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 15 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
15 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 17 10
Rank change year-on-year -21 -7 -1
Contract jobs citing Windows 206 197 200
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 5.75% 10.41% 10.68%
As % of the Operating Systems category 66.24% 68.17% 68.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 142 151 118
10th Percentile £165 £150 £155
25th Percentile £250 £200 £193
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £407 £400 £339
Median % change year-on-year +1.81% +18.08% -3.21%
75th Percentile £538 £536 £555
90th Percentile £582 £588 £664
England median daily rate £423 £400 £423
% change year-on-year +5.81% -5.38% -0.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 8 8
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.53 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.14 £17.88
Median hourly rate £22.50 £18.23 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +23.46% -15.59% -13.64%
75th Percentile £59.32 £23.88 £23.86
90th Percentile £70.33 £28.00 £39.43
England median hourly rate £25.77 £21.29 £24.35
% change year-on-year +21.04% -12.57% -2.60%

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 311 289 293
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 8.68% 15.27% 15.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 225 211 181
10th Percentile £210 £163 £185
25th Percentile £333 £223 £255
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £475 £447
Median % change year-on-year -3.37% +6.26% +19.20%
75th Percentile £538 £539 £582
90th Percentile £588 £618 £688
England median daily rate £465 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +3.33% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 9 8
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.74 £14.63
25th Percentile £17.38 £17.14 £17.88
Median hourly rate £22.50 £18.23 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +23.46% -15.59% -16.96%
75th Percentile £59.42 £25.00 £23.86
90th Percentile £70.30 £42.00 £39.43
England median hourly rate £32.50 £24.00 £61.43
% change year-on-year +35.42% -60.93% +26.92%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 59 £525 +10.53% 2
Birmingham -5 54 £263 -12.50% 19
Shropshire -54 22 £401 -19.80% 8
Staffordshire -7 20 £220 +7.32% 5
Coventry -19 13 £250 +7.99%
Worcestershire +2 11 £575 - 4
Herefordshire +14 10 - - 1
Solihull -16 6 £183 -17.05% 5
West Bromwich 0 1 £275 +61.76% 1
Wolverhampton -6 1 £250 -9.09%
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 22 (10.68%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (4.37%) SharePoint
3 6 (2.91%) WebLogic
4 4 (1.94%) Apache
5 3 (1.46%) IIS
6 2 (0.97%) CloudStack
6 2 (0.97%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.49%) Confluence
7 1 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 27 (13.11%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (7.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.46%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (1.46%) ResourceLink
2 2 (0.97%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.49%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 83 (40.29%) Microsoft 365
2 73 (35.44%) Azure
3 52 (25.24%) Entra ID
4 26 (12.62%) AWS
5 23 (11.17%) OneDrive
6 7 (3.40%) Tricentis Tosca
7 6 (2.91%) GCP
8 5 (2.43%) GitHub
9 4 (1.94%) Amazon EC2
9 4 (1.94%) Amazon S3
9 4 (1.94%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (1.94%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 3 (1.46%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.46%) Power Automate
10 3 (1.46%) SaaS
11 2 (0.97%) Azure Logic Apps
11 2 (0.97%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (0.97%) IaaS
11 2 (0.97%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 30 (14.56%) DNS
2 27 (13.11%) DHCP
3 22 (10.68%) Firewall
4 21 (10.19%) VPN
5 14 (6.80%) Wi-Fi
6 13 (6.31%) TCP/IP
7 10 (4.85%) LAN
8 7 (3.40%) Cisco IOS
8 7 (3.40%) SNMP
9 6 (2.91%) SAN
9 6 (2.91%) Wireless
10 5 (2.43%) Internet
10 5 (2.43%) Network Security
11 4 (1.94%) BGP
11 4 (1.94%) NetScaler
11 4 (1.94%) NX-OS
11 4 (1.94%) Unified Communications
12 3 (1.46%) NAS
12 3 (1.46%) Structured Cabling
12 3 (1.46%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.85%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.43%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (1.94%) Oracle Reports
4 3 (1.46%) Oracle BI Publisher
4 3 (1.46%) Power Query
5 2 (0.97%) Power BI
6 1 (0.49%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.49%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 17 (8.25%) JIRA
2 7 (3.40%) Toad
3 5 (2.43%) GitLab
4 4 (1.94%) Git
5 2 (0.97%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.49%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.49%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.49%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.49%) Robot Framework
General
1 78 (37.86%) Social Skills
2 27 (13.11%) Finance
3 22 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (4.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 10 (4.85%) Influencing Skills
5 7 (3.40%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (3.40%) Public Sector
6 6 (2.91%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (2.91%) Manufacturing
6 6 (2.91%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.43%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.94%) Banking
8 4 (1.94%) Legal
9 2 (0.97%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.49%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.49%) Billing
10 1 (0.49%) Electronics
10 1 (0.49%) Law
10 1 (0.49%) Retail
Job Titles
1 32 (15.53%) Analyst
2 31 (15.05%) Support Engineer
3 28 (13.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 23 (11.17%) IT Support
5 17 (8.25%) Senior
