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

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 43 35
Rank change year-on-year +6 -8 -8
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 402 205 196
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.30% 5.18% 4.80%
As % of the Cloud Services category 16.09% 14.56% 15.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 260 125 124
10th Percentile £156 £126 £158
25th Percentile £189 £170 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £273 £228 £294
Median % change year-on-year +19.78% -22.55% -9.62%
75th Percentile £491 £438 £491
90th Percentile £556 £537 £623
England median daily rate £400 £325 £400
% change year-on-year +23.08% -18.75% +10.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 13 10
10th Percentile £13.45 - £12.00
25th Percentile £16.69 £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 £17.64 £19.46 £21.37
% change year-on-year -9.35% -8.94% +12.68%

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 2,499 1,408 1,292
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 32.94% 35.56% 31.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,607 1,003 843
10th Percentile £277 £295 £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 £625 £654
England median daily rate £525 £501 £530
% change year-on-year +4.90% -5.57% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 27 23
10th Percentile £17.18 £12.82 £12.00
25th Percentile £26.06 £15.50 £18.72
Median hourly rate £65.00 £36.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +80.56% +30.91% -16.67%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.63 £46.18
90th Percentile £77.00 £79.75 £71.15
England median hourly rate £33.99 £26.00 £33.00
% change year-on-year +30.73% -21.21% -

