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

6 months to
21 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 545 445 360
Rank change year-on-year -100 -85 +127
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 103 89 242
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.30% 0.55%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.71% 2.03% 4.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 55 47 163
10th Percentile £404 £361 £375
25th Percentile £420 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.54% +7.00%
75th Percentile £609 £563 £600
90th Percentile £780 £750 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £518 £425 £535
% change year-on-year +21.76% -20.56% +17.91%
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 6,014 4,385 5,321
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.87% 14.66% 12.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,890 2,926 3,533
10th Percentile £350 £331 £355
25th Percentile £410 £409 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £590 £625
90th Percentile £688 £695 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 86 251
10th Percentile £26.25 £20.86 £28.00
25th Percentile £56.25 £46.42 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £57.63 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.80% -11.35% +5.69%
75th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £81.48 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £60.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +12.50% -7.69% +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 21 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 21 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Visual Studio in the UK

Visual Studio
Top 13 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 21 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 -87 90 £463 -5.61% 43
UK excluding London -84 64 £518 +21.76% 43
London -56 34 £450 -34.78% 5
Work from Home -61 29 £428 -14.50% 17
South East -59 18 £525 +23.53% 14
East of England -22 16 £510 +2.00% 4
South West -21 12 £294 -17.54% 10
West Midlands -53 7 £425 -5.56% 4
Midlands -57 7 £425 +6.25% 7
Scotland -6 6 £800 +60.00% 1
Wales - 3 £700 - 1
North West -44 2 £580 +16.00% 2
North of England -82 2 £580 +48.72% 4

