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 26 July 2024, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jul 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 673 716 932
Rank change year-on-year +43 +216 -218
Permanent jobs citing MCSA 169 171 345
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.19% 0.21% 0.20%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.71% 0.63% 0.71%
Number of salaries quoted 112 138 294
10th Percentile £26,750 £29,525 £25,813
25th Percentile £34,125 £35,000 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £43,000 £48,500 £42,500
Median % change year-on-year -11.34% +14.12% +6.25%
75th Percentile £53,000 £64,688 £53,750
90th Percentile £58,750 £80,375 £65,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £41,500 £42,500
% change year-on-year -3.61% -2.35% +6.25%

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 23,768 27,219 48,854
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 26.30% 33.73% 27.87%
Number of salaries quoted 13,396 13,767 20,158
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,000 £30,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -
75th Percentile £72,425 £76,250 £73,750
90th Percentile £88,500 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £48,500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +8.25% +2.11%

MCSA
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MCSA as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing MCSA.

Salary trend for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing MCSA over the 6 months to 26 July 2024.

Salary histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Top 16 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 26 July 2024. 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 +42 160 £43,000 -9.47% 28
UK excluding London +7 132 £40,000 -3.61% 25
South East +38 58 £41,250 -8.33% 5
London +52 37 £47,000 -30.88% 5
North of England +13 20 £37,000 -10.84% 9
Midlands -33 18 £43,227 +1.71% 3
East of England +3 14 £42,500 +21.43% 3
Work from Home +8 13 £43,227 -16.87% 11
South West +2 13 £41,000 -1.80% 4
Yorkshire +64 12 £37,250 -5.70% 3
West Midlands -5 10 £43,227 +45.30% 2
East Midlands -38 8 £34,000 -24.44% 1
Scotland -42 6 £47,500 +11.76% 2
North West -14 4 £30,000 -33.33% 2
North East - 4 £29,500 - 4
Wales +30 3 £41,250 +62.74%

