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 14 October 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
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 448 343 393
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.02% 17.24% 15.65%
As % of the Vendors category 37.33% 39.56% 34.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 217 234
10th Percentile £222 £205 £186
25th Percentile £388 £275 £316
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £661
90th Percentile £730 £691 £775
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.66% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 43 20
10th Percentile £12.79 £18.20 £12.50
25th Percentile £14.34 - £25.26
Median hourly rate £17.86 £18.87 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.38% -70.97% +33.42%
75th Percentile £25.75 £33.38 -
90th Percentile £58.00 £48.27 £67.00
England median hourly rate £18.50 £22.63 £20.00
% change year-on-year -18.25% +13.15% -13.04%

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 1,200 867 1,125
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.20% 43.59% 44.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 665 511 642
10th Percentile £325 £220 £225
25th Percentile £425 £358 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £608 £614 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
England median daily rate £515 £507 £525
% change year-on-year +1.58% -3.43% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 204 110 93
10th Percentile £14.21 £14.98 £26.81
25th Percentile £17.17 £18.87 £58.00
Median hourly rate £36.93 £22.57 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.65% -67.76% +27.27%
75th Percentile £55.48 £38.94 -
90th Percentile £76.75 £68.00 £74.00
England median hourly rate £25.75 £25.08 £35.00
% change year-on-year +2.69% -28.36% -21.35%

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 14 October 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 14 October 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 14 October 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 0 160 £525 +10.53% 81
Somerset -3 73 £475 +58.33% 54
Wiltshire -4 70 £600 +4.35% 58
Gloucestershire 0 67 £410 +2.50% 68
Devon 0 38 £450 +63.64% 46
Dorset -7 23 £515 +32.90% 44
Avon -1 4 - - 37
Cornwall - 2 £525 - 3
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 57 (12.72%) SharePoint
2 29 (6.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.35%) Confluence
4 5 (1.12%) CMS
5 3 (0.67%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (0.45%) Apache
6 2 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.22%) Appian
7 1 (0.22%) ColdFusion
7 1 (0.22%) JBoss
7 1 (0.22%) Moodle
7 1 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.22%) Totara
7 1 (0.22%) Umbraco
Applications
1 66 (14.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (13.17%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (4.69%) Microsoft Project
4 16 (3.57%) Spreadsheet
5 14 (3.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 6 (1.34%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.22%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 7 (1.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.34%) NetSuite
2 6 (1.34%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.34%) Oracle Receivables
3 5 (1.12%) SAP HR
4 4 (0.89%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.67%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.67%) Magento
5 3 (0.67%) SAP CRM
6 2 (0.45%) assyst
6 2 (0.45%) Primavera
6 2 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.22%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.22%) SAP Hybris
7 1 (0.22%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.22%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.22%) Sonata
7 1 (0.22%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 151 (33.71%) Azure
2 107 (23.88%) Microsoft 365
3 55 (12.28%) Entra ID
4 39 (8.71%) Power Platform
5 34 (7.59%) Azure DevOps
6 29 (6.47%) AWS
7 24 (5.36%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (3.57%) SaaS
9 15 (3.35%) PowerApps
10 14 (3.13%) OneDrive
11 13 (2.90%) GitHub
11 13 (2.90%) Microsoft Copilot
11 13 (2.90%) Power Automate
12 12 (2.68%) Microsoft Purview
13 10 (2.23%) Azure AKS
