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 25 February 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
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 6 5
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 357 280 442
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.72% 15.68% 14.25%
As % of the Vendors category 36.13% 33.21% 33.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 260 194 296
10th Percentile £212 £193 £205
25th Percentile £373 £221 £312
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £473 £505
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% -6.44% -3.81%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £607
90th Percentile £725 £721 £713
England median daily rate £490 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 9 53
10th Percentile £15.60 £12.29 £13.14
25th Percentile £18.87 £18.20 £14.54
Median hourly rate £25.15 £27.13 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.28% -42.89% -26.92%
75th Percentile £60.00 £28.99 £51.25
90th Percentile £64.50 £37.00 -
England median hourly rate £19.91 £24.18 £17.50
% change year-on-year -17.66% +38.17% -14.63%

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 988 843 1,311
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 35.20% 47.20% 42.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 627 530 830
10th Percentile £275 £215 £219
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £518 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.36% -1.34% -
75th Percentile £600 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £725
England median daily rate £505 £525 £523
% change year-on-year -3.81% +0.48% -2.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 133 37 168
10th Percentile £18.87 £15.96 £14.54
25th Percentile £23.16 £25.26 £37.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £62.50 £48.11
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% +29.91% -24.96%
75th Percentile £60.00 £68.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £71.78 £70.00
England median hourly rate £24.00 £31.35 £26.00
% change year-on-year -23.43% +20.56% -20.61%

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 25 February 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 25 February 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 25 February 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 +2 118 £560 +1.82% 41
Bristol -12 75 £519 +57.20% 66
Gloucestershire +6 69 £425 - 57
Somerset +1 48 £475 +4.11% 52
Devon +13 28 £275 +42.86% 43
Dorset -13 9 £394 -21.15% 36
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 62 (17.37%) SharePoint
2 56 (15.69%) Microsoft Exchange
3 22 (6.16%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.40%) Confluence
5 4 (1.12%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.84%) Oracle Application Server
7 2 (0.56%) Apache
8 1 (0.28%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.28%) CMS
8 1 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 37 (10.36%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (8.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (2.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (2.52%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (1.96%) Adobe Captivate
4 7 (1.96%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 6 (1.68%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.84%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.28%) InDesign
7 1 (0.28%) InfoPath
7 1 (0.28%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.28%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.28%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 8 (2.24%) Maximo
2 6 (1.68%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.56%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.56%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.28%) assyst
4 1 (0.28%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 106 (29.69%) Azure
2 88 (24.65%) Microsoft 365
3 40 (11.20%) Power Platform
4 39 (10.92%) Entra ID
5 31 (8.68%) AWS
6 28 (7.84%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (5.32%) Azure Sentinel
