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 1 August 2026, 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
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 5 5
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 418 258 257
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 12.02% 15.62% 13.79%
As % of the Vendors category 26.37% 33.51% 30.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 320 169 177
10th Percentile £262 £165 £163
25th Percentile £375 £250 £298
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £388 £415
Median % change year-on-year +16.13% -6.63% +0.61%
75th Percentile £520 £541 £520
90th Percentile £619 £613 £638
England median daily rate £490 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +3.16% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 21 11
10th Percentile £18.09 £15.13 £10.93
25th Percentile £20.30 £27.21 £12.31
Median hourly rate £21.50 £30.00 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.33% +114.29% -24.32%
75th Percentile £27.50 £50.00 £46.88
90th Percentile £70.14 - £56.25
England median hourly rate £23.54 £22.63 £16.23
% change year-on-year +4.02% +39.43% -26.23%

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 1,585 770 856
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 45.59% 46.61% 45.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,091 490 602
10th Percentile £315 £207 £263
25th Percentile £402 £325 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £460 £470
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% -2.13% -1.05%
75th Percentile £548 £575 £612
90th Percentile £650 £638 £688
England median daily rate £510 £510 £525
% change year-on-year - -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 29 25
10th Percentile £17.57 £14.86 £12.02
25th Percentile £20.55 £24.66 £14.00
Median hourly rate £30.25 £30.00 £16.82
Median % change year-on-year +0.82% +78.36% -25.24%
75th Percentile £51.06 £43.25 £38.75
90th Percentile £66.03 £50.00 £56.25
England median hourly rate £35.52 £25.15 £28.00
% change year-on-year +41.21% -10.18% -29.20%

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 1 August 2026.

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 1 August 2026.

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 1 August 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
Birmingham +2 122 £450 +38.46% 120
Warwickshire -5 85 £450 +12.50% 31
Coventry 0 77 £425 +51.11% 23
Shropshire -25 51 £447 +0.17% 20
Staffordshire -4 12 £400 +185.71% 47
Worcestershire 0 11 £450 -21.74% 27
Solihull -26 9 £425 -7.61% 7
Herefordshire +2 8 £700 -22.22% 7
Dudley - 5 £400 - 10
Walsall +2 4 £600 - 8
West Bromwich - 3 - - 4
Brierley Hill - 2 £446 - 1
Wolverhampton -6 1 - - 11
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 40 (9.57%) SharePoint
2 13 (3.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.44%) Confluence
4 5 (1.20%) SAS
5 4 (0.96%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.72%) Apache
6 3 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.72%) IIS
6 3 (0.72%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.48%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.24%) Appian
8 1 (0.24%) CMS
Applications
1 44 (10.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (9.57%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (4.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (2.63%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (2.63%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.24%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.24%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.24%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.24%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.24%) Revit
Business Applications
1 27 (6.46%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.20%) SAP PSCD
3 3 (0.72%) Primavera
4 2 (0.48%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.24%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.24%) MIS ActiveH
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.24%) SAP EHS
5 1 (0.24%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 170 (40.67%) Azure
2 86 (20.57%) Microsoft 365
3 77 (18.42%) Power Platform
4 52 (12.44%) Dynamics 365
5 48 (11.48%) Azure DevOps
6 40 (9.57%) Entra ID
7 36 (8.61%) AWS
8 35 (8.37%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 35 (8.37%) Power Automate
