (1.54%) WSUS
8 3 (0.92%) VxRail
9 2 (0.62%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.62%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.62%) McAfee ePO
9 2 (0.62%) NetBackup
9 2 (0.62%) Norton AntiVirus
9 2 (0.62%) Puppet
9 2 (0.62%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.31%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.31%) SCOM
Vendors
1 36 (11.08%) VMware
2 17 (5.23%) Citrix
3 14 (4.31%) MobileIron
4 13 (4.00%) SAP
5 11 (3.38%) Cisco
5 11 (3.38%) Red Hat
6 10 (3.08%) Adobe
6 10 (3.08%) McAfee
7 9 (2.77%) Databricks
8 8 (2.46%) Oracle
9 7 (2.15%) Google
9 7 (2.15%) IBM
9 7 (2.15%) ServiceNow
9 7 (2.15%) Starlink
10 5 (1.54%) Blue Prism
11 4 (1.23%) Apple
11 4 (1.23%) NetApp
12 3 (0.92%) BeyondTrust
12 3 (0.92%) Dell
12 3 (0.92%) Workday