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 11 March 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
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 2 6
Rank change year-on-year -9 +4 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 347 239 259
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 12.35% 17.98% 13.36%
As % of the Vendors category 25.48% 35.36% 29.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 184 181
10th Percentile £213 £190 £190
25th Percentile £325 £263 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £434 £438
Median % change year-on-year +9.42% -0.77% -2.78%
75th Percentile £575 £567 £575
90th Percentile £683 £634 £688
England median daily rate £492 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +3.58% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 13 28
10th Percentile £15.05 £12.19 £10.80
25th Percentile £15.71 £12.25 £11.30
Median hourly rate £22.00 £29.00 £16.83
Median % change year-on-year -24.14% +72.36% +6.96%
75th Percentile £25.00 £35.00 £23.88
90th Percentile £27.00 - £35.78
England median hourly rate £19.91 £24.18 £16.06
% change year-on-year -17.66% +50.56% -23.52%

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 1,362 676 871
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 48.49% 50.87% 44.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 889 449 550
10th Percentile £292 £200 £225
25th Percentile £400 £375 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £569 £600 £600
90th Percentile £645 £700 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £517
% change year-on-year -3.81% +1.55% -4.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 25 57
10th Percentile £16.06 £12.25 £11.10
25th Percentile £20.06 £18.13 £13.25
Median hourly rate £25.08 £20.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.38% +8.11% +4.40%
75th Percentile £30.56 £30.68 £26.98
90th Percentile £65.72 £35.00 £47.50
England median hourly rate £25.00 £30.78 £25.00
% change year-on-year -18.78% +23.12% -28.57%

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 11 March 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 11 March 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 11 March 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 -1 126 £473 -0.53% 70
Warwickshire -7 61 £525 +2.34% 16
Shropshire -31 37 £450 +3.45% 24
Coventry -8 33 £413 +91.86% 13
Worcestershire +1 27 £700 -22.22% 16
Staffordshire -1 17 £220 -45.00% 27
Herefordshire -8 12 £700 -22.22% 9
Solihull -2 8 £425 +143.55% 5
Dudley - 4 £400 - 8
Smethwick - 3 - -
Wolverhampton -2 2 £267 +54.09% 7
Brierley Hill - 2 £446 - 3
Walsall - 1 £160 - 3
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 22 (6.34%) SharePoint
2 10 (2.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.31%) Confluence
4 2 (0.58%) Jupyter
4 2 (0.58%) SAS
5 1 (0.29%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 42 (12.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (11.24%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (5.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (3.75%) Microsoft Project
5 11 (3.17%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.29%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (4.61%) Dynamics CRM
2 11 (3.17%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (1.15%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.86%) Maximo
5 2 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.29%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.29%) MIS ActiveH
6 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.29%) Primavera
6 1 (0.29%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.29%) SAP EHS
6 1 (0.29%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 124 (35.73%) Azure
2 67 (19.31%) Power Platform
3 56 (16.14%) Microsoft 365
4 49 (14.12%) AWS
5 40 (11.53%) Dynamics 365
6 38 (10.95%) Entra ID
7 26 (7.49%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (6.63%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 20 (5.76%) Azure Data Factory
9 20 (5.76%) Power Automate
10 18 (5.19%) Serverless
11 16 (4.61%) GitHub
