Windows Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Microsoft Windows
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Windows skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 14 11
Rank change year-on-year -21 -3 -2
Contract jobs citing Windows 203 198 198
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 5.63% 10.71% 10.50%
As % of the Operating Systems category 63.24% 72.26% 66.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 139 153 116
10th Percentile £163 £150 £154
25th Percentile £250 £200 £198
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £402 £400 £339
Median % change year-on-year +0.50% +18.08% -3.90%
75th Percentile £538 £537 £550
90th Percentile £583 £588 £675
England median daily rate £420 £400 £425
% change year-on-year +5.00% -5.88% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 6 8
10th Percentile £16.60 £16.13 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.14 £17.88
Median hourly rate £32.50 £20.11 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +61.59% -6.84% -13.64%
75th Percentile £67.84 £24.63 £23.86
90th Percentile £70.59 £30.00 £39.43
England median hourly rate £25.77 £22.00 £24.18
% change year-on-year +17.14% -9.02% -3.28%

All Operating Systems
West Midlands

Windows falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring operating system skills in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 321 274 300
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 8.90% 14.83% 15.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 199 184
10th Percentile £210 £160 £186
25th Percentile £313 £220 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £450 £438
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% +2.86% +16.67%
75th Percentile £538 £545 £577
90th Percentile £588 £625 £684
England median daily rate £469 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +4.22% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 6 8
10th Percentile £16.70 £16.13 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.75 £17.14 £17.88
Median hourly rate £32.50 £20.11 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +61.59% -6.84% -16.96%
75th Percentile £67.84 £24.63 £23.86
90th Percentile £70.59 £30.00 £39.43
England median hourly rate £35.22 £25.15 £59.25
% change year-on-year +40.04% -57.55% +24.73%

Windows
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Windows relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Windows job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Windows
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Windows.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Windows

Windows
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Windows in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 1 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Windows in the West Midlands

Windows
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Windows.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Windows

Windows
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Windows in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 1 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Windows in the West Midlands

Windows
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 Windows within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 1 October 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
Warwickshire -3 61 £525 +16.67% 21
Birmingham -10 55 £263 -4.55% 61
Shropshire -53 19 £402 -21.94% 16
Staffordshire -7 17 £210 +1.20% 17
Herefordshire +10 11 - - 8
Worcestershire +1 11 £575 - 17
Coventry -26 11 £225 -9.82% 7
Solihull -15 6 £183 -38.66% 9
West Bromwich -1 1 £275 +61.76% 1
Wolverhampton -6 1 £250 -9.09% 2
Windows
England

