Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 25 September 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 25 September 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
25 Sep 2018		 Same period 2017 Same period 2016
Rank 643 638 588
Rank change year-on-year -5 -50 +7
Contract jobs citing MCSA 264 230 324
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 0.26% 0.23% 0.31%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.38% 1.24% 1.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 172 132 213
UK median daily rate £275 £319 £335
Median daily rate % change year-on-year -13.73% -4.85% +6.77%
10th Percentile £145 £140 £173
90th Percentile £493 £475 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £275 £325 £336
% change year-on-year -15.38% -3.35% +10.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 25 21
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £16.50 £35.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +21.21% -52.86% +100.00%
10th Percentile £15.30 £11.10 £14.43
90th Percentile £45.43 £39.35 £44.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.50 £22.50 £35.50
% change year-on-year -26.67% -36.62% +97.22%

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 19,074 18,582 22,660
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.55% 18.91% 21.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,269 11,265 14,091
UK median daily rate £450 £425 £408
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +5.88% +4.29% +1.88%
10th Percentile £243 £235 £240
90th Percentile £625 £600 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £415 £400 £380
% change year-on-year +3.75% +5.26% +1.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 971 899 819
UK median hourly rate £24.50 £29.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -15.52% +5.45% +22.22%
10th Percentile £12.75 £12.06 £12.25
90th Percentile £51.00 £50.71 £47.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £32.00 £27.61
% change year-on-year -21.88% +15.90% +15.04%

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 25 September 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 25 September 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 25 September 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 +10 247 £275 -13.73% 139
UK excluding London +3 183 £275 -15.38% 115
London -11 74 £275 +39.95% 30
South West +21 41 £313 +5.04% 14
North of England -10 41 £218 -33.08% 39
South East -40 39 £200 -42.86% 27
East of England +1 32 £350 -12.50% 16
North West -24 21 £175 -44.00% 22
Yorkshire -11 17 £300 -4.00% 14
Midlands -21 17 £290 -14.07% 13
Scotland -18 10 £372 +6.14% 4
East Midlands +4 9 £238 -13.64% 3
West Midlands -26 8 £290 -25.16% 10
North East -12 3 £200 -50.50% 3
Wales -17 3 £206 +87.50% 2

For the 6 months to 25 September 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.

1 264 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 205 (77.65%) Windows
3 196 (74.24%) Microsoft
4 152 (57.58%) Active Directory
5 149 (56.44%) MCSE
6 125 (47.35%) ITIL
7 102 (38.64%) VMware
8 99 (37.50%) Windows Server
9 91 (34.47%) Windows 7
10 84 (31.82%) Office 365
11 81 (30.68%) SCCM
12 72 (27.27%) Microsoft Office
13 67 (25.38%) VMware Infrastructure
14 65 (24.62%) Windows Server 2012
15 64 (24.24%) Microsoft Azure
15 64 (24.24%) MCP
16 62 (23.48%) PowerShell
17 57 (21.59%) Cisco
18 55 (20.83%) Citrix
19 51 (19.32%) Windows 10
20 48 (18.18%) Windows Server 2008
21 47 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
22 46 (17.42%) Data Centre
22 46 (17.42%) Cisco Certification
23 44 (16.67%) DNS
24 43 (16.29%) MS Exchange
25 42 (15.91%) ITIL V3
26 40 (15.15%) DHCP
26 40 (15.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
27 38 (14.39%) CCNA

