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 2 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
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 307 310 303
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 14.27% 17.07% 15.97%
As % of the Vendors category 26.65% 36.43% 30.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 238 214 229
10th Percentile £200 £190 £173
25th Percentile £305 £325 £259
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year +6.11% +5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £588 £567 £568
90th Percentile £653 £632 £688
England median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.09% -3.95% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 10 18
10th Percentile £16.43 £12.11 £17.50
25th Percentile £22.18 £15.53 £17.75
Median hourly rate £30.00 £29.73 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.93% +38.26% +46.46%
75th Percentile £34.00 £33.92 £23.00
90th Percentile £50.00 £35.00 £34.50
England median hourly rate £21.28 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -5.44% -2.17% +15.00%

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 1,152 851 991
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 53.53% 46.86% 52.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 748 545 639
10th Percentile £271 £220 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £465
Median % change year-on-year +2.25% +7.53% -6.06%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £713 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 17 22
10th Percentile £15.73 £12.18 £17.53
25th Percentile £18.00 £15.22 £17.88
Median hourly rate £27.21 £30.00 £22.75
Median % change year-on-year -9.30% +31.87% +37.88%
75th Percentile £33.75 £35.00 £26.94
90th Percentile £50.00 £40.50 £41.48
England median hourly rate £24.31 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -25.20% -26.97% +71.15%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 0 118 £445 +5.83% 105
Warwickshire -8 52 £550 -3.68% 32
Shropshire -27 33 £500 +14.94% 25
Coventry +2 27 £310 -34.39% 37
Worcestershire 0 26 £575 +130.00% 28
Staffordshire +4 20 £203 -49.38% 35
Solihull +1 10 £575 +28.64% 7
Herefordshire -8 9 £650 +2.36% 10
Walsall +4 2 £160 - 10
Wolverhampton -1 2 £346 +1.39% 21
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 19 (6.19%) SharePoint
2 11 (3.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (2.93%) SAS
4 7 (2.28%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (1.95%) Confluence
6 4 (1.30%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.98%) Apache
8 2 (0.65%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.65%) FileNet
9 1 (0.33%) Apache Pig
9 1 (0.33%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.33%) IIS
9 1 (0.33%) WebLogic
Applications
1 52 (16.94%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (13.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (6.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (4.89%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.98%) Adobe Captivate
5 3 (0.98%) Maya
5 3 (0.98%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.33%) Moqups
6 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.33%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.33%) Trello
Business Applications
1 11 (3.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (2.61%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.30%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.33%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.33%) MIS ActiveH
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.33%) Primavera
4 1 (0.33%) SAP BPC
4 1 (0.33%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 113 (36.81%) Azure
2 50 (16.29%) Microsoft 365
3 49 (15.96%) AWS
4 46 (14.98%) Power Platform
5 35 (11.40%) Dynamics 365
6 27 (8.79%) Entra ID
7 25 (8.14%) Azure DevOps
8 20 (6.51%) Power Automate
9 19 (6.19%) PowerApps
9 19 (6.19%) Serverless
10 17 (5.54%) Azure Data Factory
11 16 (5.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 15 (4.89%) GCP
13 14 (4.56%) GitHub
13 14 (4.56%) GitHub Actions
13 14 (4.56%) SaaS
14 11 (3.58%) Azure Key Vault
14 11 (3.58%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (3.26%) PaaS
16 8 (2.61%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 21 (6.84%) DNS
