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 7 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 44 40
Rank change year-on-year +6 -4 -14
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 406 226 178
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.29% 5.51% 4.33%
As % of the Cloud Services category 16.04% 15.23% 13.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 265 139 107
10th Percentile £163 £126 £155
25th Percentile £190 £170 £191
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £313 £228 £375
Median % change year-on-year +37.58% -39.33% +25.00%
75th Percentile £492 £438 £500
90th Percentile £545 £551 £585
England median daily rate £400 £337 £400
% change year-on-year +18.61% -15.69% +14.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 16 10
10th Percentile £13.45 - £12.27
25th Percentile £15.88 £12.82 £17.44
Median hourly rate £19.00 £16.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.75% -23.81% +20.00%
75th Percentile £27.63 £18.87 £22.85
90th Percentile £111.50 £18.94 £25.01
England median hourly rate £17.85 £21.39 £22.50
% change year-on-year -16.55% -4.93% +21.62%

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 2,531 1,484 1,309
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 32.96% 36.21% 31.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,625 1,059 833
10th Percentile £283 £281 £301
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £488
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £575
90th Percentile £675 £638 £650
England median daily rate £525 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +4.90% -4.67% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 124 30 23
10th Percentile £17.25 £12.82 £12.06
25th Percentile £27.94 £15.50 £18.97
Median hourly rate £62.50 £18.87 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +231.21% -31.38% -16.03%
75th Percentile £70.00 £52.06 £46.18
90th Percentile £77.00 £71.68 £71.15
England median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +29.22% -28.14% +7.99%

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 7 October 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 7 October 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 7 October 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 +17 238 £325 +36.13% 171
Yorkshire -5 146 £213 -1.16% 125
North East -36 25 £273 +39.74% 47
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
1 149 (36.70%) SharePoint
2 80 (19.70%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.69%) SharePoint Server
4 5 (1.23%) Confluence
5 1 (0.25%) CMS
5 1 (0.25%) Exchange Server 2010
5 1 (0.25%) IIS
5 1 (0.25%) Mendix
5 1 (0.25%) SharePoint 2010
5 1 (0.25%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 23 (5.67%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (2.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.99%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.74%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.25%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (1.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.49%) SAP R/3
2 2 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 161 (39.66%) Azure
2 116 (28.57%) Entra ID
3 71 (17.49%) Power Platform
4 60 (14.78%) OneDrive
5 54 (13.30%) Microsoft Copilot
6 33 (8.13%) PowerApps
7 32 (7.88%) Power Automate
8 18 (4.43%) Azure AI
9 17 (4.19%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (3.94%) AWS
11 15 (3.69%) GCP
12 13 (3.20%) SaaS
13 11 (2.71%) GitHub
13 11 (2.71%) Google Workspace
13 11 (2.71%) Microsoft Purview
14 9 (2.22%) Copilot Studio
14 9 (2.22%) Miro
15 7 (1.72%) Google Drive
16 6 (1.48%) GitHub Actions
17 5 (1.23%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 37 (9.11%) VPN
2 32 (7.88%) DNS
3 23 (5.67%) DHCP
4 22 (5.42%) Firewall
5 18 (4.43%) VLAN
6 13 (3.20%) TCP/IP
7 12 (2.96%) LAN
7 12 (2.96%) Wireless
8 11 (2.71%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (2.22%) SAN
9 9 (2.22%) VoIP
9 9 (2.22%) WLAN
10 7 (1.72%) BGP
10 7 (1.72%) Cisco ASA
10 7 (1.72%) Cisco Nexus
10 7 (1.72%) OSPF
10 7 (1.72%) WAN
11 6 (1.48%) Cisco Firepower
11 6 (1.48%) Network Security
11 6 (1.48%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (6.16%) Power BI
2 9 (2.22%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.48%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.99%) Metadata
5 2 (0.49%) EDRMS
6 1 (0.25%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.25%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 17 (4.19%) JIRA
2 4 (0.99%) MSI
3 3 (0.74%) Claude Code
4 2 (0.49%) Browser DevTools
4 2 (0.49%) Fiddler
4 2 (0.49%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 2 (0.49%) Zephyr
5 1 (0.25%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.25%) Terragrunt
General
1 151 (37.19%) Social Skills
2 45 (11.08%) Analytical Skills
3 37 (9.11%) Public Sector
4 33 (8.13%) Finance
5 29 (7.14%) Legal
6 16 (3.94%) Organisational Skills
7 15 (3.69%) Manufacturing
8 13 (3.20%) Law
9 10 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.48%) Banking
11 5 (1.23%) Games
11 5 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.99%) Police
12 4 (0.99%) Retail
12 4 (0.99%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.49%) Advertising
14 2 (0.49%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 85 (20.94%) IT Support
2 59 (14.53%) Support Engineer
3 50 (12.32%) IT Engineer
4 48 (11.82%) IT Support Engineer
5 47 (11.58%) Analyst
6 29 (7.14%) 2nd Line Support
6 29 (7.14%) Architect
7 27 (6.65%) Service Analyst
7 27 (6.65%) Service Desk Analyst
8 24 (5.91%) Lead
9 23 (5.67%) Senior
