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 3 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 506 415 414
Rank change year-on-year -91 -1 -28
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 87 120 180
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.39% 0.40%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.59% 2.86% 3.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 52 140
10th Percentile £400 £350 £347
25th Percentile £415 £413 £449
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £464 £535
Median % change year-on-year -2.96% -13.32% +1.90%
75th Percentile £725 £538 £625
90th Percentile £850 £651 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £675 £444 £535
% change year-on-year +52.20% -17.10% +18.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 6 7
10th Percentile - £54.13 £37.16
25th Percentile - £62.19 £45.42
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year - +36.84% -26.92%
75th Percentile - £67.81 £49.97
90th Percentile - £74.38 £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 5,470 4,201 5,434
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 14.13% 13.61% 12.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,755 2,622 3,797
10th Percentile £344 £338 £363
25th Percentile £406 £409 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £631
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 67 214
10th Percentile £39.00 £26.40 £40.38
25th Percentile £52.50 £47.50 £50.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% +5.69%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £75.25
90th Percentile £85.00 £76.75 £88.75
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 3 February 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 3 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Visual Studio in the UK

Visual Studio
Top 14 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 3 February 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 -111 72 £450 -2.70% 58
London -15 42 £415 -17.00% 12
UK excluding London -104 39 £675 +52.20% 53
Work from Home -27 38 £450 +5.88% 26
East of England -24 12 - - 8
South East -47 9 £525 +20.90% 20
Scotland +13 8 £725 +56.76% 4
Wales - 6 £675 -
North of England -63 2 £580 +61.11% 8
North East -15 1 - -
South West -31 1 - - 6
North West -35 1 £580 +65.71% 5
West Midlands -38 1 £580 +71.85% 3
Midlands -63 1 £580 +65.71% 7

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 4 (4.60%) SharePoint
2 3 (3.45%) Confluence
3 1 (1.15%) ArcGIS
3 1 (1.15%) BizTalk Server
3 1 (1.15%) CICS
3 1 (1.15%) CMS
3 1 (1.15%) GeoServer
3 1 (1.15%) IIS
3 1 (1.15%) Oracle Spatial
3 1 (1.15%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 4 (4.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.15%) Trello
Business Applications
1 3 (3.45%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 41 (47.13%) Azure
2 29 (33.33%) Azure DevOps
3 20 (22.99%) Power Platform
4 15 (17.24%) Dynamics 365
5 9 (10.34%) GitHub
6 5 (5.75%) Power Automate
6 5 (5.75%) PowerApps
7 4 (4.60%) AWS
8 3 (3.45%) Azure Data Factory
8 3 (3.45%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 2 (2.30%) Azure Functions
9 2 (2.30%) Serverless
9 2 (2.30%) Snowflake
10 1 (1.15%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 1 (1.15%) GCP
10 1 (1.15%) Google Data Studio
10 1 (1.15%) Google Sheets
10 1 (1.15%) Google Tag Manager
10 1 (1.15%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
10 1 (1.15%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 11 (12.64%) Ethernet
1 11 (12.64%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (31.03%) SQL Server
2 9 (10.34%) Power BI
3 7 (8.05%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 7 (8.05%) Tick Data
4 5 (5.75%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (5.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (3.45%) Relational Database
6 2 (2.30%) Metadata
6 2 (2.30%) Tableau
7 1 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (1.15%) Big Data
7 1 (1.15%) Data Lake
7 1 (1.15%) MongoDB
7 1 (1.15%) Oracle Database
7 1 (1.15%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (1.15%) Power Query
7 1 (1.15%) RDBMS
7 1 (1.15%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (1.15%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 1 (1.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 11 (12.64%) Eclipse
2 9 (10.34%) Selenium
3 7 (8.05%) JIRA
3 7 (8.05%) JMeter
3 7 (8.05%) MSTest
4 5 (5.75%) Visual Studio Code
5 3 (3.45%) Git
5 3 (3.45%) NUnit
5 3 (3.45%) SpecFlow
6 1 (1.15%) Bitbucket
6 1 (1.15%) GitLab
6 1 (1.15%) IntelliJ
6 1 (1.15%) Jenkins
6 1 (1.15%) Postman
6 1 (1.15%) PyCharm
6 1 (1.15%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (1.15%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (1.15%) Visual Studio Coded UI
