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 1 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
1 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 258 351 406
Rank change year-on-year +93 +55 -76
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Certification 389 377 552
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.90% 0.67% 0.63%
As % of the Qualifications category 3.02% 2.47% 2.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 254 289 361
10th Percentile £195 £140 £150
25th Percentile £314 £381 £215
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £520 £440
Median % change year-on-year -8.65% +18.18% +3.53%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £538
90th Percentile £675 £675 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £508 £385
% change year-on-year -11.33% +31.82% -3.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 15 41
10th Percentile £13.54 - -
25th Percentile £14.16 £15.25 £15.25
Median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.16% - -4.62%
75th Percentile £21.37 £18.75 £20.51
90th Percentile - - £25.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.30 £15.50 £15.50
% change year-on-year +5.16% - +3.33%

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 12,872 15,254 19,038
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 29.89% 27.21% 21.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,011 10,183 12,699
10th Percentile £310 £338 £345
25th Percentile £425 £450 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% +4.76% +6.06%
75th Percentile £645 £650 £630
90th Percentile £738 £738 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £535 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +1.90% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,100 745 759
10th Percentile £13.87 £14.67 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.13 £21.24 £19.52
Median hourly rate £40.00 £55.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -27.27% +23.60% +28.21%
75th Percentile £62.50 £68.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £76.32 £79.19 £67.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.25 £52.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -21.43% +50.00% +16.67%

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 1 June 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 1 June 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Certification in the UK

Microsoft Certification
Top 15 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 1 June 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 +96 321 £500 -3.85% 272
UK excluding London +36 232 £450 -11.33% 216
London +114 119 £500 -1.23% 67
Work from Home +50 102 £500 -4.76% 106
East of England +29 55 £135 -57.81% 20
South West +7 46 £538 +2.38% 33
Scotland +55 37 £340 +54.55% 19
South East 0 37 £481 -11.90% 41
North of England +18 36 £400 -25.58% 73
North West +17 27 £394 -31.52% 41
Midlands +14 21 £461 +36.44% 26
East Midlands +12 14 £406 +15.86% 8
West Midlands +5 7 £573 +76.15% 18
North East +15 5 £475 +331.82% 8
Yorkshire +13 4 £400 +252.42% 24

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 59 (15.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (11.05%) SharePoint
3 18 (4.63%) Confluence
4 8 (2.06%) IIS
5 3 (0.77%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.51%) Exchange Server 2007
6 2 (0.51%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2003
7 1 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
7 1 (0.26%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 27 (6.94%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (4.37%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (3.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (2.31%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.26%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (1.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.03%) Dynamics GP
3 2 (0.51%) Eikon
4 1 (0.26%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 136 (34.96%) Azure
1 136 (34.96%) Microsoft 365
2 38 (9.77%) Power Platform
3 35 (9.00%) Dynamics 365
4 34 (8.74%) AWS
