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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 25 30
Rank change year-on-year -4 +5 -1
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 381 245 253
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 6.50% 7.65% 5.23%
As % of the Cloud Services category 18.03% 22.19% 17.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 177 165
10th Percentile £134 £150 £143
25th Percentile £166 £200 £185
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £350 £255
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% +37.25% -17.07%
75th Percentile £476 £500 £425
90th Percentile £565 £625 £518
England median daily rate £424 £400 £325
% change year-on-year +5.88% +23.08% -13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 14 34
10th Percentile £14.25 - £13.00
25th Percentile £16.63 £12.50 £13.31
Median hourly rate £25.38 £26.47 £16.47
Median % change year-on-year -4.10% +60.71% -17.66%
75th Percentile £29.53 £30.63 £17.72
90th Percentile £72.82 - £19.78
England median hourly rate £18.87 £21.00 £17.69
% change year-on-year -10.14% +18.71% -0.17%

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 2,113 1,104 1,446
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 36.05% 34.47% 29.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,485 825 1,033
10th Percentile £260 £253 £263
25th Percentile £393 £385 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £476
Median % change year-on-year - -0.11% -9.43%
75th Percentile £550 £573 £563
90th Percentile £630 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 28 81
10th Percentile £20.58 £12.50 £13.25
25th Percentile £29.25 £25.73 £15.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £28.88 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +116.45% +79.79% -54.11%
75th Percentile £73.88 £73.44 £22.75
90th Percentile £86.00 £97.22 £43.75
England median hourly rate £40.78 £26.81 £21.00
% change year-on-year +52.09% +27.68% -18.32%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 -8 191 £220 -43.81% 127
Yorkshire +8 174 £425 +54.55% 48
North East -19 19 £200 -57.45% 21
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
1 139 (36.48%) SharePoint
2 95 (24.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.57%) Confluence
4 3 (0.79%) CMS
4 3 (0.79%) Exchange Server 2013
5 1 (0.26%) Apache
5 1 (0.26%) IIS
5 1 (0.26%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 45 (11.81%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (3.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.31%) Acrobat
5 3 (0.79%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.26%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (3.15%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.26%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 140 (36.75%) Azure
2 84 (22.05%) Entra ID
3 70 (18.37%) OneDrive
4 48 (12.60%) Microsoft Purview
5 43 (11.29%) Power Platform
6 41 (10.76%) Microsoft Copilot
7 24 (6.30%) PowerApps
8 20 (5.25%) Power Automate
9 16 (4.20%) Dynamics 365
9 16 (4.20%) SaaS
10 13 (3.41%) AWS
11 11 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
11 11 (2.89%) Rubrik
12 7 (1.84%) Azure Monitor
13 6 (1.57%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (1.57%) Azure Sentinel
13 6 (1.57%) Copilot Studio
13 6 (1.57%) GitHub
13 6 (1.57%) PaaS
14 5 (1.31%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 36 (9.45%) Wi-Fi
2 25 (6.56%) LAN
3 24 (6.30%) WAN
4 22 (5.77%) VPN
5 19 (4.99%) DNS
6 15 (3.94%) TCP/IP
7 13 (3.41%) DHCP
8 10 (2.62%) Skype
8 10 (2.62%) Wireless
9 9 (2.36%) Firewall
10 6 (1.57%) Unified Communications
10 6 (1.57%) VLAN
10 6 (1.57%) VoIP
11 4 (1.05%) NetScaler
12 2 (0.52%) DKIM
12 2 (0.52%) DMARC
12 2 (0.52%) Internet
12 2 (0.52%) Kerberos
12 2 (0.52%) PSTN
12 2 (0.52%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.94%) Power BI
2 4 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (0.52%) Data Lake
3 2 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.52%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.26%) Electronic Patient Records
4 1 (0.26%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 10 (2.62%) JIRA
2 3 (0.79%) MSI
3 1 (0.26%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.26%) Postman
3 1 (0.26%) Terragrunt
General
1 158 (41.47%) Social Skills
2 64 (16.80%) Finance
3 56 (14.70%) Legal
4 48 (12.60%) Public Sector
5 31 (8.14%) Analytical Skills
6 22 (5.77%) Banking
7 21 (5.51%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (3.67%) Organisational Skills
9 12 (3.15%) Manufacturing
9 12 (3.15%) Telecoms
10 9 (2.36%) Local Government
11 8 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (1.84%) Electronics
12 7 (1.84%) Marketing
12 7 (1.84%) Retail
13 4 (1.05%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.52%) Law
14 2 (0.52%) Military
15 1 (0.26%) Pharmaceutical
15 1 (0.26%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 90 (23.62%) IT Support
2 55 (14.44%) Analyst
3 47 (12.34%) Support Engineer
4 45 (11.81%) Architect
5 43 (11.29%) IT Engineer
6 39 (10.24%) IT Support Engineer
7 35 (9.19%) 1st Line Support
