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 23 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
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 +2 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 455 309 399
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 12.12% 15.94% 15.51%
As % of the Vendors category 37.02% 38.24% 34.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 188 247
10th Percentile £212 £200 £180
25th Percentile £379 £263 £328
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £425 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.18% -15.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £600 £565 £625
90th Percentile £730 £650 £743
England median daily rate £490 £472 £500
% change year-on-year +3.87% -5.65% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 45 19
10th Percentile £12.75 £18.13 £12.50
25th Percentile £14.00 £18.51 £39.13
Median hourly rate £17.50 £18.87 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.26% -70.97% +53.45%
75th Percentile £25.75 £33.00 -
90th Percentile £46.24 £36.00 £85.00
England median hourly rate £19.00 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year -16.04% +39.43% -27.87%

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 1,229 808 1,147
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.75% 41.67% 44.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 719 466 682
10th Percentile £310 £213 £228
25th Percentile £419 £350 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £613 £613 £633
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
England median daily rate £514 £507 £525
% change year-on-year +1.38% -3.43% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 107 94
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.99 £27.58
25th Percentile £16.62 £18.51 £61.25
Median hourly rate £26.14 £20.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.70% -71.43% +23.92%
75th Percentile £56.22 £55.33 -
90th Percentile £76.40 £70.00 £74.31
England median hourly rate £28.22 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +12.22% -28.14% -20.18%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -2 143 £500 +11.11% 141
Somerset -1 85 £450 +63.64% 101
Wiltshire +3 79 £535 -2.73% 84
Gloucestershire 0 66 £450 +24.14% 114
Devon 0 44 £317 +15.36% 65
Dorset -6 24 £515 +47.14% 75
Cornwall -3 2 £525 +138.64% 8
Avon -2 1 - - 66
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 71 (15.60%) SharePoint
2 29 (6.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.30%) Confluence
4 5 (1.10%) CMS
5 3 (0.66%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (0.44%) Apache
6 2 (0.44%) 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%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.22%) Totara
7 1 (0.22%) Umbraco
Applications
1 71 (15.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 66 (14.51%) Microsoft Office
3 26 (5.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 18 (3.96%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.54%) MS Visio
5 7 (1.54%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (2.20%) NetSuite
2 8 (1.76%) Oracle Payables
2 8 (1.76%) Oracle Receivables
3 6 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.88%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.66%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.66%) Magento
5 3 (0.66%) SAP CRM
5 3 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.44%) assyst
6 2 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.22%) Primavera
7 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
7 1 (0.22%) SAP Hybris
7 1 (0.22%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.22%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 157 (34.51%) Azure
2 108 (23.74%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (11.21%) Power Platform
4 49 (10.77%) Entra ID
5 33 (7.25%) AWS
6 32 (7.03%) Azure DevOps
7 25 (5.49%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (3.74%) GitHub
9 15 (3.30%) SaaS
10 14 (3.08%) PowerApps
11 13 (2.86%) Microsoft Copilot
11 13 (2.86%) OneDrive
12 12 (2.64%) Microsoft Purview
12 12 (2.64%) Power Automate
13 11 (2.42%) Azure AKS
13 11 (2.42%) Serverless
