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 24 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
24 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 5 6 4
Rank change year-on-year +1 -2 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 626 589 865
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 15.45% 14.29% 16.34%
As % of the Vendors category 29.57% 28.73% 30.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 420 411 576
10th Percentile £200 £200 £163
25th Percentile £255 £336 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £467 £475 £470
Median % change year-on-year -1.65% +1.06% -1.05%
75th Percentile £552 £600 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £650
England median daily rate £475 £483 £500
% change year-on-year -1.75% -3.30% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 20 36
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.20 £13.79
25th Percentile £14.50 £22.47 £15.50
Median hourly rate £17.55 £47.50 £21.18
Median % change year-on-year -63.05% +124.32% +14.46%
75th Percentile £29.28 £57.84 £46.84
90th Percentile £87.09 £59.87 £61.13
England median hourly rate £22.00 £23.80 £23.00
% change year-on-year -7.56% +3.48% +16.96%

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 2,117 2,050 2,800
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 52.23% 49.75% 52.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,445 1,315 1,765
10th Percentile £215 £256 £205
25th Percentile £388 £412 £373
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.34% +2.60%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £605
90th Percentile £663 £690 £678
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.57% - -2.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 161 63 128
10th Percentile £14.00 £18.88 £16.18
25th Percentile £15.75 £23.84 £21.05
Median hourly rate £20.79 £56.75 £51.96
Median % change year-on-year -63.36% +9.21% +79.54%
75th Percentile £40.65 £67.26 £65.50
90th Percentile £86.00 £74.14 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.00 £33.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -24.24% -25.84% +62.56%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 0 314 £475 -2.06% 293
Berkshire +3 198 £480 -8.57% 123
Hampshire +2 145 £535 -5.93% 164
Buckinghamshire -1 72 £459 +6.69% 104
Surrey +2 66 £208 -32.52% 117
Oxfordshire 0 44 £275 -29.03% 76
West Sussex -1 39 £210 -51.63% 71
Kent +1 25 £413 +53.49% 115
East Sussex +6 21 £550 +4.76% 58
Sussex -1 10 £463 +5.11% 39
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 66 (10.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 47 (7.51%) SharePoint
3 18 (2.88%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.76%) Exchange Server 2010
4 11 (1.76%) Exchange Server 2013
4 11 (1.76%) SharePoint Server
5 10 (1.60%) Exchange Server 2003
5 10 (1.60%) Exchange Server 2007
5 10 (1.60%) Office Communications Server
6 7 (1.12%) Mattermost
7 3 (0.48%) Apache
8 2 (0.32%) CMS
9 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.16%) Confluence
9 1 (0.16%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.16%) nginx
Applications
1 113 (18.05%) Microsoft Office
2 70 (11.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (2.88%) Microsoft Project
4 16 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.96%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 10 (1.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (1.28%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (1.12%) Remedy ITSM
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
6 2 (0.32%) SAP Oil and Gas
7 1 (0.16%) BPCS
7 1 (0.16%) iTrent
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 WM
7 1 (0.16%) SystmOne
7 1 (0.16%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 158 (25.24%) Microsoft 365
2 156 (24.92%) Azure
3 61 (9.74%) AWS
4 58 (9.27%) Entra ID
5 49 (7.83%) Power Platform
6 40 (6.39%) Dynamics 365
7 30 (4.79%) SaaS
8 20 (3.19%) OneDrive
9 19 (3.04%) Azure DevOps
10 18 (2.88%) Microsoft Purview
10 18 (2.88%) Sauce Labs
11 16 (2.56%) GCP
12 14 (2.24%) Google Workspace
13 13 (2.08%) PowerApps
14 10 (1.60%) Azure Sentinel
14 10 (1.60%) GitHub
14 10 (1.60%) IaaS
14 10 (1.60%) Power Automate
15 9 (1.44%) OpenShift
16 7 (1.12%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 62 (9.90%) Firewall
