Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 16 November 2018

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for MCSA qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 16 November 2018 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

Note that daily and hourly rates are treated separately in these statistics. When calculating contractor rate percentiles, daily rates are never derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator
UK
6 months to
16 Nov 2018		 Same period 2017 Same period 2016
Rank 604 629 645
Rank change year-on-year +25 +16 -65
Contract jobs citing MCSA 296 268 270
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 0.28% 0.26% 0.25%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.52% 1.38% 1.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 189 156 184
UK median daily rate £275 £314 £325
Median daily rate % change year-on-year -12.35% -3.46% +8.33%
10th Percentile £140 £140 £155
90th Percentile £539 £491 £524
UK excluding London median daily rate £275 £350 £325
% change year-on-year -21.43% +7.69% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 21 16
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £22.50 £21.75
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -11.11% +3.45% +29.85%
10th Percentile £15.30 £11.25 £14.97
90th Percentile £47.00 £39.75 £42.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.98 £23.75 £22.00
% change year-on-year -32.74% +7.95% +35.38%

MCSA is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK
Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 19,466 19,372 22,212
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.73% 18.83% 20.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,490 11,845 13,819
UK median daily rate £450 £425 £413
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +5.88% +3.03% +3.13%
10th Percentile £250 £223 £242
90th Percentile £625 £600 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £423 £400 £388
% change year-on-year +5.63% +3.23% +0.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 951 928 874
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £27.00 £26.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -7.41% +3.85% +4.00%
10th Percentile £12.55 £12.05 £12.14
90th Percentile £51.00 £50.00 £49.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.31 £29.00 £27.00
% change year-on-year -12.72% +7.41% +8.00%

MCSA
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MCSA as a percentage of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in contract jobs citing MCSA.

Contractor daily rate trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Contractor Daily Rate Histogram

The daily rate distribution of IT jobs citing MCSA over the 6 months to 16 November 2018.

Contractor daily rate histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for contractor hourly rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSA.

Contractor hourly rate trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Contractor Hourly Rate Histogram

The hourly rate distribution of IT jobs citing MCSA over the 6 months to 16 November 2018.

Contractor hourly rate histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCSA within the UK over the 6 months to 16 November 2018. 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
Job
Vacancies
England -8 277 £275 -12.00% 152
UK excluding London -8 199 £275 -21.43% 119
London +10 88 £275 +44.74% 42
North of England -4 60 £175 -46.15% 33
South East +9 51 £275 -21.43% 22
South West 0 36 £400 -15.79% 21
North West -12 33 £175 -44.00% 16
East of England +3 27 £388 +29.17% 13
Yorkshire +3 24 £275 -42.86% 12
Midlands -31 15 £250 -41.18% 21
Scotland -10 11 £368 +5.14% 6
West Midlands -27 8 £245 -45.56% 11
East Midlands -4 7 £255 -21.54% 10
North East -6 3 £200 -50.50% 5
Wales -21 1 £138 -43.30% 3

For the 6 months to 16 November 2018, IT contractor jobs citing MCSA also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads with a requirement for MCSA.

1 296 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 237 (80.07%) Windows
3 222 (75.00%) Microsoft
4 191 (64.53%) MCSE
5 179 (60.47%) Active Directory
6 146 (49.32%) ITIL
7 117 (39.53%) VMware
8 112 (37.84%) Windows Server
9 109 (36.82%) Office 365
10 101 (34.12%) Windows 7
11 90 (30.41%) PowerShell
12 86 (29.05%) Windows Server 2012
13 83 (28.04%) SCCM
13 83 (28.04%) Microsoft Office
14 79 (26.69%) MCP
15 75 (25.34%) VMware Infrastructure
16 73 (24.66%) Microsoft Azure
17 69 (23.31%) Windows 10
18 68 (22.97%) Cisco
19 64 (21.62%) DNS
20 62 (20.95%) Citrix
21 56 (18.92%) Cisco Certification
22 53 (17.91%) Problem-Solving
23 49 (16.55%) CCNA
23 49 (16.55%) Windows Server 2008
24 48 (16.22%) Security Cleared
25 47 (15.88%) DHCP
26 45 (15.20%) MS Exchange
26 45 (15.20%) Migration
26 45 (15.20%) Hyper-V

