Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Microsoft
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the West Midlands requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 17 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

 6 months to
17 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 313 290 280
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 13.90% 17.35% 15.41%
As % of the Vendors category 26.26% 37.13% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 210 210
10th Percentile £200 £190 £162
25th Percentile £309 £319 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year +6.11% +5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £588 £567 £575
90th Percentile £653 £635 £688
England median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 11 18
10th Percentile £15.52 £12.18 £17.35
25th Percentile £16.31 £16.09 £17.75
Median hourly rate £26.00 £29.00 £21.25
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +36.47% +37.23%
75th Percentile £31.00 £32.84 £23.00
90th Percentile £36.50 £35.00 £34.50
England median hourly rate £20.26 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -9.98% -2.17% +14.63%

All Vendors
West Midlands

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 1,192 781 924
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 52.95% 46.74% 50.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 765 518 588
10th Percentile £265 £212 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -4.04%
75th Percentile £584 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £716 £675
England median daily rate £508 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.33% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 18 22
10th Percentile £15.05 £12.18 £17.50
25th Percentile £17.79 £16.42 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £29.50 £22.75
Median % change year-on-year -14.75% +29.67% +32.96%
75th Percentile £31.00 £34.31 £26.94
90th Percentile £58.00 £39.13 £41.48
England median hourly rate £23.69 £31.00 £45.21
% change year-on-year -23.58% -31.43% +73.88%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 17 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the West Midlands

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 17 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the West Midlands

