Microsoft Contracts in the UK excluding London

Microsoft
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London 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 15 June 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
15 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 +1 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 2,206 2,956 3,589
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 16.43% 13.83% 15.79%
As % of the Vendors category 33.29% 32.98% 35.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,378 1,816 2,547
10th Percentile £193 £175 £170
25th Percentile £256 £266 £278
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £460 £450
Median % change year-on-year -7.61% +2.22% +5.88%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £575
90th Percentile £603 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 437 148
10th Percentile £14.20 £11.06 £13.11
25th Percentile £15.13 £13.00 £15.25
Median hourly rate £18.87 £15.00 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.80% -25.00% +21.21%
75th Percentile £30.63 £25.25 £38.75
90th Percentile £50.00 £59.53 £56.75
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £15.97 £25.00
% change year-on-year +25.23% -36.12% +42.86%

All Vendors
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 6,627 8,962 10,184
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 49.36% 41.93% 44.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,088 5,337 6,920
10th Percentile £220 £213 £205
25th Percentile £363 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £479 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.20% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £581 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 491 1,010 431
10th Percentile £14.42 £12.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.95 £14.40 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.00 £21.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.98% -33.85% +66.67%
75th Percentile £50.00 £59.95 £59.54
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.00 £70.26
UK median hourly rate £25.77 £22.57 £41.98
% change year-on-year +14.18% -46.23% +95.24%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Microsoft as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft in the UK excluding London

Microsoft
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft in the UK excluding London

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 15 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the UK excluding London

Microsoft
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft in the UK excluding London

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 15 June 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the UK excluding London

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 15 June 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
North of England -1 584 £425 -5.56% 1,428
South East +1 488 £456 -3.95% 2,512
North West -2 369 £425 -8.36% 799
Midlands -2 345 £400 -1.23% 874
South West 0 275 £425 -15.00% 585
West Midlands 0 245 £400 -3.61% 468
Scotland -6 227 £430 +22.86% 364
East of England +2 225 £500 +16.96% 552
Yorkshire +1 171 £413 -2.94% 461
East Midlands 0 98 £380 -5.00% 372
Wales -2 51 £300 -41.46% 175
North East -1 44 £340 +4.62% 172
Northern Ireland -6 35 £325 -40.91% 108
Channel Islands - 2 £298 - 86
Microsoft
UK