MCSA
Co-occurring IT Skills by Category

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

Application Platforms
1 45 (15.20%) MS Exchange
2 28 (9.46%) SharePoint
3 24 (8.11%) Exchange Server 2010
4 17 (5.74%) Skype for Business
5 16 (5.41%) Confluence
6 12 (4.05%) Exchange Server 2013
7 11 (3.72%) Exchange Server 2007
8 6 (2.03%) IIS
9 4 (1.35%) Office Communications Server
10 3 (1.01%) IBM Notes
11 2 (0.68%) BizTalk Server
11 2 (0.68%) SharePoint 2013
12 1 (0.34%) Apache Spark
12 1 (0.34%) OpenStack
Applications
1 83 (28.04%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.69%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.35%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.68%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.34%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 109 (36.82%) Office 365
2 73 (24.66%) Microsoft Azure
3 27 (9.12%) Amazon AWS
4 14 (4.73%) Azure Active Directory
5 13 (4.39%) Google Cloud Platform
6 9 (3.04%) IaaS
7 5 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
7 5 (1.69%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.35%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (1.01%) Amazon EC2
9 3 (1.01%) Amazon S3
9 3 (1.01%) GitHub
10 2 (0.68%) Google Analytics
10 2 (0.68%) SaaS
11 1 (0.34%) G Suite
11 1 (0.34%) iTunes
11 1 (0.34%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.34%) PaaS
11 1 (0.34%) Slack
11 1 (0.34%) Yammer
Communications & Networking
1 64 (21.62%) DNS
2 47 (15.88%) DHCP
3 37 (12.50%) TCP/IP
4 35 (11.82%) Firewall
5 34 (11.49%) LAN
6 33 (11.15%) VPN
7 32 (10.81%) Internet
8 30 (10.14%) WAN
9 21 (7.09%) Skype
10 18 (6.08%) Wireless
11 16 (5.41%) SAN
11 16 (5.41%) VoIP
12 11 (3.72%) Cisco IOS
13 10 (3.38%) WebEx
14 7 (2.36%) Network Security
14 7 (2.36%) Remote Desktop
14 7 (2.36%) Unified Communications
15 6 (2.03%) Intranet
15 6 (2.03%) IP Telephony
15 6 (2.03%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.47%) SQL Server
2 7 (2.36%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (2.03%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (1.69%) SQL Server 2012
5 4 (1.35%) Relational Database
6 3 (1.01%) Power BI
6 3 (1.01%) SQL Server 2005
6 3 (1.01%) SQL Server 2008
6 3 (1.01%) SQL Server 2014
7 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Analysis Services
7 2 (0.68%) MySQL
7 2 (0.68%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.68%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 2 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (0.68%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.34%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.34%) HDInsight
8 1 (0.34%) OLAP
8 1 (0.34%) SQL Server 2016
Development Applications
1 19 (6.42%) JIRA
2 13 (4.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
3 4 (1.35%) Git (software)
3 4 (1.35%) Team Foundation Server
3 4 (1.35%) Visual Studio
4 3 (1.01%) Bitbucket
4 3 (1.01%) CF BOSH
4 3 (1.01%) GitLab
4 3 (1.01%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.68%) HP UFT
5 2 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.34%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.34%) JMeter
6 1 (0.34%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.34%) MSI
6 1 (0.34%) Selenium
6 1 (0.34%) TestDirector
6 1 (0.34%) WinRunner
General
1 32 (10.81%) Finance
2 9 (3.04%) Automotive
3 8 (2.70%) Manufacturing
4 7 (2.36%) Retail
4 7 (2.36%) Spanish Language
5 6 (2.03%) Banking
5 6 (2.03%) Telecoms
6 5 (1.69%) Military
7 4 (1.35%) Marketing
8 2 (0.68%) Advertising
8 2 (0.68%) Back Office
8 2 (0.68%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.34%) Electronics
9 1 (0.34%) Front Office
9 1 (0.34%) International Banking
9 1 (0.34%) Law
Job Titles
1 58 (19.59%) Analyst
2 40 (13.51%) Support Engineer
3 36 (12.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 28 (9.46%) 2nd Line Support
4 28 (9.46%) IT Support
5 27 (9.12%) Desktop Support
5 27 (9.12%) Service Analyst
5 27 (9.12%) Service Desk Analyst
6 18 (6.08%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 17 (5.74%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 17 (5.74%) Support Analyst
8 13 (4.39%) PowerShell Engineer
9 12 (4.05%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 12 (4.05%) 3rd Line Support
9 12 (4.05%) Automation Engineer
10 11 (3.72%) IT Engineer
11 10 (3.38%) Desktop Analyst
11 10 (3.38%) Service Desk Engineer
11 10 (3.38%) Technical Engineer
11 10 (3.38%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (3.38%) REST
2 6 (2.03%) .NET
3 5 (1.69%) HTML
4 4 (1.35%) HTML5
4 4 (1.35%) Silverlight
4 4 (1.35%) WPF
5 3 (1.01%) 802.1X
5 3 (1.01%) Node.js
6 2 (0.68%) Middleware
7 1 (0.34%) RabbitMQ
7 1 (0.34%) RESTful
7 1 (0.34%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (12.50%) Data Centre
