Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 2 July 2020

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 2 July 2020 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
2 Jul 2020		 Same period 2019 Same period 2018
Rank 240 289 282
Rank change year-on-year +49 -7 -40
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 436 852 953
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.06% 0.92% 0.93%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.40% 4.88% 4.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 525 596
Median daily rate £401 £388 £353
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +3.55% +9.77% +4.59%
10th Percentile £153 £163 £176
90th Percentile £571 £575 £553
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £385 £350
% change year-on-year +3.90% +10.00% +9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 68 63
Median hourly rate £20.00 £19.38 £17.41
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +3.23% +11.29% -4.65%
10th Percentile £14.77 £12.25 £12.00
90th Percentile £35.00 £33.73 £42.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.50 £18.50 £17.00
% change year-on-year +5.41% +8.82% -10.53%

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 9,919 17,450 19,291
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 24.03% 18.88% 18.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,876 10,515 11,543
Median daily rate £475 £475 £450
Median daily rate % change year-on-year - +5.56% +5.88%
10th Percentile £281 £263 £240
90th Percentile £638 £650 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £413
% change year-on-year - +9.09% +3.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 498 823 902
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £24.53
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year - +42.71% -18.25%
10th Percentile £15.85 £12.86 £12.63
90th Percentile £57.00 £54.35 £50.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year - +40.00% -20.63%

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 2 July 2020.

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 2 July 2020.

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 2 July 2020. 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 +47 369 £413 +3.13% 146
UK excluding London +68 327 £400 +3.90% 131
South East +61 109 £400 -5.88% 36
London +60 99 £431 +11.29% 26
Midlands +54 51 £543 +52.82% 25
Scotland +62 43 £395 +9.72% 7
West Midlands +59 42 £550 +37.50% 18
North of England +55 40 £350 -2.78% 37
East of England +72 37 £495 +41.43% 12
South West +8 33 £400 -5.88% 10
North West +51 24 £350 -6.67% 20
Yorkshire +60 9 £235 -27.69% 12
East Midlands +27 9 £135 -59.25% 7
Northern Ireland +22 9 £160 +6.67% 1
Work from Home -16 8 £280 -34.12% 21
North East +28 7 £375 +7.14% 5
Wales +34 6 £300 -40.00% 3

For the 6 months to 2 July 2020, 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.

