Microsoft Certification Contracts

Microsoft Certification
UK

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 13 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
13 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 260 353 386
Rank change year-on-year +93 +33 -54
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 384 390 592
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.90% 0.67% 0.67%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.96% 2.47% 3.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 253 296 386
10th Percentile £180 £125 £145
25th Percentile £313 £324 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +17.65% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £538
90th Percentile £685 £675 £619
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £480 £375
% change year-on-year -6.25% +28.00% -11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 20 42
10th Percentile £13.69 - £13.45
25th Percentile £14.16 £15.25 £15.25
Median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.16% - -26.56%
75th Percentile £21.37 £18.75 £20.51
90th Percentile - £20.65 £28.42
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
% change year-on-year +5.16% - -18.42%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

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.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 12,968 15,820 18,959
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.33% 27.20% 21.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,992 10,558 12,540
10th Percentile £307 £330 £337
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.09% +4.76% +7.69%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £626
90th Percentile £738 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £533 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +1.43% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,064 805 779
10th Percentile £13.74 £15.25 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.80 £20.25 £19.52
Median hourly rate £40.00 £54.00 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +24.14% +14.47%
75th Percentile £61.60 £67.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.95 £79.19 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.94 £50.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -18.12% +42.86% -

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 13 May 2024.

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 13 May 2024.

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 13 May 2024. 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
Jobs
England +90 318 £500 -0.50% 399
UK excluding London +49 235 £450 -6.25% 313
London +107 110 £500 - 120
Work from Home +48 94 £501 -3.61% 124
East of England +27 55 £135 -58.46% 29
South West +21 50 £538 +2.38% 53
North of England +17 38 £400 -23.81% 88
South East +3 37 £456 -16.48% 47
Scotland +58 32 £325 +172.42% 28
North West +21 29 £394 -28.41% 55
Midlands +21 21 £513 +129.02% 54
East Midlands +21 14 £406 +81.84% 21
West Midlands +14 7 £625 +177.78% 33
North East +15 5 £475 +331.82% 11
Yorkshire +15 4 £325 +116.67% 23
Northern Ireland +8 2 - - 8