8 18 (5.04%) Power Automate
9 16 (4.48%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (4.20%) Azure Monitor
10 15 (4.20%) GitHub
11 14 (3.92%) PowerApps
12 12 (3.36%) Azure Key Vault
13 11 (3.08%) Azure AKS
13 11 (3.08%) OneDrive
13 11 (3.08%) Serverless
14 10 (2.80%) GCP
14 10 (2.80%) GitHub Actions
14 10 (2.80%) SaaS
15 8 (2.24%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 54 (15.13%) DNS
2 32 (8.96%) DHCP
3 30 (8.40%) Firewall
4 29 (8.12%) Skype
5 20 (5.60%) TCP/IP
6 18 (5.04%) VPN
7 10 (2.80%) Unified Communications
8 5 (1.40%) Network Security
9 3 (0.84%) Kerberos
9 3 (0.84%) LAN
9 3 (0.84%) VLAN
9 3 (0.84%) VoIP
9 3 (0.84%) WAN
9 3 (0.84%) Wireless
10 2 (0.56%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.56%) Ethernet
10 2 (0.56%) H.323
10 2 (0.56%) HTTP
10 2 (0.56%) RTP
11 1 (0.28%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (8.12%) Power BI
2 17 (4.76%) SQL Server
3 13 (3.64%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (2.52%) Redis
5 7 (1.96%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (1.68%) Metadata
7 5 (1.40%) Star Schema
8 3 (0.84%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (0.84%) MySQL
8 3 (0.84%) Oracle ODI
8 3 (0.84%) Oracle Reports
9 2 (0.56%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.56%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.56%) Looker
9 2 (0.56%) Power Query
9 2 (0.56%) Tableau
10 1 (0.28%) GIS
10 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 29 (8.12%) JIRA
2 8 (2.24%) Git
3 6 (1.68%) MSI
4 4 (1.12%) Artifactory
4 4 (1.12%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.84%) DBeaver
5 3 (0.84%) GitLab
6 2 (0.56%) Eclipse
6 2 (0.56%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.28%) Maven
7 1 (0.28%) SonarQube
General
1 153 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 62 (17.37%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (11.20%) Finance
4 37 (10.36%) Public Sector
5 20 (5.60%) Documentation Skills
6 14 (3.92%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (2.52%) Legal
7 9 (2.52%) Manufacturing
7 9 (2.52%) Marketing
7 9 (2.52%) Telecoms
8 7 (1.96%) Military
9 6 (1.68%) Banking
10 5 (1.40%) Electronics
11 4 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (1.12%) Police
12 3 (0.84%) Back Office
13 2 (0.56%) Law
14 1 (0.28%) Advertising
14 1 (0.28%) Aviation
14 1 (0.28%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 36 (10.08%) Support Engineer
2 34 (9.52%) Analyst
2 34 (9.52%) Architect
3 33 (9.24%) Developer
4 29 (8.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 20 (5.60%) Microsoft Engineer
6 19 (5.32%) Administrator
7 16 (4.48%) Azure Engineer
8 14 (3.92%) Desktop Engineer
8 14 (3.92%) Desktop Support
8 14 (3.92%) Desktop Support Engineer
8 14 (3.92%) Solutions Architect
9 13 (3.64%) Consultant
9 13 (3.64%) Data Engineer
10 11 (3.08%) Senior
11 10 (2.80%) Backend Developer
11 10 (2.80%) IT Support
11 10 (2.80%) Wintel Engineer
12 9 (2.52%) Designer
12 9 (2.52%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (7.00%) OAuth
2 24 (6.72%) SAML
3 22 (6.16%) OAuth2
3 22 (6.16%) OpenID
4 18 (5.04%) REST
5 13 (3.64%) ARM Templates
6 9 (2.52%) FastAPI
6 9 (2.52%) Flask
6 9 (2.52%) GraphQL
6 9 (2.52%) gRPC
6 9 (2.52%) WebSockets
7 8 (2.24%) CSS
7 8 (2.24%) HTML
8 6 (1.68%) JSON
8 6 (1.68%) SOAP
9 5 (1.40%) .NET
9 5 (1.40%) JDO
9 5 (1.40%) LDAP
9 5 (1.40%) React
9 5 (1.40%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.44%) Onboarding
2 22 (6.16%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (4.76%) PKI
4 14 (3.92%) Driving Licence
5 13 (3.64%) Cloud Native
6 12 (3.36%) Blackberry
7 10 (2.80%) Enterprise Software
7 10 (2.80%) Management Information System
7 10 (2.80%) Mobile App
7 10 (2.80%) Replication
8 7 (1.96%) Private Cloud
8 7 (1.96%) Product Ownership
9 5 (1.40%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.40%) Low-Code
9 5 (1.40%) Virtual Team
10 4 (1.12%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.84%) Data Structures
11 3 (0.84%) Legacy Applications
12 2 (0.56%) CMDB
12 2 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 145 (40.62%) Windows
2 52 (14.57%) Windows Server
