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 9 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
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 6 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 329 254 482
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 10.46% 14.85% 15.00%
As % of the Vendors category 32.04% 32.99% 36.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 247 185 328
10th Percentile £200 £202 £180
25th Percentile £335 £220 £299
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £719 £681 £700
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 14 46
10th Percentile £13.65 £18.13 £12.50
25th Percentile £17.75 £18.15 £13.69
Median hourly rate £30.50 £18.51 £14.54
Median % change year-on-year +64.78% +27.30% -74.11%
75th Percentile £60.00 £27.99 £48.72
90th Percentile £65.00 £37.50 £51.25
England median hourly rate £20.09 £21.78 £15.00
% change year-on-year -7.74% +45.17% -29.31%

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 1,027 770 1,322
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.66% 45.03% 41.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 666 521 856
10th Percentile £263 £220 £201
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -
75th Percentile £600 £613 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% -4.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 51 167
10th Percentile £17.55 £18.13 £13.69
25th Percentile £23.50 £18.51 £27.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £62.50 £46.39
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% +34.73% -27.65%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.68 £70.00 £76.00
England median hourly rate £27.50 £29.00 £23.22
% change year-on-year -5.17% +24.92% -38.91%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 +1 99 £550 - 33
Gloucestershire 0 74 £410 -3.53% 69
Bristol -17 67 £500 +34.32% 76
Somerset -2 46 £450 +4.35% 57
Devon +3 27 £220 -35.77% 45
Dorset -20 6 £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 (13.98%) SharePoint
2 21 (6.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.43%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.52%) Confluence
5 2 (0.61%) Apache
5 2 (0.61%) Oracle Application Server
5 2 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.30%) IIS
Applications
1 40 (12.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 38 (11.55%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (4.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (3.34%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (2.43%) Spreadsheet
6 6 (1.82%) MS Visio
7 4 (1.22%) Adobe Captivate
7 4 (1.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.61%) InDesign
8 2 (0.61%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.30%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.30%) PTC Creo
9 1 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 7 (2.13%) Maximo
2 6 (1.82%) NetSuite
3 5 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.61%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.61%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.61%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.61%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.30%) assyst
5 1 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 108 (32.83%) Azure
2 61 (18.54%) Microsoft 365
3 43 (13.07%) Power Platform
4 33 (10.03%) Entra ID
5 25 (7.60%) Azure DevOps
6 21 (6.38%) AWS
7 20 (6.08%) Power Automate
8 18 (5.47%) GitHub
9 16 (4.86%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (4.56%) Azure Monitor
10 15 (4.56%) PowerApps
11 14 (4.26%) Azure Sentinel
12 10 (3.04%) Azure AKS
13 9 (2.74%) PaaS
13 9 (2.74%) Serverless
14 8 (2.43%) Azure Data Factory
14 8 (2.43%) Azure Key Vault
14 8 (2.43%) GCP
15 7 (2.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 7 (2.13%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 28 (8.51%) DNS
2 26 (7.90%) Firewall
3 21 (6.38%) VPN
4 17 (5.17%) DHCP
5 12 (3.65%) TCP/IP
6 11 (3.34%) Skype
7 5 (1.52%) Network Security
8 4 (1.22%) Ethernet
8 4 (1.22%) Unified Communications
8 4 (1.22%) WAN
9 3 (0.91%) LAN
9 3 (0.91%) VLAN
9 3 (0.91%) VoIP
9 3 (0.91%) Wireless
10 2 (0.61%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.61%) H.323
10 2 (0.61%) HTTP
10 2 (0.61%) RTP
11 1 (0.30%) Internet
11 1 (0.30%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (9.42%) Power BI
2 14 (4.26%) SQL Server
3 7 (2.13%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.82%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (1.82%) Star Schema
5 5 (1.52%) Metadata
5 5 (1.52%) Redis
6 4 (1.22%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (1.22%) Delta Lake
6 4 (1.22%) MySQL
7 3 (0.91%) GIS
7 3 (0.91%) Power Query
8 2 (0.61%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.61%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
8 2 (0.61%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (0.61%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.61%) Spatial Data
9 1 (0.30%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.30%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 24 (7.29%) JIRA
2 7 (2.13%) Git
3 4 (1.22%) AdminStudio
3 4 (1.22%) Artifactory
3 4 (1.22%) Eclipse
3 4 (1.22%) GitLab
3 4 (1.22%) InstallShield
3 4 (1.22%) Visual Studio
3 4 (1.22%) Visual Studio Code
4 3 (0.91%) MSI
5 2 (0.61%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.30%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.30%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.30%) Maven
6 1 (0.30%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.30%) webpack
General
1 136 (41.34%) Social Skills
2 57 (17.33%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (12.77%) Finance
4 31 (9.42%) Public Sector
5 19 (5.78%) Organisational Skills
6 16 (4.86%) Documentation Skills
7 15 (4.56%) Legal
7 15 (4.56%) Military
8 9 (2.74%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.43%) Marketing
9 8 (2.43%) Presentation Skills
10 5 (1.52%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.22%) Electronics
11 4 (1.22%) Police
12 3 (0.91%) Back Office
12 3 (0.91%) Banking
