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 8 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
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -1 +2 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 443 341 406
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 11.95% 17.37% 15.92%
As % of the Vendors category 37.29% 39.74% 35.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 247 210 243
10th Percentile £228 £203 £181
25th Percentile £380 £275 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £650
90th Percentile £730 £675 £775
England median daily rate £493 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.68% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 46 22
10th Percentile £12.80 £15.60 £12.80
25th Percentile £14.31 - £27.69
Median hourly rate £17.50 £18.87 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.26% -70.97% +33.42%
75th Percentile £25.75 £31.04 -
90th Percentile £47.99 £42.83 £85.00
England median hourly rate £18.50 £22.63 £18.13
% change year-on-year -18.25% +24.82% -21.17%

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 1,188 858 1,147
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 32.05% 43.71% 44.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 666 494 665
10th Percentile £322 £215 £222
25th Percentile £425 £350 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £504 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.22% -4.05% -
75th Percentile £610 £619 £633
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
England median daily rate £519 £507 £525
% change year-on-year +2.37% -3.43% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 114 94
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.42 £27.58
25th Percentile £16.62 £18.60 £58.81
Median hourly rate £26.07 £21.46 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +21.48% -69.34% +23.92%
75th Percentile £55.48 £38.94 -
90th Percentile £76.75 £68.00 £74.31
England median hourly rate £25.75 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +2.41% -28.16% -20.16%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 0 153 £525 +7.69% 101
Somerset -2 74 £475 +71.17% 98
Wiltshire -3 72 £575 - 84
Gloucestershire 0 64 £410 +2.50% 104
Devon 0 40 £400 +45.45% 76
Dorset -7 23 £515 +47.14% 88
Avon -1 4 - - 48
Cornwall - 2 £525 - 12
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 58 (13.09%) SharePoint
2 29 (6.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.39%) Confluence
4 5 (1.13%) CMS
5 3 (0.68%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (0.45%) Apache
6 2 (0.45%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.23%) Appian
7 1 (0.23%) ColdFusion
7 1 (0.23%) JBoss
7 1 (0.23%) Moodle
7 1 (0.23%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.23%) Totara
7 1 (0.23%) Umbraco
Applications
1 68 (15.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (13.77%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (4.51%) Microsoft Project
4 17 (3.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (2.93%) Spreadsheet
6 6 (1.35%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (1.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.35%) NetSuite
2 6 (1.35%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.35%) Oracle Receivables
3 5 (1.13%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.68%) Dynamics NAV
4 3 (0.68%) Magento
4 3 (0.68%) SAP CRM
4 3 (0.68%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.45%) assyst
5 2 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.23%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.23%) Primavera
6 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.23%) SAP Hybris
6 1 (0.23%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.23%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 148 (33.41%) Azure
2 106 (23.93%) Microsoft 365
3 53 (11.96%) Entra ID
4 41 (9.26%) Power Platform
5 33 (7.45%) Azure DevOps
6 29 (6.55%) AWS
7 26 (5.87%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (3.61%) SaaS
9 14 (3.16%) OneDrive
9 14 (3.16%) PowerApps
10 13 (2.93%) GitHub
10 13 (2.93%) Microsoft Copilot
11 12 (2.71%) Microsoft Purview
11 12 (2.71%) Power Automate