2 55 (8.79%) DNS
3 42 (6.71%) DHCP
4 31 (4.95%) TCP/IP
5 28 (4.47%) VPN
6 27 (4.31%) Wireless
7 17 (2.72%) Cisco IOS
7 17 (2.72%) SAN
8 15 (2.40%) Fibre Channel
9 14 (2.24%) VLAN
9 14 (2.24%) Wi-Fi
10 13 (2.08%) iSCSI
11 11 (1.76%) Unified Communications
12 10 (1.60%) DDNS
12 10 (1.60%) Network Security
13 9 (1.44%) 4G
14 8 (1.28%) Skype
15 7 (1.12%) VSAN
16 6 (0.96%) Remote Desktop
16 6 (0.96%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (6.55%) SQL Server
2 30 (4.79%) Power BI
2 30 (4.79%) Relational Database
3 22 (3.51%) MySQL
4 19 (3.04%) Oracle Database
5 8 (1.28%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.12%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (0.96%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 5 (0.80%) Crystal Reports
8 5 (0.80%) Metadata
8 5 (0.80%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.80%) Oracle Reports
8 5 (0.80%) RDBMS
9 4 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.48%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
11 2 (0.32%) GIS
12 1 (0.16%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 20 (3.19%) Browser DevTools
2 18 (2.88%) Android Studio
2 18 (2.88%) Eclipse
2 18 (2.88%) Xcode
3 17 (2.72%) JIRA
4 11 (1.76%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.96%) Git
5 6 (0.96%) MSI
6 5 (0.80%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.48%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.48%) Robot Framework
8 2 (0.32%) Fiddler
8 2 (0.32%) JMeter
8 2 (0.32%) JUnit
8 2 (0.32%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.32%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.32%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.16%) Gradle
9 1 (0.16%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.16%) Toad
General
1 250 (39.94%) Social Skills
2 102 (16.29%) Finance
3 86 (13.74%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (9.11%) Organisational Skills
5 34 (5.43%) Public Sector
6 21 (3.35%) Manufacturing
7 17 (2.72%) Legal
8 16 (2.56%) Games
9 10 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (1.60%) Marketing
10 9 (1.44%) Telecoms
11 8 (1.28%) Retail
12 7 (1.12%) Automotive
12 7 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (1.12%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (0.96%) Billing
13 6 (0.96%) Electronics
13 6 (0.96%) Law
13 6 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.80%) Banking
Job Titles
1 90 (14.38%) Analyst
1 90 (14.38%) Support Engineer
2 68 (10.86%) Architect
3 57 (9.11%) IT Support
4 42 (6.71%) Senior
5 35 (5.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 30 (4.79%) Consultant
7 27 (4.31%) Developer
7 27 (4.31%) Technical Support
8 24 (3.83%) IT Engineer
8 24 (3.83%) Technical Engineer
8 24 (3.83%) Technical Support Engineer
9 23 (3.67%) Platform Engineer
10 21 (3.35%) Infrastructure Architect
10 21 (3.35%) Infrastructure Support
10 21 (3.35%) Support Officer
11 19 (3.04%) Data Analyst
11 19 (3.04%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
11 19 (3.04%) IT Support Engineer
11 19 (3.04%) UX Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.79%) React
2 21 (3.35%) GraphQL
3 20 (3.19%) CSS
4 19 (3.04%) Ajax
4 19 (3.04%) AngularJS
5 12 (1.92%) .NET
6 11 (1.76%) OAuth
7 9 (1.44%) Middleware
8 8 (1.28%) SAML
9 7 (1.12%) SailPoint
10 6 (0.96%) OpenID
11 5 (0.80%) REST
12 4 (0.64%) JSON
12 4 (0.64%) LDAP
12 4 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
12 4 (0.64%) OAuth2
12 4 (0.64%) Spring
12 4 (0.64%) WebdriverIO
13 3 (0.48%) SOAP
13 3 (0.48%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 31 (4.95%) PKI
2 27 (4.31%) Onboarding
3 24 (3.83%) Analytical Mindset
4 20 (3.19%) Management Information System
4 20 (3.19%) Mobile App
5 15 (2.40%) Replication
5 15 (2.40%) Security Operations Centre
6 13 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
7 12 (1.92%) Driving Licence
8 11 (1.76%) Fat Client
8 11 (1.76%) Operational Technology
8 11 (1.76%) Thin Client
9 9 (1.44%) Cyber Defence
9 9 (1.44%) Cyber Threat
9 9 (1.44%) Private Cloud
9 9 (1.44%) Security Posture
9 9 (1.44%) Video Conferencing
10 8 (1.28%) Data Centre
10 8 (1.28%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 243 (38.82%) Windows
2 85 (13.58%) Linux
3 53 (8.47%) Windows 10
4 42 (6.71%) Windows Server
5 36 (5.75%) Android
6 32 (5.11%) Mac OS