Microsoft Certification
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 58 (15.10%) Microsoft Exchange
2 42 (10.94%) SharePoint
3 17 (4.43%) Confluence
4 8 (2.08%) IIS
5 4 (1.04%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.52%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2003
7 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 27 (7.03%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (4.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (3.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (2.34%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.26%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (1.30%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.78%) Dynamics GP
3 2 (0.52%) Eikon
4 1 (0.26%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 132 (34.38%) Microsoft 365
2 127 (33.07%) Azure
3 34 (8.85%) Dynamics 365
4 32 (8.33%) Power Platform
5 31 (8.07%) AWS
6 29 (7.55%) Entra ID
7 18 (4.69%) GCP
8 14 (3.65%) Cloud Computing
9 11 (2.86%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (2.86%) Azure Sentinel
9 11 (2.86%) Power Automate
10 9 (2.34%) OneDrive
10 9 (2.34%) Twilio
11 8 (2.08%) IaaS
12 7 (1.82%) PowerApps
13 6 (1.56%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (1.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 6 (1.56%) WhatsApp
14 5 (1.30%) Azure Key Vault
14 5 (1.30%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 47 (12.24%) Wi-Fi
2 46 (11.98%) DNS
3 38 (9.90%) DHCP
4 33 (8.59%) Firewall
5 24 (6.25%) SAN
6 18 (4.69%) VPN
7 16 (4.17%) VoIP
8 15 (3.91%) LAN
9 14 (3.65%) Network Security
9 14 (3.65%) TCP/IP
9 14 (3.65%) WAN
10 10 (2.60%) NAS
11 9 (2.34%) CTI
12 7 (1.82%) SSL
12 7 (1.82%) VLAN
13 6 (1.56%) Fibre Channel
13 6 (1.56%) Skype
14 5 (1.30%) iSCSI
14 5 (1.30%) Wireless
15 4 (1.04%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (8.85%) SQL Server
2 11 (2.86%) Power BI
3 10 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (1.30%) Big Data
4 5 (1.30%) MySQL
4 5 (1.30%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 3 (0.78%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
6 3 (0.78%) Data Lake
6 3 (0.78%) Microsoft Analysis Services
6 3 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.78%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 3 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 2 (0.52%) Delta Lake
7 2 (0.52%) Metadata
7 2 (0.52%) Spark SQL
8 1 (0.26%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.26%) ThoughtSpot
Development Applications
1 21 (5.47%) JIRA
2 6 (1.56%) Git
3 1 (0.26%) Appium
3 1 (0.26%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.26%) MSI
3 1 (0.26%) Selenium
3 1 (0.26%) SonarQube
3 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio
3 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 124 (32.29%) Social Skills
2 78 (20.31%) Analytical Skills
3 73 (19.01%) Finance
4 59 (15.36%) Public Sector
5 44 (11.46%) Retail
6 25 (6.51%) Banking
7 21 (5.47%) Telecoms
8 16 (4.17%) Marketing
8 16 (4.17%) Military
9 9 (2.34%) Manufacturing
9 9 (2.34%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (2.08%) Police
11 6 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
11 6 (1.56%) Front Office
12 4 (1.04%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (0.78%) Advertising
13 3 (0.78%) Electronics
13 3 (0.78%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.78%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (17.19%) Analyst
2 50 (13.02%) Service Analyst
3 49 (12.76%) Service Desk Analyst
4 40 (10.42%) Architect
5 35 (9.11%) Consultant
6 34 (8.85%) Support Engineer
7 33 (8.59%) Senior
8 29 (7.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 25 (6.51%) Solutions Architect
10 20 (5.21%) Dynamics 365 Consultant
11 17 (4.43%) Test Engineer
12 16 (4.17%) Integration Engineer
12 16 (4.17%) IT Engineer
12 16 (4.17%) Test and Integration Engineer
13 15 (3.91%) 1st Line Service Desk Analyst
13 15 (3.91%) DBA
13 15 (3.91%) Desktop Engineer
13 15 (3.91%) IT Support
14 14 (3.65%) SQL DBA
15 13 (3.39%) Functional Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.65%) Web Services
2 9 (2.34%) Middleware
3 8 (2.08%) XML
4 6 (1.56%) JSON
5 5 (1.30%) .NET
5 5 (1.30%) RESTful
5 5 (1.30%) SOAP
6 4 (1.04%) SPFx
7 3 (0.78%) CSS
7 3 (0.78%) LDAP
8 2 (0.52%) ARM Templates
8 2 (0.52%) OAuth
8 2 (0.52%) OAuth2
8 2 (0.52%) PySpark
8 2 (0.52%) Spark Streaming
8 2 (0.52%) YAML
9 1 (0.26%) .NET Core
9 1 (0.26%) ASP.NET Web API
9 1 (0.26%) React
9 1 (0.26%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 50 (13.02%) PKI
2 28 (7.29%) Data Centre