12 10 (2.26%) Azure AKS
12 10 (2.26%) Azure Functions
12 10 (2.26%) Serverless
13 9 (2.03%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 9 (2.03%) Azure Key Vault
13 9 (2.03%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 24 (5.42%) DNS
2 22 (4.97%) WAN
3 19 (4.29%) Firewall
4 17 (3.84%) DHCP
5 12 (2.71%) LAN
6 11 (2.48%) Skype
7 10 (2.26%) VPN
8 9 (2.03%) TCP/IP
9 7 (1.58%) SAN
10 6 (1.35%) Wireless
11 5 (1.13%) BGP
11 5 (1.13%) Cisco IOS
11 5 (1.13%) Ethernet
12 4 (0.90%) Kerberos
12 4 (0.90%) Network Security
12 4 (0.90%) VoIP
12 4 (0.90%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.68%) VLAN
14 2 (0.45%) Cisco ASA
14 2 (0.45%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (5.87%) Power BI
2 19 (4.29%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.93%) Geospatial Data
4 11 (2.48%) Metadata
5 10 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.58%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (1.13%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.13%) GIS
7 5 (1.13%) Oracle Database
7 5 (1.13%) Oracle Reports
8 4 (0.90%) 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
9 2 (0.45%) Tableau
10 1 (0.23%) Dremio
10 1 (0.23%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.23%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 34 (7.67%) JIRA
2 27 (6.09%) Git
3 12 (2.71%) MSI
4 8 (1.81%) Visual Studio
5 5 (1.13%) GitLab
6 4 (0.90%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.45%) AdminStudio
7 2 (0.45%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.45%) InstallShield
8 1 (0.23%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.23%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.23%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.23%) Selenium
General
1 177 (39.95%) Social Skills
2 49 (11.06%) Public Sector
3 47 (10.61%) Analytical Skills
3 47 (10.61%) Finance
4 43 (9.71%) Organisational Skills
5 27 (6.09%) Military
6 17 (3.84%) Aerospace
6 17 (3.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 15 (3.39%) Documentation Skills
8 13 (2.93%) Local Government
8 13 (2.93%) Retail
9 10 (2.26%) Manufacturing
10 8 (1.81%) Legal
11 6 (1.35%) General Ledger
12 5 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (1.13%) Marketing
13 4 (0.90%) Banking
13 4 (0.90%) Police
14 3 (0.68%) Aviation
15 2 (0.45%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 55 (12.42%) Architect
2 50 (11.29%) Consultant
3 44 (9.93%) Lead
4 36 (8.13%) Administrator
5 28 (6.32%) Analyst
6 26 (5.87%) Senior
7 24 (5.42%) Developer
8 21 (4.74%) IT Support
9 19 (4.29%) Microsoft Consultant
9 19 (4.29%) Solutions Architect
10 17 (3.84%) Support Engineer
11 15 (3.39%) Azure Consultant
11 15 (3.39%) DevOps Engineer
11 15 (3.39%) IT Engineer
12 14 (3.16%) Project Officer
13 13 (2.93%) Data Engineer
14 12 (2.71%) Coordinator
15 11 (2.48%) DBA
15 11 (2.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 11 (2.48%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (9.26%) Terraform
2 31 (7.00%) .NET
3 21 (4.74%) .NET Framework
4 19 (4.29%) REST
5 17 (3.84%) .NET Core
6 16 (3.61%) HTML
6 16 (3.61%) RESTful
7 13 (2.93%) GeoJSON
8 11 (2.48%) ATL
8 11 (2.48%) COM
8 11 (2.48%) CSS
8 11 (2.48%) CSS3
8 11 (2.48%) HTML5
8 11 (2.48%) MFC
8 11 (2.48%) WPF
9 9 (2.03%) ARM Templates
9 9 (2.03%) LDAP
10 8 (1.81%) OAuth
11 7 (1.58%) SAML
12 6 (1.35%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 35 (7.90%) Onboarding
2 23 (5.19%) Management Information System
3 22 (4.97%) Product Ownership
4 21 (4.74%) Cloud Native
5 18 (4.06%) Legacy Systems
6 16 (3.61%) Virtual Team
7 14 (3.16%) Wiki
8 13 (2.93%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.93%) Hybrid Cloud
9 12 (2.71%) Self-Motivation
10 10 (2.26%) AI Agents
11 9 (2.03%) Driving Licence
12 8 (1.81%) EPoS
13 7 (1.58%) Low-Code
13 7 (1.58%) PKI
14 6 (1.35%) Replication
15 5 (1.13%) Clustering
15 5 (1.13%) Data Centre
15 5 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
15 5 (1.13%) Freedom of Information
Operating Systems
1 101 (22.80%) Windows
2 37 (8.35%) Windows 10
3 26 (5.87%) Windows Server
4 17 (3.84%) Android
5 16 (3.61%) Linux
6 6 (1.35%) Mac OS
