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 12 December 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
12 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 6 8
Rank change year-on-year +2 +2 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 361 329 409
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 15.74% 14.86% 13.28%
As % of the Vendors category 38.08% 32.83% 31.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 254 216 281
10th Percentile £211 £203 £193
25th Percentile £338 £322 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -7.32% +6.77%
75th Percentile £594 £614 £638
90th Percentile £715 £744 £700
England median daily rate £475 £477 £500
% change year-on-year -0.42% -4.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 14 37
10th Percentile £15.60 £12.50 £18.17
25th Percentile - £17.94 £23.43
Median hourly rate £18.87 £31.56 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year -40.21% -35.22% -25.05%
75th Percentile £23.89 £65.00 -
90th Percentile £61.80 - £69.62
England median hourly rate £20.79 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -7.60% -2.17% +15.00%

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 948 1,002 1,300
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 41.34% 45.26% 42.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 632 605 861
10th Percentile £250 £225 £262
25th Percentile £413 £420 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £700
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 53 121
10th Percentile £6.00 £12.52 £19.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £35.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £23.07 £65.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -64.52% +18.18% -15.38%
75th Percentile £38.94 £70.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £69.73 £74.89 £76.25
England median hourly rate £23.83 £31.63 £44.50
% change year-on-year -24.68% -28.92% +71.15%

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 12 December 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 12 December 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 12 December 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
Wiltshire -5 100 £575 +4.55% 79
Bristol -3 90 £512 +13.67% 123
Gloucestershire +12 82 £425 -9.57% 121
Somerset +1 50 £340 -31.31% 79
Devon +8 19 £275 +42.86% 99
Dorset 0 14 £450 -7.69% 66
Avon - 1 £275 - 59
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 69 (19.11%) SharePoint
2 59 (16.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (6.37%) Skype for Business
4 7 (1.94%) Oracle Application Server
5 4 (1.11%) Confluence
5 4 (1.11%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.83%) IIS
7 1 (0.28%) Apache
7 1 (0.28%) CMS
7 1 (0.28%) nginx
7 1 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 40 (11.08%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (9.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (3.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (3.05%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.94%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (1.66%) Adobe Captivate
7 5 (1.39%) MS Visio
8 3 (0.83%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.55%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 4 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.83%) Maximo
2 3 (0.83%) Teamcenter
3 2 (0.55%) assyst
3 2 (0.55%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.55%) Primavera
4 1 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.28%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 105 (29.09%) Azure
2 99 (27.42%) Microsoft 365
3 43 (11.91%) Power Platform
4 39 (10.80%) Entra ID
5 34 (9.42%) AWS
6 18 (4.99%) Power Automate
7 17 (4.71%) Azure DevOps
8 15 (4.16%) Azure Sentinel
9 13 (3.60%) Dynamics 365
10 12 (3.32%) GitHub
11 11 (3.05%) PowerApps
11 11 (3.05%) Serverless
12 10 (2.77%) Azure Key Vault
12 10 (2.77%) OneDrive
13 9 (2.49%) Azure Monitor
13 9 (2.49%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (2.49%) SaaS
14 8 (2.22%) Azure AKS
14 8 (2.22%) GCP
14 8 (2.22%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 50 (13.85%) DNS
2 33 (9.14%) Skype
3 27 (7.48%) Firewall
4 26 (7.20%) DHCP
5 18 (4.99%) TCP/IP
6 15 (4.16%) VPN
