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 2 September 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
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 5 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 440 292 435
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.06% 15.19% 16.02%
As % of the Vendors category 36.36% 36.59% 36.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 270 174 279
10th Percentile £212 £185 £179
25th Percentile £355 £235 £303
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £406 £500
Median % change year-on-year +15.69% -18.75% -
75th Percentile £588 £568 £606
90th Percentile £730 £643 £735
England median daily rate £489 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +2.95% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 43 24
10th Percentile £12.78 £18.13 £12.50
25th Percentile £14.00 £18.51 £13.69
Median hourly rate £17.50 £18.87 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.26% -70.97% +152.43%
75th Percentile £25.75 £33.38 -
90th Percentile £44.95 £37.50 £85.00
England median hourly rate £20.69 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -8.57% +39.43% -26.23%

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 1,210 798 1,179
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 33.17% 41.52% 43.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 726 457 747
10th Percentile £305 £213 £220
25th Percentile £407 £350 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £613 £619 £630
90th Percentile £720 £675 £700
England median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 103 111
10th Percentile £13.72 £13.56 £13.69
25th Percentile £16.62 £18.51 £53.38
Median hourly rate £28.00 £18.87 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +48.38% -73.04% +23.92%
75th Percentile £56.75 £61.88 -
90th Percentile £83.35 £70.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £31.96 £25.15 £30.00
% change year-on-year +27.09% -16.17% -27.71%

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 2 September 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 2 September 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 2 September 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 -3 133 £500 +11.11% 173
Somerset 0 86 £450 +100.00% 72
Wiltshire +2 72 £513 -7.24% 58
Gloucestershire +1 71 £418 +28.46% 153
Devon 0 40 £317 -6.00% 72
Dorset -2 24 £515 +21.18% 69
Cornwall -3 2 £525 +138.64% 7
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 66 (15.00%) SharePoint
2 26 (5.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (3.86%) Confluence
4 5 (1.14%) CMS
5 3 (0.68%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (0.45%) Apache
6 2 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.23%) Appian
7 1 (0.23%) ColdFusion
7 1 (0.23%) JBoss
7 1 (0.23%) Moodle
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.23%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.23%) Totara
7 1 (0.23%) Umbraco
Applications
1 63 (14.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (13.86%) Microsoft Office
3 28 (6.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (3.86%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (2.05%) MS Visio
6 6 (1.36%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (2.27%) NetSuite
2 8 (1.82%) Oracle Payables
2 8 (1.82%) Oracle Receivables
3 7 (1.59%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.68%) Dynamics NAV
4 3 (0.68%) Magento
4 3 (0.68%) SAP CRM
5 2 (0.45%) assyst
5 2 (0.45%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.23%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.23%) SAP Hybris
6 1 (0.23%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.23%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 156 (35.45%) Azure
2 106 (24.09%) Microsoft 365
3 52 (11.82%) Power Platform
4 49 (11.14%) Entra ID
5 31 (7.05%) AWS
6 27 (6.14%) Azure DevOps
7 24 (5.45%) Dynamics 365
8 21 (4.77%) GitHub
9 15 (3.41%) Microsoft Copilot
9 15 (3.41%) PowerApps
9 15 (3.41%) SaaS
10 14 (3.18%) Power Automate
11 11 (2.50%) Microsoft Purview
11 11 (2.50%) OneDrive
11 11 (2.50%) Serverless
12 10 (2.27%) Azure Key Vault