1 350 (80.28%) Microsoft
2 265 (60.78%) Windows
3 256 (58.72%) Active Directory
4 188 (43.12%) MCSE
5 147 (33.72%) VMware
5 147 (33.72%) Office 365
5 147 (33.72%) Windows Server
6 137 (31.42%) ITIL
7 126 (28.90%) Security Cleared
8 124 (28.44%) Azure
9 117 (26.83%) MCSA
10 112 (25.69%) Windows Server 2012
11 111 (25.46%) PowerShell
12 102 (23.39%) Windows 10
13 94 (21.56%) VMware Infrastructure
14 82 (18.81%) SC Cleared
15 79 (18.12%) Migration
15 79 (18.12%) Windows Server 2016
16 78 (17.89%) SCCM
17 77 (17.66%) DNS
18 74 (16.97%) Cisco Certification
19 71 (16.28%) Cisco
20 70 (16.06%) Microsoft Office
20 70 (16.06%) SQL Server
21 65 (14.91%) Windows 7
22 62 (14.22%) Analytical Skills
22 62 (14.22%) Windows Server 2008
23 56 (12.84%) SharePoint
24 51 (11.70%) MCP
24 51 (11.70%) 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 56 (12.84%) SharePoint
2 43 (9.86%) Skype for Business
3 42 (9.63%) MS Exchange
4 25 (5.73%) Exchange Server 2013
5 24 (5.50%) IIS
6 21 (4.82%) Exchange Server 2010
7 20 (4.59%) IBM Notes
8 17 (3.90%) IBM Domino
9 15 (3.44%) ArcGIS
10 5 (1.15%) Confluence
11 4 (0.92%) Apache
11 4 (0.92%) Apache Spark
11 4 (0.92%) BizTalk Server
11 4 (0.92%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.69%) CMS
12 3 (0.69%) EPiServer
12 3 (0.69%) Exchange Server 2007
12 3 (0.69%) Office Communications Server
12 3 (0.69%) Tomcat
12 3 (0.69%) Umbraco
Applications
1 70 (16.06%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (2.75%) Photoshop
3 5 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.69%) InfoPath
4 3 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.69%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.46%) InVision
5 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Captivate
6 1 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.23%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 15 (3.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (1.83%) Dynamics AX
3 5 (1.15%) ION MarketView
4 2 (0.46%) assyst
4 2 (0.46%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.23%) Actimize
5 1 (0.23%) CA PPM
5 1 (0.23%) Line 500
Cloud Services
1 147 (33.72%) Office 365
2 124 (28.44%) Azure
3 47 (10.78%) Power Platform
4 42 (9.63%) Azure Active Directory
5 26 (5.96%) AWS
6 24 (5.50%) Dynamics 365
7 21 (4.82%) PaaS
7 21 (4.82%) PowerApps
8 20 (4.59%) OneDrive
9 19 (4.36%) IaaS
10 14 (3.21%) SaaS
11 10 (2.29%) Mimecast
12 6 (1.38%) GitHub
13 4 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
13 4 (0.92%) Logic Apps
13 4 (0.92%) OpenShift
13 4 (0.92%) Serverless
14 3 (0.69%) AWS CloudFormation
14 3 (0.69%) Azure Functions
14 3 (0.69%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 77 (17.66%) DNS
2 50 (11.47%) DHCP
3 45 (10.32%) Firewall
4 44 (10.09%) SAN
5 41 (9.40%) Skype
6 26 (5.96%) LAN
7 24 (5.50%) VoIP
8 22 (5.05%) WAN
9 17 (3.90%) TCP/IP
10 16 (3.67%) PBX
11 14 (3.21%) Kerberos
11 14 (3.21%) VPN
12 13 (2.98%) Unified Communications
13 11 (2.52%) Cisco IOS
13 11 (2.52%) Wireless
14 10 (2.29%) Network Security
15 9 (2.06%) NetScaler
16 8 (1.83%) X.500
17 7 (1.61%) NAS
17 7 (1.61%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (16.06%) SQL Server
2 28 (6.42%) Power BI
3 11 (2.52%) GIS
4 10 (2.29%) SQL Server 2008
5 8 (1.83%) Big Data
6 7 (1.61%) Cosmos DB
7 6 (1.38%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (1.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (1.15%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.92%) SQL Server 2016
9 4 (0.92%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.69%) Data Warehouse
10 3 (0.69%) MySQL
10 3 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.69%) SQL Server 2012
11 2 (0.46%) DTS
11 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Analysis Services