13 10 (2.23%) Azure Functions
13 10 (2.23%) Serverless
14 9 (2.01%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 9 (2.01%) Azure Key Vault
14 9 (2.01%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 24 (5.36%) DNS
2 22 (4.91%) WAN
3 19 (4.24%) Firewall
4 17 (3.79%) DHCP
5 12 (2.68%) LAN
6 11 (2.46%) Skype
7 10 (2.23%) VPN
8 9 (2.01%) TCP/IP
9 7 (1.56%) SAN
10 6 (1.34%) Wireless
11 5 (1.12%) BGP
11 5 (1.12%) Cisco IOS
11 5 (1.12%) Ethernet
12 4 (0.89%) Kerberos
12 4 (0.89%) Network Security
12 4 (0.89%) VoIP
12 4 (0.89%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.67%) VLAN
14 2 (0.45%) Cisco ASA
14 2 (0.45%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (5.36%) Power BI
2 19 (4.24%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.90%) Geospatial Data
4 11 (2.46%) Metadata
5 10 (2.23%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.56%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (1.12%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.12%) GIS
7 5 (1.12%) Oracle Database
7 5 (1.12%) Oracle Reports
8 3 (0.67%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.45%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.45%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.45%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.45%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.22%) Dremio
10 1 (0.22%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.22%) Power Query
10 1 (0.22%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 35 (7.81%) JIRA
2 27 (6.03%) Git
3 12 (2.68%) MSI
4 8 (1.79%) Visual Studio
5 5 (1.12%) GitLab
6 4 (0.89%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.45%) AdminStudio
7 2 (0.45%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.45%) InstallShield
8 1 (0.22%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.22%) Selenium
General
1 181 (40.40%) Social Skills
2 49 (10.94%) Analytical Skills
2 49 (10.94%) Public Sector
3 47 (10.49%) Finance
4 38 (8.48%) Organisational Skills
5 25 (5.58%) Military
6 18 (4.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 17 (3.79%) Aerospace
7 17 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (3.13%) Retail
9 13 (2.90%) Local Government
10 10 (2.23%) Manufacturing
11 8 (1.79%) Legal
12 6 (1.34%) General Ledger
13 5 (1.12%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (1.12%) Marketing
13 5 (1.12%) Police
14 4 (0.89%) Banking
15 3 (0.67%) Aviation
16 2 (0.45%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 56 (12.50%) Architect
2 54 (12.05%) Consultant
3 44 (9.82%) Lead
4 36 (8.04%) Administrator
5 31 (6.92%) Analyst
6 27 (6.03%) Senior
7 25 (5.58%) Developer
8 21 (4.69%) Microsoft Consultant
9 20 (4.46%) IT Support
10 19 (4.24%) Solutions Architect
11 18 (4.02%) Azure Consultant
12 17 (3.79%) Support Engineer
13 15 (3.35%) DevOps Engineer
13 15 (3.35%) IT Engineer
14 13 (2.90%) Project Officer
15 12 (2.68%) Coordinator
15 12 (2.68%) Data Engineer
16 11 (2.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 11 (2.46%) Project Manager
16 11 (2.46%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.15%) Terraform
2 31 (6.92%) .NET
3 21 (4.69%) .NET Framework
4 19 (4.24%) REST
5 17 (3.79%) .NET Core
6 16 (3.57%) HTML
6 16 (3.57%) RESTful
7 13 (2.90%) GeoJSON
8 11 (2.46%) ATL
8 11 (2.46%) COM
8 11 (2.46%) CSS
8 11 (2.46%) CSS3
8 11 (2.46%) HTML5
8 11 (2.46%) MFC
8 11 (2.46%) WPF
9 9 (2.01%) ARM Templates
9 9 (2.01%) LDAP
10 8 (1.79%) OAuth
11 7 (1.56%) SAML
12 6 (1.34%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 36 (8.04%) Onboarding
2 25 (5.58%) Management Information System
3 22 (4.91%) Product Ownership
4 21 (4.69%) Cloud Native
5 18 (4.02%) Legacy Systems
6 17 (3.79%) Virtual Team
7 14 (3.13%) Wiki
8 13 (2.90%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.90%) Hybrid Cloud
9 12 (2.68%) Self-Motivation
10 10 (2.23%) AI Agents
11 9 (2.01%) Driving Licence
12 8 (1.79%) EPoS
13 7 (1.56%) Low-Code
13 7 (1.56%) PKI
13 7 (1.56%) Replication
14 5 (1.12%) Clustering
14 5 (1.12%) Data Centre
14 5 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
14 5 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 103 (22.99%) Windows
2 38 (8.48%) Windows 10
3 26 (5.80%) Windows Server
4 17 (3.79%) Android
5 16 (3.57%) Linux
6 6 (1.34%) macOS
