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 13 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
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 344 268 474
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 11.87% 16.12% 14.67%
As % of the Vendors category 34.57% 33.63% 34.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 195 313
10th Percentile £208 £200 £187
25th Percentile £376 £223 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £594
90th Percentile £725 £725 £710
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 9 57
10th Percentile £15.60 £17.06 £12.92
25th Percentile £19.44 £18.51 £14.36
Median hourly rate £25.15 £27.13 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.28% -39.72% -28.57%
75th Percentile £61.88 £28.99 £48.72
90th Percentile £65.00 £37.00 £51.25
England median hourly rate £19.91 £24.18 £16.06
% change year-on-year -17.66% +50.56% -23.56%

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 995 797 1,356
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 34.35% 47.93% 41.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 625 544 859
10th Percentile £268 £217 £208
25th Percentile £403 £400 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% - -
75th Percentile £600 £619 £638
90th Percentile £733 £698 £725
England median daily rate £501 £525 £518
% change year-on-year -4.67% +1.45% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 39 182
10th Percentile £18.87 £18.45 £14.36
25th Percentile £22.89 £25.26 £36.56
Median hourly rate £57.50 £64.00 £48.11
Median % change year-on-year -10.16% +33.03% -23.91%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.75 £67.38
90th Percentile £72.14 £75.00 £77.38
England median hourly rate £25.00 £30.78 £25.00
% change year-on-year -18.78% +23.12% -28.57%

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 13 March 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 13 March 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 13 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
Wiltshire -1 113 £550 - 36
Bristol -11 76 £512 +70.67% 70
Gloucestershire +2 66 £412 -3.06% 63
Somerset -3 44 £488 +8.33% 56
Devon +7 26 £220 +12.10% 33
Dorset -15 7 £394 -17.00% 36
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 53 (15.41%) SharePoint
2 43 (12.50%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (5.52%) Skype for Business
4 7 (2.03%) Confluence
5 3 (0.87%) Oracle Application Server
6 2 (0.58%) Apache
6 2 (0.58%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.29%) CMS
7 1 (0.29%) IIS
7 1 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.29%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 37 (10.76%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (9.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (2.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (2.91%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (2.33%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (2.03%) Adobe Captivate
5 7 (2.03%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 5 (1.45%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.58%) InDesign
7 2 (0.58%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.29%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.29%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.29%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 7 (2.03%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (2.03%) Maximo
2 2 (0.58%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.29%) assyst
3 1 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 105 (30.52%) Azure
2 78 (22.67%) Microsoft 365
3 40 (11.63%) Power Platform
4 38 (11.05%) Entra ID
5 28 (8.14%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (7.56%) AWS
7 20 (5.81%) Power Automate
8 18 (5.23%) GitHub
9 17 (4.94%) Dynamics 365
10 16 (4.65%) PowerApps
11 15 (4.36%) Azure Monitor
12 14 (4.07%) Azure Sentinel
13 13 (3.78%) Azure Key Vault
14 11 (3.20%) GitHub Actions
14 11 (3.20%) Serverless
15 9 (2.62%) Azure AKS
15 9 (2.62%) OneDrive
16 8 (2.33%) Figma
16 8 (2.33%) GCP
16 8 (2.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (12.21%) DNS
