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 31 December 2025, 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
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 359 330 380
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 14.92% 16.18% 13.03%
As % of the Vendors category 37.59% 35.33% 31.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 223 258
10th Percentile £210 £201 £185
25th Percentile £344 £263 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £513
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -7.32% +2.50%
75th Percentile £600 £616 £650
90th Percentile £715 £748 £700
England median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 12 34
10th Percentile £15.60 £12.50 £14.41
25th Percentile £18.87 £14.75 £24.00
Median hourly rate £20.73 £27.13 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year -23.58% -44.32% -25.05%
75th Percentile £31.60 £37.00 -
90th Percentile £64.05 £62.20 £69.62
England median hourly rate £20.00 £22.27 £22.50
% change year-on-year -10.19% -1.02% +9.92%

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 955 934 1,191
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 39.69% 45.78% 40.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 637 570 778
10th Percentile £225 £220 £222
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year - -3.67% +3.81%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £700
England median daily rate £508 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.33% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 43 121
10th Percentile £14.92 £12.50 £18.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £18.51 £46.39
Median hourly rate £23.83 £62.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -61.88% +10.64% -13.09%
75th Percentile £43.11 £70.00 £69.62
90th Percentile £70.88 £74.89 £76.25
England median hourly rate £23.75 £30.00 £46.12
% change year-on-year -20.83% -34.95% +69.24%

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 31 December 2025.

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 31 December 2025.

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 31 December 2025. 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 -4 103 £575 +4.55% 23
Bristol -4 85 £513 +13.89% 77
Gloucestershire +7 81 £425 -8.85% 35
Somerset +2 55 £425 -14.14% 25
Devon +13 18 £275 +42.86% 33
Dorset -6 11 £385 -23.00% 22
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 72 (20.06%) SharePoint
2 61 (16.99%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (6.41%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.39%) Oracle Application Server
5 4 (1.11%) Confluence
5 4 (1.11%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.84%) IIS
7 1 (0.28%) Apache
7 1 (0.28%) CMS
7 1 (0.28%) nginx
7 1 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 41 (11.42%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (9.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (3.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (2.51%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 9 (2.51%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (1.67%) Adobe Captivate
6 5 (1.39%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.84%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.56%) Windchill
9 1 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.28%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 6 (1.67%) Maximo
2 4 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.84%) Teamcenter
4 2 (0.56%) assyst
4 2 (0.56%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.28%) Primavera
5 1 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.28%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 110 (30.64%) Azure
2 96 (26.74%) Microsoft 365
3 42 (11.70%) Power Platform
4 37 (10.31%) Entra ID
5 34 (9.47%) AWS
6 21 (5.85%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (5.29%) Azure Sentinel
7 19 (5.29%) Power Automate
8 13 (3.62%) Azure Monitor
8 13 (3.62%) Dynamics 365
8 13 (3.62%) GCP
8 13 (3.62%) GitHub
8 13 (3.62%) PowerApps
9 11 (3.06%) Azure AKS
9 11 (3.06%) Serverless
10 10 (2.79%) Azure Key Vault
10 10 (2.79%) OneDrive
11 9 (2.51%) Figma
11 9 (2.51%) Microsoft Purview
