MCSA Job Trends

Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) formerly Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for MCSA qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 587 601 583
Rank change year-on-year +14 -18 +204
Permanent jobs citing MCSA 66 98 138
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.18% 0.25%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.34% 0.50% 0.85%
Number of salaries quoted 61 52 119
10th Percentile £29,000 - £28,700
25th Percentile £30,500 £36,250 £35,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £32,500 £49,250 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -34.01% -1.50% +6.38%
75th Percentile £37,500 £57,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £58,750 £62,325 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £32,500 £46,000 £45,000
% change year-on-year -29.35% +2.22% +12.50%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

MCSA falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 19,162 19,568 16,260
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 31.94% 36.57% 29.20%
Number of salaries quoted 7,764 7,644 10,980
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,518 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.59% +3.51% -
75th Percentile £75,900 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,976 £92,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £51,300
% change year-on-year -9.09% +7.21% +1.40%

MCSA
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing MCSA relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

MCSA job vacancy trend in the UK

MCSA
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MCSA.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MCSA

MCSA
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing MCSA over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Top 12 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing MCSA within the UK over the 6 months to 14 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +26 61 £32,500 -35.00% 54
UK excluding London +35 44 £32,500 -29.35% 53
Work from Home +77 30 £32,500 -40.91% 6
Midlands +30 24 £32,310 -33.38% 8
East Midlands +9 19 £32,500 - 6
London +39 17 £35,000 -36.36% 8
East of England +19 8 £32,500 -36.27% 8
South East +25 6 £33,500 -16.25% 15
North of England 0 6 £31,000 -17.33% 13
North East +15 5 £31,000 -17.33% 2
West Midlands +13 5 £28,500 -41.24% 2
North West +12 1 £47,500 +26.67% 7

