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 18 June 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
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 0 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 379 272 512
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 10.72% 15.36% 15.47%
As % of the Vendors category 35.45% 34.34% 37.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 248 167 336
10th Percentile £205 £195 £180
25th Percentile £334 £220 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £438 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.43% -12.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £599
90th Percentile £686 £679 £700
England median daily rate £494 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +3.89% -4.52% -0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 36 48
10th Percentile £13.65 £18.13 £12.50
25th Percentile £15.24 £18.51 £13.69
Median hourly rate £19.33 £18.87 £17.07
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% +10.58% -65.87%
75th Percentile £37.50 £33.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £65.00 £37.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £22.50 £19.00 £15.76
% change year-on-year +18.42% +20.60% -29.98%

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 1,069 792 1,362
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 30.22% 44.72% 41.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 618 482 861
10th Percentile £281 £215 £208
25th Percentile £400 £358 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £509 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.16% -0.95% -
75th Percentile £600 £623 £638
90th Percentile £689 £688 £713
England median daily rate £505 £513 £518
% change year-on-year -1.46% -0.97% -1.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 88 192
10th Percentile £16.48 £18.13 £13.91
25th Percentile £19.62 £18.87 £36.25
Median hourly rate £51.00 £32.50 £51.00
Median % change year-on-year +56.92% -36.27% -15.00%
75th Percentile £58.75 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £70.00 £74.94
England median hourly rate £33.99 £26.50 £24.00
% change year-on-year +28.26% +10.42% -40.00%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 18 June 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
Bristol -4 103 £500 +78.57% 65
Gloucestershire +3 71 £400 +43.88% 61
Wiltshire -2 70 £550 - 36
Somerset +1 65 £460 +41.38% 47
Devon -1 40 £310 -38.10% 31
Dorset -8 16 £409 -3.76% 36
Cornwall -4 2 £525 - 6
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 52 (13.72%) SharePoint
2 12 (3.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (2.37%) Confluence
4 2 (0.53%) Apache
4 2 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.53%) Oracle Workflow
4 2 (0.53%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.26%) Appian
5 1 (0.26%) CMS
5 1 (0.26%) IIS
5 1 (0.26%) Umbraco
Applications
1 51 (13.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 46 (12.14%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (6.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (3.17%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (1.32%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (1.06%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.79%) Adobe Captivate
7 3 (0.79%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.53%) InDesign
8 2 (0.53%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.26%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.26%) PTC Creo
9 1 (0.26%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 12 (3.17%) NetSuite
2 8 (2.11%) Oracle Payables
2 8 (2.11%) Oracle Receivables
3 5 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.32%) Maximo
4 2 (0.53%) assyst
4 2 (0.53%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.26%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.26%) SAP Hybris
5 1 (0.26%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 149 (39.31%) Azure
2 75 (19.79%) Microsoft 365
3 48 (12.66%) Power Platform
4 42 (11.08%) Entra ID
5 31 (8.18%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (5.80%) AWS
7 19 (5.01%) GitHub
8 18 (4.75%) Dynamics 365
9 16 (4.22%) Power Automate
