Microsoft Certification Contracts

Microsoft Certification
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Microsoft Certification qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 5 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
5 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 267 368 392
Rank change year-on-year +101 +24 -68
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 383 398 602
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.89% 0.67% 0.68%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.91% 2.47% 3.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 253 301 395
10th Percentile £176 £128 £137
25th Percentile £305 £348 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +17.65% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £538
90th Percentile £669 £675 £619
UK excluding London median daily rate £445 £480 £375
% change year-on-year -7.29% +28.00% -8.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 21 39
10th Percentile £13.69 - £13.25
25th Percentile £14.16 £15.25 £15.25
Median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.16% - -26.56%
75th Percentile £21.37 £18.75 £21.59
90th Percentile £21.46 £20.00 £32.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
% change year-on-year +5.16% - -18.42%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

Microsoft Certification is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,178 16,121 19,056
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.53% 27.29% 21.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,130 10,752 12,590
10th Percentile £300 £330 £330
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% +4.76% +8.25%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £626
90th Percentile £744 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £530 £500
% change year-on-year - +6.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,075 841 765
10th Percentile £13.86 £15.25 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.84 £20.00 £19.52
Median hourly rate £40.00 £54.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +27.06% +12.88%
75th Percentile £61.60 £68.25 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.25 £80.00 £66.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.94 £49.72 £34.38
% change year-on-year -17.66% +44.65% -0.48%

Microsoft Certification
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Certification over the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Certification over the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft Certification within the UK over the 6 months to 5 May 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 +97 322 £500 -0.50% 280
UK excluding London +41 240 £445 -7.29% 232
London +131 109 £500 - 60
Work from Home +50 89 £500 -3.85% 127
East of England +28 56 £135 -65.71% 18
South West +25 47 £541 +3.10% 43
South East +9 41 £425 -22.73% 46
North of England +27 39 £400 -23.81% 64
Scotland +50 31 £325 +155.48% 21
North West +23 28 £388 -29.55% 42
Midlands +20 24 £615 +174.55% 36
East Midlands +16 14 £406 +81.84% 11
West Midlands +17 10 £615 +173.33% 25
Yorkshire +16 6 £438 +52.17% 17
North East +19 5 £475 +331.82% 7
Northern Ireland +7 2 - - 6

Microsoft Certification
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 56 (14.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 42 (10.97%) SharePoint
3 16 (4.18%) Confluence
4 8 (2.09%) IIS
5 4 (1.04%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.52%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2003
7 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 30 (7.83%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (4.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (3.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.26%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 1 (0.26%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.78%) Dynamics GP
3 2 (0.52%) Eikon
4 1 (0.26%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 138 (36.03%) Microsoft 365
2 122 (31.85%) Azure
3 33 (8.62%) Dynamics 365
4 30 (7.83%) Power Platform
5 29 (7.57%) AWS
5 29 (7.57%) Entra ID
6 14 (3.66%) Azure Sentinel
7 10 (2.61%) Azure DevOps
7 10 (2.61%) Power Automate
8 9 (2.35%) GCP
