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 19 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 44 36
Rank change year-on-year +6 -8 -9
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 404 214 196
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.29% 5.35% 4.72%
As % of the Cloud Services category 16.03% 15.12% 15.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 261 132 126
10th Percentile £155 £126 £159
25th Percentile £186 £175 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £270 £228 £294
Median % change year-on-year +18.68% -22.55% -9.62%
75th Percentile £488 £445 £488
90th Percentile £538 £536 £613
England median daily rate £400 £325 £400
% change year-on-year +23.08% -18.75% +12.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 13 10
10th Percentile £13.56 - £12.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £12.82 £17.44
Median hourly rate £19.00 £16.00 £20.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.75% -21.95% +17.14%
75th Percentile £28.75 £18.87 £21.88
90th Percentile £178.75 - £23.05
England median hourly rate £17.85 £19.46 £21.37
% change year-on-year -8.27% -8.94% +12.47%

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 2,521 1,415 1,306
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 33.04% 35.36% 31.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,624 1,005 859
10th Percentile £275 £281 £288
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £485
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -7.22% -3.00%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £575
90th Percentile £675 £624 £650
England median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 27 22
10th Percentile £17.10 £12.82 £12.00
25th Percentile £25.38 £15.50 £18.08
Median hourly rate £65.00 £36.00 £24.75
Median % change year-on-year +80.56% +45.45% -23.85%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.63 £46.18
90th Percentile £77.00 £79.75 £68.58
England median hourly rate £33.99 £26.30 £33.00
% change year-on-year +29.24% -20.30% -

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 19 September 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 +18 239 £310 -2.36% 174
Yorkshire -6 144 £200 - 107
North East -46 24 £273 +39.74% 46
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
1 148 (36.63%) SharePoint
2 83 (20.54%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.71%) SharePoint Server
4 5 (1.24%) Confluence
5 3 (0.74%) CMS
6 1 (0.25%) IIS
6 1 (0.25%) Mendix
6 1 (0.25%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 25 (6.19%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.99%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.74%) Acrobat
4 3 (0.74%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (1.98%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.74%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.50%) SAP R/3
3 2 (0.50%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 156 (38.61%) Azure
2 117 (28.96%) Entra ID
3 73 (18.07%) Power Platform
4 60 (14.85%) OneDrive
5 55 (13.61%) Microsoft Copilot
6 34 (8.42%) Power Automate
6 34 (8.42%) PowerApps
7 18 (4.46%) Azure AI
8 17 (4.21%) AWS
9 15 (3.71%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (3.47%) GCP
10 14 (3.47%) SaaS
11 10 (2.48%) GitHub
11 10 (2.48%) Google Workspace
11 10 (2.48%) Microsoft Purview
12 9 (2.23%) Copilot Studio
12 9 (2.23%) Dynamics 365
12 9 (2.23%) Miro
13 7 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.73%) Google Drive
Communications & Networking
1 35 (8.66%) VPN
2 31 (7.67%) DNS
3 22 (5.45%) DHCP
4 21 (5.20%) Firewall
5 17 (4.21%) VLAN
6 14 (3.47%) LAN
7 13 (3.22%) TCP/IP
7 13 (3.22%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (2.97%) Wireless
9 9 (2.23%) SAN
9 9 (2.23%) VoIP
9 9 (2.23%) WAN
9 9 (2.23%) WLAN
10 7 (1.73%) BGP
10 7 (1.73%) Cisco ASA
10 7 (1.73%) Cisco Nexus
10 7 (1.73%) OSPF
11 6 (1.49%) Cisco Firepower
11 6 (1.49%) Skype
12 5 (1.24%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (5.94%) Power BI
2 7 (1.73%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.49%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.99%) Metadata
5 3 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.50%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.50%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.25%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.25%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 17 (4.21%) JIRA
2 5 (1.24%) MSI
3 3 (0.74%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (0.74%) Fiddler
4 2 (0.50%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.50%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
4 2 (0.50%) Terragrunt
4 2 (0.50%) Zephyr
5 1 (0.25%) Claude Code
General
1 158 (39.11%) Social Skills
2 48 (11.88%) Analytical Skills
3 39 (9.65%) Public Sector
4 32 (7.92%) Legal
5 31 (7.67%) Finance
6 15 (3.71%) Manufacturing
7 14 (3.47%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.97%) Law
9 9 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (1.73%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.49%) Banking
12 5 (1.24%) Games
12 5 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
13 4 (0.99%) Local Government
13 4 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.99%) Police
13 4 (0.99%) Retail
14 3 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.50%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 93 (23.02%) IT Support
2 64 (15.84%) Support Engineer
3 54 (13.37%) IT Engineer
4 53 (13.12%) IT Support Engineer
5 48 (11.88%) Analyst
