Microsoft 365 Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Microsoft 365 (M365, Office 365, O365)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring Microsoft 365 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 34 32
Rank change year-on-year -4 -2 -5
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 369 210 198
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.08% 5.34% 4.75%
As % of the Cloud Services category 15.01% 16.13% 15.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 133 136
10th Percentile £143 £138 £157
25th Percentile £185 £185 £191
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £250 £265 £282
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% -5.86% -6.17%
75th Percentile £500 £450 £478
90th Percentile £600 £555 £619
England median daily rate £400 £325 £399
% change year-on-year +23.08% -18.50% +6.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 16 13
10th Percentile £17.08 £12.50 £12.20
25th Percentile £17.56 £12.74 £13.00
Median hourly rate £25.38 £13.00 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +95.23% -27.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £26.22 £30.63 £21.50
90th Percentile £178.75 - £22.00
England median hourly rate £18.00 £19.27 £19.00
% change year-on-year -6.59% +1.42% -

All Cloud Computing Skills
North of England

Microsoft 365 falls under the Cloud Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring cloud computing skills in the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for cloud computing skills 2,459 1,302 1,313
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 33.84% 33.12% 31.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,577 933 892
10th Percentile £306 £286 £276
25th Percentile £400 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year +8.11% -2.63% -6.86%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £575
90th Percentile £675 £630 £650
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 29 47
10th Percentile £18.13 £12.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £26.06 £12.82 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £28.75 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +126.09% +79.02% -40.96%
75th Percentile £70.00 £52.50 £30.25
90th Percentile £77.00 £78.75 £70.45
England median hourly rate £37.24 £25.15 £23.80
% change year-on-year +48.07% +5.67% -29.79%

Microsoft 365
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft 365 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

Microsoft 365 job vacancy trend in the North of England

Microsoft 365
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Microsoft 365.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft 365 in the North of England over the 6 months to 4 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft 365 in the North of England

Microsoft 365
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Microsoft 365.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft 365 in the North of England over the 6 months to 4 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft 365 in the North of England

Microsoft 365
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Microsoft 365 within the North of England region over the 6 months to 4 August 2026. 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
North West +7 211 £230 -34.29% 144
Yorkshire -9 146 £338 +28.15% 83
North East -42 15 £270 +38.46% 39
Microsoft 365
England

