Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 10 December 2018

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 10 December 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 Certification
UK
6 months to
10 Dec 2018		 Same period 2017 Same period 2016
Rank 262 247 226
Rank change year-on-year -15 -21 -29
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 1,048 1,102 1,197
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 1.00% 1.08% 1.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 5.23% 5.71% 5.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 651 692 826
UK median daily rate £365 £325 £330
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +12.31% -1.52% -
10th Percentile £155 £140 £150
90th Percentile £563 £513 £491
UK excluding London median daily rate £365 £325 £325
% change year-on-year +12.31% - -1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 102 70 73
UK median hourly rate £17.41 £15.86 £21.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +9.77% -24.48% +23.53%
10th Percentile £14.75 £11.00 £12.00
90th Percentile £44.27 £29.17 £44.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.85 £15.69 £21.75
% change year-on-year +1.02% -27.86% +27.94%

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 20,038 19,300 21,211
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.07% 18.84% 20.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,898 11,877 13,274
UK median daily rate £450 £425 £420
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +5.88% +1.19% +5.00%
10th Percentile £256 £220 £240
90th Percentile £625 £609 £594
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £400 £393
% change year-on-year +6.25% +1.91% +1.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 968 884 851
UK median hourly rate £26.10 £25.31 £26.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +3.13% -2.65% +4.00%
10th Percentile £13.00 £12.00 £12.25
90th Percentile £51.00 £49.06 £48.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.50 £26.68 £27.00
% change year-on-year -0.68% -1.18% +7.48%

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 10 December 2018.

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 10 December 2018.

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 10 December 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 -20 953 £373 +12.45% 609
UK excluding London -25 679 £365 +12.31% 496
London -6 336 £400 +14.29% 150
South East -6 240 £393 +20.77% 101
North of England -30 133 £325 - 130
Midlands -9 105 £300 -8.40% 92
East of England -27 72 £375 +25.00% 66
North West -3 68 £288 -8.00% 59
West Midlands -1 66 £314 -21.56% 55
South West -5 65 £350 +12.00% 70
Yorkshire -24 58 £370 +18.40% 61
East Midlands -11 39 £300 +4.35% 36
Scotland -32 38 £349 +4.18% 25
Wales -30 22 £438 +16.67% 7
North East -26 7 £290 -28.22% 10
Northern Ireland +30 6 £325 +91.18% 1

For the 6 months to 10 December 2018, 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.

1 785 (74.90%) Microsoft
2 722 (68.89%) Windows
3 613 (58.49%) MCSE
4 502 (47.90%) Active Directory
5 384 (36.64%) ITIL
6 376 (35.88%) Windows Server
7 326 (31.11%) VMware
8 324 (30.92%) Office 365
9 302 (28.82%) MCSA
10 245 (23.38%) SCCM
11 233 (22.23%) PowerShell
12 230 (21.95%) VMware Infrastructure
13 220 (20.99%) Microsoft Azure
14 212 (20.23%) Windows 7
15 200 (19.08%) Windows Server 2012
16 195 (18.61%) Cisco
17 193 (18.42%) MCP
18 190 (18.13%) Microsoft Office
19 189 (18.03%) Windows 10
20 175 (16.70%) Citrix
21 171 (16.32%) DNS
22 169 (16.13%) SQL Server
23 166 (15.84%) Migration
24 165 (15.74%) Security Cleared
25 160 (15.27%) Cisco Certification
26 146 (13.93%) Windows Server 2008
27 140 (13.36%) CCNA
28 137 (13.07%) Problem-Solving
29 133 (12.69%) MS Exchange
30 129 (12.31%) SQL

