Microsoft Contract Job Trends
Microsoft
UK
The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 18 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.
The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.
| 6 months to 18 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Rank change year-on-year | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| Contract jobs citing Microsoft | 7,696 | 4,806 | 4,885 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the UK | 14.00% | 14.44% | 13.05% |
| As % of the Vendors category | 33.44% | 30.31% | 29.12% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 4,808 | 3,124 | 3,031 |
| 10th Percentile | £213 | £205 | £200 |
| 25th Percentile | £375 | £339 | £350 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £493 | £475 | £487 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +3.68% | -2.46% | -2.60% |
| 75th Percentile | £594 | £575 | £600 |
| 90th Percentile | £688 | £669 | £688 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £455 | £440 | £450 |
| % change year-on-year | +3.41% | -2.22% | - |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 689 | 390 | 240 |
| 10th Percentile | £13.25 | £13.83 | £14.98 |
| 25th Percentile | £14.36 | £16.50 | £15.62 |
| Median hourly rate | £18.00 | £21.75 | £21.78 |
| Median % change year-on-year | -17.24% | -0.11% | -5.33% |
| 75th Percentile | £28.75 | £31.00 | £45.30 |
| 90th Percentile | £65.51 | £63.40 | £65.00 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £17.50 | £20.79 | £18.38 |
| % change year-on-year | -15.82% | +13.14% | -16.48% |
All Vendors
UK
Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services.
| 6 months to 18 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services | 23,014 | 15,857 | 16,774 |
| As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK | 41.87% | 47.63% | 44.81% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 13,873 | 9,779 | 9,874 |
| 10th Percentile | £310 | £278 | £290 |
| 25th Percentile | £413 | £404 | £413 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £513 | £500 | £525 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +2.50% | -4.76% | - |
| 75th Percentile | £623 | £613 | £625 |
| 90th Percentile | £713 | £700 | £725 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £500 | £488 | £500 |
| % change year-on-year | +2.56% | -2.50% | - |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 1,476 | 811 | 565 |
| 10th Percentile | £13.52 | £14.99 | £15.00 |
| 25th Percentile | £16.01 | £17.79 | £16.85 |
| Median hourly rate | £24.19 | £24.00 | £33.00 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +0.79% | -27.27% | -24.79% |
| 75th Percentile | £56.00 | £35.98 | £65.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £77.00 | £68.00 | £70.00 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £23.18 | £21.28 | £30.00 |
| % change year-on-year | +8.93% | -29.07% | -29.41% |
Microsoft Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.
Microsoft Daily Rate Trend
Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Microsoft.
Microsoft Daily Rate Histogram
Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft over the 6 months to 18 October 2026.
Microsoft Hourly Rate Trend
Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Microsoft.
Microsoft Hourly Rate Histogram
Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft over the 6 months to 18 October 2026.
Microsoft Top 18 Contract Job Locations
The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the UK over the 6 months to 18 October 2026. 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 | -1 | 6,672 | £495 | +4.21% | 6,149 |
| UK excluding London | 0 | 4,097 | £455 | +3.41% | 4,161 |
| London | +3 | 2,899 | £523 | +4.50% | 2,356 |
| Work from Home | +3 | 1,941 | £500 | - | 2,733 |
| South East | 0 | 1,122 | £475 | +5.56% | 996 |
| North of England | -5 | 1,008 | £460 | +5.75% | 1,090 |
| Midlands | -1 | 706 | £425 | +2.41% | 683 |
| North West | -1 | 593 | £465 | +7.51% | 542 |
| West Midlands | -1 | 476 | £425 | -5.24% | 394 |
| South West | -1 | 436 | £500 | +8.11% | 434 |
| Scotland | +6 | 389 | £450 | - | 326 |
| Yorkshire | -3 | 364 | £460 | +2.22% | 385 |
| East of England | -1 | 324 | £345 | -31.00% | 372 |
| East Midlands | +1 | 225 | £425 | +13.33% | 289 |
| Wales | -1 | 113 | £413 | +37.50% | 156 |
| North East | -21 | 56 | £426 | +21.57% | 174 |
| Northern Ireland | -1 | 35 | £312 | -10.86% | 157 |
| Channel Islands | -3 | 4 | £525 | -27.59% | 8 |
Microsoft Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Vendors
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ServiceNow | 7.3% | 562 |
| 2 | Oracle | 4.8% | 371 |
| 3 | VMware | 4.7% | 358 |
| 4 | SAP | 4.3% | 332 |
| 5 | 4.0% | 309 | |
| 6 | Databricks | 3.6% | 275 |
| 7 | Cisco | 3.1% | 239 |
| 8 | Salesforce | 1.9% | 144 |
| 9 | Splunk | 1.8% | 137 |
| 10 | CyberArk | 1.5% | 119 |
| 11 | Apple | 1.5% | 114 |
| 12 | OpenAI | 1.5% | 112 |
| 13 | Okta | 1.4% | 107 |
| 14 | Citrix | 1.4% | 104 |
| 15 | BeyondTrust | 1.3% | 101 |
| 16 | Foundry | 1.2% | 93 |
| 17 | CrowdStrike | 1.1% | 88 |
| 18 | Red Hat | 0.9% | 69 |
| 19 | IBM | 0.8% | 65 |
| 20 | Zscaler | 0.7% | 56 |