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 22 October 2025, 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
22 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 5 8
Rank change year-on-year +1 +3 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 356 384 424
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 17.39% 15.63% 13.52%
As % of the Vendors category 39.91% 34.66% 33.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 238 293
10th Percentile £205 £190 £200
25th Percentile £300 £332 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% +10.53%
75th Percentile £588 £655 £638
90th Percentile £710 £775 £700
England median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 17 38
10th Percentile £18.22 £12.50 £18.35
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £23.76
Median hourly rate £19.44 £65.00 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year -70.10% +33.42% -25.05%
75th Percentile £33.75 - £52.81
90th Percentile £52.71 - £69.62
England median hourly rate £22.32 £20.00 £23.00
% change year-on-year +11.58% -13.04% +18.71%

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 892 1,108 1,267
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 43.58% 45.10% 40.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 530 642 852
10th Percentile £224 £228 £275
25th Percentile £369 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.67% -2.33% +2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £700 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 84 116
10th Percentile £14.95 £25.26 £19.19
25th Percentile £18.87 £60.44 £46.75
Median hourly rate £22.63 £67.75 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -66.60% +23.18% -12.70%
75th Percentile £38.94 £70.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £69.35 £73.93 £76.25
England median hourly rate £25.00 £35.00 £44.20
% change year-on-year -28.57% -20.81% +76.80%

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 22 October 2025.

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 22 October 2025.

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 22 October 2025. 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 +1 123 £500 +11.11% 111
Wiltshire -2 78 £575 +4.55% 70
Gloucestershire +8 72 £400 -14.89% 72
Somerset +1 45 £333 -37.85% 65
Devon 0 17 £275 -16.03% 35
Dorset -1 17 £310 -46.09% 37
Avon - 2 £275 - 54
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 74 (20.79%) SharePoint
2 60 (16.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (6.46%) Skype for Business
4 7 (1.97%) Oracle Application Server
5 5 (1.40%) Confluence
6 4 (1.12%) SharePoint Server
7 3 (0.84%) IIS
8 1 (0.28%) CMS
8 1 (0.28%) nginx
8 1 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
8 1 (0.28%) Tomcat
Applications
1 50 (14.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 37 (10.39%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (3.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (2.25%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.97%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (1.69%) Adobe Captivate
7 4 (1.12%) MS Visio
8 2 (0.56%) Windchill
9 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.84%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.56%) Maximo
2 2 (0.56%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.56%) Primavera
3 1 (0.28%) assyst
3 1 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 99 (27.81%) Microsoft 365
2 96 (26.97%) Azure
3 36 (10.11%) Power Platform
4 33 (9.27%) AWS
5 30 (8.43%) Entra ID
6 17 (4.78%) Azure DevOps
7 14 (3.93%) Power Automate
8 13 (3.65%) OneDrive
9 10 (2.81%) Azure Key Vault
9 10 (2.81%) Azure Sentinel
9 10 (2.81%) GitHub
10 9 (2.53%) Dynamics 365
10 9 (2.53%) Serverless
11 8 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (2.25%) Microsoft Purview
11 8 (2.25%) SaaS
11 8 (2.25%) ShareGate
12 7 (1.97%) Figma
12 7 (1.97%) PowerApps
12 7 (1.97%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 46 (12.92%) DNS
2 32 (8.99%) Skype
3 27 (7.58%) DHCP
4 21 (5.90%) Firewall
5 16 (4.49%) TCP/IP
5 16 (4.49%) VPN
6 9 (2.53%) Unified Communications
7 8 (2.25%) Network Security
8 6 (1.69%) HTTP
8 6 (1.69%) VoIP
