Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 20 October 2020

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Virtual Machines skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 20 October 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.

Virtual Machine (VM)
UK
6 months to
20 Oct 2020		 Same period 2019 Same period 2018
Rank 318 415 453
Rank change year-on-year +97 +38 -14
Contract jobs citing Virtual Machines 223 478 527
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.71% 0.57% 0.51%
As % of the System Software category 4.87% 3.63% 3.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 306 394
Median daily rate £500 £463 £490
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +8.11% -5.61% +16.67%
10th Percentile £325 £308 £290
90th Percentile £650 £638 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £434 £450 £456
% change year-on-year -3.61% -1.37% +14.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 16 11
Median hourly rate £35.00 £42.00 £21.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year -16.67% +100.00% -51.40%
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £40.00 £19.21
% change year-on-year -42.50% +108.28% +20.03%

Virtual Machines is in the System Software category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for system software skills.

All System Software Skills
UK
Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 4,576 13,169 15,305
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.53% 15.60% 14.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,837 8,683 9,969
Median daily rate £475 £450 £450
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +5.56% - +5.88%
10th Percentile £213 £165 £180
90th Percentile £638 £638 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £430 £413 £400
% change year-on-year +4.24% +3.13% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 208 666 889
Median hourly rate £20.00 £17.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +17.65% +6.25% -3.96%
10th Percentile £11.17 £11.17 £10.50
90th Percentile £53.23 £47.38 £43.75
Median hourly rate £17.75 £16.00 £15.50
% change year-on-year +10.94% +3.23% -

Virtual Machines
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Virtual Machines as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Virtual Machines.

Daily rate trend for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 20 October 2020.

Daily rate histogram for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Virtual Machines.

Hourly rate trend for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Virtual Machines over the 6 months to 20 October 2020.

Hourly rate histogram for Virtual Machines in the UK

Virtual Machines
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Virtual Machines within the UK over the 6 months to 20 October 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 +67 163 £500 +5.82% 67
London +125 97 £500 +2.56% 19
UK excluding London +91 84 £434 -3.61% 49
Work from Home -39 63 £581 -3.13% 15
South East +112 29 £503 +7.20% 22
Scotland +82 22 £428 +29.06% 1
South West +74 8 £381 -15.28% 4
North of England +60 8 £360 -20.00% 13
Midlands +60 7 £450 +11.80% 4
Yorkshire +55 7 £388 -12.31% 5
East of England +80 6 £345 -27.37% 5
West Midlands +55 4 £450 +11.11% 4
Wales +42 4 £400 -
East Midlands +40 3 - -
North West +54 1 £360 -24.01% 5

For the 6 months to 20 October 2020, IT contractor jobs citing Virtual Machines 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 Virtual Machines.

1 101 (45.29%) Windows
2 81 (36.32%) Linux
3 65 (29.15%) Azure
4 64 (28.70%) Security Cleared
5 58 (26.01%) SC Cleared
5 58 (26.01%) DevOps
6 57 (25.56%) DNS
7 56 (25.11%) Microsoft
8 54 (24.22%) Oracle
9 51 (22.87%) Active Directory
9 51 (22.87%) VMware
10 49 (21.97%) Firewall
11 48 (21.52%) VMware Infrastructure
11 48 (21.52%) PaaS
12 44 (19.73%) Python
13 43 (19.28%) Java
14 42 (18.83%) Migration
15 41 (18.39%) PowerShell
15 41 (18.39%) Terraform
16 39 (17.49%) Mentoring
17 38 (17.04%) Kubernetes
17 38 (17.04%) Ansible
18 35 (15.70%) Jenkins
19 34 (15.25%) Git (software)
19 34 (15.25%) Windows Server
20 32 (14.35%) DHCP
21 31 (13.90%) Unix
21 31 (13.90%) Hyper-V
22 30 (13.45%) Bash Shell
22 30 (13.45%) GCP