10 13 (3.43%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 12 (3.17%) Azure Monitor
11 12 (3.17%) Azure Sentinel
11 12 (3.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 11 (2.90%) Azure Key Vault
12 11 (2.90%) PowerApps
12 11 (2.90%) SaaS
13 10 (2.64%) Azure Data Factory
13 10 (2.64%) Serverless
14 9 (2.37%) Cloud Computing
15 7 (1.85%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (4.49%) VPN
2 16 (4.22%) Firewall
3 15 (3.96%) DNS
4 14 (3.69%) WAN
5 9 (2.37%) DHCP
5 9 (2.37%) TCP/IP
6 7 (1.85%) Skype
7 6 (1.58%) Ethernet
8 5 (1.32%) SAN
9 4 (1.06%) BGP
9 4 (1.06%) LAN
9 4 (1.06%) VLAN
9 4 (1.06%) VoIP
9 4 (1.06%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.53%) H.323
10 2 (0.53%) NAS
10 2 (0.53%) Network Security
10 2 (0.53%) RTP
10 2 (0.53%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (9.23%) Power BI
2 19 (5.01%) SQL Server
3 11 (2.90%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (2.64%) Azure SQL Database
5 7 (1.85%) Geospatial Data
6 6 (1.58%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.06%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.06%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.06%) GIS
7 4 (1.06%) Metadata
7 4 (1.06%) MySQL
7 4 (1.06%) Redis
7 4 (1.06%) Star Schema
8 3 (0.79%) Delta Lake
8 3 (0.79%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.79%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.79%) Power Query
9 2 (0.53%) Electronic Patient Records
9 2 (0.53%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.53%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 29 (7.65%) JIRA
2 11 (2.90%) Git
3 9 (2.37%) Visual Studio
4 6 (1.58%) AdminStudio
4 6 (1.58%) Eclipse
4 6 (1.58%) InstallShield
4 6 (1.58%) MSI
5 5 (1.32%) GitLab
6 4 (1.06%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.26%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.26%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.26%) HP UFT
7 1 (0.26%) Selenium
7 1 (0.26%) webpack
General
1 137 (36.15%) Social Skills
2 49 (12.93%) Analytical Skills
2 49 (12.93%) Finance
3 33 (8.71%) Organisational Skills
3 33 (8.71%) Public Sector
4 28 (7.39%) Military
5 15 (3.96%) Legal
6 11 (2.90%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (2.37%) General Ledger
7 9 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (1.85%) Marketing
10 6 (1.58%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.32%) Aerospace
11 5 (1.32%) Local Government
11 5 (1.32%) Police
11 5 (1.32%) Retail
12 4 (1.06%) Back Office
13 2 (0.53%) Advertising
13 2 (0.53%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 49 (12.93%) Architect
2 34 (8.97%) Consultant
3 31 (8.18%) Lead
3 31 (8.18%) Support Engineer
4 30 (7.92%) Developer
5 22 (5.80%) Analyst
6 21 (5.54%) Senior
7 18 (4.75%) Administrator
7 18 (4.75%) Data Engineer
8 16 (4.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 15 (3.96%) IT Support
9 15 (3.96%) Project Officer
10 14 (3.69%) Desktop Support
11 13 (3.43%) Azure Engineer
11 13 (3.43%) Desktop Engineer
11 13 (3.43%) Desktop Support Engineer
11 13 (3.43%) Solutions Architect
12 12 (3.17%) DevOps Engineer
12 12 (3.17%) Technical Architect
13 11 (2.90%) Azure Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (6.07%) .NET
2 15 (3.96%) REST
3 14 (3.69%) .NET Framework
4 11 (2.90%) HTML
5 10 (2.64%) CSS
5 10 (2.64%) RESTful
6 9 (2.37%) CSS3
6 9 (2.37%) HTML5
6 9 (2.37%) Web Services
7 8 (2.11%) .NET Core
7 8 (2.11%) GeoJSON
7 8 (2.11%) JDO
8 6 (1.58%) ARM Templates
8 6 (1.58%) ATL
8 6 (1.58%) COM
8 6 (1.58%) MFC
8 6 (1.58%) Node.js
8 6 (1.58%) SailPoint
9 5 (1.32%) JSON
9 5 (1.32%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 22 (5.80%) Cloud Native
2 19 (5.01%) Onboarding
3 18 (4.75%) Hybrid Cloud
4 16 (4.22%) Product Ownership
5 14 (3.69%) Blackberry
5 14 (3.69%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (3.43%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (2.90%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (2.64%) Management Information System
8 10 (2.64%) Virtual Team
9 8 (2.11%) Legacy Applications
10 7 (1.85%) Data Structures
10 7 (1.85%) Driving Licence
11 5 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 4 (1.06%) Augmented Reality