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 +20 236 £313 +9.82% 183
Yorkshire -6 145 £200 - 121
North East -32 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
1 145 (36.07%) SharePoint
2 81 (20.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.73%) SharePoint Server
4 4 (1.00%) Confluence
5 2 (0.50%) CMS
6 1 (0.25%) IIS
6 1 (0.25%) Mendix
6 1 (0.25%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 25 (6.22%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.24%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.00%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.75%) Acrobat
5 2 (0.50%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (1.99%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.50%) SAP R/3
2 2 (0.50%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.25%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 155 (38.56%) Azure
2 116 (28.86%) Entra ID
3 72 (17.91%) Power Platform
4 58 (14.43%) OneDrive
5 53 (13.18%) Microsoft Copilot
6 33 (8.21%) Power Automate
6 33 (8.21%) PowerApps
7 18 (4.48%) Azure AI
8 17 (4.23%) AWS
9 15 (3.73%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (3.48%) GCP
11 13 (3.23%) SaaS
12 10 (2.49%) GitHub
12 10 (2.49%) Google Workspace
12 10 (2.49%) Microsoft Purview
13 9 (2.24%) Miro
14 8 (1.99%) Copilot Studio
15 7 (1.74%) GitHub Actions
15 7 (1.74%) Google Drive
16 6 (1.49%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 35 (8.71%) VPN
2 31 (7.71%) DNS
3 22 (5.47%) DHCP
4 21 (5.22%) Firewall
5 17 (4.23%) VLAN
6 13 (3.23%) LAN
6 13 (3.23%) TCP/IP
7 12 (2.99%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (2.99%) Wireless
8 9 (2.24%) SAN
8 9 (2.24%) VoIP
8 9 (2.24%) WLAN
9 8 (1.99%) WAN
10 7 (1.74%) BGP
10 7 (1.74%) Cisco ASA
10 7 (1.74%) Cisco Nexus
10 7 (1.74%) OSPF
11 6 (1.49%) Cisco Firepower
11 6 (1.49%) Skype
12 5 (1.24%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (6.22%) Power BI
2 7 (1.74%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.49%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (1.00%) Metadata
5 3 (0.75%) 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 16 (3.98%) JIRA
2 5 (1.24%) MSI
3 3 (0.75%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (0.75%) 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
1 157 (39.05%) Social Skills
2 49 (12.19%) Analytical Skills
3 37 (9.20%) Public Sector
4 32 (7.96%) Finance
5 31 (7.71%) Legal
6 15 (3.73%) Manufacturing
7 14 (3.48%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (2.99%) Law
9 9 (2.24%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (1.74%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.49%) Banking
12 5 (1.24%) Games
12 5 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (1.00%) Influencing Skills
13 4 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (1.00%) Police
13 4 (1.00%) Retail
14 3 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.50%) Advertising
15 2 (0.50%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 93 (23.13%) IT Support
2 64 (15.92%) Support Engineer
3 54 (13.43%) IT Engineer
4 53 (13.18%) IT Support Engineer
5 48 (11.94%) Analyst
6 30 (7.46%) 2nd Line Support
7 27 (6.72%) Architect
8 26 (6.47%) Service Analyst
8 26 (6.47%) Service Desk Analyst
9 23 (5.72%) Senior
10 22 (5.47%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 19 (4.73%) 1st Line Support
11 19 (4.73%) IT Analyst
11 19 (4.73%) Lead
12 17 (4.23%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
13 16 (3.98%) Developer
13 16 (3.98%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
14 15 (3.73%) Deployment Engineer
14 15 (3.73%) Designer
14 15 (3.73%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.74%) Microsoft Graph
2 9 (2.24%) Terraform
3 8 (1.99%) OAuth
4 5 (1.24%) OpenID
4 5 (1.24%) SAML
4 5 (1.24%) YAML
5 3 (0.75%) FIDO
5 3 (0.75%) JSON
5 3 (0.75%) 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%) ADO
7 1 (0.25%) EDI
7 1 (0.25%) HTML5 Canvas
7 1 (0.25%) Model Context Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 35 (8.71%) Onboarding
2 17 (4.23%) Driving Licence
3 16 (3.98%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (3.48%) CMDB
5 13 (3.23%) Management Information System
6 12 (2.99%) Data Centre
7 10 (2.49%) Analytical Mindset
8 9 (2.24%) Blackberry
9 8 (1.99%) Mobile App
10 7 (1.74%) Handset
10 7 (1.74%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (1.74%) 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 (1.00%) Smartphone
14 3 (0.75%) Enterprise Storage
14 3 (0.75%) Freedom of Information
14 3 (0.75%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 223 (55.47%) Windows
2 81 (20.15%) Windows 10
3 50 (12.44%) Windows Server
4 27 (6.72%) Android
5 22 (5.47%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.99%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.74%) 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
1 100 (24.88%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (23.38%) ITIL
3 91 (22.64%) Customer Service
4 49 (12.19%) Service Management
5 43 (10.70%) Continuous Improvement
6 38 (9.45%) ITSM
7 34 (8.46%) Migration
8 31 (7.71%) Agile
8 31 (7.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 29 (7.21%) Incident Management
10 28 (6.97%) AI
10 28 (6.97%) User Experience
11 27 (6.72%) DevOps
11 27 (6.72%) Stakeholder Management
12 26 (6.47%) Computer Science
13 25 (6.22%) Cybersecurity
14 22 (5.47%) Analytics
15 21 (5.22%) Data Protection
15 21 (5.22%) Identity Access Management
16 20 (4.98%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 40 (9.95%) PowerShell
2 9 (2.24%) Python
3 8 (1.99%) SQL
4 5 (1.24%) T-SQL
5 3 (0.75%) JavaScript
5 3 (0.75%) TypeScript
6 2 (0.50%) Bicep
6 2 (0.50%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.25%) Bash
7 1 (0.25%) C
7 1 (0.25%) C#
7 1 (0.25%) Google Apps Script
Qualifications
1 67 (16.67%) Degree
2 52 (12.94%) Security Cleared
3 36 (8.96%) SC Cleared
4 29 (7.21%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (6.22%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (3.98%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (2.49%) A+ Certification
7 10 (2.49%) Network+ Certification
8 9 (2.24%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 8 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.74%) CCNP
10 7 (1.74%) DBS Check
11 6 (1.49%) DV Cleared
12 5 (1.24%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 4 (1.00%) Azure Certification
14 3 (0.75%) PMI Certification
14 3 (0.75%) PMP
15 2 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
15 2 (0.50%) MCSE
15 2 (0.50%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (5.97%) SLA
2 7 (1.74%) 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 (1.00%) GRC
5 4 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (1.00%) QA
6 2 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.50%) IASME
6 2 (0.50%) PMO
7 1 (0.25%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.25%) ITGC
System Software
1 195 (48.51%) Active Directory
2 23 (5.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (5.22%) Hyper-V
4 16 (3.98%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.75%) 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 87 (21.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 28 (6.97%) SCCM
3 14 (3.48%) Jamf Pro
4 10 (2.49%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (1.00%) WSUS
6 3 (0.75%) 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
1 301 (74.88%) Microsoft
2 67 (16.67%) ServiceNow
3 30 (7.46%) Cisco
4 28 (6.97%) VMware
5 20 (4.98%) iManage
6 16 (3.98%) Google
7 15 (3.73%) Citrix
8 13 (3.23%) Apple
9 12 (2.99%) Bomgar
9 12 (2.99%) Remedy
10 9 (2.24%) CyberArk
10 9 (2.24%) Sophos
11 8 (1.99%) Splunk
12 7 (1.74%) BeyondTrust
12 7 (1.74%) CheckPoint
12 7 (1.74%) Meraki
12 7 (1.74%) Okta
12 7 (1.74%) Ribbon
12 7 (1.74%) SAP
13 5 (1.24%) Adobe