Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 14 November 2018

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for MCTS qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 14 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 Technology Specialist (MCTS)
UK
6 months to
14 Nov 2018		 Same period 2017 Same period 2016
Rank 837 826 733
Rank change year-on-year -11 -93 -17
Contract jobs citing MCTS 61 60 159
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 0.058% 0.058% 0.15%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.31% 0.31% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 41 43 112
UK median daily rate £300 £375 £320
Median daily rate % change year-on-year -20.00% +17.19% -
10th Percentile £175 £238 £156
90th Percentile £484 £525 £436
UK excluding London median daily rate £300 £375 £320
% change year-on-year -20.00% +17.19% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 4 8
UK median hourly rate £23.13 £25.63 £14.93
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -9.74% +71.63% -19.30%
10th Percentile £21.86 £16.25 £11.67
90th Percentile £24.40 £135.29 £19.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £25.00 £14.86
% change year-on-year - +68.24% -24.76%

MCTS 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 19,498 19,400 22,140
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.68% 18.83% 20.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,524 11,861 13,777
UK median daily rate £450 £425 £413
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +5.88% +3.03% +3.13%
10th Percentile £250 £221 £240
90th Percentile £625 £600 £588
UK excluding London median daily rate £420 £400 £388
% change year-on-year +5.00% +3.23% +1.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 955 932 856
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £26.35 £26.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -5.11% +1.33% +4.00%
10th Percentile £12.75 £12.00 £12.25
90th Percentile £51.15 £50.00 £49.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.21 £28.25 £27.00
% change year-on-year -7.24% +4.63% +8.00%

MCTS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for MCTS in the UK

MCTS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate trend for MCTS in the UK

MCTS
Contractor Daily Rate Histogram

The daily rate distribution of IT jobs citing MCTS over the 6 months to 14 November 2018.

Contractor daily rate histogram for MCTS in the UK

MCTS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate trend for MCTS in the UK

MCTS
Top 12 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCTS within the UK over the 6 months to 14 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 +17 59 £316 -15.67% 17
UK excluding London -18 32 £300 -20.00% 15
London -5 27 £218 -47.27% 4
South East -3 13 £388 +3.33% 3
North of England +3 12 £175 -36.36% 6
North West - 10 £175 - 6
Midlands -13 5 £140 -63.87% 1
West Midlands -34 3 £140 -63.87% 1
East Midlands +15 2 - -
Yorkshire -11 2 - -
East of England - 2 £175 - 2
Scotland -21 1 £280 -26.32% 1

For the 6 months to 14 November 2018, IT contractor jobs citing MCTS 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 MCTS.

1 61 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 49 (80.33%) Microsoft
3 47 (77.05%) Windows
4 38 (62.30%) Active Directory
5 31 (50.82%) ITIL
6 27 (44.26%) MCSE
6 27 (44.26%) MCITP
6 27 (44.26%) PowerShell
7 25 (40.98%) VMware
8 23 (37.70%) MCP
9 22 (36.07%) SCCM
10 20 (32.79%) Citrix
11 19 (31.15%) Windows 7
11 19 (31.15%) Office 365
12 16 (26.23%) Cisco
12 16 (26.23%) Problem-Solving
13 15 (24.59%) MCSA
13 15 (24.59%) VMware Infrastructure
14 14 (22.95%) Security Cleared
15 13 (21.31%) Microsoft Azure
15 13 (21.31%) SQL
15 13 (21.31%) Service Management
15 13 (21.31%) Wireless
16 12 (19.67%) SLA
16 12 (19.67%) Windows Server
17 11 (18.03%) Data Centre
17 11 (18.03%) Hyper-V
17 11 (18.03%) Change Management
18 10 (16.39%) Clustering
18 10 (16.39%) Altiris

