Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for WSUS skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited WSUS over the 6 months to 29 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 473 597 731
Rank change year-on-year +124 +134 -123
Contract jobs citing WSUS 127 116 125
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.29% 0.19% 0.14%
As % of the Systems Management category 2.47% 1.21% 0.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 83 83
10th Percentile £258 £300 £240
25th Percentile £413 £350 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £475 £425
Median % change year-on-year +21.05% +11.76% +6.25%
75th Percentile £608 £544 £498
90th Percentile - £638 £598
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £488 £425
% change year-on-year +17.95% +14.71% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 8 8
10th Percentile - - £20.00
25th Percentile £20.50 £36.75 £32.94
Median hourly rate £21.00 £60.00 £49.35
Median % change year-on-year -65.00% +21.59% -5.11%
75th Percentile £36.84 £61.13 £54.88
90th Percentile £39.45 £64.50 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.31 £38.50 £29.86
% change year-on-year +4.70% +28.92% +99.08%

All Systems Management Skills
UK

WSUS is in the Systems Management category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for systems management skills 5,146 9,616 14,232
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.80% 16.11% 16.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,676 6,945 10,277
10th Percentile £257 £356 £363
25th Percentile £413 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £563 £565
Median % change year-on-year -8.43% -0.44% +13.00%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £672
90th Percentile £700 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 209 187
10th Percentile £14.00 £16.48 £13.87
25th Percentile £17.77 £22.75 £15.81
Median hourly rate £30.00 £57.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.83% +155.56% -43.75%
75th Percentile £54.38 £71.50 £48.75
90th Percentile £70.50 £82.50 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.50 £43.75 £20.00
% change year-on-year -12.00% +118.75% -9.09%

WSUS
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing WSUS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing WSUS.

Daily rate trend for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WSUS over the 6 months to 29 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing WSUS.

Hourly rate trend for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WSUS over the 6 months to 29 April 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for WSUS in the UK

WSUS
Top 13 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WSUS within the UK over the 6 months to 29 April 2024. 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
England +130 120 £575 +21.05% 34
UK excluding London +74 99 £575 +17.95% 35
South East +79 83 £575 +43.75% 17
Work from Home +119 30 £605 +86.15% 9
London +114 26 £284 -12.69% 5
Scotland +37 5 £410 -8.89% 7
East of England +15 4 £265 -24.82% 3
South West -2 4 £525 -4.55% 1
North of England +2 2 £378 -20.53% 4
Midlands +23 1 £475 +25.00% 4
East Midlands +19 1 £475 -9.52% 2
North East +17 1 £180 -39.75% 1
North West +6 1 £575 +17.95% 3