8 9 (2.35%) OneDrive
9 8 (2.09%) WhatsApp
10 7 (1.83%) IaaS
11 6 (1.57%) Azure Data Factory
11 6 (1.57%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 6 (1.57%) Cloud Computing
11 6 (1.57%) PowerApps
12 5 (1.31%) GitHub
13 4 (1.04%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 4 (1.04%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 50 (13.05%) DNS
2 45 (11.75%) Wi-Fi
3 42 (10.97%) DHCP
4 34 (8.88%) Firewall
5 24 (6.27%) SAN
6 22 (5.74%) VPN
7 18 (4.70%) LAN
8 17 (4.44%) Network Security
8 17 (4.44%) WAN
9 14 (3.66%) TCP/IP
10 9 (2.35%) NAS
11 7 (1.83%) SSL
11 7 (1.83%) VoIP
12 6 (1.57%) Fibre Channel
13 5 (1.31%) iSCSI
13 5 (1.31%) Remote Desktop
13 5 (1.31%) VLAN
13 5 (1.31%) Wireless
14 4 (1.04%) Skype
15 3 (0.78%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (8.36%) SQL Server
2 10 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
2 10 (2.61%) Power BI
3 5 (1.31%) Big Data
3 5 (1.31%) MySQL
3 5 (1.31%) Relational Database
4 4 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
4 4 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (0.78%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
5 3 (0.78%) Data Lake
5 3 (0.78%) Microsoft Analysis Services
5 3 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.78%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 3 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 2 (0.52%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.52%) Metadata
6 2 (0.52%) Spark SQL
7 1 (0.26%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.26%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.26%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 20 (5.22%) JIRA
2 6 (1.57%) Git
3 1 (0.26%) Appium
3 1 (0.26%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.26%) MSI
3 1 (0.26%) Selenium
3 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio
3 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 127 (33.16%) Social Skills
2 79 (20.63%) Analytical Skills
3 62 (16.19%) Finance
4 60 (15.67%) Public Sector
5 36 (9.40%) Retail
6 24 (6.27%) Banking
7 16 (4.18%) Marketing
8 15 (3.92%) Military
9 13 (3.39%) Telecoms
10 9 (2.35%) Manufacturing
11 8 (2.09%) Police
11 8 (2.09%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
13 6 (1.57%) Front Office
14 4 (1.04%) Advertising
14 4 (1.04%) Legal
14 4 (1.04%) Pharmaceutical
15 3 (0.78%) Electronics
15 3 (0.78%) General Ledger
15 3 (0.78%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (17.23%) Analyst
2 50 (13.05%) Service Analyst
3 49 (12.79%) Service Desk Analyst
4 35 (9.14%) Support Engineer
5 34 (8.88%) Consultant
5 34 (8.88%) Senior
6 31 (8.09%) Architect
7 27 (7.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 20 (5.22%) Dynamics 365 Consultant
9 17 (4.44%) Solutions Architect
10 16 (4.18%) IT Engineer
10 16 (4.18%) Test Engineer
11 15 (3.92%) 1st Line Service Desk Analyst
11 15 (3.92%) DBA
11 15 (3.92%) Integration Engineer
11 15 (3.92%) IT Support
11 15 (3.92%) Test and Integration Engineer
12 14 (3.66%) Desktop Engineer
12 14 (3.66%) Desktop Support
12 14 (3.66%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.09%) LDAP
1 8 (2.09%) XML
2 6 (1.57%) JSON
2 6 (1.57%) Web Services
3 5 (1.31%) RESTful
3 5 (1.31%) SOAP
4 4 (1.04%) .NET
4 4 (1.04%) SPFx
5 3 (0.78%) CSS
6 2 (0.52%) OAuth
6 2 (0.52%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.52%) OLE
6 2 (0.52%) PySpark
6 2 (0.52%) Software Packaging
6 2 (0.52%) Spark Streaming
6 2 (0.52%) YAML
7 1 (0.26%) .NET Core
7 1 (0.26%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.26%) React
7 1 (0.26%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 47 (12.27%) PKI
2 27 (7.05%) Data Centre
2 27 (7.05%) Management Information System
3 16 (4.18%) Driving Licence
4 15 (3.92%) Clustering
5 14 (3.66%) Security Operations Centre
5 14 (3.66%) Security Posture
6 8 (2.09%) Analytical Mindset
6 8 (2.09%) NHS
6 8 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.83%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.31%) Low-Code
8 5 (1.31%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 4 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
9 4 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.04%) Video Conferencing
