Microsoft Contract Job Trends in the South East

Microsoft
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring knowledge or experience of Microsoft products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Microsoft over the 6 months leading up to 14 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the Microsoft Corporation.

6 months to
14 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 6 4
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 614 600 882
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 15.46% 14.49% 16.46%
As % of the Vendors category 29.45% 29.08% 31.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 421 410 584
10th Percentile £190 £200 £163
25th Percentile £222 £336 £215
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £470 £462
Median % change year-on-year -4.26% +1.69% +0.48%
75th Percentile £550 £590 £588
90th Percentile £625 £671 £650
England median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 22 34
10th Percentile £12.50 £18.81 £13.70
25th Percentile £14.50 £31.31 £15.50
Median hourly rate £17.50 £56.75 £19.98
Median % change year-on-year -69.16% +184.08% +7.97%
75th Percentile £20.79 £59.85 £43.75
90th Percentile £32.77 £62.36 £55.98
England median hourly rate £22.00 £22.09 £23.00
% change year-on-year -0.41% -3.96% +17.95%

All Vendors
South East

Microsoft falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 2,085 2,063 2,836
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 52.49% 49.82% 52.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,432 1,305 1,788
10th Percentile £208 £252 £205
25th Percentile £380 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £599 £625 £605
90th Percentile £650 £688 £679
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 149 70 123
10th Percentile £13.50 £17.49 £15.60
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.18 £21.03
Median hourly rate £20.00 £56.75 £51.42
Median % change year-on-year -64.75% +10.36% +104.49%
75th Percentile £33.05 £65.14 £66.34
90th Percentile £81.00 £70.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.00 £33.75 £44.50
% change year-on-year -25.93% -24.16% +73.08%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Microsoft job vacancy trend in the South East

Microsoft
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 14 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Microsoft

Microsoft
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft in the South East over the 6 months to 14 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft in the South East

