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 21 November 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
21 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 5 8
Rank change year-on-year +1 +3 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 380 364 400
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 16.98% 15.19% 12.87%
As % of the Vendors category 39.30% 33.30% 30.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 261 235 271
10th Percentile £210 £202 £185
25th Percentile £335 £338 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -2.44% +7.89%
75th Percentile £588 £650 £638
90th Percentile £715 £745 £700
England median daily rate £475 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 14 36
10th Percentile £15.60 £12.50 £18.14
25th Percentile £18.87 £17.94 £23.20
Median hourly rate £19.44 £31.56 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year -38.42% -35.22% -25.05%
75th Percentile £31.60 £65.00 -
90th Percentile £63.15 - £69.62
England median hourly rate £22.00 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -2.22% -2.17% +16.96%

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 967 1,093 1,299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 43.21% 45.62% 41.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 631 645 862
10th Percentile £225 £278 £262
25th Percentile £409 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £704 £700
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 96 65 117
10th Percentile £10.21 £12.59 £18.87
25th Percentile £18.87 £35.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £22.63 £67.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -66.47% +22.73% -15.38%
75th Percentile £38.94 £70.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £73.13 £74.00 £74.75
England median hourly rate £25.00 £33.75 £44.50
% change year-on-year -25.93% -24.16% +64.81%

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 21 November 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 21 November 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 21 November 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 -2 104 £504 +11.94% 126
Wiltshire -2 98 £575 +4.55% 71
Gloucestershire +13 85 £425 -9.57% 82
Somerset +2 50 £333 -34.48% 62
Devon +4 22 £275 +22.22% 38
Dorset -2 15 £400 -20.00% 42
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 77 (20.26%) SharePoint
2 62 (16.32%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (6.05%) Skype for Business
4 7 (1.84%) Oracle Application Server
5 4 (1.05%) Confluence
5 4 (1.05%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.79%) IIS
7 1 (0.26%) Apache
7 1 (0.26%) CMS
7 1 (0.26%) nginx
7 1 (0.26%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 45 (11.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (10.26%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (3.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (2.37%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.84%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (1.58%) Adobe Captivate
7 5 (1.32%) MS Visio
8 3 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
9 2 (0.53%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
1 3 (0.79%) Maximo
1 3 (0.79%) Teamcenter
2 2 (0.53%) assyst
2 2 (0.53%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.53%) Primavera
3 1 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 110 (28.95%) Azure
2 104 (27.37%) Microsoft 365
3 44 (11.58%) Power Platform
4 40 (10.53%) Entra ID
5 36 (9.47%) AWS
6 20 (5.26%) Power Automate
7 18 (4.74%) Azure DevOps
8 15 (3.95%) Azure Sentinel
9 13 (3.42%) GitHub
10 12 (3.16%) OneDrive
10 12 (3.16%) PowerApps
11 11 (2.89%) Dynamics 365
11 11 (2.89%) Serverless
12 10 (2.63%) Azure Key Vault
13 9 (2.37%) Azure Monitor
13 9 (2.37%) GCP
13 9 (2.37%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (2.37%) Microsoft Purview
13 9 (2.37%) SaaS
14 8 (2.11%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 49 (12.89%) DNS
2 33 (8.68%) Skype
3 26 (6.84%) DHCP
3 26 (6.84%) Firewall
4 18 (4.74%) TCP/IP
5 15 (3.95%) VPN
6 10 (2.63%) Unified Communications
7 8 (2.11%) Network Security
8 7 (1.84%) HTTP
9 4 (1.05%) VoIP
9 4 (1.05%) WAAS
10 3 (0.79%) Kerberos
10 3 (0.79%) VLAN
10 3 (0.79%) VSAN
10 3 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
