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 26 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 502 414 431
Rank change year-on-year -88 +17 -47
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 86 123 177
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.23% 0.39% 0.40%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.59% 2.90% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 53 135
10th Percentile £400 £346 £363
25th Percentile £415 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £465 £536
Median % change year-on-year -1.34% -13.25% +2.10%
75th Percentile £725 £538 £625
90th Percentile £850 £650 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £675 £447 £535
% change year-on-year +51.09% -16.50% +18.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 8 7
10th Percentile - £56.98 £37.16
25th Percentile - £64.06 £45.42
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year - +36.84% -26.92%
75th Percentile - £65.94 £49.97
90th Percentile - £72.13 £52.52
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year - +36.84% -26.92%

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 5,416 4,239 5,389
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.36% 13.55% 12.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,719 2,663 3,765
10th Percentile £350 £332 £363
25th Percentile £409 £410 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -6.25%
75th Percentile £594 £625 £635
90th Percentile £700 £725 £715
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £478 £500
% change year-on-year -0.52% -4.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 72 209
10th Percentile £39.00 £26.60 £41.00
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.25 £50.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £76.53
90th Percentile £82.40 £76.15 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% -

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 26 January 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 26 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Visual Studio in the UK

Visual Studio
Top 11 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 26 January 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 -115 69 £450 -2.96% 49
UK excluding London -92 40 £675 +51.09% 48
London -4 39 £415 -17.00% 8
Work from Home -23 39 £456 +5.07% 22
East of England -20 14 - - 6
Scotland +16 10 £725 +56.76% 4
South East -53 8 £525 +18.38% 22
Wales - 6 £675 -
North East -16 1 - -
South West -29 1 - - 5
North of England -55 1 - - 5