7 35 (9.19%) 2nd Line Support
7 35 (9.19%) Microsoft 365 Architect
8 27 (7.09%) Support Analyst
9 19 (4.99%) IT Analyst
10 18 (4.72%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
11 17 (4.46%) IT Support Analyst
12 16 (4.20%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 16 (4.20%) Desktop Support
12 16 (4.20%) Senior
13 15 (3.94%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
13 15 (3.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 14 (3.67%) Service Analyst
15 13 (3.41%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (9.45%) Microsoft Graph
2 6 (1.57%) .NET
3 5 (1.31%) OAuth
4 4 (1.05%) JSON
5 3 (0.79%) .NET Framework
5 3 (0.79%) LDAP
5 3 (0.79%) OpenID
5 3 (0.79%) REST
5 3 (0.79%) SAML
5 3 (0.79%) SOAP
5 3 (0.79%) Web Services
6 2 (0.52%) OAuth2
7 1 (0.26%) Software Packaging
7 1 (0.26%) XML
7 1 (0.26%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 31 (8.14%) Onboarding
2 12 (3.15%) Enterprise Software
3 10 (2.62%) Data Centre
3 10 (2.62%) Driving Licence
4 8 (2.10%) CMDB
5 6 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (1.57%) Private Cloud
6 5 (1.31%) NHS
6 5 (1.31%) Product Ownership
7 4 (1.05%) Low-Code
7 4 (1.05%) Management Information System
7 4 (1.05%) Public Cloud
8 3 (0.79%) Housing Association
8 3 (0.79%) iPhone
9 2 (0.52%) IoT
9 2 (0.52%) PKI
9 2 (0.52%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 1 (0.26%) CCTV
10 1 (0.26%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 1 (0.26%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 198 (51.97%) Windows
2 97 (25.46%) Windows 10
3 22 (5.77%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.99%) Android
5 14 (3.67%) Mac OS
6 11 (2.89%) Apple iOS
7 4 (1.05%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.79%) Linux
9 2 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.26%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (22.83%) Customer Service
2 57 (14.96%) Problem-Solving
3 45 (11.81%) ITIL
4 44 (11.55%) Migration
5 35 (9.19%) Data Loss Prevention
6 33 (8.66%) ITSM
7 30 (7.87%) E-Discovery
8 28 (7.35%) Service Management
9 26 (6.82%) Cybersecurity
9 26 (6.82%) Records Management
10 25 (6.56%) Agile
10 25 (6.56%) Information Governance
11 24 (6.30%) Stakeholder Management
12 23 (6.04%) Business Intelligence
12 23 (6.04%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 23 (6.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 22 (5.77%) Data Governance
13 22 (5.77%) Identity Access Management
13 22 (5.77%) Incident Response
13 22 (5.77%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 67 (17.59%) PowerShell
2 16 (4.20%) Kusto Query Language
3 7 (1.84%) Python
4 4 (1.05%) Bash
4 4 (1.05%) SQL
5 3 (0.79%) C#
5 3 (0.79%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.26%) Perl
6 1 (0.26%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 41 (10.76%) Degree
2 35 (9.19%) Security Cleared
3 33 (8.66%) SC Cleared
4 22 (5.77%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (2.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (1.57%) A+ Certification
7 5 (1.31%) Network+ Certification
8 4 (1.05%) DBS Check
9 3 (0.79%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.79%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (0.79%) PMI Certification
9 3 (0.79%) PMP
10 2 (0.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.26%) CISM
11 1 (0.26%) CISSP
11 1 (0.26%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.26%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (10.24%) GDPR
2 12 (3.15%) FINRA
2 12 (3.15%) MiFID
3 11 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (1.57%) SLA
5 4 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (1.05%) Data Quality
5 4 (1.05%) NIST
6 2 (0.52%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.26%) COBIT
7 1 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.26%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.26%) PMO
7 1 (0.26%) QA
7 1 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.26%) SOC 2
System Software
1 157 (41.21%) Active Directory
2 14 (3.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.57%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (1.31%) Docker
4 5 (1.31%) Hyper-V
5 4 (1.05%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.05%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 66 (17.32%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (6.04%) SCCM
3 12 (3.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 11 (2.89%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (2.62%) Jamf Pro
6 5 (1.31%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.79%) Norton AntiVirus
8 1 (0.26%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.26%) SCOM
8 1 (0.26%) Terraform
Vendors
1 298 (78.22%) Microsoft
2 40 (10.50%) ServiceNow
3 30 (7.87%) Cisco
4 18 (4.72%) Citrix
5 17 (4.46%) Bomgar
5 17 (4.46%) iManage
6 15 (3.94%) Apple
6 15 (3.94%) VMware
7 12 (3.15%) HP
7 12 (3.15%) Remedy
8 10 (2.62%) Meraki
9 9 (2.36%) Veeam
10 8 (2.10%) Dell
11 7 (1.84%) SAP
12 5 (1.31%) Adobe
12 5 (1.31%) Google
13 4 (1.05%) F5
13 4 (1.05%) MobileIron
14 3 (0.79%) McAfee
14 3 (0.79%) Workday