12 4 (1.06%) Freedom of Information
12 4 (1.06%) Low-Code
12 4 (1.06%) Virtual Reality
12 4 (1.06%) Wiki
13 3 (0.79%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 106 (27.97%) Windows
2 32 (8.44%) Windows 10
3 29 (7.65%) Android
4 22 (5.80%) Windows Server
5 18 (4.75%) Apple iOS
6 14 (3.69%) Linux
7 3 (0.79%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.79%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (21.37%) Problem-Solving
2 57 (15.04%) Agile
3 48 (12.66%) DevOps
4 46 (12.14%) Continuous Improvement
5 44 (11.61%) Stakeholder Management
6 41 (10.82%) Analytics
7 39 (10.29%) CI/CD
8 38 (10.03%) ITIL
9 36 (9.50%) Migration
10 32 (8.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 31 (8.18%) Project Delivery
12 29 (7.65%) Decision-Making
12 29 (7.65%) PRINCE2
13 27 (7.12%) Project Management
14 25 (6.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 24 (6.33%) Collaborative Working
15 24 (6.33%) Customer Service
15 24 (6.33%) RBAC
15 24 (6.33%) Roadmaps
15 24 (6.33%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 50 (13.19%) SQL
2 33 (8.71%) PowerShell
3 29 (7.65%) Python
4 22 (5.80%) C#
4 22 (5.80%) JavaScript
5 15 (3.96%) Bicep
6 13 (3.43%) Java
7 7 (1.85%) C++
8 6 (1.58%) TypeScript
9 4 (1.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.06%) Go
10 3 (0.79%) BeanShell
10 3 (0.79%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.53%) VBA
12 1 (0.26%) Bash
12 1 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.26%) PHP
12 1 (0.26%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.26%) VB
Qualifications
1 162 (42.74%) Security Cleared
2 121 (31.93%) SC Cleared
3 49 (12.93%) DV Cleared
4 33 (8.71%) Degree
5 21 (5.54%) Microsoft Certification
6 17 (4.49%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.64%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 9 (2.37%) PMP
9 8 (2.11%) ACCA
9 8 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (2.11%) CIMA
10 7 (1.85%) CISSP
11 5 (1.32%) CISM
11 5 (1.32%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 3 (0.79%) ACSP
12 3 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (0.79%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.53%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.53%) CBAP
13 2 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (4.49%) Data Quality
2 13 (3.43%) Accessibility
3 11 (2.90%) SLA
4 9 (2.37%) PMO
5 7 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.85%) NCSC
5 7 (1.85%) QA
6 6 (1.58%) GDPR
6 6 (1.58%) NIST
7 5 (1.32%) NIST 800
7 5 (1.32%) WCAG
8 3 (0.79%) ISO 9000
9 2 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.53%) HL7
9 2 (0.53%) SNOMED CT
10 1 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.26%) GRC
10 1 (0.26%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 74 (19.53%) Active Directory
2 17 (4.49%) Virtual Desktop
3 12 (3.17%) Docker
4 11 (2.90%) Hyper-V
5 9 (2.37%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.79%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.79%) vSphere
8 1 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 45 (11.87%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (8.71%) Terraform
3 21 (5.54%) Kubernetes
4 15 (3.96%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (2.90%) SCCM
6 7 (1.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 7 (1.85%) Ansible
7 4 (1.06%) FortiGate
7 4 (1.06%) Grafana
7 4 (1.06%) Prometheus
7 4 (1.06%) VxRail
8 3 (0.79%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 2 (0.53%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.53%) McAfee ePO
9 2 (0.53%) WSUS
10 1 (0.26%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.26%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.26%) Puppet
10 1 (0.26%) SCOM
10 1 (0.26%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 32 (8.44%) VMware
2 21 (5.54%) Oracle
3 15 (3.96%) Citrix
3 15 (3.96%) SAP
4 14 (3.69%) MobileIron
5 12 (3.17%) Apple
5 12 (3.17%) ServiceNow
6 9 (2.37%) Adobe
6 9 (2.37%) Google
7 8 (2.11%) Cisco
7 8 (2.11%) Databricks
7 8 (2.11%) McAfee
8 7 (1.85%) HP
8 7 (1.85%) Red Hat
8 7 (1.85%) Starlink
9 6 (1.58%) Dell
9 6 (1.58%) NetApp
10 5 (1.32%) IBM
10 5 (1.32%) InterSystems
11 4 (1.06%) BiZZdesign