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 43 (16.29%) MS Exchange
2 29 (10.98%) SharePoint
3 18 (6.82%) Exchange Server 2010
4 15 (5.68%) Skype for Business
5 9 (3.41%) Confluence
6 8 (3.03%) Exchange Server 2013
7 6 (2.27%) Exchange Server 2007
8 4 (1.52%) IIS
9 3 (1.14%) IBM Notes
10 2 (0.76%) OpenStack
11 1 (0.38%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 72 (27.27%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.14%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.76%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 84 (31.82%) Office 365
2 64 (24.24%) Microsoft Azure
3 22 (8.33%) Amazon AWS
4 16 (6.06%) Azure Active Directory
5 10 (3.79%) IaaS
6 4 (1.52%) OneDrive
7 3 (1.14%) Amazon EC2
7 3 (1.14%) Amazon S3
7 3 (1.14%) Cloud Computing
7 3 (1.14%) GitHub
7 3 (1.14%) Google Cloud Platform
8 2 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (0.76%) PaaS
8 2 (0.76%) SaaS
9 1 (0.38%) Azure Machine Learning
9 1 (0.38%) G Suite
9 1 (0.38%) iTunes
9 1 (0.38%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.38%) Slack
9 1 (0.38%) Yammer
Communications & Networking
1 44 (16.67%) DNS
2 40 (15.15%) DHCP
3 35 (13.26%) TCP/IP
4 33 (12.50%) Firewall
5 28 (10.61%) Internet
5 28 (10.61%) LAN
5 28 (10.61%) VPN
6 24 (9.09%) WAN
7 16 (6.06%) Skype
7 16 (6.06%) VoIP
8 15 (5.68%) SAN
8 15 (5.68%) Wireless
9 9 (3.41%) Cisco IOS
10 8 (3.03%) Network Security
10 8 (3.03%) WebEx
11 6 (2.27%) ADSL
11 6 (2.27%) VLAN
12 5 (1.89%) DMZ
12 5 (1.89%) Remote Desktop
13 4 (1.52%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (9.85%) SQL Server
2 8 (3.03%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (2.27%) SQL Server 2012
4 4 (1.52%) SQL Server 2005
4 4 (1.52%) SQL Server 2008
5 3 (1.14%) MySQL
6 2 (0.76%) Big Data
6 2 (0.76%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.76%) SQL Server 2014
6 2 (0.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (0.76%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.38%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.38%) Hadoop
7 1 (0.38%) HDInsight
7 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Analysis Services
7 1 (0.38%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.38%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.38%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 1 (0.38%) VLDB
Development Applications
1 10 (3.79%) Atlassian Bamboo
1 10 (3.79%) JIRA
2 3 (1.14%) Bitbucket
2 3 (1.14%) CF BOSH
2 3 (1.14%) GitLab
2 3 (1.14%) HP UFT
3 2 (0.76%) TestDirector
3 2 (0.76%) WinRunner
4 1 (0.38%) Cucumber
4 1 (0.38%) GCC
4 1 (0.38%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.38%) JMeter
4 1 (0.38%) Metasploit
4 1 (0.38%) MSI
4 1 (0.38%) Selenium
General
1 24 (9.09%) Finance
2 11 (4.17%) Manufacturing
3 10 (3.79%) Telecoms
4 8 (3.03%) Marketing
4 8 (3.03%) Retail
5 7 (2.65%) Automotive
5 7 (2.65%) Banking
5 7 (2.65%) Spanish Language
6 5 (1.89%) Advertising
7 2 (0.76%) Back Office
7 2 (0.76%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.38%) Electronics
8 1 (0.38%) Front Office
8 1 (0.38%) International Banking
8 1 (0.38%) Law
Job Titles
1 57 (21.59%) Analyst
2 35 (13.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 26 (9.85%) IT Support
3 26 (9.85%) Service Analyst
3 26 (9.85%) Service Desk Analyst
3 26 (9.85%) Support Engineer
4 21 (7.95%) 2nd Line Support
5 17 (6.44%) Desktop Support
6 15 (5.68%) Support Analyst
7 13 (4.92%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 12 (4.55%) IT Engineer
9 11 (4.17%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 11 (4.17%) Consultant
10 10 (3.79%) Architect
10 10 (3.79%) Automation Engineer
10 10 (3.79%) Desktop Analyst
10 10 (3.79%) PowerShell Engineer
10 10 (3.79%) Server Engineer
11 9 (3.41%) IT Analyst
11 9 (3.41%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.03%) REST
2 3 (1.14%) .NET
2 3 (1.14%) Node.js
3 1 (0.38%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.38%) HTML
3 1 (0.38%) Middleware
3 1 (0.38%) RabbitMQ
3 1 (0.38%) RESTful
3 1 (0.38%) SAML
3 1 (0.38%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 46 (17.42%) Data Centre
2 18 (6.82%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (6.44%) Video Conferencing
4 15 (5.68%) Computer Science
5 14 (5.30%) Management Information System
6 13 (4.92%) Blackberry
7 10 (3.79%) iPhone
7 10 (3.79%) Replication
8 9 (3.41%) Client/Server
