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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 573 464 359
Rank change year-on-year -109 -105 +86
Contract jobs citing Visual Studio 115 92 199
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.21% 0.28% 0.53%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.77% 1.80% 3.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 55 38 96
10th Percentile £358 £357 £322
25th Percentile £408 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £534 £569 £590
90th Percentile £575 £661 £664
UK excluding London median daily rate £416 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -16.75% +5.26% -9.52%
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 6,508 5,108 4,993
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.78% 15.40% 13.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,171 3,468 3,117
10th Percentile £354 £325 £350
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £625
90th Percentile £688 £688 £720
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £495
% change year-on-year - -4.04% -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 281 111 168
10th Percentile £22.68 £16.84 £29.67
25th Percentile £50.00 £42.75 £51.19
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 £71.88
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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -88 108 £438 -4.11% 111
UK excluding London -103 63 £416 -16.75% 72
London -76 45 £515 -8.44% 42
Work from Home -71 35 £425 -4.23% 52
East of England -33 22 £294 -41.30% 19
Midlands -39 16 £425 +10.39% 9
West Midlands -33 15 £421 +8.71% 8
North of England -66 10 £398 -13.44% 9
South West -29 9 £213 -40.35% 12
South East -65 5 £330 -17.76% 19
Yorkshire -31 4 £494 +7.45% 6
North West -48 4 £344 - 3
North East -40 2 - -
East Midlands -18 1 £500 +29.87% 1
Scotland -35 1 £368 -26.50% 5

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 (9.57%) SharePoint
2 8 (6.96%) IIS
3 3 (2.61%) Confluence
4 2 (1.74%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.87%) CMS
5 1 (0.87%) Umbraco
Applications
1 11 (9.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (6.09%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (2.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.74%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.74%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (4.35%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.74%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.87%) Sage 50
Cloud Services
1 53 (46.09%) Azure
2 43 (37.39%) Azure DevOps
3 29 (25.22%) Power Platform
4 28 (24.35%) Dynamics 365
5 24 (20.87%) PowerApps
6 23 (20.00%) Power Automate
7 14 (12.17%) GitHub
8 12 (10.43%) Microsoft Copilot
9 10 (8.70%) Copilot Studio
10 8 (6.96%) Azure Functions
10 8 (6.96%) Serverless
11 7 (6.09%) SaaS
12 6 (5.22%) Azure Service Bus
12 6 (5.22%) Entra ID
13 5 (4.35%) Azure API Management
13 5 (4.35%) Azure Data Factory
14 4 (3.48%) AWS
14 4 (3.48%) Azure Monitor
14 4 (3.48%) IaaS
14 4 (3.48%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (11.30%) Ethernet
1 13 (11.30%) TCP/IP
2 4 (3.48%) Network Security
3 2 (1.74%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.87%) DHCP
4 1 (0.87%) DNS
4 1 (0.87%) Firewall
4 1 (0.87%) LAN
4 1 (0.87%) RS-232
4 1 (0.87%) RS-422
4 1 (0.87%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.87%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (26.96%) SQL Server
2 11 (9.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 10 (8.70%) Relational Database
4 7 (6.09%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 6 (5.22%) Azure SQL Database
5 6 (5.22%) MS Access
6 4 (3.48%) Power BI
7 3 (2.61%) Oracle Database
8 2 (1.74%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.87%) Data Lake
9 1 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.87%) GIS
9 1 (0.87%) MySQL
9 1 (0.87%) Snowflake Schema
9 1 (0.87%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 1 (0.87%) SSDT
9 1 (0.87%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 35 (30.43%) Git
2 23 (20.00%) Team Foundation Server
3 12 (10.43%) Eclipse
4 10 (8.70%) Jenkins
5 8 (6.96%) Rational DOORS
6 7 (6.09%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 7 (6.09%) Visual Studio Code
7 5 (4.35%) JIRA
7 5 (4.35%) MSBuild
8 4 (3.48%) JetBrains Rider
8 4 (3.48%) NUnit
8 4 (3.48%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (2.61%) GitLab
9 3 (2.61%) MSTest
10 2 (1.74%) ClearCase
10 2 (1.74%) Fiddler
10 2 (1.74%) MSI
10 2 (1.74%) Postman
10 2 (1.74%) Rational Robot
10 2 (1.74%) Selenium
General
1 32 (27.83%) Finance
2 29 (25.22%) Social Skills
3 12 (10.43%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (10.43%) Military
4 8 (6.96%) Banking
5 6 (5.22%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (4.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (3.48%) General Ledger
