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 23 July 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
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 413 270 474
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 11.70% 14.23% 15.59%
As % of the Vendors category 36.16% 33.33% 36.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 160 315
10th Percentile £228 £199 £180
25th Percentile £366 £235 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £430 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.47% -14.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £725 £626 £719
England median daily rate £494 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +3.89% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 42 38
10th Percentile £13.65 £18.13 £13.42
25th Percentile £14.36 £18.51 £14.78
Median hourly rate £18.92 £18.87 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.24% -60.27% +94.45%
75th Percentile £29.19 £30.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £64.63 £37.13 £71.00
England median hourly rate £24.00 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year +6.05% +39.43% -24.51%

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 1,142 810 1,300
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.35% 42.70% 42.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 665 474 840
10th Percentile £300 £220 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.31% -0.48% -
75th Percentile £600 £622 £638
90th Percentile £694 £688 £713
England median daily rate £510 £510 £520
% change year-on-year - -1.92% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 101 168
10th Percentile £15.24 £15.00 £21.98
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.51 £42.81
Median hourly rate £48.00 £27.40 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.18% -57.85% +13.21%
75th Percentile £58.75 £67.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £35.71 £25.15 £27.00
% change year-on-year +41.99% -6.85% -28.00%

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 23 July 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 23 July 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 23 July 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 -2 114 £500 +40.85% 74
Somerset +1 82 £470 +67.68% 49
Wiltshire +5 72 £550 +1.15% 34
Gloucestershire +4 72 £410 +47.48% 54
Devon -1 37 £325 -35.00% 30
Dorset -4 22 £409 -3.76% 26
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 60 (14.53%) SharePoint
2 19 (4.60%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (3.39%) Confluence
4 4 (0.97%) Skype for Business
5 3 (0.73%) Apache
6 2 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.24%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.24%) Appian
7 1 (0.24%) CMS
7 1 (0.24%) ColdFusion
7 1 (0.24%) IIS
7 1 (0.24%) JBoss
7 1 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.24%) Umbraco
Applications
1 61 (14.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 52 (12.59%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (6.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 18 (4.36%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (2.18%) MS Visio
5 9 (2.18%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.73%) Adobe Captivate
7 2 (0.48%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.24%) InDesign
8 1 (0.24%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 11 (2.66%) NetSuite
2 8 (1.94%) Oracle Payables
2 8 (1.94%) Oracle Receivables
3 6 (1.45%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.73%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.48%) assyst
5 2 (0.48%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.48%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
6 1 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 155 (37.53%) Azure
2 91 (22.03%) Microsoft 365
3 46 (11.14%) Entra ID
4 44 (10.65%) Power Platform
5 29 (7.02%) AWS
6 28 (6.78%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (5.08%) Dynamics 365
7 21 (5.08%) GitHub
8 13 (3.15%) SaaS
9 12 (2.91%) Azure Key Vault
10 11 (2.66%) Power Automate
10 11 (2.66%) Serverless
