Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 30 July 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 30 July 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
30 Jul 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 348 268 302
Rank change year-on-year -80 +34 -15
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 517 348 829
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.72% 0.95% 0.90%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.74% 3.90% 4.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 357 211 514
10th Percentile £195 £160 £158
25th Percentile £313 £300 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £425 £375
Median % change year-on-year +4.71% +13.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £525 £525 £488
90th Percentile £588 £578 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £425 £375
% change year-on-year - +13.33% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 25 48
10th Percentile £13.18 £14.43 £11.88
25th Percentile £13.25 £16.25 £14.80
Median hourly rate £13.75 £19.50 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.49% -2.50% +14.88%
75th Percentile £23.21 £21.00 £24.50
90th Percentile £48.60 £35.00 £33.73
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.75 £18.61 £18.75
% change year-on-year -26.10% -0.77% +10.29%

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 13,826 8,924 17,466
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.13% 24.43% 19.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,951 5,862 10,930
10th Percentile £311 £288 £263
25th Percentile £403 £394 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £644 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £463 £446
% change year-on-year +1.62% +3.64% +8.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 683 345 769
10th Percentile £12.30 £15.75 £12.97
25th Percentile £16.25 £19.27 £17.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £31.50 £35.07
Median % change year-on-year -7.94% -10.17% +60.11%
75th Percentile £51.41 £48.75 £47.50
90th Percentile £63.75 £59.90 £55.36
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £27.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year - -23.61% +60.00%

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 30 July 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 30 July 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 30 July 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 -76 389 £443 +3.36% 387
UK excluding London -34 312 £425 - 327
London -84 131 £450 +5.88% 89
Work from Home -158 122 £463 +65.18% 73
South East -32 104 £445 +7.88% 74
North of England -1 60 £413 +17.86% 96
Scotland -37 58 £457 +7.41% 19
North West -13 40 £450 +28.57% 52
East of England -9 34 £520 +15.56% 28
Midlands -71 29 £375 -31.82% 68
West Midlands -57 18 £500 -9.09% 41
Yorkshire -13 17 £220 -6.38% 30
Wales +1 12 £338 -20.59% 7
South West -23 12 £290 -38.95% 32
East Midlands -15 11 £301 -49.79% 27
Northern Ireland -2 5 - - 3
North East -11 3 £300 -11.11% 14

For the 6 months to 30 July 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.

1 381 (73.69%) Microsoft
2 268 (51.84%) Windows
3 244 (47.20%) MCSE
4 209 (40.43%) Active Directory
5 178 (34.43%) Microsoft 365
6 173 (33.46%) ITIL
7 169 (32.69%) Azure
8 149 (28.82%) VMware
9 138 (26.69%) Social Skills
10 135 (26.11%) Windows Server
11 130 (25.15%) Degree
12 125 (24.18%) Security Cleared
13 119 (23.02%) PowerShell
14 116 (22.44%) MCSA
