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 6 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 557 458 346
Rank change year-on-year -99 -112 +125
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 98 93 249
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.29% 0.58%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.61% 2.01% 4.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 45 49 168
10th Percentile £407 £362 £359
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £532
Median % change year-on-year - -5.93% +2.21%
75th Percentile £575 £550 £590
90th Percentile £661 £750 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £525
% change year-on-year +11.11% -14.29% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 11 36
10th Percentile £59.50 £61.25 £46.25
25th Percentile - - £57.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile £75.00 - -
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 6,096 4,634 5,392
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.77% 14.57% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,916 3,104 3,569
10th Percentile £350 £330 £350
25th Percentile £413 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £625
90th Percentile £688 £693 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 259 94 251
10th Percentile £26.15 £21.22 £31.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.50 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% -7.69% +4.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £73.44 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +8.00% -3.85% +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 6 July 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 6 July 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 6 July 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 -104 90 £469 -5.30% 46
UK excluding London -111 59 £500 +11.11% 40
London -60 34 £450 -34.78% 9
Work from Home -63 26 £425 -16.26% 17
East of England -26 16 £510 +2.00% 6
South East -48 15 £500 +17.65% 17
South West -19 12 £294 -17.54% 6
West Midlands -53 7 £425 -5.56% 2
Midlands -59 7 £425 +6.25% 7
North of England -83 5 £565 +44.87% 3
Yorkshire -55 3 £550 +41.39%
Wales - 3 £700 -
North West -47 2 £580 +16.00% 3
Scotland -24 1 - - 1

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 8 (8.16%) SharePoint
2 3 (3.06%) IIS
3 2 (2.04%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (1.02%) CICS
4 1 (1.02%) CMS
4 1 (1.02%) Confluence
4 1 (1.02%) Umbraco
Applications
1 6 (6.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (2.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.02%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (2.04%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (1.02%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 43 (43.88%) Azure
2 30 (30.61%) Azure DevOps
3 19 (19.39%) Power Platform
4 14 (14.29%) Dynamics 365
5 12 (12.24%) GitHub
5 12 (12.24%) PowerApps
6 11 (11.22%) Power Automate
7 5 (5.10%) Entra ID
7 5 (5.10%) SaaS
7 5 (5.10%) Serverless
8 4 (4.08%) Azure Functions
8 4 (4.08%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (3.06%) Azure App Service
9 3 (3.06%) Azure Data Factory
9 3 (3.06%) Azure Logic Apps
9 3 (3.06%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (3.06%) Azure Service Bus
9 3 (3.06%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (3.06%) IaaS
9 3 (3.06%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (14.29%) Ethernet
1 14 (14.29%) TCP/IP
2 3 (3.06%) Network Security
3 2 (2.04%) Wireshark
4 1 (1.02%) DHCP
4 1 (1.02%) DNS
4 1 (1.02%) Firewall
4 1 (1.02%) LAN
4 1 (1.02%) RS-232
4 1 (1.02%) RS-422
4 1 (1.02%) Unified Communications
4 1 (1.02%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (31.63%) SQL Server
2 7 (7.14%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 6 (6.12%) Relational Database
4 5 (5.10%) Azure SQL Database
4 5 (5.10%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 4 (4.08%) Power BI
6 3 (3.06%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (2.04%) NoSQL
7 2 (2.04%) Tableau
8 1 (1.02%) Data Lake
8 1 (1.02%) Db2
8 1 (1.02%) DynamoDB
8 1 (1.02%) GIS
8 1 (1.02%) MS Access
8 1 (1.02%) Oracle Database
8 1 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (1.02%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (1.02%) SSDT
8 1 (1.02%) Star Schema
8 1 (1.02%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 19 (19.39%) Git
2 14 (14.29%) Eclipse
3 8 (8.16%) Team Foundation Server
4 6 (6.12%) JIRA
5 4 (4.08%) Jenkins
5 4 (4.08%) JMeter
5 4 (4.08%) MSTest
5 4 (4.08%) Rational DOORS
5 4 (4.08%) Selenium
6 3 (3.06%) GitLab
6 3 (3.06%) JetBrains Rider
6 3 (3.06%) MSBuild
6 3 (3.06%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (3.06%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (2.04%) Fiddler
7 2 (2.04%) MSI
7 2 (2.04%) Postman
8 1 (1.02%) Rational Robot
8 1 (1.02%) Visual Studio Coded UI
8 1 (1.02%) XPEDITER
General
1 26 (26.53%) Finance
2 22 (22.45%) Social Skills
