Visual Studio Contract Job Trends

Microsoft Visual Studio
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Visual Studio skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 27 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 536 437 358
Rank change year-on-year -99 -79 +121
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 92 85 227
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.30% 0.53%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.58% 2.05% 4.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 55 53 162
10th Percentile £404 £355 £375
25th Percentile £415 £400 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £454 £535
Median % change year-on-year +10.13% -15.14% +2.88%
75th Percentile £708 £538 £590
90th Percentile £808 £738 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £518 £425 £535
% change year-on-year +21.76% -20.56% +12.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 6 19
10th Percentile £58.63 £63.13 £46.25
25th Percentile - - £51.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile £75.00 £65.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +23.81%

All Development Application Skills
UK

Visual Studio falls under the Development Applications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring development application skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for development application skills 5,833 4,144 5,103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.97% 14.50% 11.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,810 2,794 3,436
10th Percentile £350 £340 £353
25th Percentile £409 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £688 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 252 70 215
10th Percentile £35.00 £20.86 £29.30
25th Percentile £54.69 £45.48 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.63 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.80% -11.35% +5.69%
75th Percentile £73.19 £74.69 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £83.04 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £61.25 £65.00
% change year-on-year +10.20% -5.77% +5.69%

Visual Studio
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Visual Studio relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Visual Studio job vacancy trend in the UK

Visual Studio
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Visual Studio.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Visual Studio

Visual Studio
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Visual Studio over the 6 months to 27 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Visual Studio in the UK

Visual Studio
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Visual Studio.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Visual Studio

Visual Studio
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Visual Studio over the 6 months to 27 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Visual Studio in the UK

Visual Studio
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Visual Studio within the UK over the 6 months to 27 May 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 -117 79 £450 - 54
UK excluding London -113 56 £518 +21.76% 47
London -53 32 £450 -35.71% 9
Work from Home -57 28 £428 -5.00% 19
East of England -22 14 £510 +2.00% 7
South East -63 14 £525 +23.53% 17
South West -26 10 £294 -33.80% 9
West Midlands -56 7 £425 - 4
Midlands -69 7 £425 +10.39% 7
Scotland +2 6 £800 +60.00% 1
Wales - 3 £700 -
North West -45 2 £580 +36.47% 5
North of England -84 2 £580 +49.48% 6

