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 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
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 +2 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 454 334 401
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.11% 16.95% 15.82%
As % of the Vendors category 36.94% 39.34% 35.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 207 241
10th Percentile £212 £202 £180
25th Percentile £380 £275 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £638
90th Percentile £730 £661 £750
England median daily rate £490 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +3.16% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 48 20
10th Percentile £12.80 £17.37 £12.50
25th Percentile £14.31 - £25.26
Median hourly rate £17.50 £18.87 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.26% -70.97% +33.42%
75th Percentile £25.75 £33.19 -
90th Percentile £47.99 £54.33 £85.00
England median hourly rate £18.58 £22.63 £17.00
% change year-on-year -17.92% +33.12% -24.55%

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 1,229 849 1,143
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.79% 43.10% 45.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 703 492 668
10th Percentile £312 £213 £220
25th Percentile £425 £350 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £610 £619 £631
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
England median daily rate £514 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +1.28% -3.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 117 92
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.42 £26.03
25th Percentile £16.62 £18.51 £61.25
Median hourly rate £26.07 £22.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.87% -67.86% +23.92%
75th Percentile £55.31 £60.00 -
90th Percentile £76.23 £70.00 £74.40
England median hourly rate £26.14 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +3.94% -28.14% -20.18%

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 October 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 October 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 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
Bristol 0 149 £500 +5.26% 122
Somerset -2 83 £470 +69.37% 84
Wiltshire -1 74 £567 -1.35% 69
Gloucestershire 0 66 £450 +17.65% 120
Devon -1 44 £317 +15.36% 58
Dorset -6 22 £533 +52.14% 84
Avon -2 3 - - 48
Cornwall - 2 £525 - 10
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 66 (14.54%) SharePoint
2 29 (6.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.30%) Confluence
4 5 (1.10%) CMS
5 3 (0.66%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (0.44%) Apache
6 2 (0.44%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.22%) Appian
7 1 (0.22%) ColdFusion
7 1 (0.22%) JBoss
7 1 (0.22%) Moodle
7 1 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.22%) Totara
7 1 (0.22%) Umbraco
Applications
1 69 (15.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 66 (14.54%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (4.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 19 (4.19%) Microsoft Project
5 10 (2.20%) Spreadsheet
6 7 (1.54%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (1.54%) Dynamics CRM
1 7 (1.54%) NetSuite
2 6 (1.32%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.32%) Oracle Receivables
3 5 (1.10%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.66%) Dynamics NAV
4 3 (0.66%) Magento
4 3 (0.66%) SAP CRM
4 3 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.44%) assyst
5 2 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.22%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.22%) Primavera
6 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.22%) SAP Hybris
6 1 (0.22%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.22%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 152 (33.48%) Azure
2 109 (24.01%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (11.23%) Entra ID
4 48 (10.57%) Power Platform
5 30 (6.61%) AWS
5 30 (6.61%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (5.73%) Dynamics 365
7 15 (3.30%) SaaS
8 14 (3.08%) GitHub
8 14 (3.08%) PowerApps
9 13 (2.86%) Microsoft Copilot
9 13 (2.86%) OneDrive
10 12 (2.64%) Microsoft Purview