Windows
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 20 (9.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (4.93%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.97%) Apache
4 3 (1.48%) IIS
4 3 (1.48%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.99%) CloudStack
5 2 (0.99%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.49%) Confluence
6 1 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.49%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (12.81%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (7.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.48%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (1.48%) ResourceLink
2 2 (0.99%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 85 (41.87%) Microsoft 365
2 77 (37.93%) Azure
3 56 (27.59%) Entra ID
4 24 (11.82%) AWS
5 23 (11.33%) OneDrive
6 6 (2.96%) GCP
6 6 (2.96%) GitHub
7 5 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (1.97%) Amazon EC2
8 4 (1.97%) Amazon S3
8 4 (1.97%) AWS CloudFormation
8 4 (1.97%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.97%) Power Platform
8 4 (1.97%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (1.48%) Power Automate
9 3 (1.48%) SaaS
9 3 (1.48%) Tricentis Tosca
10 2 (0.99%) Amazon SQS
10 2 (0.99%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (0.99%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 34 (16.75%) DNS
2 32 (15.76%) DHCP
3 23 (11.33%) VPN
4 22 (10.84%) Firewall
5 15 (7.39%) TCP/IP
6 14 (6.90%) Wi-Fi
7 11 (5.42%) LAN
8 7 (3.45%) Cisco IOS
8 7 (3.45%) SNMP
9 6 (2.96%) Network Security
9 6 (2.96%) Wireless
10 5 (2.46%) Internet
10 5 (2.46%) NetScaler
10 5 (2.46%) SAN
10 5 (2.46%) SSL
10 5 (2.46%) WAN
11 4 (1.97%) BGP
11 4 (1.97%) NX-OS
11 4 (1.97%) SD-WAN
11 4 (1.97%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.93%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.46%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (1.97%) Oracle Reports
4 3 (1.48%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 3 (1.48%) Power Query
5 2 (0.99%) Power BI
6 1 (0.49%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.49%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (7.39%) JIRA
2 5 (2.46%) GitLab
3 4 (1.97%) Git
4 3 (1.48%) Browser DevTools
4 3 (1.48%) Toad
5 2 (0.99%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.49%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.49%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.49%) Robot Framework
General
1 76 (37.44%) Social Skills
2 26 (12.81%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (11.82%) Finance
4 11 (5.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 10 (4.93%) Influencing Skills
6 7 (3.45%) Presentation Skills
7 6 (2.96%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.46%) Banking
8 5 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.46%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.97%) Legal
9 4 (1.97%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.97%) Public Sector
10 2 (0.99%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.49%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.49%) Billing
11 1 (0.49%) Law
11 1 (0.49%) Retail
Job Titles
1 32 (15.76%) Analyst
2 30 (14.78%) Support Engineer
3 29 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 24 (11.82%) IT Support
5 15 (7.39%) IT Engineer
5 15 (7.39%) IT Support Engineer
5 15 (7.39%) Senior
6 11 (5.42%) Azure Engineer
6 11 (5.42%) Business Analyst
6 11 (5.42%) Desktop Engineer
7 10 (4.93%) Help Desk Support
8 9 (4.43%) Administrator
8 9 (4.43%) Desktop Support
9 8 (3.94%) Architect
9 8 (3.94%) Desktop Support Engineer
9 8 (3.94%) Lead
9 8 (3.94%) Project Manager
9 8 (3.94%) Support Technician
9 8 (3.94%) Windows Engineer
10 7 (3.45%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (7.88%) Terraform
2 12 (5.91%) REST
3 5 (2.46%) XML
3 5 (2.46%) YAML
4 4 (1.97%) JSON
4 4 (1.97%) SOAP
5 3 (1.48%) Microsoft Graph
5 3 (1.48%) Oracle Fusion
5 3 (1.48%) SAML
6 2 (0.99%) Apache NiFi
6 2 (0.99%) Elastic Stack
6 2 (0.99%) FIDO
7 1 (0.49%) .NET
7 1 (0.49%) .NET Framework
7 1 (0.49%) ISPF
7 1 (0.49%) Middleware
7 1 (0.49%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 28 (13.79%) Onboarding
2 11 (5.42%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (4.43%) Data Centre
3 9 (4.43%) Smartphone
4 7 (3.45%) Enterprise Software
5 6 (2.96%) Data Structures
5 6 (2.96%) Mobile App
5 6 (2.96%) PKI
6 5 (2.46%) Enterprise Storage
6 5 (2.46%) iPhone
6 5 (2.46%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.97%) Cyber Threat
7 4 (1.97%) Driving Licence