MCSA
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 15 (22.73%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (9.09%) SharePoint
3 4 (6.06%) IIS
4 1 (1.52%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (10.61%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.52%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (3.03%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 32 (48.48%) Azure
2 27 (40.91%) Microsoft 365
3 16 (24.24%) Entra ID
4 12 (18.18%) AWS
5 3 (4.55%) Mimecast
6 2 (3.03%) Google Workspace
6 2 (3.03%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.52%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.52%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (1.52%) IaaS
7 1 (1.52%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (1.52%) PaaS
7 1 (1.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 19 (28.79%) DHCP
2 18 (27.27%) DNS
2 18 (27.27%) Firewall
3 14 (21.21%) TCP/IP
3 14 (21.21%) VLAN
4 7 (10.61%) IP Telephony
4 7 (10.61%) WAN
5 6 (9.09%) LAN
5 6 (9.09%) VPN
6 4 (6.06%) RFID
7 3 (4.55%) Cisco IOS
7 3 (4.55%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (4.55%) Network Security
8 2 (3.03%) Cisco ASA
8 2 (3.03%) FIX Connectivity
8 2 (3.03%) Intranet
8 2 (3.03%) Intrusion Detection
8 2 (3.03%) SAN
8 2 (3.03%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (1.52%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (21.21%) SQL Server
2 2 (3.03%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (3.03%) MongoDB
2 2 (3.03%) MySQL
2 2 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (3.03%) Power BI
2 2 (3.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 2 (3.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
2 2 (3.03%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (9.09%) JIRA
2 4 (6.06%) LabVIEW
3 1 (1.52%) Visual Studio
General
1 39 (59.09%) Social Skills
2 9 (13.64%) Finance
2 9 (13.64%) Manufacturing
3 8 (12.12%) Organisational Skills
3 8 (12.12%) Telecoms
4 6 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (7.58%) Pharmaceutical
6 3 (4.55%) Banking
6 3 (4.55%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (4.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (3.03%) Legal
7 2 (3.03%) Military
8 1 (1.52%) Law
Job Titles
1 26 (39.39%) IT Support
2 15 (22.73%) Support Engineer
3 12 (18.18%) IT Engineer
4 11 (16.67%) 2nd Line Support
4 11 (16.67%) Analyst
4 11 (16.67%) IT Support Engineer
4 11 (16.67%) Support Analyst
5 10 (15.15%) IT Support Technician
5 10 (15.15%) IT Technician
5 10 (15.15%) Support Technician
6 5 (7.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 5 (7.58%) IT Analyst
6 5 (7.58%) IT Support Analyst
7 4 (6.06%) Administrator
7 4 (6.06%) Help Desk Support
7 4 (6.06%) Help Desk Support Analyst
7 4 (6.06%) Network Support
7 4 (6.06%) Technical Engineer
7 4 (6.06%) Technical Support
7 4 (6.06%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (6.06%) .NET
2 2 (3.03%) FIX Protocol
2 2 (3.03%) REST
2 2 (3.03%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 15 (22.73%) Driving Licence
2 7 (10.61%) CCTV
3 6 (9.09%) Onboarding
4 5 (7.58%) LIMS
4 5 (7.58%) SCADA
4 5 (7.58%) Social Media
5 3 (4.55%) Data Centre
5 3 (4.55%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (3.03%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (3.03%) Data Structures
6 2 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (3.03%) Eurex
6 2 (3.03%) Management Information System
7 1 (1.52%) CMDB
7 1 (1.52%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (1.52%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 45 (68.18%) Windows
2 29 (43.94%) Windows Server
3 20 (30.30%) Windows 10
4 14 (21.21%) Linux
5 5 (7.58%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (7.58%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (7.58%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (4.55%) Mac OS X
7 2 (3.03%) Solaris
7 2 (3.03%) Ubuntu
7 2 (3.03%) Unix
8 1 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (1.52%) Windows 2000
8 1 (1.52%) Windows 7
8 1 (1.52%) Windows 8
8 1 (1.52%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (42.42%) ITIL
2 22 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (28.79%) Customer Service
4 13 (19.70%) Cybersecurity
4 13 (19.70%) Disaster Recovery
5 12 (18.18%) Mentoring
6 11 (16.67%) Computer Science
6 11 (16.67%) Project Delivery
6 11 (16.67%) User Experience
7 10 (15.15%) Change Management
7 10 (15.15%) Server Management
8 9 (13.64%) Change Control
9 7 (10.61%) ITSM
9 7 (10.61%) Migration
10 6 (9.09%) Service Management
11 5 (7.58%) Biotechnology
11 5 (7.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 5 (7.58%) Kalman Filter
11 5 (7.58%) Validation
11 5 (7.58%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 12 (18.18%) PowerShell
2 8 (12.12%) SQL
3 6 (9.09%) VBScript
4 4 (6.06%) Python
5 2 (3.03%) C#
5 2 (3.03%) VB.NET
6 1 (1.52%) Bicep
6 1 (1.52%) Java
Qualifications
1 66 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 35 (53.03%) MCP
3 34 (51.52%) MCSE
4 33 (50.00%) CCNA
4 33 (50.00%) Cisco Certification
5 19 (28.79%) Degree
6 9 (13.64%) A+ Certification
6 9 (13.64%) CCA
6 9 (13.64%) CCNP
6 9 (13.64%) Citrix Certification
6 9 (13.64%) DBS Check
6 9 (13.64%) Network+ Certification
7 6 (9.09%) HNC
8 5 (7.58%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (7.58%) MCITP
8 5 (7.58%) Security Cleared
9 4 (6.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (4.55%) HND
10 3 (4.55%) MCDST
11 2 (3.03%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (13.64%) SLA
2 8 (12.12%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (7.58%) 21 CFR Part 11
3 5 (7.58%) GxP
4 2 (3.03%) GDPR
4 2 (3.03%) HIPAA
4 2 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (3.03%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 24 (36.36%) Active Directory
2 13 (19.70%) Hyper-V
3 12 (18.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (3.03%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (1.52%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (1.52%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (24.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (7.58%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (6.06%) PaperCut
4 1 (1.52%) SCCM
4 1 (1.52%) Terraform
4 1 (1.52%) vCenter Server
4 1 (1.52%) WSUS
Vendors
1 50 (75.76%) Microsoft
2 36 (54.55%) VMware
3 23 (34.85%) Cisco
4 9 (13.64%) Citrix
5 7 (10.61%) Draytek
5 7 (10.61%) Mitel
5 7 (10.61%) WatchGuard
6 6 (9.09%) Veeam
7 5 (7.58%) Apple
7 5 (7.58%) Bloomberg
7 5 (7.58%) Reuters
8 3 (4.55%) HP
8 3 (4.55%) LogicMonitor
8 3 (4.55%) Okta
8 3 (4.55%) Red Hat
8 3 (4.55%) Sophos
8 3 (4.55%) Zscaler
9 2 (3.03%) CQG
9 2 (3.03%) Dataiku
9 2 (3.03%) ION Trading