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 26 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 27 32
Rank change year-on-year -5 +5 +2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 345 207 229
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.33% 6.31% 4.92%
As % of the Cloud Services category 15.66% 19.03% 16.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 221 141 153
10th Percentile £133 £150 £143
25th Percentile £185 £188 £185
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £265 £250
Median % change year-on-year +32.08% +6.00% -16.67%
75th Percentile £525 £456 £425
90th Percentile £588 £538 £570
England median daily rate £425 £325 £350
% change year-on-year +30.77% -7.14% -7.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 13 30
10th Percentile £14.25 - £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £12.50 £13.06
Median hourly rate £25.38 £13.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +95.23% -18.75% -12.33%
75th Percentile - £30.63 £17.72
90th Percentile £178.75 - £18.88
England median hourly rate £19.00 £18.51 £16.30
% change year-on-year +2.65% +13.56% -11.89%

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 2,203 1,088 1,374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 34.05% 33.15% 29.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,465 807 975
10th Percentile £313 £261 £263
25th Percentile £400 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £487 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year +2.53% -2.06% -5.37%
75th Percentile £575 £545 £575
90th Percentile £650 £638 £650
England median daily rate £513 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 26 78
10th Percentile £18.50 £12.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £32.50 £12.82 £15.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £28.75 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +117.39% +79.02% -50.58%
75th Percentile £74.50 £51.16 £22.00
90th Percentile £91.00 £82.50 £44.48
England median hourly rate £39.50 £25.50 £21.37
% change year-on-year +54.90% +19.33% -38.76%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 +2 172 £223 -11.00% 91
Yorkshire -6 168 £450 +69.81% 61
North East -30 9 £400 +33.33% 22
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
1 134 (38.84%) SharePoint
2 93 (26.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.03%) Confluence
4 3 (0.87%) CMS
4 3 (0.87%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.29%) IIS
Applications
1 34 (9.86%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (3.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.16%) Acrobat
5 2 (0.58%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.29%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (3.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 121 (35.07%) Azure
2 84 (24.35%) Entra ID
3 70 (20.29%) OneDrive
4 46 (13.33%) Microsoft Purview
5 45 (13.04%) Microsoft Copilot
6 37 (10.72%) Power Platform
7 27 (7.83%) PowerApps
8 23 (6.67%) SaaS
9 21 (6.09%) Power Automate
10 18 (5.22%) AWS
11 15 (4.35%) Dynamics 365
12 13 (3.77%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (3.48%) GCP
13 12 (3.48%) Rubrik
14 10 (2.90%) Google Workspace
15 9 (2.61%) GitHub
15 9 (2.61%) GitHub Actions
16 7 (2.03%) Google Drive
16 7 (2.03%) PaaS
17 5 (1.45%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (7.83%) Wi-Fi
2 24 (6.96%) LAN
3 23 (6.67%) WAN
4 18 (5.22%) VPN
5 17 (4.93%) DNS
6 10 (2.90%) TCP/IP
7 9 (2.61%) Skype
7 9 (2.61%) VLAN
8 8 (2.32%) DHCP
8 8 (2.32%) Firewall
9 6 (1.74%) Unified Communications
10 5 (1.45%) DKIM
10 5 (1.45%) DMARC
11 4 (1.16%) NetScaler
12 3 (0.87%) PSTN
12 3 (0.87%) SAN
12 3 (0.87%) VoIP
12 3 (0.87%) Wireless
12 3 (0.87%) WLAN
13 2 (0.58%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.61%) Power BI
2 5 (1.45%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.58%) Data Lake
4 2 (0.58%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.29%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 14 (4.06%) JIRA
2 3 (0.87%) Browser DevTools
2 3 (0.87%) Fiddler
2 3 (0.87%) MSI
3 2 (0.58%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.58%) Terragrunt
4 1 (0.29%) Postman
General
1 133 (38.55%) Social Skills
2 55 (15.94%) Finance
2 55 (15.94%) Legal
3 48 (13.91%) Public Sector
4 31 (8.99%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (5.51%) Documentation Skills
6 15 (4.35%) Banking
7 13 (3.77%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (2.61%) Local Government
8 9 (2.61%) Telecoms
9 8 (2.32%) Manufacturing
10 5 (1.45%) Retail
11 3 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.58%) General Ledger
12 2 (0.58%) Law
12 2 (0.58%) Military
13 1 (0.29%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.29%) Police
13 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 64 (18.55%) IT Support
2 49 (14.20%) Architect
3 43 (12.46%) Analyst
4 41 (11.88%) Microsoft 365 Architect
5 33 (9.57%) Support Engineer
6 32 (9.28%) 1st Line Support
7 31 (8.99%) IT Engineer
8 28 (8.12%) IT Support Engineer
9 26 (7.54%) Support Analyst