14 9 (1.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 9 (1.98%) Azure Functions
14 9 (1.98%) Azure Key Vault
14 9 (1.98%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 24 (5.27%) DNS
2 21 (4.62%) WAN
3 18 (3.96%) DHCP
4 17 (3.74%) Firewall
5 12 (2.64%) LAN
6 11 (2.42%) Skype
6 11 (2.42%) VPN
7 8 (1.76%) SAN
7 8 (1.76%) TCP/IP
8 6 (1.32%) Wireless
9 5 (1.10%) BGP
9 5 (1.10%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (1.10%) Ethernet
9 5 (1.10%) VoIP
10 4 (0.88%) Kerberos
10 4 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (0.66%) VLAN
12 2 (0.44%) Cisco ASA
12 2 (0.44%) Network Security
12 2 (0.44%) PABX
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (7.91%) Power BI
2 21 (4.62%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.86%) Geospatial Data
4 12 (2.64%) Metadata
5 10 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.54%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.32%) Relational Database
8 5 (1.10%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.10%) GIS
8 5 (1.10%) Oracle Database
9 4 (0.88%) Oracle Reports
10 3 (0.66%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.66%) Tableau
11 2 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.44%) EDRMS
11 2 (0.44%) MySQL
11 2 (0.44%) Spatial Data
11 2 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 1 (0.22%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (7.03%) JIRA
2 29 (6.37%) Git
3 11 (2.42%) MSI
4 8 (1.76%) Visual Studio
5 6 (1.32%) GitLab
6 4 (0.88%) Eclipse
7 3 (0.66%) Visual Studio Code
8 2 (0.44%) AdminStudio
8 2 (0.44%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.44%) InstallShield
9 1 (0.22%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.22%) HP UFT
9 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
9 1 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.22%) Selenium
General
1 182 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 57 (12.53%) Finance
3 52 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (10.99%) Public Sector
5 46 (10.11%) Organisational Skills
6 33 (7.25%) Military
7 16 (3.52%) Aerospace
7 16 (3.52%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (3.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (2.86%) Local Government
9 12 (2.64%) Retail
10 10 (2.20%) Legal
11 9 (1.98%) General Ledger
11 9 (1.98%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (1.10%) Marketing
13 4 (0.88%) Banking
13 4 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.66%) Aviation
15 2 (0.44%) Police
Job Titles
1 61 (13.41%) Architect
2 49 (10.77%) Consultant
3 47 (10.33%) Lead
4 29 (6.37%) Administrator
4 29 (6.37%) Developer
5 27 (5.93%) Analyst
5 27 (5.93%) Senior
6 23 (5.05%) IT Support
7 22 (4.84%) Support Engineer
8 20 (4.40%) Solutions Architect
9 18 (3.96%) Microsoft Consultant
10 16 (3.52%) Project Officer
11 15 (3.30%) DevOps Engineer
11 15 (3.30%) IT Engineer
12 14 (3.08%) Technical Architect
13 13 (2.86%) Data Engineer
14 12 (2.64%) Azure Consultant
14 12 (2.64%) Azure Engineer
14 12 (2.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 11 (2.42%) .NET Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (9.45%) Terraform
2 33 (7.25%) .NET
3 23 (5.05%) .NET Framework
4 19 (4.18%) REST
5 18 (3.96%) .NET Core
5 18 (3.96%) HTML
6 16 (3.52%) RESTful
7 13 (2.86%) CSS
7 13 (2.86%) CSS3
7 13 (2.86%) GeoJSON
7 13 (2.86%) HTML5
8 11 (2.42%) ATL
8 11 (2.42%) COM
8 11 (2.42%) MFC
8 11 (2.42%) WPF
9 10 (2.20%) LDAP
10 9 (1.98%) ARM Templates
11 8 (1.76%) OAuth
11 8 (1.76%) SailPoint
11 8 (1.76%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 35 (7.69%) Onboarding
2 26 (5.71%) Cloud Native
3 23 (5.05%) Product Ownership
4 20 (4.40%) Legacy Systems
5 17 (3.74%) Management Information System
6 16 (3.52%) Wiki
7 14 (3.08%) Hybrid Cloud
7 14 (3.08%) Virtual Team
8 13 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (1.98%) AI Agents
9 9 (1.98%) Driving Licence
9 9 (1.98%) EPoS
10 7 (1.54%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.54%) PKI
11 6 (1.32%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
11 6 (1.32%) Freedom of Information
11 6 (1.32%) Replication
12 5 (1.10%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 100 (21.98%) Windows