15 103 (19.92%) VMware Infrastructure
16 100 (19.34%) Migration
17 99 (19.15%) Citrix
17 99 (19.15%) SC Cleared
18 91 (17.60%) DNS
19 87 (16.83%) Windows 10
20 84 (16.25%) Cisco Certification
21 78 (15.09%) Cisco
22 76 (14.70%) SCCM
23 75 (14.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
24 74 (14.31%) CCNA
25 69 (13.35%) Computer Science
25 69 (13.35%) Problem-Solving
26 66 (12.77%) SharePoint
27 64 (12.38%) SQL Server
28 63 (12.19%) Microsoft Office

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 66 (12.77%) SharePoint
2 59 (11.41%) MS Exchange
3 29 (5.61%) Exchange Server 2010
4 28 (5.42%) Exchange Server 2013
5 22 (4.26%) Skype for Business
6 15 (2.90%) Exchange Server 2003
7 14 (2.71%) Exchange Server 2007
8 7 (1.35%) SAS
8 7 (1.35%) SharePoint 2010
9 6 (1.16%) OpenStack
10 5 (0.97%) IIS
10 5 (0.97%) Office Communications Server
11 4 (0.77%) ArcGIS
11 4 (0.77%) SharePoint Server
12 3 (0.58%) IBM Notes
12 3 (0.58%) SharePoint 2013
13 1 (0.19%) Apache
13 1 (0.19%) Confluence
13 1 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
13 1 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 63 (12.19%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (3.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (3.48%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.77%) Photoshop
4 3 (0.58%) InfoPath
5 2 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 11 (2.13%) Dynamics AX
2 6 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.16%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.19%) Sentinel
Cloud Services
1 178 (34.43%) Microsoft 365
2 169 (32.69%) Azure
3 41 (7.93%) Azure Active Directory
4 40 (7.74%) AWS
5 30 (5.80%) IaaS
6 28 (5.42%) PaaS
7 27 (5.22%) Power Platform
8 18 (3.48%) SaaS
9 17 (3.29%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (2.90%) OneDrive
11 14 (2.71%) Azure Data Factory
12 12 (2.32%) PowerApps
13 11 (2.13%) GCP
14 8 (1.55%) Azure Service Bus
14 8 (1.55%) Power Automate
15 7 (1.35%) Azure Logic Apps
16 6 (1.16%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 6 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
16 6 (1.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 5 (0.97%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 91 (17.60%) DNS
2 57 (11.03%) DHCP
3 56 (10.83%) Firewall
4 38 (7.35%) NetScaler
4 38 (7.35%) VPN
5 35 (6.77%) LAN
6 30 (5.80%) TCP/IP
7 27 (5.22%) Kerberos
7 27 (5.22%) Network Security
7 27 (5.22%) Skype
7 27 (5.22%) WAN
8 26 (5.03%) SAN
9 24 (4.64%) Wi-Fi
9 24 (4.64%) X.500
10 17 (3.29%) VLAN
11 15 (2.90%) Wireless
12 13 (2.51%) SMTP
12 13 (2.51%) VoIP
13 9 (1.74%) POP3
13 9 (1.74%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (12.38%) SQL Server
2 20 (3.87%) Power BI
3 17 (3.29%) SQL Server 2012
4 16 (3.09%) SQL Server 2016
5 15 (2.90%) Azure SQL Database
6 11 (2.13%) Data Lake
6 11 (2.13%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (1.35%) MySQL
8 6 (1.16%) GIS
8 6 (1.16%) SQL Server 2014
9 5 (0.97%) SQL Server 2017
10 4 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
10 4 (0.77%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.77%) Big Data
10 4 (0.77%) HDInsight
11 3 (0.58%) SQL Server 2008
11 3 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 2 (0.39%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
13 1 (0.19%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 10 (1.93%) JIRA
2 7 (1.35%) Visual Studio
3 5 (0.97%) Burp Suite
3 5 (0.97%) Git (software)
3 5 (0.97%) Visual Studio Team System
