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

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 549 441 350
Rank change year-on-year -108 -91 +129
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 105 102 254
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.31% 0.59%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.67% 2.15% 4.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 50 50 173
10th Percentile £404 £362 £353
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £533
Median % change year-on-year - -6.19% +2.50%
75th Percentile £559 £569 £601
90th Percentile £625 £750 £668
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £528
% change year-on-year +2.56% -7.58% +11.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 17 36
10th Percentile £59.50 £61.55 £46.25
25th Percentile - - £57.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile - £65.75 -
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.00 -
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 6,269 4,752 5,351
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.84% 14.55% 12.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,039 3,194 3,536
10th Percentile £350 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £406 £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 £690 £724
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 259 101 248
10th Percentile £26.15 £22.05 £30.28
25th Percentile £56.25 £47.50 £46.25
Median hourly rate £66.50 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.40% -3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.00 £74.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £68.00 £63.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +7.09% -2.31% +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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -98 92 £475 -5.00% 58
UK excluding London -104 61 £500 +2.56% 50
London -42 35 £450 -34.78% 13
Work from Home -60 30 £434 -18.54% 18
East of England -28 16 £510 +2.00% 11
South East -63 15 £500 +17.65% 22
South West -27 12 £294 -17.54% 6
Midlands -45 7 £425 +6.25% 7
West Midlands -57 7 £425 -5.56% 3
North of England -86 6 £550 +23.60% 4
Yorkshire -54 4 £494 +26.60%
Wales - 3 £700 -
Scotland -23 2 £368 -26.50%
North West -50 2 £580 +16.00% 3

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 12 (11.43%) SharePoint
2 9 (8.57%) IIS
3 2 (1.90%) Confluence
3 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.95%) CICS
4 1 (0.95%) CMS
4 1 (0.95%) Umbraco
Applications
1 10 (9.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (5.71%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.95%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.90%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.95%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 48 (45.71%) Azure
2 35 (33.33%) Azure DevOps
3 17 (16.19%) Power Platform
4 15 (14.29%) GitHub
5 13 (12.38%) Dynamics 365
6 11 (10.48%) PowerApps
7 10 (9.52%) Power Automate
8 6 (5.71%) Entra ID
8 6 (5.71%) SaaS
9 5 (4.76%) Serverless
10 4 (3.81%) AWS
10 4 (3.81%) Azure App Service
10 4 (3.81%) Azure Functions
10 4 (3.81%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (3.81%) IaaS
10 4 (3.81%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (3.81%) PaaS
11 3 (2.86%) Azure Data Factory
11 3 (2.86%) Azure Service Bus
11 3 (2.86%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (13.33%) Ethernet
1 14 (13.33%) TCP/IP
2 4 (3.81%) Network Security
3 2 (1.90%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.95%) DHCP
4 1 (0.95%) DNS
4 1 (0.95%) Firewall
4 1 (0.95%) LAN
4 1 (0.95%) RS-232
4 1 (0.95%) RS-422
4 1 (0.95%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.95%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (37.14%) SQL Server
2 10 (9.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 8 (7.62%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 7 (6.67%) Relational Database
5 6 (5.71%) Azure SQL Database
5 6 (5.71%) MS Access
6 4 (3.81%) Power BI
7 3 (2.86%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (1.90%) NoSQL
8 2 (1.90%) Oracle Database
8 2 (1.90%) Tableau
9 1 (0.95%) Data Lake
9 1 (0.95%) Db2
9 1 (0.95%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.95%) GIS
9 1 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
9 1 (0.95%) Snowflake Schema
9 1 (0.95%) SSDT
9 1 (0.95%) Star Schema
9 1 (0.95%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 26 (24.76%) Git
2 14 (13.33%) Eclipse
3 13 (12.38%) Team Foundation Server
4 10 (9.52%) Jenkins
5 8 (7.62%) JIRA
6 4 (3.81%) JetBrains Rider
6 4 (3.81%) JMeter
6 4 (3.81%) MSBuild
6 4 (3.81%) MSTest
6 4 (3.81%) Rational DOORS
6 4 (3.81%) Selenium
6 4 (3.81%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (3.81%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 3 (2.86%) GitLab
7 3 (2.86%) Postman
8 2 (1.90%) Fiddler
8 2 (1.90%) MSI
9 1 (0.95%) Rational Robot
9 1 (0.95%) WiX
9 1 (0.95%) XPEDITER
General
1 26 (24.76%) Finance
2 23 (21.90%) Social Skills
3 14 (13.33%) Military
4 8 (7.62%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (5.71%) Banking