7 24 (3.83%) Unix
8 18 (2.88%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (1.60%) Windows 7
9 10 (1.60%) Windows Server 2003
10 9 (1.44%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (1.12%) Windows Server 2012
12 6 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 3 (0.48%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.48%) CentOS
14 2 (0.32%) Debian
14 2 (0.32%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (20.29%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (15.02%) ITIL
3 74 (11.82%) Agile
4 68 (10.86%) Customer Service
5 66 (10.54%) Cybersecurity
6 58 (9.27%) Migration
7 52 (8.31%) Continuous Improvement
7 52 (8.31%) Stakeholder Management
8 46 (7.35%) Business Intelligence
9 45 (7.19%) DevOps
9 45 (7.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 38 (6.07%) Project Management
11 36 (5.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 36 (5.75%) Time Management
12 35 (5.59%) SIEM
13 34 (5.43%) Change Management
13 34 (5.43%) Project Delivery
14 33 (5.27%) CI/CD
14 33 (5.27%) ERP
14 33 (5.27%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 95 (15.18%) PowerShell
2 78 (12.46%) SQL
3 70 (11.18%) Python
4 35 (5.59%) Java
5 32 (5.11%) JavaScript
6 20 (3.19%) Perl
7 18 (2.88%) C#
8 13 (2.08%) Bash
9 7 (1.12%) VB
10 6 (0.96%) X++
11 5 (0.80%) PHP
12 3 (0.48%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.32%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.32%) Bicep
13 2 (0.32%) Go
13 2 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.32%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.16%) R
14 1 (0.16%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 187 (29.87%) Security Cleared
2 110 (17.57%) SC Cleared
3 69 (11.02%) DV Cleared
4 65 (10.38%) Degree
5 55 (8.79%) Microsoft Certification
6 21 (3.35%) CISSP
7 19 (3.04%) Azure Certification
8 16 (2.56%) MCSE
8 16 (2.56%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 11 (1.76%) A+ Certification
9 11 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
9 11 (1.76%) GCFA
9 11 (1.76%) GCIH
9 11 (1.76%) Network+ Certification
9 11 (1.76%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (1.60%) ITIL Certification
10 10 (1.60%) PMI Certification
11 9 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (1.44%) GCIA
12 8 (1.28%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (6.71%) GDPR
2 26 (4.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 25 (3.99%) NIST
4 18 (2.88%) SLA
5 15 (2.40%) Data Quality
5 15 (2.40%) PMO
6 9 (1.44%) QA
7 5 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.64%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.48%) Accessibility
9 3 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.48%) ECSS
9 3 (0.48%) P3O
9 3 (0.48%) RMADS
10 2 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.32%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 19770
10 2 (0.32%) NCSC
10 2 (0.32%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 174 (27.80%) Active Directory
2 61 (9.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (3.83%) Hyper-V
4 22 (3.51%) vSphere
5 19 (3.04%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (2.08%) NFS
7 10 (1.60%) Brightmail
7 10 (1.60%) ISA Server
8 7 (1.12%) Docker
9 5 (0.80%) Terminal Services
10 4 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.48%) DFS Replication
11 3 (0.48%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 62 (9.90%) SCCM
2 57 (9.11%) Microsoft Intune
3 21 (3.35%) Ansible
4 19 (3.04%) Terraform
5 17 (2.72%) Kubernetes
6 15 (2.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 14 (2.24%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (2.08%) WMI
9 11 (1.76%) Microsoft Clustering
10 7 (1.12%) HP SiteScope
10 7 (1.12%) SCOM
10 7 (1.12%) vCenter Server
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%) EnCase
14 2 (0.32%) FTK
14 2 (0.32%) Progress Chef
14 2 (0.32%) QRadar
Vendors
1 83 (13.26%) VMware
2 70 (11.18%) Splunk
3 60 (9.58%) ServiceNow
4 50 (7.99%) Oracle
5 43 (6.87%) Cisco
6 27 (4.31%) SAP
7 19 (3.04%) Citrix
7 19 (3.04%) Meraki
8 15 (2.40%) Veeam
9 14 (2.24%) CrowdStrike
9 14 (2.24%) NetApp
10 11 (1.76%) CyberArk
10 11 (1.76%) Remedy
10 11 (1.76%) Salesforce
11 10 (1.60%) Red Hat
12 8 (1.28%) Google
12 8 (1.28%) Palo Alto
13 6 (0.96%) Databricks
13 6 (0.96%) LogRhythm
13 6 (0.96%) Workday