4 3 (0.58%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.58%) MSI
5 2 (0.39%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.39%) InstallShield
6 1 (0.19%) AdminStudio
6 1 (0.19%) git-flow
6 1 (0.19%) Hudson
6 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 138 (26.69%) Social Skills
2 61 (11.80%) Public Sector
3 46 (8.90%) Finance
4 31 (6.00%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (4.84%) Banking
6 23 (4.45%) Retail
7 15 (2.90%) Telecoms
8 14 (2.71%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
10 9 (1.74%) Law
11 8 (1.55%) Marketing
12 7 (1.35%) Investment Banking
12 7 (1.35%) Manufacturing
13 6 (1.16%) Back Office
14 5 (0.97%) Electronics
14 5 (0.97%) German Language
14 5 (0.97%) Legal
14 5 (0.97%) Spanish Language
15 4 (0.77%) French Language
15 4 (0.77%) Russian Language
Job Titles
1 60 (11.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 52 (10.06%) Consultant
3 51 (9.86%) Analyst
4 47 (9.09%) Architect
5 44 (8.51%) Support Engineer
6 29 (5.61%) Service Analyst
7 28 (5.42%) Service Desk Analyst
8 27 (5.22%) Developer
9 21 (4.06%) IT Engineer
10 20 (3.87%) Azure Engineer
11 19 (3.68%) Azure Consultant
12 18 (3.48%) IT Support
13 17 (3.29%) 3rd Line Engineer
14 15 (2.90%) Infrastructure Specialist
15 14 (2.71%) Wintel Engineer
16 12 (2.32%) IT Support Engineer
17 11 (2.13%) Infrastructure Architect
17 11 (2.13%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
18 10 (1.93%) Active Directory Engineer
18 10 (1.93%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (7.16%) LDAP
2 23 (4.45%) .NET
3 11 (2.13%) 802.1X
4 10 (1.93%) ASP.NET Web API
4 10 (1.93%) HTML
4 10 (1.93%) REST
5 9 (1.74%) CSS
5 9 (1.74%) Web Services
6 7 (1.35%) .NET Framework
7 6 (1.16%) AngularJS
7 6 (1.16%) OAuth
8 5 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (0.97%) jQuery
8 5 (0.97%) RESTful
8 5 (0.97%) Software Packaging
8 5 (0.97%) XML
9 4 (0.77%) ASP.NET
9 4 (0.77%) Itk
9 4 (0.77%) SAML
10 3 (0.58%) Twitter Bootstrap
Miscellaneous
1 27 (5.22%) Data Centre
1 27 (5.22%) PKI
1 27 (5.22%) Replication
2 24 (4.64%) Self-Motivation
3 21 (4.06%) Management Information System
4 18 (3.48%) NHS
5 17 (3.29%) Enterprise Software
6 12 (2.32%) Clustering
7 10 (1.93%) User Experience
8 8 (1.55%) Driving Licence
8 8 (1.55%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
8 8 (1.55%) Public Cloud
9 7 (1.35%) Greenfield Project
9 7 (1.35%) iPad
10 6 (1.16%) Microsoft Licensing
11 5 (0.97%) Blackberry
11 5 (0.97%) iPhone
12 4 (0.77%) Online Banking
12 4 (0.77%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 268 (51.84%) Windows
2 135 (26.11%) Windows Server
3 87 (16.83%) Windows 10
4 63 (12.19%) Windows Server 2012
5 52 (10.06%) Linux
6 43 (8.32%) Windows Server 2016
7 40 (7.74%) Windows Server 2019
8 36 (6.96%) Windows 7
8 36 (6.96%) Windows Server 2008
9 17 (3.29%) Windows Server 2003
10 14 (2.71%) Android
10 14 (2.71%) Apple iOS
11 12 (2.32%) Mac OS
12 10 (1.93%) Unix
13 9 (1.74%) VMS
14 6 (1.16%) Windows XP
15 5 (0.97%) AIX
15 5 (0.97%) Kali Linux
16 4 (0.77%) Mac OS X
16 4 (0.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (33.46%) ITIL
2 100 (19.34%) Migration
3 75 (14.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 69 (13.35%) Computer Science
4 69 (13.35%) Problem-Solving
5 46 (8.90%) DevOps
6 44 (8.51%) Agile Software Development
7 38 (7.35%) Virtual Environments
8 33 (6.38%) Load Balancing
9 30 (5.80%) Virtual Infrastructure
10 29 (5.61%) Incident Management
