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 29 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
29 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 7 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 305 315 307
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 14.23% 16.94% 16.22%
As % of the Vendors category 26.45% 36.33% 30.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 235 216 231
10th Percentile £200 £190 £163
25th Percentile £305 £320 £259
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year +7.78% +5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £588 £567 £556
90th Percentile £653 £633 £688
England median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 10 18
10th Percentile £16.88 £12.11 £17.50
25th Percentile £25.53 £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 £38.75 £33.92 £23.00
90th Percentile £50.00 £35.00 £34.50
England median hourly rate £21.46 £23.70 £23.00
% change year-on-year -9.43% +3.02% +15.97%

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 1,153 867 995
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 53.78% 46.61% 52.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 746 556 642
10th Percentile £275 £213 £213
25th Percentile £400 £374 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +5.26% -4.04%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £719 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 17 21
10th Percentile £15.74 £12.18 £17.50
25th Percentile £18.50 £15.22 £17.75
Median hourly rate £27.21 £30.00 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.30% +30.43% +39.39%
75th Percentile £34.00 £35.00 £28.00
90th Percentile £50.00 £40.50 £42.25
England median hourly rate £24.31 £32.50 £44.75
% change year-on-year -25.20% -27.37% +69.73%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -1 114 £450 +8.17% 103
Warwickshire -10 53 £550 -3.68% 34
Shropshire -26 33 £500 +14.94% 19
Coventry +2 27 £310 -34.39% 37
Worcestershire +2 26 £575 +130.00% 30
Staffordshire +4 21 £203 -42.14% 38
Solihull 0 10 £575 +28.64% 9
Herefordshire -9 9 £650 +2.36% 11
Walsall +4 2 £160 - 10
Wolverhampton -1 2 £346 +1.39% 19
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 (6.23%) SharePoint
2 11 (3.61%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (2.95%) SAS
4 7 (2.30%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (1.97%) Confluence
6 4 (1.31%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.98%) Apache
8 2 (0.66%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.66%) 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 54 (17.70%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (13.77%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (6.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (4.92%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (1.31%) Adobe Captivate
5 4 (1.31%) Maya
6 3 (0.98%) 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 11 (3.61%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (2.30%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.31%) 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
1 112 (36.72%) Azure
2 50 (16.39%) Microsoft 365
3 48 (15.74%) AWS
4 45 (14.75%) Power Platform
5 35 (11.48%) Dynamics 365
6 27 (8.85%) Entra ID
7 25 (8.20%) Azure DevOps
8 19 (6.23%) Power Automate
8 19 (6.23%) Serverless
9 18 (5.90%) PowerApps
10 17 (5.57%) Azure Data Factory
11 16 (5.25%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 15 (4.92%) GCP
13 14 (4.59%) GitHub
13 14 (4.59%) GitHub Actions
13 14 (4.59%) SaaS
14 11 (3.61%) Azure Key Vault
14 11 (3.61%) Microsoft Purview
15 10 (3.28%) PaaS
16 8 (2.62%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 22 (7.21%) DNS
1 22 (7.21%) Firewall
2 19 (6.23%) DHCP
3 15 (4.92%) VPN
4 14 (4.59%) TCP/IP
5 7 (2.30%) Network Security
5 7 (2.30%) WAN
5 7 (2.30%) Wireless
6 6 (1.97%) LAN
7 5 (1.64%) Cisco IOS
7 5 (1.64%) PuTTY
7 5 (1.64%) VoIP
7 5 (1.64%) WLAN
8 4 (1.31%) Unified Communications
9 3 (0.98%) Internet
9 3 (0.98%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (0.66%) VLAN
10 2 (0.66%) VSAN
10 2 (0.66%) Wireshark
11 1 (0.33%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.85%) Power BI
2 12 (3.93%) Data Warehouse
3 11 (3.61%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (2.62%) Redis
4 8 (2.62%) SQL Server
5 7 (2.30%) Data Mining
6 6 (1.97%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 6 (1.97%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 5 (1.64%) Oracle Database
8 4 (1.31%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.31%) Metadata
8 4 (1.31%) SAS Data Integration Studio
9 3 (0.98%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.98%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.98%) Pentaho
10 2 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.66%) Apache Hive
10 2 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 2 (0.66%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 16 (5.25%) Git
1 16 (5.25%) JIRA
2 14 (4.59%) GitLab
3 10 (3.28%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.31%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.98%) InstallShield
5 3 (0.98%) MSI
6 2 (0.66%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.66%) Liquibase
6 2 (0.66%) MLflow
6 2 (0.66%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.33%) AdminStudio
7 1 (0.33%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.33%) Jaeger
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
1 119 (39.02%) Social Skills
2 47 (15.41%) Analytical Skills
3 41 (13.44%) Finance
4 22 (7.21%) Public Sector
5 16 (5.25%) Organisational Skills
6 14 (4.59%) Legal
7 13 (4.26%) Manufacturing
8 11 (3.61%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.95%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (2.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (2.30%) Banking
