Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 19 March 2019

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 19 March 2019 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
19 Mar 2019		 Same period 2018 Same period 2017
Rank 256 259 250
Rank change year-on-year +3 -9 -36
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 991 1,029 972
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 1.02% 1.02% 1.05%
As % of the Qualifications category 5.26% 5.33% 5.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 605 626 641
UK median daily rate £400 £350 £325
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +14.29% +7.69% -
10th Percentile £163 £153 £130
90th Percentile £600 £538 £519
UK excluding London median daily rate £389 £349 £325
% change year-on-year +11.47% +7.31% -1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 62 73
UK median hourly rate £18.50 £15.77 £17.40
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +17.31% -9.37% +2.35%
10th Percentile £13.13 £11.02 £11.47
90th Percentile £34.29 £25.00 £47.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.25 £15.17 £19.00
% change year-on-year +13.71% -20.16% +11.76%

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 18,826 19,288 19,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.46% 19.12% 20.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,291 11,712 12,254
UK median daily rate £450 £450 £425
Median daily rate % change year-on-year - +5.88% +5.59%
10th Percentile £263 £230 £250
90th Percentile £638 £625 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £408 £400
% change year-on-year +4.29% +1.88% +3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 853 865 915
UK median hourly rate £29.90 £25.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +19.60% -9.09% -0.58%
10th Percentile £12.50 £12.25 £12.00
90th Percentile £51.00 £50.00 £51.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £26.25 £27.75
% change year-on-year +4.76% -5.41% -10.19%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Histogram

The daily rate distribution of IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification over the 6 months to 19 March 2019.

Contractor daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Histogram

The hourly rate distribution of IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification over the 6 months to 19 March 2019.

Contractor hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Top 16 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 19 March 2019. 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 +7 901 £400 +14.29% 672
UK excluding London +4 675 £389 +11.47% 562
London -1 292 £410 +17.14% 171
South East +5 260 £400 +14.29% 143
North of England +5 110 £330 +10.00% 133
South West +13 100 £394 -17.11% 64
Midlands +2 93 £360 +4.35% 126
North West +15 53 £345 -25.41% 65
East of England -1 51 £400 +33.33% 35
East Midlands +16 49 £355 +4.41% 51
West Midlands -5 44 £413 +18.62% 74
Scotland -18 41 £350 +8.53% 37
Yorkshire +2 40 £358 +19.17% 55
Wales -29 18 £450 +12.50% 12
North East -8 17 £300 +5.26% 13
Northern Ireland +2 4 - - 12

For the 6 months to 19 March 2019, 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.

1 736 (74.27%) Microsoft
2 650 (65.59%) Windows
3 580 (58.53%) MCSE
4 467 (47.12%) Active Directory
5 342 (34.51%) ITIL
6 325 (32.80%) Windows Server
7 318 (32.09%) VMware
8 296 (29.87%) MCSA
9 288 (29.06%) Office 365
10 229 (23.11%) Microsoft Azure
11 211 (21.29%) SCCM
12 209 (21.09%) PowerShell
13 199 (20.08%) VMware Infrastructure
14 197 (19.88%) Cisco
15 195 (19.68%) Windows Server 2012
16 189 (19.07%) Cisco Certification
17 186 (18.77%) DNS
18 183 (18.47%) Security Cleared
18 183 (18.47%) Windows 10
19 181 (18.26%) Windows 7
20 172 (17.36%) Citrix
21 170 (17.15%) SQL Server
22 165 (16.65%) Microsoft Office
23 164 (16.55%) CCNA
24 163 (16.45%) Migration
25 149 (15.04%) MCP
26 144 (14.53%) SQL
27 141 (14.23%) SC Cleared
28 127 (12.82%) Problem-Solving
29 126 (12.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)

