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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 555 457 353
Rank change year-on-year -98 -104 +113
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 110 98 246
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.21% 0.30% 0.60%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.77% 2.04% 4.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 53 46 167
10th Percentile £389 £361 £335
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +0.96%
75th Percentile £563 £575 £610
90th Percentile £614 £720 £670
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £500 £515
% change year-on-year -15.00% -2.91% +8.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 18 32
10th Percentile £56.53 £64.03 £48.05
25th Percentile £62.19 - £64.38
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile - £66.31 -
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 6,204 4,807 5,146
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.76% 14.71% 12.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,984 3,237 3,406
10th Percentile £350 £325 £351
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 £595 £625
90th Percentile £688 £688 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 258 104 229
10th Percentile £26.10 £23.25 £27.60
25th Percentile £55.00 £50.00 £46.18
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year - - +4.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £84.80 £73.80
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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -91 98 £463 -7.50% 38
UK excluding London -110 63 £425 -15.00% 37
London -62 38 £488 -21.92% 5
Work from Home -62 31 £428 -27.23% 14
East of England -27 14 £510 +2.00% 6
South East -58 14 £500 +9.29% 17
Midlands -44 13 £421 +5.31% 7
West Midlands -50 13 £421 -6.39% 4
South West -33 12 £294 -17.54% 4
North of England -73 6 £550 +23.60% 2
Yorkshire -49 4 £494 +26.60%
Wales - 3 £700 -
North West -48 2 £580 +16.00% 1
Scotland -20 1 £368 -26.50% 1

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 (10.00%) SharePoint
2 8 (7.27%) IIS
3 2 (1.82%) Confluence
3 2 (1.82%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.91%) CICS
4 1 (0.91%) CMS
4 1 (0.91%) Umbraco
Applications
1 12 (10.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (6.36%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.82%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.82%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.82%) Dynamics GP
2 1 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.91%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 46 (41.82%) Azure
2 32 (29.09%) Azure DevOps
3 21 (19.09%) Power Platform
4 18 (16.36%) Dynamics 365
5 16 (14.55%) PowerApps
6 15 (13.64%) GitHub
6 15 (13.64%) Power Automate
7 9 (8.18%) Microsoft Copilot
8 7 (6.36%) Copilot Studio
9 6 (5.45%) Entra ID
9 6 (5.45%) SaaS
9 6 (5.45%) Serverless
10 5 (4.55%) Azure Functions
11 4 (3.64%) Azure App Service
11 4 (3.64%) Azure Monitor
11 4 (3.64%) IaaS
11 4 (3.64%) PaaS
12 3 (2.73%) Azure API Management
12 3 (2.73%) Azure Pipelines
12 3 (2.73%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (12.73%) Ethernet
1 14 (12.73%) TCP/IP
2 4 (3.64%) Network Security
3 2 (1.82%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.91%) DHCP
4 1 (0.91%) DNS
4 1 (0.91%) Firewall
4 1 (0.91%) LAN
4 1 (0.91%) RS-232
4 1 (0.91%) RS-422
4 1 (0.91%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.91%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (31.82%) SQL Server
2 10 (9.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 8 (7.27%) Relational Database
3 8 (7.27%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 6 (5.45%) Azure SQL Database
4 6 (5.45%) MS Access
5 4 (3.64%) Power BI
6 3 (2.73%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (2.73%) NoSQL
7 2 (1.82%) Oracle Database
7 2 (1.82%) Tableau
8 1 (0.91%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.91%) Db2
8 1 (0.91%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.91%) GIS
8 1 (0.91%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.91%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.91%) SSDT
8 1 (0.91%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 27 (24.55%) Git
2 19 (17.27%) Team Foundation Server
3 14 (12.73%) Eclipse
4 10 (9.09%) Jenkins
5 7 (6.36%) JIRA
6 5 (4.55%) Selenium
6 5 (4.55%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 4 (3.64%) JetBrains Rider
7 4 (3.64%) JMeter
7 4 (3.64%) MSBuild
7 4 (3.64%) MSTest
7 4 (3.64%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (2.73%) GitLab
8 3 (2.73%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (1.82%) Fiddler
9 2 (1.82%) MSI
9 2 (1.82%) Postman
10 1 (0.91%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.91%) Visual Studio Coded UI
10 1 (0.91%) WiX
General
1 28 (25.45%) Finance
2 27 (24.55%) Social Skills
3 14 (12.73%) Military
4 8 (7.27%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (5.45%) Banking
6 5 (4.55%) Analytical Skills