10 29 (5.61%) Service Management
11 28 (5.42%) Change Management
12 27 (5.22%) Identity Management
12 27 (5.22%) Mentoring
13 26 (5.03%) Business Intelligence
13 26 (5.03%) Customer Requirements
13 26 (5.03%) ITIL V3
13 26 (5.03%) Service Delivery
14 24 (4.64%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 119 (23.02%) PowerShell
2 59 (11.41%) SQL
3 19 (3.68%) C#
4 15 (2.90%) C
5 13 (2.51%) Python
6 11 (2.13%) VB
7 10 (1.93%) Java
7 10 (1.93%) T-SQL
8 9 (1.74%) JavaScript
9 8 (1.55%) VBScript
10 6 (1.16%) Bash Shell
11 5 (0.97%) PHP
11 5 (0.97%) Ruby
12 4 (0.77%) VB.NET
13 3 (0.58%) C++
14 1 (0.19%) R
Qualifications
1 244 (47.20%) MCSE
2 130 (25.15%) Degree
3 125 (24.18%) Security Cleared
4 116 (22.44%) MCSA
5 99 (19.15%) SC Cleared
6 84 (16.25%) Cisco Certification
7 74 (14.31%) CCNA
8 58 (11.22%) MCP
9 56 (10.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 53 (10.25%) Computer Science Degree
11 43 (8.32%) DV Cleared
12 36 (6.96%) MCITP
13 33 (6.38%) Citrix Certification
14 28 (5.42%) ITIL Certification
15 24 (4.64%) A+ Certification
16 19 (3.68%) CISSP
17 17 (3.29%) CCNP
18 10 (1.93%) TOGAF Certification
19 9 (1.74%) MCAD
19 9 (1.74%) VCP6
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (7.93%) SLA
2 32 (6.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (1.93%) Cyber Essentials
3 10 (1.93%) PCI DSS
4 9 (1.74%) NIST
5 8 (1.55%) ISO 9001
6 6 (1.16%) QA
7 5 (0.97%) GDPR
8 4 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 3 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.58%) ISO 22301
10 2 (0.39%) ISO 9000
11 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.19%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 1 (0.19%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 209 (40.43%) Active Directory
2 103 (19.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (7.35%) VMware ESXi
4 37 (7.16%) XenApp
5 32 (6.19%) vSphere
6 25 (4.84%) Hyper-V
7 21 (4.06%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
8 13 (2.51%) Virtual Desktop
9 10 (1.93%) Virtual Machines
10 9 (1.74%) Microsoft App-V
11 8 (1.55%) XenDesktop
12 7 (1.35%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.97%) VMware NSX
14 4 (0.77%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.58%) BitLocker
15 3 (0.58%) vCloud
15 3 (0.58%) VMware Server
16 2 (0.39%) EMC RecoverPoint
16 2 (0.39%) Firmware
16 2 (0.39%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 76 (14.70%) SCCM
2 49 (9.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 25 (4.84%) WSUS
4 22 (4.26%) Microsoft Intune
5 16 (3.09%) vCenter Server
6 15 (2.90%) SCOM
7 13 (2.51%) Ansible
8 9 (1.74%) OpenView Configuration Management
9 7 (1.35%) vRealize
10 6 (1.16%) AirWatch
10 6 (1.16%) Nessus
10 6 (1.16%) Terraform
11 5 (0.97%) Kubernetes
11 5 (0.97%) Microsoft Clustering
11 5 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.77%) McAfee ePO
13 3 (0.58%) DatAdvantage
13 3 (0.58%) Failover Clustering
13 3 (0.58%) vMotion
13 3 (0.58%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 381 (73.69%) Microsoft
2 149 (28.82%) VMware
3 99 (19.15%) Citrix
4 78 (15.09%) Cisco
5 35 (6.77%) ServiceNow
6 29 (5.61%) HP
7 27 (5.22%) Dell
8 19 (3.68%) Oracle
9 17 (3.29%) Apple
10 16 (3.09%) Google
11 15 (2.90%) Fortinet
12 14 (2.71%) Veeam
13 11 (2.13%) CheckPoint
14 10 (1.93%) IronPort
14 10 (1.93%) SolarWinds
15 9 (1.74%) IBM
15 9 (1.74%) Lumension
15 9 (1.74%) Sophos
16 8 (1.55%) McAfee
16 8 (1.55%) Remedy
423 Microsoft Certification job vacancies Nationwide