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 25 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 570 690 811
Rank change year-on-year +120 +121 +61
Permanent jobs citing MCSA 103 204 175
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.20% 0.21% 0.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.41% 0.75% 0.51%
Number of salaries quoted 84 160 155
10th Percentile £26,825 £26,750 £27,050
25th Percentile £32,500 £35,000 £32,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £37,500 £43,227 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.25% -3.94% -
75th Percentile £47,625 £55,625 £53,750
90th Percentile £53,750 £67,500 £62,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £37,500 £40,000 £41,500
% change year-on-year -6.25% -3.61% -2.35%

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 25,005 27,263 34,522
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 47.82% 27.84% 32.72%
Number of salaries quoted 11,207 17,302 15,372
10th Percentile £32,500 £28,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £44,000 £38,500 £41,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £54,000 £57,810
Median % change year-on-year +1.85% -6.59% +5.11%
75th Percentile £68,750 £71,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +4.00% - -

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 25 April 2025.

Salary histogram for MCSA in the UK

MCSA
Top 15 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 25 April 2025. 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 +76 93 £37,500 -12.79% 67
UK excluding London +151 86 £37,500 -6.25% 57
Work from Home +185 33 £49,375 +14.22% 24
Midlands +73 26 £35,000 -13.36% 11
North of England +56 24 £33,250 -16.88% 19
West Midlands +48 18 £31,750 -26.55% 6
South East +60 17 £42,500 +8.97% 12
Yorkshire +73 15 £28,500 -28.75% 13
London +46 15 £47,875 +1.86% 12
East Midlands +56 8 £35,000 +3.70% 5
Wales +51 8 £38,094 -
South West +115 7 £43,750 +32.58% 6
North West +32 7 £37,500 -20.21% 6
East of England +54 5 £55,000 +48.65% 8
North East +46 2 £37,500 +27.12% 1

