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 1 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 33 32
Rank change year-on-year -4 -1 -3
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 371 218 208
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 5.05% 5.55% 4.95%
As % of the Cloud Services category 14.89% 16.64% 15.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 136 138
10th Percentile £143 £138 £155
25th Percentile £185 £186 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £265 £283 £266
Median % change year-on-year -6.19% +6.10% -11.25%
75th Percentile £509 £468 £450
90th Percentile £621 £553 £611
England median daily rate £408 £325 £380
% change year-on-year +25.38% -14.47% +1.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 16 19
10th Percentile £17.08 £12.50 £12.80
25th Percentile £17.56 £12.74 £13.13
Median hourly rate £25.38 £13.00 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +95.23% -26.64% +1.26%
75th Percentile £26.22 £30.63 £20.75
90th Percentile £178.75 - £22.00
England median hourly rate £19.00 £19.27 £17.72
% change year-on-year -1.40% +8.75% -6.74%

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 2,491 1,310 1,321
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 33.91% 33.33% 31.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,598 934 897
10th Percentile £306 £282 £275
25th Percentile £400 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £467 £475
Median % change year-on-year +7.07% -1.68% -7.32%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £575
90th Percentile £675 £638 £650
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.34% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 138 30 53
10th Percentile £18.28 £12.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £28.50 £12.82 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £28.75 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +126.09% +79.02% -35.41%
75th Percentile £71.13 £51.16 £22.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £77.50 £67.40
England median hourly rate £37.37 £26.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year +43.73% +18.18% -33.33%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 -2 210 £235 -34.27% 133
Yorkshire -4 149 £425 +61.14% 82
North East -41 15 £270 +38.46% 41
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
1 129 (34.77%) SharePoint
2 82 (22.10%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.89%) Confluence
3 7 (1.89%) SharePoint Server
4 3 (0.81%) CMS
5 1 (0.27%) IIS
5 1 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 27 (7.28%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.81%) Acrobat
3 3 (0.81%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (2.70%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 150 (40.43%) Azure
2 98 (26.42%) Entra ID
3 59 (15.90%) OneDrive
4 58 (15.63%) Microsoft Copilot
5 54 (14.56%) Power Platform
6 36 (9.70%) PowerApps
7 33 (8.89%) Power Automate
8 21 (5.66%) Microsoft Purview
9 17 (4.58%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (4.31%) AWS
11 15 (4.04%) Dynamics 365
11 15 (4.04%) SaaS
12 12 (3.23%) GCP
13 10 (2.70%) GitHub
13 10 (2.70%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.70%) Google Workspace
14 9 (2.43%) Azure AI
15 7 (1.89%) Google Drive
15 7 (1.89%) PaaS
16 6 (1.62%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.16%) VPN
2 19 (5.12%) LAN
3 17 (4.58%) DNS
4 16 (4.31%) Wi-Fi
5 14 (3.77%) Firewall
6 13 (3.50%) WAN
7 12 (3.23%) DHCP
7 12 (3.23%) VLAN
8 9 (2.43%) TCP/IP
8 9 (2.43%) VoIP
9 8 (2.16%) Wireless
10 7 (1.89%) SAN
10 7 (1.89%) WLAN
11 6 (1.62%) Skype
12 5 (1.35%) Cisco ASA
13 4 (1.08%) BGP
13 4 (1.08%) Cisco Nexus
13 4 (1.08%) NAS
13 4 (1.08%) OSPF
13 4 (1.08%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (4.31%) Power BI
2 6 (1.62%) Amazon RDS
2 6 (1.62%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.81%) Metadata
4 2 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.54%) Data Lake
4 2 (0.54%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.27%) EDRMS
5 1 (0.27%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 20 (5.39%) JIRA
2 3 (0.81%) Browser DevTools
2 3 (0.81%) Fiddler
2 3 (0.81%) MSI
3 2 (0.54%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.54%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3 2 (0.54%) Terragrunt
3 2 (0.54%) Zephyr
4 1 (0.27%) Postman
General
1 138 (37.20%) Social Skills
2 55 (14.82%) Public Sector
3 40 (10.78%) Legal
4 35 (9.43%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (8.36%) Finance
6 15 (4.04%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (2.96%) Law
8 9 (2.43%) Banking
8 9 (2.43%) Local Government
9 8 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (2.16%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.62%) Telecoms
11 5 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.08%) Games
12 4 (1.08%) Police
13 2 (0.54%) Advertising
13 2 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.54%) Retail
14 1 (0.27%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 82 (22.10%) IT Support
2 57 (15.36%) Support Engineer
3 50 (13.48%) IT Engineer
4 49 (13.21%) IT Support Engineer