7 4 (1.97%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.97%) Video Conferencing
8 3 (1.48%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.48%) Reference Data
8 3 (1.48%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 48 (23.65%) Windows Server
2 42 (20.69%) Linux
3 36 (17.73%) Windows 10
4 19 (9.36%) Mac OS
5 11 (5.42%) Android
6 7 (3.45%) Ubuntu
7 6 (2.96%) AIX
7 6 (2.96%) Apple iOS
8 5 (2.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (1.97%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (1.48%) CentOS
10 3 (1.48%) Windows 7
10 3 (1.48%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.99%) Solaris
11 2 (0.99%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.99%) Unix
11 2 (0.99%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.49%) HPUX
12 1 (0.49%) VMS
12 1 (0.49%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (25.12%) Problem-Solving
2 42 (20.69%) Customer Service
3 41 (20.20%) ITSM
4 40 (19.70%) ITIL
5 33 (16.26%) Migration
6 30 (14.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 27 (13.30%) Infrastructure as Code
8 22 (10.84%) Service Management
9 20 (9.85%) Validation
10 18 (8.87%) Root Cause Analysis
11 16 (7.88%) Data Analysis
12 15 (7.39%) Data Modelling
12 15 (7.39%) Problem Management
13 14 (6.90%) Patch Management
14 13 (6.40%) DevOps
15 12 (5.91%) CI/CD
15 12 (5.91%) Continuous Improvement
16 11 (5.42%) Asset Management
16 11 (5.42%) Disaster Recovery
16 11 (5.42%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 20 (9.85%) PowerShell
1 20 (9.85%) SQL
2 15 (7.39%) Python
3 4 (1.97%) Bash
4 3 (1.48%) Java
4 3 (1.48%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.49%) Bicep
5 1 (0.49%) C#
5 1 (0.49%) JCL
5 1 (0.49%) REXX
5 1 (0.49%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (17.73%) Security Cleared
2 23 (11.33%) SC Cleared
3 13 (6.40%) DV Cleared
4 11 (5.42%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (4.93%) Azure Certification
5 10 (4.93%) Degree
6 6 (2.96%) A+ Certification
6 6 (2.96%) DBS Check
7 5 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (2.46%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (2.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 4 (1.97%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.97%) ISEB
8 4 (1.97%) ISTQB
8 4 (1.97%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 4 (1.97%) Network+ Certification
9 3 (1.48%) CCNA
9 3 (1.48%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (1.48%) MCSE
9 3 (1.48%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (8.87%) SLA
2 12 (5.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (3.94%) NIST
4 5 (2.46%) QA
5 4 (1.97%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (1.48%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.49%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 1 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.49%) GMP
7 1 (0.49%) GxP
7 1 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 1 (0.49%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.49%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 85 (41.87%) Active Directory
2 36 (17.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (8.37%) Hyper-V
3 17 (8.37%) vSphere
4 15 (7.39%) VMware ESXi
5 7 (3.45%) Docker
6 4 (1.97%) Firmware
6 4 (1.97%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (1.97%) VMware NSX
7 3 (1.48%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (1.48%) XenApp
7 3 (1.48%) XenDesktop
8 1 (0.49%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.49%) Job Entry Subsystem
8 1 (0.49%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 51 (25.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 37 (18.23%) SCCM
3 10 (4.93%) Ansible
4 8 (3.94%) Kubernetes
5 7 (3.45%) Jamf Pro
5 7 (3.45%) WMI
6 4 (1.97%) QRadar
6 4 (1.97%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.48%) Podman
8 2 (0.99%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.99%) Check_MK
8 2 (0.99%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.99%) Grafana
8 2 (0.99%) NetBackup
8 2 (0.99%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.99%) WSUS
9 1 (0.49%) Control-M
9 1 (0.49%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.49%) VxRail
Vendors
1 113 (55.67%) Microsoft
2 46 (22.66%) VMware
3 37 (18.23%) ServiceNow
4 34 (16.75%) Cisco
5 20 (9.85%) Splunk
6 12 (5.91%) SolarWinds
7 11 (5.42%) Fortinet
7 11 (5.42%) Palo Alto
8 9 (4.43%) Apple
8 9 (4.43%) Oracle
9 8 (3.94%) Citrix
9 8 (3.94%) F5
10 7 (3.45%) Qualys
11 6 (2.96%) Canon
11 6 (2.96%) NetApp
11 6 (2.96%) Samsung
12 5 (2.46%) Red Hat
13 4 (1.97%) SAP
14 3 (1.48%) Atlassian
14 3 (1.48%) Dell