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 (7.77%) 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%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 47 (45.63%) Azure
2 34 (33.01%) Azure DevOps
3 19 (18.45%) Power Platform
4 13 (12.62%) Dynamics 365
5 12 (11.65%) PowerApps
6 11 (10.68%) Power Automate
7 7 (6.80%) GitHub
8 6 (5.83%) Serverless
9 5 (4.85%) Azure Functions
10 4 (3.88%) Microsoft Copilot
11 3 (2.91%) Azure Logic Apps
11 3 (2.91%) Azure Service Bus
11 3 (2.91%) Entra ID
11 3 (2.91%) SaaS
12 2 (1.94%) AWS
12 2 (1.94%) Azure AI
12 2 (1.94%) Azure Data Factory
12 2 (1.94%) Copilot Studio
12 2 (1.94%) Microsoft 365
12 2 (1.94%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 14 (13.59%) Ethernet
1 14 (13.59%) TCP/IP
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 27 (26.21%) SQL Server
2 7 (6.80%) Tick Data
3 6 (5.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 4 (3.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (2.91%) Power BI
5 3 (2.91%) Relational Database
6 2 (1.94%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
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%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.97%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.97%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 14 (13.59%) Eclipse
1 14 (13.59%) Git
2 8 (7.77%) Team Foundation Server
3 5 (4.85%) JIRA
4 4 (3.88%) JMeter
4 4 (3.88%) MSTest
4 4 (3.88%) Rational DOORS
4 4 (3.88%) Selenium
5 3 (2.91%) GitLab
5 3 (2.91%) Visual Studio Code
6 2 (1.94%) Fiddler
6 2 (1.94%) MSI
6 2 (1.94%) Postman
6 2 (1.94%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.97%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.97%) JetBrains Rider
7 1 (0.97%) Rational Robot
7 1 (0.97%) Visual Studio Coded UI
7 1 (0.97%) WiX
7 1 (0.97%) XPEDITER
General
1 31 (30.10%) Finance
2 19 (18.45%) Social Skills
3 14 (13.59%) Military
4 8 (7.77%) Presentation Skills
5 4 (3.88%) Banking
5 4 (3.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (2.91%) Aerospace
7 2 (1.94%) Analytical Skills
8 1 (0.97%) Aviation
8 1 (0.97%) Avionics
8 1 (0.97%) Back Office
8 1 (0.97%) Financial Institution
8 1 (0.97%) General Ledger
8 1 (0.97%) Law
8 1 (0.97%) Legal
8 1 (0.97%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 49 (47.57%) Developer
2 21 (20.39%) 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%) Analyst
5 8 (7.77%) Microsoft Developer
6 7 (6.80%) Senior
7 6 (5.83%) Full-Stack Developer
8 5 (4.85%) Applications Engineer
8 5 (4.85%) Qualitative Analyst
8 5 (4.85%) Quantitative Analyst
9 4 (3.88%) Lecturer
9 4 (3.88%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
10 3 (2.91%) Automation Developer
10 3 (2.91%) C# .NET Developer
10 3 (2.91%) Tester
11 2 (1.94%) VB6 Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (58.25%) .NET
2 23 (22.33%) .NET Framework
3 22 (21.36%) Web Services
4 16 (15.53%) RESTful
5 13 (12.62%) Node.js
6 11 (10.68%) WinForms
7 9 (8.74%) Entity Framework
8 8 (7.77%) ASP.NET
8 8 (7.77%) XML
9 7 (6.80%) SOAP
9 7 (6.80%) WPF
10 6 (5.83%) ActiveX
10 6 (5.83%) JSON
10 6 (5.83%) React
11 5 (4.85%) CSS
11 5 (4.85%) Material-UI
11 5 (4.85%) OAuth
12 4 (3.88%) ASP.NET Core
12 4 (3.88%) SAML
12 4 (3.88%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 7 (6.80%) Low-Code
2 6 (5.83%) Cloud Native
3 3 (2.91%) BYOD
4 2 (1.94%) AI Agents
4 2 (1.94%) Data Structures
4 2 (1.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 2 (1.94%) Greenfield Project
4 2 (1.94%) Legacy Applications
4 2 (1.94%) Mixed Reality
4 2 (1.94%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (1.94%) Virtual Reality
5 1 (0.97%) Credit Derivative
5 1 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (0.97%) DataPower
5 1 (0.97%) Derivative
5 1 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (0.97%) Mainframe
5 1 (0.97%) Replication
5 1 (0.97%) Virtual Team
5 1 (0.97%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 39 (37.86%) Windows
2 15 (14.56%) Linux
3 9 (8.74%) 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%) DevOps
4 32 (31.07%) CI/CD
5 26 (25.24%) Software Engineering
6 17 (16.50%) AI
6 17 (16.50%) Continuous Integration
7 16 (15.53%) Validation
8 15 (14.56%) Continuous Delivery
8 15 (14.56%) Scrum
8 15 (14.56%) TDD
8 15 (14.56%) Verification and Validation
9 14 (13.59%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (13.59%) Digital Twin
9 14 (13.59%) Synthetic Environment
10 13 (12.62%) Disaster Recovery
10 13 (12.62%) SDLC
10 13 (12.62%) Visualisation
11 11 (10.68%) Business Intelligence
12 10 (9.71%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 80 (77.67%) C#
2 39 (37.86%) SQL
3 37 (35.92%) C++
4 25 (24.27%) JavaScript
5 20 (19.42%) Python
6 12 (11.65%) T-SQL
7 10 (9.71%) Java
7 10 (9.71%) X++
8 9 (8.74%) PL/SQL
9 7 (6.80%) TypeScript
9 7 (6.80%) VB
9 7 (6.80%) VB6
9 7 (6.80%) VBA
10 6 (5.83%) VB.NET
11 5 (4.85%) C
12 4 (3.88%) PowerShell
13 2 (1.94%) XAML
13 2 (1.94%) XPath
14 1 (0.97%) Ada
14 1 (0.97%) Ada 95
Qualifications
1 42 (40.78%) Security Cleared
2 37 (35.92%) SC Cleared
3 22 (21.36%) Degree
4 6 (5.83%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (3.88%) Computer Science Degree
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%) PhD
7 2 (1.94%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.97%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.97%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (9.71%) 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%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 7 (6.80%) Docker
2 2 (1.94%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 7 (6.80%) Single Sign-On
2 4 (3.88%) Kubernetes
2 4 (3.88%) Terraform
3 3 (2.91%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.97%) CA Endevor
4 1 (0.97%) PTC Integrity
4 1 (0.97%) SCCM
Vendors
1 37 (35.92%) Microsoft
2 11 (10.68%) Oracle
3 8 (7.77%) 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