7 5 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.68%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.45%) VMS
9 2 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.23%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (16.93%) Continuous Improvement
2 69 (15.58%) Stakeholder Management
3 68 (15.35%) Problem-Solving
4 67 (15.12%) Agile
5 52 (11.74%) DevOps
6 51 (11.51%) Migration
7 48 (10.84%) CI/CD
7 48 (10.84%) Project Delivery
8 46 (10.38%) Customer Service
8 46 (10.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 41 (9.26%) Validation
10 40 (9.03%) Technical Leadership
11 39 (8.80%) Decision-Making
12 38 (8.58%) Infrastructure as Code
13 37 (8.35%) ITIL
14 35 (7.90%) Roadmaps
15 31 (7.00%) Project Management
16 30 (6.77%) PRINCE2
17 28 (6.32%) Analytics
17 28 (6.32%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 42 (9.48%) SQL
2 40 (9.03%) PowerShell
3 30 (6.77%) C#
4 27 (6.09%) Python
5 25 (5.64%) Bicep
6 20 (4.51%) JavaScript
7 14 (3.16%) Bash
8 12 (2.71%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.58%) Java
10 5 (1.13%) BeanShell
10 5 (1.13%) C++
10 5 (1.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.23%) Ada
11 1 (0.23%) Ada 95
11 1 (0.23%) C
11 1 (0.23%) Kusto Query Language
11 1 (0.23%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.23%) VB
11 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 176 (39.73%) Security Cleared
2 118 (26.64%) SC Cleared
3 62 (14.00%) DV Cleared
4 20 (4.51%) Degree
5 15 (3.39%) BPSS Clearance
6 13 (2.93%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (2.03%) Azure Certification
8 6 (1.35%) ACCA
8 6 (1.35%) CIMA
8 6 (1.35%) CIPD
8 6 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (1.35%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 6 (1.35%) PMP
8 6 (1.35%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 5 (1.13%) CISSP
9 5 (1.13%) DBS Check
10 3 (0.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 3 (0.68%) MCSE
10 3 (0.68%) TOGAF Certification
11 2 (0.45%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (7.22%) Data Quality
2 18 (4.06%) GDPR
2 18 (4.06%) SLA
3 17 (3.84%) Accessibility
4 16 (3.61%) NCSC
4 16 (3.61%) QA
5 15 (3.39%) PMO
6 11 (2.48%) WCAG
7 5 (1.13%) ISO 9000
8 4 (0.90%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.68%) Disclosure Scotland
9 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.68%) NIST
10 2 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.23%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.23%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.23%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.23%) MIL-STD-1553
11 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
System Software
1 77 (17.38%) Active Directory
2 27 (6.09%) Docker
3 18 (4.06%) Virtual Desktop
4 15 (3.39%) Hyper-V
4 15 (3.39%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (1.13%) vSphere
7 2 (0.45%) BitLocker
7 2 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.23%) Firmware
8 1 (0.23%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 1 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.23%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.23%) zsh
Systems Management
1 29 (6.55%) Kubernetes
2 23 (5.19%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (5.19%) SCCM
3 7 (1.58%) Ansible
3 7 (1.58%) WSUS
4 5 (1.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 5 (1.13%) Failover Clustering
4 5 (1.13%) FortiGate
4 5 (1.13%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 4 (0.90%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.68%) Grafana
6 3 (0.68%) OPNET
6 3 (0.68%) VxRail
7 2 (0.45%) Argo
7 2 (0.45%) SCOM
8 1 (0.23%) CASB
8 1 (0.23%) FreeIPA
8 1 (0.23%) Podman
8 1 (0.23%) PTC Integrity
8 1 (0.23%) SELinux
Vendors
1 26 (5.87%) Oracle
2 19 (4.29%) VMware
3 18 (4.06%) Cisco
4 17 (3.84%) SAP
5 15 (3.39%) ServiceNow
6 14 (3.16%) Apple
7 12 (2.71%) Google
8 11 (2.48%) HP
9 10 (2.26%) Databricks
10 8 (1.81%) Red Hat
11 6 (1.35%) BiZZdesign
11 6 (1.35%) Informatica
11 6 (1.35%) Workday
11 6 (1.35%) Zscaler
12 5 (1.13%) Citrix
12 5 (1.13%) CyberArk
12 5 (1.13%) MuleSoft
13 4 (0.90%) Atlassian
13 4 (0.90%) InterSystems
13 4 (0.90%) McAfee