Microsoft
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 269 (12.19%) SharePoint
2 206 (9.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 59 (2.67%) Confluence
4 29 (1.31%) Skype for Business
5 18 (0.82%) IIS
6 15 (0.68%) IBM Domino
7 11 (0.50%) Apache
7 11 (0.50%) Exchange Server 2013
7 11 (0.50%) Tomcat
8 8 (0.36%) Exchange Server 2010
8 8 (0.36%) Mattermost
8 8 (0.36%) SharePoint Server
9 7 (0.32%) CMS
10 6 (0.27%) BizTalk Server
11 5 (0.23%) JBoss
11 5 (0.23%) SAS
11 5 (0.23%) WebSphere
12 4 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2003
12 4 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
12 4 (0.18%) WebLogic
Applications
1 392 (17.77%) Microsoft Office
2 291 (13.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 152 (6.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 54 (2.45%) MS Visio
5 49 (2.22%) Microsoft Project
6 16 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.23%) Adobe Captivate
7 5 (0.23%) Chatbot
7 5 (0.23%) Maya
8 3 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.091%) InfoPath
9 2 (0.091%) Trello
10 1 (0.045%) 1Password
10 1 (0.045%) Acrobat
10 1 (0.045%) Adobe Premiere
10 1 (0.045%) CANalyzer
10 1 (0.045%) CATIA
10 1 (0.045%) Maple
10 1 (0.045%) Siemens NX
10 1 (0.045%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 42 (1.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 14 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.32%) Kondor
4 6 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.27%) SAP PM
5 5 (0.23%) assyst
5 5 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
6 4 (0.18%) Maximo
6 4 (0.18%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
7 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.14%) Primavera
7 3 (0.14%) SAP Oil and Gas
8 2 (0.091%) Finacle
8 2 (0.091%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.091%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 2 (0.091%) Sage CRM
8 2 (0.091%) SAP BPC
8 2 (0.091%) SAP ECC
8 2 (0.091%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 592 (26.84%) Azure
2 578 (26.20%) Microsoft 365
3 219 (9.93%) Power Platform
4 212 (9.61%) Entra ID
5 127 (5.76%) AWS
6 101 (4.58%) Dynamics 365
7 92 (4.17%) Azure DevOps
8 85 (3.85%) PowerApps
9 75 (3.40%) Power Automate
10 65 (2.95%) GCP
11 60 (2.72%) OneDrive
12 49 (2.22%) IaaS
13 48 (2.18%) SaaS
14 41 (1.86%) Microsoft Purview
15 36 (1.63%) PaaS
16 31 (1.41%) Azure Sentinel
17 30 (1.36%) Azure Data Factory
18 25 (1.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 21 (0.95%) Cohesity
20 18 (0.82%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 171 (7.75%) Firewall
2 143 (6.48%) DNS
3 126 (5.71%) VPN
4 93 (4.22%) DHCP
5 74 (3.35%) SAN
6 64 (2.90%) LAN
7 60 (2.72%) WAN
8 55 (2.49%) Network Security
9 54 (2.45%) TCP/IP
10 50 (2.27%) Wi-Fi
11 39 (1.77%) Skype
12 32 (1.45%) Ethernet
13 28 (1.27%) Internet
14 27 (1.22%) Unified Communications
14 27 (1.22%) WebEx
15 25 (1.13%) Remote Desktop
15 25 (1.13%) Wireless
16 23 (1.04%) Cisco IOS
17 21 (0.95%) Intrusion Detection
17 21 (0.95%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 139 (6.30%) Power BI
2 126 (5.71%) SQL Server
3 41 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
4 36 (1.63%) Azure SQL Database
5 31 (1.41%) Metadata
6 27 (1.22%) Relational Database
7 23 (1.04%) Big Data
8 21 (0.95%) Oracle Database
8 21 (0.95%) Tableau
9 20 (0.91%) PostgreSQL
10 18 (0.82%) Data Lake
10 18 (0.82%) NoSQL
11 15 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
11 15 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 14 (0.63%) MySQL
12 14 (0.63%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 13 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
13 13 (0.59%) GIS
14 11 (0.50%) Power Query