9 4 (1.12%) VLAN
9 4 (1.12%) WAAS
9 4 (1.12%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (0.84%) Kerberos
10 3 (0.84%) LAN
10 3 (0.84%) VSAN
10 3 (0.84%) WAN
11 2 (0.56%) iSCSI
11 2 (0.56%) SMTP
12 1 (0.28%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (8.43%) Power BI
2 19 (5.34%) SQL Server
3 18 (5.06%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (3.09%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (1.97%) Oracle ODI
5 7 (1.97%) Oracle Reports
5 7 (1.97%) Redis
5 7 (1.97%) Star Schema
6 6 (1.69%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.12%) Metadata
8 3 (0.84%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.84%) MySQL
8 3 (0.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.56%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.56%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.56%) Looker
9 2 (0.56%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.56%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 31 (8.71%) JIRA
2 13 (3.65%) Git
3 8 (2.25%) MSI
4 7 (1.97%) DBeaver
5 4 (1.12%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.84%) AdminStudio
6 3 (0.84%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.56%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.56%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.56%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.28%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.28%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.28%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.28%) GitLab
8 1 (0.28%) Maven
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.28%) webpack
General
1 137 (38.48%) Social Skills
2 59 (16.57%) Analytical Skills
3 52 (14.61%) Public Sector
4 44 (12.36%) Finance
5 15 (4.21%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (3.37%) Banking
7 11 (3.09%) Telecoms
8 10 (2.81%) Manufacturing
9 9 (2.53%) Military
9 9 (2.53%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (2.25%) Legal
11 6 (1.69%) Electronics
11 6 (1.69%) Marketing
12 4 (1.12%) Local Government
13 3 (0.84%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.84%) Aviation
13 3 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.84%) Retail
14 2 (0.56%) Law
Job Titles
1 42 (11.80%) Analyst
2 41 (11.52%) Support Engineer
3 35 (9.83%) Developer
4 29 (8.15%) Desktop Support
5 21 (5.90%) Architect
6 18 (5.06%) Support Analyst
7 17 (4.78%) Consultant
8 16 (4.49%) IT Support
9 15 (4.21%) Administrator
9 15 (4.21%) Desktop Engineer
10 14 (3.93%) Desktop Support Engineer
10 14 (3.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 13 (3.65%) Microsoft Engineer
12 12 (3.37%) Lead
13 11 (3.09%) Deskside Analyst
13 11 (3.09%) Deskside Support
13 11 (3.09%) Deskside Support Analyst
13 11 (3.09%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
13 11 (3.09%) Technology Support Analyst
14 10 (2.81%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.21%) OAuth
1 15 (4.21%) OpenID
1 15 (4.21%) SAML
2 14 (3.93%) REST
3 12 (3.37%) OAuth2
4 10 (2.81%) React
5 9 (2.53%) AngularJS
5 9 (2.53%) SOAP
6 8 (2.25%) XML
7 7 (1.97%) CSS
7 7 (1.97%) FastAPI
7 7 (1.97%) Flask
7 7 (1.97%) GraphQL
7 7 (1.97%) gRPC
7 7 (1.97%) HTML
7 7 (1.97%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 7 (1.97%) WebSockets
8 6 (1.69%) .NET
8 6 (1.69%) SailPoint
8 6 (1.69%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.46%) Onboarding
2 18 (5.06%) PKI
3 16 (4.49%) Cloud Native
4 15 (4.21%) Driving Licence
5 12 (3.37%) Replication
6 10 (2.81%) Mobile App
7 9 (2.53%) Product Ownership
8 8 (2.25%) Management Information System
9 7 (1.97%) Private Cloud
9 7 (1.97%) Security Posture
9 7 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.69%) Hybrid Cloud
11 5 (1.40%) Cyber Threat
11 5 (1.40%) Data Centre
12 4 (1.12%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (1.12%) Cyber Defence
12 4 (1.12%) Legacy Applications
13 3 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
13 3 (0.84%) iPad
13 3 (0.84%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 141 (39.61%) Windows
2 64 (17.98%) Windows 10
3 38 (10.67%) Windows Server
4 23 (6.46%) Linux
5 17 (4.78%) Windows 7
6 10 (2.81%) Apple iOS
7 8 (2.25%) Android
