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 6 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 13 7
Rank change year-on-year -29 -6 +2
Contract jobs citing Windows 171 177 210
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 4.90% 10.56% 11.29%
As % of the Operating Systems category 54.46% 76.62% 74.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 119 139 130
10th Percentile £180 £150 £163
25th Percentile £231 £210 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -11.01% +19.87%
75th Percentile £538 £536 £575
90th Percentile £595 £584 £678
England median daily rate £425 £409 £450
% change year-on-year +3.79% -9.11% +2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 6 9
10th Percentile £45.73 £15.90 £15.32
25th Percentile £58.43 £16.67 £16.00
Median hourly rate £63.14 £17.83 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +254.04% -6.14% -5.00%
75th Percentile £70.06 £23.12 £22.00
90th Percentile £70.33 £24.83 £34.00
England median hourly rate £25.77 £18.87 £21.00
% change year-on-year +36.57% -10.14% -14.70%

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 314 231 281
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 9.00% 13.78% 15.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 174 180
10th Percentile £213 £152 £184
25th Percentile £386 £226 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £448 £450
Median % change year-on-year +3.91% -0.56% +12.50%
75th Percentile £527 £537 £577
90th Percentile £590 £583 £689
England median daily rate £469 £450 £488
% change year-on-year +4.22% -7.69% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 6 9
10th Percentile £47.73 £15.90 £15.32
25th Percentile £58.43 £16.67 £16.00
Median hourly rate £63.14 £17.83 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +254.04% -6.14% -5.00%
75th Percentile £70.17 £23.12 £22.00
90th Percentile £71.28 £24.83 £34.00
England median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £31.00
% change year-on-year +41.30% -25.81% -25.38%

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 6 August 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 6 August 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 6 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
Warwickshire -3 55 £525 +13.51% 8
Birmingham -24 36 £288 +4.55% 22
Coventry -20 20 £265 +20.45% 5
Staffordshire +4 14 £193 -48.67% 13
Shropshire -60 14 £400 -11.11% 4
Herefordshire +3 7 - - 5
Worcestershire -9 6 £575 +4.55% 8
Solihull -28 3 £105 -72.00% 2
Wolverhampton -6 1 £250 -9.09% 4
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 10 (5.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (4.09%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.51%) WebLogic
4 5 (2.92%) Confluence
5 4 (2.34%) Apache
6 3 (1.75%) Tuxedo
7 2 (1.17%) CloudStack
7 2 (1.17%) IIS
8 1 (0.58%) SAS
Applications
1 18 (10.53%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (7.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.17%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.17%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 66 (38.60%) Azure
2 63 (36.84%) Microsoft 365
3 39 (22.81%) Entra ID
4 24 (14.04%) AWS
5 17 (9.94%) OneDrive
6 6 (3.51%) Power Platform
7 5 (2.92%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (2.92%) GCP
7 5 (2.92%) GitHub
8 4 (2.34%) Amazon EC2
8 4 (2.34%) Amazon S3
8 4 (2.34%) AWS CloudFormation
8 4 (2.34%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (2.34%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (1.75%) OpenShift
9 3 (1.75%) Tricentis Tosca
10 2 (1.17%) Amazon SQS
10 2 (1.17%) IaaS
10 2 (1.17%) Lucidchart
10 2 (1.17%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (16.37%) DNS
2 25 (14.62%) DHCP
3 22 (12.87%) VPN
4 14 (8.19%) Firewall
5 12 (7.02%) LAN
6 10 (5.85%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (5.26%) TCP/IP
8 8 (4.68%) SSL
9 7 (4.09%) Cisco IOS
9 7 (4.09%) SNMP
10 6 (3.51%) Internet
10 6 (3.51%) NetScaler
11 5 (2.92%) NAS
11 5 (2.92%) Network Security
11 5 (2.92%) SAN
11 5 (2.92%) WAN
12 4 (2.34%) SD-WAN
13 3 (1.75%) Intrusion Detection
13 3 (1.75%) Structured Cabling
14 2 (1.17%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.92%) Amazon RDS
2 2 (1.17%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (1.17%) Power BI
2 2 (1.17%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.58%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.58%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 13 (7.60%) JIRA
2 5 (2.92%) MSI
3 3 (1.75%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (1.75%) GitLab
3 3 (1.75%) Toad
4 2 (1.17%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.58%) Git
5 1 (0.58%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.58%) Robot Framework
General
1 67 (39.18%) Social Skills
2 24 (14.04%) Analytical Skills
2 24 (14.04%) Finance
3 10 (5.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 8 (4.68%) Banking
5 6 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.92%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (2.92%) Public Sector
7 4 (2.34%) Investment Banking
8 3 (1.75%) Legal
8 3 (1.75%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.75%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.17%) Law
10 1 (0.58%) Billing
10 1 (0.58%) Retail
Job Titles
1 30 (17.54%) Analyst
2 22 (12.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 19 (11.11%) Support Engineer
4 12 (7.02%) IT Support
5 11 (6.43%) Senior
6 10 (5.85%) IT Engineer
7 9 (5.26%) Administrator
7 9 (5.26%) Azure Engineer
7 9 (5.26%) IT Support Engineer
8 8 (4.68%) Infrastructure Manager
8 8 (4.68%) Lead
8 8 (4.68%) Service Analyst
8 8 (4.68%) Service Desk Analyst
9 7 (4.09%) Infrastructure Project Manager
