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 10 April 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
10 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 6 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 331 258 485
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 10.48% 15.05% 15.10%
As % of the Vendors category 32.20% 33.55% 36.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 188 331
10th Percentile £200 £200 £180
25th Percentile £334 £220 £285
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.11% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £715 £678 £700
England median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 15 46
10th Percentile £13.65 £15.90 £12.50
25th Percentile £17.75 £18.13 £13.69
Median hourly rate £30.50 £18.51 £14.54
Median % change year-on-year +64.78% +27.30% -74.11%
75th Percentile £60.00 £27.00 £48.72
90th Percentile £65.00 £37.50 £51.25
England median hourly rate £20.09 £21.46 £15.00
% change year-on-year -6.38% +43.07% -29.31%

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 1,028 769 1,324
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.56% 44.87% 41.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 669 521 860
10th Percentile £263 £220 £200
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -
75th Percentile £598 £613 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% -4.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 51 166
10th Percentile £17.50 £18.13 £13.69
25th Percentile £23.42 £18.51 £27.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £57.50 £46.95
Median % change year-on-year - +22.48% -26.78%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.68 £70.00 £76.25
England median hourly rate £27.50 £28.88 £23.22
% change year-on-year -4.76% +24.38% -38.91%

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 10 April 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 10 April 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 10 April 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
Wiltshire +1 98 £550 - 33
Gloucestershire 0 74 £410 -3.53% 69
Bristol -16 67 £500 +30.89% 76
Somerset -2 47 £450 - 57
Devon +3 28 £220 -35.77% 45
Dorset -18 7 £395 -16.95% 35
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 45 (13.60%) SharePoint
2 19 (5.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.11%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.51%) Confluence
5 2 (0.60%) Apache
5 2 (0.60%) Oracle Application Server
5 2 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.30%) IIS
Applications
1 41 (12.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (11.78%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (4.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (3.32%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (2.42%) Spreadsheet
6 6 (1.81%) MS Visio
7 4 (1.21%) Adobe Captivate
7 4 (1.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.60%) InDesign
8 2 (0.60%) InfoPath
9 1 (0.30%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.30%) PTC Creo
9 1 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 7 (2.11%) Maximo
2 6 (1.81%) NetSuite
3 5 (1.51%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.60%) Dynamics AX
4 2 (0.60%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.60%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.30%) assyst
5 1 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
5 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 108 (32.63%) Azure
2 61 (18.43%) Microsoft 365
3 45 (13.60%) Power Platform
4 32 (9.67%) Entra ID
5 25 (7.55%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (6.04%) AWS
6 20 (6.04%) Power Automate
7 18 (5.44%) GitHub
8 17 (5.14%) Dynamics 365
9 15 (4.53%) Azure Monitor
9 15 (4.53%) PowerApps
10 14 (4.23%) Azure Sentinel
11 10 (3.02%) Azure AKS
12 9 (2.72%) PaaS
12 9 (2.72%) Serverless
13 8 (2.42%) Azure Data Factory
13 8 (2.42%) Azure Key Vault
13 8 (2.42%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 8 (2.42%) GCP
14 7 (2.11%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 27 (8.16%) DNS
2 26 (7.85%) Firewall