MCTS
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 8 (13.11%) SharePoint
2 7 (11.48%) MS Exchange
3 3 (4.92%) Exchange Server 2007
3 3 (4.92%) Exchange Server 2010
3 3 (4.92%) Exchange Server 2013
3 3 (4.92%) Office Communications Server
3 3 (4.92%) SharePoint 2010
3 3 (4.92%) SharePoint 2013
3 3 (4.92%) Skype for Business
4 1 (1.64%) Cloud Foundry
Applications
1 7 (11.48%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (3.28%) ReMetrica
1 2 (3.28%) SAP GTS
1 2 (3.28%) Towers Watson Igloo
Cloud Services
1 19 (31.15%) Office 365
2 13 (21.31%) Microsoft Azure
3 4 (6.56%) Azure Active Directory
4 3 (4.92%) Amazon AWS
4 3 (4.92%) IaaS
4 3 (4.92%) PaaS
5 1 (1.64%) SaaS
5 1 (1.64%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 13 (21.31%) Wireless
2 9 (14.75%) TCP/IP
2 9 (14.75%) VPN
3 8 (13.11%) DHCP
3 8 (13.11%) DNS
4 7 (11.48%) Unified Communications
5 4 (6.56%) Firewall
6 3 (4.92%) DMZ
6 3 (4.92%) Skype
7 2 (3.28%) Cisco ASA
7 2 (3.28%) LAN
7 2 (3.28%) VoIP
7 2 (3.28%) WAN
8 1 (1.64%) Internet
8 1 (1.64%) SMTP
8 1 (1.64%) VLAN
8 1 (1.64%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (16.39%) SQL Server
2 5 (8.20%) SQL Server Analysis Services
2 5 (8.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 3 (4.92%) Microsoft Analysis Services
3 3 (4.92%) SQL Server 2012
3 3 (4.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 1 (1.64%) Big Data
4 1 (1.64%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (1.64%) HDInsight
4 1 (1.64%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (1.64%) HP UFT
1 1 (1.64%) Subversion
1 1 (1.64%) Team Foundation Server
1 1 (1.64%) TestDirector
1 1 (1.64%) WinRunner
General
1 2 (3.28%) Telecoms
2 1 (1.64%) Advertising
2 1 (1.64%) Back Office
2 1 (1.64%) Law
2 1 (1.64%) Military
2 1 (1.64%) Retail
Job Titles
1 12 (19.67%) IT Support
2 8 (13.11%) Analyst
3 7 (11.48%) Support Engineer
4 6 (9.84%) Architect
5 5 (8.20%) Desktop Engineer
5 5 (8.20%) Desktop Support
5 5 (8.20%) Desktop Support Engineer
5 5 (8.20%) Support Analyst
6 4 (6.56%) Senior Desktop Engineer
6 4 (6.56%) Senior Desktop Support
6 4 (6.56%) Senior Desktop Support Engineer
6 4 (6.56%) Senior Support Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) AWS Architect
7 3 (4.92%) Field Engineer
7 3 (4.92%) Infrastructure Architect
7 3 (4.92%) IT Support Analyst
7 3 (4.92%) SharePoint Architect
7 3 (4.92%) SharePoint Solutions Architect
7 3 (4.92%) Virtualisation Specialist
7 3 (4.92%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (4.92%) OAuth
1 3 (4.92%) SAML
2 1 (1.64%) .NET
2 1 (1.64%) .NET Framework
2 1 (1.64%) Entity Framework
2 1 (1.64%) REST
2 1 (1.64%) SOAP
2 1 (1.64%) Web Services
2 1 (1.64%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (18.03%) Data Centre
2 10 (16.39%) Clustering
3 9 (14.75%) Driving Licence
4 7 (11.48%) VxBlock/Vblock
5 5 (8.20%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (4.92%) Computer Science
6 3 (4.92%) Fat Client
6 3 (4.92%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (4.92%) Thin Client
7 2 (3.28%) Enterprise Cloud
7 2 (3.28%) Replication
8 1 (1.64%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (1.64%) Cloud Native
8 1 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (1.64%) Management Information System
8 1 (1.64%) PDA