6 1 (1.15%) XPEDITER
General
1 33 (37.93%) Finance
2 21 (24.14%) Social Skills
3 11 (12.64%) Military
4 10 (11.49%) Presentation Skills
5 5 (5.75%) Banking
5 5 (5.75%) Public Sector
6 4 (4.60%) General Ledger
6 4 (4.60%) Investment Banking
7 3 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (2.30%) Aerospace
8 2 (2.30%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (2.30%) Front Office
9 1 (1.15%) Financial Institution
9 1 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (1.15%) Law
9 1 (1.15%) Marketing
9 1 (1.15%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (51.72%) Developer
2 16 (18.39%) C# Developer
3 14 (16.09%) Software Engineer
4 10 (11.49%) C# Software Engineer
5 9 (10.34%) Dynamics 365 Developer
5 9 (10.34%) Senior
6 8 (9.20%) Analyst
6 8 (9.20%) Tester
7 6 (6.90%) Automation Tester
7 6 (6.90%) C++ Software Engineer
7 6 (6.90%) Senior Tester
8 5 (5.75%) .NET Developer
8 5 (5.75%) Python Developer
8 5 (5.75%) Qualitative Analyst
8 5 (5.75%) Quantitative Analyst
8 5 (5.75%) Senior Automation Tester
9 4 (4.60%) Applications Engineer
9 4 (4.60%) Data Engineer
10 3 (3.45%) C++ Developer
10 3 (3.45%) Quantitative Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (37.93%) .NET
2 17 (19.54%) .NET Framework
2 17 (19.54%) Web Services
3 11 (12.64%) Node.js
4 6 (6.90%) ASP.NET
5 5 (5.75%) OAuth
5 5 (5.75%) RESTful
6 4 (4.60%) ASP.NET Core
6 4 (4.60%) SAML
7 3 (3.45%) CSS
7 3 (3.45%) JSON
7 3 (3.45%) PySpark
8 2 (2.30%) ASP.NET MVC
8 2 (2.30%) HTML
8 2 (2.30%) Material-UI
8 2 (2.30%) React
8 2 (2.30%) REST
8 2 (2.30%) Unity (Game Engine)
8 2 (2.30%) Unreal Engine
8 2 (2.30%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 6 (6.90%) Derivative
2 5 (5.75%) Equity Derivative
3 4 (4.60%) Cloud Native
4 3 (3.45%) Algorithms
4 3 (3.45%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (3.45%) Equities
5 2 (2.30%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (2.30%) Distributed Computing
5 2 (2.30%) Fixed Income
5 2 (2.30%) Mixed Reality
5 2 (2.30%) Virtual Reality
6 1 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (1.15%) Data Structures
6 1 (1.15%) DataPower
6 1 (1.15%) Low-Code
6 1 (1.15%) Mobile App
6 1 (1.15%) PCIe
6 1 (1.15%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.15%) Social Media
6 1 (1.15%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 28 (32.18%) Windows
2 15 (17.24%) Linux
3 11 (12.64%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.15%) Debian
4 1 (1.15%) Ubuntu
4 1 (1.15%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (41.38%) Agile
1 36 (41.38%) Unit Testing
2 33 (37.93%) DevOps
3 31 (35.63%) CI/CD
4 19 (21.84%) Business Intelligence
5 17 (19.54%) Validation
6 14 (16.09%) AI
7 13 (14.94%) Disaster Recovery
7 13 (14.94%) Machine Learning
7 13 (14.94%) Software Engineering
7 13 (14.94%) Verification and Validation
7 13 (14.94%) Visualisation
8 12 (13.79%) Change Management
8 12 (13.79%) Data Analysis
8 12 (13.79%) TDD
9 11 (12.64%) Continuous Delivery
9 11 (12.64%) Continuous Integration
9 11 (12.64%) Data Modelling
9 11 (12.64%) Digital Twin
9 11 (12.64%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 61 (70.11%) C#
2 35 (40.23%) SQL
3 27 (31.03%) Python
4 26 (29.89%) C++
5 25 (28.74%) JavaScript
6 15 (17.24%) T-SQL
7 13 (14.94%) PL/SQL
8 5 (5.75%) X++
9 4 (4.60%) C
9 4 (4.60%) Java
10 3 (3.45%) TypeScript
11 2 (2.30%) Ada
11 2 (2.30%) Assembly Language
11 2 (2.30%) MATLAB
11 2 (2.30%) PowerShell
12 1 (1.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (1.15%) Embedded C
12 1 (1.15%) Embedded C++
12 1 (1.15%) VBA
12 1 (1.15%) XPath
Qualifications
1 30 (34.48%) Degree
2 23 (26.44%) Security Cleared
3 17 (19.54%) SC Cleared
4 5 (5.75%) ISTQB
4 5 (5.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 4 (4.60%) Numerate Degree
6 2 (2.30%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (2.30%) Master's Degree
6 2 (2.30%) PhD
7 1 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (1.15%) HP APS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (17.24%) QA
2 7 (8.05%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 7 (8.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (5.75%) SLA
4 1 (1.15%) Data Quality
System Software
1 9 (10.34%) Docker
2 2 (2.30%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 5 (5.75%) Kubernetes
1 5 (5.75%) Terraform
2 1 (1.15%) Ansible
2 1 (1.15%) CA Endevor
2 1 (1.15%) Grafana
2 1 (1.15%) HP ALM
2 1 (1.15%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 19 (21.84%) Microsoft
2 13 (14.94%) Oracle
3 11 (12.64%) Citrix
4 2 (2.30%) RedGate
5 1 (1.15%) ESRI
5 1 (1.15%) Google
5 1 (1.15%) HP
5 1 (1.15%) IBM
5 1 (1.15%) OpenText
5 1 (1.15%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.15%) SAP
5 1 (1.15%) Serena
5 1 (1.15%) Sitecore