Microsoft 365
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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
1 124 (33.60%) SharePoint
2 79 (21.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.90%) SharePoint Server
4 5 (1.36%) Confluence
5 3 (0.81%) CMS
6 1 (0.27%) IIS
6 1 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 23 (6.23%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.81%) Acrobat
3 3 (0.81%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (2.71%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 149 (40.38%) Azure
2 96 (26.02%) Entra ID
3 58 (15.72%) Microsoft Copilot
4 54 (14.63%) OneDrive
4 54 (14.63%) Power Platform
5 35 (9.49%) PowerApps
6 33 (8.94%) Power Automate
7 17 (4.61%) Azure DevOps
7 17 (4.61%) Microsoft Purview
8 16 (4.34%) AWS
9 15 (4.07%) Dynamics 365
10 13 (3.52%) SaaS
11 12 (3.25%) GCP
12 11 (2.98%) GitHub
13 10 (2.71%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.71%) Google Workspace
14 9 (2.44%) Azure AI
15 7 (1.90%) Google Drive
16 6 (1.63%) Copilot Studio
16 6 (1.63%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.21%) VPN
2 18 (4.88%) DNS
3 17 (4.61%) LAN
4 14 (3.79%) Firewall
4 14 (3.79%) Wi-Fi
5 12 (3.25%) DHCP
5 12 (3.25%) VLAN
6 11 (2.98%) WAN
7 9 (2.44%) TCP/IP
7 9 (2.44%) VoIP
8 8 (2.17%) Wireless
9 7 (1.90%) SAN
9 7 (1.90%) WLAN
10 6 (1.63%) Skype
11 5 (1.36%) Cisco ASA
12 4 (1.08%) BGP
12 4 (1.08%) Cisco Nexus
12 4 (1.08%) IPsec
12 4 (1.08%) NAS
12 4 (1.08%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (4.61%) Power BI
2 6 (1.63%) Amazon RDS
2 6 (1.63%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.81%) Metadata
4 2 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.54%) Data Lake
4 2 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.27%) EDRMS
5 1 (0.27%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 18 (4.88%) JIRA
2 3 (0.81%) Browser DevTools
2 3 (0.81%) Fiddler
2 3 (0.81%) MSI
3 2 (0.54%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3 2 (0.54%) Terragrunt
3 2 (0.54%) Zephyr
4 1 (0.27%) Postman
General
1 138 (37.40%) Social Skills
2 55 (14.91%) Public Sector
3 39 (10.57%) Legal
4 37 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
5 30 (8.13%) Finance
6 15 (4.07%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (2.98%) Law
8 9 (2.44%) Local Government
9 8 (2.17%) Banking
9 8 (2.17%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
11 6 (1.63%) Telecoms
12 5 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.08%) Games
13 4 (1.08%) Police
14 2 (0.54%) Advertising
14 2 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.54%) Retail
15 1 (0.27%) Military
Job Titles
1 84 (22.76%) IT Support
2 59 (15.99%) Support Engineer
3 52 (14.09%) IT Engineer
4 51 (13.82%) IT Support Engineer
5 45 (12.20%) Analyst
6 29 (7.86%) 2nd Line Support
7 27 (7.32%) Architect
7 27 (7.32%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
8 25 (6.78%) 1st Line Support
9 21 (5.69%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 21 (5.69%) Service Analyst
9 21 (5.69%) Service Desk Analyst
10 18 (4.88%) IT Analyst
10 18 (4.88%) Senior
11 17 (4.61%) Solutions Architect
12 16 (4.34%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
12 16 (4.34%) Support Analyst
13 15 (4.07%) Designer
14 13 (3.52%) Administrator
14 13 (3.52%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (4.34%) Microsoft Graph
2 8 (2.17%) OAuth
3 5 (1.36%) OpenID
3 5 (1.36%) REST
3 5 (1.36%) SAML
3 5 (1.36%) YAML
4 4 (1.08%) .NET
5 3 (0.81%) .NET Framework
5 3 (0.81%) FIDO
5 3 (0.81%) OAuth2
5 3 (0.81%) SOAP
5 3 (0.81%) Web Services
6 2 (0.54%) JSON
6 2 (0.54%) ODBC
6 2 (0.54%) React
6 2 (0.54%) SPFx
6 2 (0.54%) XSLT
7 1 (0.27%) HTML5 Canvas
7 1 (0.27%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 28 (7.59%) Onboarding
2 14 (3.79%) Enterprise Software
3 10 (2.71%) Driving Licence
4 9 (2.44%) Analytical Mindset
4 9 (2.44%) Data Centre
5 7 (1.90%) Blackberry
5 7 (1.90%) Mobile App
5 7 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (1.63%) Management Information System
7 5 (1.36%) Handset
7 5 (1.36%) NHS
7 5 (1.36%) PKI
8 4 (1.08%) Animation
8 4 (1.08%) CMDB
8 4 (1.08%) Product Ownership
9 3 (0.81%) Freedom of Information
9 3 (0.81%) Housing Association
9 3 (0.81%) Smartphone
9 3 (0.81%) Video Conferencing
10 2 (0.54%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 202 (54.74%) Windows
2 86 (23.31%) Windows 10
3 35 (9.49%) Windows Server
4 22 (5.96%) Android
5 19 (5.15%) Apple iOS
6 4 (1.08%) Linux
6 4 (1.08%) Mac OS
6 4 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.54%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.27%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (21.41%) Customer Service
2 75 (20.33%) ITIL
3 74 (20.05%) Problem-Solving
4 40 (10.84%) Service Management
5 36 (9.76%) Continuous Improvement
6 31 (8.40%) ITSM
6 31 (8.40%) Migration
7 30 (8.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 28 (7.59%) Agile
8 28 (7.59%) DevOps
9 24 (6.50%) AI
9 24 (6.50%) Incident Management
10 23 (6.23%) Data Loss Prevention
11 22 (5.96%) Computer Science
11 22 (5.96%) User Experience
12 18 (4.88%) Change Management
12 18 (4.88%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 18 (4.88%) Identity Access Management
13 17 (4.61%) Analytics
13 17 (4.61%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 39 (10.57%) PowerShell
2 7 (1.90%) Python
2 7 (1.90%) SQL
3 4 (1.08%) C#
3 4 (1.08%) T-SQL
4 3 (0.81%) JavaScript
4 3 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (0.54%) Bicep
5 2 (0.54%) Shell Script
5 2 (0.54%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.27%) Bash
Qualifications
1 53 (14.36%) Degree
2 48 (13.01%) Security Cleared
3 36 (9.76%) SC Cleared
4 27 (7.32%) Microsoft Certification
5 21 (5.69%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (2.44%) A+ Certification
6 9 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (2.44%) Network+ Certification
7 7 (1.90%) DBS Check
8 6 (1.63%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (1.08%) CCNP
10 4 (1.08%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.54%) Azure Certification
12 2 (0.54%) MCSE
12 2 (0.54%) Numerate Degree
13 1 (0.27%) PMP
13 1 (0.27%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.52%) SLA
2 8 (2.17%) GDPR
3 5 (1.36%) Accessibility
3 5 (1.36%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (1.36%) QA
3 5 (1.36%) WCAG
4 3 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 3 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (0.81%) NIST
5 2 (0.54%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.54%) GRC
5 2 (0.54%) IASME
6 1 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.27%) FINRA
6 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
6 1 (0.27%) MiFID
6 1 (0.27%) PMO
System Software
1 175 (47.43%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.98%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (1.90%) Hyper-V
4 6 (1.63%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.54%) Docker
7 1 (0.27%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 75 (20.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (4.34%) Jamf Pro
3 11 (2.98%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.71%) SCCM
5 9 (2.44%) Terraform
6 4 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.81%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
8 2 (0.54%) Kubernetes
8 2 (0.54%) WSUS
9 1 (0.27%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.27%) Tivoli
9 1 (0.27%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 269 (72.90%) Microsoft
2 57 (15.45%) ServiceNow
3 21 (5.69%) Cisco
4 20 (5.42%) iManage
5 18 (4.88%) Bomgar
6 16 (4.34%) Google
7 13 (3.52%) Apple
7 13 (3.52%) Remedy
8 11 (2.98%) Citrix
9 9 (2.44%) CyberArk
9 9 (2.44%) VMware
10 7 (1.90%) Sophos
11 6 (1.63%) BeyondTrust
12 5 (1.36%) Adobe
13 4 (1.08%) CheckPoint
13 4 (1.08%) Perforce
14 3 (0.81%) DocuSign
14 3 (0.81%) IBM
14 3 (0.81%) Palo Alto
14 3 (0.81%) SAP