1 21 (6.84%) Firewall
2 18 (5.86%) DHCP
3 15 (4.89%) VPN
4 14 (4.56%) TCP/IP
5 7 (2.28%) Network Security
6 6 (1.95%) WAN
6 6 (1.95%) Wireless
7 5 (1.63%) LAN
7 5 (1.63%) VoIP
8 4 (1.30%) Cisco IOS
8 4 (1.30%) PuTTY
8 4 (1.30%) Unified Communications
8 4 (1.30%) WLAN
9 3 (0.98%) Internet
9 3 (0.98%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.65%) VLAN
10 2 (0.65%) VSAN
10 2 (0.65%) Wireshark
11 1 (0.33%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (9.12%) Power BI
2 12 (3.91%) Data Warehouse
3 11 (3.58%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.61%) Redis
4 8 (2.61%) SQL Server
5 7 (2.28%) Data Mining
6 6 (1.95%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 6 (1.95%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 5 (1.63%) Oracle Database
8 4 (1.30%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.30%) Metadata
8 4 (1.30%) SAS Data Integration Studio
9 3 (0.98%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.98%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.98%) Pentaho
10 2 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.65%) Apache Hive
10 2 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.65%) OLTP
10 2 (0.65%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 17 (5.54%) Git
2 16 (5.21%) JIRA
3 14 (4.56%) GitLab
4 10 (3.26%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.30%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.98%) InstallShield
6 3 (0.98%) MSI
7 2 (0.65%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.65%) Liquibase
7 2 (0.65%) MLflow
7 2 (0.65%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.33%) AdminStudio
8 1 (0.33%) Jaeger
8 1 (0.33%) NUnit
8 1 (0.33%) PVCS
8 1 (0.33%) Selenium
8 1 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 119 (38.76%) Social Skills
2 46 (14.98%) Analytical Skills
3 41 (13.36%) Finance
4 22 (7.17%) Public Sector
5 16 (5.21%) Organisational Skills
6 14 (4.56%) Legal
7 12 (3.91%) Manufacturing
8 11 (3.58%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.93%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (2.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (2.28%) Banking
12 5 (1.63%) Automotive
13 4 (1.30%) Law
14 3 (0.98%) Games
14 3 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.98%) Marketing
15 2 (0.65%) Aeronautics
16 1 (0.33%) Advertising
16 1 (0.33%) Environmental Health
16 1 (0.33%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 48 (15.64%) Analyst
2 27 (8.79%) Architect
3 26 (8.47%) Developer
4 19 (6.19%) Administrator
4 19 (6.19%) Senior
5 16 (5.21%) Support Engineer
6 13 (4.23%) IT Support
6 13 (4.23%) Support Analyst
7 12 (3.91%) Lead
7 12 (3.91%) Project Manager
8 10 (3.26%) 2nd Line Support
8 10 (3.26%) IT Analyst
9 9 (2.93%) Consultant
9 9 (2.93%) Python Developer
10 8 (2.61%) Backend Developer
10 8 (2.61%) Data Analyst
10 8 (2.61%) Data Engineer
10 8 (2.61%) Engagement Manager
10 8 (2.61%) Enterprise Architect
10 8 (2.61%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.21%) REST
2 13 (4.23%) .NET
3 12 (3.91%) Flask
4 11 (3.58%) FastAPI
5 8 (2.61%) GraphQL
5 8 (2.61%) WebSockets
6 7 (2.28%) gRPC
6 7 (2.28%) HTML
7 4 (1.30%) CSS
7 4 (1.30%) Django
7 4 (1.30%) LDAP
7 4 (1.30%) Middleware
7 4 (1.30%) NumPy
7 4 (1.30%) Pandas
8 3 (0.98%) .NET Framework
8 3 (0.98%) OAuth
8 3 (0.98%) RESTful
8 3 (0.98%) SailPoint
8 3 (0.98%) Unreal Engine
8 3 (0.98%) V-Ray
Miscellaneous
1 21 (6.84%) Onboarding
2 14 (4.56%) Cloud Native
3 13 (4.23%) Security Posture
4 12 (3.91%) Driving Licence
5 11 (3.58%) Self-Motivation
6 9 (2.93%) Data Centre
7 7 (2.28%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.28%) SCADA
8 6 (1.95%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.63%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 5 (1.63%) Video Conferencing
10 4 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.30%) Legacy Applications
10 4 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.30%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.98%) Algorithms
11 3 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.98%) IoT
11 3 (0.98%) Security Operations Centre
11 3 (0.98%) Virtual Reality
Operating Systems
1 64 (20.85%) Windows
2 19 (6.19%) Windows Server
3 18 (5.86%) Windows 10
4 16 (5.21%) Linux
