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 17 September 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
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 6 5
Rank change year-on-year +2 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 563 618 896
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 16.17% 13.46% 16.05%
As % of the Vendors category 31.43% 27.28% 30.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 392 403 571
10th Percentile £185 £200 £175
25th Percentile £221 £350 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £452
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% +2.44% -0.28%
75th Percentile £568 £588 £588
90th Percentile £623 £657 £650
England median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 30 41
10th Percentile £13.65 £11.71 £14.00
25th Percentile £14.20 £16.69 £15.50
Median hourly rate £17.30 £45.00 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -61.56% +157.14% +6.06%
75th Percentile £32.05 £58.49 £52.38
90th Percentile £80.23 £61.20 £62.50
England median hourly rate £22.63 £16.23 £22.00
% change year-on-year +39.43% -26.23% +24.58%

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 1,791 2,265 2,917
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 51.44% 49.34% 52.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,203 1,369 1,912
10th Percentile £205 £251 £205
25th Percentile £363 £405 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -
75th Percentile £597 £631 £600
90th Percentile £650 £700 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -1.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 114 136
10th Percentile £14.20 £16.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £14.91 £27.00 £18.50
Median hourly rate £20.00 £57.35 £51.96
Median % change year-on-year -65.13% +10.37% +159.80%
75th Percentile £35.89 £61.60 £64.63
90th Percentile £79.25 £70.00 £75.13
England median hourly rate £25.15 £33.25 £42.75
% change year-on-year -24.36% -22.22% +78.80%

Microsoft
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Microsoft as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 0 266 £450 -6.25% 396
Berkshire 0 160 £469 -10.60% 217
Hampshire +4 136 £540 -1.82% 187
Buckinghamshire -1 66 £410 -4.65% 109
Surrey -1 62 £225 -35.71% 142
West Sussex +4 40 £210 -43.47% 44
Oxfordshire +2 40 £250 -37.50% 90
Kent +1 37 £263 +36.36% 116
East Sussex +6 12 £431 +1.47% 57
Sussex +4 1 - - 34
Home Counties - 1 £550 -
Microsoft
England

Microsoft
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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 75 (13.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 52 (9.24%) SharePoint
3 20 (3.55%) Skype for Business
4 14 (2.49%) Exchange Server 2010
4 14 (2.49%) Exchange Server 2013
5 13 (2.31%) Exchange Server 2003
5 13 (2.31%) Exchange Server 2007
5 13 (2.31%) Office Communications Server
5 13 (2.31%) SharePoint Server
6 7 (1.24%) Mattermost
7 4 (0.71%) Apache
7 4 (0.71%) CMS
8 2 (0.36%) BizTalk Server
8 2 (0.36%) IIS
9 1 (0.18%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.18%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.18%) Confluence
9 1 (0.18%) Mule
9 1 (0.18%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.18%) nginx
Applications
1 92 (16.34%) Microsoft Office
2 57 (10.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (3.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (2.49%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.89%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.42%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.71%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.36%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.36%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.36%) SAP FI/CO
5 2 (0.36%) SAP Oil and Gas
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Payroll
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.18%) Primavera
6 1 (0.18%) SAP EWM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.18%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 144 (25.58%) Azure
2 133 (23.62%) Microsoft 365
3 46 (8.17%) AWS
4 44 (7.82%) Entra ID
5 37 (6.57%) Power Platform
6 31 (5.51%) Dynamics 365
7 21 (3.73%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.73%) GCP
8 19 (3.37%) IaaS
9 17 (3.02%) SaaS
10 14 (2.49%) PaaS
11 13 (2.31%) OpenShift
12 11 (1.95%) Microsoft Copilot
12 11 (1.95%) Sauce Labs
