Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 22 October 2017

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 22 October 2017 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
22 Oct 2017		 Same period 2016 Same period 2015
Rank 239 196 189
Rank change year-on-year -43 -7 -59
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 1055 1419 1522
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 1.06% 1.35% 1.33%
As % of the Qualifications category 5.71% 6.40% 6.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 648 935 897
UK median daily rate £325 £330 £325
Median daily rate % change year-on-year -1.52% +1.54% -4.41%
10th Percentile £134 £163 £144
90th Percentile £502 £488 £475
UK excluding London median daily rate £325 £325 £340
% change year-on-year - -4.41% +5.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 95 161
UK median hourly rate £16.50 £21.50 £17.50
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -23.26% +22.86% +3.92%
10th Percentile £11.25 £11.91 £11.25
90th Percentile £39.75 £42.00 £36.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.50 £23.00 £17.75
% change year-on-year -28.26% +29.58% +10.94%

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 18483 22182 22241
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.60% 21.04% 19.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 11285 13773 13301
UK median daily rate £425 £410 £400
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +3.66% +2.50% +2.56%
10th Percentile £225 £240 £240
90th Percentile £600 £588 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £380 £380
% change year-on-year +5.26% - +4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 899 831 1094
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £26.50 £24.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +3.77% +10.42% +23.08%
10th Percentile £12.00 £12.25 £11.81
90th Percentile £50.00 £49.19 £50.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year +9.09% +10.00% +25.00%

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 22 October 2017.

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 22 October 2017.

Contractor 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 22 October 2017. 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 -23 958 £338 +2.27% 170
UK excluding London -49 681 £325 - 122
London -8 345 £350 -12.50% 53
South East -32 198 £325 -5.52% 38
North of England -26 156 £350 +9.38% 35
East of England -2 113 £300 +17.65% 10
Midlands +44 111 £326 -1.14% 18
North West +31 66 £350 +33.33% 24
East Midlands +41 61 £288 +4.55% 7
Yorkshire +23 53 £331 -5.36% 8
West Midlands +1 50 £394 +19.32% 11
Scotland -80 44 £344 +7.50% 4
North East -28 38 £363 +13.28% 3
South West -17 33 £285 -3.39% 16
Wales +17 23 £360 -15.29% 1
Northern Ireland -50 3 £250 +42.86%
Channel Islands -2 1 £190 -53.94%

For the 6 months to 22 October 2017, IT contractor jobs citing Microsoft Certification also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number co-occurrences and its proportion to all contract ads with a requirement for Microsoft Certification.

1 747 (70.81%) Microsoft
2 657 (62.27%) Windows
3 582 (55.17%) MCSE
4 533 (50.52%) Active Directory
5 401 (38.01%) ITIL
6 303 (28.72%) Windows Server
7 289 (27.39%) VMware
8 287 (27.20%) Office 365
9 248 (23.51%) MCSA
9 248 (23.51%) MS Exchange
10 217 (20.57%) SQL Server
11 213 (20.19%) Citrix
11 213 (20.19%) Microsoft Azure
12 202 (19.15%) DNS
13 200 (18.96%) Microsoft Office
14 190 (18.01%) Windows 7
14 190 (18.01%) Windows Server 2012
15 178 (16.87%) VMware Infrastructure
15 178 (16.87%) PowerShell
16 177 (16.78%) MCP
16 177 (16.78%) Cisco
17 170 (16.11%) SQL
18 169 (16.02%) DHCP
19 166 (15.73%) Windows Server 2008
20 164 (15.55%) Degree
21 160 (15.17%) SCCM
22 147 (13.93%) Windows 10
23 146 (13.84%) SharePoint
24 136 (12.89%) Cisco Certification
25 135 (12.80%) TCP/IP