11 16 (4.61%) Microsoft Purview
12 15 (4.32%) GitHub Actions
13 14 (4.03%) GCP
13 14 (4.03%) PowerApps
14 13 (3.75%) Azure Key Vault
15 8 (2.31%) Azure Logic Apps
15 8 (2.31%) Azure Sentinel
15 8 (2.31%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 27 (7.78%) VPN
2 20 (5.76%) DNS
3 19 (5.48%) Firewall
4 14 (4.03%) Network Security
5 10 (2.88%) DHCP
5 10 (2.88%) LAN
5 10 (2.88%) SSL
5 10 (2.88%) TCP/IP
6 8 (2.31%) HTTP
6 8 (2.31%) WAN
7 7 (2.02%) HTTPS
7 7 (2.02%) Wireless
8 6 (1.73%) BIG-IP
8 6 (1.73%) Cisco ASA
8 6 (1.73%) Cisco Nexus
8 6 (1.73%) Ethereal
8 6 (1.73%) IPsec
8 6 (1.73%) Wireshark
9 5 (1.44%) Intrusion Detection
9 5 (1.44%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (11.24%) Power BI
2 26 (7.49%) Data Warehouse
3 21 (6.05%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (4.32%) SQL Server
5 9 (2.59%) Redis
6 7 (2.02%) Relational Database
6 7 (2.02%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 6 (1.73%) Data Lake
7 6 (1.73%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.73%) NoSQL
7 6 (1.73%) Oracle Database
8 5 (1.44%) Delta Lake
8 5 (1.44%) MySQL
9 4 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (1.15%) Metadata
9 4 (1.15%) Power Query
10 2 (0.58%) Data Mining
10 2 (0.58%) GIS
10 2 (0.58%) InfluxDB
10 2 (0.58%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 24 (6.92%) JIRA
2 12 (3.46%) Git
3 8 (2.31%) GitLab
4 6 (1.73%) Jenkins
5 5 (1.44%) MSI
6 3 (0.86%) InstallShield
6 3 (0.86%) MLflow
7 2 (0.58%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.58%) JMeter
7 2 (0.58%) Selenium
8 1 (0.29%) AdminStudio
8 1 (0.29%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.29%) WebDriver
General
1 121 (34.87%) Social Skills
2 52 (14.99%) Finance
3 45 (12.97%) Analytical Skills
4 23 (6.63%) Public Sector
5 16 (4.61%) Organisational Skills
6 11 (3.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (2.59%) Legal
7 9 (2.59%) Manufacturing
8 7 (2.02%) Games
9 6 (1.73%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (1.73%) Police
10 5 (1.44%) Banking
10 5 (1.44%) Law
11 4 (1.15%) Local Government
11 4 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.86%) Marketing
13 2 (0.58%) Automotive
13 2 (0.58%) Electronics
13 2 (0.58%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 39 (11.24%) Analyst
1 39 (11.24%) Architect
1 39 (11.24%) Developer
2 23 (6.63%) Senior
3 18 (5.19%) Administrator
4 14 (4.03%) Support Engineer
5 13 (3.75%) Consultant
5 13 (3.75%) Lead
5 13 (3.75%) Python Developer
5 13 (3.75%) Solutions Architect
6 12 (3.46%) Data Engineer
6 12 (3.46%) IT Support
6 12 (3.46%) Project Manager
7 10 (2.88%) Business Analyst
7 10 (2.88%) Data Architect
7 10 (2.88%) Engagement Manager
7 10 (2.88%) Network Engineer
7 10 (2.88%) SAP Manager
8 9 (2.59%) Backend Developer
9 8 (2.31%) SAP Engagement Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (4.61%) REST
2 15 (4.32%) FastAPI
3 12 (3.46%) Flask
4 11 (3.17%) SailPoint
5 10 (2.88%) PySpark
6 9 (2.59%) GraphQL
6 9 (2.59%) gRPC
6 9 (2.59%) WebSockets
7 8 (2.31%) LDAP
7 8 (2.31%) SAML
8 6 (1.73%) .NET
9 5 (1.44%) Middleware
10 4 (1.15%) ADO
10 4 (1.15%) NumPy
10 4 (1.15%) Pandas
11 3 (0.86%) OAuth
11 3 (0.86%) OpenTelemetry
12 2 (0.58%) .NET Framework
12 2 (0.58%) Kafka
12 2 (0.58%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 31 (8.93%) Onboarding
2 19 (5.48%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.17%) Security Posture
4 10 (2.88%) Self-Motivation
5 9 (2.59%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (2.31%) Driving Licence
6 8 (2.31%) Product Ownership
6 8 (2.31%) Security Operations Centre
7 7 (2.02%) Operational Technology
8 6 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.15%) CSOC
9 4 (1.15%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.15%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.86%) e-Learning
10 3 (0.86%) Handset
10 3 (0.86%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (0.86%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.86%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (0.86%) SCADA
