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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 558 451 352
Rank change year-on-year -107 -99 +119
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 106 101 253
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.31% 0.60%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.70% 2.13% 4.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 48 172
10th Percentile £394 £362 £339
25th Percentile £425 £425 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +0.96%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £601
90th Percentile £618 £708 £669
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £525
% change year-on-year -4.04% -5.71% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 17 35
10th Percentile £58.63 £63.70 £46.25
25th Percentile - - £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile - £66.50 -
90th Percentile £68.00 £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 6,236 4,742 5,268
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.79% 14.57% 12.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,007 3,193 3,481
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 £594 £625
90th Percentile £688 £689 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 103 238
10th Percentile £25.68 £22.64 £26.00
25th Percentile £55.94 £49.00 £46.20
Median hourly rate £65.00 £63.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.36% -2.31% +4.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £83.60 £72.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -106 94 £481 -3.90% 39
UK excluding London -119 61 £475 -4.04% 35
London -43 36 £468 -25.12% 7
Work from Home -71 28 £434 -21.14% 16
East of England -25 15 £510 +2.00% 3
South East -50 15 £500 +17.65% 16
South West -30 12 £294 -17.54% 5
Midlands -51 9 £425 +6.25% 9
West Midlands -53 9 £425 -5.56% 6
North of England -88 6 £550 +23.60% 2
Yorkshire -46 4 £494 +26.60%
Wales - 3 £700 -
North West -56 2 £580 +16.00% 1
Scotland -22 1 £368 -26.50%

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 11 (10.38%) SharePoint
2 9 (8.49%) IIS
3 2 (1.89%) Confluence
3 2 (1.89%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.94%) CICS
4 1 (0.94%) CMS
4 1 (0.94%) Umbraco
Applications
1 11 (10.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (6.60%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.89%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.89%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.94%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 47 (44.34%) Azure
2 33 (31.13%) Azure DevOps
3 18 (16.98%) Power Platform
4 15 (14.15%) Dynamics 365
4 15 (14.15%) GitHub
5 13 (12.26%) PowerApps
6 12 (11.32%) Power Automate
7 6 (5.66%) Entra ID
7 6 (5.66%) Microsoft Copilot
7 6 (5.66%) SaaS
7 6 (5.66%) Serverless
8 5 (4.72%) Azure Functions
9 4 (3.77%) Azure App Service
9 4 (3.77%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (3.77%) Copilot Studio
9 4 (3.77%) IaaS
9 4 (3.77%) PaaS
10 3 (2.83%) Azure API Management
10 3 (2.83%) Azure Pipelines
10 3 (2.83%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (13.21%) Ethernet
1 14 (13.21%) TCP/IP
2 4 (3.77%) Network Security
3 2 (1.89%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.94%) DHCP
4 1 (0.94%) DNS
4 1 (0.94%) Firewall
4 1 (0.94%) LAN
4 1 (0.94%) RS-232
4 1 (0.94%) RS-422
4 1 (0.94%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.94%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (34.91%) SQL Server
2 10 (9.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 8 (7.55%) Relational Database
3 8 (7.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 6 (5.66%) Azure SQL Database
4 6 (5.66%) MS Access
5 4 (3.77%) Power BI
6 3 (2.83%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (2.83%) NoSQL
7 2 (1.89%) Oracle Database
7 2 (1.89%) Tableau
8 1 (0.94%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.94%) Db2
8 1 (0.94%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.94%) GIS
8 1 (0.94%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.94%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.94%) SSDT
8 1 (0.94%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 27 (25.47%) Git
2 15 (14.15%) Team Foundation Server
3 14 (13.21%) Eclipse
4 10 (9.43%) Jenkins
5 8 (7.55%) JIRA
6 5 (4.72%) Selenium
6 5 (4.72%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (3.77%) JetBrains Rider
7 4 (3.77%) JMeter
7 4 (3.77%) MSBuild
7 4 (3.77%) MSTest
7 4 (3.77%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (2.83%) GitLab
8 3 (2.83%) Postman
8 3 (2.83%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (1.89%) Fiddler
9 2 (1.89%) MSI
10 1 (0.94%) ClearCase
10 1 (0.94%) Rational Robot
10 1 (0.94%) XPEDITER
General
1 26 (24.53%) Finance
2 25 (23.58%) Social Skills
3 14 (13.21%) Military
4 8 (7.55%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (5.66%) Banking
6 4 (3.77%) Analytical Skills