11 2 (0.53%) iSCSI
11 2 (0.53%) LAN
11 2 (0.53%) SMTP
11 2 (0.53%) WAN
12 1 (0.26%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (9.21%) Power BI
2 18 (4.74%) SQL Server
3 17 (4.47%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (2.89%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (1.84%) Oracle ODI
5 7 (1.84%) Oracle Reports
5 7 (1.84%) Redis
5 7 (1.84%) Star Schema
6 6 (1.58%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.32%) Metadata
8 3 (0.79%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.53%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.53%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.53%) MySQL
9 2 (0.53%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.53%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.53%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 29 (7.63%) JIRA
2 15 (3.95%) Git
3 10 (2.63%) MSI
4 7 (1.84%) DBeaver
5 4 (1.05%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.79%) AdminStudio
6 3 (0.79%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.79%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.53%) GitLab
7 2 (0.53%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.26%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.26%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.26%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.26%) Maven
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle APEX
8 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.26%) webpack
General
1 145 (38.16%) Social Skills
2 58 (15.26%) Analytical Skills
2 58 (15.26%) Public Sector
3 41 (10.79%) Finance
4 19 (5.00%) Documentation Skills
5 12 (3.16%) Banking
6 11 (2.89%) Telecoms
7 10 (2.63%) Manufacturing
7 10 (2.63%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (2.37%) Legal
8 9 (2.37%) Military
9 8 (2.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.58%) Electronics
10 6 (1.58%) Marketing
11 4 (1.05%) Local Government
12 3 (0.79%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.79%) Aviation
12 3 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.79%) Retail
13 2 (0.53%) Law
Job Titles
1 42 (11.05%) Analyst
2 41 (10.79%) Developer
3 38 (10.00%) Support Engineer
4 25 (6.58%) Architect
5 21 (5.53%) Desktop Support
6 19 (5.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 17 (4.47%) Administrator
7 17 (4.47%) Consultant
8 16 (4.21%) IT Support
8 16 (4.21%) Microsoft Engineer
9 13 (3.42%) Support Analyst
10 12 (3.16%) Desktop Engineer
11 11 (2.89%) Desktop Support Engineer
12 10 (2.63%) Azure Engineer
12 10 (2.63%) Lead
12 10 (2.63%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
13 9 (2.37%) IT Engineer
13 9 (2.37%) Security Architect
13 9 (2.37%) Senior
13 9 (2.37%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (5.79%) OAuth
2 21 (5.53%) SAML
3 19 (5.00%) OAuth2
3 19 (5.00%) OpenID
4 15 (3.95%) REST
5 10 (2.63%) CSS
5 10 (2.63%) HTML
5 10 (2.63%) React
6 9 (2.37%) AngularJS
6 9 (2.37%) ARM Templates
6 9 (2.37%) SOAP
7 8 (2.11%) XML
8 7 (1.84%) FastAPI
8 7 (1.84%) Flask
8 7 (1.84%) GraphQL
8 7 (1.84%) gRPC
8 7 (1.84%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 7 (1.84%) WebSockets
9 6 (1.58%) .NET
9 6 (1.58%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 25 (6.58%) Onboarding
2 18 (4.74%) Cloud Native
2 18 (4.74%) PKI
3 15 (3.95%) Replication
4 13 (3.42%) Driving Licence
5 10 (2.63%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.63%) Mobile App
6 8 (2.11%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (2.11%) Private Cloud
6 8 (2.11%) Security Posture
7 7 (1.84%) Product Ownership
8 6 (1.58%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (1.32%) Cyber Threat
10 4 (1.05%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.05%) Cyber Defence
10 4 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (0.79%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.79%) iPad
11 3 (0.79%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 149 (39.21%) Windows
2 67 (17.63%) Windows 10
3 46 (12.11%) Windows Server
4 28 (7.37%) Linux
5 12 (3.16%) Windows 7
6 11 (2.89%) Apple iOS
7 9 (2.37%) Android
8 8 (2.11%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (1.84%) Mac OS
10 6 (1.58%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (1.32%) Windows Server 2008
