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 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 578 467 355
Rank change year-on-year -111 -112 +95
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 113 91 208
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.21% 0.28% 0.55%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.77% 1.78% 4.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 53 38 104
10th Percentile £363 £357 £325
25th Percentile £409 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £478
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +4.71% -13.18%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £606
90th Percentile £575 £624 £671
UK excluding London median daily rate £421 £500 £481
% change year-on-year -15.75% +4.06% -8.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 22 35
10th Percentile £52.50 - £51.20
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.19 -
90th Percentile £79.00 £67.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +35.42%

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 6,383 5,104 5,034
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.70% 15.44% 13.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,085 3,448 3,149
10th Percentile £352 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £524
Median % change year-on-year - -4.58% -4.73%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £625
90th Percentile £688 £688 £723
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 266 111 170
10th Percentile £22.68 £16.84 £32.89
25th Percentile £48.13 £46.88 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £63.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.36% -2.31% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 8 October 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 8 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Visual Studio in the UK

Visual Studio
Top 15 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 8 October 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 -65 106 £450 -1.37% 139
UK excluding London -105 61 £421 -15.75% 92
London -58 45 £515 -6.36% 49
Work from Home -79 34 £425 -4.23% 58
East of England -39 22 £294 -41.30% 21
Midlands -37 16 £425 +10.39% 15
West Midlands -31 15 £421 +8.71% 10
South West -33 9 £213 -40.35% 14
North of England -56 8 £494 +7.45% 13
South East -66 5 £330 -24.57% 23
Yorkshire -32 4 £494 +7.45% 6
North East -38 2 - - 1
North West -43 2 - - 6
East Midlands -13 1 £500 +29.87% 5
Scotland -29 1 £368 -26.50% 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 11 (9.73%) SharePoint
2 8 (7.08%) IIS
3 3 (2.65%) Confluence
4 2 (1.77%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.88%) CMS
5 1 (0.88%) Umbraco
Applications
1 11 (9.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (6.19%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.77%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.77%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (3.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.77%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.88%) Sage 50
Cloud Services
1 51 (45.13%) Azure
2 41 (36.28%) Azure DevOps
3 27 (23.89%) Power Platform
4 26 (23.01%) Dynamics 365
5 22 (19.47%) PowerApps
6 21 (18.58%) Power Automate
7 14 (12.39%) GitHub
8 12 (10.62%) Microsoft Copilot
9 10 (8.85%) Copilot Studio
10 8 (7.08%) Azure Functions
10 8 (7.08%) Serverless
11 7 (6.19%) SaaS
12 6 (5.31%) Azure Service Bus
12 6 (5.31%) Entra ID
13 5 (4.42%) Azure API Management
13 5 (4.42%) Azure Data Factory
14 4 (3.54%) AWS
14 4 (3.54%) Azure App Service
14 4 (3.54%) IaaS
14 4 (3.54%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (11.50%) Ethernet
1 13 (11.50%) TCP/IP
2 4 (3.54%) Network Security
3 2 (1.77%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.88%) DHCP
4 1 (0.88%) DNS
4 1 (0.88%) Firewall
4 1 (0.88%) LAN
4 1 (0.88%) RS-232
4 1 (0.88%) RS-422
4 1 (0.88%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.88%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (27.43%) SQL Server
2 11 (9.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 10 (8.85%) Relational Database
4 7 (6.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 6 (5.31%) Azure SQL Database
5 6 (5.31%) MS Access
6 4 (3.54%) Power BI
7 3 (2.65%) Oracle Database
8 2 (1.77%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.88%) Data Lake
9 1 (0.88%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.88%) GIS
9 1 (0.88%) MySQL
9 1 (0.88%) Snowflake Schema
9 1 (0.88%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 1 (0.88%) SSDT
9 1 (0.88%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 34 (30.09%) Git
2 23 (20.35%) Team Foundation Server
3 12 (10.62%) Eclipse
4 10 (8.85%) Jenkins
5 8 (7.08%) Rational DOORS
6 7 (6.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 5 (4.42%) JIRA
7 5 (4.42%) MSBuild
7 5 (4.42%) Visual Studio Code
8 4 (3.54%) JetBrains Rider
8 4 (3.54%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (2.65%) GitLab
10 2 (1.77%) ClearCase
10 2 (1.77%) Fiddler
10 2 (1.77%) MSI
10 2 (1.77%) NUnit
10 2 (1.77%) Postman
10 2 (1.77%) Rational Robot
10 2 (1.77%) Selenium
10 2 (1.77%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 32 (28.32%) Finance
