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 16 May 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
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 0 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 330 256 499
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 9.87% 15.27% 15.86%
As % of the Vendors category 32.48% 34.22% 39.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 230 168 330
10th Percentile £179 £195 £180
25th Percentile £313 £220 £307
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% -7.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £580
90th Percentile £650 £678 £695
England median daily rate £498 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +4.74% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 24 49
10th Percentile £13.65 - £12.50
25th Percentile £15.24 £18.13 £13.69
Median hourly rate £19.33 £18.51 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.43% +2.83% -44.62%
75th Percentile £37.50 £27.19 £51.25
90th Percentile £65.00 £37.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £20.35 £18.63 £15.00
% change year-on-year +9.23% +24.20% -28.57%

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 1,016 748 1,261
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 30.38% 44.60% 40.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 617 468 801
10th Percentile £263 £215 £198
25th Percentile £399 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £513 £503
Median % change year-on-year -0.98% +1.99% -4.29%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £625
90th Percentile £725 £678 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £519
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.11% -2.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 155 72 181
10th Percentile £16.62 £18.13 £13.69
25th Percentile £19.86 £18.51 £36.25
Median hourly rate £51.37 £35.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +44.69% -25.26% -23.39%
75th Percentile £58.75 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £73.30 £70.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £32.50 £26.39 £22.50
% change year-on-year +23.14% +17.30% -41.56%

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 16 May 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 16 May 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 16 May 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 -13 79 £500 +72.41% 83
Gloucestershire +5 67 £388 +3.33% 36
Wiltshire -1 67 £525 -4.55% 36
Somerset 0 59 £450 +21.62% 41
Devon +2 38 £310 -38.10% 42
Dorset -18 9 £409 -13.89% 34
Cornwall -7 2 £525 - 8
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 (13.94%) SharePoint
2 13 (3.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.21%) Confluence
4 2 (0.61%) Apache
4 2 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
4 2 (0.61%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.30%) Appian
5 1 (0.30%) CMS
5 1 (0.30%) IIS
5 1 (0.30%) Umbraco
Applications
1 48 (14.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (13.33%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (6.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (3.64%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (1.52%) MS Visio
5 5 (1.52%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.91%) Adobe Captivate
6 3 (0.91%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.61%) InDesign
7 2 (0.61%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.30%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.30%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 8 (2.42%) NetSuite
2 6 (1.82%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (1.52%) Maximo
4 4 (1.21%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (1.21%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.61%) assyst
5 2 (0.61%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.30%) SAP Hybris
6 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 115 (34.85%) Azure
2 62 (18.79%) Microsoft 365
3 47 (14.24%) Power Platform
4 26 (7.88%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (6.67%) Entra ID
6 21 (6.36%) Dynamics 365