11 9 (2.51%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 53 (14.76%) DNS
2 33 (9.19%) Skype
3 32 (8.91%) DHCP
4 30 (8.36%) Firewall
5 22 (6.13%) VPN
6 18 (5.01%) TCP/IP
7 11 (3.06%) Unified Communications
8 7 (1.95%) HTTP
9 6 (1.67%) Network Security
10 4 (1.11%) VoIP
10 4 (1.11%) WAAS
11 3 (0.84%) Kerberos
11 3 (0.84%) LAN
11 3 (0.84%) VLAN
11 3 (0.84%) VSAN
12 2 (0.56%) Cisco IOS
12 2 (0.56%) iSCSI
12 2 (0.56%) WAN
12 2 (0.56%) Wi-Fi
12 2 (0.56%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (8.91%) Power BI
2 16 (4.46%) SQL Server
3 13 (3.62%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (1.95%) Redis
5 6 (1.67%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.67%) Relational Database
6 5 (1.39%) Metadata
6 5 (1.39%) Oracle ODI
6 5 (1.39%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (1.39%) Star Schema
7 2 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.56%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.56%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.56%) Looker
7 2 (0.56%) MySQL
7 2 (0.56%) Tableau
8 1 (0.28%) Delta Lake
8 1 (0.28%) Power Query
8 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 30 (8.36%) JIRA
2 14 (3.90%) Git
3 10 (2.79%) MSI
4 5 (1.39%) DBeaver
5 4 (1.11%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.84%) AdminStudio
6 3 (0.84%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.84%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.56%) GitLab
8 1 (0.28%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.28%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.28%) Maven
8 1 (0.28%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.28%) Visual Studio
General
1 149 (41.50%) Social Skills
2 57 (15.88%) Analytical Skills
3 53 (14.76%) Public Sector
4 38 (10.58%) Finance
5 21 (5.85%) Documentation Skills
6 14 (3.90%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (3.06%) Telecoms
8 10 (2.79%) Banking
9 8 (2.23%) Military
10 7 (1.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.95%) Legal
10 7 (1.95%) Manufacturing
11 6 (1.67%) Electronics
11 6 (1.67%) Marketing
12 3 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.56%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.56%) Aviation
13 2 (0.56%) Law
13 2 (0.56%) Police
13 2 (0.56%) Retail
Job Titles
1 38 (10.58%) Support Engineer
2 34 (9.47%) Developer
3 31 (8.64%) Analyst
4 24 (6.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 23 (6.41%) Architect
6 19 (5.29%) Administrator
7 18 (5.01%) Microsoft Engineer
8 16 (4.46%) Consultant
8 16 (4.46%) Desktop Engineer
9 15 (4.18%) Desktop Support
9 15 (4.18%) Desktop Support Engineer
10 12 (3.34%) Azure Engineer
11 11 (3.06%) Designer
11 11 (3.06%) IT Support
12 9 (2.51%) Platform Engineer
12 9 (2.51%) Senior
12 9 (2.51%) Visual Designer
13 8 (2.23%) Backend Developer
13 8 (2.23%) Windows Engineer
13 8 (2.23%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (6.41%) OAuth
2 22 (6.13%) SAML
3 20 (5.57%) OAuth2
3 20 (5.57%) OpenID
4 17 (4.74%) REST
5 12 (3.34%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.06%) SOAP
7 9 (2.51%) AngularJS
7 9 (2.51%) React
8 8 (2.23%) XML
9 7 (1.95%) FastAPI
9 7 (1.95%) Flask
9 7 (1.95%) GraphQL
9 7 (1.95%) gRPC
9 7 (1.95%) WebSockets
10 6 (1.67%) CSS
10 6 (1.67%) HTML
10 6 (1.67%) JMS
10 6 (1.67%) XSD
11 5 (1.39%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 26 (7.24%) Onboarding
2 19 (5.29%) Cloud Native
3 18 (5.01%) PKI
4 15 (4.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 12 (3.34%) Mobile App
6 11 (3.06%) Replication
7 10 (2.79%) Management Information System
8 9 (2.51%) Driving Licence
9 8 (2.23%) Private Cloud
9 8 (2.23%) Security Posture
10 7 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
11 6 (1.67%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (1.11%) Cyber Defence
12 4 (1.11%) Cyber Threat
12 4 (1.11%) Low-Code
12 4 (1.11%) Product Ownership
13 3 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
13 3 (0.84%) iPhone
13 3 (0.84%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 150 (41.78%) Windows
2 68 (18.94%) Windows 10
3 52 (14.48%) Windows Server
4 30 (8.36%) Linux
5 12 (3.34%) Apple iOS
6 10 (2.79%) Android