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
1 248 (23.51%) MS Exchange
2 146 (13.84%) SharePoint
3 94 (8.91%) Exchange Server 2010
4 81 (7.68%) Skype for Business
5 58 (5.50%) IIS
6 56 (5.31%) Exchange Server 2013
6 56 (5.31%) SharePoint 2013
7 36 (3.41%) Exchange Server 2007
8 32 (3.03%) SharePoint 2010
9 31 (2.94%) SharePoint Server
10 23 (2.18%) BizTalk Server
11 21 (1.99%) IBM Notes
12 15 (1.42%) OpenStack
13 12 (1.14%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
13 12 (1.14%) CMS
14 11 (1.04%) Apache
15 10 (0.95%) Exchange Server 2003
16 6 (0.57%) Office Communications Server
16 6 (0.57%) Tomcat
16 6 (0.57%) Umbraco
Applications
1 200 (18.96%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (2.46%) MS Visio
3 21 (1.99%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (0.57%) AutoCAD
4 6 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.095%) Acrobat
7 1 (0.095%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 23 (2.18%) Dynamics AX
2 16 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
4 5 (0.47%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.28%) Eikon
6 2 (0.19%) SDL Web 8
6 2 (0.19%) WebTrends
7 1 (0.095%) Relativity
7 1 (0.095%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 287 (27.20%) Office 365
2 213 (20.19%) Microsoft Azure
3 80 (7.58%) Amazon AWS
4 48 (4.55%) Azure Active Directory
5 32 (3.03%) IaaS
6 24 (2.27%) PaaS
7 18 (1.71%) SaaS
8 16 (1.52%) OneDrive
9 10 (0.95%) Mimecast
9 10 (0.95%) Yammer
10 8 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
11 6 (0.57%) Cloud Computing
11 6 (0.57%) G Suite
12 3 (0.28%) Amazon EC2
12 3 (0.28%) GitHub
12 3 (0.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 2 (0.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 2 (0.19%) AWS CloudFormation
13 2 (0.19%) Azure Machine Learning
14 1 (0.095%) Data Lake Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 202 (19.15%) DNS
2 169 (16.02%) DHCP
3 135 (12.80%) TCP/IP
4 120 (11.37%) LAN
5 114 (10.81%) SAN
6 108 (10.24%) Firewall
7 106 (10.05%) WAN
8 72 (6.82%) Skype
9 61 (5.78%) VPN
10 43 (4.08%) Wireless
11 41 (3.89%) Internet
12 34 (3.22%) NAS
13 32 (3.03%) VoIP
14 28 (2.65%) Unified Communications
15 27 (2.56%) VLAN
16 25 (2.37%) NetScaler
17 23 (2.18%) Network Security
18 16 (1.52%) Ethernet
19 15 (1.42%) IP Telephony
20 14 (1.33%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 217 (20.57%) SQL Server
2 57 (5.40%) SQL Server 2008
3 53 (5.02%) SQL Server 2012
4 42 (3.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 30 (2.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 24 (2.27%) SQL Server 2016
7 21 (1.99%) SQL Server 2005
8 20 (1.90%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 19 (1.80%) SQL Server 2014
10 14 (1.33%) Data Warehouse
10 14 (1.33%) QlikView
11 12 (1.14%) Oracle Database
12 11 (1.04%) Hadoop
13 8 (0.76%) Big Data
13 8 (0.76%) Relational Database
14 7 (0.66%) Power BI
15 6 (0.57%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.57%) OLAP
15 6 (0.57%) OLTP
16 5 (0.47%) BusinessObjects
Development Applications
1 44 (4.17%) Visual Studio
2 41 (3.89%) Team Foundation Server
3 20 (1.90%) Octopus Deploy
4 18 (1.71%) Git (software)
5 13 (1.23%) MorphX
6 8 (0.76%) HP UFT
7 7 (0.66%) JIRA
8 6 (0.57%) Metasploit
9 5 (0.47%) Jenkins
9 5 (0.47%) Moq
10 4 (0.38%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 4 (0.38%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.38%) JMeter