3 14 (14.29%) Military
4 8 (8.16%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (6.12%) Banking
6 4 (4.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (3.06%) Analytical Skills
8 1 (1.02%) Aerospace
8 1 (1.02%) Aviation
8 1 (1.02%) Avionics
8 1 (1.02%) Back Office
8 1 (1.02%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.02%) Financial Institution
8 1 (1.02%) General Ledger
8 1 (1.02%) Health Technology
8 1 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (1.02%) Law
8 1 (1.02%) Legal
8 1 (1.02%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (1.02%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 49 (50.00%) Developer
2 19 (19.39%) Software Engineer
3 14 (14.29%) C# Software Engineer
4 13 (13.27%) C# Developer
5 9 (9.18%) C++ Software Engineer
5 9 (9.18%) Full-Stack Developer
5 9 (9.18%) Software Developer
6 8 (8.16%) .NET Developer
6 8 (8.16%) Microsoft Developer
7 7 (7.14%) Senior
8 4 (4.08%) Applications Engineer
8 4 (4.08%) C# .NET Developer
8 4 (4.08%) DevOps Engineer
8 4 (4.08%) Lecturer
8 4 (4.08%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
9 3 (3.06%) Automation Developer
9 3 (3.06%) SQL Developer
9 3 (3.06%) Tester
10 2 (2.04%) C++ Developer
10 2 (2.04%) Senior Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (58.16%) .NET
2 23 (23.47%) .NET Framework
2 23 (23.47%) Web Services
3 16 (16.33%) RESTful
4 13 (13.27%) Node.js
5 11 (11.22%) Entity Framework
5 11 (11.22%) WinForms
6 9 (9.18%) React
7 8 (8.16%) XML
8 7 (7.14%) ASP.NET
8 7 (7.14%) SOAP
8 7 (7.14%) WPF
9 6 (6.12%) .NET Core
9 6 (6.12%) ActiveX
9 6 (6.12%) JSON
10 5 (5.10%) CSS
10 5 (5.10%) Material-UI
11 4 (4.08%) OAuth
11 4 (4.08%) REST
11 4 (4.08%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 7 (7.14%) Cloud Native
1 7 (7.14%) Low-Code
2 3 (3.06%) BYOD
2 3 (3.06%) Enterprise Software
2 3 (3.06%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (2.04%) AI Agents
3 2 (2.04%) Data Structures
3 2 (2.04%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 2 (2.04%) Greenfield Project
3 2 (2.04%) Legacy Applications
4 1 (1.02%) Credit Derivative
4 1 (1.02%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (1.02%) DataPower
4 1 (1.02%) Derivative
4 1 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (1.02%) Mainframe
4 1 (1.02%) Replication
4 1 (1.02%) Virtual Team
4 1 (1.02%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 37 (37.76%) Windows
2 15 (15.31%) Linux
3 7 (7.14%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.02%) Unix
4 1 (1.02%) Windows 10
4 1 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (1.02%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (46.94%) Agile
2 39 (39.80%) CI/CD
3 38 (38.78%) Unit Testing
4 35 (35.71%) DevOps
5 24 (24.49%) Software Engineering
6 18 (18.37%) Continuous Integration
7 17 (17.35%) Scrum
8 16 (16.33%) Validation
9 15 (15.31%) Continuous Delivery
9 15 (15.31%) TDD
9 15 (15.31%) Verification and Validation
10 14 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (14.29%) Digital Twin
10 14 (14.29%) SDLC
10 14 (14.29%) Synthetic Environment
11 13 (13.27%) Visualisation
12 12 (12.24%) Full-Stack Development
13 11 (11.22%) AI
13 11 (11.22%) Microservices
13 11 (11.22%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 74 (75.51%) C#
2 37 (37.76%) SQL
3 31 (31.63%) C++
4 26 (26.53%) JavaScript
5 16 (16.33%) Python
6 11 (11.22%) T-SQL
7 10 (10.20%) Java
7 10 (10.20%) X++
8 9 (9.18%) TypeScript
9 7 (7.14%) PL/SQL
9 7 (7.14%) PowerShell
9 7 (7.14%) VB
9 7 (7.14%) VB6
9 7 (7.14%) VBA
10 6 (6.12%) VB.NET
11 5 (5.10%) C
12 2 (2.04%) Bicep
12 2 (2.04%) XAML
12 2 (2.04%) XPath
13 1 (1.02%) Ada
Qualifications
1 41 (41.84%) Security Cleared
2 36 (36.73%) SC Cleared
3 18 (18.37%) Degree
4 6 (6.12%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (4.08%) DBS Check
5 4 (4.08%) DV Cleared
5 4 (4.08%) ISTQB
5 4 (4.08%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 3 (3.06%) PhD
7 2 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (2.04%) Master's Degree
8 1 (1.02%) Azure Certification
8 1 (1.02%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (8.16%) QA
2 3 (3.06%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 3 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (3.06%) SLA
3 1 (1.02%) Accessibility
3 1 (1.02%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.02%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 6 (6.12%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (7.14%) Single Sign-On
2 6 (6.12%) Terraform
3 3 (3.06%) Ansible
3 3 (3.06%) Kubernetes
3 3 (3.06%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.02%) CA Endevor
4 1 (1.02%) PTC Integrity
4 1 (1.02%) SCCM
Vendors
1 39 (39.80%) Microsoft
2 9 (9.18%) Oracle
3 6 (6.12%) Citrix
4 3 (3.06%) IBM
5 2 (2.04%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.02%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (1.02%) Databricks
6 1 (1.02%) F5
6 1 (1.02%) Green Hills
6 1 (1.02%) OpenText
6 1 (1.02%) PTC
6 1 (1.02%) Serena