2 26 (8.78%) Management Information System
2 26 (8.78%) Video Conferencing
3 22 (7.43%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (6.42%) Computer Science
5 16 (5.41%) Blackberry
6 13 (4.39%) PKI
7 12 (4.05%) iPhone
8 10 (3.38%) iPad
8 10 (3.38%) Replication
9 9 (3.04%) Driving Licence
10 8 (2.70%) Public Cloud
10 8 (2.70%) Smartphone
11 7 (2.36%) Hybrid Cloud
12 6 (2.03%) Client/Server
12 6 (2.03%) Mobile App
12 6 (2.03%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.69%) Clustering
14 4 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
14 4 (1.35%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 237 (80.07%) Windows
2 112 (37.84%) Windows Server
3 101 (34.12%) Windows 7
4 86 (29.05%) Windows Server 2012
5 69 (23.31%) Windows 10
6 49 (16.55%) Windows Server 2008
7 28 (9.46%) Windows XP
8 24 (8.11%) Linux
9 20 (6.76%) Unix
10 16 (5.41%) Mac OS X
11 14 (4.73%) Windows 2000
11 14 (4.73%) Windows Vista
12 10 (3.38%) Windows Server 2003
13 8 (2.70%) Android
13 8 (2.70%) Apple iOS
14 4 (1.35%) Windows 8
15 3 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 3 (1.01%) Windows Mobile
16 2 (0.68%) CentOS
17 1 (0.34%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (49.32%) ITIL
2 53 (17.91%) Problem-Solving
3 45 (15.20%) Migration
4 41 (13.85%) Change Management
4 41 (13.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 41 (13.85%) ITIL V3
5 36 (12.16%) Agile Software Development
6 21 (7.09%) ITSM
7 20 (6.76%) Root Cause Analysis
8 16 (5.41%) Change Control
8 16 (5.41%) PRINCE2
9 15 (5.07%) Service Management
10 14 (4.73%) Analytics
10 14 (4.73%) Decision-Making
10 14 (4.73%) Incident Management
11 13 (4.39%) Reverse Engineering
12 12 (4.05%) Disaster Recovery
12 12 (4.05%) Service Delivery
13 11 (3.72%) Continuous Improvement
13 11 (3.72%) NsoIT
Programming Languages
1 90 (30.41%) PowerShell
2 32 (10.81%) SQL
3 11 (3.72%) VB
4 10 (3.38%) Python
5 6 (2.03%) Java
6 5 (1.69%) C#
7 4 (1.35%) Bash Shell
7 4 (1.35%) VBScript
8 3 (1.01%) Ruby
8 3 (1.01%) T-SQL
9 2 (0.68%) Perl
9 2 (0.68%) R
10 1 (0.34%) C
10 1 (0.34%) Korn
10 1 (0.34%) PHP
10 1 (0.34%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 296 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 191 (64.53%) MCSE
3 79 (26.69%) MCP
4 56 (18.92%) Cisco Certification
5 49 (16.55%) CCNA
6 48 (16.22%) Security Cleared
7 39 (13.18%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 37 (12.50%) SC Cleared
9 32 (10.81%) Degree
10 23 (7.77%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 20 (6.76%) MCITP
12 18 (6.08%) A+ Certification
12 18 (6.08%) DV Cleared
13 17 (5.74%) ITIL Certification
14 16 (5.41%) MCTS
14 16 (5.41%) Oracle Certification
15 15 (5.07%) OCA
16 14 (4.73%) HNC
17 12 (4.05%) DBS Check
18 10 (3.38%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (14.86%) SLA
2 12 (4.05%) QA
3 4 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.68%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.68%) GDPR
5 1 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 179 (60.47%) Active Directory
2 75 (25.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (15.20%) Hyper-V
4 17 (5.74%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (5.07%) vSphere
6 14 (4.73%) XenDesktop
7 13 (4.39%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (3.38%) Virtual Servers
8 10 (3.38%) XenApp
9 7 (2.36%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (2.03%) BitLocker
11 5 (1.69%) Terminal Services
11 5 (1.69%) XenServer
12 4 (1.35%) Terminal Server
13 3 (1.01%) Firmware
13 3 (1.01%) Forefront TMG
13 3 (1.01%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (1.01%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 3 (1.01%) UAG
13 3 (1.01%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 83 (28.04%) SCCM
2 25 (8.45%) vCenter Server
3 23 (7.77%) WSUS
4 13 (4.39%) Microsoft Intune
4 13 (4.39%) SCOM
5 12 (4.05%) PowerCLI
6 7 (2.36%) McAfee ePO
7 6 (2.03%) AirWatch
7 6 (2.03%) SCVMM
8 5 (1.69%) Norton AntiVirus
9 4 (1.35%) CASB
9 4 (1.35%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (1.35%) Forefront Identity Manager
9 4 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (1.01%) Ansible
10 3 (1.01%) Failover Clustering
10 3 (1.01%) NetBackup
10 3 (1.01%) Opscode Chef
10 3 (1.01%) Puppet
10 3 (1.01%) Terraform
Vendors
1 222 (75.00%) Microsoft
2 117 (39.53%) VMware
3 68 (22.97%) Cisco
4 62 (20.95%) Citrix
5 33 (11.15%) Apple
6 27 (9.12%) McAfee
7 24 (8.11%) Oracle
8 16 (5.41%) HP
9 15 (5.07%) Google
10 13 (4.39%) Avaya
11 12 (4.05%) Atlassian
11 12 (4.05%) Veeam
12 10 (3.38%) Polycom
13 9 (3.04%) Altiris
13 9 (3.04%) ServiceNow
14 7 (2.36%) NetApp
14 7 (2.36%) Symantec
14 7 (2.36%) Wyse
15 6 (2.03%) EMC
15 6 (2.03%) Sophos