5 32 (8.23%) Entra ID
6 17 (4.37%) GCP
7 15 (3.86%) Power Automate
8 13 (3.34%) Cloud Computing
9 12 (3.08%) Azure DevOps
10 11 (2.83%) PowerApps
11 10 (2.57%) IaaS
12 9 (2.31%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (2.31%) OneDrive
12 9 (2.31%) Twilio
13 8 (2.06%) WhatsApp
14 7 (1.80%) Azure Data Factory
14 7 (1.80%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 5 (1.29%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 5 (1.29%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 49 (12.60%) DNS
1 49 (12.60%) Wi-Fi
2 41 (10.54%) DHCP
3 34 (8.74%) Firewall
4 25 (6.43%) SAN
5 16 (4.11%) VoIP
5 16 (4.11%) VPN
6 14 (3.60%) LAN
7 13 (3.34%) TCP/IP
7 13 (3.34%) WAN
8 12 (3.08%) Network Security
9 10 (2.57%) NAS
10 9 (2.31%) CTI
10 9 (2.31%) SSL
11 7 (1.80%) Fibre Channel
11 7 (1.80%) VLAN
12 5 (1.29%) iSCSI
12 5 (1.29%) Unified Communications
12 5 (1.29%) Wireless
13 4 (1.03%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (9.00%) SQL Server
2 15 (3.86%) Power BI
3 10 (2.57%) Data Warehouse
4 6 (1.54%) Big Data
4 6 (1.54%) MySQL
5 5 (1.29%) Azure SQL Database
5 5 (1.29%) Relational Database
6 4 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (1.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 3 (0.77%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.77%) Data Lake
7 3 (0.77%) Delta Lake
7 3 (0.77%) Microsoft Analysis Services
7 3 (0.77%) Spark SQL
7 3 (0.77%) SQL Server Analysis Services
7 3 (0.77%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.51%) Metadata
9 1 (0.26%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.26%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.26%) ThoughtSpot
Development Applications
1 22 (5.66%) JIRA
2 6 (1.54%) 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%) SonarQube
3 1 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio
3 1 (0.26%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 127 (32.65%) Social Skills
2 79 (20.31%) Analytical Skills
3 66 (16.97%) Finance
4 59 (15.17%) Public Sector
5 44 (11.31%) Retail
6 25 (6.43%) Banking
7 20 (5.14%) Telecoms
8 18 (4.63%) Military
9 14 (3.60%) Marketing
10 10 (2.57%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.80%) Manufacturing
11 7 (1.80%) Police
12 5 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
13 4 (1.03%) Front Office
13 4 (1.03%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.77%) Advertising
14 3 (0.77%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.77%) General Ledger
14 3 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.77%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 62 (15.94%) Analyst
2 49 (12.60%) Service Analyst
3 48 (12.34%) Service Desk Analyst
4 42 (10.80%) Architect
5 38 (9.77%) Consultant
6 35 (9.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 33 (8.48%) Senior
8 28 (7.20%) Support Engineer
9 25 (6.43%) Solutions Architect
10 21 (5.40%) Dynamics 365 Consultant
11 19 (4.88%) Test Engineer
12 16 (4.11%) DBA
12 16 (4.11%) Desktop Engineer
12 16 (4.11%) Integration Engineer
12 16 (4.11%) IT Engineer
12 16 (4.11%) Test and Integration Engineer
13 15 (3.86%) 1st Line Service Desk Analyst
14 14 (3.60%) Functional Consultant
14 14 (3.60%) IT Support
14 14 (3.60%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.60%) Web Services
2 9 (2.31%) Middleware
3 8 (2.06%) .NET
3 8 (2.06%) RESTful
4 6 (1.54%) JSON
4 6 (1.54%) XML
5 5 (1.29%) SOAP
6 4 (1.03%) CSS
6 4 (1.03%) HTML5 Canvas
6 4 (1.03%) React
6 4 (1.03%) SPFx
7 3 (0.77%) ARM Templates
7 3 (0.77%) HTML
7 3 (0.77%) LDAP
7 3 (0.77%) PySpark
7 3 (0.77%) Spark Streaming
8 2 (0.51%) OAuth
8 2 (0.51%) OAuth2
8 2 (0.51%) YAML
9 1 (0.26%) ASP.NET Web API
Miscellaneous
1 47 (12.08%) PKI
2 29 (7.46%) Data Centre
3 26 (6.68%) Management Information System
4 15 (3.86%) Clustering
5 11 (2.83%) Driving Licence
6 9 (2.31%) Analytical Mindset
6 9 (2.31%) IVR
6 9 (2.31%) Security Operations Centre
6 9 (2.31%) Security Posture
6 9 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.80%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (1.54%) NHS
8 6 (1.54%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