14 11 (0.50%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 108 (4.90%) JIRA
2 56 (2.54%) Git
3 35 (1.59%) Visual Studio
4 33 (1.50%) Jenkins
5 19 (0.86%) MSI
6 17 (0.77%) Postman
7 15 (0.68%) Maven
8 13 (0.59%) Eclipse
8 13 (0.59%) Selenium
9 12 (0.54%) GitLab
10 10 (0.45%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (0.41%) Subversion
12 8 (0.36%) Bitbucket
13 7 (0.32%) Hudson
13 7 (0.32%) webpack
14 6 (0.27%) ERwin
14 6 (0.27%) IntelliJ
14 6 (0.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
15 5 (0.23%) Babel
15 5 (0.23%) PowerDesigner
General
1 921 (41.75%) Social Skills
2 402 (18.22%) Finance
3 302 (13.69%) Analytical Skills
4 229 (10.38%) Public Sector
5 99 (4.49%) Organisational Skills
6 89 (4.03%) Banking
7 80 (3.63%) Telecoms
8 78 (3.54%) Legal
9 71 (3.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 67 (3.04%) Manufacturing
11 59 (2.67%) Presentation Skills
12 50 (2.27%) Retail
13 48 (2.18%) Documentation Skills
14 28 (1.27%) Automotive
14 28 (1.27%) Military
15 26 (1.18%) Marketing
16 23 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
17 21 (0.95%) Games
18 19 (0.86%) Law
19 16 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 368 (16.68%) Analyst
2 213 (9.66%) Support Engineer
3 179 (8.11%) Architect
4 160 (7.25%) Developer
5 134 (6.07%) IT Support
6 112 (5.08%) Desktop Support
7 103 (4.67%) Consultant
8 102 (4.62%) Senior
9 96 (4.35%) Desktop Engineer
10 87 (3.94%) Service Analyst
11 84 (3.81%) IT Engineer
12 80 (3.63%) Support Analyst
13 74 (3.35%) Desktop Support Engineer
14 72 (3.26%) Service Desk Analyst
15 71 (3.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 67 (3.04%) Lead
17 61 (2.77%) Project Manager
17 61 (2.77%) Solutions Architect
18 59 (2.67%) Administrator
18 59 (2.67%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.81%) .NET
2 43 (1.95%) HTML
3 41 (1.86%) CSS
4 39 (1.77%) Web Services
5 30 (1.36%) REST
6 26 (1.18%) React
7 25 (1.13%) RESTful
8 24 (1.09%) SOAP
9 20 (0.91%) JSON
10 19 (0.86%) .NET Framework
10 19 (0.86%) OAuth
11 18 (0.82%) XML
12 16 (0.73%) AngularJS
13 15 (0.68%) .NET Core
13 15 (0.68%) Node.js
13 15 (0.68%) OpenID
13 15 (0.68%) Spring
14 14 (0.63%) SAML
15 13 (0.59%) LDAP
15 13 (0.59%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 72 (3.26%) Management Information System
2 69 (3.13%) Driving Licence
3 63 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
4 56 (2.54%) Product Ownership
5 55 (2.49%) PKI
6 46 (2.09%) Data Centre
7 42 (1.90%) Onboarding
8 33 (1.50%) Security Posture
9 29 (1.31%) iPhone
10 28 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
11 26 (1.18%) Cloud Native
11 26 (1.18%) Hybrid Cloud
11 26 (1.18%) Smartphone
12 25 (1.13%) Clustering
12 25 (1.13%) Legacy Systems
13 23 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
14 19 (0.86%) Replication
14 19 (0.86%) Virtual Team
15 18 (0.82%) Analytical Mindset
16 16 (0.73%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 698 (31.64%) Windows
2 200 (9.07%) Windows 10
3 190 (8.61%) Windows Server
4 154 (6.98%) Linux
5 74 (3.35%) Mac OS
6 58 (2.63%) Windows Server 2016
7 56 (2.54%) Windows Server 2019
8 53 (2.40%) Unix
9 48 (2.18%) Android
10 40 (1.81%) Windows 7
11 35 (1.59%) Windows Server 2012
12 25 (1.13%) Apple iOS
13 23 (1.04%) Windows Server 2003
14 15 (0.68%) Ubuntu
14 15 (0.68%) VMS
15 12 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 9 (0.41%) Windows XP
17 8 (0.36%) Windows Server 2008
18 7 (0.32%) CentOS
19 6 (0.27%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 575 (26.07%) Problem-Solving
2 341 (15.46%) Agile
3 338 (15.32%) ITIL
4 305 (13.83%) Customer Service
5 210 (9.52%) DevOps
6 200 (9.07%) Migration
7 158 (7.16%) Business Intelligence
8 156 (7.07%) Stakeholder Management