WSUS
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 26 (20.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (3.15%) SharePoint
3 3 (2.36%) IIS
3 3 (2.36%) Skype for Business
4 2 (1.57%) Confluence
5 1 (0.79%) Exchange Server 2007
5 1 (0.79%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.79%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.79%) Site Server
Applications
1 10 (7.87%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 41 (32.28%) Azure
2 26 (20.47%) Microsoft 365
3 18 (14.17%) Entra ID
4 16 (12.60%) Azure Monitor
4 16 (12.60%) Azure Storage
5 13 (10.24%) OCI
6 9 (7.09%) AWS
7 3 (2.36%) IaaS
8 2 (1.57%) Amazon EC2
8 2 (1.57%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.57%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.79%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.79%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.79%) GitHub
9 1 (0.79%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 64 (50.39%) DNS
2 48 (37.80%) DHCP
3 37 (29.13%) Firewall
4 23 (18.11%) SAN
5 9 (7.09%) Wireless
6 8 (6.30%) VSAN
7 7 (5.51%) Internet
7 7 (5.51%) TCP/IP
8 6 (4.72%) NAS
9 3 (2.36%) Skype
9 3 (2.36%) Unified Communications
10 2 (1.57%) Remote Desktop
10 2 (1.57%) VLAN
10 2 (1.57%) Wi-Fi
11 1 (0.79%) Cisco Nexus
11 1 (0.79%) Fibre Channel
11 1 (0.79%) Kerberos
11 1 (0.79%) NetScaler
11 1 (0.79%) VPN
11 1 (0.79%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.72%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.15%) Elasticsearch
2 4 (3.15%) MySQL
2 4 (3.15%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 3 (2.36%) JIRA
2 1 (0.79%) Axure RP
2 1 (0.79%) Bitbucket
2 1 (0.79%) GitLab
General
1 69 (54.33%) Social Skills
2 8 (6.30%) Public Sector
3 6 (4.72%) Organisational Skills
4 4 (3.15%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (2.36%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (2.36%) Finance
5 3 (2.36%) Front Office
6 1 (0.79%) Advertising
6 1 (0.79%) Aerospace
6 1 (0.79%) Financial Institution
6 1 (0.79%) Manufacturing
6 1 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (0.79%) Russian Language
Job Titles
1 32 (25.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 25 (19.69%) Windows Engineer
3 21 (16.54%) Build Engineer
3 21 (16.54%) Windows Build Engineer
4 16 (12.60%) Support Specialist
5 15 (11.81%) Active Directory Support
5 15 (11.81%) Azure Specialist
6 14 (11.02%) Active Directory Specialist
7 13 (10.24%) Integration Engineer
7 13 (10.24%) Support Engineer
8 9 (7.09%) Storage Engineer
9 7 (5.51%) Senior
10 6 (4.72%) Infrastructure Support
10 6 (4.72%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (3.94%) 3rd Line Support
11 5 (3.94%) Desktop Analyst
11 5 (3.94%) Desktop Support
11 5 (3.94%) Desktop Support Analyst
11 5 (3.94%) Server Engineer
11 5 (3.94%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (11.81%) ARM Templates
2 7 (5.51%) Software Packaging
3 6 (4.72%) .NET
4 1 (0.79%) .NET Framework
4 1 (0.79%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 24 (18.90%) PKI
2 17 (13.39%) Self-Motivation
3 13 (10.24%) Data Centre
4 5 (3.94%) Management Information System
5 4 (3.15%) Fat Client
5 4 (3.15%) NHS
5 4 (3.15%) Thin Client
6 3 (2.36%) Clustering
7 2 (1.57%) BYOD
7 2 (1.57%) Client/Server
7 2 (1.57%) CMDB
8 1 (0.79%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.79%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 123 (96.85%) Windows
2 96 (75.59%) Windows Server
3 63 (49.61%) Windows Server 2019
4 57 (44.88%) Windows Server 2016
5 55 (43.31%) Windows Server 2012
6 42 (33.07%) Windows 10
7 39 (30.71%) Linux
8 21 (16.54%) Windows NT
9 13 (10.24%) Windows XP
10 8 (6.30%) Ubuntu
11 4 (3.15%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (2.36%) Apple iOS
12 3 (2.36%) Unix
12 3 (2.36%) Windows 7
13 2 (1.57%) Android
14 1 (0.79%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.79%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (51.97%) ITIL
2 50 (39.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 43 (33.86%) Release Management
4 41 (32.28%) Service Management
5 28 (22.05%) Customer Service
6 26 (20.47%) Deployment Automation
7 22 (17.32%) Patch Management
8 21 (16.54%) User Acceptance Testing
9 20 (15.75%) Agile
9 20 (15.75%) Problem-Solving
10 19 (14.96%) RBAC
11 17 (13.39%) Analytics
11 17 (13.39%) Multi-Factor Authentication
11 17 (13.39%) Server Management
12 16 (12.60%) DevOps
12 16 (12.60%) Disaster Recovery
12 16 (12.60%) Identity Management
12 16 (12.60%) Log Analytics
12 16 (12.60%) Privileged Identity Management
12 16 (12.60%) Proactive Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 59 (46.46%) PowerShell
2 17 (13.39%) C#
2 17 (13.39%) VB
3 16 (12.60%) VBScript
4 15 (11.81%) Bicep
5 7 (5.51%) SQL
6 4 (3.15%) Python
7 3 (2.36%) VB.NET
8 2 (1.57%) C++
9 1 (0.79%) Java
Qualifications
1 84 (66.14%) Security Cleared
2 65 (51.18%) DV Cleared
3 42 (33.07%) SC Cleared
4 37 (29.13%) Degree
5 18 (14.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 14 (11.02%) CCNA
6 14 (11.02%) CCNP
6 14 (11.02%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (6.30%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (3.94%) MCSE
9 4 (3.15%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (2.36%) Azure Certification
11 2 (1.57%) A+ Certification
11 2 (1.57%) Network+ Certification
12 1 (0.79%) BPSS Clearance
12 1 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.79%) CTC Cleared
12 1 (0.79%) MCP
12 1 (0.79%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (16.54%) QA
2 5 (3.94%) SLA
3 3 (2.36%) ISO 9001
3 3 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 104 (81.89%) Active Directory
2 47 (37.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (21.26%) Firmware
4 26 (20.47%) VMware ESXi
5 24 (18.90%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (16.54%) Hyper-V
7 16 (12.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (8.66%) vSphere
9 5 (3.94%) VMware NSX
10 3 (2.36%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (1.57%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.79%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.79%) XenApp
12 1 (0.79%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 75 (59.06%) SCCM
2 31 (24.41%) SCOM
3 27 (21.26%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (20.47%) vCenter Server
5 24 (18.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 21 (16.54%) Sysprep
7 16 (12.60%) Kubernetes
8 14 (11.02%) NetBackup
9 13 (10.24%) EMC NetWorker
10 6 (4.72%) Ansible
10 6 (4.72%) Nessus
11 4 (3.15%) Red Hat Satellite
11 4 (3.15%) ZABBIX
12 2 (1.57%) Terraform
13 1 (0.79%) Failover Clustering
13 1 (0.79%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.79%) Jamf Pro
13 1 (0.79%) Progress Chef
13 1 (0.79%) Puppet
13 1 (0.79%) VxRail
Vendors
1 101 (79.53%) Microsoft
2 59 (46.46%) VMware
3 23 (18.11%) Veeam
4 19 (14.96%) Cisco
5 18 (14.17%) Oracle
6 17 (13.39%) Dell
6 17 (13.39%) EMC
7 15 (11.81%) HP
7 15 (11.81%) Symantec
8 14 (11.02%) Juniper
8 14 (11.02%) Palo Alto
9 13 (10.24%) 3PAR
9 13 (10.24%) Extreme Networks
10 8 (6.30%) SolarWinds
11 5 (3.94%) Red Hat
12 3 (2.36%) Citrix
12 3 (2.36%) Qualys
12 3 (2.36%) Splunk
13 2 (1.57%) Apple
13 2 (1.57%) Atlassian