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 27 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 553 455 363
Rank change year-on-year -98 -92 +102
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 103 88 234
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.29% 0.54%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.70% 1.98% 4.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 52 47 158
10th Percentile £407 £361 £375
25th Percentile £423 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.54% +4.90%
75th Percentile £580 £563 £601
90th Percentile £736 £750 £656
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £425 £535
% change year-on-year +17.65% -20.56% +12.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 10 31
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 £65.08 -
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 6,064 4,435 5,320
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.90% 14.63% 12.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,914 2,960 3,530
10th Percentile £350 £332 £355
25th Percentile £413 £409 £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 £696 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 256 89 251
10th Percentile £26.00 £20.86 £31.25
25th Percentile £56.25 £46.92 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £59.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.17% -9.23% +4.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.59 £75.00
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 27 June 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 27 June 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 27 June 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 -118 92 £456 -6.89% 37
UK excluding London -103 62 £500 +17.65% 35
London -57 36 £450 -34.78% 6
Work from Home -69 28 £425 -15.00% 12
East of England -23 16 £510 +2.00% 4
South East -57 16 £500 +17.65% 15
South West -28 12 £294 -17.54% 5
West Midlands -58 7 £425 -5.56% 2
Midlands -60 7 £425 +6.25% 5
Scotland -7 4 £800 +60.00% 1
North of England -78 4 £565 +44.87% 4
Wales - 3 £700 -
Yorkshire -45 2 £550 +41.39% 1
North West -53 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 9 (8.74%) SharePoint
2 3 (2.91%) IIS
3 2 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.97%) CICS
4 1 (0.97%) CMS
4 1 (0.97%) Confluence
4 1 (0.97%) Umbraco
Applications
1 6 (5.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.97%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.94%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.97%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 47 (45.63%) Azure
2 33 (32.04%) Azure DevOps
3 20 (19.42%) Power Platform
4 14 (13.59%) Dynamics 365
5 12 (11.65%) PowerApps
6 11 (10.68%) Power Automate
7 10 (9.71%) GitHub
8 6 (5.83%) Serverless
9 5 (4.85%) Azure Functions
10 4 (3.88%) Entra ID
10 4 (3.88%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (3.88%) SaaS
11 3 (2.91%) AWS
11 3 (2.91%) Azure Data Factory
11 3 (2.91%) Azure Logic Apps
11 3 (2.91%) Azure Service Bus
12 2 (1.94%) Azure App Service
12 2 (1.94%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (1.94%) Azure Pipelines
12 2 (1.94%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (13.59%) Ethernet
1 14 (13.59%) TCP/IP
2 2 (1.94%) Network Security
2 2 (1.94%) Wireshark
3 1 (0.97%) DHCP
3 1 (0.97%) DNS
3 1 (0.97%) Firewall
3 1 (0.97%) LAN
3 1 (0.97%) RS-232
3 1 (0.97%) RS-422
3 1 (0.97%) Unified Communications
3 1 (0.97%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (30.10%) SQL Server
2 7 (6.80%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 5 (4.85%) Relational Database
3 5 (4.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 4 (3.88%) Azure SQL Database
4 4 (3.88%) Power BI
4 4 (3.88%) Tick Data
5 3 (2.91%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (1.94%) NoSQL
6 2 (1.94%) Tableau
7 1 (0.97%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.97%) Db2
7 1 (0.97%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.97%) GIS
7 1 (0.97%) MS Access
7 1 (0.97%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.97%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.97%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.97%) SSDT
7 1 (0.97%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 18 (17.48%) Git
2 14 (13.59%) Eclipse
3 8 (7.77%) Team Foundation Server
4 6 (5.83%) JIRA
5 4 (3.88%) JMeter
5 4 (3.88%) MSTest
5 4 (3.88%) Rational DOORS
5 4 (3.88%) Selenium
6 3 (2.91%) GitLab
6 3 (2.91%) Jenkins
6 3 (2.91%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (1.94%) Fiddler
7 2 (1.94%) JetBrains Rider
7 2 (1.94%) MSBuild
7 2 (1.94%) MSI
7 2 (1.94%) Postman
7 2 (1.94%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (1.94%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.97%) Rational Robot
8 1 (0.97%) XPEDITER
General
1 29 (28.16%) Finance
2 22 (21.36%) Social Skills
3 14 (13.59%) Military
4 8 (7.77%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (5.83%) Banking
