Microsoft 365 Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Microsoft 365 (M365, Office 365, O365)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Microsoft 365 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 37 32
Rank change year-on-year -3 -5 -2
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 1,318 835 922
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 4.63% 5.25% 5.35%
As % of the Cloud Services category 15.84% 15.87% 18.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 806 525 578
10th Percentile £163 £140 £156
25th Percentile £190 £185 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £284 £250 £350
Median % change year-on-year +13.50% -28.57% +27.27%
75th Percentile £500 £450 £519
90th Percentile £638 £575 £619
UK median daily rate £400 £350 £388
% change year-on-year +14.29% -9.68% +10.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 148 77 48
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.99 £13.43
25th Percentile £15.50 £16.25 £17.16
Median hourly rate £17.50 £18.87 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.26% -16.13% +25.00%
75th Percentile £24.45 £21.50 £35.00
90th Percentile £33.75 £33.80 £55.00
UK median hourly rate £17.64 £21.20 £23.80
% change year-on-year -16.77% -10.95% +25.26%

All Cloud Computing Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for cloud computing skills 8,320 5,262 4,918
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 29.22% 33.07% 28.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,261 3,545 3,141
10th Percentile £263 £235 £250
25th Percentile £402 £378 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £675 £650 £663
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 522 168 127
10th Percentile £15.26 £14.68 £15.79
25th Percentile £17.31 £16.00 £20.88
Median hourly rate £30.00 £19.27 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +55.68% -44.94% +55.49%
75th Percentile £70.00 £35.51 £69.72
90th Percentile £79.00 £65.63 £70.00
UK 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 UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Microsoft 365 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Microsoft 365 job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Microsoft 365
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Microsoft 365.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft 365 in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft 365 in the UK excluding London

Microsoft 365
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Microsoft 365.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft 365 in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft 365 in the UK excluding London

Microsoft 365
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 14 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 of England +4 414 £313 +40.67% 278
South East -15 279 £278 +23.33% 317
North West +8 239 £325 +42.86% 147
Midlands +4 220 £300 +32.89% 162
West Midlands 0 164 £354 +52.92% 94
Yorkshire -2 153 £240 +20.00% 106
East of England +13 144 £200 -11.11% 129
South West -27 129 £469 +70.45% 138
Scotland +13 112 £320 -23.58% 82
East Midlands +10 55 £260 +30.00% 68
Wales -9 34 £250 -13.79% 33
North East -40 25 £273 +41.56% 32
Northern Ireland +4 4 - - 36
Channel Islands -4 1 - - 7
Microsoft 365
UK

Microsoft 365
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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
1 390 (29.59%) SharePoint
2 201 (15.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 21 (1.59%) SharePoint Server
4 12 (0.91%) Confluence
5 3 (0.23%) SharePoint 2013
6 2 (0.15%) CMS
6 2 (0.15%) IIS
6 2 (0.15%) SharePoint 2010
6 2 (0.15%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.076%) Drupal
7 1 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.076%) Mendix
Applications
1 89 (6.75%) Microsoft Office
2 76 (5.77%) Microsoft Excel
3 36 (2.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.38%) Chatbot
7 4 (0.30%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 4 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
8 3 (0.23%) Acrobat
9 2 (0.15%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.076%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.076%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.076%) SOLIDWORKS
10 1 (0.076%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (1.52%) Remedy ITSM
2 8 (0.61%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.15%) assyst
5 2 (0.15%) Dynamics GP
5 2 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.15%) SAP R/3
