Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 20 September 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 20 September 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
20 Sep 2020		 Same period 2019 Same period 2018
Rank 262 276 276
Rank change year-on-year +14 0 -19
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 272 829 988
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.93% 0.93% 0.96%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.64% 4.78% 5.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 176 497 629
Median daily rate £450 £375 £350
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +20.00% +7.14% +7.69%
10th Percentile £155 £136 £163
90th Percentile £583 £573 £525
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £360 £350
% change year-on-year +25.00% +2.86% +7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 42 82
Median hourly rate £23.40 £22.34 £17.46
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +4.77% +27.96% -1.66%
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.97 £14.75
90th Percentile £39.15 £79.63 £44.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £23.50 £16.03
% change year-on-year -2.13% +46.65% -11.61%

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 7,470 17,339 19,156
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 25.62% 19.54% 18.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,524 10,562 11,326
Median daily rate £475 £465 £450
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +2.15% +3.33% +5.88%
10th Percentile £290 £263 £245
90th Percentile £638 £644 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £440 £415
% change year-on-year +2.27% +6.02% +3.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 378 836 984
Median hourly rate £35.00 £36.60 £24.04
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -4.37% +52.25% -17.10%
10th Percentile £17.50 £14.00 £13.00
90th Percentile £62.00 £60.00 £51.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £37.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year -6.67% +50.00% -21.07%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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 20 September 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 +18 210 £463 +23.33% 192
UK excluding London +62 201 £450 +25.00% 166
London +78 61 £450 +12.50% 44
South East +66 53 £320 -14.67% 39
Scotland +58 39 £428 +22.14% 8
Midlands +70 31 £550 +37.50% 34
West Midlands +51 24 £550 +4.76% 25
East of England +82 23 £500 +42.86% 15
North of England +61 23 £550 +69.23% 41
North West +69 19 £550 +57.14% 17
South West +57 16 £463 +5.71% 18
Work from Home -55 16 £438 +13.64% 26
Wales +43 11 £185 -13.45% 6
East Midlands +47 7 - - 9
Northern Ireland +20 5 £160 +6.67% 5
Yorkshire +39 3 - - 22
North East +35 1 £375 +120.59% 2

For the 6 months to 20 September 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.

1 223 (81.99%) Microsoft
2 155 (56.99%) Active Directory
3 150 (55.15%) Windows
4 97 (35.66%) MCSE
5 95 (34.93%) Security Cleared
6 90 (33.09%) Windows Server
7 88 (32.35%) VMware
8 87 (31.99%) ITIL
9 83 (30.51%) Office 365
10 77 (28.31%) PowerShell
10 77 (28.31%) Azure
11 65 (23.90%) MCSA
12 64 (23.53%) VMware Infrastructure
13 63 (23.16%) Windows Server 2012
14 61 (22.43%) Windows 10
14 61 (22.43%) Cisco
15 60 (22.06%) Migration
16 57 (20.96%) SQL Server
17 56 (20.59%) Cisco Certification
18 52 (19.12%) Microsoft Office
19 51 (18.75%) SC Cleared
19 51 (18.75%) DV Cleared
20 48 (17.65%) SharePoint
21 47 (17.28%) Windows Server 2008
22 46 (16.91%) SCCM
22 46 (16.91%) Windows Server 2016
23 41 (15.07%) Windows 7
23 41 (15.07%) DNS
24 40 (14.71%) Skype for Business
24 40 (14.71%) DevOps

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 48 (17.65%) SharePoint
2 40 (14.71%) Skype for Business
3 38 (13.97%) MS Exchange
4 22 (8.09%) Exchange Server 2013
5 21 (7.72%) Exchange Server 2010
6 19 (6.99%) ArcGIS
7 15 (5.51%) IBM Notes
7 15 (5.51%) IIS
8 13 (4.78%) IBM Domino
9 10 (3.68%) Exchange Server 2007
10 8 (2.94%) Exchange Server 2003
10 8 (2.94%) Office Communications Server
11 6 (2.21%) Confluence
12 4 (1.47%) Apache Spark
13 2 (0.74%) CMS
13 2 (0.74%) nginx
13 2 (0.74%) OpenStack
13 2 (0.74%) SAS
14 1 (0.37%) Apache
14 1 (0.37%) BizTalk Server
Applications
1 52 (19.12%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (6.62%) Photoshop
3 5 (1.84%) InfoPath
4 3 (1.10%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.74%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.74%) Windchill