7 4 (3.64%) General Ledger
7 4 (3.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (3.64%) Public Sector
8 2 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.82%) Health Technology
8 2 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.82%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.91%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.91%) Aviation
9 1 (0.91%) Avionics
9 1 (0.91%) Back Office
9 1 (0.91%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.91%) Law
9 1 (0.91%) Legal
Job Titles
1 62 (56.36%) Developer
2 18 (16.36%) Software Engineer
3 14 (12.73%) Software Developer
4 13 (11.82%) C# Developer
4 13 (11.82%) C# Software Engineer
5 10 (9.09%) .NET Developer
6 9 (8.18%) C++ Software Engineer
6 9 (8.18%) Full-Stack Developer
7 8 (7.27%) Microsoft Developer
8 7 (6.36%) Senior
9 5 (4.55%) C# .NET Developer
9 5 (4.55%) DevOps Engineer
9 5 (4.55%) Dynamics 365 Developer
9 5 (4.55%) Lead
9 5 (4.55%) VB Developer
9 5 (4.55%) VB6 Developer
10 4 (3.64%) Lead Developer
10 4 (3.64%) Lead Software Developer
10 4 (3.64%) Lecturer
10 4 (3.64%) SQL Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (51.82%) .NET
2 23 (20.91%) Web Services
3 21 (19.09%) .NET Framework
4 19 (17.27%) XML
5 17 (15.45%) RESTful
6 15 (13.64%) WinForms
7 13 (11.82%) Node.js
7 13 (11.82%) SOAP
8 12 (10.91%) ActiveX
8 12 (10.91%) ASP.NET
8 12 (10.91%) Entity Framework
9 10 (9.09%) JSON
9 10 (9.09%) React
10 8 (7.27%) .NET Core
10 8 (7.27%) WCF
11 7 (6.36%) ASP.NET Web API
11 7 (6.36%) HTML
11 7 (6.36%) REST
11 7 (6.36%) XSLT
12 5 (4.55%) Apache FOP
Miscellaneous
1 8 (7.27%) Low-Code
2 6 (5.45%) Cloud Native
2 6 (5.45%) Replication
3 5 (4.55%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (2.73%) BYOD
4 3 (2.73%) Data Structures
4 3 (2.73%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.82%) AI Agents
5 2 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 2 (1.82%) Greenfield Project
5 2 (1.82%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.91%) Credit Derivative
6 1 (0.91%) DataPower
6 1 (0.91%) Derivative
6 1 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (0.91%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.91%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.91%) Virtual Team
6 1 (0.91%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 38 (34.55%) Windows
2 15 (13.64%) Linux
3 5 (4.55%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.91%) Unix
4 1 (0.91%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
4 1 (0.91%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (45.45%) Agile
2 40 (36.36%) CI/CD
3 37 (33.64%) DevOps
4 36 (32.73%) Unit Testing
5 24 (21.82%) Software Engineering
6 20 (18.18%) Scrum
7 18 (16.36%) Continuous Integration
8 16 (14.55%) Continuous Delivery
9 15 (13.64%) TDD
10 14 (12.73%) AI
10 14 (12.73%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (12.73%) Digital Twin
10 14 (12.73%) SDLC
10 14 (12.73%) Synthetic Environment
10 14 (12.73%) Validation
11 13 (11.82%) ERP
11 13 (11.82%) Full-Stack Development
11 13 (11.82%) Verification and Validation
11 13 (11.82%) Visualisation
12 12 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 77 (70.00%) C#
2 41 (37.27%) SQL
3 29 (26.36%) C++
4 25 (22.73%) JavaScript
5 18 (16.36%) VBA
6 14 (12.73%) Java
6 14 (12.73%) Python
6 14 (12.73%) X++
7 13 (11.82%) T-SQL
7 13 (11.82%) VB
7 13 (11.82%) VB6
8 11 (10.00%) VB.NET
9 10 (9.09%) PL/SQL
10 9 (8.18%) TypeScript
11 8 (7.27%) PowerShell
12 6 (5.45%) XPath
13 5 (4.55%) C
13 5 (4.55%) VBScript
14 2 (1.82%) Bicep
14 2 (1.82%) XAML
Qualifications
1 47 (42.73%) Security Cleared
2 41 (37.27%) SC Cleared
3 17 (15.45%) Degree
4 13 (11.82%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (5.45%) DV Cleared
6 5 (4.55%) ISTQB
7 4 (3.64%) DBS Check
7 4 (3.64%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.82%) Master's Degree
9 2 (1.82%) PhD
10 1 (0.91%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.91%) ISEB
10 1 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.91%) Numerate Degree
10 1 (0.91%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.91%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.45%) QA
2 4 (3.64%) Data Quality
3 3 (2.73%) HMG Security Policy Framework
3 3 (2.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (2.73%) SLA
4 1 (0.91%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.91%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 5 (4.55%) Docker
2 1 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 9 (8.18%) Single Sign-On
2 5 (4.55%) Terraform
3 4 (3.64%) Ansible
4 3 (2.73%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.91%) CA Endevor
5 1 (0.91%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.91%) PTC Integrity
5 1 (0.91%) SCCM
Vendors
1 50 (45.45%) Microsoft
2 12 (10.91%) Oracle
3 4 (3.64%) Citrix
4 3 (2.73%) IBM
5 2 (1.82%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.91%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (0.91%) Databricks
6 1 (0.91%) F5
6 1 (0.91%) Green Hills
6 1 (0.91%) PTC