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 December 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 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 8 4
Rank change year-on-year +2 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 626 540 820
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 14.33% 14.28% 16.39%
As % of the Vendors category 27.92% 28.02% 31.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 432 388 552
10th Percentile £200 £200 £163
25th Percentile £255 £350 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £468 £468
Median % change year-on-year +1.44% +0.05% +1.85%
75th Percentile £565 £601 £575
90th Percentile £649 £675 £638
England median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 16 34
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.11 £14.07
25th Percentile £14.50 £19.22 £16.25
Median hourly rate £17.50 £27.71 £21.18
Median % change year-on-year -36.83% +30.84% +14.46%
75th Percentile £21.00 £54.72 £50.53
90th Percentile £86.73 £57.62 £59.19
England median hourly rate £20.26 £22.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -9.98% -2.17% +14.63%

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 2,242 1,927 2,612
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 51.34% 50.97% 52.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,582 1,274 1,659
10th Percentile £221 £243 £205
25th Percentile £401 £405 £371
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £613
90th Percentile £675 £688 £676
England median daily rate £508 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.33% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 152 58 124
10th Percentile £14.00 £18.68 £16.25
25th Percentile £16.13 £23.67 £23.91
Median hourly rate £20.79 £37.08 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.94% -32.58% +129.17%
75th Percentile £64.06 £63.45 £66.70
90th Percentile £89.63 £70.38 £76.53
England median hourly rate £23.69 £31.00 £45.21
% change year-on-year -23.58% -31.43% +73.88%

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 17 December 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 December 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 December 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 0 301 £475 -3.31% 268
Berkshire +1 192 £480 -8.57% 115
Hampshire -1 149 £535 -2.73% 142
Surrey +6 72 £208 -34.13% 99
Buckinghamshire -1 67 £465 +8.14% 91
Oxfordshire 0 42 £275 -35.29% 63
West Sussex -4 37 £211 -51.32% 57
Kent 0 26 £400 +48.84% 131
East Sussex +7 24 £550 +2.33% 46
Sussex -1 11 £463 +5.11% 3
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 56 (8.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (7.83%) SharePoint
3 17 (2.72%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.76%) Exchange Server 2010
5 10 (1.60%) Exchange Server 2013
5 10 (1.60%) SharePoint Server
6 9 (1.44%) Exchange Server 2003
6 9 (1.44%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (1.44%) Office Communications Server
7 7 (1.12%) Mattermost
8 2 (0.32%) CMS
8 2 (0.32%) Confluence
9 1 (0.16%) Apache
9 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 123 (19.65%) Microsoft Office
2 71 (11.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (3.35%) Microsoft Project
4 16 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.44%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.16%) SOLIDWORKS
6 1 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (1.76%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.12%) Remedy ITSM
3 6 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.64%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.48%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.32%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.32%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.16%) iTrent
7 1 (0.16%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.16%) Primavera
7 1 (0.16%) Sage 50
7 1 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
7 1 (0.16%) SAP EWM
7 1 (0.16%) SAP Payroll
7 1 (0.16%) SAP WM
7 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
7 1 (0.16%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 155 (24.76%) Azure
2 153 (24.44%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (10.54%) AWS
4 59 (9.42%) Entra ID
5 47 (7.51%) Power Platform
6 36 (5.75%) Dynamics 365
7 33 (5.27%) SaaS
8 23 (3.67%) OneDrive
9 21 (3.35%) Microsoft Purview
9 21 (3.35%) Sauce Labs