10 12 (2.64%) Power Automate
11 11 (2.42%) Azure AKS
12 10 (2.20%) Serverless
13 9 (1.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 9 (1.98%) Azure Functions
13 9 (1.98%) Azure Key Vault
14 8 (1.76%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 24 (5.29%) DNS
2 21 (4.63%) WAN
3 18 (3.96%) DHCP
4 17 (3.74%) Firewall
5 12 (2.64%) LAN
6 11 (2.42%) Skype
7 10 (2.20%) VPN
8 8 (1.76%) SAN
8 8 (1.76%) TCP/IP
9 6 (1.32%) Wireless
10 5 (1.10%) BGP
10 5 (1.10%) Cisco IOS
10 5 (1.10%) Ethernet
10 5 (1.10%) VoIP
11 4 (0.88%) Kerberos
11 4 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
12 3 (0.66%) VLAN
13 2 (0.44%) Cisco ASA
13 2 (0.44%) Network Security
13 2 (0.44%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (7.27%) Power BI
2 21 (4.63%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.86%) Geospatial Data
4 11 (2.42%) Metadata
5 10 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.54%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.32%) Relational Database
8 5 (1.10%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.10%) GIS
8 5 (1.10%) Oracle Database
8 5 (1.10%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.66%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.44%) EDRMS
10 2 (0.44%) Spatial Data
10 2 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 2 (0.44%) Tableau
11 1 (0.22%) InfluxDB
11 1 (0.22%) MS Access
11 1 (0.22%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 33 (7.27%) JIRA
2 27 (5.95%) Git
3 12 (2.64%) MSI
4 8 (1.76%) Visual Studio
5 5 (1.10%) GitLab
6 4 (0.88%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.44%) AdminStudio
7 2 (0.44%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.44%) InstallShield
8 1 (0.22%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.22%) Selenium
8 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 183 (40.31%) Social Skills
2 54 (11.89%) Finance
3 51 (11.23%) Public Sector
4 50 (11.01%) Analytical Skills
5 45 (9.91%) Organisational Skills
6 31 (6.83%) Military
7 17 (3.74%) Aerospace
7 17 (3.74%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (3.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (2.86%) Local Government
9 12 (2.64%) Retail
10 10 (2.20%) Manufacturing
11 9 (1.98%) Legal
12 7 (1.54%) General Ledger
13 5 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (1.10%) Marketing
14 4 (0.88%) Banking
15 3 (0.66%) Aviation
15 3 (0.66%) Police
16 2 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 60 (13.22%) Architect
2 47 (10.35%) Consultant
3 45 (9.91%) Lead
4 34 (7.49%) Administrator
5 29 (6.39%) Analyst
6 27 (5.95%) Senior
7 26 (5.73%) Developer
8 22 (4.85%) IT Support
9 19 (4.19%) Solutions Architect
9 19 (4.19%) Support Engineer
10 18 (3.96%) Microsoft Consultant
11 17 (3.74%) Project Officer
12 15 (3.30%) DevOps Engineer
12 15 (3.30%) IT Engineer
13 14 (3.08%) Technical Architect
14 13 (2.86%) Data Engineer
15 12 (2.64%) Azure Consultant
15 12 (2.64%) Azure Engineer
15 12 (2.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 11 (2.42%) DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (9.25%) Terraform
2 33 (7.27%) .NET
3 23 (5.07%) .NET Framework
4 19 (4.19%) REST
5 18 (3.96%) .NET Core
6 16 (3.52%) HTML
6 16 (3.52%) RESTful
7 13 (2.86%) GeoJSON
8 11 (2.42%) ATL
8 11 (2.42%) COM
8 11 (2.42%) CSS
8 11 (2.42%) CSS3
8 11 (2.42%) HTML5
8 11 (2.42%) MFC
8 11 (2.42%) WPF
9 10 (2.20%) LDAP
10 9 (1.98%) ARM Templates
11 8 (1.76%) OAuth
11 8 (1.76%) SailPoint
11 8 (1.76%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 35 (7.71%) Onboarding
2 23 (5.07%) Cloud Native
3 22 (4.85%) Product Ownership
4 21 (4.63%) Legacy Systems
4 21 (4.63%) Management Information System
5 15 (3.30%) Virtual Team
5 15 (3.30%) Wiki
6 14 (3.08%) Hybrid Cloud
7 13 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
8 12 (2.64%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (2.20%) AI Agents
10 9 (1.98%) Driving Licence
10 9 (1.98%) EPoS
11 7 (1.54%) Low-Code
11 7 (1.54%) PKI
12 6 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 6 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (1.32%) Freedom of Information
12 6 (1.32%) Replication
13 5 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 102 (22.47%) Windows
2 38 (8.37%) Windows 10
3 26 (5.73%) Windows Server