6 15 (7.28%) IT Engineer
6 15 (7.28%) IT Support Engineer
7 12 (5.83%) Desktop Engineer
8 11 (5.34%) Azure Engineer
8 11 (5.34%) Business Analyst
8 11 (5.34%) Help Desk Support
9 10 (4.85%) Desktop Support
10 9 (4.37%) Administrator
10 9 (4.37%) Architect
10 9 (4.37%) Desktop Support Engineer
10 9 (4.37%) Lead
11 8 (3.88%) Project Manager
11 8 (3.88%) SAP Test Analyst
11 8 (3.88%) Support Technician
11 8 (3.88%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (7.28%) Terraform
2 11 (5.34%) REST
3 9 (4.37%) XML
4 5 (2.43%) YAML
5 4 (1.94%) JSON
5 4 (1.94%) SOAP
6 3 (1.46%) Microsoft Graph
6 3 (1.46%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.97%) Apache NiFi
7 2 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.97%) FIDO
8 1 (0.49%) .NET
8 1 (0.49%) .NET Framework
8 1 (0.49%) Middleware
8 1 (0.49%) SailPoint
8 1 (0.49%) SAML
8 1 (0.49%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 29 (14.08%) Onboarding
2 11 (5.34%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (4.85%) Smartphone
4 9 (4.37%) Data Centre
5 7 (3.40%) Mobile App
6 6 (2.91%) Data Structures
6 6 (2.91%) iPhone
6 6 (2.91%) Management Information System
6 6 (2.91%) PKI
7 5 (2.43%) Driving Licence
7 5 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (2.43%) Enterprise Storage
8 4 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.94%) Video Conferencing
9 3 (1.46%) Cyber Threat
9 3 (1.46%) Reference Data
9 3 (1.46%) Virtual Team
10 2 (0.97%) Acoustics
10 2 (0.97%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.97%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 45 (21.84%) Windows Server
2 42 (20.39%) Linux
3 32 (15.53%) Windows 10
4 16 (7.77%) macOS
5 12 (5.83%) Android
6 7 (3.40%) Ubuntu
7 6 (2.91%) AIX
7 6 (2.91%) Apple iOS
8 5 (2.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (1.94%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (1.46%) CentOS
10 3 (1.46%) Windows 7
10 3 (1.46%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.97%) Solaris
11 2 (0.97%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 2 (0.97%) Unix
11 2 (0.97%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.49%) HPUX
12 1 (0.49%) VMS
12 1 (0.49%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (23.30%) Problem-Solving
2 45 (21.84%) Customer Service
3 40 (19.42%) ITSM
4 39 (18.93%) ITIL
5 32 (15.53%) Migration
6 29 (14.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 26 (12.62%) Infrastructure as Code
8 25 (12.14%) Validation
9 23 (11.17%) Service Management
10 18 (8.74%) Root Cause Analysis
11 16 (7.77%) Data Analysis
12 15 (7.28%) Data Modelling
12 15 (7.28%) Problem Management
13 13 (6.31%) Patch Management
14 12 (5.83%) CI/CD
14 12 (5.83%) Continuous Improvement
14 12 (5.83%) Mentoring
14 12 (5.83%) Stakeholder Management
15 11 (5.34%) Asset Management
15 11 (5.34%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 24 (11.65%) SQL
2 19 (9.22%) PowerShell
3 15 (7.28%) Python
4 7 (3.40%) Java
5 3 (1.46%) Bash
5 3 (1.46%) PL/SQL
6 1 (0.49%) Bicep
6 1 (0.49%) C#
6 1 (0.49%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 33 (16.02%) Security Cleared
2 21 (10.19%) SC Cleared
3 12 (5.83%) DV Cleared
4 11 (5.34%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (4.37%) Degree
6 8 (3.88%) Azure Certification
7 7 (3.40%) A+ Certification
7 7 (3.40%) ISEB
7 7 (3.40%) ISTQB
7 7 (3.40%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 6 (2.91%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (2.91%) DBS Check
9 4 (1.94%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.94%) Network+ Certification
9 4 (1.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 2 (0.97%) CISSP
10 2 (0.97%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (0.97%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 2 (0.97%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (8.74%) SLA
2 11 (5.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (3.88%) NIST
4 5 (2.43%) QA
5 3 (1.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (1.46%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.49%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.49%) GMP
6 1 (0.49%) GxP
6 1 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 17025
6 1 (0.49%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.49%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 83 (40.29%) Active Directory
2 35 (16.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (8.25%) vSphere
4 16 (7.77%) Hyper-V
5 15 (7.28%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (2.91%) Docker
7 5 (2.43%) Firmware
7 5 (2.43%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (1.94%) VMware NSX
9 3 (1.46%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.97%) XenApp
10 2 (0.97%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.49%) BitLocker
11 1 (0.49%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 51 (24.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 37 (17.96%) SCCM
3 9 (4.37%) Ansible
4 7 (3.40%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.40%) WMI
5 6 (2.91%) Jamf Pro
6 3 (1.46%) QRadar
7 2 (0.97%) Check_MK
7 2 (0.97%) Failover Clustering
7 2 (0.97%) Grafana
7 2 (0.97%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.97%) Podman
7 2 (0.97%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.97%) WSUS
8 1 (0.49%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.49%) PowerCLI
8 1 (0.49%) VxRail
Vendors
1 113 (54.85%) Microsoft
2 45 (21.84%) VMware
3 35 (16.99%) ServiceNow
4 34 (16.50%) Cisco
5 18 (8.74%) Splunk
6 14 (6.80%) Oracle
7 12 (5.83%) Fortinet
7 12 (5.83%) Palo Alto
7 12 (5.83%) SolarWinds
8 10 (4.85%) Apple
9 8 (3.88%) F5
9 8 (3.88%) SAP
10 7 (3.40%) Qualys
10 7 (3.40%) Samsung
11 6 (2.91%) Canon
11 6 (2.91%) NetApp
11 6 (2.91%) webMethods
12 5 (2.43%) Citrix
12 5 (2.43%) Red Hat
13 4 (1.94%) CyberArk
46 Windows jobs in the West Midlands