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 20 (19.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (17.48%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.97%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 12 (11.65%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (3.88%) SAP Business One
2 1 (0.97%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 53 (51.46%) Azure
2 49 (47.57%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (19.42%) AWS
4 13 (12.62%) Entra ID
4 13 (12.62%) PaaS
4 13 (12.62%) SaaS
5 9 (8.74%) IaaS
6 4 (3.88%) Cloud Computing
7 3 (2.91%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.94%) Azure Stack
8 2 (1.94%) GCP
8 2 (1.94%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.97%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.97%) Power Automate
9 1 (0.97%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 30 (29.13%) DNS
2 27 (26.21%) Firewall
3 22 (21.36%) LAN
4 18 (17.48%) DHCP
4 18 (17.48%) WAN
5 12 (11.65%) TCP/IP
6 11 (10.68%) Cisco IOS
6 11 (10.68%) VPN
6 11 (10.68%) Wireshark
7 10 (9.71%) Wireless
8 8 (7.77%) VLAN
9 5 (4.85%) Intrusion Detection
9 5 (4.85%) IPsec
9 5 (4.85%) Network Security
9 5 (4.85%) SSL
10 4 (3.88%) DMZ
11 3 (2.91%) SAN
11 3 (2.91%) VSAN
11 3 (2.91%) WLAN
12 2 (1.94%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (8.74%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.94%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.97%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (1.94%) JIRA
2 1 (0.97%) Git
General
1 42 (40.78%) Social Skills
2 10 (9.71%) Law
3 9 (8.74%) Finance
4 8 (7.77%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (7.77%) Welsh Language
5 7 (6.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 7 (6.80%) Public Sector
6 6 (5.83%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (5.83%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (5.83%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.94%) Legal
7 2 (1.94%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.94%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.97%) Advertising
8 1 (0.97%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.97%) Aviation
8 1 (0.97%) Back Office
8 1 (0.97%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 23 (22.33%) Analyst
2 21 (20.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 18 (17.48%) Support Engineer
4 15 (14.56%) IT Support
5 13 (12.62%) Server Engineer
5 13 (12.62%) Support Analyst
6 12 (11.65%) Infrastructure Support
6 12 (11.65%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
7 11 (10.68%) Senior
8 10 (9.71%) IT Engineer
9 8 (7.77%) 2nd Line Support
9 8 (7.77%) IT Analyst
10 7 (6.80%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
10 7 (6.80%) IT Support Analyst
10 7 (6.80%) NOC Engineer
10 7 (6.80%) Technical Support
11 6 (5.83%) Lead
12 5 (4.85%) IT Technician
12 5 (4.85%) Senior IT Technician
12 5 (4.85%) Senior Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.97%) SAML
1 1 (0.97%) Software Packaging
1 1 (0.97%) WSH
Miscellaneous
1 17 (16.50%) Management Information System
2 13 (12.62%) Self-Motivation
3 9 (8.74%) Data Centre
4 8 (7.77%) IoT
5 6 (5.83%) Driving Licence
6 4 (3.88%) Cyber Threat
6 4 (3.88%) Operational Technology
7 3 (2.91%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.94%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (1.94%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (0.97%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.97%) PKI
9 1 (0.97%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.97%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.97%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 81 (78.64%) Windows
2 70 (67.96%) Windows Server
3 39 (37.86%) Linux
4 27 (26.21%) Windows 10
5 15 (14.56%) Mac OS X
6 12 (11.65%) Windows Server 2016
7 9 (8.74%) Mac OS
8 7 (6.80%) CentOS
8 7 (6.80%) Ubuntu
9 6 (5.83%) Android
10 4 (3.88%) Apple iOS
10 4 (3.88%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (2.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (2.91%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (44.66%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (30.10%) ITIL
3 26 (25.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 19 (18.45%) Service Delivery
5 17 (16.50%) Customer Service
5 17 (16.50%) Proactive Monitoring
6 15 (14.56%) Collaborative Working
6 15 (14.56%) Disaster Recovery
6 15 (14.56%) Proactive Maintenance
7 14 (13.59%) Cybersecurity
8 13 (12.62%) Incident Management
8 13 (12.62%) Information Security
9 12 (11.65%) Problem Management
10 10 (9.71%) Asset Management
10 10 (9.71%) Business Continuity
10 10 (9.71%) Logistics
11 9 (8.74%) Performance Monitoring
12 8 (7.77%) Penetration Testing
12 8 (7.77%) Security Management
12 8 (7.77%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (25.24%) SQL
2 12 (11.65%) PowerShell
3 10 (9.71%) Python
4 2 (1.94%) VBScript
5 1 (0.97%) Bash
5 1 (0.97%) Java
5 1 (0.97%) VB
Qualifications
1 103 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 49 (47.57%) MCSE
3 36 (34.95%) Cisco Certification
4 33 (32.04%) Degree
5 32 (31.07%) MCP
6 24 (23.30%) CCNA
6 24 (23.30%) CCNP
7 22 (21.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 16 (15.53%) Azure Certification
9 13 (12.62%) A+ Certification
10 12 (11.65%) Network+ Certification
11 11 (10.68%) DBS Check
12 7 (6.80%) CompTIA Security+
13 6 (5.83%) Security Cleared
14 5 (4.85%) ACSP
14 5 (4.85%) CompTIA CySA+
14 5 (4.85%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (4.85%) GIAC
14 5 (4.85%) HP AIS
14 5 (4.85%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (16.50%) SLA
2 12 (11.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (5.83%) NCSC
4 2 (1.94%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.94%) GDPR
5 1 (0.97%) NIST
5 1 (0.97%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.97%) SOC 2
System Software
1 68 (66.02%) Active Directory
2 35 (33.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (15.53%) Hyper-V
4 10 (9.71%) Virtual Desktop
5 9 (8.74%) vSphere
6 4 (3.88%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (2.91%) Firmware
7 3 (2.91%) VMware NSX
8 2 (1.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
8 2 (1.94%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.97%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.97%) Docker
9 1 (0.97%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.97%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.97%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 9 (8.74%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (7.77%) SCCM
3 5 (4.85%) PaperCut
4 4 (3.88%) Iperf
5 3 (2.91%) vCenter Server
5 3 (2.91%) vRealize
5 3 (2.91%) VxRail
5 3 (2.91%) WSUS
6 2 (1.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.94%) Dell DRAC
6 2 (1.94%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.94%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.97%) Ansible
7 1 (0.97%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.97%) PowerCLI
7 1 (0.97%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 76 (73.79%) Microsoft
2 42 (40.78%) VMware
3 31 (30.10%) Cisco
4 10 (9.71%) Red Hat
5 9 (8.74%) Veeam
6 8 (7.77%) HP
6 8 (7.77%) Palo Alto
7 7 (6.80%) Apple
8 5 (4.85%) Dell
8 5 (4.85%) SonicWALL
9 4 (3.88%) Fortinet
9 4 (3.88%) SAP
9 4 (3.88%) SolarWinds
10 3 (2.91%) LogicMonitor
10 3 (2.91%) McAfee
10 3 (2.91%) Ruckus Wireless
10 3 (2.91%) Sophos
11 2 (1.94%) EMC
11 2 (1.94%) Google
11 2 (1.94%) Isilon