2 36 (7.91%) Windows 10
3 25 (5.49%) Windows Server
4 17 (3.74%) Android
4 17 (3.74%) Linux
5 6 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (1.10%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.66%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.44%) VMS
8 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.22%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (18.02%) Continuous Improvement
2 75 (16.48%) Problem-Solving
3 71 (15.60%) Agile
4 69 (15.16%) Stakeholder Management
5 53 (11.65%) DevOps
6 51 (11.21%) CI/CD
6 51 (11.21%) Project Delivery
7 50 (10.99%) Migration
7 50 (10.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 45 (9.89%) Customer Service
9 41 (9.01%) Technical Leadership
10 39 (8.57%) Decision-Making
10 39 (8.57%) Infrastructure as Code
11 37 (8.13%) ITIL
11 37 (8.13%) Validation
12 34 (7.47%) PRINCE2
12 34 (7.47%) Roadmaps
13 33 (7.25%) Project Management
14 29 (6.37%) Analytics
15 28 (6.15%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 46 (10.11%) SQL
2 38 (8.35%) PowerShell
3 32 (7.03%) C#
4 29 (6.37%) Python
5 25 (5.49%) Bicep
6 22 (4.84%) JavaScript
7 14 (3.08%) Bash
8 12 (2.64%) TypeScript
9 10 (2.20%) Java
10 6 (1.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 5 (1.10%) BeanShell
11 5 (1.10%) C++
12 2 (0.44%) VB
13 1 (0.22%) Ada
13 1 (0.22%) Ada 95
13 1 (0.22%) C
13 1 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.22%) VBA
13 1 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 188 (41.32%) Security Cleared
2 128 (28.13%) SC Cleared
3 63 (13.85%) DV Cleared
4 31 (6.81%) Degree
5 15 (3.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 14 (3.08%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (2.20%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 9 (1.98%) Azure Certification
9 8 (1.76%) ACCA
9 8 (1.76%) CIMA
9 8 (1.76%) PMP
10 5 (1.10%) CIPD
10 5 (1.10%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.10%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.10%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 4 (0.88%) CISSP
11 4 (0.88%) TOGAF Certification
12 3 (0.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (0.66%) MCSE
13 2 (0.44%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (6.15%) Data Quality
2 18 (3.96%) Accessibility
2 18 (3.96%) GDPR
3 17 (3.74%) SLA
4 16 (3.52%) NCSC
4 16 (3.52%) QA
5 14 (3.08%) PMO
6 11 (2.42%) WCAG
7 5 (1.10%) ISO 9000
8 4 (0.88%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.66%) Disclosure Scotland
9 3 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.66%) NIST
10 2 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.22%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.22%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.22%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
System Software
1 81 (17.80%) Active Directory
2 28 (6.15%) Docker
3 17 (3.74%) Virtual Desktop
4 13 (2.86%) Hyper-V
4 13 (2.86%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (1.10%) vSphere
7 2 (0.44%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.22%) Firmware
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 (6.37%) Kubernetes
2 23 (5.05%) Microsoft Intune
3 22 (4.84%) SCCM
4 8 (1.76%) WSUS
5 7 (1.54%) Ansible
6 5 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (1.10%) Failover Clustering
6 5 (1.10%) FortiGate
6 5 (1.10%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 4 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.66%) Grafana
8 3 (0.66%) OPNET
8 3 (0.66%) VxRail
9 2 (0.44%) Argo
9 2 (0.44%) SCOM
10 1 (0.22%) Podman
10 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.22%) PTC Integrity
10 1 (0.22%) SELinux
10 1 (0.22%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 28 (6.15%) Oracle
2 18 (3.96%) SAP
3 17 (3.74%) Cisco
3 17 (3.74%) VMware
4 16 (3.52%) ServiceNow
5 14 (3.08%) Apple
6 12 (2.64%) Google
7 11 (2.42%) HP
8 10 (2.20%) Databricks
9 9 (1.98%) Red Hat
10 6 (1.32%) BiZZdesign
10 6 (1.32%) Informatica
10 6 (1.32%) McAfee
11 5 (1.10%) CyberArk
11 5 (1.10%) Workday
11 5 (1.10%) Zscaler
12 4 (0.88%) Atlassian
12 4 (0.88%) InterSystems
12 4 (0.88%) Meraki
12 4 (0.88%) MuleSoft