Microsoft
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft within the South East region over the 6 months to 14 November 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Thames Valley 0 306 £463 -4.05% 367
Berkshire +1 192 £480 -7.25% 161
Hampshire +3 140 £537 -2.36% 192
Buckinghamshire -1 67 £451 +5.56% 130
Surrey +3 66 £208 -30.83% 153
Oxfordshire -1 47 £268 -23.43% 88
West Sussex 0 39 £210 -51.61% 76
Kent +1 24 £400 +54.59% 119
East Sussex +7 21 £550 +15.79% 65
Sussex 0 10 £463 +21.71% 29
Home Counties - 1 £550 -
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 63 (10.26%) Microsoft Exchange
2 46 (7.49%) SharePoint
3 18 (2.93%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.79%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (1.79%) Exchange Server 2013
4 11 (1.79%) SharePoint Server
5 10 (1.63%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (1.63%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (1.63%) Office Communications Server
6 7 (1.14%) Mattermost
7 4 (0.65%) Apache
8 2 (0.33%) CMS
9 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.16%) Confluence
9 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.16%) nginx
Applications
1 111 (18.08%) Microsoft Office
2 64 (10.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (2.44%) Microsoft Project
4 14 (2.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.98%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 9 (1.47%) Dynamics CRM
1 9 (1.47%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.14%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.65%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.49%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.33%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.33%) SAP Oil and Gas
6 1 (0.16%) iTrent
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.16%) Primavera
6 1 (0.16%) Sage 50
6 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.16%) SAP EWM
6 1 (0.16%) SAP WM
6 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
6 1 (0.16%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 150 (24.43%) Microsoft 365
2 143 (23.29%) Azure
3 59 (9.61%) Entra ID
4 54 (8.79%) AWS
5 41 (6.68%) Power Platform
6 36 (5.86%) Dynamics 365
7 28 (4.56%) SaaS
8 18 (2.93%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (2.93%) OneDrive
8 18 (2.93%) Sauce Labs
9 15 (2.44%) GCP
10 14 (2.28%) Microsoft Purview
11 13 (2.12%) Google Workspace
11 13 (2.12%) PowerApps
12 10 (1.63%) Azure Sentinel
12 10 (1.63%) IaaS
13 9 (1.47%) GitHub
13 9 (1.47%) OpenShift
14 7 (1.14%) Amazon EKS
14 7 (1.14%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 56 (9.12%) Firewall
2 52 (8.47%) DNS
3 39 (6.35%) DHCP
4 28 (4.56%) VPN
5 27 (4.40%) TCP/IP
5 27 (4.40%) Wireless
6 17 (2.77%) Cisco IOS
6 17 (2.77%) SAN
7 16 (2.61%) Fibre Channel
8 14 (2.28%) iSCSI
8 14 (2.28%) VLAN
8 14 (2.28%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (1.79%) Network Security
9 11 (1.79%) Unified Communications
10 10 (1.63%) DDNS
11 9 (1.47%) 4G
12 8 (1.30%) Skype
12 8 (1.30%) WebEx
13 7 (1.14%) VSAN
14 6 (0.98%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (7.00%) SQL Server
2 30 (4.89%) Relational Database
3 26 (4.23%) Power BI
4 22 (3.58%) MySQL
4 22 (3.58%) Oracle Database
5 8 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.14%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (0.81%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7 5 (0.81%) Crystal Reports
7 5 (0.81%) MongoDB
7 5 (0.81%) RDBMS
8 4 (0.65%) Metadata
8 4 (0.65%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
9 3 (0.49%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 2 (0.33%) Apache Cassandra
10 2 (0.33%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.33%) GIS
Development Applications
1 20 (3.26%) Browser DevTools
2 18 (2.93%) Android Studio
2 18 (2.93%) Eclipse
2 18 (2.93%) Xcode
3 14 (2.28%) JIRA
4 11 (1.79%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.30%) MSI
6 6 (0.98%) Git
6 6 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.65%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.49%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.33%) Fiddler
9 2 (0.33%) JMeter
9 2 (0.33%) JUnit
9 2 (0.33%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.33%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.33%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.16%) Gradle
10 1 (0.16%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.16%) Toad
General
1 236 (38.44%) Social Skills
2 96 (15.64%) Finance
3 80 (13.03%) Analytical Skills
4 51 (8.31%) Organisational Skills
5 31 (5.05%) Public Sector
6 19 (3.09%) Manufacturing
7 17 (2.77%) Legal
8 16 (2.61%) Games
9 11 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.63%) Documentation Skills
10 10 (1.63%) Marketing
11 8 (1.30%) Retail
12 6 (0.98%) Automotive
12 6 (0.98%) Billing
12 6 (0.98%) Electronics
12 6 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (0.98%) Law
12 6 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.81%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 94 (15.31%) Analyst
2 93 (15.15%) Support Engineer
3 65 (10.59%) Architect
4 56 (9.12%) IT Support
5 36 (5.86%) Senior
6 32 (5.21%) Consultant
7 31 (5.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 27 (4.40%) Technical Support
9 26 (4.23%) Developer
10 24 (3.91%) Technical Engineer
10 24 (3.91%) Technical Support Engineer
11 23 (3.75%) Infrastructure Architect
11 23 (3.75%) IT Engineer
11 23 (3.75%) Platform Engineer
12 21 (3.42%) Infrastructure Support
12 21 (3.42%) Support Officer
13 20 (3.26%) Applications Support