7 10 (2.77%) Unified Communications
8 7 (1.94%) HTTP
8 7 (1.94%) Network Security
9 4 (1.11%) WAAS
10 3 (0.83%) Kerberos
10 3 (0.83%) VoIP
10 3 (0.83%) VSAN
11 2 (0.55%) iSCSI
11 2 (0.55%) SMTP
11 2 (0.55%) VLAN
11 2 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
12 1 (0.28%) Cisco IOS
12 1 (0.28%) Ethernet
12 1 (0.28%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (9.70%) Power BI
2 18 (4.99%) SQL Server
3 15 (4.16%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.22%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (1.94%) Oracle ODI
5 7 (1.94%) Oracle Reports
5 7 (1.94%) Redis
5 7 (1.94%) Star Schema
6 6 (1.66%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.39%) Metadata
8 2 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.55%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.55%) Looker
8 2 (0.55%) MySQL
8 2 (0.55%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.55%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.55%) Tableau
9 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 29 (8.03%) JIRA
2 14 (3.88%) Git
3 10 (2.77%) MSI
4 7 (1.94%) DBeaver
5 4 (1.11%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.83%) AdminStudio
6 3 (0.83%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.83%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.55%) GitLab
8 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.28%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.28%) Maven
8 1 (0.28%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.28%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.28%) Visual Studio
General
1 143 (39.61%) Social Skills
2 57 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
3 54 (14.96%) Public Sector
4 37 (10.25%) Finance
5 21 (5.82%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (3.05%) Banking
6 11 (3.05%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (2.77%) Telecoms
8 9 (2.49%) Military
9 7 (1.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.94%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.66%) Legal
11 5 (1.39%) Electronics
11 5 (1.39%) Marketing
12 3 (0.83%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.83%) Aviation
12 3 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.55%) Law
13 2 (0.55%) Local Government
13 2 (0.55%) Retail
Job Titles
1 38 (10.53%) Support Engineer
2 37 (10.25%) Developer
3 35 (9.70%) Analyst
4 24 (6.65%) Architect
5 20 (5.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 17 (4.71%) Administrator
6 17 (4.71%) Desktop Support
7 16 (4.43%) Consultant
7 16 (4.43%) Microsoft Engineer
8 14 (3.88%) Desktop Engineer
9 13 (3.60%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 13 (3.60%) IT Support
10 10 (2.77%) Azure Engineer
11 9 (2.49%) Designer
11 9 (2.49%) Platform Engineer
11 9 (2.49%) Solutions Architect
12 8 (2.22%) Python Developer
12 8 (2.22%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
12 8 (2.22%) Security Architect
12 8 (2.22%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (6.37%) OAuth
2 22 (6.09%) SAML
3 20 (5.54%) OAuth2
3 20 (5.54%) OpenID
4 15 (4.16%) REST
5 9 (2.49%) AngularJS
5 9 (2.49%) ARM Templates
5 9 (2.49%) React
5 9 (2.49%) SOAP
6 8 (2.22%) XML
7 7 (1.94%) CSS
7 7 (1.94%) FastAPI
7 7 (1.94%) Flask
7 7 (1.94%) GraphQL
7 7 (1.94%) gRPC
7 7 (1.94%) HTML
7 7 (1.94%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 7 (1.94%) WebSockets
8 6 (1.66%) LDAP
8 6 (1.66%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 25 (6.93%) Onboarding
2 19 (5.26%) Cloud Native
3 18 (4.99%) PKI
4 14 (3.88%) Replication
5 11 (3.05%) Driving Licence
5 11 (3.05%) Management Information System
6 10 (2.77%) Hybrid Cloud
6 10 (2.77%) Mobile App
7 8 (2.22%) Private Cloud
7 8 (2.22%) Security Posture
8 6 (1.66%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.66%) Product Ownership
8 6 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.11%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (1.11%) Cyber Threat
9 4 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.11%) Low-Code
10 3 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.83%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 146 (40.44%) Windows
2 65 (18.01%) Windows 10
3 46 (12.74%) Windows Server
4 28 (7.76%) Linux