9 32 (7.66%) Microsoft Purview
10 28 (6.70%) Azure Data Factory
11 23 (5.50%) PowerApps
12 20 (4.78%) OneDrive
13 16 (3.83%) Serverless
14 14 (3.35%) GCP
14 14 (3.35%) Microsoft Copilot
15 9 (2.15%) GitHub
15 9 (2.15%) GitHub Actions
16 8 (1.91%) Azure Functions
17 6 (1.44%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 27 (6.46%) DNS
2 24 (5.74%) VPN
3 20 (4.78%) DHCP
4 18 (4.31%) Firewall
5 10 (2.39%) LAN
6 8 (1.91%) TCP/IP
7 7 (1.67%) WAN
7 7 (1.67%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (1.44%) Cisco IOS
8 6 (1.44%) SSL
9 5 (1.20%) Network Security
10 4 (0.96%) SAN
11 3 (0.72%) BIG-IP
11 3 (0.72%) Intrusion Detection
11 3 (0.72%) NAS
11 3 (0.72%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.72%) Structured Cabling
11 3 (0.72%) Wireless
12 2 (0.48%) Cisco Nexus
12 2 (0.48%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (10.53%) Power BI
2 29 (6.94%) Data Warehouse
2 29 (6.94%) SQL Server
3 21 (5.02%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (3.11%) Azure SQL Database
5 12 (2.87%) MySQL
6 11 (2.63%) Data Lake
7 10 (2.39%) Delta Lake
8 8 (1.91%) NoSQL
8 8 (1.91%) Relational Database
9 7 (1.67%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 6 (1.44%) Data Vault
10 6 (1.44%) Metadata
11 5 (1.20%) Oracle Database
11 5 (1.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 3 (0.72%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.72%) Redis
12 3 (0.72%) SAP Data Services
12 3 (0.72%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 3 (0.72%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 24 (5.74%) JIRA
2 12 (2.87%) Team Foundation Server
3 11 (2.63%) Selenium
3 11 (2.63%) Visual Studio
3 11 (2.63%) WebDriver
4 9 (2.15%) Cypress.io
4 9 (2.15%) Postman
5 7 (1.67%) Git
6 6 (1.44%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.96%) MLflow
8 3 (0.72%) GitLab
8 3 (0.72%) Jenkins
8 3 (0.72%) Protractor
9 2 (0.48%) MSI
9 2 (0.48%) NUnit
10 1 (0.24%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.24%) JMeter
10 1 (0.24%) Maven
10 1 (0.24%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.24%) Zephyr
General
1 133 (31.82%) Social Skills
2 61 (14.59%) Finance
3 42 (10.05%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (10.05%) Public Sector
4 28 (6.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 13 (3.11%) Organisational Skills
6 10 (2.39%) Banking
6 10 (2.39%) Manufacturing
7 8 (1.91%) Legal
8 7 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (1.67%) Games
9 6 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (1.44%) Marketing
10 5 (1.20%) Law
10 5 (1.20%) Retail
11 4 (0.96%) Billing
11 4 (0.96%) Electronics
12 3 (0.72%) Local Government
12 3 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.48%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 62 (14.83%) Analyst
2 52 (12.44%) Developer
3 49 (11.72%) Senior
4 41 (9.81%) Data Engineer
5 34 (8.13%) Architect
6 29 (6.94%) Lead
7 28 (6.70%) Consultant
8 21 (5.02%) Azure Engineer
9 15 (3.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 14 (3.35%) Administrator
10 14 (3.35%) Solutions Architect
11 13 (3.11%) Senior Data Engineer
12 12 (2.87%) Business Analyst
12 12 (2.87%) Data Architect
12 12 (2.87%) Test Analyst
13 10 (2.39%) DBA
13 10 (2.39%) Dynamics 365 Developer
13 10 (2.39%) Senior Analyst
14 9 (2.15%) Azure Data Engineer
14 9 (2.15%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.78%) PySpark
2 17 (4.07%) JSON
3 16 (3.83%) SOAP
4 15 (3.59%) XML
5 11 (2.63%) ActiveX
6 10 (2.39%) REST
7 9 (2.15%) .NET
7 9 (2.15%) Gherkin
8 5 (1.20%) JDBC
8 5 (1.20%) Kafka
8 5 (1.20%) SAP PI
8 5 (1.20%) YAML
9 4 (0.96%) .NET Framework
9 4 (0.96%) ADO
9 4 (0.96%) FastAPI
9 4 (0.96%) IDoc
9 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Graph
10 3 (0.72%) Flask
10 3 (0.72%) gRPC
10 3 (0.72%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 24 (5.74%) Cloud Native
2 21 (5.02%) Onboarding
3 16 (3.83%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (3.11%) Management Information System
5 12 (2.87%) Product Ownership
6 10 (2.39%) SCADA
7 9 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (1.91%) CMDB
8 8 (1.91%) Security Operations Centre
9 7 (1.67%) Data Centre
9 7 (1.67%) Smartphone
10 6 (1.44%) Data Structures
10 6 (1.44%) Operational Technology
10 6 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (1.20%) PKI
11 5 (1.20%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.20%) Virtual Team