Virtual Machines
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 26 (11.66%) nginx
2 24 (10.76%) Cloud Foundry
3 14 (6.28%) Exchange Server 2010
3 14 (6.28%) MS Exchange
4 12 (5.38%) IIS
5 11 (4.93%) SharePoint
6 9 (4.04%) CMS
7 7 (3.14%) Skype for Business
7 7 (3.14%) Tomcat
8 5 (2.24%) OpenStack
8 5 (2.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 3 (1.35%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (1.35%) SAS
10 2 (0.90%) Confluence
11 1 (0.45%) Apache
11 1 (0.45%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.45%) MQSeries
11 1 (0.45%) WebSphere
Applications
1 9 (4.04%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (3.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.35%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.45%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.45%) SPSS
Cloud Services
1 65 (29.15%) Azure
2 48 (21.52%) PaaS
3 30 (13.45%) GCP
4 27 (12.11%) IaaS
5 25 (11.21%) npm
6 20 (8.97%) Office 365
7 10 (4.48%) Power Platform
8 9 (4.04%) SaaS
9 8 (3.59%) AWS
9 8 (3.59%) Azure Active Directory
10 6 (2.69%) Logic Apps
10 6 (2.69%) Serverless
11 5 (2.24%) Azure Data Factory
11 5 (2.24%) GitHub
11 5 (2.24%) PowerApps
11 5 (2.24%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 4 (1.79%) Azure Functions
12 4 (1.79%) OneDrive
13 3 (1.35%) AWS Elastic Beanstalk
13 3 (1.35%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 57 (25.56%) DNS
2 49 (21.97%) Firewall
3 32 (14.35%) DHCP
4 29 (13.00%) SAN
4 29 (13.00%) VPN
5 27 (12.11%) Network Security
6 24 (10.76%) LAN
7 17 (7.62%) WAN
8 14 (6.28%) OSPF
8 14 (6.28%) TCP/IP
9 12 (5.38%) Internet
9 12 (5.38%) Skype
9 12 (5.38%) SNMP
9 12 (5.38%) TACACS
10 11 (4.93%) DMZ
11 10 (4.48%) iSCSI
12 7 (3.14%) IPv4
12 7 (3.14%) Remote Desktop
12 7 (3.14%) VSAN
13 6 (2.69%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (10.76%) BigQuery
2 23 (10.31%) SQL Server
3 6 (2.69%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (2.69%) Power BI
4 5 (2.24%) Cosmos DB
5 4 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (1.79%) MySQL
6 3 (1.35%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
6 3 (1.35%) Big Data
6 3 (1.35%) Oracle Database
6 3 (1.35%) Redis
7 2 (0.90%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.90%) DB2
7 2 (0.90%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.90%) Oracle Database 11g
7 2 (0.90%) Oracle Database 12c
7 2 (0.90%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.90%) Oracle9i Database
7 2 (0.90%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.90%) SQL Server 2012
Development Applications
1 35 (15.70%) Jenkins
2 34 (15.25%) Git (software)
3 29 (13.00%) Maven
4 26 (11.66%) Gradle
5 25 (11.21%) CircleCI
5 25 (11.21%) gulp
5 25 (11.21%) Travis CI
6 6 (2.69%) Subversion
7 5 (2.24%) TeamCity
8 4 (1.79%) Ant
8 4 (1.79%) IntelliJ
9 3 (1.35%) GitLab
9 3 (1.35%) JUnit
9 3 (1.35%) Octopus Deploy
10 2 (0.90%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.90%) JIRA
10 2 (0.90%) JMeter
10 2 (0.90%) NUnit
10 2 (0.90%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.90%) SpecFlow
General
1 20 (8.97%) Finance
2 19 (8.52%) Public Sector