6 1 (0.076%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.076%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 524 (39.76%) Azure
2 369 (28.00%) Entra ID
3 184 (13.96%) Power Platform
4 147 (11.15%) OneDrive
5 103 (7.81%) Microsoft Copilot
6 86 (6.53%) PowerApps
7 79 (5.99%) Power Automate
8 62 (4.70%) Microsoft Purview
9 46 (3.49%) AWS
10 37 (2.81%) Azure DevOps
11 35 (2.66%) Google Workspace
12 33 (2.50%) IaaS
12 33 (2.50%) SaaS
13 28 (2.12%) Copilot Studio
14 27 (2.05%) Azure AI
15 21 (1.59%) GCP
15 21 (1.59%) GitHub
16 16 (1.21%) Azure Sentinel
16 16 (1.21%) PaaS
17 15 (1.14%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 115 (8.73%) VPN
2 97 (7.36%) DNS
3 81 (6.15%) DHCP
4 71 (5.39%) Firewall
5 62 (4.70%) TCP/IP
6 57 (4.32%) LAN
7 51 (3.87%) Wi-Fi
8 39 (2.96%) Wireless
9 38 (2.88%) WAN
10 31 (2.35%) VLAN
11 22 (1.67%) Network Security
12 17 (1.29%) SAN
13 12 (0.91%) Cisco IOS
13 12 (0.91%) NAS
13 12 (0.91%) SMTP
14 11 (0.83%) WLAN
15 10 (0.76%) VoIP
16 9 (0.68%) Cisco ASA
16 9 (0.68%) Remote Desktop
16 9 (0.68%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (5.99%) Power BI
2 23 (1.75%) SQL Server
3 11 (0.83%) Metadata
4 7 (0.53%) Amazon RDS
5 5 (0.38%) Data Lake
5 5 (0.38%) EDRMS
6 4 (0.30%) Power Query
7 3 (0.23%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.15%) Data Mining
8 2 (0.15%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.15%) Tableau
9 1 (0.076%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.076%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.076%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.076%) Looker
9 1 (0.076%) Metabase
9 1 (0.076%) PowerPivot
9 1 (0.076%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 46 (3.49%) JIRA
2 3 (0.23%) Browser DevTools
2 3 (0.23%) Claude Code
2 3 (0.23%) MSI
3 2 (0.15%) Fiddler
3 2 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3 2 (0.15%) Zephyr
4 1 (0.076%) Git
4 1 (0.076%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.076%) Terragrunt
General
1 621 (47.12%) Social Skills
2 131 (9.94%) Analytical Skills
3 116 (8.80%) Public Sector
4 97 (7.36%) Finance
5 56 (4.25%) Organisational Skills
6 55 (4.17%) Legal
7 42 (3.19%) Manufacturing
8 41 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
9 40 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 20 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
11 17 (1.29%) Banking
11 17 (1.29%) Law
12 16 (1.21%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (0.91%) Military
14 11 (0.83%) Retail
14 11 (0.83%) Telecoms
15 10 (0.76%) Marketing
16 9 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
17 7 (0.53%) Police
18 6 (0.46%) Billing
Job Titles
1 277 (21.02%) IT Support
2 240 (18.21%) Support Engineer
3 186 (14.11%) IT Engineer
4 168 (12.75%) IT Support Engineer
5 160 (12.14%) Analyst
6 77 (5.84%) Architect
7 68 (5.16%) 2nd Line Support
8 66 (5.01%) IT Analyst
9 64 (4.86%) Senior
9 64 (4.86%) Service Analyst
10 63 (4.78%) 1st Line Support
10 63 (4.78%) Service Desk Analyst
11 62 (4.70%) Lead
12 60 (4.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 57 (4.32%) Developer
14 54 (4.10%) Support Analyst
15 51 (3.87%) Desktop Support
16 48 (3.64%) Administrator
17 47 (3.57%) 2nd Line Engineer
17 47 (3.57%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (1.67%) Microsoft Graph
1 22 (1.67%) REST
2 15 (1.14%) Terraform
3 10 (0.76%) OAuth
3 10 (0.76%) React
3 10 (0.76%) SPFx
4 8 (0.61%) JSON
5 7 (0.53%) SAML
6 6 (0.46%) CSS
6 6 (0.46%) HTML
6 6 (0.46%) OpenID
6 6 (0.46%) YAML
7 5 (0.38%) .NET
7 5 (0.38%) ADO
7 5 (0.38%) ARM Templates
7 5 (0.38%) Software Packaging
8 4 (0.30%) SailPoint
9 3 (0.23%) HTML5 Canvas
9 3 (0.23%) LDAP
9 3 (0.23%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 130 (9.86%) Onboarding
2 50 (3.79%) Driving Licence
3 46 (3.49%) Management Information System
4 37 (2.81%) CMDB
4 37 (2.81%) Data Centre
4 37 (2.81%) Enterprise Software
5 24 (1.82%) Smartphone
6 23 (1.75%) Security Posture
7 22 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
7 22 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
8 20 (1.52%) NHS
8 20 (1.52%) Video Conferencing
9 19 (1.44%) Mobile App
9 19 (1.44%) Product Ownership
10 17 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
10 17 (1.29%) Hybrid Cloud
11 16 (1.21%) Operational Technology
12 15 (1.14%) AI Agents
12 15 (1.14%) Cyber Threat
13 12 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 681 (51.67%) Windows
2 253 (19.20%) Windows 10
3 134 (10.17%) Windows Server