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
1 133 (12.69%) MS Exchange
2 127 (12.12%) SharePoint
3 59 (5.63%) Skype for Business
4 54 (5.15%) IIS
5 44 (4.20%) Exchange Server 2010
6 38 (3.63%) SharePoint 2013
7 26 (2.48%) Exchange Server 2013
8 22 (2.10%) Confluence
8 22 (2.10%) SharePoint Server
9 20 (1.91%) SharePoint 2010
10 15 (1.43%) Exchange Server 2007
11 13 (1.24%) CMS
12 11 (1.05%) BizTalk Server
13 8 (0.76%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 8 (0.76%) Drupal
13 8 (0.76%) K2 blackpearl
14 7 (0.67%) IBM Notes
14 7 (0.67%) Office Communications Server
15 6 (0.57%) Apache
15 6 (0.57%) OpenStack
Applications
1 190 (18.13%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (3.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 29 (2.77%) MS Visio
4 15 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (1.15%) InfoPath
6 10 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.095%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.095%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.095%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.095%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 45 (4.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (1.05%) Dynamics AX
3 3 (0.29%) Dynamics NAV
3 3 (0.29%) SAP GTS
4 2 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
4 2 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.095%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.095%) Towers Watson Igloo
Cloud Services
1 324 (30.92%) Office 365
2 220 (20.99%) Microsoft Azure
3 67 (6.39%) Amazon AWS
4 49 (4.68%) Dynamics 365
5 41 (3.91%) Azure Active Directory
6 35 (3.34%) IaaS
7 28 (2.67%) PaaS
8 21 (2.00%) OneDrive
9 20 (1.91%) Google Cloud Platform
10 17 (1.62%) SaaS
11 11 (1.05%) Cloud Computing
12 8 (0.76%) Boomi
12 8 (0.76%) Yammer
13 4 (0.38%) Serverless
13 4 (0.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 3 (0.29%) Amazon EC2
14 3 (0.29%) Amazon S3
14 3 (0.29%) AWS Lambda
14 3 (0.29%) GitHub
14 3 (0.29%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 171 (16.32%) DNS
2 121 (11.55%) TCP/IP
3 120 (11.45%) Firewall
4 118 (11.26%) DHCP
5 112 (10.69%) LAN
6 96 (9.16%) WAN
7 87 (8.30%) Internet
8 79 (7.54%) VPN
9 71 (6.77%) SAN
10 54 (5.15%) Wireless
11 50 (4.77%) Skype
12 49 (4.68%) VoIP
13 35 (3.34%) Unified Communications
14 34 (3.24%) Network Security
15 30 (2.86%) SSL
16 25 (2.39%) Remote Desktop
17 23 (2.19%) NAS
18 22 (2.10%) VLAN
19 20 (1.91%) DMZ
20 19 (1.81%) IP Telephony
Database & Business Intelligence
1 169 (16.13%) SQL Server
2 35 (3.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 30 (2.86%) SQL Server 2008
4 25 (2.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 17 (1.62%) Power BI
5 17 (1.62%) SQL Server 2012
6 15 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
6 15 (1.43%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 10 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (0.95%) Big Data
7 10 (0.95%) Electronic Patient Records
7 10 (0.95%) MySQL
7 10 (0.95%) SQL Server 2005
8 9 (0.86%) Microsoft Analysis Services
8 9 (0.86%) Relational Database
8 9 (0.86%) SQL Server 2016
9 8 (0.76%) Hadoop
9 8 (0.76%) Oracle Database
9 8 (0.76%) SQL Server 2014
10 7 (0.67%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 36 (3.44%) JIRA
2 30 (2.86%) Visual Studio
3 24 (2.29%) Team Foundation Server
4 18 (1.72%) Git (software)
5 16 (1.53%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 10 (0.95%) Visual Studio Team System
