Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 14 May 2021

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 14 May 2021 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 Certification
UK
6 months to
14 May 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 305 242 291
Rank change year-on-year -63 +49 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 454 535 864
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.79% 1.06% 0.95%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.85% 4.61% 4.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 318 552
10th Percentile £184 £163 £158
25th Percentile £313 £281 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £415 £388
Median % change year-on-year +2.41% +7.10% +10.71%
75th Percentile £520 £500 £500
90th Percentile £575 £575 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £420 £380
% change year-on-year +1.19% +10.53% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 39 70
10th Percentile £13.38 £14.48 £12.13
25th Percentile £15.00 £15.85 £14.60
Median hourly rate £21.11 £19.50 £17.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.23% +14.71% +4.94%
75th Percentile £31.88 £25.74 £33.40
90th Percentile £65.90 £42.84 £33.51
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.00 £17.86 £17.00
% change year-on-year +6.41% +5.03% +5.59%

Microsoft Certification 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 11,781 11,597 17,503
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 20.62% 23.00% 19.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,696 7,444 10,996
10th Percentile £305 £263 £263
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £468
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% +1.60% +3.89%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £563
90th Percentile £655 £650 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £440
% change year-on-year - +2.27% +7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 577 467 736
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.75 £12.66
25th Percentile £20.00 £18.00 £17.07
Median hourly rate £39.50 £31.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.42% +3.33% +38.06%
75th Percentile £51.25 £50.00 £46.61
90th Percentile £63.75 £57.50 £52.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.55 £26.15 £27.98
% change year-on-year +39.78% -6.52% +24.33%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Microsoft Certification as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification.

Daily rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification over the 6 months to 14 May 2021.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Microsoft Certification.

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Certification over the 6 months to 14 May 2021.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the UK over the 6 months to 14 May 2021. 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 -57 325 £425 - 251
UK excluding London -17 281 £425 +1.19% 203
London -61 109 £420 +5.00% 71
Work from Home -169 109 £445 +4.71% 68
South East -1 92 £448 +9.82% 56
Scotland -5 62 £425 +6.25% 17
East of England +43 47 £475 +0.14% 17
North of England +7 31 £390 -2.50% 37
Midlands -31 22 £425 - 50
North West +1 20 £400 +23.08% 24
West Midlands -22 19 £525 -1.87% 27
South West +10 13 £325 -27.78% 20
Wales +12 11 £438 +2.94% 5
Yorkshire +28 10 £250 -41.18% 9
East Midlands 0 3 £303 -3.20% 23
Northern Ireland 0 3 £155 -3.13% 1
North East +10 1 £455 +10.30% 4

For the 6 months to 14 May 2021, IT contractor jobs citing Microsoft Certification 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 Microsoft Certification.

1 333 (73.35%) Microsoft
2 214 (47.14%) Windows
3 199 (43.83%) MCSE
4 172 (37.89%) Active Directory
5 163 (35.90%) Microsoft 365
6 152 (33.48%) ITIL
6 152 (33.48%) Security Cleared
7 132 (29.07%) Azure
8 131 (28.85%) Social Skills
9 127 (27.97%) VMware
10 114 (25.11%) Windows Server
11 109 (24.01%) Migration
12 106 (23.35%) SC Cleared
13 105 (23.13%) PowerShell
14 101 (22.25%) VMware Infrastructure
15 94 (20.70%) MCSA
16 91 (20.04%) Degree
17 84 (18.50%) Citrix
17 84 (18.50%) Windows 10
18 81 (17.84%) DNS
19 78 (17.18%) Cisco
20 74 (16.30%) SCCM
21 65 (14.32%) Microsoft Office
22 64 (14.10%) Cisco Certification
23 63 (13.88%) SharePoint
24 59 (13.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
25 56 (12.33%) DevOps
26 53 (11.67%) DHCP
26 53 (11.67%) Computer Science
26 53 (11.67%) DV Cleared