11 3 (0.28%) Artifactory
11 3 (0.28%) Gerrit
11 3 (0.28%) GitLab
11 3 (0.28%) Maven
11 3 (0.28%) MSI
11 3 (0.28%) Wise Package Studio
11 3 (0.28%) WiX
General
1 133 (12.61%) Finance
2 51 (4.83%) Banking
3 22 (2.09%) Manufacturing
3 22 (2.09%) Telecoms
4 21 (1.99%) Law
5 16 (1.52%) Investment Banking
5 16 (1.52%) Legal
6 15 (1.42%) Automotive
7 14 (1.33%) Financial Institution
8 12 (1.14%) Advertising
9 11 (1.04%) Retail
10 10 (0.95%) Local Government
11 9 (0.85%) Military
12 8 (0.76%) Marketing
13 7 (0.66%) Aerospace
14 6 (0.57%) Electronics
14 6 (0.57%) General Ledger
15 5 (0.47%) Avionics
15 5 (0.47%) German Language
16 4 (0.38%) Billing
Job Titles
1 151 (14.31%) Analyst
2 122 (11.56%) Architect
3 110 (10.43%) Support Engineer
4 92 (8.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 90 (8.53%) Developer
6 89 (8.44%) Desktop Support
7 64 (6.07%) 2nd Line Support
8 57 (5.40%) Administrator
9 56 (5.31%) Consultant
10 52 (4.93%) 3rd Line Support
11 50 (4.74%) Desktop Engineer
12 48 (4.55%) Support Analyst
13 46 (4.36%) 3rd Line Engineer
14 37 (3.51%) IT Support
15 35 (3.32%) Service Desk Analyst
15 35 (3.32%) Technical Architect
16 32 (3.03%) Desktop Support Engineer
16 32 (3.03%) Service Analyst
16 32 (3.03%) Technical Support
17 29 (2.75%) Server Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (11.09%) .NET
2 51 (4.83%) XML
3 33 (3.13%) ASP.NET
4 31 (2.94%) Web Services
5 26 (2.46%) CSS
6 24 (2.27%) jQuery
7 19 (1.80%) HTML
8 18 (1.71%) AngularJS
8 18 (1.71%) WCF
9 16 (1.52%) .NET Framework
9 16 (1.52%) ASP.NET MVC
9 16 (1.52%) SOAP
10 13 (1.23%) ASP.NET Web API
11 11 (1.04%) REST
11 11 (1.04%) RESTful
11 11 (1.04%) XSLT
12 10 (0.95%) WPF
13 9 (0.85%) 802.1X
13 9 (0.85%) Middleware
14 8 (0.76%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 109 (10.33%) Analytical Skills
2 97 (9.19%) Data Centre
3 63 (5.97%) Management Information System
4 59 (5.59%) Blackberry
5 57 (5.40%) Computer Science
6 43 (4.08%) Clustering
7 34 (3.22%) PKI
7 34 (3.22%) Video Conferencing
8 28 (2.65%) Replication
9 25 (2.37%) NHS
10 21 (1.99%) Client/Server
10 21 (1.99%) PDA
11 18 (1.71%) Private Cloud
12 14 (1.33%) BYOD
12 14 (1.33%) Driving Licence
12 14 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.14%) Cyberthreat
13 12 (1.14%) N-Tier
13 12 (1.14%) Public Cloud
14 11 (1.04%) User Experience
Operating Systems
1 657 (62.27%) Windows
2 303 (28.72%) Windows Server
3 190 (18.01%) Windows 7
3 190 (18.01%) Windows Server 2012
4 166 (15.73%) Windows Server 2008
5 147 (13.93%) Windows 10
6 91 (8.63%) Linux
7 65 (6.16%) Windows Server 2003
8 42 (3.98%) Apple iOS
9 39 (3.70%) Unix
10 31 (2.94%) Windows 8
11 28 (2.65%) Windows XP
12 25 (2.37%) Android
12 25 (2.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 22 (2.09%) Windows Vista
14 11 (1.04%) Solaris
15 8 (0.76%) CentOS
15 8 (0.76%) Mac OS X
16 7 (0.66%) Mac OS
16 7 (0.66%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 401 (38.01%) ITIL
2 124 (11.75%) Migration
3 90 (8.53%) Agile Software Development
4 76 (7.20%) Change Management
5 72 (6.82%) PRINCE2
6 69 (6.54%) Incident Management
7 67 (6.35%) Project Management
8 64 (6.07%) Disaster Recovery
9 63 (5.97%) ITIL V3
9 63 (5.97%) Service Management
10 57 (5.40%) High Availability
11 53 (5.02%) Service Delivery
12 51 (4.83%) Business Intelligence
13 46 (4.36%) TOGAF