9 7 (4.09%) Project Manager
9 7 (4.09%) Support Technician
10 6 (3.51%) Business Analyst
10 6 (3.51%) Desktop Engineer
10 6 (3.51%) Help Desk Support
10 6 (3.51%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.34%) REST
1 4 (2.34%) XML
2 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Graph
2 3 (1.75%) SAML
3 2 (1.17%) Apache NiFi
3 2 (1.17%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (1.17%) FIDO
3 2 (1.17%) Fluent Bit
3 2 (1.17%) Kafka
3 2 (1.17%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (0.58%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.58%) ISPF
4 1 (0.58%) JSON
4 1 (0.58%) Middleware
4 1 (0.58%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.58%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (9.94%) Onboarding
2 15 (8.77%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (5.26%) Smartphone
4 7 (4.09%) Data Centre
5 6 (3.51%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (3.51%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (2.92%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (2.92%) Cloud Native
6 5 (2.92%) PKI
6 5 (2.92%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.34%) Mainframe
7 4 (2.34%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.75%) CSOC
8 3 (1.75%) Cyber Threat
8 3 (1.75%) iPhone
8 3 (1.75%) Management Information System
8 3 (1.75%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.75%) SCADA
8 3 (1.75%) Security Operations Centre
9 2 (1.17%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 43 (25.15%) Linux
2 41 (23.98%) Windows Server
3 32 (18.71%) Windows 10
4 15 (8.77%) Mac OS
5 7 (4.09%) Android
5 7 (4.09%) Unix
6 6 (3.51%) AIX
7 4 (2.34%) Apple iOS
7 4 (2.34%) Ubuntu
8 3 (1.75%) Windows 7
9 2 (1.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.17%) Solaris
9 2 (1.17%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (1.17%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.17%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.58%) HPUX
10 1 (0.58%) VMS
10 1 (0.58%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (25.73%) Problem-Solving
2 34 (19.88%) ITSM
3 27 (15.79%) Customer Service
3 27 (15.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 26 (15.20%) ITIL
5 23 (13.45%) Infrastructure as Code
6 20 (11.70%) Migration
7 18 (10.53%) Problem Management
8 17 (9.94%) Service Management
9 15 (8.77%) Incident Management
9 15 (8.77%) Patch Management
9 15 (8.77%) User Experience
10 14 (8.19%) Agile
10 14 (8.19%) DevOps
11 13 (7.60%) Validation
12 12 (7.02%) CI/CD
12 12 (7.02%) Stakeholder Management
13 11 (6.43%) Root Cause Analysis
14 10 (5.85%) Cost Optimisation
15 9 (5.26%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 24 (14.04%) SQL
2 18 (10.53%) PowerShell
3 10 (5.85%) Python
4 5 (2.92%) Bash
5 3 (1.75%) Java
5 3 (1.75%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (1.75%) PL/SQL
6 2 (1.17%) Search Processing Language
6 2 (1.17%) VBScript
7 1 (0.58%) Bicep
7 1 (0.58%) JCL
7 1 (0.58%) REXX
7 1 (0.58%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 43 (25.15%) Security Cleared
2 34 (19.88%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.85%) Cisco Certification
3 10 (5.85%) Degree
3 10 (5.85%) DV Cleared
4 9 (5.26%) Azure Certification
5 7 (4.09%) AWS Certification
5 7 (4.09%) CCNA
5 7 (4.09%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (3.51%) MCSE
6 6 (3.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 4 (2.34%) ISEB
7 4 (2.34%) ISTQB
7 4 (2.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 4 (2.34%) RHCA
8 3 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (1.75%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.75%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 2 (1.17%) PMI Certification
9 2 (1.17%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (8.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (7.60%) SLA
3 10 (5.85%) NIST
4 4 (2.34%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.17%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.17%) GDPR
5 2 (1.17%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.58%) QA
System Software
1 71 (41.52%) Active Directory
2 25 (14.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (9.36%) Hyper-V
4 11 (6.43%) vSphere
5 9 (5.26%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (4.09%) Docker
7 4 (2.34%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (2.34%) XenApp
7 4 (2.34%) XenDesktop
8 3 (1.75%) Snort
8 3 (1.75%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (1.17%) etcd
9 2 (1.17%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.58%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.58%) Firmware
10 1 (0.58%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 1 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 36 (21.05%) Microsoft Intune
1 36 (21.05%) SCCM
2 17 (9.94%) Kubernetes
2 17 (9.94%) Terraform
3 10 (5.85%) Ansible
4 7 (4.09%) WMI
5 5 (2.92%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (2.34%) Podman
6 4 (2.34%) Prometheus
6 4 (2.34%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.75%) CSIRT
7 3 (1.75%) QRadar
8 2 (1.17%) AirWatch
8 2 (1.17%) Check_MK
8 2 (1.17%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (1.17%) Fluentd
8 2 (1.17%) Grafana
8 2 (1.17%) WSUS
9 1 (0.58%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.58%) SCOM
Vendors
1 81 (47.37%) Microsoft
2 34 (19.88%) VMware
3 30 (17.54%) Cisco
4 27 (15.79%) ServiceNow
5 20 (11.70%) Splunk
6 12 (7.02%) Citrix
7 11 (6.43%) Fortinet
8 8 (4.68%) F5
8 8 (4.68%) Oracle
8 8 (4.68%) SolarWinds
9 7 (4.09%) Apple
9 7 (4.09%) Canon
9 7 (4.09%) Palo Alto
9 7 (4.09%) Qualys
10 6 (3.51%) HP
11 4 (2.34%) Atlassian
11 4 (2.34%) Dell
11 4 (2.34%) Remedy
11 4 (2.34%) SAP
12 3 (1.75%) Fujitsu