6 30 (7.43%) 2nd Line Support
7 26 (6.44%) Architect
7 26 (6.44%) Service Analyst
7 26 (6.44%) Service Desk Analyst
8 23 (5.69%) Senior
9 22 (5.45%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 20 (4.95%) 1st Line Support
11 19 (4.70%) IT Analyst
12 18 (4.46%) Lead
13 17 (4.21%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
14 16 (3.96%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
15 15 (3.71%) Deployment Engineer
15 15 (3.71%) Designer
15 15 (3.71%) Developer
15 15 (3.71%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (2.97%) Microsoft Graph
2 9 (2.23%) Terraform
3 8 (1.98%) OAuth
4 5 (1.24%) OpenID
4 5 (1.24%) SAML
4 5 (1.24%) YAML
5 3 (0.74%) FIDO
5 3 (0.74%) JSON
5 3 (0.74%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.50%) LDAP
6 2 (0.50%) ODBC
6 2 (0.50%) React
6 2 (0.50%) REST
6 2 (0.50%) SPFx
6 2 (0.50%) XSLT
7 1 (0.25%) A2A Protocol
7 1 (0.25%) EDI
7 1 (0.25%) HTML5 Canvas
7 1 (0.25%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 35 (8.66%) Onboarding
2 17 (4.21%) Driving Licence
3 16 (3.96%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (3.47%) CMDB
5 13 (3.22%) Management Information System
6 11 (2.72%) Data Centre
7 10 (2.48%) Analytical Mindset
8 9 (2.23%) Blackberry
9 8 (1.98%) Mobile App
10 7 (1.73%) Handset
10 7 (1.73%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (1.73%) Video Conferencing
11 6 (1.49%) Data Protection Act
11 6 (1.49%) Product Ownership
12 5 (1.24%) Animation
12 5 (1.24%) PKI
13 4 (0.99%) Smartphone
14 3 (0.74%) Enterprise Storage
14 3 (0.74%) Freedom of Information
14 3 (0.74%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 225 (55.69%) Windows
2 82 (20.30%) Windows 10
3 50 (12.38%) Windows Server
4 27 (6.68%) Android
5 22 (5.45%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.98%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.73%) Linux
8 5 (1.24%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.50%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.25%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.25%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (23.27%) Customer Service
2 94 (23.27%) ITIL
3 48 (11.88%) Service Management
4 43 (10.64%) Continuous Improvement
5 38 (9.41%) ITSM
6 34 (8.42%) Migration
7 32 (7.92%) Agile
8 31 (7.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 29 (7.18%) Incident Management
10 28 (6.93%) AI
10 28 (6.93%) Stakeholder Management
10 28 (6.93%) User Experience
11 27 (6.68%) DevOps
12 26 (6.44%) Computer Science
13 24 (5.94%) Cybersecurity
14 23 (5.69%) Analytics
15 21 (5.20%) Data Protection
16 20 (4.95%) Change Management
16 20 (4.95%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 41 (10.15%) PowerShell
2 10 (2.48%) Python
3 8 (1.98%) SQL
4 5 (1.24%) T-SQL
5 4 (0.99%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.74%) TypeScript
7 2 (0.50%) Bicep
7 2 (0.50%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.25%) Bash
8 1 (0.25%) C
8 1 (0.25%) C#
8 1 (0.25%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 67 (16.58%) Degree
2 52 (12.87%) Security Cleared
3 36 (8.91%) SC Cleared
4 29 (7.18%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (6.19%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (3.96%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (2.48%) A+ Certification
7 10 (2.48%) Network+ Certification
8 9 (2.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 8 (1.98%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (1.98%) DBS Check
10 7 (1.73%) CCNP
11 6 (1.49%) DV Cleared
12 5 (1.24%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 4 (0.99%) Azure Certification
14 3 (0.74%) PMI Certification
14 3 (0.74%) PMP
15 2 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
15 2 (0.50%) MCSE
15 2 (0.50%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.94%) SLA
2 7 (1.73%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (1.49%) Data Quality
3 6 (1.49%) GDPR
4 5 (1.24%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 5 (1.24%) NIST
4 5 (1.24%) WCAG
5 4 (0.99%) GRC
5 4 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (0.99%) QA
6 2 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.50%) IASME
7 1 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.25%) ITGC
7 1 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 197 (48.76%) Active Directory
2 23 (5.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (5.20%) Hyper-V
4 16 (3.96%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.50%) Docker
7 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.25%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.25%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 88 (21.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 28 (6.93%) SCCM
3 15 (3.71%) Jamf Pro
4 10 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.99%) WSUS
6 3 (0.74%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (0.50%) FortiGate
7 2 (0.50%) Kubernetes
8 1 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.25%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.25%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.25%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 303 (75.00%) Microsoft
2 68 (16.83%) ServiceNow
3 30 (7.43%) Cisco
4 28 (6.93%) VMware
5 21 (5.20%) iManage
6 16 (3.96%) Google
7 15 (3.71%) Citrix
8 13 (3.22%) Apple
8 13 (3.22%) Bomgar
9 12 (2.97%) Remedy
10 9 (2.23%) CyberArk
10 9 (2.23%) Sophos
11 8 (1.98%) Splunk
12 7 (1.73%) BeyondTrust
12 7 (1.73%) CheckPoint
12 7 (1.73%) Meraki
12 7 (1.73%) Okta
12 7 (1.73%) Ribbon
12 7 (1.73%) SAP
13 5 (1.24%) Adobe