2 28 (8.14%) Firewall
3 27 (7.85%) DHCP
4 24 (6.98%) Skype
5 21 (6.10%) TCP/IP
6 18 (5.23%) VPN
7 7 (2.03%) Unified Communications
8 5 (1.45%) Network Security
9 4 (1.16%) Ethernet
9 4 (1.16%) WAN
10 3 (0.87%) HTTP
10 3 (0.87%) LAN
10 3 (0.87%) VLAN
10 3 (0.87%) VoIP
10 3 (0.87%) Wireless
11 2 (0.58%) Cisco IOS
11 2 (0.58%) H.323
11 2 (0.58%) RTP
12 1 (0.29%) Internet
12 1 (0.29%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (7.85%) Power BI
2 14 (4.07%) SQL Server
3 12 (3.49%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (2.62%) Redis
5 6 (1.74%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.74%) Star Schema
6 5 (1.45%) Metadata
7 4 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.87%) GIS
8 3 (0.87%) Oracle ODI
8 3 (0.87%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.87%) Power Query
9 2 (0.58%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.58%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.58%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.58%) Looker
9 2 (0.58%) MySQL
9 2 (0.58%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.58%) Tableau
10 1 (0.29%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 30 (8.72%) JIRA
2 9 (2.62%) Git
3 6 (1.74%) MSI
4 4 (1.16%) Artifactory
4 4 (1.16%) Eclipse
4 4 (1.16%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.16%) Visual Studio
5 3 (0.87%) DBeaver
5 3 (0.87%) GitLab
6 1 (0.29%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.29%) Maven
6 1 (0.29%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.29%) webpack
General
1 146 (42.44%) Social Skills
2 61 (17.73%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (12.50%) Finance
4 36 (10.47%) Public Sector
5 17 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
6 13 (3.78%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (3.20%) Military
8 10 (2.91%) Legal
9 9 (2.62%) Manufacturing
10 8 (2.33%) Marketing
11 7 (2.03%) Telecoms
12 6 (1.74%) Banking
13 4 (1.16%) Electronics
13 4 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.16%) Police
14 3 (0.87%) Back Office
14 3 (0.87%) Local Government
14 3 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
15 1 (0.29%) Aerospace
15 1 (0.29%) Retail
Job Titles
1 38 (11.05%) Architect
1 38 (11.05%) Support Engineer
2 34 (9.88%) Developer
3 31 (9.01%) Analyst
4 26 (7.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 20 (5.81%) Microsoft Engineer
6 16 (4.65%) Administrator
6 16 (4.65%) Desktop Engineer
6 16 (4.65%) Desktop Support
6 16 (4.65%) Desktop Support Engineer
6 16 (4.65%) Solutions Architect
7 14 (4.07%) Azure Engineer
7 14 (4.07%) Senior
8 13 (3.78%) Data Engineer
9 10 (2.91%) Backend Developer
9 10 (2.91%) Consultant
9 10 (2.91%) IT Support
10 9 (2.62%) Designer
10 9 (2.62%) DevOps Engineer
10 9 (2.62%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (6.10%) OAuth
1 21 (6.10%) REST
2 20 (5.81%) OAuth2
2 20 (5.81%) SAML
3 18 (5.23%) OpenID
4 12 (3.49%) ARM Templates
5 9 (2.62%) CSS
5 9 (2.62%) FastAPI
5 9 (2.62%) Flask
5 9 (2.62%) GraphQL
5 9 (2.62%) gRPC
5 9 (2.62%) HTML
5 9 (2.62%) WebSockets
6 7 (2.03%) .NET
6 7 (2.03%) Web Services
7 6 (1.74%) JSON
7 6 (1.74%) SOAP
8 5 (1.45%) JDO
9 4 (1.16%) Node.js
10 3 (0.87%) CSS3
Miscellaneous
1 21 (6.10%) Hybrid Cloud
2 18 (5.23%) Onboarding
3 14 (4.07%) Blackberry
4 13 (3.78%) Cloud Native
5 12 (3.49%) Management Information System
6 10 (2.91%) PKI
6 10 (2.91%) Replication
7 9 (2.62%) Driving Licence
8 8 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (2.33%) Mobile App
9 7 (2.03%) Private Cloud
9 7 (2.03%) Virtual Team
10 6 (1.74%) Data Structures
10 6 (1.74%) Product Ownership
11 5 (1.45%) Low-Code
11 5 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
12 3 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
12 3 (0.87%) Legacy Applications
12 3 (0.87%) Security Posture
13 2 (0.58%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 128 (37.21%) Windows
2 46 (13.37%) Windows Server
3 37 (10.76%) Windows 10
4 24 (6.98%) Linux
5 21 (6.10%) Android
6 17 (4.94%) Apple iOS
7 7 (2.03%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (1.45%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.87%) CentOS