12 4 (0.96%) IoT
12 4 (0.96%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 80 (19.14%) Windows
2 25 (5.98%) Linux
3 24 (5.74%) Windows 10
4 21 (5.02%) Windows Server
5 11 (2.63%) Mac OS
6 7 (1.67%) Android
6 7 (1.67%) Unix
7 5 (1.20%) SUSE
7 5 (1.20%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.96%) Apple iOS
9 3 (0.72%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.24%) CentOS
11 1 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (19.14%) Problem-Solving
2 76 (18.18%) Agile
3 72 (17.22%) DevOps
4 59 (14.11%) Migration
5 58 (13.88%) CI/CD
6 54 (12.92%) AI
6 54 (12.92%) Continuous Improvement
7 50 (11.96%) Analytics
7 50 (11.96%) Stakeholder Management
8 47 (11.24%) Business Intelligence
9 45 (10.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 40 (9.57%) Data Modelling
11 39 (9.33%) Validation
12 35 (8.37%) CRM
12 35 (8.37%) ETL
13 33 (7.89%) Technical Leadership
14 31 (7.42%) Customer Service
15 30 (7.18%) ITIL
16 29 (6.94%) Infrastructure as Code
16 29 (6.94%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 67 (16.03%) SQL
2 37 (8.85%) Python
3 19 (4.55%) C#
3 19 (4.55%) Java
3 19 (4.55%) JavaScript
4 15 (3.59%) PowerShell
5 13 (3.11%) VBA
6 12 (2.87%) Bicep
6 12 (2.87%) VB
7 11 (2.63%) VB6
8 8 (1.91%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (1.44%) T-SQL
10 5 (1.20%) ABAP
10 5 (1.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (1.20%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.72%) Bash
11 3 (0.72%) Go
11 3 (0.72%) MATLAB
12 2 (0.48%) Scala
12 2 (0.48%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 75 (17.94%) Security Cleared
2 62 (14.83%) SC Cleared
3 30 (7.18%) Microsoft Certification
4 29 (6.94%) Degree
5 15 (3.59%) ISTQB
6 14 (3.35%) BPSS Clearance
7 11 (2.63%) CISSP
8 10 (2.39%) OCP
8 10 (2.39%) Oracle Certification
9 9 (2.15%) AWS Certification
10 8 (1.91%) Azure Certification
10 8 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (1.44%) CISM
11 6 (1.44%) DV Cleared
12 5 (1.20%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 5 (1.20%) Master's Degree
13 4 (0.96%) ITIL Certification
13 4 (0.96%) PhD
14 3 (0.72%) CCNA
14 3 (0.72%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (6.94%) Data Quality
2 23 (5.50%) Accessibility
3 22 (5.26%) GDPR
3 22 (5.26%) QA
4 16 (3.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 13 (3.11%) SLA
6 12 (2.87%) NIST
7 11 (2.63%) PMO
8 10 (2.39%) WCAG
9 4 (0.96%) GRC
10 3 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 12207
10 3 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 15288
11 2 (0.48%) NCSC
11 2 (0.48%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.24%) FATCA
12 1 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.24%) NIST 800
12 1 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 59 (14.11%) Active Directory
2 20 (4.78%) Docker
2 20 (4.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (3.11%) Hyper-V
4 10 (2.39%) vSphere
5 8 (1.91%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.96%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.72%) Snort
8 2 (0.48%) Microsoft App-V
8 2 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.48%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.48%) XenApp
8 2 (0.48%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.24%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.24%) Firmware
9 1 (0.24%) NFS
Systems Management
1 35 (8.37%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (7.18%) Kubernetes
3 23 (5.50%) SCCM
4 22 (5.26%) Terraform
5 15 (3.59%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (1.91%) Grafana
7 7 (1.67%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.96%) Ansible
8 4 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.72%) CSIRT
9 3 (0.72%) QRadar
10 2 (0.48%) Check_MK
10 2 (0.48%) Failover Clustering
10 2 (0.48%) HP ALM
10 2 (0.48%) WMI
10 2 (0.48%) WSUS
11 1 (0.24%) Control-M
11 1 (0.24%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.24%) Nessus
11 1 (0.24%) SCOM
Vendors
1 36 (8.61%) ServiceNow
2 35 (8.37%) Oracle
3 30 (7.18%) SAP
4 27 (6.46%) Databricks
5 26 (6.22%) VMware
6 20 (4.78%) Cisco
7 11 (2.63%) Splunk
8 9 (2.15%) UiPath
9 8 (1.91%) Red Hat
10 7 (1.67%) Apple
10 7 (1.67%) Okta
11 6 (1.44%) Canon
11 6 (1.44%) Citrix
11 6 (1.44%) Informatica
12 5 (1.20%) F5
12 5 (1.20%) Fortinet
12 5 (1.20%) IBM
12 5 (1.20%) MathWorks
12 5 (1.20%) Siemens
12 5 (1.20%) webMethods