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 17 December 2025. 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
Birmingham 0 125 £465 +3.33% 95
Warwickshire -9 49 £550 -3.00% 19
Shropshire -23 37 £500 +14.94% 27
Coventry -3 26 £310 -34.04% 34
Worcestershire -4 24 £588 +135.00% 18
Staffordshire +3 21 £203 -46.00% 43
Herefordshire -11 10 £650 +2.36% 11
Solihull +1 8 £575 +61.97% 9
Walsall +4 2 £160 - 8
Wolverhampton 0 2 £346 +1.39% 26
Smethwick - 2 - - 1
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 16 (5.11%) SharePoint
2 9 (2.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (2.88%) SAS
3 7 (2.24%) Apache Airflow
3 7 (2.24%) Confluence
4 4 (1.28%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.96%) Apache
6 2 (0.64%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.64%) FileNet
7 1 (0.32%) Apache Pig
7 1 (0.32%) HCL Notes
7 1 (0.32%) IIS
7 1 (0.32%) WebLogic
Applications
1 47 (15.02%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (14.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (6.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (4.47%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (1.28%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.96%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.32%) Adobe Captivate
7 1 (0.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.32%) Maya
7 1 (0.32%) Moqups
7 1 (0.32%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.32%) Trello
Business Applications
1 12 (3.83%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (3.19%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.28%) Workday HCM
4 2 (0.64%) Maximo
5 1 (0.32%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.32%) MIS ActiveH
5 1 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.32%) Primavera
5 1 (0.32%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.32%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 116 (37.06%) Azure
2 51 (16.29%) AWS
2 51 (16.29%) Power Platform
3 49 (15.65%) Microsoft 365
4 37 (11.82%) Dynamics 365
5 26 (8.31%) Entra ID
6 24 (7.67%) Azure DevOps
6 24 (7.67%) Power Automate
7 22 (7.03%) PowerApps
8 20 (6.39%) Serverless
9 17 (5.43%) Azure Data Factory
10 16 (5.11%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 15 (4.79%) GCP
12 14 (4.47%) GitHub
12 14 (4.47%) GitHub Actions
12 14 (4.47%) SaaS
13 11 (3.51%) Azure Key Vault
13 11 (3.51%) PaaS
14 10 (3.19%) Microsoft Purview
15 9 (2.88%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 22 (7.03%) DNS
2 21 (6.71%) Firewall
3 18 (5.75%) VPN
4 16 (5.11%) DHCP
5 14 (4.47%) TCP/IP
6 8 (2.56%) LAN
6 8 (2.56%) Network Security
7 7 (2.24%) VoIP
7 7 (2.24%) WAN
7 7 (2.24%) Wireless
8 5 (1.60%) SSL
8 5 (1.60%) Wireshark
9 4 (1.28%) Unified Communications
9 4 (1.28%) VLAN
10 3 (0.96%) Cisco ASA
10 3 (0.96%) Cisco Nexus
10 3 (0.96%) Ethereal
10 3 (0.96%) HTTP
10 3 (0.96%) HTTPS
10 3 (0.96%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (10.22%) Power BI
2 15 (4.79%) Data Warehouse
3 12 (3.83%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (3.51%) SQL Server
5 8 (2.56%) Redis
6 7 (2.24%) Data Mining
7 6 (1.92%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 6 (1.92%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 6 (1.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (1.60%) Oracle Database
9 4 (1.28%) Data Lake
9 4 (1.28%) SAS Data Integration Studio
10 3 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.96%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.96%) Metadata
10 3 (0.96%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.96%) Pentaho
10 3 (0.96%) Power Query
11 2 (0.64%) Apache Hive
11 2 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 17 (5.43%) Git
1 17 (5.43%) JIRA
2 14 (4.47%) GitLab
3 11 (3.51%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.28%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.96%) InstallShield
5 3 (0.96%) MSI
6 2 (0.64%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.64%) Liquibase
6 2 (0.64%) MLflow
6 2 (0.64%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.32%) AdminStudio
7 1 (0.32%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.32%) Jaeger
7 1 (0.32%) PVCS
7 1 (0.32%) Selenium
7 1 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.32%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.32%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.32%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 120 (38.34%) Social Skills
2 46 (14.70%) Analytical Skills
3 40 (12.78%) Finance
4 21 (6.71%) Public Sector
5 20 (6.39%) Organisational Skills
6 13 (4.15%) Legal
7 11 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.56%) Manufacturing
8 8 (2.56%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (2.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.60%) Banking
11 4 (1.28%) Law
12 3 (0.96%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.96%) Marketing
13 2 (0.64%) Aeronautics
13 2 (0.64%) Automotive
13 2 (0.64%) Local Government
13 2 (0.64%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.32%) Advertising
14 1 (0.32%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 41 (13.10%) Analyst
2 29 (9.27%) Architect
2 29 (9.27%) Developer
3 24 (7.67%) Administrator
4 19 (6.07%) Senior
5 16 (5.11%) Support Engineer
6 13 (4.15%) IT Support
7 11 (3.51%) 2nd Line Support
7 11 (3.51%) Project Manager
8 10 (3.19%) IT Analyst
8 10 (3.19%) Support Analyst
9 9 (2.88%) Lead
9 9 (2.88%) Python Developer
10 8 (2.56%) 1st/2nd Line Support
10 8 (2.56%) Backend Developer
10 8 (2.56%) Consultant
10 8 (2.56%) Data Engineer
10 8 (2.56%) Enterprise Architect
10 8 (2.56%) IT Engineer
10 8 (2.56%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.11%) REST
2 12 (3.83%) .NET