11 2 (0.46%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.46%) OLAP
11 2 (0.46%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 20 (4.59%) Visual Studio
2 16 (3.67%) Git (software)
3 11 (2.52%) Team Foundation Server
4 8 (1.83%) JIRA
4 8 (1.83%) MSI
5 7 (1.61%) GitLab
6 6 (1.38%) Jenkins
6 6 (1.38%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (1.15%) Eclipse
8 4 (0.92%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.92%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.92%) ClearCase
8 4 (0.92%) ClearQuest
8 4 (0.92%) Visual Studio Team System
9 3 (0.69%) InstallShield
10 1 (0.23%) CF BOSH
10 1 (0.23%) Subversion
General
1 44 (10.09%) Finance
2 34 (7.80%) Public Sector
3 20 (4.59%) Manufacturing
4 17 (3.90%) Retail
5 13 (2.98%) Banking
6 12 (2.75%) Military
7 6 (1.38%) Investment Banking
7 6 (1.38%) Telecoms
8 5 (1.15%) Front Office
8 5 (1.15%) Legal
9 4 (0.92%) Marketing
9 4 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
10 3 (0.69%) Electronics
11 2 (0.46%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.46%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.46%) Housing Association
11 2 (0.46%) International Banking
11 2 (0.46%) Law
11 2 (0.46%) Police
11 2 (0.46%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 36 (8.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 34 (7.80%) Support Engineer
3 33 (7.57%) Consultant
4 31 (7.11%) Architect
4 31 (7.11%) Developer
5 30 (6.88%) 2nd Line Support
6 29 (6.65%) Administrator
6 29 (6.65%) Analyst
7 23 (5.28%) Windows Engineer
8 21 (4.82%) Desktop Support
9 20 (4.59%) Azure Engineer
10 17 (3.90%) IT Support
11 16 (3.67%) Support Analyst
11 16 (3.67%) Wintel Engineer
12 15 (3.44%) 3rd Line Support
12 15 (3.44%) Active Directory Engineer
12 15 (3.44%) Desktop Engineer
12 15 (3.44%) Exchange Administrator
12 15 (3.44%) IT Engineer
12 15 (3.44%) Office 365 Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (11.01%) .NET
2 19 (4.36%) HTML
3 12 (2.75%) ASP.NET
3 12 (2.75%) CSS
3 12 (2.75%) Web Services
4 10 (2.29%) LDAP
4 10 (2.29%) XML
5 9 (2.06%) .NET Framework
6 8 (1.83%) Node.js
7 7 (1.61%) ADO
8 6 (1.38%) Entity Framework
8 6 (1.38%) jQuery
8 6 (1.38%) LINQ
8 6 (1.38%) React
8 6 (1.38%) XSL
9 4 (0.92%) HTML5
9 4 (0.92%) PySpark
10 3 (0.69%) .NET Core
10 3 (0.69%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.69%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 62 (14.22%) Analytical Skills
2 40 (9.17%) Data Centre
3 32 (7.34%) PKI
4 24 (5.50%) Management Information System
5 21 (4.82%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (4.13%) Replication
7 11 (2.52%) Fat Client
7 11 (2.52%) Thin Client
8 10 (2.29%) Blackberry
9 9 (2.06%) Client/Server
9 9 (2.06%) Hedge funds
9 9 (2.06%) NHS
10 8 (1.83%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.61%) Clustering
11 7 (1.61%) Linux Command Line
11 7 (1.61%) Mobile App
11 7 (1.61%) Virtual Team
12 5 (1.15%) CMDB
12 5 (1.15%) Hybrid Cloud
12 5 (1.15%) User Experience
Operating Systems
1 265 (60.78%) Windows
2 147 (33.72%) Windows Server
3 112 (25.69%) Windows Server 2012
4 102 (23.39%) Windows 10
5 79 (18.12%) Windows Server 2016
6 65 (14.91%) Windows 7
7 62 (14.22%) Windows Server 2008
8 39 (8.94%) Linux
9 23 (5.28%) Windows Server 2019
10 15 (3.44%) Windows 8
11 13 (2.98%) Windows Server 2003
12 9 (2.06%) Apple iOS
13 8 (1.83%) Mac OS
14 7 (1.61%) Windows XP
15 6 (1.38%) Mac OS X
16 5 (1.15%) Android
16 5 (1.15%) VMS
17 4 (0.92%) AIX
17 4 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
17 4 (0.92%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (31.42%) ITIL
2 79 (18.12%) Migration
3 49 (11.24%) Agile Software Development
4 48 (11.01%) DevOps
4 48 (11.01%) Problem-Solving