12 6 (1.97%) Automotive
13 4 (1.31%) Games
13 4 (1.31%) Law
14 3 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.98%) Marketing
15 2 (0.66%) Aeronautics
16 1 (0.33%) Advertising
16 1 (0.33%) Billing
16 1 (0.33%) Environmental Health
Job Titles
1 48 (15.74%) Analyst
2 27 (8.85%) Architect
3 25 (8.20%) Developer
4 19 (6.23%) Administrator
4 19 (6.23%) Senior
5 16 (5.25%) Support Engineer
6 14 (4.59%) Support Analyst
7 13 (4.26%) IT Support
7 13 (4.26%) Lead
8 12 (3.93%) Project Manager
9 10 (3.28%) 2nd Line Support
9 10 (3.28%) IT Analyst
10 9 (2.95%) Consultant
10 9 (2.95%) Python Developer
11 8 (2.62%) Backend Developer
11 8 (2.62%) Data Engineer
11 8 (2.62%) Engagement Manager
11 8 (2.62%) Enterprise Architect
11 8 (2.62%) IT Support Analyst
12 7 (2.30%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (5.25%) REST
2 13 (4.26%) .NET
3 12 (3.93%) Flask
4 11 (3.61%) FastAPI
5 8 (2.62%) GraphQL
5 8 (2.62%) HTML
5 8 (2.62%) WebSockets
6 7 (2.30%) gRPC
7 5 (1.64%) CSS
7 5 (1.64%) Django
8 4 (1.31%) LDAP
8 4 (1.31%) Middleware
8 4 (1.31%) NumPy
8 4 (1.31%) Pandas
8 4 (1.31%) Unreal Engine
8 4 (1.31%) V-Ray
9 3 (0.98%) .NET Framework
9 3 (0.98%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.98%) RESTful
9 3 (0.98%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 21 (6.89%) Onboarding
2 14 (4.59%) Cloud Native
3 13 (4.26%) Security Posture
4 12 (3.93%) Driving Licence
5 11 (3.61%) Self-Motivation
6 9 (2.95%) Data Centre
7 7 (2.30%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.30%) SCADA
8 6 (1.97%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.64%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 5 (1.64%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (1.64%) Virtual Team
10 4 (1.31%) Animation
10 4 (1.31%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.31%) Legacy Applications
10 4 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
10 4 (1.31%) Virtual Reality
11 3 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.98%) PKI
11 3 (0.98%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 64 (20.98%) Windows
2 19 (6.23%) Windows Server
3 18 (5.90%) Windows 10
4 16 (5.25%) Linux
5 5 (1.64%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.66%) 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 (20.00%) DevOps
2 53 (17.38%) Migration
3 52 (17.05%) Agile
4 49 (16.07%) CI/CD
5 48 (15.74%) Problem-Solving
6 44 (14.43%) ITIL
7 41 (13.44%) Analytics
8 37 (12.13%) Change Management
9 36 (11.80%) Continuous Improvement
10 30 (9.84%) Business Intelligence
11 27 (8.85%) Cybersecurity
11 27 (8.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 27 (8.85%) Stakeholder Management
12 26 (8.52%) Containerisation
12 26 (8.52%) Customer Service
12 26 (8.52%) Project Management
13 24 (7.87%) Data Management
14 22 (7.21%) Service Management
15 20 (6.56%) Cloud Security
15 20 (6.56%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 45 (14.75%) SQL
2 31 (10.16%) Python
3 27 (8.85%) PowerShell
4 13 (4.26%) Go
5 12 (3.93%) JavaScript
6 10 (3.28%) Java
7 8 (2.62%) C#
8 6 (1.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.97%) Kusto Query Language
9 5 (1.64%) C++
10 4 (1.31%) Scala
10 4 (1.31%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.98%) Bash
11 3 (0.98%) R
11 3 (0.98%) VB
11 3 (0.98%) VBScript
12 1 (0.33%) Groovy
12 1 (0.33%) Perl
12 1 (0.33%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.33%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 66 (21.64%) Security Cleared
2 59 (19.34%) SC Cleared
3 32 (10.49%) Degree
4 31 (10.16%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (4.59%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (4.26%) AWS Certification
6 13 (4.26%) Azure Certification
7 11 (3.61%) DV Cleared
8 10 (3.28%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (1.97%) MCP
10 5 (1.64%) CCNA
10 5 (1.64%) CCNP
10 5 (1.64%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.64%) MCDST
11 4 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (1.31%) MCSE
12 3 (0.98%) CISSP
12 3 (0.98%) HNC
12 3 (0.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 2 (0.66%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (4.26%) QA
2 8 (2.62%) Accessibility
2 8 (2.62%) PMO
3 7 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (1.64%) Data Quality
4 5 (1.64%) GDPR
4 5 (1.64%) SLA
5 4 (1.31%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (1.31%) NIST
6 3 (0.98%) NCSC
7 2 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.66%) 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 (16.72%) Active Directory
2 31 (10.16%) Docker
3 8 (2.62%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.31%) Firmware
4 4 (1.31%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.31%) vSphere
5 2 (0.66%) Microsoft App-V
5 2 (0.66%) 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 (10.49%) Kubernetes
2 25 (8.20%) SCCM
3 14 (4.59%) Terraform
4 12 (3.93%) Grafana
4 12 (3.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 12 (3.93%) Prometheus
5 11 (3.61%) Ansible
6 4 (1.31%) QRadar
7 3 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.66%) CSIRT
8 2 (0.66%) SCOM
8 2 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.66%) 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 (8.20%) ServiceNow
2 20 (6.56%) Oracle
3 18 (5.90%) Cisco
4 13 (4.26%) Splunk
5 12 (3.93%) SAP
6 10 (3.28%) VMware
7 9 (2.95%) Adobe
8 7 (2.30%) AppDynamics
8 7 (2.30%) IBM
9 6 (1.97%) CyberArk
9 6 (1.97%) iManage
10 5 (1.64%) Atlassian
10 5 (1.64%) Databricks
10 5 (1.64%) Dynatrace
10 5 (1.64%) Mitel
10 5 (1.64%) Peregrine
10 5 (1.64%) Remedy
11 4 (1.31%) Autodesk
11 4 (1.31%) Virgin Media
11 4 (1.31%) Workday