8 9 (3.41%) Driving Licence
8 9 (3.41%) PKI
8 9 (3.41%) Public Cloud
9 8 (3.03%) iPad
9 8 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (2.65%) Clustering
11 6 (2.27%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (2.27%) Smartphone
12 4 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
12 4 (1.52%) Fat Client
12 4 (1.52%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 205 (77.65%) Windows
2 99 (37.50%) Windows Server
3 91 (34.47%) Windows 7
4 65 (24.62%) Windows Server 2012
5 51 (19.32%) Windows 10
6 48 (18.18%) Windows Server 2008
7 28 (10.61%) Windows XP
8 26 (9.85%) Linux
9 17 (6.44%) Unix
10 10 (3.79%) Mac OS X
10 10 (3.79%) Windows 2000
10 10 (3.79%) Windows Vista
11 6 (2.27%) Android
11 6 (2.27%) Apple iOS
12 5 (1.89%) AIX
12 5 (1.89%) Windows Server 2003
13 4 (1.52%) CentOS
13 4 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (1.52%) Windows 8
14 3 (1.14%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (47.35%) ITIL
2 47 (17.80%) Problem-Solving
3 42 (15.91%) ITIL V3
4 40 (15.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 38 (14.39%) Migration
6 36 (13.64%) Change Management
7 20 (7.58%) Agile Software Development
8 16 (6.06%) PRINCE2
9 13 (4.92%) Incident Management
10 12 (4.55%) Decision-Making
10 12 (4.55%) ITSM
10 12 (4.55%) Service Management
11 11 (4.17%) Configuration Management
12 10 (3.79%) Analytics
12 10 (3.79%) Asset Management
12 10 (3.79%) Root Cause Analysis
12 10 (3.79%) Service Delivery
12 10 (3.79%) Validation
13 9 (3.41%) Disaster Recovery
13 9 (3.41%) Reverse Engineering
Programming Languages
1 62 (23.48%) PowerShell
2 27 (10.23%) SQL
3 11 (4.17%) VB
4 7 (2.65%) Python
5 4 (1.52%) Bash Shell
5 4 (1.52%) Java
5 4 (1.52%) VBScript
6 3 (1.14%) Ruby
6 3 (1.14%) T-SQL
7 2 (0.76%) C#
7 2 (0.76%) Perl
7 2 (0.76%) VB.NET
8 1 (0.38%) C
8 1 (0.38%) Korn
8 1 (0.38%) PHP
8 1 (0.38%) R
Qualifications
1 264 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 149 (56.44%) MCSE
3 64 (24.24%) MCP
4 46 (17.42%) Cisco Certification
5 38 (14.39%) CCNA
5 38 (14.39%) Security Cleared
6 31 (11.74%) SC Cleared
7 30 (11.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 24 (9.09%) Degree
9 18 (6.82%) MCITP
10 16 (6.06%) A+ Certification
11 14 (5.30%) DV Cleared
11 14 (5.30%) MCTS
12 13 (4.92%) ITIL Certification
12 13 (4.92%) Oracle Certification
13 12 (4.55%) OCA
14 11 (4.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 10 (3.79%) HNC
15 10 (3.79%) PRINCE2 Certification
16 9 (3.41%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (13.64%) SLA
2 13 (4.92%) QA
3 4 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.76%) GDPR
5 1 (0.38%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.38%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 152 (57.58%) Active Directory
2 67 (25.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (14.39%) Hyper-V
4 20 (7.58%) vSphere
5 16 (6.06%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (3.79%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (3.03%) XenApp
8 7 (2.65%) XenDesktop
9 6 (2.27%) BitLocker
9 6 (2.27%) Terminal Services
10 5 (1.89%) Virtual Servers
11 4 (1.52%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (1.14%) Firmware
12 3 (1.14%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 3 (1.14%) VMware Server
13 2 (0.76%) Terminal Server
13 2 (0.76%) VMware NSX
14 1 (0.38%) Oracle RAC
14 1 (0.38%) XenServer
Systems Management
1 81 (30.68%) SCCM
2 25 (9.47%) WSUS
3 17 (6.44%) vCenter Server
4 14 (5.30%) SCOM
5 9 (3.41%) PowerCLI
6 8 (3.03%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (2.65%) McAfee ePO
8 5 (1.89%) HP Data Protector
8 5 (1.89%) Microsoft Clustering
8 5 (1.89%) Norton AntiVirus
9 4 (1.52%) AirWatch
9 4 (1.52%) CASB
9 4 (1.52%) EMC NetWorker
9 4 (1.52%) Forefront Identity Manager
10 3 (1.14%) Ansible
10 3 (1.14%) HP Quality Center
10 3 (1.14%) Opscode Chef
10 3 (1.14%) Puppet
10 3 (1.14%) SCSM
10 3 (1.14%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 196 (74.24%) Microsoft
2 102 (38.64%) VMware
3 57 (21.59%) Cisco
4 55 (20.83%) Citrix
5 29 (10.98%) McAfee
6 20 (7.58%) Apple
7 18 (6.82%) Oracle
8 14 (5.30%) HP
8 14 (5.30%) ServiceNow
9 9 (3.41%) Altiris
9 9 (3.41%) Atlassian
9 9 (3.41%) EMC
9 9 (3.41%) NetApp
9 9 (3.41%) Veeam
10 8 (3.03%) Symantec
11 7 (2.65%) Remedy
12 6 (2.27%) Avaya
12 6 (2.27%) Dell
12 6 (2.27%) Sophos
13 5 (1.89%) Veritas