7 19 (5.76%) GitHub
8 17 (5.15%) AWS
9 16 (4.85%) Power Automate
10 13 (3.94%) PowerApps
11 12 (3.64%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 11 (3.33%) Azure Data Factory
13 10 (3.03%) PaaS
13 10 (3.03%) SaaS
14 9 (2.73%) Azure Monitor
14 9 (2.73%) Azure Sentinel
15 7 (2.12%) Azure AKS
15 7 (2.12%) GCP
16 6 (1.82%) IaaS
16 6 (1.82%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 17 (5.15%) VPN
2 15 (4.55%) Firewall
3 12 (3.64%) DNS
4 11 (3.33%) DHCP
5 6 (1.82%) Skype
5 6 (1.82%) TCP/IP
6 5 (1.52%) Ethernet
7 4 (1.21%) WAN
8 3 (0.91%) LAN
8 3 (0.91%) VoIP
8 3 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (0.91%) Wireless
9 2 (0.61%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.61%) H.323
9 2 (0.61%) Network Security
9 2 (0.61%) RTP
9 2 (0.61%) Unified Communications
9 2 (0.61%) VLAN
10 1 (0.30%) Telepresence
10 1 (0.30%) WAAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (10.30%) Power BI
2 15 (4.55%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.82%) Relational Database
4 4 (1.21%) Azure SQL Database
4 4 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
4 4 (1.21%) Delta Lake
4 4 (1.21%) GIS
4 4 (1.21%) MySQL
4 4 (1.21%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (1.21%) Redis
4 4 (1.21%) Star Schema
5 3 (0.91%) Metadata
5 3 (0.91%) NoSQL
5 3 (0.91%) Power Query
6 2 (0.61%) Electronic Patient Records
6 2 (0.61%) Spatial Data
6 2 (0.61%) Tableau
7 1 (0.30%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.30%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.30%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 24 (7.27%) JIRA
2 8 (2.42%) Visual Studio
3 6 (1.82%) Git
4 5 (1.52%) AdminStudio
4 5 (1.52%) Eclipse
4 5 (1.52%) InstallShield
5 4 (1.21%) GitLab
5 4 (1.21%) Visual Studio Code
6 3 (0.91%) Artifactory
7 1 (0.30%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.30%) HP UFT
7 1 (0.30%) MSI
7 1 (0.30%) Selenium
7 1 (0.30%) webpack
General
1 131 (39.70%) Social Skills
2 52 (15.76%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (13.03%) Finance
4 31 (9.39%) Organisational Skills
5 29 (8.79%) Public Sector
6 23 (6.97%) Military
7 17 (5.15%) Legal
8 11 (3.33%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (2.42%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (2.12%) Marketing
11 5 (1.52%) General Ledger
11 5 (1.52%) Local Government
11 5 (1.52%) Manufacturing
12 4 (1.21%) Back Office
12 4 (1.21%) Police
12 4 (1.21%) Retail
13 3 (0.91%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.91%) Banking
14 2 (0.61%) Investment Banking
15 1 (0.30%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 42 (12.73%) Architect
2 30 (9.09%) Support Engineer
3 25 (7.58%) Developer
4 21 (6.36%) Analyst
5 19 (5.76%) Administrator
6 18 (5.45%) Data Engineer
6 18 (5.45%) Lead
7 17 (5.15%) Desktop Support
8 16 (4.85%) Desktop Engineer
8 16 (4.85%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 16 (4.85%) Project Officer
8 16 (4.85%) Senior
9 15 (4.55%) Consultant
9 15 (4.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 14 (4.24%) IT Support
10 14 (4.24%) Solutions Architect
11 13 (3.94%) Azure Engineer
12 11 (3.33%) DevOps Engineer
12 11 (3.33%) Project Support Officer
12 11 (3.33%) Support Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (5.15%) .NET
2 13 (3.94%) REST
3 10 (3.03%) Web Services
4 9 (2.73%) .NET Framework
5 8 (2.42%) JDO
6 7 (2.12%) ARM Templates
7 6 (1.82%) HTML
7 6 (1.82%) JSON
7 6 (1.82%) OAuth
7 6 (1.82%) OpenID
8 5 (1.52%) CSS
8 5 (1.52%) Node.js
8 5 (1.52%) SAML
9 4 (1.21%) FastAPI
9 4 (1.21%) GraphQL
9 4 (1.21%) gRPC
9 4 (1.21%) Jest
9 4 (1.21%) PySpark
9 4 (1.21%) Redux
9 4 (1.21%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 17 (5.15%) Hybrid Cloud
2 15 (4.55%) Cloud Native
2 15 (4.55%) Product Ownership
3 14 (4.24%) Blackberry
4 10 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
4 10 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
5 9 (2.73%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.73%) Onboarding
5 9 (2.73%) Virtual Team
6 8 (2.42%) Data Structures
6 8 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (2.12%) Legacy Applications