7 9 (0.86%) Jenkins
8 8 (0.76%) Octopus Deploy
9 6 (0.57%) Bitbucket
9 6 (0.57%) MSI
10 4 (0.38%) GitLab
10 4 (0.38%) Selenium
11 3 (0.29%) CF BOSH
11 3 (0.29%) CodeSonar
11 3 (0.29%) Fiddler
11 3 (0.29%) git-flow
11 3 (0.29%) Hudson
11 3 (0.29%) InstallShield
11 3 (0.29%) Robot Framework
11 3 (0.29%) TeamCity
General
1 113 (10.78%) Finance
2 30 (2.86%) Banking
3 26 (2.48%) Telecoms
4 20 (1.91%) Military
5 18 (1.72%) Retail
6 17 (1.62%) Manufacturing
7 13 (1.24%) Financial Institution
8 12 (1.15%) Automotive
8 12 (1.15%) Back Office
9 11 (1.05%) Electronics
9 11 (1.05%) Law
9 11 (1.05%) Legal
10 9 (0.86%) Games
10 9 (0.86%) Marketing
11 7 (0.67%) Spanish Language
12 5 (0.48%) Humanities
12 5 (0.48%) Social Science
13 3 (0.29%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.19%) Billing
14 2 (0.19%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 140 (13.36%) Support Engineer
2 127 (12.12%) Analyst
3 92 (8.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 76 (7.25%) Desktop Support
5 74 (7.06%) Architect
6 73 (6.97%) 2nd Line Support
7 70 (6.68%) Developer
8 67 (6.39%) Consultant
9 60 (5.73%) Desktop Engineer
10 50 (4.77%) IT Support
11 47 (4.48%) Desktop Support Engineer
11 47 (4.48%) Support Analyst
12 44 (4.20%) Service Analyst
13 43 (4.10%) Service Desk Analyst
14 42 (4.01%) 3rd Line Engineer
14 42 (4.01%) Administrator
15 37 (3.53%) Solutions Architect
16 35 (3.34%) Windows Engineer
17 34 (3.24%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 34 (3.24%) 3rd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (7.82%) .NET
2 27 (2.58%) CSS
3 24 (2.29%) HTML
4 22 (2.10%) REST
5 21 (2.00%) ASP.NET
6 20 (1.91%) Web Services
6 20 (1.91%) XML
7 19 (1.81%) jQuery
8 14 (1.34%) .NET Framework
9 13 (1.24%) Entity Framework
9 13 (1.24%) HTML5
10 12 (1.15%) LDAP
10 12 (1.15%) SOAP
11 11 (1.05%) Middleware
11 11 (1.05%) SAML
12 10 (0.95%) JSON
12 10 (0.95%) XSLT
13 9 (0.86%) WCF
14 8 (0.76%) JMS
14 8 (0.76%) WSDL
Miscellaneous
1 110 (10.50%) Data Centre
2 70 (6.68%) Analytical Skills
3 57 (5.44%) Management Information System
4 54 (5.15%) Clustering
4 54 (5.15%) Video Conferencing
5 39 (3.72%) PKI
6 28 (2.67%) Self-Motivation
7 27 (2.58%) Mobile App
8 26 (2.48%) Blackberry
8 26 (2.48%) Replication
9 25 (2.39%) Smartphone
10 20 (1.91%) Client/Server
11 19 (1.81%) iPhone
12 17 (1.62%) Fat Client
12 17 (1.62%) Public Cloud
12 17 (1.62%) Thin Client
13 16 (1.53%) iPad
13 16 (1.53%) NHS
14 15 (1.43%) Driving Licence
15 14 (1.34%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 722 (68.89%) Windows
2 376 (35.88%) Windows Server
3 212 (20.23%) Windows 7
4 200 (19.08%) Windows Server 2012
5 189 (18.03%) Windows 10
6 146 (13.93%) Windows Server 2008
7 80 (7.63%) Linux
8 65 (6.20%) Windows Server 2003
9 41 (3.91%) Unix
10 39 (3.72%) Android
11 36 (3.44%) Windows XP
12 34 (3.24%) Apple iOS
13 31 (2.96%) Mac OS X
14 21 (2.00%) Windows 8
15 18 (1.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 17 (1.62%) Windows 2000
17 14 (1.34%) Windows Vista
18 9 (0.86%) Mac OS
19 5 (0.48%) Mac OS X Server
19 5 (0.48%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 384 (36.64%) ITIL
2 166 (15.84%) Migration
3 137 (13.07%) Problem-Solving
4 119 (11.35%) Agile Software Development
5 115 (10.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 79 (7.54%) Service Management
7 77 (7.35%) ITIL V3
8 76 (7.25%) Change Management
9 63 (6.01%) Computer Science
9 63 (6.01%) Service Delivery
10 58 (5.53%) Disaster Recovery
11 55 (5.25%) ITSM