14 41 (3.89%) Workflow
15 38 (3.60%) Asset Management
16 37 (3.51%) MVC
17 36 (3.41%) Capacity Planning
17 36 (3.41%) Problem Management
18 34 (3.22%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 178 (16.87%) PowerShell
2 170 (16.11%) SQL
3 79 (7.49%) C#
4 41 (3.89%) JavaScript
5 28 (2.65%) Java
6 27 (2.56%) VBScript
7 21 (1.99%) VB
8 20 (1.90%) T-SQL
8 20 (1.90%) X++
9 12 (1.14%) C
10 11 (1.04%) Python
11 8 (0.76%) VB.NET
12 6 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
12 6 (0.57%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.38%) Bash Shell
13 4 (0.38%) Perl
13 4 (0.38%) VBA
14 3 (0.28%) REXX
14 3 (0.28%) Ruby
14 3 (0.28%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 582 (55.17%) MCSE
2 248 (23.51%) MCSA
3 177 (16.78%) MCP
4 164 (15.55%) Degree
5 136 (12.89%) Cisco Certification
6 127 (12.04%) MCITP
7 104 (9.86%) Security Cleared
8 103 (9.76%) CCNA
9 92 (8.72%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 84 (7.96%) MCDST
11 74 (7.01%) SC Cleared
12 57 (5.40%) MCTS
13 47 (4.45%) Computer Science Degree
14 43 (4.08%) A+ Certification
14 43 (4.08%) ITIL Certification
15 40 (3.79%) Citrix Certification
16 37 (3.51%) CISSP
17 34 (3.22%) DV Cleared
18 33 (3.13%) Network+ Certification
19 31 (2.94%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (8.34%) SLA
2 34 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (1.52%) Disclosure Scotland
3 16 (1.52%) PCI DSS
4 11 (1.04%) QA
5 6 (0.57%) HL7
6 5 (0.47%) MIL-STD-1553
7 3 (0.28%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.28%) PMO
8 2 (0.19%) COBIT
8 2 (0.19%) PMBOK
9 1 (0.095%) GDPR
9 1 (0.095%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.095%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 533 (50.52%) Active Directory
2 178 (16.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 120 (11.37%) Hyper-V
4 62 (5.88%) XenApp
5 52 (4.93%) vSphere
6 50 (4.74%) VMware ESXi
7 36 (3.41%) Virtual Servers
8 24 (2.27%) Virtual Machines
9 23 (2.18%) Microsoft App-V
9 23 (2.18%) XenDesktop
10 19 (1.80%) Virtual Desktop
11 12 (1.14%) VMware Workstation
12 11 (1.04%) Terminal Services
12 11 (1.04%) XenServer
13 8 (0.76%) BitLocker
13 8 (0.76%) Brightmail
14 7 (0.66%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 5 (0.47%) Docker
15 5 (0.47%) Terminal Server
16 4 (0.38%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 160 (15.17%) SCCM
2 79 (7.49%) SCOM
3 26 (2.46%) NetBackup
4 25 (2.37%) Norton AntiVirus
5 24 (2.27%) Backup Exec
6 22 (2.09%) Microsoft Clustering
7 21 (1.99%) WSUS
8 15 (1.42%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 12 (1.14%) AirWatch
10 10 (0.95%) DameWare
11 9 (0.85%) McAfee ePO
11 9 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
11 9 (0.85%) vCenter Server
12 8 (0.76%) AppDNA
12 8 (0.76%) HP Quality Center
12 8 (0.76%) OpenView Configuration Management
13 7 (0.66%) HP Data Protector
14 5 (0.47%) Ansible
15 4 (0.38%) EMC NetWorker
15 4 (0.38%) Opscode Chef
Vendors
1 747 (70.81%) Microsoft
2 289 (27.39%) VMware
3 213 (20.19%) Citrix
4 177 (16.78%) Cisco
5 130 (12.32%) HP
6 54 (5.12%) NetApp
7 52 (4.93%) Apple
8 47 (4.45%) Dell
9 44 (4.17%) Oracle
10 40 (3.79%) Symantec
11 29 (2.75%) Red Hat
12 27 (2.56%) McAfee
12 27 (2.56%) Sophos
13 26 (2.46%) RedGate
14 24 (2.27%) 3PAR
14 24 (2.27%) ServiceNow
15 22 (2.09%) Lotus
16 21 (1.99%) Veeam
17 20 (1.90%) AppSense
17 20 (1.90%) Avaya