8 1 (1.64%) PMI
8 1 (1.64%) User Experience
Operating Systems
1 47 (77.05%) Windows
2 19 (31.15%) Windows 7
3 12 (19.67%) Windows Server
4 10 (16.39%) Windows XP
5 9 (14.75%) Windows Server 2008
6 7 (11.48%) Windows 10
7 6 (9.84%) Windows Server 2012
8 4 (6.56%) Mac OS X
8 4 (6.56%) Mac OS X Server
8 4 (6.56%) Windows Server 2003
9 2 (3.28%) Windows 8
10 1 (1.64%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (50.82%) ITIL
2 16 (26.23%) Problem-Solving
3 13 (21.31%) Service Management
4 11 (18.03%) Change Management
5 10 (16.39%) Incident Management
5 10 (16.39%) Patch Management
6 9 (14.75%) PRINCE2
6 9 (14.75%) Problem Management
7 8 (13.11%) Disaster Recovery
7 8 (13.11%) Migration
8 7 (11.48%) Root Cause Analysis
8 7 (11.48%) Server Building
8 7 (11.48%) Server Management
8 7 (11.48%) Task Automation
9 6 (9.84%) Decision-Making
9 6 (9.84%) TOGAF
10 5 (8.20%) Customer Engagement
11 4 (6.56%) Agile Software Development
11 4 (6.56%) Continuous Improvement
11 4 (6.56%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 27 (44.26%) PowerShell
2 13 (21.31%) SQL
3 10 (16.39%) VB
4 2 (3.28%) C#
5 1 (1.64%) Java
5 1 (1.64%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.64%) Python
5 1 (1.64%) T-SQL
5 1 (1.64%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 61 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 27 (44.26%) MCITP
2 27 (44.26%) MCSE
3 23 (37.70%) MCP
4 15 (24.59%) MCSA
5 14 (22.95%) Security Cleared
6 10 (16.39%) Degree
7 9 (14.75%) CCNA
7 9 (14.75%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (14.75%) PRINCE2 Certification
8 7 (11.48%) CCA
8 7 (11.48%) Citrix Certification
8 7 (11.48%) DV Cleared
8 7 (11.48%) VCAP
8 7 (11.48%) VCP4
8 7 (11.48%) VCP5
8 7 (11.48%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 5 (8.20%) CCNP
9 5 (8.20%) SC Cleared
10 4 (6.56%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (19.67%) SLA
2 2 (3.28%) PMO
2 2 (3.28%) QA
System Software
1 38 (62.30%) Active Directory
2 15 (24.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (18.03%) Hyper-V
4 8 (13.11%) vSphere
5 7 (11.48%) vCloud
5 7 (11.48%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (11.48%) XenServer
6 5 (8.20%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (1.64%) BitLocker
7 1 (1.64%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 22 (36.07%) SCCM
2 9 (14.75%) vCenter Server
3 7 (11.48%) Cisco CUCM
3 7 (11.48%) SCVMM
4 4 (6.56%) Forefront Identity Manager
5 3 (4.92%) CA Single Sign-On
5 3 (4.92%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (4.92%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (4.92%) WSUS
6 2 (3.28%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (3.28%) Microsoft Clustering
7 1 (1.64%) EnCase
7 1 (1.64%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (1.64%) Sysprep
7 1 (1.64%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 49 (80.33%) Microsoft
2 25 (40.98%) VMware
3 20 (32.79%) Citrix
4 16 (26.23%) Cisco
5 10 (16.39%) Altiris
6 5 (8.20%) Ivanti
7 4 (6.56%) Apple
7 4 (6.56%) SAP
8 3 (4.92%) CA
8 3 (4.92%) CheckPoint
8 3 (4.92%) IronPort
8 3 (4.92%) McAfee
8 3 (4.92%) Palo Alto
9 2 (3.28%) Meraki
10 1 (1.64%) Aruba
10 1 (1.64%) CommVault
10 1 (1.64%) Forcepoint
10 1 (1.64%) HP
10 1 (1.64%) Qualys
10 1 (1.64%) Veritas