10 24 (6.96%) IT Analyst
11 23 (6.67%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
12 20 (5.80%) IT Support Analyst
13 17 (4.93%) 2nd Line Support
13 17 (4.93%) Senior
14 12 (3.48%) Administrator
14 12 (3.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 11 (3.19%) IT Technician
15 11 (3.19%) Lead
15 11 (3.19%) Tester
16 10 (2.90%) 2nd Line Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (11.01%) Microsoft Graph
2 9 (2.61%) OAuth
3 6 (1.74%) .NET
4 5 (1.45%) OpenID
4 5 (1.45%) SAML
5 4 (1.16%) JSON
5 4 (1.16%) REST
5 4 (1.16%) YAML
6 3 (0.87%) .NET Framework
6 3 (0.87%) FIDO
6 3 (0.87%) LDAP
6 3 (0.87%) OAuth2
6 3 (0.87%) SOAP
6 3 (0.87%) Web Services
7 2 (0.58%) XSLT
8 1 (0.29%) React
8 1 (0.29%) Software Packaging
8 1 (0.29%) SPFx
8 1 (0.29%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (9.57%) Onboarding
2 14 (4.06%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (1.74%) Mobile App
4 5 (1.45%) CMDB
4 5 (1.45%) Data Centre
4 5 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
4 5 (1.45%) Management Information System
4 5 (1.45%) NHS
5 4 (1.16%) Private Cloud
5 4 (1.16%) Public Cloud
6 3 (0.87%) Driving Licence
6 3 (0.87%) Freedom of Information
6 3 (0.87%) Housing Association
6 3 (0.87%) IoT
6 3 (0.87%) Low-Code
6 3 (0.87%) Product Ownership
6 3 (0.87%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (0.58%) CCTV
8 1 (0.29%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.29%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 174 (50.43%) Windows
2 85 (24.64%) Windows 10
3 19 (5.51%) Windows Server
4 16 (4.64%) Apple iOS
5 14 (4.06%) Android
6 7 (2.03%) Mac OS
7 5 (1.45%) Windows Server 2012
7 5 (1.45%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.87%) Linux
8 3 (0.87%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.29%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (20.87%) Customer Service
2 56 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
3 42 (12.17%) ITIL
4 38 (11.01%) Data Loss Prevention
5 37 (10.72%) Migration
6 31 (8.99%) E-Discovery
7 28 (8.12%) Records Management
8 27 (7.83%) DevOps
8 27 (7.83%) ITSM
9 26 (7.54%) Service Management
10 24 (6.96%) Information Governance
11 23 (6.67%) Identity Access Management
12 22 (6.38%) AI
12 22 (6.38%) Cybersecurity
12 22 (6.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 22 (6.38%) Project Delivery
13 21 (6.09%) Stakeholder Management
14 20 (5.80%) Data Protection
14 20 (5.80%) Observability
14 20 (5.80%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 66 (19.13%) PowerShell
2 15 (4.35%) Kusto Query Language
3 8 (2.32%) Python
4 5 (1.45%) SQL
5 3 (0.87%) Bash
5 3 (0.87%) C#
6 2 (0.58%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.58%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.58%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.29%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 39 (11.30%) Degree
2 31 (8.99%) Security Cleared
3 28 (8.12%) Microsoft Certification
4 27 (7.83%) SC Cleared
5 12 (3.48%) A+ Certification
5 12 (3.48%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (2.61%) Network+ Certification
7 5 (1.45%) DBS Check
8 3 (0.87%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.29%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.29%) CISM
9 1 (0.29%) CISSP
9 1 (0.29%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (10.14%) GDPR
2 12 (3.48%) FINRA
2 12 (3.48%) MiFID
3 8 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.16%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.16%) SLA
5 2 (0.58%) Accessibility
5 2 (0.58%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.58%) NIST
5 2 (0.58%) WCAG
6 1 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.29%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.29%) PMO
6 1 (0.29%) QA
6 1 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.29%) SOC 2
System Software
1 144 (41.74%) Active Directory
2 14 (4.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (2.90%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (1.74%) Docker
5 5 (1.45%) Hyper-V
5 5 (1.45%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (1.16%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 58 (16.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (4.35%) SCCM
3 12 (3.48%) Jamf Pro
3 12 (3.48%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 6 (1.74%) Kubernetes
5 6 (1.74%) Terraform
6 3 (0.87%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (0.58%) WSUS
8 1 (0.29%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.29%) Norton AntiVirus
8 1 (0.29%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.29%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 270 (78.26%) Microsoft
2 28 (8.12%) ServiceNow
3 19 (5.51%) Cisco
4 17 (4.93%) Bomgar
4 17 (4.93%) Google
4 17 (4.93%) iManage
4 17 (4.93%) VMware
5 15 (4.35%) Citrix
6 13 (3.77%) Remedy
7 8 (2.32%) Apple
7 8 (2.32%) Veeam
8 6 (1.74%) Adobe
8 6 (1.74%) Meraki
9 4 (1.16%) F5
10 3 (0.87%) CyberArk
11 2 (0.58%) Dell
11 2 (0.58%) HP
11 2 (0.58%) Okta
11 2 (0.58%) SYSPRO
11 2 (0.58%) Tanium