3 7 (3.14%) Banking
4 4 (1.79%) Front Office
5 3 (1.35%) Aerospace
5 3 (1.35%) Telecoms
6 2 (0.90%) Back Office
7 1 (0.45%) Law
7 1 (0.45%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.45%) Military
7 1 (0.45%) Multimedia
7 1 (0.45%) Publishing
7 1 (0.45%) Retail
Job Titles
1 24 (10.76%) DevOps Engineer
2 22 (9.87%) Cloud Engineer
2 22 (9.87%) Developer
3 18 (8.07%) Architect
4 14 (6.28%) Azure Engineer
5 11 (4.93%) Kubernetes Engineer
6 10 (4.48%) Consultant
6 10 (4.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 7 (3.14%) Analyst
7 7 (3.14%) Linux Engineer
7 7 (3.14%) Network Engineer
7 7 (3.14%) Technical Support
7 7 (3.14%) Unix Engineer
8 6 (2.69%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 6 (2.69%) Administrator
8 6 (2.69%) Security Architect
8 6 (2.69%) Security Engineer
8 6 (2.69%) Support Officer
8 6 (2.69%) Technical Support Officer
9 5 (2.24%) Cloud Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (12.11%) Node.js
2 10 (4.48%) REST
2 10 (4.48%) XML
3 8 (3.59%) Oracle Fusion
4 6 (2.69%) Ajax
4 6 (2.69%) SAML
5 5 (2.24%) CSS
5 5 (2.24%) HTML
5 5 (2.24%) OAuth
5 5 (2.24%) OpenID
5 5 (2.24%) Spring
6 4 (1.79%) Hibernate
6 4 (1.79%) Java EE
6 4 (1.79%) JPA
6 4 (1.79%) WebRTC
6 4 (1.79%) XSL
6 4 (1.79%) XSLT
7 3 (1.35%) JSON
7 3 (1.35%) YAML
8 2 (0.90%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (8.52%) Public Cloud
2 14 (6.28%) Data Centre
3 12 (5.38%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (5.38%) Linux Command Line
4 11 (4.93%) Management Information System
5 10 (4.48%) HP StoreVirtual
6 8 (3.59%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 7 (3.14%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (2.69%) Cloud Native
8 6 (2.69%) Clustering
8 6 (2.69%) iPad
8 6 (2.69%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (2.24%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (2.24%) PKI
10 4 (1.79%) Replication
10 4 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
10 4 (1.79%) Tandem
10 4 (1.79%) User Experience
11 3 (1.35%) Private Cloud
12 2 (0.90%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 101 (45.29%) Windows
2 81 (36.32%) Linux
3 34 (15.25%) Windows Server
4 31 (13.90%) Unix
5 25 (11.21%) Windows 10
6 19 (8.52%) Windows Server 2008
7 18 (8.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 14 (6.28%) Windows Server 2016
9 13 (5.83%) Windows Server 2012
10 12 (5.38%) Solaris
11 9 (4.04%) CentOS
12 7 (3.14%) Data ONTAP
13 5 (2.24%) Ubuntu
13 5 (2.24%) VMS
13 5 (2.24%) Windows Server 2019
14 4 (1.79%) Oracle Linux
14 4 (1.79%) Windows 7
14 4 (1.79%) Windows NT
14 4 (1.79%) Windows XP
15 3 (1.35%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (26.01%) DevOps
2 42 (18.83%) Migration
3 39 (17.49%) Mentoring
4 29 (13.00%) Agile Software Development
4 29 (13.00%) ITIL
5 27 (12.11%) Patch Management
6 24 (10.76%) Network Virtualisation
7 21 (9.42%) Open Source
8 19 (8.52%) Data Protection
9 17 (7.62%) High Availability
10 16 (7.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 15 (6.73%) Problem-Solving
12 14 (6.28%) Vulnerability Management
13 12 (5.38%) Cybersecurity
13 12 (5.38%) Infrastructure as Code