12 3 (0.91%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.91%) Local Government
13 1 (0.30%) Publishing
13 1 (0.30%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (13.68%) Architect
2 34 (10.33%) Support Engineer
3 32 (9.73%) Developer
4 26 (7.90%) Analyst
5 20 (6.08%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 18 (5.47%) Solutions Architect
7 17 (5.17%) Desktop Engineer
7 17 (5.17%) Desktop Support
7 17 (5.17%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 16 (4.86%) Azure Engineer
9 15 (4.56%) Senior
10 13 (3.95%) Data Engineer
10 13 (3.95%) Microsoft Engineer
11 12 (3.65%) Administrator
11 12 (3.65%) Project Officer
12 11 (3.34%) IT Support
13 10 (3.04%) DevOps Engineer
13 10 (3.04%) Lead
14 9 (2.74%) Consultant
15 8 (2.43%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.78%) OAuth
2 18 (5.47%) OAuth2
2 18 (5.47%) SAML
3 16 (4.86%) OpenID
4 14 (4.26%) REST
5 12 (3.65%) ARM Templates
6 10 (3.04%) .NET
7 9 (2.74%) CSS
7 9 (2.74%) HTML
8 7 (2.13%) JDO
8 7 (2.13%) Web Services
9 6 (1.82%) .NET Framework
10 5 (1.52%) CSS3
10 5 (1.52%) FastAPI
10 5 (1.52%) Flask
10 5 (1.52%) HTML5
10 5 (1.52%) JSON
10 5 (1.52%) Spring
10 5 (1.52%) Spring Boot
10 5 (1.52%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.08%) Hybrid Cloud
2 14 (4.26%) Blackberry
2 14 (4.26%) Cloud Native
3 13 (3.95%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.65%) Enterprise Software
4 12 (3.65%) Onboarding
5 9 (2.74%) Replication
6 8 (2.43%) Data Structures
6 8 (2.43%) Management Information System
6 8 (2.43%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (2.13%) Private Cloud
8 6 (1.82%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.52%) Driving Licence
9 5 (1.52%) Legacy Applications
9 5 (1.52%) Low-Code
9 5 (1.52%) PKI
10 4 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.22%) Mobile App
10 4 (1.22%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.91%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 113 (34.35%) Windows
2 39 (11.85%) Windows Server
3 30 (9.12%) Windows 10
4 21 (6.38%) Android
5 18 (5.47%) Linux
6 16 (4.86%) Apple iOS
7 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (1.22%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.91%) CentOS
9 2 (0.61%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (26.14%) Problem-Solving
2 48 (14.59%) Agile
3 41 (12.46%) ITIL
4 38 (11.55%) DevOps
5 35 (10.64%) Analytics
6 34 (10.33%) Continuous Improvement
6 34 (10.33%) RBAC
7 33 (10.03%) CI/CD
7 33 (10.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 31 (9.42%) Stakeholder Management
9 30 (9.12%) Identity Access Management
10 29 (8.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 27 (8.21%) Business Intelligence
12 24 (7.29%) Change Management
13 23 (6.99%) Customer Service
14 22 (6.69%) Migration
14 22 (6.69%) Project Management
15 19 (5.78%) Data Protection
15 19 (5.78%) Project Delivery
16 18 (5.47%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 66 (20.06%) PowerShell
2 41 (12.46%) SQL
3 27 (8.21%) Python
4 24 (7.29%) JavaScript
5 16 (4.86%) Bicep
6 12 (3.65%) C#
7 10 (3.04%) Java
8 5 (1.52%) C++
8 5 (1.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 5 (1.52%) Go
8 5 (1.52%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.91%) PHP
9 3 (0.91%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.61%) VBA
11 1 (0.30%) Bash
11 1 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.30%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 174 (52.89%) Security Cleared
2 121 (36.78%) SC Cleared
3 65 (19.76%) DV Cleared
4 41 (12.46%) Microsoft Certification
5 31 (9.42%) Degree
6 24 (7.29%) Azure Certification
7 8 (2.43%) CISSP
8 7 (2.13%) CISM
8 7 (2.13%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 4 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (1.22%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (1.22%) MCSE
9 4 (1.22%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 3 (0.91%) ACCA
10 3 (0.91%) APMP
10 3 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.91%) PMP
11 2 (0.61%) CBAP
11 2 (0.61%) CIMA
11 2 (0.61%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.95%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (3.04%) NIST
2 10 (3.04%) PMO
3 8 (2.43%) GDPR
4 7 (2.13%) NIST 800
5 6 (1.82%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.91%) NCSC
6 3 (0.91%) QA
7 2 (0.61%) HL7
7 2 (0.61%) SNOMED CT
8 1 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.30%) GAAP
8 1 (0.30%) GRC
8 1 (0.30%) IFRS
8 1 (0.30%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.30%) SLA
8 1 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 88 (26.75%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.95%) Hyper-V
3 12 (3.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.74%) Docker
5 5 (1.52%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.91%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.30%) KVM
7 1 (0.30%) UAG
7 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 44 (13.37%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (9.12%) Single Sign-On
3 29 (8.81%) Terraform
4 24 (7.29%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 20 (6.08%) Kubernetes
6 12 (3.65%) SCCM
7 5 (1.52%) Ansible
7 5 (1.52%) Grafana
7 5 (1.52%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.52%) WSUS
8 3 (0.91%) VxRail
9 2 (0.61%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.61%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.61%) McAfee ePO
9 2 (0.61%) Norton AntiVirus
9 2 (0.61%) Puppet
10 1 (0.30%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.30%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.30%) SCOM
10 1 (0.30%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 34 (10.33%) VMware
2 16 (4.86%) Citrix
3 14 (4.26%) MobileIron
4 12 (3.65%) Red Hat
4 12 (3.65%) SAP
5 10 (3.04%) Cisco
5 10 (3.04%) McAfee
6 9 (2.74%) Adobe
6 9 (2.74%) Databricks
6 9 (2.74%) Oracle
7 8 (2.43%) ServiceNow
8 7 (2.13%) Google
8 7 (2.13%) IBM
8 7 (2.13%) Starlink
9 5 (1.52%) Blue Prism
9 5 (1.52%) NetApp
10 4 (1.22%) Apple
11 3 (0.91%) Dell
11 3 (0.91%) Thales
11 3 (0.91%) Workday