3 27 (7.03%) Management Information System
4 15 (3.91%) Clustering
4 15 (3.91%) Driving Licence
5 11 (2.86%) Security Operations Centre
5 11 (2.86%) Security Posture
6 9 (2.34%) IVR
6 9 (2.34%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (2.08%) Analytical Mindset
7 8 (2.08%) NHS
8 7 (1.82%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.30%) Cyber Threat
9 5 (1.30%) Low-Code
10 4 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.04%) Replication
10 4 (1.04%) Video Conferencing
11 3 (0.78%) Grid Computing
11 3 (0.78%) iPhone
11 3 (0.78%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 159 (41.41%) Windows
2 94 (24.48%) Windows Server
3 40 (10.42%) Windows 10
4 31 (8.07%) Windows Server 2012
5 24 (6.25%) Linux
6 12 (3.13%) Windows 7
7 10 (2.60%) Windows Server 2016
8 9 (2.34%) CentOS
9 7 (1.82%) Unix
9 7 (1.82%) Windows Server 2008
10 6 (1.56%) Debian
10 6 (1.56%) Mac OS
10 6 (1.56%) Windows 8
11 5 (1.30%) VMS
11 5 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.78%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.52%) Android
13 2 (0.52%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.52%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (31.77%) ITIL
2 93 (24.22%) Problem-Solving
3 87 (22.66%) Customer Service
4 52 (13.54%) Agile
5 49 (12.76%) Incident Management
6 43 (11.20%) Computer Science
7 37 (9.64%) Service Management
8 31 (8.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 31 (8.07%) Migration
9 29 (7.55%) Service Delivery
10 28 (7.29%) DevOps
11 26 (6.77%) Data Modelling
12 24 (6.25%) Cybersecurity
12 24 (6.25%) High Availability
13 23 (5.99%) Analytics
13 23 (5.99%) Disaster Recovery
14 20 (5.21%) Identity Access Management
14 20 (5.21%) Project Management
15 19 (4.95%) Critical Thinking
15 19 (4.95%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 57 (14.84%) PowerShell
2 53 (13.80%) SQL
3 11 (2.86%) Kusto Query Language
4 6 (1.56%) C#
4 6 (1.56%) JavaScript
4 6 (1.56%) Python
5 4 (1.04%) Bash
6 3 (0.78%) Bicep
6 3 (0.78%) VB.NET
7 2 (0.52%) C++
7 2 (0.52%) Scala
7 2 (0.52%) X++
8 1 (0.26%) Java
8 1 (0.26%) VB
Qualifications
1 104 (27.08%) MCSE
2 102 (26.56%) Degree
3 89 (23.18%) Security Cleared
4 87 (22.66%) MCSA
5 73 (19.01%) A+ Certification
6 71 (18.49%) SC Cleared
7 48 (12.50%) Azure Certification
8 39 (10.16%) Cisco Certification
9 35 (9.11%) MCP
10 34 (8.85%) CCNA
11 32 (8.33%) Computer Science Degree
12 29 (7.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 18 (4.69%) DV Cleared
14 17 (4.43%) MCITP
15 16 (4.17%) CISSP
16 14 (3.65%) ITIL Certification
17 13 (3.39%) AWS Certification
17 13 (3.39%) CCNP
17 13 (3.39%) MCTS
18 12 (3.13%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.91%) JSP 440
1 15 (3.91%) SLA
2 10 (2.60%) GDPR
3 9 (2.34%) HIPAA
3 9 (2.34%) PCI DSS
3 9 (2.34%) SOC 2
4 7 (1.82%) NIST
5 5 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.04%) Disclosure Scotland
7 3 (0.78%) ISO 9001
7 3 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 3 (0.78%) NCSC
8 2 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 147 (38.28%) Active Directory
2 52 (13.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (4.95%) Hyper-V
4 18 (4.69%) vSphere
5 7 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (1.56%) KVM
7 5 (1.30%) Firmware
7 5 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (1.04%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.52%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.52%) Docker
9 2 (0.52%) XenApp
9 2 (0.52%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.26%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 33 (8.59%) SCCM
2 21 (5.47%) Microsoft Intune
3 16 (4.17%) OPNET
4 10 (2.60%) WSUS
5 8 (2.08%) SCOM
6 5 (1.30%) Terraform
7 4 (1.04%) Kubernetes
7 4 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.78%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.52%) Backup Exec
9 2 (0.52%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.26%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.26%) Grafana
10 1 (0.26%) Nagios
10 1 (0.26%) Nessus
10 1 (0.26%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.26%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 318 (82.81%) Microsoft
2 71 (18.49%) VMware
3 55 (14.32%) Citrix
3 55 (14.32%) ServiceNow
4 22 (5.73%) Cisco
5 21 (5.47%) Dell
6 15 (3.91%) Google
7 10 (2.60%) Red Hat
8 9 (2.34%) Avaya
8 9 (2.34%) Genesys
9 8 (2.08%) Apple
9 8 (2.08%) CA
9 8 (2.08%) HP
10 5 (1.30%) Bloomberg
10 5 (1.30%) Databricks
11 4 (1.04%) SolarWinds
11 4 (1.04%) Veeam
12 3 (0.78%) Okta
12 3 (0.78%) Refinitiv
12 3 (0.78%) SAP