13 9 (2.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 9 (2.05%) Cloud Computing
13 9 (2.05%) PaaS
14 8 (1.82%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 21 (4.77%) DNS
2 18 (4.09%) WAN
3 15 (3.41%) DHCP
3 15 (3.41%) Firewall
4 11 (2.50%) Skype
5 10 (2.27%) VPN
6 9 (2.05%) LAN
7 8 (1.82%) SAN
8 7 (1.59%) TCP/IP
9 5 (1.14%) BGP
9 5 (1.14%) VoIP
10 4 (0.91%) Ethernet
10 4 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (0.68%) Kerberos
11 3 (0.68%) VLAN
12 2 (0.45%) NAS
12 2 (0.45%) SSL
12 2 (0.45%) VSAN
13 1 (0.23%) RS-232
13 1 (0.23%) RS-422
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (8.41%) Power BI
2 24 (5.45%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.95%) Geospatial Data
4 11 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (2.27%) Metadata
6 7 (1.59%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.36%) Relational Database
8 5 (1.14%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.14%) GIS
8 5 (1.14%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.68%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.68%) Tableau
10 2 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.45%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.45%) EDRMS
10 2 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
10 2 (0.45%) MySQL
10 2 (0.45%) Spatial Data
10 2 (0.45%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 1 (0.23%) Dremio
Development Applications
1 36 (8.18%) JIRA
2 23 (5.23%) Git
3 11 (2.50%) MSI
4 7 (1.59%) Visual Studio
5 6 (1.36%) AdminStudio
5 6 (1.36%) GitLab
5 6 (1.36%) InstallShield
6 4 (0.91%) Visual Studio Code
7 3 (0.68%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.45%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.23%) HP UFT
9 1 (0.23%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.23%) Selenium
General
1 174 (39.55%) Social Skills
2 56 (12.73%) Analytical Skills
3 54 (12.27%) Finance
4 53 (12.05%) Public Sector
5 41 (9.32%) Organisational Skills
6 34 (7.73%) Military
7 16 (3.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 15 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
9 14 (3.18%) Legal
10 12 (2.73%) Local Government
11 11 (2.50%) Aerospace
11 11 (2.50%) Retail
12 9 (2.05%) General Ledger
13 6 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (1.14%) Manufacturing
14 5 (1.14%) Marketing
15 4 (0.91%) Banking
15 4 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
16 3 (0.68%) Aviation
17 2 (0.45%) Police
Job Titles
1 59 (13.41%) Architect
2 46 (10.45%) Consultant
2 46 (10.45%) Lead
3 30 (6.82%) Developer
3 30 (6.82%) Senior
4 28 (6.36%) Analyst
5 25 (5.68%) Support Engineer
6 21 (4.77%) IT Support
7 20 (4.55%) Administrator
8 18 (4.09%) Solutions Architect
9 17 (3.86%) Microsoft Consultant
10 15 (3.41%) IT Engineer
10 15 (3.41%) Project Officer
11 14 (3.18%) Technical Architect
12 13 (2.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 12 (2.73%) Azure Consultant
13 12 (2.73%) Data Engineer
13 12 (2.73%) DBA
13 12 (2.73%) Desktop Support
13 12 (2.73%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (8.64%) Terraform
2 34 (7.73%) .NET
3 24 (5.45%) .NET Framework
4 19 (4.32%) HTML
4 19 (4.32%) REST
5 18 (4.09%) .NET Core
6 16 (3.64%) RESTful
7 14 (3.18%) CSS
8 13 (2.95%) CSS3
8 13 (2.95%) GeoJSON
8 13 (2.95%) HTML5
9 11 (2.50%) ATL
9 11 (2.50%) COM
9 11 (2.50%) MFC
9 11 (2.50%) WPF
10 9 (2.05%) LDAP
11 8 (1.82%) SailPoint
12 7 (1.59%) JDO
12 7 (1.59%) OAuth
12 7 (1.59%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 36 (8.18%) Onboarding
2 26 (5.91%) Cloud Native
3 23 (5.23%) Product Ownership
4 20 (4.55%) Legacy Systems
5 14 (3.18%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (2.95%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (2.95%) Management Information System
6 13 (2.95%) Virtual Team
7 10 (2.27%) Wiki
8 9 (2.05%) EPoS
9 8 (1.82%) AI Agents
9 8 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (1.59%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.59%) PKI
11 6 (1.36%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.36%) Driving Licence
11 6 (1.36%) Legacy Applications
12 5 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (1.14%) Freedom of Information