13 10 (1.78%) Azure Sentinel
14 9 (1.60%) PowerApps
15 6 (1.07%) Azure Monitor
15 6 (1.07%) OneDrive
16 5 (0.89%) GitHub
16 5 (0.89%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 64 (11.37%) Firewall
2 56 (9.95%) DNS
3 47 (8.35%) VPN
4 46 (8.17%) DHCP
5 32 (5.68%) SAN
6 25 (4.44%) TCP/IP
7 23 (4.09%) Wireless
8 20 (3.55%) Fibre Channel
9 17 (3.02%) iSCSI
10 16 (2.84%) Cisco IOS
11 14 (2.49%) WebEx
12 13 (2.31%) DDNS
12 13 (2.31%) WAN
13 12 (2.13%) LAN
13 12 (2.13%) MPLS
13 12 (2.13%) VLAN
14 11 (1.95%) Wireshark
15 10 (1.78%) Frame Relay
15 10 (1.78%) LTE
15 10 (1.78%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (7.82%) SQL Server
2 23 (4.09%) Power BI
3 17 (3.02%) Oracle Database
3 17 (3.02%) Relational Database
4 14 (2.49%) MySQL
5 8 (1.42%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (1.42%) Big Data
5 8 (1.42%) Elasticsearch
6 5 (0.89%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (0.89%) Crystal Reports
7 4 (0.71%) Metadata
8 3 (0.53%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 3 (0.53%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.53%) GIS
8 3 (0.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.36%) MS Access
9 2 (0.36%) PostgreSQL
9 2 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 17 (3.02%) JIRA
2 15 (2.66%) MSI
3 13 (2.31%) Browser DevTools
4 11 (1.95%) Android Studio
4 11 (1.95%) Eclipse
4 11 (1.95%) Xcode
5 5 (0.89%) Git
5 5 (0.89%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.71%) Robot Framework
6 4 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.71%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.36%) Postman
7 2 (0.36%) QARun
7 2 (0.36%) Team Foundation Server
7 2 (0.36%) Vite
7 2 (0.36%) WinRunner
8 1 (0.18%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.18%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 204 (36.23%) Social Skills
2 84 (14.92%) Finance
3 67 (11.90%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (5.68%) Public Sector
5 28 (4.97%) Organisational Skills
5 28 (4.97%) Telecoms
6 19 (3.37%) Legal
7 16 (2.84%) Games
8 15 (2.66%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (2.66%) Manufacturing
9 11 (1.95%) Automotive
10 6 (1.07%) Law
10 6 (1.07%) Marketing
11 5 (0.89%) Aerospace
11 5 (0.89%) Billing
11 5 (0.89%) Electronics
11 5 (0.89%) Local Government
12 4 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.53%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 89 (15.81%) Analyst
1 89 (15.81%) Support Engineer
2 49 (8.70%) Architect
3 41 (7.28%) IT Support
4 34 (6.04%) Consultant
5 30 (5.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 29 (5.15%) Senior
7 26 (4.62%) Developer
8 25 (4.44%) Support Analyst
9 24 (4.26%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 22 (3.91%) 2nd Line Support
10 22 (3.91%) Infrastructure Architect
11 21 (3.73%) Applications Support
11 21 (3.73%) Infrastructure Support
11 21 (3.73%) Platform Engineer
12 20 (3.55%) Exchange Engineer
12 20 (3.55%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
13 19 (3.37%) IT Engineer
13 19 (3.37%) Technical Support
14 18 (3.20%) Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (4.26%) React
2 16 (2.84%) CSS
3 15 (2.66%) .NET
4 12 (2.13%) Ajax
4 12 (2.13%) AngularJS
4 12 (2.13%) GraphQL
5 10 (1.78%) Middleware
6 6 (1.07%) Web Services
7 5 (0.89%) ADO
7 5 (0.89%) HTML
7 5 (0.89%) JSON
7 5 (0.89%) OAuth
7 5 (0.89%) SOAP
8 4 (0.71%) .NET Core
8 4 (0.71%) ARM Templates
8 4 (0.71%) WebdriverIO
9 3 (0.53%) RESTful
9 3 (0.53%) SailPoint
9 3 (0.53%) SAML
9 3 (0.53%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (3.91%) PKI
1 22 (3.91%) Self-Motivation
2 21 (3.73%) Onboarding
3 18 (3.20%) Management Information System
4 16 (2.84%) Data Centre
5 15 (2.66%) Replication
6 13 (2.31%) Analytical Mindset
7 12 (2.13%) Mobile App
8 11 (1.95%) Security Posture
9 10 (1.78%) Clustering
9 10 (1.78%) Operational Technology
9 10 (1.78%) Security Operations Centre
10 9 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.42%) Cyber Threat
12 7 (1.24%) CMDB
12 7 (1.24%) Cyber Defence
12 7 (1.24%) Life Science
12 7 (1.24%) Private Cloud
13 6 (1.07%) Fat Client
13 6 (1.07%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 238 (42.27%) Windows
2 80 (14.21%) Linux
3 60 (10.66%) Windows Server
4 48 (8.53%) Windows 10
5 30 (5.33%) Mac OS
5 30 (5.33%) Unix
6 29 (5.15%) Android
7 23 (4.09%) Windows Server 2019
8 16 (2.84%) Windows Server 2003
