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 7 November 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
7 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 4 3
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 302 319 314
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 14.75% 16.69% 16.29%
As % of the Vendors category 27.16% 34.64% 32.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 224 225 234
10th Percentile £200 £190 £161
25th Percentile £300 £319 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +5.88% -2.86%
75th Percentile £588 £573 £547
90th Percentile £653 £635 £688
England median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 5 18
10th Percentile £17.78 £17.09 £17.50
25th Percentile £28.55 £25.56 £17.75
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +62.79% +49.72%
75th Percentile £50.00 - £23.00
90th Percentile - - £34.50
England median hourly rate £22.32 £21.23 £22.53
% change year-on-year +5.11% -5.77% +15.54%

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 1,112 921 972
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 54.32% 48.19% 50.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 716 608 623
10th Percentile £263 £220 £214
25th Percentile £400 £380 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £500 £465
Median % change year-on-year +1.10% +7.53% -6.06%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £588
90th Percentile £653 £708 £675
England median daily rate £506 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.62% - -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 13 20
10th Percentile £16.05 £15.04 £17.50
25th Percentile £20.38 £23.60 £17.75
Median hourly rate £30.00 £31.50 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +36.96% +39.39%
75th Percentile £36.25 £35.00 £29.63
90th Percentile £50.00 £57.75 £43.53
England median hourly rate £25.00 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.57% -21.35% +73.08%

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 7 November 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 7 November 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 7 November 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 -1 105 £440 +0.57% 143
Warwickshire -7 63 £550 -3.00% 48
Coventry +6 32 £305 -35.79% 44
Shropshire -32 26 £500 +14.94% 18
Worcestershire +3 23 £575 +177.11% 26
Staffordshire +3 19 £170 -50.55% 66
Solihull 0 15 £510 +19.72% 12
Herefordshire -5 7 £650 +2.36% 13
Wolverhampton -1 4 £265 -22.42% 20
Walsall +2 1 - - 12
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 18 (5.96%) SharePoint
2 11 (3.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (2.98%) SAS
4 7 (2.32%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (1.99%) Confluence
6 5 (1.66%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.99%) Apache
8 2 (0.66%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.66%) FileNet
9 1 (0.33%) Apache Pig
9 1 (0.33%) IIS
9 1 (0.33%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.33%) WebLogic
Applications
1 52 (17.22%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (13.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (6.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (4.64%) Microsoft Project
5 6 (1.99%) Adobe Captivate
5 6 (1.99%) Maya
6 3 (0.99%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.33%) Moqups
7 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.33%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.33%) Trello
Business Applications
1 10 (3.31%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.32%) SAP PM
3 2 (0.66%) Dynamics NAV
3 2 (0.66%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.33%) Elite 3E
4 1 (0.33%) MIS ActiveH
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS R12
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle HRMS
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
1 105 (34.77%) Azure
2 57 (18.87%) Microsoft 365
3 45 (14.90%) AWS
3 45 (14.90%) Power Platform
4 28 (9.27%) Dynamics 365
5 25 (8.28%) Entra ID
6 24 (7.95%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (6.95%) Azure Data Factory
8 20 (6.62%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 17 (5.63%) Power Automate
9 17 (5.63%) PowerApps
9 17 (5.63%) Serverless