6 1 (0.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (2.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.84%) Teamcenter
3 4 (1.47%) ION MarketView
4 3 (1.10%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.37%) CA PPM
Cloud Services
1 83 (30.51%) Office 365
2 77 (28.31%) Azure
3 23 (8.46%) Azure Active Directory
3 23 (8.46%) Power Platform
4 20 (7.35%) PaaS
5 15 (5.51%) OneDrive
6 14 (5.15%) PowerApps
7 13 (4.78%) AWS
8 11 (4.04%) IaaS
9 5 (1.84%) Azure Data Factory
9 5 (1.84%) Dynamics 365
10 4 (1.47%) GCP
11 3 (1.10%) Mimecast
11 3 (1.10%) Power Automate
11 3 (1.10%) SaaS
12 2 (0.74%) Azure Stack
13 1 (0.37%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 1 (0.37%) Azure Functions
13 1 (0.37%) npm
13 1 (0.37%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 41 (15.07%) DNS
2 38 (13.97%) Skype
3 24 (8.82%) DHCP
3 24 (8.82%) Firewall
4 21 (7.72%) SAN
5 19 (6.99%) VoIP
6 18 (6.62%) WAN
7 17 (6.25%) LAN
8 13 (4.78%) Cisco IOS
9 10 (3.68%) Network Security
9 10 (3.68%) Unified Communications
9 10 (3.68%) VPN
10 9 (3.31%) TCP/IP
11 8 (2.94%) iSCSI
12 7 (2.57%) Kerberos
12 7 (2.57%) PBX
13 6 (2.21%) Wi-Fi
13 6 (2.21%) Wireless
13 6 (2.21%) X.500
14 5 (1.84%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (20.96%) SQL Server
2 17 (6.25%) GIS
3 14 (5.15%) Data Lake
4 13 (4.78%) Big Data
5 9 (3.31%) HDInsight
5 9 (3.31%) Power BI
6 5 (1.84%) Cosmos DB
6 5 (1.84%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.84%) SQL Server 2008
7 3 (1.10%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (1.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.74%) MySQL
8 2 (0.74%) OLTP
8 2 (0.74%) SQL Server 2012
8 2 (0.74%) SQL Server 2014
8 2 (0.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.37%) OLAP
9 1 (0.37%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 8 (2.94%) Visual Studio
2 7 (2.57%) JIRA
3 6 (2.21%) Git (software)
4 5 (1.84%) Bitbucket
4 5 (1.84%) GitLab
4 5 (1.84%) MSI
5 4 (1.47%) Artifactory
6 3 (1.10%) ClearCase
6 3 (1.10%) ClearQuest
6 3 (1.10%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.74%) InstallShield
8 1 (0.37%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.37%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.37%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.37%) JMeter
8 1 (0.37%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 22 (8.09%) Finance
2 20 (7.35%) Public Sector
3 13 (4.78%) Banking
4 12 (4.41%) Manufacturing
5 9 (3.31%) Military
6 8 (2.94%) Telecoms
7 5 (1.84%) Front Office
7 5 (1.84%) Investment Banking
7 5 (1.84%) Retail
8 3 (1.10%) Electronics
8 3 (1.10%) Marketing
8 3 (1.10%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (0.74%) French Language
9 2 (0.74%) International Banking
9 2 (0.74%) Legal
10 1 (0.37%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.37%) Housing Association
10 1 (0.37%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.37%) Local Government
10 1 (0.37%) Russian Language
Job Titles
1 41 (15.07%) Architect
2 30 (11.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 23 (8.46%) Analyst
4 20 (7.35%) Desktop Support
5 18 (6.62%) Administrator
6 16 (5.88%) Consultant
7 15 (5.51%) Support Analyst
8 14 (5.15%) Developer
9 13 (4.78%) Desktop Analyst
9 13 (4.78%) Desktop Support Analyst
9 13 (4.78%) Office 365 Administrator
9 13 (4.78%) Support Engineer
10 12 (4.41%) Exchange Administrator
10 12 (4.41%) Technical Architect
11 11 (4.04%) Data Architect
11 11 (4.04%) Enterprise Architect
12 10 (3.68%) Enterprise Data Architect
13 9 (3.31%) 2nd Line Support
14 8 (2.94%) Integration Engineer
14 8 (2.94%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (7.72%) .NET
2 7 (2.57%) CSS
2 7 (2.57%) HTML
2 7 (2.57%) LDAP
2 7 (2.57%) XML
3 6 (2.21%) Web Services
4 5 (1.84%) ADO
4 5 (1.84%) jQuery
5 4 (1.47%) .NET Framework
5 4 (1.47%) PySpark
6 3 (1.10%) React
7 2 (0.74%) AngularJS
7 2 (0.74%) ASP.NET
7 2 (0.74%) Entity Framework
7 2 (0.74%) Flask
7 2 (0.74%) Itk
7 2 (0.74%) LINQ
7 2 (0.74%) SOAP
7 2 (0.74%) XSL
8 1 (0.37%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 35 (12.87%) Analytical Skills
2 28 (10.29%) Data Centre
3 19 (6.99%) Management Information System
3 19 (6.99%) PKI
4 16 (5.88%) Self-Motivation
5 10 (3.68%) Replication
6 7 (2.57%) Blackberry
6 7 (2.57%) Client/Server
6 7 (2.57%) Driving Licence
7 6 (2.21%) NHS
8 5 (1.84%) Clustering
8 5 (1.84%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.84%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.84%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.47%) Fat Client
9 4 (1.47%) Mobile App
9 4 (1.47%) PMI
9 4 (1.47%) Thin Client