9 154 (6.98%) ITSM
9 154 (6.98%) Project Management
10 148 (6.71%) Cybersecurity
11 132 (5.98%) Incident Management
12 129 (5.85%) Service Delivery
12 129 (5.85%) Service Management
13 127 (5.76%) Continuous Improvement
14 114 (5.17%) Analytics
15 109 (4.94%) Change Management
16 108 (4.90%) Project Delivery
17 104 (4.71%) Collaborative Working
18 101 (4.58%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 281 (12.74%) PowerShell
2 264 (11.97%) SQL
3 132 (5.98%) Python
4 105 (4.76%) C#
5 80 (3.63%) Java
6 75 (3.40%) JavaScript
7 26 (1.18%) VB
8 22 (1.00%) Bash
9 21 (0.95%) C++
10 20 (0.91%) Bicep
11 18 (0.82%) Kusto Query Language
11 18 (0.82%) PL/SQL
11 18 (0.82%) Shell Script
12 15 (0.68%) T-SQL
13 13 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 13 (0.59%) TypeScript
13 13 (0.59%) VBA
14 10 (0.45%) Delphi
15 8 (0.36%) PHP
15 8 (0.36%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 403 (18.27%) Security Cleared
2 292 (13.24%) SC Cleared
3 258 (11.70%) Degree
4 204 (9.25%) Microsoft Certification
5 102 (4.62%) DV Cleared
6 66 (2.99%) Azure Certification
7 61 (2.77%) A+ Certification
8 57 (2.58%) Cisco Certification
9 51 (2.31%) Computer Science Degree
10 40 (1.81%) MCSE
11 33 (1.50%) ITIL Certification
11 33 (1.50%) MCSA
12 30 (1.36%) CCNP
13 28 (1.27%) CCNA
14 27 (1.22%) AWS Certification
14 27 (1.22%) Dell Certification
15 23 (1.04%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 20 (0.91%) BPSS Clearance
16 20 (0.91%) ISTQB
16 20 (0.91%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (4.71%) SLA
2 58 (2.63%) GDPR
3 56 (2.54%) QA
4 50 (2.27%) PMO
5 44 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 43 (1.95%) Data Quality
7 21 (0.95%) Accessibility
7 21 (0.95%) NIST
8 19 (0.86%) HIPAA
9 13 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (0.59%) Disclosure Scotland
10 12 (0.54%) PCI DSS
11 11 (0.50%) GRC
12 10 (0.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 8 (0.36%) NCSC
13 8 (0.36%) SOC 2
14 6 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 6 (0.27%) GxP
15 5 (0.23%) MiFID
16 3 (0.14%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 555 (25.16%) Active Directory
2 130 (5.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 43 (1.95%) vSphere
4 42 (1.90%) Hyper-V
5 39 (1.77%) Docker
6 38 (1.72%) VMware ESXi
7 31 (1.41%) Virtual Servers
8 28 (1.27%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 25 (1.13%) BitLocker
9 25 (1.13%) Virtual Machines
10 19 (0.86%) Virtual Desktop
11 14 (0.63%) Microsoft App-V
12 10 (0.45%) Terminal Services
13 9 (0.41%) DFS Replication
13 9 (0.41%) NFS
13 9 (0.41%) XenApp
13 9 (0.41%) XenDesktop
14 6 (0.27%) Firmware
15 5 (0.23%) VMware NSX
16 4 (0.18%) Brightmail
Systems Management
1 212 (9.61%) Microsoft Intune
2 171 (7.75%) SCCM
3 69 (3.13%) Ansible
3 69 (3.13%) Terraform
4 54 (2.45%) WSUS
5 46 (2.09%) Kubernetes
6 45 (2.04%) Jamf Pro
7 27 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
8 25 (1.13%) SCOM
8 25 (1.13%) vCenter Server
9 24 (1.09%) Puppet
10 23 (1.04%) Microsoft Clustering
11 14 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 11 (0.50%) Nagios
13 10 (0.45%) Grafana
13 10 (0.45%) vMotion
14 8 (0.36%) Progress Chef
14 8 (0.36%) Prometheus
15 7 (0.32%) Tivoli Identity Manager
16 6 (0.27%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 190 (8.61%) ServiceNow
2 185 (8.39%) VMware
3 134 (6.07%) Cisco
4 96 (4.35%) Citrix
5 92 (4.17%) Oracle
6 76 (3.45%) SAP
7 75 (3.40%) Apple
8 73 (3.31%) HP
9 70 (3.17%) Google
9 70 (3.17%) Splunk
10 58 (2.63%) Dell
11 37 (1.68%) Veeam
12 32 (1.45%) Salesforce
13 31 (1.41%) Databricks
14 30 (1.36%) NetApp
15 26 (1.18%) Meraki
16 24 (1.09%) IBM
16 24 (1.09%) Red Hat
17 23 (1.04%) Atlassian
18 22 (1.00%) Juniper