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 29 January 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
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 5 5
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 364 302 430
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 13.95% 16.00% 13.97%
As % of the Vendors category 38.00% 34.91% 33.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 264 199 295
10th Percentile £200 £198 £200
25th Percentile £348 £223 £298
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £504 £470 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.18% -10.48% -
75th Percentile £600 £603 £650
90th Percentile £715 £708 £720
England median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 11 45
10th Percentile £15.45 £12.50 £13.28
25th Percentile £17.24 £14.00 £14.54
Median hourly rate £21.46 £25.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.16% -37.50% -38.46%
75th Percentile £49.38 £28.99 £48.72
90th Percentile £64.60 £37.00 £66.77
England median hourly rate £19.00 £22.50 £18.50
% change year-on-year -15.56% +21.62% -11.90%

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 958 865 1,282
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 36.72% 45.84% 41.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 632 524 835
10th Percentile £224 £215 £213
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% +2.38%
75th Percentile £606 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £725
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 102 35 149
10th Percentile £16.62 £12.54 £14.54
25th Percentile £20.00 £18.51 £40.00
Median hourly rate £26.33 £62.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -57.88% +25.00% -23.08%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.75 £65.98
90th Percentile £73.75 £74.78 £71.28
England median hourly rate £23.50 £30.00 £32.32
% change year-on-year -21.67% -7.18% -0.55%

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 29 January 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 29 January 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 29 January 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 -1 112 £575 +4.55% 56
Gloucestershire +6 79 £412 -3.06% 53
Bristol -6 76 £513 +34.43% 67
Somerset +3 57 £425 -5.56% 38
Devon +15 24 £220 +14.29% 50
Dorset -11 8 £409 -18.20% 43
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 (18.96%) SharePoint
2 60 (16.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (6.32%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.37%) Confluence
4 5 (1.37%) Oracle Application Server
5 4 (1.10%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.82%) IIS
7 2 (0.55%) Apache
8 1 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.27%) CMS
8 1 (0.27%) nginx
8 1 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 39 (10.71%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (7.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.92%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 6 (1.65%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (1.10%) Adobe Captivate
7 3 (0.82%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.82%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.55%) Windchill
9 1 (0.27%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.27%) InDesign
9 1 (0.27%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 8 (2.20%) Maximo
2 5 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (1.10%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.82%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.27%) assyst
6 1 (0.27%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 114 (31.32%) Azure
2 93 (25.55%) Microsoft 365
3 39 (10.71%) Power Platform
4 36 (9.89%) Entra ID
5 33 (9.07%) AWS
6 27 (7.42%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (5.77%) Azure Sentinel
8 17 (4.67%) Power Automate
9 15 (4.12%) Azure Monitor
9 15 (4.12%) GitHub
10 14 (3.85%) Dynamics 365
10 14 (3.85%) PowerApps
11 13 (3.57%) Azure AKS
12 11 (3.02%) Azure Key Vault
12 11 (3.02%) GCP