5 5 (1.63%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.65%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.33%) Android
7 1 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.33%) SUSE
7 1 (0.33%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (19.87%) DevOps
2 54 (17.59%) Agile
3 53 (17.26%) Migration
4 50 (16.29%) CI/CD
5 48 (15.64%) Problem-Solving
6 44 (14.33%) ITIL
7 43 (14.01%) Analytics
8 36 (11.73%) Change Management
8 36 (11.73%) Continuous Improvement
9 32 (10.42%) Business Intelligence
10 28 (9.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 27 (8.79%) Cybersecurity
11 27 (8.79%) Stakeholder Management
12 26 (8.47%) Containerisation
12 26 (8.47%) Customer Service
13 25 (8.14%) Project Management
14 24 (7.82%) Data Management
15 22 (7.17%) Decision-Making
15 22 (7.17%) Service Management
16 20 (6.51%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 45 (14.66%) SQL
2 32 (10.42%) Python
3 27 (8.79%) PowerShell
4 13 (4.23%) Go
5 12 (3.91%) JavaScript
6 9 (2.93%) Java
7 8 (2.61%) C#
8 7 (2.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 6 (1.95%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (1.30%) C++
10 4 (1.30%) R
10 4 (1.30%) Scala
10 4 (1.30%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.98%) Bash
11 3 (0.98%) VB
11 3 (0.98%) VBScript
12 1 (0.33%) Groovy
12 1 (0.33%) Perl
12 1 (0.33%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.33%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 66 (21.50%) Security Cleared
2 59 (19.22%) SC Cleared
3 32 (10.42%) Microsoft Certification
4 30 (9.77%) Degree
5 13 (4.23%) AWS Certification
5 13 (4.23%) Azure Certification
5 13 (4.23%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.58%) DV Cleared
7 10 (3.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 6 (1.95%) MCP
9 5 (1.63%) MCDST
10 4 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (1.30%) CCNA
10 4 (1.30%) CCNP
10 4 (1.30%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (1.30%) MCSE
11 3 (0.98%) CISSP
11 3 (0.98%) HNC
11 3 (0.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 2 (0.65%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (4.23%) QA
2 8 (2.61%) Accessibility
2 8 (2.61%) PMO
3 7 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (1.63%) Data Quality
4 5 (1.63%) GDPR
4 5 (1.63%) SLA
5 4 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (1.30%) NIST
6 3 (0.98%) NCSC
7 2 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.65%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.33%) COSHH
8 1 (0.33%) GRC
8 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.33%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.33%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.33%) NEBOSH
8 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 51 (16.61%) Active Directory
2 31 (10.10%) Docker
3 8 (2.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.30%) Firmware
4 4 (1.30%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.30%) vSphere
5 2 (0.65%) Microsoft App-V
5 2 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.33%) HDFS
6 1 (0.33%) Snort
6 1 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.33%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 32 (10.42%) Kubernetes
2 25 (8.14%) SCCM
3 14 (4.56%) Terraform
4 12 (3.91%) Grafana
4 12 (3.91%) Microsoft Intune
4 12 (3.91%) Prometheus
5 11 (3.58%) Ansible
6 4 (1.30%) QRadar
7 3 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.65%) CSIRT
8 2 (0.65%) SCOM
8 2 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.65%) vRealize
9 1 (0.33%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.33%) Hadoop YARN
9 1 (0.33%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.33%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.33%) Puppet
9 1 (0.33%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.33%) WSUS
Vendors
1 25 (8.14%) ServiceNow
2 20 (6.51%) Oracle
3 17 (5.54%) Cisco
4 13 (4.23%) Splunk
5 12 (3.91%) SAP
6 10 (3.26%) VMware
7 8 (2.61%) Adobe
8 7 (2.28%) AppDynamics
8 7 (2.28%) IBM
9 6 (1.95%) CyberArk
9 6 (1.95%) iManage
10 5 (1.63%) Atlassian
10 5 (1.63%) Databricks
10 5 (1.63%) Dynatrace
10 5 (1.63%) Mitel
11 4 (1.30%) Peregrine
11 4 (1.30%) Remedy
11 4 (1.30%) Virgin Media
11 4 (1.30%) Workday
12 3 (0.98%) CrowdStrike