6 4 (3.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.89%) General Ledger
7 2 (1.89%) Health Technology
7 2 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.89%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (1.89%) Public Sector
8 1 (0.94%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.94%) Aviation
8 1 (0.94%) Avionics
8 1 (0.94%) Back Office
8 1 (0.94%) Financial Institution
8 1 (0.94%) Law
8 1 (0.94%) Legal
Job Titles
1 57 (53.77%) Developer
2 19 (17.92%) Software Engineer
3 14 (13.21%) C# Developer
4 13 (12.26%) C# Software Engineer
4 13 (12.26%) Software Developer
5 10 (9.43%) .NET Developer
5 10 (9.43%) Full-Stack Developer
6 9 (8.49%) C++ Software Engineer
7 8 (7.55%) Microsoft Developer
8 7 (6.60%) Senior
9 5 (4.72%) C# .NET Developer
9 5 (4.72%) DevOps Engineer
9 5 (4.72%) Lead
10 4 (3.77%) Lead Developer
10 4 (3.77%) Lead Software Developer
10 4 (3.77%) Lecturer
10 4 (3.77%) SQL Developer
10 4 (3.77%) VB Developer
10 4 (3.77%) VB6 Developer
11 3 (2.83%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (56.60%) .NET
2 24 (22.64%) .NET Framework
3 23 (21.70%) Web Services
4 17 (16.04%) RESTful
5 15 (14.15%) WinForms
5 15 (14.15%) XML
6 13 (12.26%) Entity Framework
6 13 (12.26%) Node.js
7 12 (11.32%) ASP.NET
8 11 (10.38%) JSON
8 11 (10.38%) React
9 9 (8.49%) SOAP
9 9 (8.49%) WCF
10 8 (7.55%) .NET Core
10 8 (7.55%) ActiveX
11 7 (6.60%) ASP.NET Web API
11 7 (6.60%) HTML
11 7 (6.60%) XSLT
12 6 (5.66%) WPF
13 5 (4.72%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.60%) Low-Code
2 6 (5.66%) Cloud Native
2 6 (5.66%) Replication
3 5 (4.72%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (2.83%) BYOD
4 3 (2.83%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.89%) AI Agents
5 2 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.89%) Data Structures
5 2 (1.89%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 2 (1.89%) Greenfield Project
5 2 (1.89%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.94%) Credit Derivative
6 1 (0.94%) DataPower
6 1 (0.94%) Derivative
6 1 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.94%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.94%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.94%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 40 (37.74%) Windows
2 15 (14.15%) Linux
3 6 (5.66%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.94%) Unix
4 1 (0.94%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (0.94%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (45.28%) Agile
2 40 (37.74%) CI/CD
3 39 (36.79%) DevOps
4 37 (34.91%) Unit Testing
5 24 (22.64%) Software Engineering
6 18 (16.98%) Continuous Integration
6 18 (16.98%) Scrum
7 16 (15.09%) Continuous Delivery
8 15 (14.15%) TDD
8 15 (14.15%) Validation
9 14 (13.21%) Digital Twin
9 14 (13.21%) Full-Stack Development
9 14 (13.21%) SDLC
9 14 (13.21%) Synthetic Environment
9 14 (13.21%) Verification and Validation
10 13 (12.26%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (12.26%) Visualisation
11 11 (10.38%) AI
11 11 (10.38%) Microservices
11 11 (10.38%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 77 (72.64%) C#
2 43 (40.57%) SQL
3 29 (27.36%) C++
4 26 (24.53%) JavaScript
5 15 (14.15%) T-SQL
6 14 (13.21%) Python
6 14 (13.21%) VBA
7 12 (11.32%) Java
7 12 (11.32%) X++
8 11 (10.38%) PL/SQL
8 11 (10.38%) VB.NET
9 10 (9.43%) TypeScript
10 9 (8.49%) VB
10 9 (8.49%) VB6
11 8 (7.55%) PowerShell
12 6 (5.66%) XPath
13 5 (4.72%) C
13 5 (4.72%) VBScript
14 2 (1.89%) Bicep
14 2 (1.89%) XAML
Qualifications
1 46 (43.40%) Security Cleared
2 39 (36.79%) SC Cleared
3 16 (15.09%) Degree
4 12 (11.32%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (4.72%) DV Cleared
5 5 (4.72%) ISTQB
6 4 (3.77%) DBS Check
6 4 (3.77%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.89%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.89%) PhD
8 1 (0.94%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.94%) ISEB
8 1 (0.94%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (6.60%) QA
2 3 (2.83%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 3 (2.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (2.83%) SLA
3 2 (1.89%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.94%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.94%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 5 (4.72%) Docker
2 1 (0.94%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 9 (8.49%) Single Sign-On
2 5 (4.72%) Terraform
3 4 (3.77%) Ansible
4 3 (2.83%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.94%) CA Endevor
5 1 (0.94%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.94%) PTC Integrity
5 1 (0.94%) SCCM
Vendors
1 45 (42.45%) Microsoft
2 13 (12.26%) Oracle
3 5 (4.72%) Citrix
4 3 (2.83%) IBM
5 2 (1.89%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.94%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (0.94%) Databricks
6 1 (0.94%) F5
6 1 (0.94%) Green Hills
6 1 (0.94%) OpenText
6 1 (0.94%) PTC
6 1 (0.94%) Serena