13 10 (2.75%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.75%) OneDrive
13 10 (2.75%) SaaS
13 10 (2.75%) Serverless
14 9 (2.47%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 57 (15.66%) DNS
2 34 (9.34%) DHCP
3 33 (9.07%) Skype
4 32 (8.79%) Firewall
5 25 (6.87%) VPN
6 19 (5.22%) TCP/IP
7 11 (3.02%) Unified Communications
8 6 (1.65%) Network Security
9 5 (1.37%) VoIP
10 4 (1.10%) LAN
10 4 (1.10%) VLAN
10 4 (1.10%) WAAS
11 3 (0.82%) HTTP
11 3 (0.82%) Kerberos
11 3 (0.82%) VSAN
11 3 (0.82%) WAN
12 2 (0.55%) Cisco IOS
12 2 (0.55%) iSCSI
12 2 (0.55%) SMTP
12 2 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (7.97%) Power BI
2 18 (4.95%) SQL Server
3 14 (3.85%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.20%) Redis
5 7 (1.92%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.65%) Star Schema
7 5 (1.37%) Metadata
7 5 (1.37%) Oracle ODI
7 5 (1.37%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.82%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.82%) MySQL
9 2 (0.55%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.55%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.55%) Looker
9 2 (0.55%) Power Query
9 2 (0.55%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.55%) Tableau
10 1 (0.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 26 (7.14%) JIRA
2 9 (2.47%) Git
2 9 (2.47%) MSI
3 5 (1.37%) DBeaver
4 4 (1.10%) Artifactory
4 4 (1.10%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.82%) AdminStudio
5 3 (0.82%) GitLab
5 3 (0.82%) InstallShield
6 1 (0.27%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.27%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.27%) Maven
6 1 (0.27%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.27%) Visual Studio
General
1 155 (42.58%) Social Skills
2 54 (14.84%) Analytical Skills
3 52 (14.29%) Public Sector
4 38 (10.44%) Finance
5 22 (6.04%) Documentation Skills
6 14 (3.85%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (3.02%) Telecoms
8 9 (2.47%) Military
9 8 (2.20%) Legal
9 8 (2.20%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.92%) Banking
11 6 (1.65%) Electronics
11 6 (1.65%) Marketing
12 5 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.10%) Police
14 2 (0.55%) Back Office
14 2 (0.55%) Law
15 1 (0.27%) Advertising
15 1 (0.27%) Aerospace
15 1 (0.27%) Retail
Job Titles
1 41 (11.26%) Support Engineer
2 33 (9.07%) Analyst
3 31 (8.52%) Developer
4 27 (7.42%) Architect
4 27 (7.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 21 (5.77%) Microsoft Engineer
6 20 (5.49%) Desktop Engineer
7 19 (5.22%) Desktop Support
7 19 (5.22%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 18 (4.95%) Administrator
9 17 (4.67%) Azure Engineer
10 13 (3.57%) Consultant
10 13 (3.57%) IT Support
11 12 (3.30%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.30%) Solutions Architect
12 10 (2.75%) Senior
13 9 (2.47%) Backend Developer
13 9 (2.47%) Designer
13 9 (2.47%) Platform Engineer
13 9 (2.47%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (6.87%) OAuth
2 24 (6.59%) SAML
3 22 (6.04%) OAuth2
3 22 (6.04%) OpenID
4 17 (4.67%) REST
5 14 (3.85%) ARM Templates
6 8 (2.20%) FastAPI
6 8 (2.20%) Flask
6 8 (2.20%) GraphQL
6 8 (2.20%) gRPC
6 8 (2.20%) WebSockets
7 7 (1.92%) CSS
7 7 (1.92%) HTML
7 7 (1.92%) SOAP
8 6 (1.65%) React
9 5 (1.37%) .NET
9 5 (1.37%) JDO
9 5 (1.37%) JSON
9 5 (1.37%) LDAP
9 5 (1.37%) Oracle GoldenGate
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.32%) Onboarding
2 21 (5.77%) Hybrid Cloud
3 18 (4.95%) PKI
4 15 (4.12%) Cloud Native
5 12 (3.30%) Driving Licence
5 12 (3.30%) Replication
6 10 (2.75%) Enterprise Software
6 10 (2.75%) Management Information System
6 10 (2.75%) Mobile App
6 10 (2.75%) Private Cloud
7 7 (1.92%) Security Posture
8 5 (1.37%) Cyber Threat
8 5 (1.37%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.10%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (1.10%) Legacy Applications
9 4 (1.10%) Low-Code
9 4 (1.10%) Product Ownership
10 3 (0.82%) iPad
10 3 (0.82%) iPhone
