Microsoft Contract Job Trends in Staffordshire

Microsoft
West Midlands > Staffordshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Staffordshire 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 9 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
9 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 2 7
Rank change year-on-year -2 +5 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 12 14 9
As % of all contract jobs in Staffordshire 14.63% 21.88% 8.74%
As % of the Vendors category 30.00% 56.00% 22.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 10 4
10th Percentile £164 - £172
25th Percentile £272 £140 £230
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £320 £388 £400
Median % change year-on-year -17.42% -3.13% +128.57%
75th Percentile £419 £400 £547
90th Percentile £479 £491 £564
West Midlands median daily rate £463 £425 £432
% change year-on-year +8.82% -1.62% -7.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 3
10th Percentile - - £13.34
25th Percentile - £12.25 £16.97
Median hourly rate - £12.50 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year - -45.65% -
75th Percentile - £12.75 £30.88
90th Percentile - - £35.60
West Midlands median hourly rate £25.00 £24.50 £14.00
% change year-on-year +2.04% +75.00% -12.34%

All Vendors
Staffordshire

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 Staffordshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 40 25 40
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Staffordshire 48.78% 39.06% 38.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 28 17 24
10th Percentile £250 - £153
25th Percentile £318 £140 £247
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £410 £400 £363
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +10.34% -13.43%
75th Percentile £455 £488 £500
90th Percentile £575 £510 £575
West Midlands median daily rate £475 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 8
10th Percentile - - £13.57
25th Percentile - £12.25 £14.71
Median hourly rate - £12.50 £15.61
Median % change year-on-year - -19.90% -68.47%
75th Percentile - £12.75 £26.94
90th Percentile - - £47.38
West Midlands median hourly rate £27.21 £19.00 £19.95
% change year-on-year +43.21% -4.76% +10.83%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in Staffordshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Staffordshire.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in Staffordshire

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in Staffordshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Staffordshire citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Staffordshire citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in Staffordshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in Staffordshire over the 6 months to 9 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in Staffordshire

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in Staffordshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Staffordshire citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Staffordshire citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in Staffordshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the Staffordshire region over the 6 months to 9 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
Uttoxeter +4 5 £325 +132.14%
Stoke-on-Trent -3 4 £300 -25.00% 7
Stafford +2 3 £320 - 6
Microsoft
West Midlands

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Staffordshire 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 1 (8.33%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 5 (41.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (25.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (8.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (8.33%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (8.33%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 2 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
1 2 (16.67%) Power Platform
2 1 (8.33%) Azure
2 1 (8.33%) Azure Logic Apps
2 1 (8.33%) Azure Service Bus
2 1 (8.33%) Dynamics 365
2 1 (8.33%) IaaS
2 1 (8.33%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (8.33%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (8.33%) Delta Lake
1 1 (8.33%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (8.33%) Power BI
1 1 (8.33%) Spark SQL
1 1 (8.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
1 1 (8.33%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 3 (25.00%) JIRA
2 1 (8.33%) AdminStudio
2 1 (8.33%) InstallShield
2 1 (8.33%) MSI
General
1 8 (66.67%) Social Skills
2 3 (25.00%) Electronics
2 3 (25.00%) Finance
3 2 (16.67%) Local Government
3 2 (16.67%) Organisational Skills
3 2 (16.67%) Public Sector
4 1 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (8.33%) Legal
Job Titles
1 3 (25.00%) Lead
2 2 (16.67%) Validation Engineer
2 2 (16.67%) Verification Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Consultant
3 1 (8.33%) Data Analytics Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Data Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Deployment Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Finance Manager
3 1 (8.33%) Finance Systems Manager
3 1 (8.33%) IT Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) IT Technician
3 1 (8.33%) Performance Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Project Manager
3 1 (8.33%) SAP Manager
3 1 (8.33%) SAP Project Manager
3 1 (8.33%) SCCM Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Service Desk Technician
3 1 (8.33%) Validation Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (8.33%) .NET
1 1 (8.33%) ASP.NET Web API
1 1 (8.33%) PySpark
1 1 (8.33%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 2 (16.67%) Driving Licence
2 1 (8.33%) Enterprise Software
2 1 (8.33%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 2 (16.67%) Windows
1 2 (16.67%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (41.67%) Problem-Solving
2 4 (33.33%) Agile
3 3 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 3 (25.00%) GAP Analysis
3 3 (25.00%) Migration
3 3 (25.00%) Scrum
3 3 (25.00%) SDLC
3 3 (25.00%) Test Management
3 3 (25.00%) Validation
3 3 (25.00%) Verification and Validation
3 3 (25.00%) V-Model
4 2 (16.67%) Business Intelligence
4 2 (16.67%) Computer Science
4 2 (16.67%) ITIL
4 2 (16.67%) Performance Tuning
4 2 (16.67%) Process Improvement
4 2 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
5 1 (8.33%) Cash Management
5 1 (8.33%) Performance Testing
5 1 (8.33%) SAP Implementation
Programming Languages
1 3 (25.00%) MATLAB
1 3 (25.00%) SQL
2 1 (8.33%) C#
2 1 (8.33%) JavaScript
2 1 (8.33%) PowerShell
2 1 (8.33%) TypeScript
2 1 (8.33%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 5 (41.67%) Degree
2 2 (16.67%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (8.33%) CCAB
3 1 (8.33%) CIPFA
3 1 (8.33%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (8.33%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (25.00%) ISO/IEC 12207
1 3 (25.00%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 1 (8.33%) Data Quality
System Software
1 1 (8.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (16.67%) SCCM
2 1 (8.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (8.33%) WSUS
Vendors
1 2 (16.67%) SAP
2 1 (8.33%) Ariba
2 1 (8.33%) Databricks
2 1 (8.33%) Lotus