MCSA
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 49 (28.99%) Microsoft Exchange
2 32 (18.93%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.37%) IIS
4 2 (1.18%) Confluence
Applications
1 29 (17.16%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.59%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (1.78%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.18%) Shopify
3 1 (0.59%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 103 (60.95%) Azure
2 60 (35.50%) Microsoft 365
3 40 (23.67%) Azure DevOps
4 39 (23.08%) Azure AI
4 39 (23.08%) IBM Cloud
5 26 (15.38%) AWS
6 18 (10.65%) Entra ID
7 11 (6.51%) Cloud Computing
8 10 (5.92%) OneDrive
9 8 (4.73%) Azure Stack
10 6 (3.55%) Power Platform
10 6 (3.55%) Twilio
11 5 (2.96%) Mimecast
12 4 (2.37%) Cohesity
13 3 (1.78%) Azure Functions
13 3 (1.78%) Dynamics 365
13 3 (1.78%) Google Workspace
13 3 (1.78%) Power Automate
13 3 (1.78%) Serverless
14 2 (1.18%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 50 (29.59%) Firewall
2 32 (18.93%) TCP/IP
3 30 (17.75%) DNS
4 28 (16.57%) DHCP
5 21 (12.43%) VPN
6 18 (10.65%) SAN
7 13 (7.69%) LAN
7 13 (7.69%) Wireless
8 12 (7.10%) Internet
8 12 (7.10%) Network Security
8 12 (7.10%) VLAN
9 9 (5.33%) NAS
9 9 (5.33%) SSL
9 9 (5.33%) VoIP
9 9 (5.33%) WAN
10 6 (3.55%) NGFW
10 6 (3.55%) WLAN
11 5 (2.96%) Intrusion Detection
11 5 (2.96%) IPsec
12 4 (2.37%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (11.24%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.78%) Power BI
2 3 (1.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 3 (1.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 2 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (1.18%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (1.18%) Data Lake
3 2 (1.18%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.18%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 1 (0.59%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 3 (1.78%) JIRA
2 2 (1.18%) Visual Studio
General
1 50 (29.59%) Social Skills
2 39 (23.08%) Public Sector
3 16 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (9.47%) Finance
4 6 (3.55%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (3.55%) Telecoms
5 5 (2.96%) Retail
6 4 (2.37%) Banking
6 4 (2.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.37%) Legal
6 4 (2.37%) Police
7 3 (1.78%) Automotive
7 3 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.78%) Law
7 3 (1.78%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.18%) Back Office
8 2 (1.18%) Investment Banking
8 2 (1.18%) Marketing
9 1 (0.59%) Advertising
9 1 (0.59%) Military
Job Titles
1 23 (13.61%) IT Support
2 15 (8.88%) Analyst
3 14 (8.28%) Support Engineer
4 12 (7.10%) IT Engineer
5 11 (6.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 9 (5.33%) 3rd Line Support
7 8 (4.73%) Consultant
8 7 (4.14%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 7 (4.14%) IT Support Engineer
8 7 (4.14%) Network Manager
9 6 (3.55%) IT Technician
9 6 (3.55%) Lead
9 6 (3.55%) Network Engineer
9 6 (3.55%) Network Security Engineer
9 6 (3.55%) Security Engineer
10 5 (2.96%) IT Support Technician
10 5 (2.96%) Security Analyst
10 5 (2.96%) Server Engineer
10 5 (2.96%) Support Analyst
10 5 (2.96%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.37%) .NET
2 2 (1.18%) HTML5 Canvas
2 2 (1.18%) REST
3 1 (0.59%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.59%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.59%) ASP.NET MVC
3 1 (0.59%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 41 (24.26%) Hybrid Cloud
2 39 (23.08%) Blockchain
2 39 (23.08%) Distributed Systems
3 19 (11.24%) Data Centre
3 19 (11.24%) Replication
4 16 (9.47%) Management Information System
5 10 (5.92%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (3.55%) PKI
6 6 (3.55%) Private Cloud
7 4 (2.37%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (2.37%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.78%) CCTV
8 3 (1.78%) Enterprise Cloud
8 3 (1.78%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.78%) Enterprise Storage
8 3 (1.78%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.78%) Raspberry Pi
9 2 (1.18%) Mainframe
9 2 (1.18%) Smartphone
9 2 (1.18%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 88 (52.07%) Windows
2 64 (37.87%) Linux
3 59 (34.91%) Windows Server
4 42 (24.85%) CentOS
4 42 (24.85%) Debian
5 39 (23.08%) Alpine Linux
6 23 (13.61%) Windows 10
7 19 (11.24%) Windows Server 2016
8 13 (7.69%) Windows Server 2008
8 13 (7.69%) Windows Server 2012
8 13 (7.69%) Windows Server 2019
9 8 (4.73%) Apple iOS
10 4 (2.37%) Windows 7
10 4 (2.37%) Windows Vista
11 3 (1.78%) Android
11 3 (1.78%) Windows 8
12 2 (1.18%) Mac OS
12 2 (1.18%) VMS
12 2 (1.18%) Windows 2000
12 2 (1.18%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (31.95%) ITIL
2 42 (24.85%) Artificial Intelligence
2 42 (24.85%) Task Automation
3 41 (24.26%) CI/CD
4 40 (23.67%) DevOps
5 39 (23.08%) Co-Creation
5 39 (23.08%) Data Science
5 39 (23.08%) Functional Testing
5 39 (23.08%) Separation of Concerns
5 39 (23.08%) Technology Transformation
6 37 (21.89%) Problem-Solving
7 31 (18.34%) Customer Service
8 30 (17.75%) Cybersecurity
9 22 (13.02%) Kalman Filter
10 21 (12.43%) Disaster Recovery
11 18 (10.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 16 (9.47%) Proactive Monitoring
13 12 (7.10%) Email Filtering
13 12 (7.10%) ITSM
13 12 (7.10%) Line Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (13.61%) PowerShell
2 20 (11.83%) SQL
3 5 (2.96%) C#
4 4 (2.37%) JavaScript
5 3 (1.78%) Java
6 2 (1.18%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.59%) Swift
Qualifications
1 169 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 97 (57.40%) MCSE
3 46 (27.22%) Azure Certification
3 46 (27.22%) Degree
4 33 (19.53%) CCNA
4 33 (19.53%) Cisco Certification
5 26 (15.38%) MCP
6 18 (10.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 10 (5.92%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (5.92%) Network+ Certification
8 8 (4.73%) A+ Certification
8 8 (4.73%) CCNP
8 8 (4.73%) CREST Certified
8 8 (4.73%) SC Cleared
8 8 (4.73%) Security Cleared
9 5 (2.96%) CompTIA CySA+
9 5 (2.96%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (2.96%) GIAC
10 4 (2.37%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (2.37%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (4.73%) GDPR
3 5 (2.96%) NCSC
4 3 (1.78%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.78%) SLA
5 2 (1.18%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.59%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.59%) NIST
6 1 (0.59%) QA
System Software
1 71 (42.01%) Active Directory
2 47 (27.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (24.26%) Docker
4 25 (14.79%) Hyper-V
5 20 (11.83%) vSphere
6 10 (5.92%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (2.37%) VMware Workstation
8 3 (1.78%) KVM
8 3 (1.78%) VMware NSX
9 2 (1.18%) Firmware
9 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 2 (1.18%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.59%) vCloud
10 1 (0.59%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 42 (24.85%) Terraform
2 41 (24.26%) Kubernetes
3 15 (8.88%) SCCM
4 14 (8.28%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (4.14%) WSUS
6 6 (3.55%) SCOM
7 3 (1.78%) vCenter Server
8 2 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.59%) Nessus
9 1 (0.59%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.59%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 105 (62.13%) Microsoft
2 58 (34.32%) VMware
3 45 (26.63%) Red Hat
4 43 (25.44%) IBM
5 33 (19.53%) Cisco
6 16 (9.47%) HP
7 15 (8.88%) Citrix
8 13 (7.69%) Dell
9 10 (5.92%) Palo Alto
9 10 (5.92%) Veeam
10 9 (5.33%) Draytek
11 8 (4.73%) Bloomberg
11 8 (4.73%) FactSet
11 8 (4.73%) Juniper
11 8 (4.73%) MobileIron
11 8 (4.73%) Refinitiv
12 7 (4.14%) Apple
12 7 (4.14%) Sophos
13 6 (3.55%) Google
14 5 (2.96%) SonicWALL