Visual Studio
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 6 (6.52%) SharePoint
2 3 (3.26%) IIS
3 1 (1.09%) CICS
3 1 (1.09%) CMS
3 1 (1.09%) Confluence
3 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.09%) Umbraco
Applications
1 5 (5.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (2.17%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (1.09%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 39 (42.39%) Azure
2 29 (31.52%) Azure DevOps
3 15 (16.30%) Power Platform
4 11 (11.96%) Dynamics 365
4 11 (11.96%) PowerApps
5 10 (10.87%) Power Automate
6 6 (6.52%) GitHub
7 4 (4.35%) Serverless
8 3 (3.26%) Azure Functions
8 3 (3.26%) Azure Logic Apps
8 3 (3.26%) Azure Service Bus
9 2 (2.17%) AWS
9 2 (2.17%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
10 1 (1.09%) Azure Pipelines
10 1 (1.09%) Entra ID
10 1 (1.09%) Microsoft 365
10 1 (1.09%) OneDrive
10 1 (1.09%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (13.04%) Ethernet
1 12 (13.04%) TCP/IP
2 1 (1.09%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (26.09%) SQL Server
2 7 (7.61%) Tick Data
3 5 (5.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 3 (3.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 2 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (2.17%) Tableau
6 1 (1.09%) Data Lake
6 1 (1.09%) DB2
6 1 (1.09%) DynamoDB
6 1 (1.09%) GIS
6 1 (1.09%) MS Access
6 1 (1.09%) NoSQL
6 1 (1.09%) Oracle Database
6 1 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 13 (14.13%) Eclipse
2 8 (8.70%) Team Foundation Server
3 7 (7.61%) Git
4 5 (5.43%) JIRA
5 4 (4.35%) JMeter
5 4 (4.35%) MSTest
5 4 (4.35%) Selenium
6 3 (3.26%) Rational DOORS
6 3 (3.26%) Visual Studio Code
7 2 (2.17%) GitLab
7 2 (2.17%) Postman
8 1 (1.09%) ClearCase
8 1 (1.09%) Fiddler
8 1 (1.09%) Jenkins
8 1 (1.09%) MSI
8 1 (1.09%) Rational Robot
8 1 (1.09%) Visual Studio Coded UI
8 1 (1.09%) WiX
8 1 (1.09%) XPEDITER
General
1 29 (31.52%) Finance
2 13 (14.13%) Military
2 13 (14.13%) Social Skills
3 8 (8.70%) Presentation Skills
4 2 (2.17%) Aerospace
5 1 (1.09%) Aviation
5 1 (1.09%) Back Office
5 1 (1.09%) Banking
5 1 (1.09%) Financial Institution
5 1 (1.09%) General Ledger
5 1 (1.09%) Law
5 1 (1.09%) Legal
5 1 (1.09%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 46 (50.00%) Developer
2 18 (19.57%) Software Engineer
3 13 (14.13%) C# Developer
3 13 (14.13%) C# Software Engineer
4 9 (9.78%) Microsoft Developer
5 8 (8.70%) Analyst
5 8 (8.70%) Software Developer
6 7 (7.61%) .NET Developer
6 7 (7.61%) C++ Software Engineer
6 7 (7.61%) Senior
7 5 (5.43%) Applications Engineer
7 5 (5.43%) Full-Stack Developer
7 5 (5.43%) Qualitative Analyst
7 5 (5.43%) Quantitative Analyst
8 3 (3.26%) Automation Developer
8 3 (3.26%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
8 3 (3.26%) Tester
9 2 (2.17%) Data Engineer
9 2 (2.17%) Dynamics 365 Developer
9 2 (2.17%) Senior Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (54.35%) .NET
2 20 (21.74%) .NET Framework
3 18 (19.57%) Web Services
4 14 (15.22%) RESTful
5 12 (13.04%) Node.js
6 11 (11.96%) WinForms
7 8 (8.70%) XML
8 7 (7.61%) ASP.NET
8 7 (7.61%) SOAP
9 6 (6.52%) ActiveX
9 6 (6.52%) Entity Framework
10 5 (5.43%) CSS
10 5 (5.43%) Material-UI
10 5 (5.43%) OAuth
10 5 (5.43%) React
10 5 (5.43%) WPF
11 4 (4.35%) ASP.NET Core
11 4 (4.35%) JSON
11 4 (4.35%) SAML
12 3 (3.26%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 7 (7.61%) Low-Code
2 5 (5.43%) Cloud Native
3 3 (3.26%) BYOD
3 3 (3.26%) Derivative
4 2 (2.17%) AI Agents
4 2 (2.17%) Algorithms
4 2 (2.17%) Data Structures
4 2 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
4 2 (2.17%) Equities
4 2 (2.17%) Equity Derivative
4 2 (2.17%) Greenfield Project
4 2 (2.17%) Legacy Applications
4 2 (2.17%) Mixed Reality
4 2 (2.17%) Virtual Reality
5 1 (1.09%) Credit Derivative
5 1 (1.09%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.09%) DataPower
5 1 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.09%) Virtual Team
5 1 (1.09%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 36 (39.13%) Windows
2 13 (14.13%) Linux
3 10 (10.87%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.09%) Unix
4 1 (1.09%) Windows 10
4 1 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (1.09%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (50.00%) Agile
2 36 (39.13%) Unit Testing
3 33 (35.87%) DevOps
4 30 (32.61%) CI/CD
5 21 (22.83%) Software Engineering
6 15 (16.30%) AI
6 15 (16.30%) Continuous Integration
6 15 (16.30%) Validation
7 14 (15.22%) Continuous Delivery
7 14 (15.22%) Disaster Recovery
7 14 (15.22%) Scrum
7 14 (15.22%) TDD
7 14 (15.22%) Verification and Validation
8 13 (14.13%) Continuous Improvement
8 13 (14.13%) Digital Twin
8 13 (14.13%) Synthetic Environment
9 12 (13.04%) Visualisation
10 11 (11.96%) Change Management
10 11 (11.96%) ERP
11 9 (9.78%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 68 (73.91%) C#
2 34 (36.96%) SQL
3 32 (34.78%) C++
4 21 (22.83%) JavaScript
5 18 (19.57%) Python
6 12 (13.04%) T-SQL
7 10 (10.87%) PL/SQL
7 10 (10.87%) X++
8 7 (7.61%) VB
8 7 (7.61%) VB6
8 7 (7.61%) VBA
9 6 (6.52%) TypeScript
10 5 (5.43%) C
10 5 (5.43%) Java
11 3 (3.26%) PowerShell
12 2 (2.17%) VB.NET
12 2 (2.17%) XPath
13 1 (1.09%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 40 (43.48%) Security Cleared
2 34 (36.96%) SC Cleared
3 21 (22.83%) Degree
4 5 (5.43%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (4.35%) DV Cleared
5 4 (4.35%) ISTQB
5 4 (4.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 3 (3.26%) Numerate Degree
7 2 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.09%) Azure Certification
8 1 (1.09%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (11.96%) QA
2 5 (5.43%) SLA
3 3 (3.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
3 3 (3.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (1.09%) Accessibility
System Software
1 7 (7.61%) Docker
2 2 (2.17%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 7 (7.61%) Single Sign-On
2 4 (4.35%) Kubernetes
2 4 (4.35%) Terraform
3 2 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.09%) CA Endevor
4 1 (1.09%) SCCM
Vendors
1 32 (34.78%) Microsoft
2 12 (13.04%) Oracle
3 9 (9.78%) Citrix
4 2 (2.17%) IBM
4 2 (2.17%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.09%) CrowdStrike
5 1 (1.09%) Databricks
5 1 (1.09%) OpenText
5 1 (1.09%) Serena