Microsoft Certification
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 63 (13.88%) SharePoint
2 46 (10.13%) MS Exchange
3 34 (7.49%) Exchange Server 2010
4 31 (6.83%) Exchange Server 2013
5 20 (4.41%) Skype for Business
6 17 (3.74%) Exchange Server 2003
7 16 (3.52%) Exchange Server 2007
8 11 (2.42%) OpenStack
9 9 (1.98%) ArcGIS
10 7 (1.54%) IIS
10 7 (1.54%) Office Communications Server
10 7 (1.54%) SAS
11 4 (0.88%) IBM Notes
11 4 (0.88%) SharePoint 2010
12 3 (0.66%) SharePoint 2013
12 3 (0.66%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 1 (0.22%) Tomcat
13 1 (0.22%) WebSphere
13 1 (0.22%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 65 (14.32%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (5.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (4.63%) MS Visio
4 9 (1.98%) Photoshop
5 7 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.66%) InfoPath
8 2 (0.44%) PTC Creo
8 2 (0.44%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 15 (3.30%) Teamcenter
2 8 (1.76%) Dynamics AX
3 1 (0.22%) assyst
3 1 (0.22%) ION MarketView
3 1 (0.22%) Sentinel
3 1 (0.22%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 163 (35.90%) Microsoft 365
2 132 (29.07%) Azure
3 31 (6.83%) AWS
3 31 (6.83%) Azure Active Directory
4 22 (4.85%) PaaS
5 20 (4.41%) IaaS
6 17 (3.74%) Power Platform
7 12 (2.64%) OneDrive
8 11 (2.42%) Dynamics 365
8 11 (2.42%) SaaS
9 10 (2.20%) PowerApps
10 8 (1.76%) GCP
11 6 (1.32%) Azure Data Factory
11 6 (1.32%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.32%) Power Automate
12 5 (1.10%) Azure Service Bus
13 4 (0.88%) Azure Functions
13 4 (0.88%) Cloud Computing
13 4 (0.88%) Serverless
14 3 (0.66%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 81 (17.84%) DNS
2 53 (11.67%) DHCP
3 41 (9.03%) Firewall
4 39 (8.59%) LAN
5 37 (8.15%) WAN
6 33 (7.27%) NetScaler
7 32 (7.05%) VPN
8 24 (5.29%) TCP/IP
9 23 (5.07%) SAN
9 23 (5.07%) Skype
10 22 (4.85%) Kerberos
11 20 (4.41%) VLAN
11 20 (4.41%) X.500
12 19 (4.19%) Wi-Fi
13 16 (3.52%) SMTP
14 15 (3.30%) SNMP
15 14 (3.08%) IPsec
15 14 (3.08%) POP3
16 12 (2.64%) HTTP
16 12 (2.64%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (9.47%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.64%) Azure SQL Database
3 11 (2.42%) Power BI
4 9 (1.98%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (1.98%) SQL Server 2014
5 8 (1.76%) Big Data
5 8 (1.76%) GIS
5 8 (1.76%) SQL Server 2012
6 6 (1.32%) Data Lake
6 6 (1.32%) SQL Server 2016
7 4 (0.88%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.66%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.66%) SQL Server 2008
8 3 (0.66%) SQL Server Analysis Services
8 3 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.44%) MySQL
9 2 (0.44%) Oracle Database
10 1 (0.22%) DB2
Development Applications
1 15 (3.30%) JIRA
2 6 (1.32%) Visual Studio
3 4 (0.88%) Burp Suite
3 4 (0.88%) Git (software)
3 4 (0.88%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.66%) MSI
4 3 (0.66%) Visual Studio Team System
5 2 (0.44%) eggPlant
5 2 (0.44%) HP UFT
5 2 (0.44%) Hudson
5 2 (0.44%) LoadRunner
5 2 (0.44%) VSS/SourceSafe
6 1 (0.22%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.22%) InstallShield
6 1 (0.22%) MSTest
6 1 (0.22%) Selenium
General
1 131 (28.85%) Social Skills
2 47 (10.35%) Analytical Skills
2 47 (10.35%) Public Sector
3 26 (5.73%) Finance
4 16 (3.52%) Banking
5 14 (3.08%) Retail