6 4 (3.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (2.86%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.90%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.95%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.95%) Aviation
9 1 (0.95%) Avionics
9 1 (0.95%) Back Office
9 1 (0.95%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.95%) General Ledger
9 1 (0.95%) Health Technology
9 1 (0.95%) Law
9 1 (0.95%) Legal
9 1 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 55 (52.38%) Developer
2 20 (19.05%) Software Engineer
3 15 (14.29%) C# Developer
4 14 (13.33%) C# Software Engineer
5 13 (12.38%) Software Developer
6 11 (10.48%) .NET Developer
7 10 (9.52%) Full-Stack Developer
8 9 (8.57%) C++ Software Engineer
9 8 (7.62%) Microsoft Developer
10 7 (6.67%) Senior
11 5 (4.76%) C# .NET Developer
11 5 (4.76%) DevOps Engineer
11 5 (4.76%) Lead
12 4 (3.81%) Lead Developer
12 4 (3.81%) Lead Software Developer
12 4 (3.81%) Lecturer
12 4 (3.81%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
12 4 (3.81%) SQL Developer
13 3 (2.86%) .NET Software Developer
13 3 (2.86%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (60.95%) .NET
2 25 (23.81%) .NET Framework
3 23 (21.90%) Web Services
4 16 (15.24%) WinForms
5 15 (14.29%) RESTful
6 13 (12.38%) ASP.NET
6 13 (12.38%) Entity Framework
6 13 (12.38%) Node.js
6 13 (12.38%) XML
7 11 (10.48%) JSON
8 10 (9.52%) React
9 9 (8.57%) WCF
10 7 (6.67%) .NET Core
10 7 (6.67%) ASP.NET Web API
10 7 (6.67%) HTML
10 7 (6.67%) SOAP
10 7 (6.67%) WPF
10 7 (6.67%) XSLT
11 6 (5.71%) ActiveX
12 5 (4.76%) Apache FOP
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.67%) Cloud Native
2 6 (5.71%) Low-Code
2 6 (5.71%) Replication
3 4 (3.81%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (2.86%) BYOD
4 3 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.90%) AI Agents
5 2 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.90%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 2 (1.90%) Greenfield Project
5 2 (1.90%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.95%) Credit Derivative
6 1 (0.95%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.95%) DataPower
6 1 (0.95%) Derivative
6 1 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.95%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.95%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.95%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 42 (40.00%) Windows
2 15 (14.29%) Linux
3 7 (6.67%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.95%) Unix
4 1 (0.95%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.95%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (0.95%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (43.81%) Agile
2 41 (39.05%) CI/CD
2 41 (39.05%) DevOps
3 37 (35.24%) Unit Testing
4 25 (23.81%) Software Engineering
5 18 (17.14%) Continuous Integration
6 17 (16.19%) Scrum
7 16 (15.24%) Continuous Delivery
7 16 (15.24%) Validation
8 15 (14.29%) TDD
8 15 (14.29%) Verification and Validation
9 14 (13.33%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (13.33%) Digital Twin
9 14 (13.33%) SDLC
9 14 (13.33%) Synthetic Environment
10 13 (12.38%) Full-Stack Development
10 13 (12.38%) Visualisation
11 12 (11.43%) Change Management
12 11 (10.48%) AI
12 11 (10.48%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 79 (75.24%) C#
2 44 (41.90%) SQL
3 31 (29.52%) C++
4 26 (24.76%) JavaScript
5 16 (15.24%) Python
5 16 (15.24%) T-SQL
6 12 (11.43%) PL/SQL
6 12 (11.43%) VBA
7 11 (10.48%) VB.NET
8 10 (9.52%) Java
8 10 (9.52%) TypeScript
8 10 (9.52%) X++
9 8 (7.62%) PowerShell
10 7 (6.67%) VB
10 7 (6.67%) VB6
11 6 (5.71%) XPath
12 5 (4.76%) C
12 5 (4.76%) VBScript
13 2 (1.90%) Bicep
13 2 (1.90%) XAML
Qualifications
1 46 (43.81%) Security Cleared
2 39 (37.14%) SC Cleared
3 17 (16.19%) Degree
4 10 (9.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (3.81%) DBS Check
5 4 (3.81%) DV Cleared
5 4 (3.81%) ISTQB
5 4 (3.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 3 (2.86%) PhD
7 2 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.90%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.95%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.95%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (7.62%) QA
2 3 (2.86%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 3 (2.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (2.86%) SLA
3 1 (0.95%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.95%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.95%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 6 (5.71%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (6.67%) Single Sign-On
2 6 (5.71%) Terraform
3 4 (3.81%) Ansible
4 3 (2.86%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.90%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.95%) CA Endevor
6 1 (0.95%) PTC Integrity
6 1 (0.95%) SCCM
Vendors
1 40 (38.10%) Microsoft
2 14 (13.33%) Oracle
3 6 (5.71%) Citrix
4 3 (2.86%) IBM
5 2 (1.90%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.95%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (0.95%) Databricks
6 1 (0.95%) F5
6 1 (0.95%) Green Hills
6 1 (0.95%) OpenText
6 1 (0.95%) PTC
6 1 (0.95%) Serena