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
1 125 (12.61%) MS Exchange
2 124 (12.51%) SharePoint
3 67 (6.76%) Skype for Business
4 43 (4.34%) IIS
5 30 (3.03%) Exchange Server 2010
6 23 (2.32%) SharePoint 2013
7 19 (1.92%) Confluence
7 19 (1.92%) Exchange Server 2013
8 18 (1.82%) SharePoint Server
9 16 (1.61%) Exchange Server 2007
10 13 (1.31%) SharePoint 2010
11 10 (1.01%) CMS
12 9 (0.91%) Apache
13 8 (0.81%) BizTalk Server
13 8 (0.81%) OpenStack
14 6 (0.61%) Apache Pig
14 6 (0.61%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
14 6 (0.61%) Drupal
14 6 (0.61%) Office Communications Server
15 5 (0.50%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 165 (16.65%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (3.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.51%) MS Visio
4 10 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.91%) InfoPath
6 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.10%) Acrobat
8 1 (0.10%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 34 (3.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.01%) Dynamics AX
3 3 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
3 3 (0.30%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.10%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.10%) SAP GTS
Cloud Services
1 288 (29.06%) Office 365
2 229 (23.11%) Microsoft Azure
3 76 (7.67%) Amazon AWS
4 56 (5.65%) PaaS
5 37 (3.73%) Azure Active Directory
6 36 (3.63%) Dynamics 365
6 36 (3.63%) IaaS
7 33 (3.33%) SaaS
8 19 (1.92%) Cloud Computing
8 19 (1.92%) Google Cloud Platform
9 16 (1.61%) OneDrive
10 12 (1.21%) Serverless
11 8 (0.81%) Azure Functions
12 6 (0.61%) Boomi
13 5 (0.50%) Yammer
14 4 (0.40%) AWS Lambda
14 4 (0.40%) GitHub
14 4 (0.40%) Mimecast
14 4 (0.40%) OpenShift
14 4 (0.40%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 186 (18.77%) DNS
2 125 (12.61%) DHCP
3 122 (12.31%) Firewall
4 108 (10.90%) LAN
5 101 (10.19%) TCP/IP
6 93 (9.38%) WAN
7 72 (7.27%) Internet
8 67 (6.76%) VPN
9 64 (6.46%) SAN
10 58 (5.85%) Skype
11 39 (3.94%) Wireless
12 35 (3.53%) Unified Communications
13 29 (2.93%) VoIP
14 27 (2.72%) SSL
15 25 (2.52%) Network Security
16 24 (2.42%) Remote Desktop
17 21 (2.12%) VLAN
18 16 (1.61%) Intranet
19 15 (1.51%) IP Telephony
20 13 (1.31%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 170 (17.15%) SQL Server
2 42 (4.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 28 (2.83%) SQL Server 2008
4 26 (2.62%) SQL Server 2012
4 26 (2.62%) SQL Server 2016
5 25 (2.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 22 (2.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 19 (1.92%) Power BI
8 17 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (1.41%) Relational Database
10 13 (1.31%) Microsoft Analysis Services
11 12 (1.21%) SQL Server 2005
11 12 (1.21%) SQL Server 2014
12 10 (1.01%) Big Data
13 9 (0.91%) Electronic Patient Records
13 9 (0.91%) Hadoop
13 9 (0.91%) MySQL
14 7 (0.71%) QlikView
15 6 (0.61%) Apache Hive
15 6 (0.61%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 30 (3.03%) Visual Studio
2 27 (2.72%) JIRA
3 24 (2.42%) Git (software)
4 23 (2.32%) Team Foundation Server
5 15 (1.51%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 12 (1.21%) InstallShield
7 11 (1.11%) Visual Studio Team System
8 10 (1.01%) MSI
9 9 (0.91%) Bitbucket
9 9 (0.91%) Jenkins
10 8 (0.81%) Octopus Deploy
11 6 (0.61%) Fiddler