6 11 (2.42%) Manufacturing
7 10 (2.20%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (2.20%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (1.54%) Back Office
9 6 (1.32%) Investment Banking
10 5 (1.10%) Law
10 5 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
10 5 (1.10%) Telecoms
11 3 (0.66%) Electronics
11 3 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.66%) Legal
11 3 (0.66%) Marketing
12 2 (0.44%) General Ledger
12 2 (0.44%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 55 (12.11%) Consultant
2 48 (10.57%) Analyst
2 48 (10.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 38 (8.37%) Architect
4 28 (6.17%) Support Engineer
5 23 (5.07%) Developer
6 22 (4.85%) Service Analyst
7 21 (4.63%) Service Desk Analyst
8 17 (3.74%) Azure Consultant
9 15 (3.30%) Wintel Engineer
10 14 (3.08%) Administrator
10 14 (3.08%) IT Support
10 14 (3.08%) Support Analyst
11 13 (2.86%) Active Directory Engineer
11 13 (2.86%) Network Engineer
12 12 (2.64%) IT Engineer
13 11 (2.42%) 3rd Line Engineer
13 11 (2.42%) Systems Administrator
14 9 (1.98%) Desktop Analyst
14 9 (1.98%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (4.85%) 802.1X
1 22 (4.85%) LDAP
2 13 (2.86%) .NET
3 10 (2.20%) Itk
4 6 (1.32%) RESTful
5 5 (1.10%) AngularJS
5 5 (1.10%) ASP.NET Web API
5 5 (1.10%) OAuth
5 5 (1.10%) REST
6 4 (0.88%) Elastic Stack
6 4 (0.88%) HTML
7 3 (0.66%) CGI
7 3 (0.66%) Web Services
7 3 (0.66%) XML
8 2 (0.44%) ADO
8 2 (0.44%) COM
8 2 (0.44%) CSS
8 2 (0.44%) jQuery
8 2 (0.44%) SAML
8 2 (0.44%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 30 (6.61%) Data Centre
2 26 (5.73%) Replication
3 22 (4.85%) Self-Motivation
4 19 (4.19%) Management Information System
4 19 (4.19%) PKI
5 15 (3.30%) Enterprise Software
5 15 (3.30%) NHS
6 8 (1.76%) Clustering
6 8 (1.76%) Greenfield Project
7 6 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
7 6 (1.32%) iPad
7 6 (1.32%) Mobile App
7 6 (1.32%) User Experience
8 5 (1.10%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.10%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (0.88%) Blackberry
9 4 (0.88%) Fat Client
9 4 (0.88%) Freedom of Information
9 4 (0.88%) Freedom of Information Act
9 4 (0.88%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 214 (47.14%) Windows
2 114 (25.11%) Windows Server
3 84 (18.50%) Windows 10
4 50 (11.01%) Windows Server 2012
5 41 (9.03%) Windows Server 2008
6 39 (8.59%) Linux
7 34 (7.49%) Windows 7
8 33 (7.27%) Windows Server 2016
9 21 (4.63%) Windows Server 2019
10 20 (4.41%) Windows Server 2003
11 16 (3.52%) Mac OS
12 8 (1.76%) Unix
13 4 (0.88%) AIX
13 4 (0.88%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.88%) Kali Linux
14 3 (0.66%) Windows 8
14 3 (0.66%) Windows XP
15 2 (0.44%) Android
15 2 (0.44%) Oracle Linux
16 1 (0.22%) Windows 2000 Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (33.48%) ITIL
2 109 (24.01%) Migration
3 59 (13.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 56 (12.33%) DevOps
5 53 (11.67%) Computer Science
6 51 (11.23%) Problem-Solving
7 48 (10.57%) Agile Software Development
8 36 (7.93%) Virtual Environments
9 34 (7.49%) Load Balancing
10 32 (7.05%) Service Management
11 28 (6.17%) Change Management
12 25 (5.51%) Virtual Infrastructure
13 22 (4.85%) Customer Requirements
13 22 (4.85%) Incident Management
14 20 (4.41%) ITIL V3
15 19 (4.19%) Analytics
15 19 (4.19%) Continuous Integration