11 5 (1.32%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.79%) CentOS
12 3 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.26%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (23.16%) Problem-Solving
2 68 (17.89%) Agile
3 64 (16.84%) ITIL
4 42 (11.05%) Customer Service
4 42 (11.05%) Migration
5 39 (10.26%) DevOps
6 36 (9.47%) Business Intelligence
7 34 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 33 (8.68%) Change Management
9 29 (7.63%) CI/CD
9 29 (7.63%) Knowledge Transfer
10 28 (7.37%) RBAC
11 27 (7.11%) Service Management
12 25 (6.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 25 (6.58%) Stakeholder Management
13 24 (6.32%) Project Management
14 23 (6.05%) Analytics
15 22 (5.79%) Cloud Security
16 21 (5.53%) ITSM
16 21 (5.53%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 76 (20.00%) PowerShell
2 50 (13.16%) SQL
3 33 (8.68%) Python
4 15 (3.95%) JavaScript
5 11 (2.89%) Bicep
6 7 (1.84%) C#
6 7 (1.84%) Go
6 7 (1.84%) Java
7 6 (1.58%) TypeScript
8 5 (1.32%) VBScript
9 4 (1.05%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.79%) Perl
11 2 (0.53%) Bash
11 2 (0.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.53%) VBA
12 1 (0.26%) C++
12 1 (0.26%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 190 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 136 (35.79%) SC Cleared
3 64 (16.84%) DV Cleared
4 60 (15.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 24 (6.32%) Degree
6 15 (3.95%) ITIL Certification
7 14 (3.68%) MCSE
8 13 (3.42%) A+ Certification
8 13 (3.42%) Azure Certification
9 8 (2.11%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.84%) CCNP
10 7 (1.84%) CISSP
10 7 (1.84%) MCSA
11 6 (1.58%) CISM
12 5 (1.32%) CCNA
12 5 (1.32%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.79%) ACCA
13 3 (0.79%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (0.79%) DBS Check
13 3 (0.79%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (5.79%) GDPR
1 22 (5.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 15 (3.95%) PMO
3 12 (3.16%) QA
4 11 (2.89%) NIST
5 10 (2.63%) Data Quality
6 8 (2.11%) Accessibility
6 8 (2.11%) NCSC
6 8 (2.11%) SLA
7 3 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (0.79%) GAAP
7 3 (0.79%) GRC
7 3 (0.79%) IFRS
7 3 (0.79%) NIST 800
7 3 (0.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.53%) PSD2
8 2 (0.53%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.26%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.26%) WCAG
System Software
1 117 (30.79%) Active Directory
2 33 (8.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (3.42%) Docker
3 13 (3.42%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (1.84%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (1.58%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.32%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (1.32%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (1.32%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (1.32%) VMware NSX
7 4 (1.05%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.26%) KVM
8 1 (0.26%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.26%) UAG
8 1 (0.26%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 35 (9.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (8.68%) SCCM
3 29 (7.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 27 (7.11%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (4.74%) Kubernetes
6 16 (4.21%) Terraform
7 15 (3.95%) vCenter Server
8 14 (3.68%) WSUS
9 7 (1.84%) Grafana
9 7 (1.84%) Norton AntiVirus
9 7 (1.84%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.79%) Ansible
10 3 (0.79%) OPNET
11 2 (0.53%) Kibana
11 2 (0.53%) NetApp OnCommand
11 2 (0.53%) NetBackup
11 2 (0.53%) PingFederate
11 2 (0.53%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
11 2 (0.53%) vMotion
11 2 (0.53%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 39 (10.26%) VMware
2 27 (7.11%) Cisco
3 22 (5.79%) ServiceNow
4 16 (4.21%) SAP
5 13 (3.42%) Oracle
6 11 (2.89%) SolarWinds
6 11 (2.89%) Veeam
7 10 (2.63%) McAfee
8 9 (2.37%) Blue Prism
9 7 (1.84%) Adobe
9 7 (1.84%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.84%) Symantec
10 6 (1.58%) Google
11 5 (1.32%) Splunk
12 4 (1.05%) ForgeRock
12 4 (1.05%) HP
12 4 (1.05%) Ping Identity
12 4 (1.05%) Salesforce
12 4 (1.05%) Starlink
13 3 (0.79%) Okta