3 50 (14.01%) Windows 10
4 28 (7.84%) Linux
5 20 (5.60%) Android
6 19 (5.32%) Apple iOS
7 8 (2.24%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (1.40%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.84%) CentOS
9 3 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.56%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.56%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.28%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (26.61%) Problem-Solving
2 47 (13.17%) ITIL
3 45 (12.61%) Agile
4 42 (11.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 39 (10.92%) RBAC
6 38 (10.64%) DevOps
7 37 (10.36%) Migration
8 34 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 34 (9.52%) Stakeholder Management
9 32 (8.96%) Analytics
10 31 (8.68%) Business Intelligence
11 30 (8.40%) Change Management
12 29 (8.12%) CI/CD
13 27 (7.56%) Identity Access Management
14 26 (7.28%) Knowledge Transfer
14 26 (7.28%) Service Management
15 25 (7.00%) Customer Service
16 23 (6.44%) Continuous Improvement
17 21 (5.88%) Cloud Security
18 18 (5.04%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 92 (25.77%) PowerShell
2 48 (13.45%) SQL
3 37 (10.36%) Python
4 20 (5.60%) JavaScript
5 16 (4.48%) Bicep
6 9 (2.52%) Go
7 8 (2.24%) C#
7 8 (2.24%) Java
8 5 (1.40%) TypeScript
9 4 (1.12%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.84%) Perl
11 2 (0.56%) C++
11 2 (0.56%) PHP
12 1 (0.28%) Bash
12 1 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.28%) VBA
12 1 (0.28%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 197 (55.18%) Security Cleared
2 134 (37.54%) SC Cleared
3 85 (23.81%) DV Cleared
4 53 (14.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 27 (7.56%) Degree
6 20 (5.60%) Azure Certification
7 11 (3.08%) CISSP
7 11 (3.08%) MCSE
8 10 (2.80%) CISM
9 9 (2.52%) ITIL Certification
10 8 (2.24%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 7 (1.96%) A+ Certification
12 5 (1.40%) CCNA
12 5 (1.40%) CCNP
12 5 (1.40%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (1.40%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.84%) ACCA
13 3 (0.84%) APMP
13 3 (0.84%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.84%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 18 (5.04%) GDPR
3 13 (3.64%) NIST
4 12 (3.36%) PMO
5 11 (3.08%) Data Quality
6 8 (2.24%) Accessibility
6 8 (2.24%) NIST 800
7 4 (1.12%) NCSC
7 4 (1.12%) SLA
8 3 (0.84%) GAAP
8 3 (0.84%) IFRS
9 2 (0.56%) PSD2
9 2 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.56%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.28%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.28%) QA
10 1 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 120 (33.61%) Active Directory
2 31 (8.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (4.20%) Hyper-V
4 12 (3.36%) Docker
5 11 (3.08%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (1.96%) VMware NSX
7 5 (1.40%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (1.40%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.28%) KVM
10 1 (0.28%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.28%) UAG
10 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 43 (12.04%) Microsoft Intune
2 36 (10.08%) Single Sign-On
3 33 (9.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 26 (7.28%) SCCM
5 24 (6.72%) Kubernetes
5 24 (6.72%) Terraform
6 12 (3.36%) WSUS
7 11 (3.08%) vCenter Server
8 9 (2.52%) Grafana
8 9 (2.52%) Prometheus
9 7 (1.96%) Norton AntiVirus
10 5 (1.40%) Ansible
11 3 (0.84%) VxRail
12 2 (0.56%) CA Single Sign-On
12 2 (0.56%) Cisco CUCM
12 2 (0.56%) NetBackup
12 2 (0.56%) PingFederate
12 2 (0.56%) Puppet
12 2 (0.56%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
13 1 (0.28%) SCOM
Vendors
1 52 (14.57%) VMware
2 25 (7.00%) Cisco
3 15 (4.20%) Citrix
3 15 (4.20%) SAP
4 12 (3.36%) MobileIron
4 12 (3.36%) Red Hat
4 12 (3.36%) SolarWinds
4 12 (3.36%) Veeam
5 11 (3.08%) Adobe
6 8 (2.24%) IBM
6 8 (2.24%) McAfee
6 8 (2.24%) Oracle
7 7 (1.96%) ServiceNow
7 7 (1.96%) Symantec
8 6 (1.68%) Blue Prism
8 6 (1.68%) Databricks
9 5 (1.40%) Google
9 5 (1.40%) Splunk
10 4 (1.12%) Atlassian
10 4 (1.12%) Ping Identity