15 19 (4.19%) Data Migration
15 19 (4.19%) Disaster Recovery
15 19 (4.19%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 105 (23.13%) PowerShell
2 50 (11.01%) SQL
3 16 (3.52%) VB
4 15 (3.30%) C
5 11 (2.42%) Java
6 10 (2.20%) C#
7 9 (1.98%) Python
8 7 (1.54%) VBScript
9 6 (1.32%) T-SQL
10 4 (0.88%) Bash Shell
10 4 (0.88%) JavaScript
10 4 (0.88%) PHP
10 4 (0.88%) Ruby
11 3 (0.66%) Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
12 2 (0.44%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.22%) C++
13 1 (0.22%) Formula Language
13 1 (0.22%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 199 (43.83%) MCSE
2 152 (33.48%) Security Cleared
3 106 (23.35%) SC Cleared
4 94 (20.70%) MCSA
5 91 (20.04%) Degree
6 64 (14.10%) Cisco Certification
7 53 (11.67%) DV Cleared
8 48 (10.57%) MCP
9 46 (10.13%) CCNA
10 45 (9.91%) Computer Science Degree
11 37 (8.15%) MCITP
12 34 (7.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 32 (7.05%) Citrix Certification
14 26 (5.73%) ITIL Certification
15 25 (5.51%) CCNP
16 19 (4.19%) A+ Certification
17 17 (3.74%) CISSP
18 16 (3.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
19 15 (3.30%) MCAD
20 9 (1.98%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (9.47%) SLA
2 25 (5.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (1.54%) PCI DSS
3 7 (1.54%) QA
4 6 (1.32%) GDPR
4 6 (1.32%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 5 (1.10%) NIST
6 4 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (0.88%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.66%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.22%) ISO 9000
8 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 1 (0.22%) SOC 2
System Software
1 172 (37.89%) Active Directory
2 101 (22.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (7.27%) XenApp
4 31 (6.83%) VMware ESXi
5 28 (6.17%) Hyper-V
6 17 (3.74%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 13 (2.86%) vSphere
8 11 (2.42%) Microsoft App-V
9 10 (2.20%) VMware NSX
10 7 (1.54%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (1.54%) XenDesktop
11 6 (1.32%) Terminal Services
11 6 (1.32%) Virtual Desktop
12 5 (1.10%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.66%) Firmware
13 3 (0.66%) vCloud
14 2 (0.44%) Docker
14 2 (0.44%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.44%) VMware Server
Systems Management
1 74 (16.30%) SCCM
2 25 (5.51%) Microsoft Intune
3 23 (5.07%) Ansible
4 14 (3.08%) OpenView Configuration Management
5 12 (2.64%) WSUS
6 11 (2.42%) AirWatch
6 11 (2.42%) SCOM
7 8 (1.76%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
7 8 (1.76%) NetBackup
7 8 (1.76%) vCenter Server
7 8 (1.76%) vRealize
8 6 (1.32%) Backup Exec
9 5 (1.10%) DameWare
9 5 (1.10%) Nessus
9 5 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.88%) Kubernetes
10 4 (0.88%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.66%) vMotion
11 3 (0.66%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 333 (73.35%) Microsoft
2 127 (27.97%) VMware
3 84 (18.50%) Citrix
4 78 (17.18%) Cisco
5 42 (9.25%) HP
6 30 (6.61%) ServiceNow
7 24 (5.29%) Oracle
8 22 (4.85%) Dell
9 17 (3.74%) Apple
9 17 (3.74%) Veeam
10 16 (3.52%) Siemens
11 14 (3.08%) Google
11 14 (3.08%) Lumension
12 13 (2.86%) NetApp
13 12 (2.64%) IronPort
13 12 (2.64%) SAP
14 11 (2.42%) Juniper
14 11 (2.42%) Sophos
15 9 (1.98%) ESRI
15 9 (1.98%) SolarWinds