5 45 (12.13%) Analyst
6 29 (7.82%) Architect
7 28 (7.55%) 2nd Line Support
7 28 (7.55%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
8 25 (6.74%) 1st Line Support
9 21 (5.66%) Service Analyst
9 21 (5.66%) Service Desk Analyst
10 20 (5.39%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 20 (5.39%) Senior
11 18 (4.85%) IT Analyst
12 17 (4.58%) Solutions Architect
13 16 (4.31%) Support Analyst
14 15 (4.04%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
14 15 (4.04%) Designer
15 13 (3.50%) Administrator
15 13 (3.50%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (5.39%) Microsoft Graph
2 8 (2.16%) OAuth
3 5 (1.35%) OpenID
3 5 (1.35%) REST
3 5 (1.35%) SAML
3 5 (1.35%) YAML
4 4 (1.08%) .NET
5 3 (0.81%) .NET Framework
5 3 (0.81%) FIDO
5 3 (0.81%) OAuth2
5 3 (0.81%) SOAP
5 3 (0.81%) Web Services
6 2 (0.54%) JSON
6 2 (0.54%) ODBC
6 2 (0.54%) React
6 2 (0.54%) SPFx
6 2 (0.54%) XSLT
7 1 (0.27%) HTML5 Canvas
7 1 (0.27%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 28 (7.55%) Onboarding
2 14 (3.77%) Enterprise Software
3 10 (2.70%) Driving Licence
4 9 (2.43%) Data Centre
5 8 (2.16%) Analytical Mindset
6 7 (1.89%) Blackberry
6 7 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (1.62%) Management Information System
7 6 (1.62%) Mobile App
8 5 (1.35%) Handset
8 5 (1.35%) NHS
8 5 (1.35%) PKI
9 4 (1.08%) Animation
9 4 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.08%) Product Ownership
10 3 (0.81%) CMDB
10 3 (0.81%) Freedom of Information
10 3 (0.81%) Housing Association
10 3 (0.81%) Smartphone
10 3 (0.81%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 203 (54.72%) Windows
2 85 (22.91%) Windows 10
3 35 (9.43%) Windows Server
4 20 (5.39%) Android
5 17 (4.58%) Apple iOS
6 4 (1.08%) Linux
6 4 (1.08%) Mac OS
6 4 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.54%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.27%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (21.29%) Customer Service
2 75 (20.22%) ITIL
3 72 (19.41%) Problem-Solving
4 40 (10.78%) Service Management
5 35 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
6 31 (8.36%) Migration
7 30 (8.09%) ITSM
7 30 (8.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 27 (7.28%) Agile
8 27 (7.28%) DevOps
9 26 (7.01%) Data Loss Prevention
10 23 (6.20%) AI
10 23 (6.20%) Incident Management
11 22 (5.93%) Computer Science
12 21 (5.66%) User Experience
13 19 (5.12%) Change Management
13 19 (5.12%) Data Protection
14 18 (4.85%) Digital Transformation Programme
14 18 (4.85%) Identity Access Management
15 17 (4.58%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 43 (11.59%) PowerShell
2 9 (2.43%) Python
3 7 (1.89%) SQL
4 6 (1.62%) Kusto Query Language
5 4 (1.08%) C#
5 4 (1.08%) T-SQL
6 3 (0.81%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.54%) Bicep
7 2 (0.54%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.54%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.27%) Bash
Qualifications
1 53 (14.29%) Degree
2 48 (12.94%) Security Cleared
3 36 (9.70%) SC Cleared
4 27 (7.28%) Microsoft Certification
5 21 (5.66%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (2.43%) A+ Certification
6 9 (2.43%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (2.43%) Network+ Certification
7 7 (1.89%) DBS Check
8 6 (1.62%) DV Cleared
9 5 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (1.08%) CCNP
10 4 (1.08%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 3 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (0.54%) Azure Certification
12 2 (0.54%) MCSE
12 2 (0.54%) Numerate Degree
13 1 (0.27%) PMP
13 1 (0.27%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.50%) SLA
2 11 (2.96%) GDPR
3 5 (1.35%) Accessibility
3 5 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (1.35%) QA
3 5 (1.35%) WCAG
4 4 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (0.81%) NIST
6 2 (0.54%) FINRA
6 2 (0.54%) MiFID
7 1 (0.27%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.27%) GRC
7 1 (0.27%) IASME
7 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.27%) PMO
System Software
1 172 (46.36%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.96%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (1.89%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.54%) Docker
6 1 (0.27%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 77 (20.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 17 (4.58%) Jamf Pro
3 11 (2.96%) Single Sign-On
4 10 (2.70%) SCCM
5 9 (2.43%) Terraform
6 4 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.81%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
8 2 (0.54%) Kubernetes
8 2 (0.54%) WSUS
9 1 (0.27%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.27%) Tivoli
9 1 (0.27%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 272 (73.32%) Microsoft
2 56 (15.09%) ServiceNow
3 22 (5.93%) Cisco
4 20 (5.39%) iManage
5 18 (4.85%) Bomgar
6 16 (4.31%) Google
7 13 (3.50%) Apple
7 13 (3.50%) Remedy
8 11 (2.96%) Citrix
9 9 (2.43%) CyberArk
9 9 (2.43%) VMware
10 6 (1.62%) BeyondTrust
10 6 (1.62%) Sophos
11 5 (1.35%) Adobe
12 4 (1.08%) CheckPoint
12 4 (1.08%) Perforce
13 3 (0.81%) DocuSign
13 3 (0.81%) IBM
13 3 (0.81%) Palo Alto
13 3 (0.81%) SAP