10 15 (4.97%) GitHub
10 15 (4.97%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (4.64%) GCP
11 14 (4.64%) SaaS
12 13 (4.30%) Microsoft Purview
13 10 (3.31%) Azure Key Vault
13 10 (3.31%) PaaS
14 6 (1.99%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 27 (8.94%) Firewall
2 26 (8.61%) DNS
3 24 (7.95%) DHCP
4 17 (5.63%) VPN
5 15 (4.97%) TCP/IP
6 9 (2.98%) Wireless
7 7 (2.32%) Network Security
7 7 (2.32%) WAN
8 6 (1.99%) LAN
9 5 (1.66%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (1.66%) PuTTY
9 5 (1.66%) Unified Communications
9 5 (1.66%) VoIP
9 5 (1.66%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (1.66%) WLAN
10 3 (0.99%) Internet
10 3 (0.99%) VLAN
11 2 (0.66%) Remote Desktop
11 2 (0.66%) WebEx
11 2 (0.66%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.94%) Power BI
2 12 (3.97%) Data Warehouse
3 11 (3.64%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.65%) Data Mining
4 8 (2.65%) Redis
4 8 (2.65%) SQL Server
5 7 (2.32%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (1.99%) Oracle Database
6 6 (1.99%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 6 (1.99%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 5 (1.66%) Delta Lake
7 5 (1.66%) GIS
7 5 (1.66%) Tableau
8 4 (1.32%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.32%) Metadata
8 4 (1.32%) NoSQL
8 4 (1.32%) SAS Data Integration Studio
9 3 (0.99%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.99%) Pentaho
10 2 (0.66%) Apache Hive
Development Applications
1 14 (4.64%) JIRA
2 13 (4.30%) Git
3 11 (3.64%) GitLab
4 9 (2.98%) Jenkins
5 4 (1.32%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.66%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.66%) Liquibase
6 2 (0.66%) MLflow
6 2 (0.66%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.33%) InstallShield
7 1 (0.33%) Jaeger
7 1 (0.33%) MSI
7 1 (0.33%) NUnit
7 1 (0.33%) PVCS
7 1 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 121 (40.07%) Social Skills
2 49 (16.23%) Analytical Skills
3 44 (14.57%) Finance
4 25 (8.28%) Public Sector
5 16 (5.30%) Manufacturing
5 16 (5.30%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (3.97%) Automotive
7 11 (3.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 11 (3.64%) Legal
8 9 (2.98%) Documentation Skills
8 9 (2.98%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (2.32%) Banking
10 6 (1.99%) Games
11 4 (1.32%) Law
12 3 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.99%) Marketing
13 1 (0.33%) Advertising
13 1 (0.33%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.33%) Environmental Health
13 1 (0.33%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 53 (17.55%) Analyst
2 28 (9.27%) Architect
3 19 (6.29%) Administrator
3 19 (6.29%) Developer
3 19 (6.29%) Senior
4 18 (5.96%) Lead
4 18 (5.96%) Support Engineer
5 15 (4.97%) Support Analyst
6 12 (3.97%) 2nd Line Support
6 12 (3.97%) IT Support
6 12 (3.97%) Project Manager
7 11 (3.64%) Data Analyst
8 10 (3.31%) Consultant
9 9 (2.98%) Data Engineer
9 9 (2.98%) IT Analyst
10 8 (2.65%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
10 8 (2.65%) Backend Developer
10 8 (2.65%) Enterprise Architect
10 8 (2.65%) IT Engineer
10 8 (2.65%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.97%) REST
2 12 (3.97%) .NET
3 11 (3.64%) Flask
4 10 (3.31%) FastAPI
4 10 (3.31%) HTML
5 8 (2.65%) GraphQL
5 8 (2.65%) WebSockets
6 7 (2.32%) CSS
6 7 (2.32%) Django
6 7 (2.32%) gRPC
7 6 (1.99%) Unreal Engine
7 6 (1.99%) V-Ray
8 4 (1.32%) Kafka
8 4 (1.32%) Middleware
9 3 (0.99%) .NET Framework
9 3 (0.99%) LDAP
9 3 (0.99%) NumPy
9 3 (0.99%) OAuth
9 3 (0.99%) RESTful
9 3 (0.99%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 19 (6.29%) Onboarding
2 15 (4.97%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.64%) SCADA
3 11 (3.64%) Self-Motivation
4 10 (3.31%) Driving Licence
4 10 (3.31%) Security Posture
5 9 (2.98%) Data Centre
5 9 (2.98%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.32%) IoT
7 6 (1.99%) Animation
7 6 (1.99%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (1.99%) Virtual Reality
8 5 (1.66%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 5 (1.66%) Video Conferencing
8 5 (1.66%) Virtual Team
9 4 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.32%) Legacy Applications