2 28 (24.78%) Social Skills
3 12 (10.62%) Military
4 11 (9.73%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (7.08%) Banking
6 6 (5.31%) Presentation Skills
7 5 (4.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (3.54%) General Ledger
8 4 (3.54%) Public Sector
9 3 (2.65%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.77%) Health Technology
10 2 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.77%) Marketing
10 2 (1.77%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (1.77%) Retail
11 1 (0.88%) Avionics
11 1 (0.88%) Back Office
11 1 (0.88%) French Language
11 1 (0.88%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 70 (61.95%) Developer
2 19 (16.81%) Software Engineer
3 17 (15.04%) C# Developer
4 13 (11.50%) .NET Developer
4 13 (11.50%) Dynamics 365 Developer
4 13 (11.50%) Software Developer
5 11 (9.73%) C# Software Engineer
6 8 (7.08%) C# .NET Developer
6 8 (7.08%) C++ Software Engineer
6 8 (7.08%) Microsoft Developer
7 5 (4.42%) Full-Stack Developer
7 5 (4.42%) Lead
7 5 (4.42%) VB Developer
7 5 (4.42%) VB6 Developer
8 4 (3.54%) Lead Developer
8 4 (3.54%) Lead Software Developer
8 4 (3.54%) Principal Engineer
8 4 (3.54%) Principal Software Engineer
8 4 (3.54%) SQL Developer
8 4 (3.54%) WPF Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (53.10%) .NET
2 24 (21.24%) XML
3 22 (19.47%) .NET Framework
4 20 (17.70%) Web Services
5 16 (14.16%) REST
5 16 (14.16%) WinForms
6 15 (13.27%) ActiveX
6 15 (13.27%) SOAP
7 14 (12.39%) RESTful
8 13 (11.50%) ASP.NET
8 13 (11.50%) WPF
9 12 (10.62%) Entity Framework
9 12 (10.62%) Node.js
10 11 (9.73%) .NET Core
11 10 (8.85%) ASP.NET Web API
11 10 (8.85%) WCF
12 8 (7.08%) JSON
12 8 (7.08%) XSLT
13 7 (6.19%) HTML
14 6 (5.31%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 8 (7.08%) Low-Code
2 6 (5.31%) Replication
2 6 (5.31%) Self-Motivation
3 5 (4.42%) Cloud Native
4 4 (3.54%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (2.65%) BYOD
5 3 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (2.65%) Data Structures
5 3 (2.65%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.77%) AI Agents
6 2 (1.77%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 2 (1.77%) Legacy Applications
6 2 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.77%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 1 (0.88%) Credit Derivative
7 1 (0.88%) Derivative
7 1 (0.88%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.88%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.88%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 38 (33.63%) Windows
2 14 (12.39%) Linux
3 6 (5.31%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.88%) Unix
4 1 (0.88%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (49.56%) Agile
2 47 (41.59%) CI/CD
3 43 (38.05%) DevOps
4 31 (27.43%) Software Engineering
5 27 (23.89%) Unit Testing
6 26 (23.01%) Scrum
7 21 (18.58%) Continuous Integration
8 19 (16.81%) Continuous Delivery
9 17 (15.04%) AI
9 17 (15.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 17 (15.04%) Validation
10 15 (13.27%) Problem-Solving
10 15 (13.27%) TDD
10 15 (13.27%) Test Automation
10 15 (13.27%) Verification and Validation
11 14 (12.39%) SDLC
12 13 (11.50%) ERP
13 12 (10.62%) Data Management
13 12 (10.62%) Integration Testing
13 12 (10.62%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 83 (73.45%) C#
2 37 (32.74%) SQL
3 26 (23.01%) C++
4 23 (20.35%) JavaScript
5 21 (18.58%) VBA
6 17 (15.04%) VB
6 17 (15.04%) VB6
7 16 (14.16%) X++
8 15 (13.27%) Java
9 11 (9.73%) Python
9 11 (9.73%) T-SQL
9 11 (9.73%) VB.NET
10 10 (8.85%) PowerShell
11 9 (7.96%) PL/SQL
12 8 (7.08%) TypeScript
13 5 (4.42%) VBScript
13 5 (4.42%) XPath
14 4 (3.54%) XAML
15 2 (1.77%) Bicep
16 1 (0.88%) CodeQL
Qualifications
1 41 (36.28%) Security Cleared
2 32 (28.32%) SC Cleared
3 19 (16.81%) Degree
4 14 (12.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (6.19%) DV Cleared
6 4 (3.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (3.54%) DBS Check
6 4 (3.54%) Master's Degree
6 4 (3.54%) PhD
7 3 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.77%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.88%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.88%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.88%) ISEB
9 1 (0.88%) Numerate Degree
9 1 (0.88%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.88%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.42%) QA
2 4 (3.54%) Data Quality
3 2 (1.77%) SLA
4 1 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.88%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 3 (2.65%) Docker
2 1 (0.88%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 10 (8.85%) Single Sign-On
2 4 (3.54%) Ansible
3 2 (1.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.88%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.88%) PTC Integrity
4 1 (0.88%) SCCM
Vendors
1 59 (52.21%) Microsoft
2 13 (11.50%) Oracle
3 3 (2.65%) Citrix
3 3 (2.65%) ServiceNow
4 2 (1.77%) Sage
5 1 (0.88%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.88%) CyberArk
5 1 (0.88%) Databricks
5 1 (0.88%) F5
5 1 (0.88%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.88%) IBM
5 1 (0.88%) MuleSoft
5 1 (0.88%) PTC
5 1 (0.88%) Salesforce