3 21 (6.34%) VPN
4 16 (4.83%) DHCP
5 11 (3.32%) TCP/IP
6 10 (3.02%) Skype
7 5 (1.51%) Network Security
7 5 (1.51%) Unified Communications
8 4 (1.21%) Ethernet
8 4 (1.21%) WAN
9 3 (0.91%) LAN
9 3 (0.91%) VLAN
9 3 (0.91%) VoIP
9 3 (0.91%) Wireless
10 2 (0.60%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.60%) H.323
10 2 (0.60%) HTTP
10 2 (0.60%) RTP
11 1 (0.30%) SAN
11 1 (0.30%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (9.97%) Power BI
2 14 (4.23%) SQL Server
3 7 (2.11%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.81%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (1.81%) Star Schema
5 5 (1.51%) Metadata
5 5 (1.51%) Redis
6 4 (1.21%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (1.21%) Delta Lake
6 4 (1.21%) MySQL
7 3 (0.91%) GIS
7 3 (0.91%) Power Query
8 2 (0.60%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.60%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
8 2 (0.60%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (0.60%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.60%) Spatial Data
8 2 (0.60%) Tableau
9 1 (0.30%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 24 (7.25%) JIRA
2 7 (2.11%) Git
3 4 (1.21%) AdminStudio
3 4 (1.21%) Artifactory
3 4 (1.21%) Eclipse
3 4 (1.21%) GitLab
3 4 (1.21%) InstallShield
3 4 (1.21%) Visual Studio
3 4 (1.21%) Visual Studio Code
4 3 (0.91%) MSI
5 2 (0.60%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.30%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.30%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.30%) Maven
6 1 (0.30%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.30%) webpack
General
1 136 (41.09%) Social Skills
2 56 (16.92%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (12.99%) Finance
4 31 (9.37%) Public Sector
5 21 (6.34%) Organisational Skills
6 16 (4.83%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (4.83%) Military
7 15 (4.53%) Legal
8 9 (2.72%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.42%) Marketing
9 8 (2.42%) Presentation Skills
10 5 (1.51%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.21%) Electronics
11 4 (1.21%) Police
12 3 (0.91%) Back Office
12 3 (0.91%) Banking
12 3 (0.91%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.91%) Local Government
13 1 (0.30%) Publishing
13 1 (0.30%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (13.60%) Architect
2 34 (10.27%) Support Engineer
3 32 (9.67%) Developer
4 26 (7.85%) Analyst
5 20 (6.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 18 (5.44%) Solutions Architect
7 17 (5.14%) Azure Engineer
7 17 (5.14%) Desktop Engineer
7 17 (5.14%) Desktop Support
7 17 (5.14%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 15 (4.53%) Senior
9 14 (4.23%) Data Engineer
10 13 (3.93%) Project Officer
11 12 (3.63%) Administrator
11 12 (3.63%) IT Support
11 12 (3.63%) Microsoft Engineer
12 10 (3.02%) DevOps Engineer
12 10 (3.02%) Lead
13 9 (2.72%) Consultant
14 8 (2.42%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.74%) OAuth
2 18 (5.44%) OAuth2
2 18 (5.44%) SAML
3 16 (4.83%) OpenID
4 14 (4.23%) REST
5 12 (3.63%) ARM Templates
6 10 (3.02%) .NET
7 9 (2.72%) CSS
7 9 (2.72%) HTML
8 7 (2.11%) JDO
8 7 (2.11%) Web Services
9 6 (1.81%) .NET Framework
10 5 (1.51%) CSS3
10 5 (1.51%) FastAPI
10 5 (1.51%) Flask
10 5 (1.51%) GraphQL
10 5 (1.51%) HTML5
10 5 (1.51%) JSON
10 5 (1.51%) Spring
10 5 (1.51%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.04%) Hybrid Cloud
2 14 (4.23%) Blackberry
2 14 (4.23%) Cloud Native
3 13 (3.93%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.63%) Enterprise Software
5 11 (3.32%) Onboarding
6 9 (2.72%) Replication
7 8 (2.42%) Data Structures
7 8 (2.42%) Management Information System
7 8 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
8 7 (2.11%) Private Cloud
9 6 (1.81%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.51%) Driving Licence
10 5 (1.51%) Legacy Applications
10 5 (1.51%) Low-Code
10 5 (1.51%) PKI
11 4 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (1.21%) Mobile App
11 4 (1.21%) Security Posture
12 3 (0.91%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 112 (33.84%) Windows