13 20 (3.26%) Support Analyst
14 19 (3.09%) Data Analyst
14 19 (3.09%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.89%) React
2 21 (3.42%) GraphQL
3 20 (3.26%) CSS
4 19 (3.09%) Ajax
4 19 (3.09%) AngularJS
5 11 (1.79%) .NET
5 11 (1.79%) OAuth
6 8 (1.30%) Middleware
6 8 (1.30%) SAML
7 7 (1.14%) SailPoint
8 6 (0.98%) OpenID
9 5 (0.81%) REST
10 4 (0.65%) JSON
10 4 (0.65%) LDAP
10 4 (0.65%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.65%) OAuth2
10 4 (0.65%) Spring
10 4 (0.65%) WebdriverIO
11 3 (0.49%) ASP.NET
11 3 (0.49%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 23 (3.75%) Analytical Mindset
1 23 (3.75%) PKI
2 22 (3.58%) Onboarding
3 20 (3.26%) Mobile App
4 19 (3.09%) Management Information System
5 15 (2.44%) Replication
5 15 (2.44%) Security Operations Centre
6 14 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (2.12%) Driving Licence
7 13 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (1.63%) Security Posture
9 9 (1.47%) Cyber Threat
9 9 (1.47%) Fat Client
9 9 (1.47%) Operational Technology
9 9 (1.47%) Private Cloud
9 9 (1.47%) Thin Client
9 9 (1.47%) Video Conferencing
10 8 (1.30%) Cyber Defence
10 8 (1.30%) Data Centre
11 6 (0.98%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 246 (40.07%) Windows
2 82 (13.36%) Linux
3 55 (8.96%) Windows 10
4 47 (7.65%) Windows Server
5 36 (5.86%) Android
6 32 (5.21%) Mac OS
7 24 (3.91%) Unix
8 20 (3.26%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (1.63%) Windows Server 2003
10 9 (1.47%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (1.30%) Windows 7
12 7 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 7 (1.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (0.65%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.65%) CentOS
14 2 (0.33%) Debian
14 2 (0.33%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (19.54%) Problem-Solving
2 92 (14.98%) ITIL
3 70 (11.40%) Agile
4 69 (11.24%) Customer Service
5 59 (9.61%) Cybersecurity
6 57 (9.28%) Migration
7 51 (8.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 44 (7.17%) DevOps
8 44 (7.17%) Stakeholder Management
9 41 (6.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 40 (6.51%) Business Intelligence
11 35 (5.70%) ERP
12 32 (5.21%) Change Management
12 32 (5.21%) Project Management
13 31 (5.05%) ITSM
13 31 (5.05%) Project Delivery
13 31 (5.05%) User Experience
14 30 (4.89%) Service Management
14 30 (4.89%) SIEM
15 29 (4.72%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 93 (15.15%) PowerShell
2 83 (13.52%) SQL
3 66 (10.75%) Python
4 36 (5.86%) Java
5 31 (5.05%) JavaScript
6 20 (3.26%) Perl
7 18 (2.93%) C#
8 9 (1.47%) Bash
9 8 (1.30%) VB
10 6 (0.98%) PHP
10 6 (0.98%) X++
11 3 (0.49%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.49%) R
12 2 (0.33%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.33%) Bicep
12 2 (0.33%) Go
12 2 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.33%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.16%) Korn
Qualifications
1 175 (28.50%) Security Cleared
2 100 (16.29%) SC Cleared
3 66 (10.75%) DV Cleared
4 62 (10.10%) Degree
5 54 (8.79%) Microsoft Certification
6 19 (3.09%) CISSP
7 18 (2.93%) Azure Certification
8 17 (2.77%) MCSE
9 14 (2.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 11 (1.79%) A+ Certification
10 11 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
10 11 (1.79%) GCFA
10 11 (1.79%) GCIH
10 11 (1.79%) Network+ Certification
10 11 (1.79%) Server+ Certification
11 9 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (1.47%) GCIA
11 9 (1.47%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (1.30%) DBS Check
12 8 (1.30%) VCP6
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (6.68%) GDPR
2 26 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (3.91%) NIST
4 18 (2.93%) SLA
5 14 (2.28%) Data Quality
6 11 (1.79%) PMO
7 9 (1.47%) QA
8 4 (0.65%) Accessibility
8 4 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.65%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.49%) ECSS
9 3 (0.49%) ISO 9001
9 3 (0.49%) P3O
9 3 (0.49%) RMADS
10 2 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 2 (0.33%) NCSC
10 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 172 (28.01%) Active Directory
2 60 (9.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (3.75%) vSphere
4 21 (3.42%) Hyper-V
4 21 (3.42%) VMware ESXi
5 14 (2.28%) NFS
6 10 (1.63%) Brightmail
6 10 (1.63%) ISA Server
7 5 (0.81%) Terminal Services
8 4 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.49%) DFS Replication
9 3 (0.49%) Docker
9 3 (0.49%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 64 (10.42%) SCCM
2 57 (9.28%) Microsoft Intune
3 18 (2.93%) Ansible
4 17 (2.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 16 (2.61%) Terraform
6 14 (2.28%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (2.12%) Kubernetes
8 12 (1.95%) WMI
9 11 (1.79%) Microsoft Clustering
10 7 (1.14%) HP SiteScope
10 7 (1.14%) SCOM
10 7 (1.14%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
12 4 (0.65%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 3 (0.49%) Cisco CUCM
14 2 (0.33%) EnCase
14 2 (0.33%) FTK
14 2 (0.33%) PaperCut
14 2 (0.33%) Progress Chef
14 2 (0.33%) QRadar
Vendors
1 80 (13.03%) VMware
2 73 (11.89%) Splunk
3 59 (9.61%) ServiceNow
4 53 (8.63%) Oracle
5 45 (7.33%) Cisco
6 28 (4.56%) SAP
7 21 (3.42%) Citrix
8 19 (3.09%) Meraki
9 16 (2.61%) CrowdStrike
9 16 (2.61%) Veeam
10 15 (2.44%) NetApp
11 14 (2.28%) CyberArk
12 11 (1.79%) Remedy
12 11 (1.79%) Salesforce
13 10 (1.63%) Red Hat
14 8 (1.30%) Palo Alto
15 6 (0.98%) ArcSight
15 6 (0.98%) CheckPoint
15 6 (0.98%) LogRhythm
15 6 (0.98%) Workday