6 4 (3.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (2.91%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (1.94%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.97%) Aviation
9 1 (0.97%) Avionics
9 1 (0.97%) Back Office
9 1 (0.97%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.97%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.97%) General Ledger
9 1 (0.97%) Health Technology
9 1 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.97%) Law
9 1 (0.97%) Legal
9 1 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.97%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 50 (48.54%) Developer
2 20 (19.42%) Software Engineer
3 14 (13.59%) C# Developer
3 14 (13.59%) C# Software Engineer
4 9 (8.74%) .NET Developer
4 9 (8.74%) C++ Software Engineer
4 9 (8.74%) Software Developer
5 8 (7.77%) Full-Stack Developer
5 8 (7.77%) Microsoft Developer
6 7 (6.80%) Senior
7 5 (4.85%) Analyst
7 5 (4.85%) Applications Engineer
8 4 (3.88%) C# .NET Developer
8 4 (3.88%) Lecturer
8 4 (3.88%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
9 3 (2.91%) Automation Developer
9 3 (2.91%) DevOps Engineer
9 3 (2.91%) Qualitative Analyst
9 3 (2.91%) Quantitative Analyst
9 3 (2.91%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (59.22%) .NET
2 23 (22.33%) .NET Framework
2 23 (22.33%) Web Services
3 16 (15.53%) RESTful
4 13 (12.62%) Node.js
5 11 (10.68%) WinForms
6 10 (9.71%) Entity Framework
7 8 (7.77%) ASP.NET
7 8 (7.77%) React
7 8 (7.77%) XML
8 7 (6.80%) SOAP
8 7 (6.80%) WPF
9 6 (5.83%) ActiveX
9 6 (5.83%) JSON
10 5 (4.85%) .NET Core
10 5 (4.85%) CSS
10 5 (4.85%) Material-UI
10 5 (4.85%) OAuth
11 4 (3.88%) SAML
11 4 (3.88%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.80%) Cloud Native
1 7 (6.80%) Low-Code
2 3 (2.91%) BYOD
2 3 (2.91%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (1.94%) AI Agents
3 2 (1.94%) Data Structures
3 2 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (1.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 2 (1.94%) Greenfield Project
3 2 (1.94%) Legacy Applications
4 1 (0.97%) Credit Derivative
4 1 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (0.97%) DataPower
4 1 (0.97%) Derivative
4 1 (0.97%) Mainframe
4 1 (0.97%) Mixed Reality
4 1 (0.97%) Replication
4 1 (0.97%) Virtual Reality
4 1 (0.97%) Virtual Team
4 1 (0.97%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 38 (36.89%) Windows
2 15 (14.56%) Linux
3 8 (7.77%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.97%) Unix
4 1 (0.97%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (0.97%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (48.54%) Agile
2 39 (37.86%) Unit Testing
3 38 (36.89%) CI/CD
3 38 (36.89%) DevOps
4 25 (24.27%) Software Engineering
5 18 (17.48%) Continuous Integration
6 17 (16.50%) Scrum
7 16 (15.53%) Validation
8 15 (14.56%) Continuous Delivery
8 15 (14.56%) TDD
8 15 (14.56%) Verification and Validation
9 14 (13.59%) AI
9 14 (13.59%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (13.59%) Digital Twin
9 14 (13.59%) SDLC
9 14 (13.59%) Synthetic Environment
10 13 (12.62%) Visualisation
11 12 (11.65%) Disaster Recovery
12 11 (10.68%) Business Intelligence
12 11 (10.68%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 79 (76.70%) C#
2 39 (37.86%) SQL
3 34 (33.01%) C++
4 26 (25.24%) JavaScript
5 19 (18.45%) Python
6 12 (11.65%) T-SQL
7 10 (9.71%) Java
7 10 (9.71%) X++
8 8 (7.77%) PL/SQL
8 8 (7.77%) TypeScript
9 7 (6.80%) VB
9 7 (6.80%) VB6
9 7 (6.80%) VBA
10 6 (5.83%) PowerShell
10 6 (5.83%) VB.NET
11 5 (4.85%) C
12 2 (1.94%) XAML
12 2 (1.94%) XPath
13 1 (0.97%) Ada
13 1 (0.97%) Ada 95
Qualifications
1 42 (40.78%) Security Cleared
2 37 (35.92%) SC Cleared
3 20 (19.42%) Degree
4 6 (5.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (3.88%) DBS Check
5 4 (3.88%) DV Cleared
5 4 (3.88%) ISTQB
5 4 (3.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 3 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (2.91%) PhD
7 2 (1.94%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.97%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.97%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.74%) QA
2 3 (2.91%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 3 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (2.91%) SLA
3 1 (0.97%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.97%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.97%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 7 (6.80%) Docker
2 1 (0.97%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 7 (6.80%) Single Sign-On
2 6 (5.83%) Terraform
3 4 (3.88%) Kubernetes
4 3 (2.91%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.94%) Ansible
6 1 (0.97%) CA Endevor
6 1 (0.97%) PTC Integrity
6 1 (0.97%) SCCM
Vendors
1 39 (37.86%) Microsoft
2 10 (9.71%) Oracle
3 7 (6.80%) Citrix
4 3 (2.91%) IBM
5 2 (1.94%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.97%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (0.97%) Databricks
6 1 (0.97%) F5
6 1 (0.97%) Green Hills
6 1 (0.97%) OpenText
6 1 (0.97%) PTC
6 1 (0.97%) Serena