2 39 (11.78%) Windows Server
3 30 (9.06%) Windows 10
4 21 (6.34%) Android
5 18 (5.44%) Linux
6 16 (4.83%) Apple iOS
7 4 (1.21%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.91%) CentOS
9 2 (0.60%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (25.38%) Problem-Solving
2 49 (14.80%) Agile
3 41 (12.39%) ITIL
4 38 (11.48%) DevOps
5 37 (11.18%) Analytics
6 34 (10.27%) Continuous Improvement
6 34 (10.27%) RBAC
7 33 (9.97%) CI/CD
7 33 (9.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 31 (9.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 31 (9.37%) Stakeholder Management
9 30 (9.06%) Identity Access Management
10 29 (8.76%) Business Intelligence
11 23 (6.95%) Change Management
11 23 (6.95%) Migration
11 23 (6.95%) Project Management
12 22 (6.65%) Customer Service
13 20 (6.04%) Project Delivery
14 18 (5.44%) Data Modelling
14 18 (5.44%) PRINCE2
Programming Languages
1 65 (19.64%) PowerShell
2 42 (12.69%) SQL
3 28 (8.46%) Python
4 24 (7.25%) JavaScript
5 16 (4.83%) Bicep
6 12 (3.63%) C#
7 10 (3.02%) Java
8 5 (1.51%) C++
8 5 (1.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 5 (1.51%) Go
8 5 (1.51%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.91%) PHP
9 3 (0.91%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.60%) VBA
11 1 (0.30%) Bash
11 1 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.30%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.30%) VB
Qualifications
1 173 (52.27%) Security Cleared
2 121 (36.56%) SC Cleared
3 64 (19.34%) DV Cleared
4 41 (12.39%) Microsoft Certification
5 32 (9.67%) Degree
6 24 (7.25%) Azure Certification
7 8 (2.42%) CISSP
8 7 (2.11%) CISM
8 7 (2.11%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 5 (1.51%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 4 (1.21%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (1.21%) MCSE
11 3 (0.91%) ACCA
11 3 (0.91%) APMP
11 3 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.91%) PMP
12 2 (0.60%) CBAP
12 2 (0.60%) CIMA
12 2 (0.60%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.93%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.32%) PMO
3 10 (3.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (3.02%) NIST
4 8 (2.42%) GDPR
5 7 (2.11%) NIST 800
6 6 (1.81%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.91%) NCSC
7 3 (0.91%) QA
8 2 (0.60%) HL7
8 2 (0.60%) SNOMED CT
9 1 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.30%) GAAP
9 1 (0.30%) GRC
9 1 (0.30%) IFRS
9 1 (0.30%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.30%) SLA
9 1 (0.30%) WCAG
System Software
1 87 (26.28%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.93%) Hyper-V
3 12 (3.63%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.72%) Docker
5 5 (1.51%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.91%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.30%) KVM
7 1 (0.30%) UAG
7 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.30%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 43 (12.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (9.06%) Single Sign-On
3 29 (8.76%) Terraform
4 24 (7.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 20 (6.04%) Kubernetes
6 12 (3.63%) SCCM
7 5 (1.51%) Ansible
7 5 (1.51%) Grafana
7 5 (1.51%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.51%) WSUS
8 3 (0.91%) VxRail
9 2 (0.60%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.60%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.60%) McAfee ePO
9 2 (0.60%) Norton AntiVirus
9 2 (0.60%) Puppet
10 1 (0.30%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.30%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.30%) SCOM
10 1 (0.30%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 34 (10.27%) VMware
2 16 (4.83%) Citrix
3 14 (4.23%) MobileIron
4 12 (3.63%) Red Hat
4 12 (3.63%) SAP
5 10 (3.02%) McAfee
6 9 (2.72%) Adobe
6 9 (2.72%) Cisco
6 9 (2.72%) Databricks
6 9 (2.72%) Oracle
6 9 (2.72%) ServiceNow
7 7 (2.11%) Google
7 7 (2.11%) IBM
7 7 (2.11%) Starlink
8 5 (1.51%) Blue Prism
8 5 (1.51%) NetApp
9 4 (1.21%) Apple
10 3 (0.91%) BeyondTrust
10 3 (0.91%) Dell
10 3 (0.91%) Workday