9 5 (1.29%) iPhone
9 5 (1.29%) Low-Code
9 5 (1.29%) Replication
10 4 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.03%) Video Conferencing
11 3 (0.77%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 168 (43.19%) Windows
2 104 (26.74%) Windows Server
3 40 (10.28%) Windows 10
4 34 (8.74%) Windows Server 2012
5 23 (5.91%) Linux
6 13 (3.34%) Windows Server 2016
7 11 (2.83%) Windows 7
8 10 (2.57%) Mac OS
9 8 (2.06%) CentOS
10 7 (1.80%) Unix
10 7 (1.80%) Windows Server 2008
11 6 (1.54%) Debian
11 6 (1.54%) Windows 8
12 5 (1.29%) VMS
13 4 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
14 3 (0.77%) Ubuntu
15 2 (0.51%) Android
15 2 (0.51%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 2 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (33.42%) ITIL
2 99 (25.45%) Problem-Solving
3 87 (22.37%) Customer Service
4 57 (14.65%) Agile
5 48 (12.34%) Incident Management
6 41 (10.54%) Computer Science
7 38 (9.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 34 (8.74%) Migration
9 30 (7.71%) DevOps
10 29 (7.46%) Service Management
11 28 (7.20%) Service Delivery
12 26 (6.68%) Data Modelling
13 23 (5.91%) Cybersecurity
13 23 (5.91%) Disaster Recovery
13 23 (5.91%) High Availability
14 22 (5.66%) Analytics
15 20 (5.14%) Critical Thinking
15 20 (5.14%) Project Management
16 19 (4.88%) Regression Testing
16 19 (4.88%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 59 (15.17%) PowerShell
2 55 (14.14%) SQL
3 9 (2.31%) Kusto Query Language
4 8 (2.06%) Python
5 7 (1.80%) JavaScript
6 6 (1.54%) C#
7 4 (1.03%) Bash
8 3 (0.77%) Bicep
8 3 (0.77%) Scala
8 3 (0.77%) TypeScript
8 3 (0.77%) VB.NET
9 2 (0.51%) C++
9 2 (0.51%) X++
10 1 (0.26%) Java
10 1 (0.26%) VB
Qualifications
1 109 (28.02%) MCSE
2 98 (25.19%) Degree
3 92 (23.65%) MCSA
3 92 (23.65%) Security Cleared
4 80 (20.57%) SC Cleared
5 70 (17.99%) A+ Certification
6 49 (12.60%) Azure Certification
7 39 (10.03%) Cisco Certification
8 34 (8.74%) CCNA
9 33 (8.48%) MCP
9 33 (8.48%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 30 (7.71%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (4.37%) MCITP
12 16 (4.11%) AWS Certification
12 16 (4.11%) ITIL Certification
13 14 (3.60%) CISSP
14 13 (3.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 13 (3.34%) CCNP
14 13 (3.34%) MCTS
15 11 (2.83%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.34%) SLA
2 10 (2.57%) GDPR
2 10 (2.57%) PCI DSS
3 9 (2.31%) HIPAA
3 9 (2.31%) JSP 440
3 9 (2.31%) SOC 2
4 7 (1.80%) NIST
5 4 (1.03%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (1.03%) Disclosure Scotland
5 4 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.77%) ISO 9001
6 3 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 3 (0.77%) NCSC
7 2 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 151 (38.82%) Active Directory
2 57 (14.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (5.66%) Hyper-V
4 20 (5.14%) vSphere
5 9 (2.31%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (1.54%) KVM
7 5 (1.29%) Firmware
7 5 (1.29%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (1.03%) BitLocker
8 4 (1.03%) XenApp
8 4 (1.03%) XenDesktop
9 3 (0.77%) Docker
9 3 (0.77%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.51%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.26%) Terminal Services
11 1 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 37 (9.51%) SCCM
2 23 (5.91%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (3.08%) WSUS
4 9 (2.31%) OPNET
4 9 (2.31%) SCOM
5 6 (1.54%) Terraform
6 5 (1.29%) Kubernetes
7 4 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.03%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.77%) Backup Exec
9 2 (0.51%) CA Single Sign-On
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
1 321 (82.52%) Microsoft
2 78 (20.05%) VMware
3 59 (15.17%) Citrix
4 53 (13.62%) ServiceNow
5 24 (6.17%) Dell
6 22 (5.66%) Cisco
7 15 (3.86%) Google
8 10 (2.57%) Apple
9 9 (2.31%) Avaya
9 9 (2.31%) Genesys
9 9 (2.31%) Red Hat
10 8 (2.06%) CA
10 8 (2.06%) HP
11 6 (1.54%) Databricks
11 6 (1.54%) Okta
12 4 (1.03%) Aruba
12 4 (1.03%) Juniper
13 3 (0.77%) Bloomberg
13 3 (0.77%) Commvault
13 3 (0.77%) Fortinet