12 54 (5.15%) Server Management
13 50 (4.77%) CRM
14 48 (4.58%) Business Intelligence
15 47 (4.48%) Project Management
16 45 (4.29%) DevOps
17 44 (4.20%) PRINCE2
18 43 (4.10%) Stakeholder Management
19 41 (3.91%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 233 (22.23%) PowerShell
2 129 (12.31%) SQL
3 82 (7.82%) C#
4 39 (3.72%) JavaScript
5 22 (2.10%) VB
6 20 (1.91%) Python
7 19 (1.81%) T-SQL
8 17 (1.62%) VBScript
9 16 (1.53%) Java
10 14 (1.34%) C
11 9 (0.86%) Bash Shell
12 7 (0.67%) TypeScript
13 6 (0.57%) PHP
14 5 (0.48%) ActionScript
14 5 (0.48%) ActionScript 2.0
14 5 (0.48%) Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
14 5 (0.48%) VBA
15 4 (0.38%) R
16 3 (0.29%) Objective-C
16 3 (0.29%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 613 (58.49%) MCSE
2 302 (28.82%) MCSA
3 193 (18.42%) MCP
4 165 (15.74%) Security Cleared
5 160 (15.27%) Cisco Certification
6 140 (13.36%) CCNA
7 126 (12.02%) MCITP
8 117 (11.16%) Degree
8 117 (11.16%) SC Cleared
9 105 (10.02%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 62 (5.92%) MCTS
11 50 (4.77%) DV Cleared
12 48 (4.58%) MCDST
13 44 (4.20%) ITIL Certification
14 43 (4.10%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 40 (3.82%) A+ Certification
15 40 (3.82%) CCNP
16 37 (3.53%) Citrix Certification
17 31 (2.96%) CCA
18 30 (2.86%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (8.87%) SLA
2 28 (2.67%) QA
3 14 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (0.67%) GDPR
4 7 (0.67%) HL7
4 7 (0.67%) JSP 440
5 6 (0.57%) Data Quality
6 5 (0.48%) Government Security Classifications
6 5 (0.48%) PMO
7 4 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 4 (0.38%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.095%) COBIT
8 1 (0.095%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.095%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 502 (47.90%) Active Directory
2 230 (21.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 107 (10.21%) Hyper-V
4 83 (7.92%) vSphere
5 56 (5.34%) VMware ESXi
6 48 (4.58%) XenApp
7 45 (4.29%) Virtual Machines
8 30 (2.86%) XenDesktop
9 22 (2.10%) Microsoft App-V
10 21 (2.00%) vCloud
11 20 (1.91%) VMware Workstation
12 17 (1.62%) Virtual Desktop
13 15 (1.43%) Virtual Servers
14 14 (1.34%) XenServer
15 13 (1.24%) BitLocker
16 11 (1.05%) Terminal Services
16 11 (1.05%) UAG
17 8 (0.76%) IAG
18 7 (0.67%) NFS
19 6 (0.57%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 245 (23.38%) SCCM
2 47 (4.48%) vCenter Server
3 44 (4.20%) SCOM
4 37 (3.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 31 (2.96%) WSUS
6 24 (2.29%) NetBackup
7 22 (2.10%) AirWatch
7 22 (2.10%) Microsoft Clustering
8 20 (1.91%) Cisco CUCM
9 17 (1.62%) McAfee ePO
10 16 (1.53%) SCVMM
10 16 (1.53%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 14 (1.34%) PowerCLI
12 13 (1.24%) XenMobile
13 12 (1.15%) Norton AntiVirus
13 12 (1.15%) Puppet
14 10 (0.95%) Failover Clustering
14 10 (0.95%) Forefront Identity Manager
15 9 (0.86%) Backup Exec
15 9 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 785 (74.90%) Microsoft
2 326 (31.11%) VMware
3 195 (18.61%) Cisco
4 175 (16.70%) Citrix
5 79 (7.54%) Apple
6 77 (7.35%) HP
7 54 (5.15%) Oracle
8 38 (3.63%) McAfee
9 35 (3.34%) Google
10 32 (3.05%) Dell
11 31 (2.96%) EMC
12 30 (2.86%) Avaya
13 27 (2.58%) Ivanti
13 27 (2.58%) Veeam
14 26 (2.48%) Symantec
15 25 (2.39%) Polycom
16 23 (2.19%) Red Hat
16 23 (2.19%) SAP
17 22 (2.10%) NetApp
17 22 (2.10%) ServiceNow
649 Microsoft Certification job vacancies Nationwide