5 11 (3.05%) Apple iOS
6 9 (2.49%) Android
6 9 (2.49%) Windows 7
7 7 (1.94%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.94%) Windows Server 2012
8 6 (1.66%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (1.39%) Windows Server 2008
9 5 (1.39%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.83%) CentOS
10 3 (0.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.28%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (23.27%) Problem-Solving
2 62 (17.17%) Agile
3 59 (16.34%) ITIL
4 41 (11.36%) Migration
5 36 (9.97%) DevOps
5 36 (9.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 35 (9.70%) Business Intelligence
7 34 (9.42%) Customer Service
8 33 (9.14%) Change Management
9 29 (8.03%) RBAC
10 28 (7.76%) CI/CD
10 28 (7.76%) Knowledge Transfer
11 26 (7.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 24 (6.65%) Service Management
12 24 (6.65%) Stakeholder Management
13 21 (5.82%) Analytics
13 21 (5.82%) Cloud Security
14 20 (5.54%) Project Management
15 19 (5.26%) Continuous Improvement
15 19 (5.26%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 76 (21.05%) PowerShell
2 47 (13.02%) SQL
3 31 (8.59%) Python
4 15 (4.16%) JavaScript
5 12 (3.32%) Bicep
6 7 (1.94%) Go
7 6 (1.66%) C#
7 6 (1.66%) Java
7 6 (1.66%) TypeScript
8 5 (1.39%) VBScript
9 3 (0.83%) Perl
9 3 (0.83%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.55%) Bash
11 1 (0.28%) C++
11 1 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.28%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 189 (52.35%) Security Cleared
2 132 (36.57%) SC Cleared
3 67 (18.56%) DV Cleared
4 57 (15.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (6.93%) Degree
6 13 (3.60%) Azure Certification
6 13 (3.60%) ITIL Certification
6 13 (3.60%) MCSE
7 12 (3.32%) A+ Certification
8 8 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (1.94%) CCNP
9 7 (1.94%) CISSP
9 7 (1.94%) MCSA
10 6 (1.66%) CISM
11 5 (1.39%) CCNA
11 5 (1.39%) Master's Degree
12 4 (1.11%) APMP
12 4 (1.11%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.83%) ACCA
13 3 (0.83%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 20 (5.54%) GDPR
3 13 (3.60%) PMO
4 11 (3.05%) Data Quality
4 11 (3.05%) QA
5 10 (2.77%) NIST
6 8 (2.22%) Accessibility
6 8 (2.22%) NCSC
7 6 (1.66%) SLA
8 3 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.83%) GAAP
8 3 (0.83%) IFRS
8 3 (0.83%) NIST 800
8 3 (0.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.55%) GRC
9 2 (0.55%) PSD2
9 2 (0.55%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 115 (31.86%) Active Directory
2 31 (8.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (3.60%) Virtual Machines
4 12 (3.32%) Docker
5 7 (1.94%) Hyper-V
6 6 (1.66%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (1.39%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (1.39%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (1.39%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.11%) Microsoft App-V
8 4 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.28%) KVM
9 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.28%) UAG
Systems Management
1 35 (9.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 31 (8.59%) SCCM
3 30 (8.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 28 (7.76%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (4.99%) Kubernetes
6 16 (4.43%) Terraform
7 15 (4.16%) vCenter Server
8 14 (3.88%) WSUS
9 7 (1.94%) Grafana
9 7 (1.94%) Norton AntiVirus
9 7 (1.94%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.83%) Ansible
10 3 (0.83%) OPNET
11 2 (0.55%) Kibana
11 2 (0.55%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.55%) NetApp OnCommand
11 2 (0.55%) NetBackup
11 2 (0.55%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
11 2 (0.55%) vMotion
11 2 (0.55%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 37 (10.25%) VMware
2 25 (6.93%) Cisco
3 18 (4.99%) ServiceNow
4 14 (3.88%) SAP
5 13 (3.60%) Oracle
6 11 (3.05%) SolarWinds
6 11 (3.05%) Veeam
7 10 (2.77%) McAfee
8 9 (2.49%) Blue Prism
9 7 (1.94%) Adobe
9 7 (1.94%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.94%) Symantec
10 5 (1.39%) Splunk
11 4 (1.11%) ForgeRock
11 4 (1.11%) HP
11 4 (1.11%) Ping Identity
11 4 (1.11%) Starlink
12 3 (0.83%) Dell
12 3 (0.83%) Juniper
12 3 (0.83%) Okta