10 2 (0.58%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.29%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.29%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (27.03%) Problem-Solving
2 49 (14.24%) Agile
3 42 (12.21%) ITIL
4 39 (11.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 38 (11.05%) RBAC
6 37 (10.76%) DevOps
7 36 (10.47%) Analytics
8 35 (10.17%) CI/CD
9 34 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 33 (9.59%) Stakeholder Management
11 31 (9.01%) Migration
12 28 (8.14%) Business Intelligence
12 28 (8.14%) Change Management
13 27 (7.85%) Identity Access Management
14 23 (6.69%) Continuous Improvement
14 23 (6.69%) Knowledge Transfer
15 21 (6.10%) Customer Service
15 21 (6.10%) Project Management
16 19 (5.52%) Project Delivery
16 19 (5.52%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 84 (24.42%) PowerShell
2 46 (13.37%) SQL
3 37 (10.76%) Python
4 25 (7.27%) JavaScript
5 15 (4.36%) Bicep
6 10 (2.91%) C#
7 9 (2.62%) Go
8 7 (2.03%) Java
9 5 (1.45%) C++
9 5 (1.45%) TypeScript
10 4 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.87%) PHP
11 3 (0.87%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.58%) Bash
13 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.29%) Perl
13 1 (0.29%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.29%) VBA
13 1 (0.29%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 185 (53.78%) Security Cleared
2 129 (37.50%) SC Cleared
3 79 (22.97%) DV Cleared
4 45 (13.08%) Microsoft Certification
5 26 (7.56%) Degree
6 20 (5.81%) Azure Certification
7 8 (2.33%) CISSP
7 8 (2.33%) ITIL Certification
7 8 (2.33%) MCSE
8 7 (2.03%) CISM
8 7 (2.03%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 3 (0.87%) ACCA
9 3 (0.87%) APMP
9 3 (0.87%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (0.87%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.87%) MCSA
9 3 (0.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (0.58%) A+ Certification
10 2 (0.58%) CBAP
10 2 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (4.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (4.07%) GDPR
2 14 (4.07%) PMO
3 11 (3.20%) NIST
4 10 (2.91%) Data Quality
5 8 (2.33%) Accessibility
6 7 (2.03%) NIST 800
7 4 (1.16%) NCSC
8 3 (0.87%) GAAP
8 3 (0.87%) IFRS
8 3 (0.87%) QA
8 3 (0.87%) SLA
9 2 (0.58%) HL7
9 2 (0.58%) PSD2
9 2 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.58%) SNOMED CT
10 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.29%) GRC
10 1 (0.29%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.29%) WCAG
System Software
1 100 (29.07%) Active Directory
2 22 (6.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (4.65%) Hyper-V
4 12 (3.49%) Docker
5 7 (2.03%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (1.45%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 2 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.29%) KVM
9 1 (0.29%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.29%) UAG
9 1 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.29%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.29%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (12.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 32 (9.30%) Single Sign-On
3 29 (8.43%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 26 (7.56%) Terraform
5 24 (6.98%) Kubernetes
6 16 (4.65%) SCCM
7 9 (2.62%) Grafana
7 9 (2.62%) Prometheus
8 8 (2.33%) WSUS
9 5 (1.45%) Ansible
9 5 (1.45%) vCenter Server
10 4 (1.16%) Norton AntiVirus
11 3 (0.87%) VxRail
12 2 (0.58%) CA Single Sign-On
12 2 (0.58%) Cisco CUCM
12 2 (0.58%) McAfee ePO
12 2 (0.58%) NetBackup
12 2 (0.58%) Puppet
13 1 (0.29%) SCOM
13 1 (0.29%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 45 (13.08%) VMware
2 17 (4.94%) Citrix
3 16 (4.65%) Cisco
4 14 (4.07%) MobileIron
4 14 (4.07%) SAP
5 12 (3.49%) Adobe
6 11 (3.20%) Red Hat
7 9 (2.62%) McAfee
8 8 (2.33%) Oracle
9 7 (2.03%) Databricks
9 7 (2.03%) IBM
9 7 (2.03%) ServiceNow
10 6 (1.74%) Blue Prism
10 6 (1.74%) Google
10 6 (1.74%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.74%) Veeam
11 4 (1.16%) Dell
11 4 (1.16%) ForgeRock
11 4 (1.16%) Starlink
11 4 (1.16%) Symantec