13 12 (5.38%) Service Management
14 10 (4.48%) Configuration Management
14 10 (4.48%) Load Balancing
15 9 (4.04%) Infrastructure Automation
15 9 (4.04%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 44 (19.73%) Python
2 43 (19.28%) Java
3 41 (18.39%) PowerShell
4 30 (13.45%) Bash Shell
5 24 (10.76%) C
6 21 (9.42%) SQL
7 19 (8.52%) Groovy
8 16 (7.17%) Shell Script
9 7 (3.14%) JavaScript
10 6 (2.69%) Perl
11 5 (2.24%) T-SQL
12 4 (1.79%) C#
12 4 (1.79%) XPath
13 3 (1.35%) Ruby
14 2 (0.90%) Clojure
14 2 (0.90%) Go
14 2 (0.90%) Korn
14 2 (0.90%) Scala
14 2 (0.90%) VB
14 2 (0.90%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 64 (28.70%) Security Cleared
2 58 (26.01%) SC Cleared
3 23 (10.31%) DV Cleared
4 11 (4.93%) Cisco Certification
4 11 (4.93%) ITIL Certification
5 7 (3.14%) CISSP
5 7 (3.14%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (2.69%) CISM
7 5 (2.24%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 5 (2.24%) CCIE
7 5 (2.24%) CCSP
7 5 (2.24%) Degree
8 4 (1.79%) DBS Check
8 4 (1.79%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 4 (1.79%) MCSA
9 2 (0.90%) CCNP
10 1 (0.45%) CCNA
10 1 (0.45%) PRINCE2 Certification
10 1 (0.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.62%) NCSC
2 11 (4.93%) Government Security Classifications
3 9 (4.04%) SLA
4 8 (3.59%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 8 (3.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (2.69%) NIST
6 3 (1.35%) QA
7 2 (0.90%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.45%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 1 (0.45%) PMO
System Software
1 51 (22.87%) Active Directory
2 48 (21.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (13.90%) Hyper-V
4 24 (10.76%) Docker
5 21 (9.42%) VMware ESXi
6 14 (6.28%) vSphere
7 7 (3.14%) NFS
8 5 (2.24%) VMware NSX
9 4 (1.79%) KVM
9 4 (1.79%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (1.35%) Virtual Servers
10 3 (1.35%) VMFS
10 3 (1.35%) VMware Server
10 3 (1.35%) VMware Workstation
10 3 (1.35%) Xen
10 3 (1.35%) XenApp
11 2 (0.90%) Microsoft App-V
11 2 (0.90%) Oracle RAC
11 2 (0.90%) Samba
12 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 41 (18.39%) Terraform
2 38 (17.04%) Ansible
2 38 (17.04%) Kubernetes
3 24 (10.76%) Opscode Chef
4 23 (10.31%) Argo
5 18 (8.07%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 11 (4.93%) SCCM
6 11 (4.93%) WSUS
7 9 (4.04%) Norton AntiVirus
7 9 (4.04%) vCenter Server
8 8 (3.59%) Nessus
9 7 (3.14%) Nexpose
9 7 (3.14%) Puppet
9 7 (3.14%) QRadar
10 6 (2.69%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (2.69%) SCVMM
10 6 (2.69%) vMotion
10 6 (2.69%) vRealize
11 5 (2.24%) SCOM
12 4 (1.79%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 56 (25.11%) Microsoft
2 54 (24.22%) Oracle
3 51 (22.87%) VMware
4 29 (13.00%) Google
5 24 (10.76%) Splunk
6 18 (8.07%) HP
7 17 (7.62%) Cisco
7 17 (7.62%) Palo Alto
8 15 (6.73%) Symantec
9 14 (6.28%) NetApp
10 13 (5.83%) Fortinet
11 11 (4.93%) Red Hat
12 10 (4.48%) Citrix
12 10 (4.48%) Dell
13 7 (3.14%) AppDynamics
13 7 (3.14%) LogRhythm
13 7 (3.14%) Lumension
13 7 (3.14%) SolarWinds
13 7 (3.14%) Sophos
14 5 (2.24%) Veeam