7 8 (2.23%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.23%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (1.95%) Windows Server 2012
8 7 (1.95%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (1.39%) Windows 7
9 5 (1.39%) Windows Server 2008
10 3 (0.84%) CentOS
10 3 (0.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.28%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (24.79%) Problem-Solving
2 63 (17.55%) Agile
3 60 (16.71%) ITIL
4 41 (11.42%) Migration
5 39 (10.86%) DevOps
6 34 (9.47%) Business Intelligence
6 34 (9.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 33 (9.19%) Change Management
7 33 (9.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 32 (8.91%) Customer Service
8 32 (8.91%) RBAC
9 27 (7.52%) Knowledge Transfer
10 26 (7.24%) CI/CD
11 23 (6.41%) Cloud Security
11 23 (6.41%) Service Management
12 22 (6.13%) Analytics
12 22 (6.13%) Project Management
12 22 (6.13%) Stakeholder Management
13 20 (5.57%) Continuous Improvement
13 20 (5.57%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 83 (23.12%) PowerShell
2 45 (12.53%) SQL
3 32 (8.91%) Python
4 17 (4.74%) Bicep
5 16 (4.46%) JavaScript
6 7 (1.95%) Go
7 6 (1.67%) C#
7 6 (1.67%) Java
7 6 (1.67%) TypeScript
8 5 (1.39%) VBScript
9 3 (0.84%) Perl
9 3 (0.84%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.56%) Bash
10 2 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.56%) PHP
11 1 (0.28%) C++
11 1 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 194 (54.04%) Security Cleared
2 138 (38.44%) SC Cleared
3 72 (20.06%) DV Cleared
4 57 (15.88%) Microsoft Certification
5 26 (7.24%) Degree
6 17 (4.74%) Azure Certification
7 12 (3.34%) A+ Certification
7 12 (3.34%) MCSE
8 11 (3.06%) ITIL Certification
9 10 (2.79%) CISSP
10 9 (2.51%) CISM
11 8 (2.23%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.95%) CCNP
12 7 (1.95%) MCSA
13 6 (1.67%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 5 (1.39%) CCNA
14 5 (1.39%) Master's Degree
15 4 (1.11%) APMP
16 3 (0.84%) ACCA
16 3 (0.84%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (5.29%) GDPR
3 13 (3.62%) NIST
4 11 (3.06%) PMO
4 11 (3.06%) QA
5 10 (2.79%) Accessibility
5 10 (2.79%) Data Quality
6 8 (2.23%) NCSC
7 6 (1.67%) NIST 800
8 5 (1.39%) SLA
9 3 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.84%) GAAP
9 3 (0.84%) IFRS
10 2 (0.56%) PSD2
10 2 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.56%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.28%) GRC
11 1 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 120 (33.43%) Active Directory
2 32 (8.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (3.90%) Virtual Machines
4 13 (3.62%) Hyper-V
5 12 (3.34%) Docker
6 6 (1.67%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (1.39%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (1.39%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (1.39%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.11%) Microsoft App-V
8 4 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.28%) KVM
9 1 (0.28%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.28%) UAG
Systems Management
1 38 (10.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (9.47%) SCCM
3 30 (8.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 27 (7.52%) Single Sign-On
5 21 (5.85%) Kubernetes
5 21 (5.85%) Terraform
6 15 (4.18%) vCenter Server
7 14 (3.90%) WSUS
8 7 (1.95%) Grafana
8 7 (1.95%) Norton AntiVirus
8 7 (1.95%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.84%) Ansible
9 3 (0.84%) OPNET
10 2 (0.56%) Kibana
10 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Clustering
10 2 (0.56%) NetApp OnCommand
10 2 (0.56%) PingFederate
10 2 (0.56%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
10 2 (0.56%) vMotion
10 2 (0.56%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 38 (10.58%) VMware
2 26 (7.24%) Cisco
3 14 (3.90%) ServiceNow
4 13 (3.62%) SAP
5 12 (3.34%) SolarWinds
5 12 (3.34%) Veeam
6 10 (2.79%) Adobe
6 10 (2.79%) Blue Prism
6 10 (2.79%) McAfee
6 10 (2.79%) Red Hat
7 9 (2.51%) Oracle
8 7 (1.95%) Symantec
9 6 (1.67%) IBM
10 5 (1.39%) Google
10 5 (1.39%) Splunk
11 4 (1.11%) ForgeRock
11 4 (1.11%) Fortinet
11 4 (1.11%) HP
11 4 (1.11%) Ping Identity
11 4 (1.11%) Starlink