12 5 (0.50%) TeamCity
13 4 (0.40%) Artifactory
13 4 (0.40%) HP UFT
13 4 (0.40%) LoadRunner
14 3 (0.30%) AdminStudio
14 3 (0.30%) CodeSonar
14 3 (0.30%) Hudson
14 3 (0.30%) Selenium
General
1 103 (10.39%) Finance
2 28 (2.83%) Military
3 26 (2.62%) Telecoms
4 22 (2.22%) Banking
5 19 (1.92%) Retail
6 13 (1.31%) Legal
7 12 (1.21%) Automotive
8 10 (1.01%) Financial Institution
9 9 (0.91%) Manufacturing
10 6 (0.61%) German Language
10 6 (0.61%) Marketing
11 5 (0.50%) Back Office
11 5 (0.50%) Electronics
11 5 (0.50%) Games
11 5 (0.50%) Law
12 4 (0.40%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.30%) French Language
13 3 (0.30%) Local Government
14 2 (0.20%) Billing
14 2 (0.20%) Finnish Language
Job Titles
1 110 (11.10%) Analyst
2 106 (10.70%) Support Engineer
3 103 (10.39%) Architect
4 87 (8.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 60 (6.05%) Desktop Support
5 60 (6.05%) Developer
6 57 (5.75%) 2nd Line Support
7 54 (5.45%) Consultant
8 51 (5.15%) Desktop Engineer
9 45 (4.54%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 42 (4.24%) Support Analyst
11 38 (3.83%) 3rd Line Support
12 37 (3.73%) Solutions Architect
13 36 (3.63%) Administrator
14 35 (3.53%) Windows Engineer
15 34 (3.43%) Server Engineer
16 33 (3.33%) Desktop Support Engineer
17 32 (3.23%) IT Support
18 29 (2.93%) 2nd Line Engineer
19 27 (2.72%) Cloud Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (6.36%) .NET
2 23 (2.32%) HTML
3 22 (2.22%) XML
4 21 (2.12%) Web Services
5 18 (1.82%) REST
6 17 (1.72%) ASP.NET
7 14 (1.41%) CSS
7 14 (1.41%) jQuery
8 9 (0.91%) AngularJS
8 9 (0.91%) SOAP
9 8 (0.81%) .NET Framework
9 8 (0.81%) XSLT
10 7 (0.71%) Entity Framework
10 7 (0.71%) HTML5
10 7 (0.71%) JSON
10 7 (0.71%) LAMP
10 7 (0.71%) SAML
10 7 (0.71%) WPF
11 6 (0.61%) Silverlight
11 6 (0.61%) WSDL
Miscellaneous
1 96 (9.69%) Data Centre
2 80 (8.07%) Analytical Skills
3 48 (4.84%) Management Information System
4 43 (4.34%) PKI
5 38 (3.83%) Video Conferencing
6 32 (3.23%) Mobile App
7 30 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
8 29 (2.93%) Replication
9 28 (2.83%) Clustering
10 25 (2.52%) Public Cloud
11 18 (1.82%) NHS
12 17 (1.72%) Hybrid Cloud
12 17 (1.72%) Virtual Team
13 15 (1.51%) Driving Licence
14 14 (1.41%) Private Cloud
15 12 (1.21%) Client/Server
16 11 (1.11%) Blackberry
17 10 (1.01%) User Experience
18 9 (0.91%) e-Health
18 9 (0.91%) LIMS
Operating Systems
1 650 (65.59%) Windows
2 325 (32.80%) Windows Server
3 195 (19.68%) Windows Server 2012
4 183 (18.47%) Windows 10
5 181 (18.26%) Windows 7
6 122 (12.31%) Windows Server 2008
7 106 (10.70%) Linux
8 62 (6.26%) Windows Server 2003
9 31 (3.13%) Unix
10 22 (2.22%) Apple iOS
10 22 (2.22%) Windows 8
11 21 (2.12%) Windows XP
12 20 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 18 (1.82%) Android
14 17 (1.72%) Mac OS X
15 12 (1.21%) Windows Vista
16 10 (1.01%) Mac OS
17 9 (0.91%) AIX
18 8 (0.81%) Windows 2000
19 7 (0.71%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 342 (34.51%) ITIL
2 163 (16.45%) Migration
3 127 (12.82%) Problem-Solving
4 111 (11.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 106 (10.70%) Agile Software Development
6 82 (8.27%) Service Management
7 76 (7.67%) DevOps
7 76 (7.67%) Disaster Recovery
8 73 (7.37%) ITIL V3
9 70 (7.06%) Incident Management
10 59 (5.95%) ITSM
11 56 (5.65%) Change Management
11 56 (5.65%) Computer Science