10 3 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (0.78%) Grid Computing
10 3 (0.78%) iPhone
10 3 (0.78%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 164 (42.82%) Windows
2 91 (23.76%) Windows Server
3 41 (10.70%) Windows 10
4 27 (7.05%) Windows Server 2012
5 22 (5.74%) Linux
6 11 (2.87%) Windows 7
7 9 (2.35%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (1.83%) CentOS
8 7 (1.83%) Unix
8 7 (1.83%) Windows Server 2008
9 6 (1.57%) Debian
9 6 (1.57%) Mac OS
10 5 (1.31%) Windows 8
10 5 (1.31%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (1.04%) VMS
12 3 (0.78%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.52%) Android
13 2 (0.52%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.52%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (31.33%) ITIL
2 96 (25.07%) Problem-Solving
3 86 (22.45%) Customer Service
4 49 (12.79%) Incident Management
5 42 (10.97%) Agile
5 42 (10.97%) Computer Science
6 34 (8.88%) Service Management
7 30 (7.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 30 (7.83%) Migration
8 29 (7.57%) Service Delivery
9 27 (7.05%) Cybersecurity
10 25 (6.53%) Data Modelling
11 24 (6.27%) Disaster Recovery
11 24 (6.27%) High Availability
12 22 (5.74%) Security Operations
13 21 (5.48%) Identity Access Management
13 21 (5.48%) Project Management
14 18 (4.70%) Cloud Security
14 18 (4.70%) DevOps
15 17 (4.44%) Change Control
Programming Languages
1 56 (14.62%) PowerShell
2 47 (12.27%) SQL
3 14 (3.66%) Kusto Query Language
4 6 (1.57%) Python
5 5 (1.31%) C#
5 5 (1.31%) JavaScript
6 4 (1.04%) Bash
7 3 (0.78%) VB.NET
8 2 (0.52%) Bicep
8 2 (0.52%) C++
8 2 (0.52%) Scala
8 2 (0.52%) X++
9 1 (0.26%) Java
9 1 (0.26%) R
9 1 (0.26%) VB
Qualifications
1 102 (26.63%) MCSE
2 96 (25.07%) Degree
3 91 (23.76%) Security Cleared
4 85 (22.19%) MCSA
5 81 (21.15%) A+ Certification
6 73 (19.06%) SC Cleared
7 43 (11.23%) Azure Certification
8 39 (10.18%) Cisco Certification
9 35 (9.14%) MCP
10 34 (8.88%) CCNA
11 29 (7.57%) Computer Science Degree
12 28 (7.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 20 (5.22%) MCITP
14 19 (4.96%) CISSP
15 18 (4.70%) DV Cleared
16 14 (3.66%) CompTIA Security+
17 13 (3.39%) CCNP
17 13 (3.39%) ITIL Certification
17 13 (3.39%) MCTS
17 13 (3.39%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.92%) JSP 440
1 15 (3.92%) SLA
2 6 (1.57%) NIST
3 5 (1.31%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.04%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (0.78%) GDPR
5 3 (0.78%) ISO 9001
5 3 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 3 (0.78%) NCSC
6 2 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (0.52%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.52%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.52%) SOC 2
System Software
1 150 (39.16%) Active Directory
2 54 (14.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (6.01%) Hyper-V
4 18 (4.70%) vSphere
5 6 (1.57%) KVM
6 5 (1.31%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (1.04%) Firmware
7 4 (1.04%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.52%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.52%) Docker
8 2 (0.52%) XenApp
8 2 (0.52%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.26%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 37 (9.66%) SCCM
2 23 (6.01%) Microsoft Intune
3 16 (4.18%) OPNET
4 9 (2.35%) WSUS
5 8 (2.09%) SCOM
6 6 (1.57%) Terraform
7 4 (1.04%) Kubernetes
7 4 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.78%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.52%) Backup Exec
9 2 (0.52%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.26%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.26%) Grafana
10 1 (0.26%) Nagios
10 1 (0.26%) Nessus
10 1 (0.26%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.26%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 317 (82.77%) Microsoft
2 73 (19.06%) VMware
3 56 (14.62%) ServiceNow
4 54 (14.10%) Citrix
5 21 (5.48%) Dell
6 13 (3.39%) Cisco
7 9 (2.35%) Apple
8 8 (2.09%) CA
8 8 (2.09%) HP
8 8 (2.09%) Red Hat
9 7 (1.83%) Google
10 5 (1.31%) Bloomberg
10 5 (1.31%) Databricks
11 4 (1.04%) SolarWinds
11 4 (1.04%) Veeam
12 3 (0.78%) Refinitiv
12 3 (0.78%) SAP
13 2 (0.52%) Nexthink
13 2 (0.52%) Okta
13 2 (0.52%) Oracle