11 10 (2.42%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 10 (2.42%) PaaS
12 9 (2.18%) Azure Data Factory
12 9 (2.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 9 (2.18%) Cloud Computing
12 9 (2.18%) PowerApps
13 8 (1.94%) Azure Monitor
13 8 (1.94%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 16 (3.87%) DNS
2 15 (3.63%) Firewall
3 14 (3.39%) WAN
4 11 (2.66%) DHCP
5 10 (2.42%) TCP/IP
5 10 (2.42%) VPN
6 9 (2.18%) Skype
7 8 (1.94%) SAN
8 7 (1.69%) Ethernet
9 5 (1.21%) BGP
9 5 (1.21%) VoIP
10 4 (0.97%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (0.73%) LAN
12 2 (0.48%) NAS
12 2 (0.48%) SSL
12 2 (0.48%) VLAN
13 1 (0.24%) Network Security
13 1 (0.24%) Unified Communications
13 1 (0.24%) WAAS
13 1 (0.24%) X.400
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (8.23%) Power BI
2 24 (5.81%) SQL Server
3 13 (3.15%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (2.66%) Geospatial Data
5 10 (2.42%) Metadata
6 8 (1.94%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.45%) Relational Database
8 5 (1.21%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.21%) GIS
8 5 (1.21%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.97%) MySQL
9 4 (0.97%) Star Schema
10 3 (0.73%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.73%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.73%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.73%) Redis
10 3 (0.73%) Tableau
11 2 (0.48%) Electronic Patient Records
11 2 (0.48%) Spatial Data
12 1 (0.24%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 35 (8.47%) JIRA
2 17 (4.12%) Git
3 10 (2.42%) MSI
3 10 (2.42%) Visual Studio
4 6 (1.45%) AdminStudio
4 6 (1.45%) Eclipse
4 6 (1.45%) InstallShield
5 5 (1.21%) GitLab
6 4 (0.97%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.24%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.24%) HP UFT
7 1 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.24%) Selenium
7 1 (0.24%) webpack
General
1 155 (37.53%) Social Skills
2 56 (13.56%) Analytical Skills
3 52 (12.59%) Finance
4 40 (9.69%) Public Sector
5 34 (8.23%) Organisational Skills
6 32 (7.75%) Military
7 16 (3.87%) Legal
8 13 (3.15%) Documentation Skills
8 13 (3.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (2.18%) General Ledger
10 8 (1.94%) Aerospace
10 8 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.69%) Local Government
12 6 (1.45%) Marketing
12 6 (1.45%) Retail
13 4 (0.97%) Manufacturing
14 2 (0.48%) Advertising
14 2 (0.48%) Back Office
14 2 (0.48%) Banking
14 2 (0.48%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 56 (13.56%) Architect
2 45 (10.90%) Lead
3 34 (8.23%) Consultant
3 34 (8.23%) Developer
4 27 (6.54%) Support Engineer
5 25 (6.05%) Analyst
5 25 (6.05%) Senior
6 18 (4.36%) Administrator
6 18 (4.36%) Project Officer
7 16 (3.87%) Data Engineer
7 16 (3.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 16 (3.87%) IT Support
8 14 (3.39%) IT Engineer
8 14 (3.39%) Solutions Architect
9 13 (3.15%) Technical Architect
10 12 (2.91%) Azure Consultant
10 12 (2.91%) DBA
11 11 (2.66%) Desktop Support
12 10 (2.42%) Project Manager
13 9 (2.18%) .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (7.75%) .NET
2 22 (5.33%) .NET Framework
3 21 (5.08%) REST
4 16 (3.87%) HTML
5 15 (3.63%) .NET Core
6 14 (3.39%) CSS
6 14 (3.39%) RESTful
7 13 (3.15%) CSS3
7 13 (3.15%) HTML5
8 12 (2.91%) GeoJSON
9 10 (2.42%) ATL
9 10 (2.42%) COM
9 10 (2.42%) MFC
10 9 (2.18%) Web Services
10 9 (2.18%) WPF
11 8 (1.94%) JDO
11 8 (1.94%) SailPoint
12 6 (1.45%) LDAP
12 6 (1.45%) Node.js
13 5 (1.21%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 31 (7.51%) Onboarding
2 26 (6.30%) Cloud Native
3 17 (4.12%) Product Ownership
4 16 (3.87%) Legacy Systems
5 14 (3.39%) Blackberry
5 14 (3.39%) Virtual Team
6 12 (2.91%) Management Information System
7 11 (2.66%) Hybrid Cloud
7 11 (2.66%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (1.69%) Legacy Applications
10 6 (1.45%) Data Structures
10 6 (1.45%) Driving Licence
10 6 (1.45%) Wiki
11 5 (1.21%) Data Centre
11 5 (1.21%) Freedom of Information
11 5 (1.21%) PKI
12 4 (0.97%) AI Agents
12 4 (0.97%) Low-Code