8 7 (1.97%) Mac OS
8 7 (1.97%) Windows Server 2012
8 7 (1.97%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (1.40%) Windows Server 2008
9 5 (1.40%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.28%) CentOS
11 1 (0.28%) Solaris
11 1 (0.28%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (23.88%) Problem-Solving
2 65 (18.26%) Agile
3 64 (17.98%) ITIL
4 50 (14.04%) Customer Service
5 42 (11.80%) Migration
6 37 (10.39%) DevOps
7 31 (8.71%) Business Intelligence
8 30 (8.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 29 (8.15%) Knowledge Transfer
9 29 (8.15%) Service Management
10 27 (7.58%) Change Management
10 27 (7.58%) ITSM
11 25 (7.02%) Project Management
11 25 (7.02%) Stakeholder Management
12 24 (6.74%) CI/CD
13 23 (6.46%) Root Cause Analysis
14 22 (6.18%) Analytics
14 22 (6.18%) RBAC
15 20 (5.62%) Decision-Making
16 18 (5.06%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 66 (18.54%) PowerShell
2 49 (13.76%) SQL
3 31 (8.71%) Python
4 9 (2.53%) JavaScript
5 8 (2.25%) Bicep
5 8 (2.25%) Java
6 7 (1.97%) Go
7 6 (1.69%) C#
8 5 (1.40%) VBScript
9 4 (1.12%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.12%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.84%) Perl
10 3 (0.84%) VBA
11 2 (0.56%) Bash
11 2 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.28%) C++
12 1 (0.28%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.28%) VB
12 1 (0.28%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.28%) VB6
Qualifications
1 169 (47.47%) Security Cleared
2 127 (35.67%) SC Cleared
3 51 (14.33%) DV Cleared
4 49 (13.76%) Microsoft Certification
5 21 (5.90%) Degree
6 16 (4.49%) ITIL Certification
7 13 (3.65%) A+ Certification
8 12 (3.37%) MCSE
9 9 (2.53%) Cisco Certification
10 8 (2.25%) CCNP
10 8 (2.25%) MCSA
11 7 (1.97%) Azure Certification
12 5 (1.40%) CCNA
12 5 (1.40%) CISM
12 5 (1.40%) CISSP
12 5 (1.40%) Master's Degree
13 4 (1.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 3 (0.84%) ACCA
14 3 (0.84%) BPSS Clearance
14 3 (0.84%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (5.90%) GDPR
3 17 (4.78%) PMO
4 11 (3.09%) NIST
4 11 (3.09%) QA
5 10 (2.81%) SLA
6 9 (2.53%) Data Quality
7 8 (2.25%) Accessibility
8 7 (1.97%) NCSC
9 4 (1.12%) GRC
10 3 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.84%) GAAP
10 3 (0.84%) IFRS
10 3 (0.84%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.56%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.56%) PSD2
11 2 (0.56%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.28%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 104 (29.21%) Active Directory
2 33 (9.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.37%) Virtual Machines
4 11 (3.09%) Docker
5 7 (1.97%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.97%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (1.40%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (1.40%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (1.40%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (1.40%) VMware NSX
7 4 (1.12%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.28%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 34 (9.55%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (9.27%) SCCM
3 23 (6.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 20 (5.62%) Single Sign-On
5 15 (4.21%) vCenter Server
6 13 (3.65%) Kubernetes
7 11 (3.09%) Terraform
7 11 (3.09%) WSUS
8 7 (1.97%) Grafana
8 7 (1.97%) Prometheus
9 6 (1.69%) Norton AntiVirus
10 3 (0.84%) OPNET
11 2 (0.56%) AppManager
11 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.56%) NetApp OnCommand
11 2 (0.56%) NetBackup
11 2 (0.56%) PingFederate
11 2 (0.56%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
11 2 (0.56%) vMotion
11 2 (0.56%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 40 (11.24%) VMware
2 25 (7.02%) Cisco
2 25 (7.02%) ServiceNow
3 15 (4.21%) Oracle
3 15 (4.21%) SAP
4 11 (3.09%) SolarWinds
4 11 (3.09%) Veeam
5 9 (2.53%) McAfee
6 7 (1.97%) Adobe
6 7 (1.97%) Google
7 6 (1.69%) Blue Prism
7 6 (1.69%) Citrix
7 6 (1.69%) Symantec
8 5 (1.40%) Splunk
9 4 (1.12%) F5
9 4 (1.12%) ForgeRock
9 4 (1.12%) HP
9 4 (1.12%) Ping Identity
9 4 (1.12%) Red Hat
9 4 (1.12%) Starlink