9 9 (1.60%) Windows Server 2016
10 7 (1.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 6 (1.07%) Windows 7
11 6 (1.07%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.71%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.71%) CentOS
13 2 (0.36%) Debian
13 2 (0.36%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.18%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 138 (24.51%) Problem-Solving
2 89 (15.81%) ITIL
3 70 (12.43%) Agile
4 62 (11.01%) Migration
5 59 (10.48%) DevOps
6 50 (8.88%) Customer Service
7 42 (7.46%) Cybersecurity
8 38 (6.75%) Business Intelligence
9 36 (6.39%) Stakeholder Management
10 35 (6.22%) Continuous Improvement
11 34 (6.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 33 (5.86%) Project Management
13 30 (5.33%) ERP
14 28 (4.97%) Change Management
14 28 (4.97%) SIEM
15 27 (4.80%) High Availability
16 26 (4.62%) Artificial Intelligence
16 26 (4.62%) Roadmaps
17 25 (4.44%) Service Management
17 25 (4.44%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 100 (17.76%) PowerShell
2 89 (15.81%) SQL
3 47 (8.35%) Python
4 36 (6.39%) Java
5 30 (5.33%) C#
6 21 (3.73%) JavaScript
7 15 (2.66%) VB
8 14 (2.49%) Perl
9 9 (1.60%) Bash
10 8 (1.42%) Bicep
11 5 (0.89%) X++
12 4 (0.71%) PHP
13 3 (0.53%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.53%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.53%) R
14 2 (0.36%) Apex Code
14 2 (0.36%) Go
14 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
15 1 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.18%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 136 (24.16%) Security Cleared
2 65 (11.55%) SC Cleared
3 61 (10.83%) DV Cleared
4 55 (9.77%) Microsoft Certification
5 52 (9.24%) Degree
6 20 (3.55%) MCSE
7 18 (3.20%) Cisco Certification
8 16 (2.84%) Azure Certification
9 15 (2.66%) CISSP
10 14 (2.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 13 (2.31%) A+ Certification
12 11 (1.95%) CCNP
12 11 (1.95%) GCIH
12 11 (1.95%) ISEB
12 11 (1.95%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 11 (1.95%) VCP5
12 11 (1.95%) VCP6
13 10 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
13 10 (1.78%) ISTQB
14 9 (1.60%) GCFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (6.04%) GDPR
2 24 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.66%) NIST
4 14 (2.49%) SLA
5 11 (1.95%) Data Quality
5 11 (1.95%) QA
6 7 (1.24%) HIPAA
6 7 (1.24%) PMO
7 5 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.71%) Accessibility
9 3 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.53%) ECSS
9 3 (0.53%) ISO 9001
9 3 (0.53%) RMADS
10 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 2 (0.36%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.36%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.18%) NCSC
11 1 (0.18%) PSD2
System Software
1 163 (28.95%) Active Directory
2 65 (11.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (5.51%) VMware ESXi
4 28 (4.97%) Hyper-V
5 26 (4.62%) vSphere
6 17 (3.02%) NFS
7 13 (2.31%) Brightmail
7 13 (2.31%) ISA Server
7 13 (2.31%) Terminal Services
8 9 (1.60%) Docker
8 9 (1.60%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (1.42%) BitLocker
9 8 (1.42%) Microsoft App-V
10 5 (0.89%) DFS Replication
10 5 (0.89%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.53%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.36%) XenApp
13 1 (0.18%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 53 (9.41%) Microsoft Intune
1 53 (9.41%) SCCM
2 23 (4.09%) Kubernetes
3 20 (3.55%) Ansible
4 18 (3.20%) Terraform
5 14 (2.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 14 (2.49%) Microsoft Clustering
6 12 (2.13%) vCenter Server
7 10 (1.78%) SCOM
8 8 (1.42%) Nagios
8 8 (1.42%) Puppet
8 8 (1.42%) vMotion
8 8 (1.42%) WMI
9 7 (1.24%) HP SiteScope
10 4 (0.71%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 4 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.53%) Grafana
11 3 (0.53%) Prometheus
12 2 (0.36%) CSIRT
12 2 (0.36%) Malwarebytes
Vendors
1 77 (13.68%) VMware
2 67 (11.90%) Splunk
3 54 (9.59%) ServiceNow
4 49 (8.70%) Cisco
5 45 (7.99%) Citrix
6 41 (7.28%) Oracle
7 28 (4.97%) SAP
8 18 (3.20%) Meraki
8 18 (3.20%) NetApp
8 18 (3.20%) Veeam
9 14 (2.49%) Google
9 14 (2.49%) Sage
10 12 (2.13%) CrowdStrike
10 12 (2.13%) Remedy
10 12 (2.13%) Salesforce
11 11 (1.95%) Symantec
12 10 (1.78%) HP
12 10 (1.78%) Juniper
13 9 (1.60%) Red Hat
14 7 (1.24%) CyberArk