12 4 (0.97%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 108 (26.15%) Windows
2 37 (8.96%) Windows 10
3 32 (7.75%) Android
4 18 (4.36%) Linux
4 18 (4.36%) Windows Server
5 17 (4.12%) Apple iOS
6 6 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.73%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.48%) VMS
8 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.24%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (22.28%) Problem-Solving
2 69 (16.71%) Agile
3 60 (14.53%) Continuous Improvement
4 58 (14.04%) Stakeholder Management
5 48 (11.62%) DevOps
6 46 (11.14%) CI/CD
6 46 (11.14%) Project Delivery
7 41 (9.93%) Migration
8 38 (9.20%) ITIL
9 36 (8.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 35 (8.47%) PRINCE2
11 34 (8.23%) Decision-Making
12 33 (7.99%) Project Management
13 32 (7.75%) Technical Leadership
14 30 (7.26%) Analytics
15 27 (6.54%) Customer Service
15 27 (6.54%) Infrastructure as Code
15 27 (6.54%) Roadmaps
16 26 (6.30%) Validation
17 25 (6.05%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 53 (12.83%) SQL
2 34 (8.23%) Python
3 31 (7.51%) C#
4 30 (7.26%) PowerShell
5 26 (6.30%) JavaScript
6 15 (3.63%) Java
7 14 (3.39%) Bicep
8 10 (2.42%) TypeScript
9 8 (1.94%) C++
10 5 (1.21%) BeanShell
11 3 (0.73%) Bash
11 3 (0.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.73%) Go
12 2 (0.48%) VB
12 2 (0.48%) VBA
13 1 (0.24%) C
13 1 (0.24%) PHP
13 1 (0.24%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.24%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 182 (44.07%) Security Cleared
2 131 (31.72%) SC Cleared
3 53 (12.83%) DV Cleared
4 35 (8.47%) Degree
5 16 (3.87%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (3.39%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (2.91%) Azure Certification
8 10 (2.42%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 9 (2.18%) PMP
10 8 (1.94%) ACCA
10 8 (1.94%) CIMA
11 4 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.97%) DBS Check
12 3 (0.73%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.73%) ACSP
12 3 (0.73%) CISSP
12 3 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.48%) A+ Certification
13 2 (0.48%) CBAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (4.84%) Data Quality
2 16 (3.87%) PMO
3 15 (3.63%) Accessibility
4 14 (3.39%) QA
5 13 (3.15%) SLA
6 11 (2.66%) NCSC
7 9 (2.18%) GDPR
7 9 (2.18%) WCAG
8 5 (1.21%) ISO 9000
9 3 (0.73%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.73%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.48%) HL7
10 2 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 2 (0.48%) SNOMED CT
11 1 (0.24%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.24%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.24%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.24%) NIST
System Software
1 76 (18.40%) Active Directory
2 19 (4.60%) Docker
3 17 (4.12%) Virtual Desktop
4 12 (2.91%) Hyper-V
5 10 (2.42%) VMware Infrastructure
6 5 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.73%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.73%) vSphere
8 1 (0.24%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 41 (9.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (8.23%) Terraform
3 20 (4.84%) SCCM
4 19 (4.60%) Kubernetes
5 10 (2.42%) Single Sign-On
6 7 (1.69%) Ansible
7 5 (1.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 5 (1.21%) FortiGate
7 5 (1.21%) Grafana
7 5 (1.21%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 5 (1.21%) WSUS
8 3 (0.73%) Failover Clustering
8 3 (0.73%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.48%) Argo
9 2 (0.48%) McAfee ePO
10 1 (0.24%) CA Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.24%) Podman
10 1 (0.24%) PTC Integrity
10 1 (0.24%) SCOM
10 1 (0.24%) VxRail
Vendors
1 30 (7.26%) VMware
2 26 (6.30%) Oracle
3 15 (3.63%) Citrix
3 15 (3.63%) ServiceNow
4 14 (3.39%) MobileIron
5 13 (3.15%) Apple
6 12 (2.91%) SAP
7 11 (2.66%) Google
7 11 (2.66%) McAfee
8 10 (2.42%) Cisco
9 9 (2.18%) Databricks
9 9 (2.18%) HP
10 8 (1.94%) Red Hat
11 7 (1.69%) Starlink
12 6 (1.45%) Adobe
12 6 (1.45%) BiZZdesign
13 5 (1.21%) Informatica
13 5 (1.21%) InterSystems
13 5 (1.21%) NetApp
13 5 (1.21%) Zscaler