12 5 (1.14%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 102 (23.18%) Windows
2 41 (9.32%) Windows 10
3 23 (5.23%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.32%) Android
5 15 (3.41%) Linux
6 6 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.68%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.68%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.45%) VMS
8 2 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.23%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (18.86%) Problem-Solving
2 82 (18.64%) Continuous Improvement
3 67 (15.23%) Agile
4 65 (14.77%) Stakeholder Management
5 49 (11.14%) DevOps
5 49 (11.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 48 (10.91%) Migration
6 48 (10.91%) Project Delivery
7 46 (10.45%) CI/CD
8 41 (9.32%) ITIL
9 39 (8.86%) Customer Service
9 39 (8.86%) Technical Leadership
10 35 (7.95%) Decision-Making
10 35 (7.95%) Project Management
10 35 (7.95%) Roadmaps
11 34 (7.73%) Infrastructure as Code
12 33 (7.50%) PRINCE2
13 30 (6.82%) Validation
14 28 (6.36%) Data Protection
15 27 (6.14%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 48 (10.91%) SQL
2 31 (7.05%) PowerShell
2 31 (7.05%) Python
3 29 (6.59%) C#
4 23 (5.23%) JavaScript
5 18 (4.09%) Bicep
6 11 (2.50%) Java
6 11 (2.50%) TypeScript
7 8 (1.82%) Bash
8 6 (1.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (1.14%) BeanShell
10 4 (0.91%) C++
11 2 (0.45%) VB
12 1 (0.23%) Ada
12 1 (0.23%) Ada 95
12 1 (0.23%) C
12 1 (0.23%) Go
12 1 (0.23%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.23%) VBA
12 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 187 (42.50%) Security Cleared
2 133 (30.23%) SC Cleared
3 54 (12.27%) DV Cleared
4 35 (7.95%) Degree
5 16 (3.64%) Microsoft Certification
6 15 (3.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (2.27%) Azure Certification
7 10 (2.27%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 9 (2.05%) PMP
9 8 (1.82%) ACCA
9 8 (1.82%) CIMA
10 5 (1.14%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.14%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.91%) CISSP
11 4 (0.91%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 4 (0.91%) TOGAF Certification
12 3 (0.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.68%) ACSP
12 3 (0.68%) MCSE
13 2 (0.45%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (5.23%) Data Quality
2 18 (4.09%) Accessibility
3 17 (3.86%) QA
4 16 (3.64%) NCSC
4 16 (3.64%) SLA
5 14 (3.18%) GDPR
6 12 (2.73%) PMO
7 11 (2.50%) WCAG
8 5 (1.14%) ISO 9000
9 4 (0.91%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.68%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.68%) NIST
11 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.45%) HL7
11 2 (0.45%) SNOMED CT
12 1 (0.23%) Def Stans
12 1 (0.23%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.23%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 78 (17.73%) Active Directory
2 23 (5.23%) Docker
3 16 (3.64%) Virtual Desktop
4 12 (2.73%) Hyper-V
5 10 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.68%) vSphere
8 2 (0.45%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.23%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.23%) zsh
Systems Management
1 26 (5.91%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (5.68%) SCCM
3 24 (5.45%) Kubernetes
4 8 (1.82%) WSUS
5 7 (1.59%) Ansible
6 5 (1.14%) Failover Clustering
6 5 (1.14%) FortiGate
6 5 (1.14%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 5 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.68%) Grafana
8 3 (0.68%) OPNET
8 3 (0.68%) VxRail
9 2 (0.45%) Argo
10 1 (0.23%) FreeIPA
10 1 (0.23%) Podman
10 1 (0.23%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.23%) PTC Integrity
10 1 (0.23%) SCOM
10 1 (0.23%) SELinux
Vendors
1 24 (5.45%) Oracle
2 16 (3.64%) Apple
2 16 (3.64%) ServiceNow
3 14 (3.18%) VMware
4 13 (2.95%) SAP
5 12 (2.73%) Cisco
5 12 (2.73%) HP
6 11 (2.50%) Google
7 10 (2.27%) Databricks
8 9 (2.05%) Red Hat
9 8 (1.82%) McAfee
10 6 (1.36%) BiZZdesign
11 5 (1.14%) CyberArk
11 5 (1.14%) Informatica
11 5 (1.14%) InterSystems
11 5 (1.14%) NetApp
11 5 (1.14%) Starlink
11 5 (1.14%) Zscaler
12 4 (0.91%) Atlassian
12 4 (0.91%) MuleSoft