4 70 (5.31%) Apple iOS
5 56 (4.25%) Android
6 54 (4.10%) macOS
7 41 (3.11%) Linux
8 12 (0.91%) CentOS
8 12 (0.91%) Ubuntu
9 11 (0.83%) Windows Server 2019
10 10 (0.76%) Windows 7
11 8 (0.61%) Unix
12 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.23%) Windows XP
14 2 (0.15%) AIX
15 1 (0.076%) VMS
15 1 (0.076%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 328 (24.89%) Customer Service
2 322 (24.43%) Problem-Solving
3 268 (20.33%) ITIL
4 202 (15.33%) ITSM
5 140 (10.62%) Migration
6 134 (10.17%) Cybersecurity
7 128 (9.71%) Continuous Improvement
8 121 (9.18%) Service Management
8 121 (9.18%) Stakeholder Management
9 113 (8.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 97 (7.36%) Agile
11 92 (6.98%) Data Protection
12 87 (6.60%) AI
12 87 (6.60%) Incident Management
13 85 (6.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 81 (6.15%) User Experience
15 77 (5.84%) Project Delivery
15 77 (5.84%) Service Delivery
16 73 (5.54%) Asset Management
17 65 (4.93%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 124 (9.41%) PowerShell
2 29 (2.20%) Python
3 25 (1.90%) SQL
4 18 (1.37%) JavaScript
5 15 (1.14%) TypeScript
6 7 (0.53%) C#
7 5 (0.38%) Bicep
7 5 (0.38%) T-SQL
8 4 (0.30%) Bash
8 4 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
9 3 (0.23%) Java
10 2 (0.15%) R
10 2 (0.15%) VBA
11 1 (0.076%) BeanShell
11 1 (0.076%) C
11 1 (0.076%) Google Apps Script
11 1 (0.076%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 219 (16.62%) Security Cleared
2 163 (12.37%) SC Cleared
3 138 (10.47%) Degree
4 68 (5.16%) Microsoft Certification
5 42 (3.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 42 (3.19%) DV Cleared
6 30 (2.28%) DBS Check
7 25 (1.90%) Azure Certification
8 24 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
9 23 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
10 21 (1.59%) A+ Certification
10 21 (1.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 18 (1.37%) CISSP
12 15 (1.14%) MCSE
13 13 (0.99%) Network+ Certification
14 11 (0.83%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 10 (0.76%) CISM
15 10 (0.76%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 8 (0.61%) CCNP
17 7 (0.53%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (5.31%) SLA
2 38 (2.88%) Cyber Essentials
3 37 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 34 (2.58%) GDPR
5 31 (2.35%) NIST
6 18 (1.37%) Data Quality
7 16 (1.21%) PMO
7 16 (1.21%) QA
8 13 (0.99%) Accessibility
9 12 (0.91%) GRC
10 11 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 10 (0.76%) PCI DSS
12 9 (0.68%) ISO 31000
13 8 (0.61%) Disclosure Scotland
14 7 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
15 6 (0.46%) NCSC
16 5 (0.38%) WCAG
17 3 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 2 (0.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
18 2 (0.15%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 563 (42.72%) Active Directory
2 63 (4.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 52 (3.95%) Hyper-V
4 44 (3.34%) Virtual Desktop
5 24 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
6 12 (0.91%) vSphere
7 8 (0.61%) Firmware
8 5 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.30%) BitLocker
9 4 (0.30%) Docker
10 1 (0.076%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.076%) NFS
10 1 (0.076%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.076%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 274 (20.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 115 (8.73%) SCCM
3 32 (2.43%) Jamf Pro
4 15 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (0.38%) Kubernetes
6 4 (0.30%) WSUS
7 3 (0.23%) Nessus
7 3 (0.23%) QRadar
7 3 (0.23%) SCOM
7 3 (0.23%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.23%) VxRail
8 2 (0.15%) Ansible
8 2 (0.15%) CASB
8 2 (0.15%) Failover Clustering
8 2 (0.15%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.15%) Podman
8 2 (0.15%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
8 2 (0.15%) vMotion
9 1 (0.076%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.076%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 1,109 (84.14%) Microsoft
2 169 (12.82%) ServiceNow
3 85 (6.45%) VMware
4 62 (4.70%) Cisco
5 49 (3.72%) Google
6 44 (3.34%) Apple
7 38 (2.88%) Citrix
8 26 (1.97%) Meraki
9 24 (1.82%) Remedy
10 21 (1.59%) SAP
11 19 (1.44%) iManage
11 19 (1.44%) Sophos
12 18 (1.37%) Adobe
13 15 (1.14%) OpenAI
14 13 (0.99%) Splunk
15 11 (0.83%) Bomgar
15 11 (0.83%) CyberArk
16 10 (0.76%) Databricks
16 10 (0.76%) Dell
17 9 (0.68%) Proofpoint