5 44 (10.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 37 (8.49%) Change Management
6 37 (8.49%) Configuration Management
7 32 (7.34%) Business Intelligence
8 31 (7.11%) TOGAF
9 30 (6.88%) Disaster Recovery
10 29 (6.65%) High Availability
11 25 (5.73%) Service Management
12 23 (5.28%) Data Migration
12 23 (5.28%) ITSM
13 20 (4.59%) Validation
14 19 (4.36%) Project Delivery
14 19 (4.36%) Project Management
14 19 (4.36%) Root Cause Analysis
15 18 (4.13%) Application Packaging
Programming Languages
1 111 (25.46%) PowerShell
2 41 (9.40%) SQL
3 27 (6.19%) JavaScript
4 26 (5.96%) C#
5 20 (4.59%) Python
6 19 (4.36%) Java
6 19 (4.36%) VB
7 15 (3.44%) C
8 14 (3.21%) Bash Shell
8 14 (3.21%) VBScript
9 8 (1.83%) C++
10 7 (1.61%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.92%) Scala
12 3 (0.69%) Ruby
12 3 (0.69%) VB.NET
13 2 (0.46%) Go
14 1 (0.23%) Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
14 1 (0.23%) Perl
Qualifications
1 188 (43.12%) MCSE
2 126 (28.90%) Security Cleared
3 117 (26.83%) MCSA
4 82 (18.81%) SC Cleared
5 74 (16.97%) Cisco Certification
6 51 (11.70%) DV Cleared
6 51 (11.70%) MCP
7 42 (9.63%) CCNA
8 40 (9.17%) MCITP
9 38 (8.72%) Degree
10 37 (8.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 26 (5.96%) CCNP
12 24 (5.50%) CISSP
12 24 (5.50%) ITIL Certification
13 21 (4.82%) A+ Certification
14 19 (4.36%) CCIE
15 14 (3.21%) MCTS
16 12 (2.75%) CCIE Collaboration
17 9 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
17 9 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (8.72%) SLA
2 6 (1.38%) PCI DSS
3 5 (1.15%) NCSC
3 5 (1.15%) QA
4 4 (0.92%) Government Security Classifications
5 2 (0.46%) GDPR
5 2 (0.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 2 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.23%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.23%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.23%) PMO
6 1 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.23%) SSAE 16
System Software
1 256 (58.72%) Active Directory
2 94 (21.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (10.09%) Hyper-V
4 23 (5.28%) VMware ESXi
5 22 (5.05%) Microsoft App-V
6 18 (4.13%) XenApp
7 15 (3.44%) vSphere
8 13 (2.98%) VMware NSX
9 11 (2.52%) Virtual Machines
10 9 (2.06%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
10 9 (2.06%) XenDesktop
11 8 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
12 7 (1.61%) Docker
12 7 (1.61%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (1.38%) NFS
14 5 (1.15%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 5 (1.15%) vCloud
15 4 (0.92%) Terminal Server
16 3 (0.69%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 3 (0.69%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 78 (17.89%) SCCM
2 29 (6.65%) Ansible
3 17 (3.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (3.67%) Terraform
5 15 (3.44%) WSUS
6 11 (2.52%) SCOM
6 11 (2.52%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (2.06%) Puppet
7 9 (2.06%) vCenter Server
8 8 (1.83%) Kubernetes
9 5 (1.15%) AirWatch
9 5 (1.15%) Forefront Identity Manager
9 5 (1.15%) McAfee ePO
9 5 (1.15%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (1.15%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
9 5 (1.15%) NetBackup
9 5 (1.15%) Opscode Chef
9 5 (1.15%) Tivoli
9 5 (1.15%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 4 (0.92%) vRealize
Vendors
1 350 (80.28%) Microsoft
2 147 (33.72%) VMware
3 71 (16.28%) Cisco
4 45 (10.32%) Citrix
5 32 (7.34%) HP
6 31 (7.11%) Oracle
7 23 (5.28%) IBM
8 20 (4.59%) Sophos
9 19 (4.36%) Dell
10 17 (3.90%) Lumension
11 15 (3.44%) ESRI
11 15 (3.44%) Sonus
12 11 (2.52%) EMC
12 11 (2.52%) Ivanti
12 11 (2.52%) Symantec
13 10 (2.29%) CheckPoint
14 9 (2.06%) SolarWinds
15 8 (1.83%) McAfee
15 8 (1.83%) Meraki
15 8 (1.83%) NetApp