7 4 (3.48%) Public Sector
8 3 (2.61%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.74%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.74%) Health Technology
9 2 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.74%) Marketing
9 2 (1.74%) Pharmaceutical
9 2 (1.74%) Retail
10 1 (0.87%) Avionics
10 1 (0.87%) Back Office
10 1 (0.87%) French Language
10 1 (0.87%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 71 (61.74%) Developer
2 20 (17.39%) Software Engineer
3 17 (14.78%) C# Developer
4 13 (11.30%) .NET Developer
4 13 (11.30%) Dynamics 365 Developer
4 13 (11.30%) Software Developer
5 11 (9.57%) C# Software Engineer
6 8 (6.96%) C# .NET Developer
6 8 (6.96%) C++ Software Engineer
6 8 (6.96%) Microsoft Developer
7 5 (4.35%) Full-Stack Developer
7 5 (4.35%) Lead
7 5 (4.35%) VB Developer
7 5 (4.35%) VB6 Developer
8 4 (3.48%) Lead Developer
8 4 (3.48%) Lead Software Developer
8 4 (3.48%) Lecturer
8 4 (3.48%) Principal Engineer
8 4 (3.48%) Principal Software Engineer
8 4 (3.48%) SQL Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (52.17%) .NET
2 24 (20.87%) XML
3 22 (19.13%) .NET Framework
4 20 (17.39%) Web Services
5 17 (14.78%) REST
6 16 (13.91%) WinForms
7 15 (13.04%) ActiveX
7 15 (13.04%) RESTful
7 15 (13.04%) SOAP
8 13 (11.30%) ASP.NET
8 13 (11.30%) WPF
9 12 (10.43%) Entity Framework
9 12 (10.43%) Node.js
10 11 (9.57%) .NET Core
11 10 (8.70%) ASP.NET Web API
11 10 (8.70%) WCF
12 8 (6.96%) JSON
12 8 (6.96%) XSLT
13 7 (6.09%) HTML
14 6 (5.22%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 8 (6.96%) Low-Code
2 6 (5.22%) Replication
2 6 (5.22%) Self-Motivation
3 5 (4.35%) Cloud Native
4 4 (3.48%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (2.61%) BYOD
5 3 (2.61%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (2.61%) Data Structures
5 3 (2.61%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.74%) AI Agents
6 2 (1.74%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 2 (1.74%) Legacy Applications
6 2 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.74%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 1 (0.87%) Credit Derivative
7 1 (0.87%) Derivative
7 1 (0.87%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.87%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 38 (33.04%) Windows
2 14 (12.17%) Linux
3 6 (5.22%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.87%) Unix
4 1 (0.87%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (49.57%) Agile
2 49 (42.61%) CI/CD
3 45 (39.13%) DevOps
4 33 (28.70%) Software Engineering
5 29 (25.22%) Unit Testing
6 26 (22.61%) Scrum
7 21 (18.26%) Continuous Integration
8 19 (16.52%) Continuous Delivery
9 18 (15.65%) Continuous Improvement
10 17 (14.78%) AI
10 17 (14.78%) TDD
10 17 (14.78%) Test Automation
10 17 (14.78%) Validation
11 16 (13.91%) Problem-Solving
12 15 (13.04%) Verification and Validation
13 14 (12.17%) SDLC
14 13 (11.30%) ERP
14 13 (11.30%) Workflow
15 12 (10.43%) Data Management
15 12 (10.43%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 85 (73.91%) C#
2 37 (32.17%) SQL
3 26 (22.61%) C++
4 25 (21.74%) JavaScript
5 21 (18.26%) VBA
6 17 (14.78%) VB
6 17 (14.78%) VB6
7 16 (13.91%) X++
8 15 (13.04%) Java
9 11 (9.57%) Python
9 11 (9.57%) T-SQL
9 11 (9.57%) VB.NET
10 10 (8.70%) PowerShell
10 10 (8.70%) TypeScript
11 9 (7.83%) PL/SQL
12 5 (4.35%) VBScript
12 5 (4.35%) XPath
13 4 (3.48%) XAML
14 2 (1.74%) Bicep
15 1 (0.87%) CodeQL
Qualifications
1 41 (35.65%) Security Cleared
2 32 (27.83%) SC Cleared
3 19 (16.52%) Degree
4 14 (12.17%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (6.09%) DV Cleared
6 4 (3.48%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (3.48%) DBS Check
6 4 (3.48%) Master's Degree
6 4 (3.48%) PhD
7 3 (2.61%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.74%) ISTQB
9 1 (0.87%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.87%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.87%) ISEB
9 1 (0.87%) Numerate Degree
9 1 (0.87%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.87%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.22%) QA
2 4 (3.48%) Data Quality
3 2 (1.74%) SLA
4 1 (0.87%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.87%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 3 (2.61%) Docker
2 1 (0.87%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 10 (8.70%) Single Sign-On
2 4 (3.48%) Ansible
3 2 (1.74%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.87%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.87%) PTC Integrity
4 1 (0.87%) SCCM
Vendors
1 61 (53.04%) Microsoft
2 13 (11.30%) Oracle
3 3 (2.61%) Citrix
3 3 (2.61%) ServiceNow
4 2 (1.74%) Sage
5 1 (0.87%) Atlassian
5 1 (0.87%) CyberArk
5 1 (0.87%) Databricks
5 1 (0.87%) F5
5 1 (0.87%) Green Hills
5 1 (0.87%) IBM
5 1 (0.87%) MuleSoft
5 1 (0.87%) PTC
5 1 (0.87%) Salesforce