2 12 (3.83%) Flask
3 11 (3.51%) FastAPI
4 8 (2.56%) GraphQL
4 8 (2.56%) WebSockets
5 7 (2.24%) gRPC
5 7 (2.24%) LDAP
6 5 (1.60%) HTML
6 5 (1.60%) Middleware
7 4 (1.28%) NumPy
7 4 (1.28%) Pandas
8 3 (0.96%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.96%) OAuth
8 3 (0.96%) RESTful
8 3 (0.96%) SailPoint
8 3 (0.96%) SAML
9 2 (0.64%) ADO
9 2 (0.64%) CSS
9 2 (0.64%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.39%) Onboarding
2 14 (4.47%) Cloud Native
3 13 (4.15%) Security Posture
4 12 (3.83%) Driving Licence
5 10 (3.19%) Data Centre
5 10 (3.19%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (2.24%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.24%) SCADA
7 6 (1.92%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 5 (1.60%) Operational Technology
8 5 (1.60%) PKI
8 5 (1.60%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (1.28%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.28%) Legacy Applications
9 4 (1.28%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (0.96%) Algorithms
10 3 (0.96%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (0.96%) Handset
10 3 (0.96%) IoT
10 3 (0.96%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 64 (20.45%) Windows
2 19 (6.07%) Linux
3 18 (5.75%) Windows 10
3 18 (5.75%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.60%) Mac OS
5 3 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.64%) CatOS
6 2 (0.64%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.32%) Android
7 1 (0.32%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.32%) SUSE
7 1 (0.32%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.32%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (19.81%) DevOps
2 57 (18.21%) Agile
3 52 (16.61%) CI/CD
3 52 (16.61%) Problem-Solving
4 50 (15.97%) Migration
5 46 (14.70%) ITIL
6 45 (14.38%) Analytics
7 37 (11.82%) Business Intelligence
8 34 (10.86%) Continuous Improvement
9 33 (10.54%) Change Management
10 30 (9.58%) Customer Service
11 28 (8.95%) Cybersecurity
12 27 (8.63%) Decision-Making
12 27 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 26 (8.31%) Containerisation
14 25 (7.99%) Stakeholder Management
15 24 (7.67%) Project Management
16 23 (7.35%) Data Modelling
16 23 (7.35%) Service Management
17 21 (6.71%) Data Management
Programming Languages
1 46 (14.70%) SQL
2 36 (11.50%) Python
3 28 (8.95%) PowerShell
4 14 (4.47%) Go
5 13 (4.15%) JavaScript
6 8 (2.56%) C#
6 8 (2.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 8 (2.56%) Java
7 6 (1.92%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (1.60%) R
8 5 (1.60%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.28%) Scala
10 3 (0.96%) Bash
10 3 (0.96%) VB
10 3 (0.96%) VBScript
11 2 (0.64%) C++
11 2 (0.64%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.32%) Perl
12 1 (0.32%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.32%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 67 (21.41%) Security Cleared
2 59 (18.85%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.54%) Microsoft Certification
4 29 (9.27%) Degree
5 12 (3.83%) AWS Certification
5 12 (3.83%) Azure Certification
5 12 (3.83%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.51%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.88%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 6 (1.92%) MCP
9 5 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.60%) CISSP
9 5 (1.60%) MCDST
10 4 (1.28%) CCNP
10 4 (1.28%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (1.28%) DBS Check
10 4 (1.28%) MCSE
11 3 (0.96%) CISM
11 3 (0.96%) HNC
11 3 (0.96%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.83%) QA
2 7 (2.24%) Accessibility
2 7 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (2.24%) PMO
3 5 (1.60%) Data Quality
3 5 (1.60%) GDPR
4 4 (1.28%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.28%) SLA
5 3 (0.96%) NCSC
5 3 (0.96%) NIST
6 2 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (0.64%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.32%) COSHH
7 1 (0.32%) GRC
7 1 (0.32%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.32%) ISO 14001
7 1 (0.32%) ISO 22301
7 1 (0.32%) NEBOSH
7 1 (0.32%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 52 (16.61%) Active Directory
2 31 (9.90%) Docker
3 12 (3.83%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.60%) vSphere
5 4 (1.28%) Firmware
5 4 (1.28%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.28%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.64%) Microsoft App-V
6 2 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.32%) HDFS
7 1 (0.32%) Snort
7 1 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 34 (10.86%) Kubernetes
2 23 (7.35%) SCCM
3 15 (4.79%) Terraform
4 13 (4.15%) Grafana
4 13 (4.15%) Prometheus
5 12 (3.83%) Ansible
6 10 (3.19%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (1.60%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.28%) QRadar
9 3 (0.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.96%) vRealize
10 2 (0.64%) CSIRT
10 2 (0.64%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.64%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.64%) Puppet
10 2 (0.64%) SCOM
11 1 (0.32%) Hadoop YARN
11 1 (0.32%) PowerCLI
11 1 (0.32%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.32%) WSUS
Vendors
1 25 (7.99%) ServiceNow
2 21 (6.71%) Oracle
3 20 (6.39%) Cisco
4 15 (4.79%) Splunk
5 14 (4.47%) VMware
6 12 (3.83%) SAP
7 7 (2.24%) AppDynamics
7 7 (2.24%) IBM
8 6 (1.92%) Adobe
8 6 (1.92%) CyberArk
8 6 (1.92%) iManage
9 5 (1.60%) Atlassian
9 5 (1.60%) CheckPoint
9 5 (1.60%) Databricks
9 5 (1.60%) Dynatrace
9 5 (1.60%) F5
9 5 (1.60%) Mitel
10 4 (1.28%) Palo Alto
10 4 (1.28%) Virgin Media
10 4 (1.28%) Workday
321 Microsoft jobs in the West Midlands