10 18 (2.88%) GCP
11 17 (2.72%) Google Workspace
12 14 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
12 14 (2.24%) PowerApps
13 11 (1.76%) Azure Sentinel
13 11 (1.76%) Power Automate
14 9 (1.44%) GitHub
14 9 (1.44%) OpenShift
15 8 (1.28%) IaaS
15 8 (1.28%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 56 (8.95%) DNS
2 51 (8.15%) Firewall
3 42 (6.71%) DHCP
4 32 (5.11%) TCP/IP
5 30 (4.79%) VPN
6 27 (4.31%) Wireless
7 18 (2.88%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (2.40%) VLAN
9 12 (1.92%) SAN
9 12 (1.92%) Unified Communications
10 11 (1.76%) Network Security
11 10 (1.60%) Fibre Channel
11 10 (1.60%) iSCSI
12 9 (1.44%) 4G
12 9 (1.44%) DDNS
13 8 (1.28%) Skype
14 7 (1.12%) Cisco IOS
14 7 (1.12%) VSAN
14 7 (1.12%) WebEx
15 6 (0.96%) Remote Desktop
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (7.03%) SQL Server
2 32 (5.11%) Relational Database
3 28 (4.47%) Power BI
4 25 (3.99%) MySQL
5 19 (3.04%) Oracle Database
6 8 (1.28%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (1.28%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
6 8 (1.28%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (1.28%) Metadata
6 8 (1.28%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (0.96%) RDBMS
8 5 (0.80%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
9 4 (0.64%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.48%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
11 2 (0.32%) Crystal Reports
11 2 (0.32%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.16%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 22 (3.51%) Android Studio
1 22 (3.51%) Browser DevTools
2 21 (3.35%) Eclipse
2 21 (3.35%) Xcode
3 13 (2.08%) JIRA
4 11 (1.76%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.96%) Git
6 3 (0.48%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.48%) MSI
6 3 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.32%) JMeter
7 2 (0.32%) JUnit
7 2 (0.32%) Oracle APEX
7 2 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.16%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.16%) Gatling
8 1 (0.16%) Gradle
8 1 (0.16%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.16%) Subversion
General
1 259 (41.37%) Social Skills
2 100 (15.97%) Finance
3 83 (13.26%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (10.06%) Organisational Skills
5 42 (6.71%) Public Sector
6 20 (3.19%) Manufacturing
7 17 (2.72%) Legal
8 10 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (1.44%) Marketing
9 9 (1.44%) Retail
10 8 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.12%) Games
11 7 (1.12%) Telecoms
12 6 (0.96%) Electronics
12 6 (0.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (0.80%) Aerospace
13 5 (0.80%) Automotive
13 5 (0.80%) Billing
13 5 (0.80%) Law
13 5 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 89 (14.22%) Support Engineer
2 87 (13.90%) Analyst
3 86 (13.74%) Architect
4 57 (9.11%) IT Support
5 47 (7.51%) Senior
6 37 (5.91%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 27 (4.31%) Technical Support
8 25 (3.99%) Consultant
8 25 (3.99%) IT Engineer
8 25 (3.99%) Technical Engineer
8 25 (3.99%) Technical Support Engineer
9 23 (3.67%) Support Officer
10 22 (3.51%) Developer
10 22 (3.51%) Infrastructure Architect
10 22 (3.51%) UX Engineer
11 21 (3.35%) Solutions Architect
12 20 (3.19%) Infrastructure Support
13 19 (3.04%) IT Support Engineer
14 18 (2.88%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
14 18 (2.88%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (4.63%) React
2 24 (3.83%) GraphQL
3 22 (3.51%) Ajax
3 22 (3.51%) AngularJS
3 22 (3.51%) CSS
4 12 (1.92%) .NET
5 9 (1.44%) Middleware
5 9 (1.44%) OAuth
6 8 (1.28%) SAML
7 6 (0.96%) OpenID
8 5 (0.80%) REST
8 5 (0.80%) SailPoint
9 4 (0.64%) LDAP
9 4 (0.64%) OAuth2
9 4 (0.64%) Spring
10 3 (0.48%) Kafka
10 3 (0.48%) Microsoft Graph
10 3 (0.48%) PySpark
11 2 (0.32%) .NET Core
11 2 (0.32%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.27%) PKI
2 29 (4.63%) Onboarding
3 28 (4.47%) Analytical Mindset
4 24 (3.83%) Mobile App
5 20 (3.19%) Management Information System
6 15 (2.40%) Enterprise Software
6 15 (2.40%) Security Operations Centre
7 14 (2.24%) Replication
7 14 (2.24%) Self-Motivation
8 13 (2.08%) Fat Client
8 13 (2.08%) Operational Technology
8 13 (2.08%) Thin Client
9 12 (1.92%) Driving Licence
10 11 (1.76%) Data Centre
11 10 (1.60%) Cyber Defence
11 10 (1.60%) Video Conferencing
12 9 (1.44%) Cyber Threat