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 3 (3.49%) SharePoint
2 2 (2.33%) Confluence
3 1 (1.16%) ArcGIS
3 1 (1.16%) BizTalk Server
3 1 (1.16%) CMS
3 1 (1.16%) GeoServer
3 1 (1.16%) IIS
3 1 (1.16%) Oracle Spatial
3 1 (1.16%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 4 (4.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 3 (3.49%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 39 (45.35%) Azure
2 30 (34.88%) Azure DevOps
3 19 (22.09%) Power Platform
4 15 (17.44%) Dynamics 365
5 11 (12.79%) GitHub
6 6 (6.98%) AWS
7 5 (5.81%) Power Automate
7 5 (5.81%) PowerApps
8 3 (3.49%) Azure Data Factory
8 3 (3.49%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 2 (2.33%) Azure Functions
9 2 (2.33%) Serverless
9 2 (2.33%) Snowflake
10 1 (1.16%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 1 (1.16%) GCP
10 1 (1.16%) Google Data Studio
10 1 (1.16%) Google Sheets
10 1 (1.16%) PaaS
10 1 (1.16%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
10 1 (1.16%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 13 (15.12%) Ethernet
1 13 (15.12%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (26.74%) SQL Server
2 9 (10.47%) Power BI
3 7 (8.14%) Tick Data
4 5 (5.81%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 3 (3.49%) Data Warehouse
5 3 (3.49%) MSDE
5 3 (3.49%) Relational Database
5 3 (3.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (2.33%) Metadata
7 1 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (1.16%) Big Data
7 1 (1.16%) Data Lake
7 1 (1.16%) GIS
7 1 (1.16%) MongoDB
7 1 (1.16%) Oracle Database
7 1 (1.16%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (1.16%) Power Query
7 1 (1.16%) RDBMS
7 1 (1.16%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (1.16%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 13 (15.12%) Eclipse
2 9 (10.47%) Selenium
3 7 (8.14%) JMeter
3 7 (8.14%) MSTest
3 7 (8.14%) Visual Studio Code
4 6 (6.98%) JIRA
5 3 (3.49%) Bitbucket
5 3 (3.49%) Git
5 3 (3.49%) IntelliJ
5 3 (3.49%) Jenkins
5 3 (3.49%) NUnit
5 3 (3.49%) PyCharm
5 3 (3.49%) SpecFlow
6 1 (1.16%) Postman
6 1 (1.16%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (1.16%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (1.16%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 33 (38.37%) Finance
2 21 (24.42%) Social Skills
3 13 (15.12%) Military
4 12 (13.95%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (8.14%) Banking
6 6 (6.98%) Investment Banking
7 5 (5.81%) Public Sector
8 4 (4.65%) Analytical Skills
8 4 (4.65%) General Ledger
9 3 (3.49%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (2.33%) Aerospace
10 2 (2.33%) Front Office
10 2 (2.33%) Law
11 1 (1.16%) Advertising
11 1 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (1.16%) Marketing
11 1 (1.16%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (52.33%) Developer
2 16 (18.60%) C# Developer
2 16 (18.60%) Software Engineer
3 12 (13.95%) C# Software Engineer
4 9 (10.47%) Dynamics 365 Developer
5 8 (9.30%) Analyst
5 8 (9.30%) Senior
5 8 (9.30%) Tester
6 7 (8.14%) C++ Software Engineer
6 7 (8.14%) Python Developer
7 6 (6.98%) Automation Tester
7 6 (6.98%) Senior Tester
8 5 (5.81%) .NET Developer
8 5 (5.81%) Qualitative Analyst
8 5 (5.81%) Quantitative Analyst
8 5 (5.81%) Senior Automation Tester
9 3 (3.49%) Applications Engineer
9 3 (3.49%) C++ Developer
9 3 (3.49%) Power Platform Developer
9 3 (3.49%) Quantitative Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (34.88%) .NET
2 18 (20.93%) Web Services
3 15 (17.44%) .NET Framework
4 13 (15.12%) Node.js
5 6 (6.98%) ASP.NET
6 4 (4.65%) ASP.NET Core
7 3 (3.49%) OAuth
7 3 (3.49%) PySpark
7 3 (3.49%) RESTful
7 3 (3.49%) SAML
8 2 (2.33%) ASP.NET MVC
8 2 (2.33%) CSS
8 2 (2.33%) HTML
8 2 (2.33%) JSON
8 2 (2.33%) React
8 2 (2.33%) Unity (Game Engine)
8 2 (2.33%) Unreal Engine
8 2 (2.33%) WPF
9 1 (1.16%) Swagger
9 1 (1.16%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (6.98%) Derivative
2 5 (5.81%) Equity Derivative
3 3 (3.49%) Algorithms
3 3 (3.49%) Analytical Mindset
3 3 (3.49%) Cloud Native
3 3 (3.49%) Distributed Systems
3 3 (3.49%) Equities
4 2 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (2.33%) Distributed Computing
4 2 (2.33%) Fixed Income
4 2 (2.33%) Mixed Reality
4 2 (2.33%) Virtual Reality
5 1 (1.16%) Data Structures
5 1 (1.16%) FPGA
5 1 (1.16%) Low-Code
5 1 (1.16%) Mobile App
5 1 (1.16%) PCIe
5 1 (1.16%) Product Ownership
5 1 (1.16%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 31 (36.05%) Windows
2 19 (22.09%) Linux
3 10 (11.63%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.16%) Debian
4 1 (1.16%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (44.19%) Agile
2 35 (40.70%) Unit Testing
3 33 (38.37%) DevOps
4 29 (33.72%) CI/CD
5 19 (22.09%) Validation
6 18 (20.93%) Business Intelligence
7 15 (17.44%) Software Engineering
7 15 (17.44%) Verification and Validation
7 15 (17.44%) Visualisation
8 14 (16.28%) AI
9 13 (15.12%) Machine Learning
9 13 (15.12%) Synthetic Environment
9 13 (15.12%) TDD
10 12 (13.95%) Continuous Delivery
10 12 (13.95%) Continuous Integration
10 12 (13.95%) Digital Twin
11 11 (12.79%) Change Management
11 11 (12.79%) Data Analysis
11 11 (12.79%) Disaster Recovery
11 11 (12.79%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 63 (73.26%) C#
2 32 (37.21%) SQL
3 28 (32.56%) C++
3 28 (32.56%) Python
4 27 (31.40%) JavaScript
5 14 (16.28%) T-SQL
6 12 (13.95%) PL/SQL
7 5 (5.81%) Java
7 5 (5.81%) TypeScript
7 5 (5.81%) X++
8 4 (4.65%) C
9 2 (2.33%) Ada
9 2 (2.33%) Assembly Language
9 2 (2.33%) MATLAB
9 2 (2.33%) PowerShell
10 1 (1.16%) Bicep
10 1 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (1.16%) Embedded C
10 1 (1.16%) Embedded C++
10 1 (1.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 29 (33.72%) Degree
2 22 (25.58%) Security Cleared
3 16 (18.60%) SC Cleared
4 5 (5.81%) ISTQB
4 5 (5.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 4 (4.65%) Numerate Degree
6 2 (2.33%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (2.33%) Master's Degree
6 2 (2.33%) PhD
7 1 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (1.16%) DBS Check
7 1 (1.16%) HP APS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (16.28%) QA
2 7 (8.14%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 7 (8.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (5.81%) SLA
4 1 (1.16%) Data Quality
System Software
1 8 (9.30%) Docker
2 2 (2.33%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 6 (6.98%) Kubernetes
1 6 (6.98%) Terraform
2 3 (3.49%) Ansible
3 1 (1.16%) Grafana
3 1 (1.16%) HP ALM
3 1 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 21 (24.42%) Microsoft
2 12 (13.95%) Oracle
3 10 (11.63%) Citrix
4 2 (2.33%) RedGate
5 1 (1.16%) ESRI
5 1 (1.16%) Google
5 1 (1.16%) HP
5 1 (1.16%) OpenText
5 1 (1.16%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.16%) SAP
5 1 (1.16%) Serena
5 1 (1.16%) Sitecore