9 4 (1.32%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.32%) PKI
10 3 (0.99%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 74 (24.50%) Windows
2 19 (6.29%) Windows 10
3 18 (5.96%) Windows Server
4 15 (4.97%) Linux
5 5 (1.66%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.99%) Android
7 2 (0.66%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.33%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.33%) SUSE
8 1 (0.33%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (18.87%) DevOps
2 51 (16.89%) ITIL
3 47 (15.56%) Agile
3 47 (15.56%) Migration
4 46 (15.23%) Problem-Solving
5 45 (14.90%) Analytics
6 40 (13.25%) CI/CD
7 33 (10.93%) Change Management
8 32 (10.60%) Continuous Improvement
9 31 (10.26%) Business Intelligence
10 26 (8.61%) Project Management
11 25 (8.28%) Customer Service
11 25 (8.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 24 (7.95%) Containerisation
13 22 (7.28%) Data Management
13 22 (7.28%) Stakeholder Management
14 20 (6.62%) AI
14 20 (6.62%) Cybersecurity
14 20 (6.62%) Visualisation
15 18 (5.96%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 49 (16.23%) SQL
2 30 (9.93%) Python
3 26 (8.61%) PowerShell
4 12 (3.97%) Go
5 11 (3.64%) Java
6 10 (3.31%) JavaScript
7 9 (2.98%) Kusto Query Language
8 7 (2.32%) C++
9 6 (1.99%) C#
10 4 (1.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.99%) Scala
11 3 (0.99%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.66%) Bash
12 2 (0.66%) Bicep
12 2 (0.66%) VB
13 1 (0.33%) Groovy
13 1 (0.33%) R
13 1 (0.33%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.33%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.33%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 59 (19.54%) Security Cleared
2 50 (16.56%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.93%) Degree
4 28 (9.27%) Microsoft Certification
5 12 (3.97%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.64%) DV Cleared
7 10 (3.31%) AWS Certification
8 9 (2.98%) Azure Certification
9 7 (2.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (2.32%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 7 (2.32%) MCP
10 6 (1.99%) CCNA
10 6 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (1.66%) CCNP
11 5 (1.66%) MCDST
12 4 (1.32%) MCSE
13 3 (0.99%) CISSP
13 3 (0.99%) HNC
14 2 (0.66%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (4.30%) Data Quality
2 8 (2.65%) Accessibility
2 8 (2.65%) GDPR
2 8 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (2.65%) PMO
3 7 (2.32%) QA
4 5 (1.66%) Cyber Essentials
4 5 (1.66%) NIST
4 5 (1.66%) SLA
5 3 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (0.99%) NCSC
6 1 (0.33%) COSHH
6 1 (0.33%) GRC
6 1 (0.33%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.33%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.33%) ISO 22301
6 1 (0.33%) NEBOSH
6 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 56 (18.54%) Active Directory
2 28 (9.27%) Docker
3 8 (2.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.99%) Firmware
5 4 (1.32%) vSphere
6 3 (0.99%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.66%) Microsoft App-V
7 2 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.33%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.33%) HDFS
8 1 (0.33%) Snort
8 1 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.33%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 29 (9.60%) Kubernetes
2 27 (8.94%) SCCM
3 16 (5.30%) Microsoft Intune
4 12 (3.97%) Terraform
5 11 (3.64%) Grafana
5 11 (3.64%) Prometheus
6 6 (1.99%) Ansible
7 4 (1.32%) QRadar
7 4 (1.32%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.66%) CSIRT
9 2 (0.66%) SCOM
9 2 (0.66%) vRealize
10 1 (0.33%) Argo
10 1 (0.33%) Hadoop YARN
10 1 (0.33%) Istio
10 1 (0.33%) Nagios
10 1 (0.33%) PowerCLI
10 1 (0.33%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.33%) VxRail
Vendors
1 24 (7.95%) Cisco
2 22 (7.28%) Oracle
3 20 (6.62%) ServiceNow
4 13 (4.30%) SAP
4 13 (4.30%) Splunk
5 11 (3.64%) Adobe
6 10 (3.31%) VMware
7 8 (2.65%) Databricks
8 7 (2.32%) AppDynamics
8 7 (2.32%) IBM
9 6 (1.99%) Apple
9 6 (1.99%) Autodesk
9 6 (1.99%) CyberArk
9 6 (1.99%) iManage
10 5 (1.66%) Atlassian
10 5 (1.66%) Citrix
10 5 (1.66%) Dynatrace
10 5 (1.66%) Mitel
10 5 (1.66%) Peregrine
10 5 (1.66%) Remedy