7 5 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.67%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.45%) VMS
9 2 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.22%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (17.19%) Continuous Improvement
2 71 (15.85%) Stakeholder Management
3 69 (15.40%) Agile
3 69 (15.40%) Problem-Solving
4 54 (12.05%) DevOps
5 50 (11.16%) Project Delivery
6 49 (10.94%) Migration
7 48 (10.71%) CI/CD
7 48 (10.71%) Customer Service
8 46 (10.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 40 (8.93%) Technical Leadership
9 40 (8.93%) Validation
10 39 (8.71%) Decision-Making
11 38 (8.48%) Infrastructure as Code
12 37 (8.26%) ITIL
13 36 (8.04%) Roadmaps
14 31 (6.92%) Project Management
15 29 (6.47%) PRINCE2
16 28 (6.25%) Data Governance
17 27 (6.03%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 41 (9.15%) SQL
2 40 (8.93%) PowerShell
3 30 (6.70%) C#
4 26 (5.80%) Python
5 25 (5.58%) Bicep
6 20 (4.46%) JavaScript
7 14 (3.13%) Bash
8 12 (2.68%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.56%) Java
10 5 (1.12%) BeanShell
10 5 (1.12%) C++
10 5 (1.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.22%) Ada
11 1 (0.22%) Ada 95
11 1 (0.22%) C
11 1 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.22%) VB
11 1 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 178 (39.73%) Security Cleared
2 120 (26.79%) SC Cleared
3 62 (13.84%) DV Cleared
4 18 (4.02%) Degree
5 16 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 13 (2.90%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (2.01%) Azure Certification
8 6 (1.34%) ACCA
8 6 (1.34%) CIMA
8 6 (1.34%) CIPD
8 6 (1.34%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (1.34%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 6 (1.34%) PMP
9 5 (1.12%) CISSP
9 5 (1.12%) DBS Check
10 4 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 3 (0.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 3 (0.67%) MCSE
11 3 (0.67%) TOGAF Certification
12 2 (0.45%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (7.37%) Data Quality
2 19 (4.24%) SLA
3 18 (4.02%) GDPR
4 17 (3.79%) QA
5 16 (3.57%) Accessibility
5 16 (3.57%) NCSC
6 15 (3.35%) PMO
7 11 (2.46%) WCAG
8 5 (1.12%) ISO 9000
9 4 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 4 (0.89%) NIST
10 3 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.67%) Disclosure Scotland
11 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.45%) ISO 22301
12 1 (0.22%) Def Stans
12 1 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.22%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.22%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 78 (17.41%) Active Directory
2 27 (6.03%) Docker
3 18 (4.02%) Virtual Desktop
4 15 (3.35%) Hyper-V
4 15 (3.35%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.34%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (1.12%) vSphere
7 2 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 2 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.22%) Firmware
8 1 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 1 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.22%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.22%) zsh
Systems Management
1 29 (6.47%) Kubernetes
2 23 (5.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (5.13%) SCCM
3 7 (1.56%) Ansible
3 7 (1.56%) WSUS
4 5 (1.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 5 (1.12%) Failover Clustering
4 5 (1.12%) FortiGate
4 5 (1.12%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 4 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.67%) Grafana
6 3 (0.67%) OPNET
6 3 (0.67%) VxRail
7 2 (0.45%) Argo
7 2 (0.45%) SCOM
8 1 (0.22%) CASB
8 1 (0.22%) Podman
8 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.22%) PTC Integrity
8 1 (0.22%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 27 (6.03%) Oracle
2 19 (4.24%) SAP
2 19 (4.24%) VMware
3 18 (4.02%) Cisco
4 14 (3.13%) Apple
4 14 (3.13%) ServiceNow
5 12 (2.68%) Google
6 11 (2.46%) HP
7 10 (2.23%) Databricks
8 8 (1.79%) Red Hat
9 6 (1.34%) BiZZdesign
9 6 (1.34%) Informatica
9 6 (1.34%) Workday
9 6 (1.34%) Zscaler
10 5 (1.12%) Citrix
10 5 (1.12%) CyberArk
10 5 (1.12%) MuleSoft
11 4 (0.89%) Atlassian
11 4 (0.89%) InterSystems
11 4 (0.89%) McAfee