10 21 (5.17%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 19 (4.68%) Developer
12 18 (4.43%) 1st Line Support
13 17 (4.19%) Solutions Architect
14 16 (3.94%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
14 16 (3.94%) IT Analyst
14 16 (3.94%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
15 15 (3.69%) Deployment Engineer
15 15 (3.69%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.46%) Microsoft Graph
2 8 (1.97%) Terraform
3 7 (1.72%) OAuth
4 5 (1.23%) YAML
5 4 (0.99%) OpenID
5 4 (0.99%) SAML
6 3 (0.74%) REST
7 2 (0.49%) ADO
7 2 (0.49%) FIDO
7 2 (0.49%) JSON
7 2 (0.49%) LDAP
7 2 (0.49%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.49%) ODBC
7 2 (0.49%) React
7 2 (0.49%) SPFx
7 2 (0.49%) XSLT
8 1 (0.25%) .NET
8 1 (0.25%) A2A Protocol
8 1 (0.25%) EDI
8 1 (0.25%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 32 (7.88%) Onboarding
2 19 (4.68%) Driving Licence
2 19 (4.68%) Enterprise Software
3 15 (3.69%) CMDB
4 13 (3.20%) Management Information System
5 12 (2.96%) Data Centre
6 10 (2.46%) Analytical Mindset
7 9 (2.22%) Blackberry
7 9 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (2.22%) Video Conferencing
8 7 (1.72%) Handset
8 7 (1.72%) Mobile App
9 6 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.23%) Animation
10 5 (1.23%) PKI
11 4 (0.99%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (0.99%) NHS
11 4 (0.99%) Product Ownership
11 4 (0.99%) Smartphone
12 3 (0.74%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 217 (53.45%) Windows
2 77 (18.97%) Windows 10
3 52 (12.81%) Windows Server
4 26 (6.40%) Android
5 25 (6.16%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.97%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.72%) Linux
8 5 (1.23%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.74%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.49%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.25%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.25%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (24.88%) Problem-Solving
2 90 (22.17%) ITIL
3 86 (21.18%) Customer Service
4 45 (11.08%) Continuous Improvement
4 45 (11.08%) Service Management
5 40 (9.85%) Migration
6 37 (9.11%) ITSM
7 36 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 33 (8.13%) User Experience
9 32 (7.88%) Stakeholder Management
10 31 (7.64%) Agile
11 30 (7.39%) Incident Management
12 29 (7.14%) AI
13 27 (6.65%) DevOps
14 26 (6.40%) Cybersecurity
15 24 (5.91%) Change Management
16 23 (5.67%) Computer Science
17 22 (5.42%) Data Protection
17 22 (5.42%) Technical Leadership
18 21 (5.17%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 48 (11.82%) PowerShell
2 9 (2.22%) Python
3 6 (1.48%) SQL
3 6 (1.48%) TypeScript
4 5 (1.23%) T-SQL
5 4 (0.99%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.74%) C#
7 2 (0.49%) Bicep
8 1 (0.25%) Bash
8 1 (0.25%) C
8 1 (0.25%) Google Apps Script
8 1 (0.25%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 64 (15.76%) Degree
2 53 (13.05%) Security Cleared
3 34 (8.37%) SC Cleared
4 25 (6.16%) Microsoft Certification
5 22 (5.42%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (4.68%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (2.22%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 8 (1.97%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (1.97%) DV Cleared
9 7 (1.72%) A+ Certification
9 7 (1.72%) CCNP
9 7 (1.72%) DBS Check
9 7 (1.72%) Network+ Certification
10 5 (1.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 4 (0.99%) Azure Certification
12 3 (0.74%) PMI Certification
12 3 (0.74%) PMP
13 2 (0.49%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.49%) MCSE
13 2 (0.49%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.91%) SLA
2 8 (1.97%) Data Quality
3 7 (1.72%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (1.48%) Accessibility
4 6 (1.48%) GDPR
5 5 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 5 (1.23%) NIST
5 5 (1.23%) WCAG
6 4 (0.99%) GRC
6 4 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.99%) PMO
6 4 (0.99%) QA
7 2 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.49%) IASME
8 1 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.25%) ITGC
System Software
1 190 (46.80%) Active Directory
2 24 (5.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (5.42%) Hyper-V
4 20 (4.93%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.25%) Docker
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.25%) Terminal Services
6 1 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.25%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 87 (21.43%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (7.39%) SCCM
3 11 (2.71%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (2.22%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.99%) WSUS
6 2 (0.49%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.49%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 1 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.25%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.25%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.25%) Kubernetes
7 1 (0.25%) PaperCut
7 1 (0.25%) Tivoli
7 1 (0.25%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 308 (75.86%) Microsoft
2 67 (16.50%) ServiceNow
3 29 (7.14%) VMware
4 28 (6.90%) Cisco
5 19 (4.68%) iManage
6 17 (4.19%) Google
7 16 (3.94%) Apple
8 15 (3.69%) Citrix
9 12 (2.96%) Remedy
10 11 (2.71%) Bomgar
11 9 (2.22%) SAP
11 9 (2.22%) Sophos
12 8 (1.97%) CyberArk
12 8 (1.97%) Splunk
13 7 (1.72%) BeyondTrust
13 7 (1.72%) CheckPoint
13 7 (1.72%) Okta
13 7 (1.72%) Ribbon
14 5 (1.23%) Adobe
14 5 (1.23%) Perforce