10 3 (0.82%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 160 (43.96%) Windows
2 67 (18.41%) Windows 10
3 59 (16.21%) Windows Server
4 32 (8.79%) Linux
5 10 (2.75%) Apple iOS
6 8 (2.20%) Windows Server 2016
7 7 (1.92%) Android
7 7 (1.92%) Windows Server 2012
7 7 (1.92%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.37%) Mac OS
8 5 (1.37%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (0.82%) CentOS
9 3 (0.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.55%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.27%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (24.45%) Problem-Solving
2 62 (17.03%) ITIL
3 51 (14.01%) Agile
4 42 (11.54%) DevOps
5 41 (11.26%) Migration
6 40 (10.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 38 (10.44%) RBAC
8 34 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 33 (9.07%) Change Management
9 33 (9.07%) Customer Service
10 31 (8.52%) Business Intelligence
11 30 (8.24%) Analytics
12 27 (7.42%) CI/CD
13 26 (7.14%) Knowledge Transfer
13 26 (7.14%) Service Management
14 24 (6.59%) Identity Access Management
15 23 (6.32%) Cloud Security
15 23 (6.32%) Continuous Improvement
16 22 (6.04%) Stakeholder Management
17 18 (4.95%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 90 (24.73%) PowerShell
2 49 (13.46%) SQL
3 35 (9.62%) Python
4 18 (4.95%) Bicep
5 17 (4.67%) JavaScript
6 8 (2.20%) Go
7 6 (1.65%) C#
7 6 (1.65%) Java
7 6 (1.65%) TypeScript
8 5 (1.37%) VBScript
9 4 (1.10%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.82%) Perl
11 2 (0.55%) Bash
11 2 (0.55%) PHP
12 1 (0.27%) C++
12 1 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.27%) VBA
Qualifications
1 200 (54.95%) Security Cleared
2 138 (37.91%) SC Cleared
3 82 (22.53%) DV Cleared
4 58 (15.93%) Microsoft Certification
5 27 (7.42%) Degree
6 20 (5.49%) Azure Certification
7 12 (3.30%) A+ Certification
7 12 (3.30%) ITIL Certification
8 11 (3.02%) CISSP
8 11 (3.02%) MCSE
9 10 (2.75%) CISM
10 8 (2.20%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 7 (1.92%) CCNP
11 7 (1.92%) Cisco Certification
12 6 (1.65%) MCSA
13 5 (1.37%) CCNA
13 5 (1.37%) Master's Degree
14 3 (0.82%) ACCA
14 3 (0.82%) APMP
14 3 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (4.67%) GDPR
3 14 (3.85%) NIST
4 13 (3.57%) Data Quality
5 9 (2.47%) PMO
6 8 (2.20%) Accessibility
6 8 (2.20%) NCSC
6 8 (2.20%) NIST 800
7 6 (1.65%) SLA
8 4 (1.10%) QA
9 3 (0.82%) GAAP
9 3 (0.82%) IFRS
10 2 (0.55%) PSD2
10 2 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.55%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.27%) GRC
11 1 (0.27%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.27%) WCAG
System Software
1 126 (34.62%) Active Directory
2 34 (9.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (4.40%) Hyper-V
4 13 (3.57%) Docker
4 13 (3.57%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (1.37%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (1.37%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (1.37%) VMware NSX
7 4 (1.10%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.27%) KVM
9 1 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.27%) UAG
Systems Management
1 37 (10.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (9.07%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 33 (9.07%) Single Sign-On
3 32 (8.79%) SCCM
4 24 (6.59%) Kubernetes
4 24 (6.59%) Terraform
5 15 (4.12%) vCenter Server
6 14 (3.85%) WSUS
7 8 (2.20%) Grafana
7 8 (2.20%) Prometheus
8 7 (1.92%) Norton AntiVirus
9 5 (1.37%) Ansible
10 3 (0.82%) OPNET
10 3 (0.82%) VxRail
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%) PingFederate
11 2 (0.55%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 45 (12.36%) VMware
2 26 (7.14%) Cisco
3 13 (3.57%) SAP
4 12 (3.30%) Red Hat
4 12 (3.30%) SolarWinds
4 12 (3.30%) Veeam
5 10 (2.75%) McAfee
6 9 (2.47%) Oracle
6 9 (2.47%) ServiceNow
7 8 (2.20%) Adobe
7 8 (2.20%) IBM
8 7 (1.92%) Blue Prism
8 7 (1.92%) Symantec
9 5 (1.37%) Databricks
9 5 (1.37%) Dell
9 5 (1.37%) Splunk
10 4 (1.10%) Citrix
10 4 (1.10%) ForgeRock
10 4 (1.10%) Fortinet
10 4 (1.10%) Google