10 3 (0.86%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 62 (17.87%) Windows
2 21 (6.05%) Windows Server
3 18 (5.19%) Windows 10
4 16 (4.61%) Linux
5 5 (1.44%) Mac OS
6 4 (1.15%) Unix
7 3 (0.86%) CatOS
8 2 (0.58%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.29%) Android
9 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (22.77%) Agile
2 64 (18.44%) CI/CD
2 64 (18.44%) Problem-Solving
3 55 (15.85%) DevOps
4 49 (14.12%) Migration
5 48 (13.83%) Analytics
6 47 (13.54%) Continuous Improvement
7 41 (11.82%) Business Intelligence
8 38 (10.95%) AI
9 37 (10.66%) Cybersecurity
10 35 (10.09%) ITIL
10 35 (10.09%) Stakeholder Management
11 30 (8.65%) Containerisation
12 29 (8.36%) Change Management
12 29 (8.36%) Customer Service
13 28 (8.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 26 (7.49%) Data Modelling
14 26 (7.49%) Decision-Making
14 26 (7.49%) Project Management
15 25 (7.20%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 53 (15.27%) SQL
2 40 (11.53%) Python
3 23 (6.63%) PowerShell
4 13 (3.75%) Go
5 8 (2.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 8 (2.31%) Kusto Query Language
6 7 (2.02%) Bicep
6 7 (2.02%) C#
6 7 (2.02%) Java
7 6 (1.73%) JavaScript
8 5 (1.44%) PL/SQL
8 5 (1.44%) VBScript
9 4 (1.15%) R
9 4 (1.15%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.15%) VB
10 2 (0.58%) Bash
10 2 (0.58%) MATLAB
10 2 (0.58%) Scala
10 2 (0.58%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.58%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 70 (20.17%) Security Cleared
2 55 (15.85%) SC Cleared
3 34 (9.80%) Degree
4 30 (8.65%) Microsoft Certification
5 16 (4.61%) DV Cleared
6 14 (4.03%) AWS Certification
7 12 (3.46%) Azure Certification
8 10 (2.88%) CISSP
9 8 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (2.02%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 7 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (2.02%) CISM
11 6 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (1.44%) CCNA
12 5 (1.44%) ISTQB
12 5 (1.44%) Master's Degree
13 4 (1.15%) DBS Check
13 4 (1.15%) OCP
13 4 (1.15%) Oracle Certification
14 3 (0.86%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.76%) QA
2 13 (3.75%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.46%) GDPR
4 9 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (1.73%) SLA
6 5 (1.44%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.44%) PMO
7 3 (0.86%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.86%) NIST
7 3 (0.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.58%) GxP
8 2 (0.58%) ISO 9001
8 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 12207
8 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 2 (0.58%) NCSC
9 1 (0.29%) GRC
9 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 58 (16.71%) Active Directory
2 31 (8.93%) Docker
3 14 (4.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.73%) VMware NSX
5 4 (1.15%) Microsoft App-V
5 4 (1.15%) Snort
5 4 (1.15%) vSphere
6 2 (0.58%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.29%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (11.53%) Kubernetes
2 23 (6.63%) Terraform
3 16 (4.61%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (4.32%) Prometheus
4 15 (4.32%) SCCM
5 14 (4.03%) Grafana
6 10 (2.88%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (2.31%) Ansible
8 4 (1.15%) CSIRT
9 3 (0.86%) Control-M
9 3 (0.86%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.86%) IBM Guardium
9 3 (0.86%) Nessus
9 3 (0.86%) vRealize
10 2 (0.58%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.58%) HP Quality Center
10 2 (0.58%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.58%) Puppet
11 1 (0.29%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 32 (9.22%) ServiceNow
2 25 (7.20%) SAP
3 20 (5.76%) Oracle
4 19 (5.48%) Databricks
5 17 (4.90%) Cisco
6 15 (4.32%) VMware
7 9 (2.59%) Splunk
8 7 (2.02%) CheckPoint
8 7 (2.02%) SolarWinds
9 6 (1.73%) F5
9 6 (1.73%) Informatica
9 6 (1.73%) Palo Alto
9 6 (1.73%) Tenable
9 6 (1.73%) Workday
10 5 (1.44%) Virgin Media
11 4 (1.15%) Okta
12 3 (0.86%) AppDynamics
12 3 (0.86%) Apple
12 3 (0.86%) CyberArk
12 3 (0.86%) Google