8 6 (1.82%) Driving Licence
9 5 (1.52%) Low-Code
10 4 (1.21%) Augmented Reality
10 4 (1.21%) Freedom of Information
10 4 (1.21%) Virtual Reality
10 4 (1.21%) Wiki
11 3 (0.91%) Mobile App
12 2 (0.61%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 98 (29.70%) Windows
2 30 (9.09%) Windows 10
3 27 (8.18%) Android
4 22 (6.67%) Windows Server
5 17 (5.15%) Apple iOS
6 13 (3.94%) Linux
7 4 (1.21%) Mac OS
7 4 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (25.15%) Problem-Solving
2 50 (15.15%) Agile
3 40 (12.12%) DevOps
4 38 (11.52%) Continuous Improvement
4 38 (11.52%) ITIL
5 37 (11.21%) Analytics
6 36 (10.91%) Stakeholder Management
7 34 (10.30%) CI/CD
8 30 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 29 (8.79%) Migration
9 29 (8.79%) Project Management
10 28 (8.48%) Project Delivery
11 26 (7.88%) PRINCE2
12 25 (7.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 24 (7.27%) Customer Service
13 24 (7.27%) Data Modelling
14 23 (6.97%) Business Intelligence
14 23 (6.97%) Change Management
14 23 (6.97%) Decision-Making
15 19 (5.76%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 40 (12.12%) PowerShell
2 38 (11.52%) SQL
3 27 (8.18%) Python
4 19 (5.76%) JavaScript
5 16 (4.85%) C#
6 11 (3.33%) Bicep
7 10 (3.03%) Java
8 6 (1.82%) C++
9 4 (1.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 4 (1.21%) Go
10 3 (0.91%) PHP
10 3 (0.91%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.61%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.61%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.61%) VBA
12 1 (0.30%) Bash
12 1 (0.30%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 153 (46.36%) Security Cleared
2 116 (35.15%) SC Cleared
3 44 (13.33%) DV Cleared
4 34 (10.30%) Degree
5 20 (6.06%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (5.76%) Azure Certification
7 10 (3.03%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 6 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.52%) CISM
9 5 (1.52%) CISSP
9 5 (1.52%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 5 (1.52%) PMP
10 4 (1.21%) ACCA
10 4 (1.21%) CIMA
11 3 (0.91%) ACSP
11 3 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.91%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.61%) CBAP
12 2 (0.61%) TOGAF Certification
13 1 (0.30%) APMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (4.85%) Data Quality
2 9 (2.73%) PMO
3 8 (2.42%) Accessibility
4 7 (2.12%) GDPR
4 7 (2.12%) NIST
5 6 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (1.82%) QA
6 5 (1.52%) NIST 800
6 5 (1.52%) SLA
7 2 (0.61%) HL7
7 2 (0.61%) SNOMED CT
8 1 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.30%) GRC
8 1 (0.30%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.30%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 69 (20.91%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.94%) Hyper-V
3 9 (2.73%) Virtual Desktop
3 9 (2.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (2.12%) Docker
5 3 (0.91%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (12.42%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (7.58%) Terraform
3 15 (4.55%) Kubernetes
4 14 (4.24%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (3.33%) SCCM
6 10 (3.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 7 (2.12%) Ansible
8 4 (1.21%) Grafana
8 4 (1.21%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.91%) VxRail
10 2 (0.61%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.61%) McAfee ePO
11 1 (0.30%) CA Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.30%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.30%) Puppet
11 1 (0.30%) SCOM
11 1 (0.30%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.30%) WSUS
Vendors
1 30 (9.09%) VMware
2 16 (4.85%) Citrix
3 14 (4.24%) MobileIron
4 11 (3.33%) Apple
4 11 (3.33%) Google
4 11 (3.33%) SAP
4 11 (3.33%) ServiceNow
5 9 (2.73%) Databricks
5 9 (2.73%) Oracle
6 8 (2.42%) Adobe
6 8 (2.42%) McAfee
7 7 (2.12%) Red Hat
7 7 (2.12%) Starlink
8 6 (1.82%) HP
8 6 (1.82%) NetApp
9 5 (1.52%) Cisco
9 5 (1.52%) IBM
10 4 (1.21%) Dell
10 4 (1.21%) InterSystems
11 3 (0.91%) BeyondTrust