4 17 (3.74%) Android
4 17 (3.74%) Linux
5 6 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (1.10%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.66%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.44%) VMS
8 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.22%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (17.18%) Continuous Improvement
2 72 (15.86%) Agile
2 72 (15.86%) Problem-Solving
3 68 (14.98%) Stakeholder Management
4 52 (11.45%) Migration
5 51 (11.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 50 (11.01%) CI/CD
6 50 (11.01%) DevOps
7 49 (10.79%) Project Delivery
8 47 (10.35%) Customer Service
9 41 (9.03%) Validation
10 40 (8.81%) Decision-Making
10 40 (8.81%) Technical Leadership
11 38 (8.37%) Infrastructure as Code
12 37 (8.15%) ITIL
13 34 (7.49%) Project Management
14 33 (7.27%) PRINCE2
14 33 (7.27%) Roadmaps
15 29 (6.39%) Analytics
16 28 (6.17%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 43 (9.47%) SQL
2 39 (8.59%) PowerShell
3 32 (7.05%) C#
4 27 (5.95%) Python
5 25 (5.51%) Bicep
6 20 (4.41%) JavaScript
7 14 (3.08%) Bash
8 12 (2.64%) TypeScript
9 8 (1.76%) Java
10 6 (1.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 5 (1.10%) BeanShell
11 5 (1.10%) C++
12 2 (0.44%) VB
13 1 (0.22%) Ada
13 1 (0.22%) Ada 95
13 1 (0.22%) C
13 1 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.22%) VBA
13 1 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 184 (40.53%) Security Cleared
2 125 (27.53%) SC Cleared
3 62 (13.66%) DV Cleared
4 28 (6.17%) Degree
5 15 (3.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 13 (2.86%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (2.20%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 8 (1.76%) Azure Certification
9 6 (1.32%) ACCA
9 6 (1.32%) CIMA
9 6 (1.32%) CIPD
9 6 (1.32%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 6 (1.32%) PMP
10 5 (1.10%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.10%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.88%) CISSP
12 3 (0.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.66%) MCSE
12 3 (0.66%) TOGAF Certification
13 2 (0.44%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (7.05%) Data Quality
2 19 (4.19%) GDPR
3 18 (3.96%) Accessibility
3 18 (3.96%) SLA
4 16 (3.52%) NCSC
4 16 (3.52%) QA
5 14 (3.08%) PMO
6 11 (2.42%) WCAG
7 5 (1.10%) ISO 9000
8 4 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.66%) Disclosure Scotland
9 3 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.66%) NIST
10 2 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.22%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.22%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.22%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
System Software
1 82 (18.06%) Active Directory
2 28 (6.17%) Docker
3 17 (3.74%) Virtual Desktop
4 14 (3.08%) Hyper-V
4 14 (3.08%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (1.10%) vSphere
7 2 (0.44%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.22%) Firmware
8 1 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 1 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.22%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.22%) zsh
Systems Management
1 29 (6.39%) Kubernetes
2 23 (5.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (5.07%) SCCM
3 8 (1.76%) WSUS
4 7 (1.54%) Ansible
5 5 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 5 (1.10%) Failover Clustering
5 5 (1.10%) FortiGate
5 5 (1.10%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 4 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.66%) Grafana
7 3 (0.66%) OPNET
7 3 (0.66%) VxRail
8 2 (0.44%) Argo
8 2 (0.44%) SCOM
9 1 (0.22%) FreeIPA
9 1 (0.22%) Podman
9 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.22%) PTC Integrity
9 1 (0.22%) SELinux
Vendors
1 27 (5.95%) Oracle
2 18 (3.96%) ServiceNow
2 18 (3.96%) VMware
3 17 (3.74%) Cisco
3 17 (3.74%) SAP
4 14 (3.08%) Apple
5 12 (2.64%) Google
6 11 (2.42%) HP
7 9 (1.98%) Databricks
7 9 (1.98%) Red Hat
8 6 (1.32%) BiZZdesign
8 6 (1.32%) Informatica
8 6 (1.32%) Workday
9 5 (1.10%) CyberArk
9 5 (1.10%) McAfee
9 5 (1.10%) Zscaler
10 4 (0.88%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.88%) InterSystems
10 4 (0.88%) Meraki
10 4 (0.88%) MuleSoft