10 3 (1.10%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 150 (55.15%) Windows
2 90 (33.09%) Windows Server
3 63 (23.16%) Windows Server 2012
4 61 (22.43%) Windows 10
5 47 (17.28%) Windows Server 2008
6 46 (16.91%) Windows Server 2016
7 41 (15.07%) Windows 7
8 24 (8.82%) Windows Server 2019
9 16 (5.88%) Linux
10 11 (4.04%) Windows Server 2003
11 9 (3.31%) Windows 8
12 6 (2.21%) Apple iOS
12 6 (2.21%) Mac OS X
13 5 (1.84%) Windows XP
14 3 (1.10%) AIX
14 3 (1.10%) Mac OS
14 3 (1.10%) Unix
15 2 (0.74%) Android
15 2 (0.74%) CentOS
16 1 (0.37%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (31.99%) ITIL
2 60 (22.06%) Migration
3 40 (14.71%) DevOps
4 39 (14.34%) Agile Software Development
5 35 (12.87%) Change Management
6 34 (12.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 33 (12.13%) Enterprise Architecture
8 31 (11.40%) TOGAF
9 28 (10.29%) Data Migration
10 26 (9.56%) Disaster Recovery
11 25 (9.19%) Business Intelligence
12 21 (7.72%) Configuration Management
12 21 (7.72%) Problem-Solving
13 18 (6.62%) Service Management
14 17 (6.25%) Image Processing
15 15 (5.51%) Analytics
15 15 (5.51%) High Availability
15 15 (5.51%) Project Management
15 15 (5.51%) Release Management
15 15 (5.51%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 77 (28.31%) PowerShell
2 36 (13.24%) SQL
3 22 (8.09%) C
4 21 (7.72%) VB
5 10 (3.68%) C#
5 10 (3.68%) JavaScript
6 9 (3.31%) Java
6 9 (3.31%) VBScript
7 8 (2.94%) Python
8 5 (1.84%) T-SQL
9 4 (1.47%) C++
9 4 (1.47%) Scala
9 4 (1.47%) VB.NET
10 2 (0.74%) Bash Shell
10 2 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions (DAX)
10 2 (0.74%) Perl
10 2 (0.74%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.37%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.37%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 97 (35.66%) MCSE
2 95 (34.93%) Security Cleared
3 65 (23.90%) MCSA
4 56 (20.59%) Cisco Certification
5 51 (18.75%) DV Cleared
5 51 (18.75%) SC Cleared
6 28 (10.29%) Degree
7 25 (9.19%) MCP
8 22 (8.09%) CCNA
9 19 (6.99%) CCNP
9 19 (6.99%) CISSP
9 19 (6.99%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 16 (5.88%) CCIE
10 16 (5.88%) ITIL Certification
11 14 (5.15%) TOGAF Certification
12 12 (4.41%) CCIE Collaboration
13 9 (3.31%) MCAD
13 9 (3.31%) MCITP
14 8 (2.94%) HND
14 8 (2.94%) MCSD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (2.21%) NCSC
2 5 (1.84%) SLA
3 4 (1.47%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.47%) Government Security Classifications
4 3 (1.10%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 2 (0.74%) QA
6 1 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.37%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 1 (0.37%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.37%) PMO
System Software
1 155 (56.99%) Active Directory
2 64 (23.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (8.46%) Hyper-V
4 20 (7.35%) VMware NSX
5 9 (3.31%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (3.31%) vSphere
6 8 (2.94%) Microsoft App-V
6 8 (2.94%) XenApp
7 6 (2.21%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 6 (2.21%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (1.84%) NFS
8 5 (1.84%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (1.84%) Virtual Servers
9 4 (1.47%) XenDesktop
10 3 (1.10%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 3 (1.10%) Terminal Server
10 3 (1.10%) vCloud
11 2 (0.74%) Docker
12 1 (0.37%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.37%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 46 (16.91%) SCCM
2 24 (8.82%) Ansible
3 13 (4.78%) Microsoft Intune
4 10 (3.68%) WSUS
5 6 (2.21%) Terraform
6 4 (1.47%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 4 (1.47%) SCOM
6 4 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (1.47%) Tivoli
6 4 (1.47%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 4 (1.47%) vCenter Server
6 4 (1.47%) vRealize
7 3 (1.10%) Kubernetes
7 3 (1.10%) McAfee ePO
7 3 (1.10%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.74%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.74%) Nessus
8 2 (0.74%) Norton AntiVirus
8 2 (0.74%) Puppet
8 2 (0.74%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 223 (81.99%) Microsoft
2 88 (32.35%) VMware
3 61 (22.43%) Cisco
4 34 (12.50%) Oracle
5 28 (10.29%) HP
6 22 (8.09%) Citrix
7 21 (7.72%) Sophos
8 20 (7.35%) Lumension
9 19 (6.99%) ESRI
10 15 (5.51%) IBM
11 14 (5.15%) Databricks
12 13 (4.78%) Dell
13 10 (3.68%) Palo Alto
14 7 (2.57%) IronPort
14 7 (2.57%) SolarWinds
15 6 (2.21%) Sonus
16 5 (1.84%) EMC
16 5 (1.84%) F5
16 5 (1.84%) Meraki
16 5 (1.84%) Veeam