12 48 (4.84%) PRINCE2
13 47 (4.74%) Service Delivery
14 46 (4.64%) TOGAF
15 44 (4.44%) Business Intelligence
15 44 (4.44%) Problem Management
16 40 (4.04%) Mentoring
17 37 (3.73%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 209 (21.09%) PowerShell
2 144 (14.53%) SQL
3 52 (5.25%) C#
4 32 (3.23%) JavaScript
5 24 (2.42%) VB
6 23 (2.32%) T-SQL
7 22 (2.22%) C
8 20 (2.02%) VBScript
9 14 (1.41%) Python
10 13 (1.31%) Java
11 9 (0.91%) Bash Shell
12 5 (0.50%) C++
12 5 (0.50%) PHP
12 5 (0.50%) PL/SQL
13 4 (0.40%) Perl
13 4 (0.40%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.30%) ActionScript
14 3 (0.30%) ActionScript 2.0
14 3 (0.30%) Objective-C
14 3 (0.30%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 580 (58.53%) MCSE
2 296 (29.87%) MCSA
3 189 (19.07%) Cisco Certification
4 183 (18.47%) Security Cleared
5 164 (16.55%) CCNA
6 149 (15.04%) MCP
7 141 (14.23%) SC Cleared
8 126 (12.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 123 (12.41%) Degree
10 107 (10.80%) MCITP
11 62 (6.26%) DV Cleared
12 50 (5.05%) Citrix Certification
12 50 (5.05%) ITIL Certification
12 50 (5.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 46 (4.64%) CCA
14 43 (4.34%) MCTS
15 35 (3.53%) CISSP
16 34 (3.43%) MCDST
17 25 (2.52%) A+ Certification
17 25 (2.52%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (9.89%) SLA
2 30 (3.03%) QA
3 22 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (0.91%) HL7
5 5 (0.50%) GDPR
5 5 (0.50%) PCI DSS
5 5 (0.50%) PMO
6 4 (0.40%) Data Quality
6 4 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (0.30%) COBIT
8 2 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.10%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.10%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 467 (47.12%) Active Directory
2 199 (20.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 107 (10.80%) Hyper-V
4 75 (7.57%) vSphere
5 67 (6.76%) VMware ESXi
6 43 (4.34%) XenApp
7 39 (3.94%) Virtual Machines
8 25 (2.52%) XenDesktop
9 21 (2.12%) vCloud
9 21 (2.12%) Virtual Servers
10 19 (1.92%) Microsoft App-V
10 19 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
11 15 (1.51%) XenServer
12 13 (1.31%) VMware Workstation
13 9 (0.91%) BitLocker
13 9 (0.91%) Terminal Server
13 9 (0.91%) Terminal Services
14 8 (0.81%) NFS
15 7 (0.71%) Docker
16 6 (0.61%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 211 (21.29%) SCCM
2 44 (4.44%) vCenter Server
3 35 (3.53%) SCOM
4 27 (2.72%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (2.32%) WSUS
6 19 (1.92%) PowerCLI
7 16 (1.61%) NetBackup
7 16 (1.61%) SCVMM
8 13 (1.31%) Single Sign-On
9 12 (1.21%) Cisco CUCM
10 11 (1.11%) HP ALM
10 11 (1.11%) Microsoft Clustering
10 11 (1.11%) Norton AntiVirus
10 11 (1.11%) vRealize
11 10 (1.01%) Kubernetes
12 9 (0.91%) McAfee ePO
12 9 (0.91%) Puppet
13 7 (0.71%) Backup Exec
13 7 (0.71%) Failover Clustering
13 7 (0.71%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 736 (74.27%) Microsoft
2 318 (32.09%) VMware
3 197 (19.88%) Cisco
4 172 (17.36%) Citrix
5 79 (7.97%) HP
6 52 (5.25%) Oracle
7 39 (3.94%) Apple
8 34 (3.43%) Dell
9 28 (2.83%) EMC
9 28 (2.83%) Red Hat
10 26 (2.62%) NetApp
11 25 (2.52%) Google
12 24 (2.42%) Fortinet
12 24 (2.42%) Polycom
13 23 (2.32%) McAfee
14 22 (2.22%) Avaya
14 22 (2.22%) Remedy
14 22 (2.22%) Symantec
15 21 (2.12%) SolarWinds
15 21 (2.12%) Splunk
742 Microsoft Certification job vacancies Nationwide