12 9 (1.44%) Product Ownership
13 7 (1.12%) Private Cloud
14 6 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 227 (36.26%) Windows
2 92 (14.70%) Linux
3 52 (8.31%) Windows 10
4 37 (5.91%) Windows Server
5 30 (4.79%) Android
6 27 (4.31%) Unix
7 23 (3.67%) Mac OS
8 14 (2.24%) Windows Server 2019
9 11 (1.76%) Windows 7
10 9 (1.44%) Windows Server 2003
10 9 (1.44%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (1.28%) Windows Server 2012
12 5 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 2 (0.32%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.32%) CentOS
13 2 (0.32%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (19.65%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (15.02%) ITIL
3 81 (12.94%) Agile
4 69 (11.02%) Customer Service
4 69 (11.02%) Cybersecurity
5 56 (8.95%) Migration
6 54 (8.63%) Stakeholder Management
7 50 (7.99%) Continuous Improvement
8 47 (7.51%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 45 (7.19%) Business Intelligence
10 41 (6.55%) Project Management
11 40 (6.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 40 (6.39%) Time Management
12 39 (6.23%) SIEM
13 35 (5.59%) ITSM
13 35 (5.59%) User Experience
14 33 (5.27%) DevOps
14 33 (5.27%) Project Delivery
15 32 (5.11%) Change Management
15 32 (5.11%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 84 (13.42%) PowerShell
2 76 (12.14%) Python
3 74 (11.82%) SQL
4 37 (5.91%) Java
5 31 (4.95%) JavaScript
6 23 (3.67%) Perl
7 14 (2.24%) Bash
8 11 (1.76%) C#
9 4 (0.64%) PL/SQL
9 4 (0.64%) X++
10 3 (0.48%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (0.48%) PHP
11 2 (0.32%) Bicep
11 2 (0.32%) Go
11 2 (0.32%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.32%) VB
12 1 (0.16%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 200 (31.95%) Security Cleared
2 122 (19.49%) SC Cleared
3 70 (11.18%) DV Cleared
4 67 (10.70%) Degree
5 54 (8.63%) Microsoft Certification
6 24 (3.83%) CISSP
7 22 (3.51%) Azure Certification
8 14 (2.24%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 13 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
9 13 (2.08%) MCSE
10 11 (1.76%) A+ Certification
10 11 (1.76%) GCFA
10 11 (1.76%) GCIH
10 11 (1.76%) ITIL Certification
10 11 (1.76%) Network+ Certification
10 11 (1.76%) Server+ Certification
11 10 (1.60%) Cisco Certification
11 10 (1.60%) PMI Certification
12 9 (1.44%) GIAC
12 9 (1.44%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (6.87%) GDPR
2 28 (4.47%) NIST
3 27 (4.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 16 (2.56%) SLA
5 15 (2.40%) Data Quality
5 15 (2.40%) PMO
6 10 (1.60%) QA
7 7 (1.12%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.64%) Accessibility
8 4 (0.64%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.48%) ECSS
9 3 (0.48%) NCSC
9 3 (0.48%) P3O
9 3 (0.48%) RMADS
10 2 (0.32%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 2 (0.32%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.32%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 165 (26.36%) Active Directory
2 58 (9.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.99%) Hyper-V
4 17 (2.72%) vSphere
5 16 (2.56%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.60%) NFS
7 9 (1.44%) Brightmail
7 9 (1.44%) ISA Server
8 8 (1.28%) Docker
8 8 (1.28%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (0.80%) Terminal Services
10 4 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.48%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 53 (8.47%) SCCM
2 48 (7.67%) Microsoft Intune
3 19 (3.04%) Ansible
4 16 (2.56%) Kubernetes
4 16 (2.56%) Terraform
5 15 (2.40%) Single Sign-On
6 13 (2.08%) WMI
7 12 (1.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 10 (1.60%) Microsoft Clustering
9 8 (1.28%) SCOM
9 8 (1.28%) vCenter Server
10 7 (1.12%) HP SiteScope
11 6 (0.96%) Jamf Pro
12 4 (0.64%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 3 (0.48%) Cisco CUCM
13 3 (0.48%) PaperCut
14 2 (0.32%) FTK
14 2 (0.32%) Grafana
14 2 (0.32%) Progress Chef
14 2 (0.32%) Puppet
Vendors
1 79 (12.62%) VMware
2 60 (9.58%) ServiceNow
3 58 (9.27%) Splunk
4 52 (8.31%) Oracle
5 33 (5.27%) Cisco
6 26 (4.15%) SAP
7 21 (3.35%) Citrix
8 13 (2.08%) CrowdStrike
9 11 (1.76%) NetApp
9 11 (1.76%) Veeam
10 9 (1.44%) Google
10 9 (1.44%) Red Hat
10 9 (1.44%) Remedy
11 8 (1.28%) CyberArk
11 8 (1.28%) Databricks
11 8 (1.28%) Meraki
11 8 (1.28%) Palo Alto
12 7 (1.12%) Tenable
13 6 (0.96%) ArcSight
13 6 (0.96%) LogRhythm