Microsoft 365 Contract Job Trends

Microsoft 365 (M365, Office 365, O365)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Microsoft 365 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 57 41
Rank change year-on-year +5 -16 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft 365 2,181 1,388 1,674
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.02% 4.21% 4.38%
As % of the Cloud Services category 11.58% 11.21% 12.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,419 822 1,058
10th Percentile £163 £160 £160
25th Percentile £200 £200 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £350 £375
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -6.67% +0.42%
75th Percentile £530 £500 £538
90th Percentile £643 £607 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £275 £250 £350
% change year-on-year +10.00% -28.57% +27.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 161 130 78
10th Percentile £13.97 £15.46 £13.97
25th Percentile £15.50 £18.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £17.64 £23.00 £21.37
Median % change year-on-year -23.30% +7.63% +9.62%
75th Percentile £25.38 £30.19 £24.80
90th Percentile £53.75 £56.00 £53.23
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £18.87 £20.64
% change year-on-year -7.26% -8.59% +13.11%

All Cloud Computing Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for cloud computing skills 18,840 12,378 13,117
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.71% 37.58% 34.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,496 8,249 8,849
10th Percentile £325 £313 £313
25th Percentile £425 £410 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £638
90th Percentile £713 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 610 299 198
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.50 £14.52
25th Percentile £17.97 £18.87 £20.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £29.07 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.80% -6.23% -11.43%
75th Percentile £67.84 £52.50 £62.14
90th Percentile £81.25 £67.25 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £20.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year +60.00% -33.33% +11.11%

Microsoft 365
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Microsoft 365 job vacancy trend in the UK

Microsoft 365
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Microsoft 365
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft 365 over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft 365 in the UK

Microsoft 365
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Microsoft 365
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft 365 over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft 365 in the UK

Microsoft 365
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 16 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
England +4 1,939 £400 +23.08% 2,217
UK excluding London -3 1,246 £275 +10.00% 1,507
London -9 810 £450 +5.88% 916
Work from Home -2 504 £450 +0.67% 877
North of England +8 399 £270 +14.89% 358
South East -17 254 £313 +38.89% 464
North West +20 235 £300 -17.81% 199
Midlands +4 200 £294 +6.82% 231
West Midlands -11 149 £351 +27.73% 136
Yorkshire -12 143 £225 +2.27% 118
South West -17 135 £400 +60.00% 153
East of England +3 118 £200 -11.11% 161
Scotland +21 116 £320 -22.42% 109
East Midlands +13 50 £260 -41.83% 95
Wales -5 34 £245 +6.52% 23
North East -35 24 £273 +39.74% 47
Northern Ireland +2 4 £450 +80.00% 32
Channel Islands -5 1 - - 1

Microsoft 365
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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
1 701 (32.14%) SharePoint
2 365 (16.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.28%) SharePoint Server
4 19 (0.87%) Confluence
5 6 (0.28%) SharePoint 2013
6 4 (0.18%) Skype for Business
7 3 (0.14%) CMS
7 3 (0.14%) IIS
7 3 (0.14%) Mendix
8 2 (0.092%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.092%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.092%) HCL Notes
8 2 (0.092%) Liferay
8 2 (0.092%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.092%) SAS
9 1 (0.046%) Apache
9 1 (0.046%) JBoss
9 1 (0.046%) nginx
9 1 (0.046%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 137 (6.28%) Microsoft Office
2 114 (5.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 43 (1.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 24 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
5 15 (0.69%) MS Visio
6 14 (0.64%) Chatbot
7 11 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
8 5 (0.23%) Acrobat
8 5 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.092%) Trello
10 1 (0.046%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.046%) MicroStation
10 1 (0.046%) Mozilla Thunderbird
10 1 (0.046%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.046%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 28 (1.28%) Dynamics CRM
2 18 (0.83%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.18%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.14%) assyst
4 3 (0.14%) Dynamics NAV
4 3 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.092%) Dynamics GP
5 2 (0.092%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.046%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.046%) Monis
6 1 (0.046%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.046%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.046%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.046%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.046%) Primavera
6 1 (0.046%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.046%) SAP R/3
6 1 (0.046%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 870 (39.89%) Azure
2 624 (28.61%) Entra ID
3 346 (15.86%) Power Platform
4 289 (13.25%) OneDrive
5 242 (11.10%) Microsoft Copilot
6 167 (7.66%) Power Automate
7 153 (7.02%) Microsoft Purview
8 151 (6.92%) PowerApps
9 98 (4.49%) AWS
10 90 (4.13%) SaaS
11 70 (3.21%) Azure DevOps
12 62 (2.84%) Copilot Studio
13 61 (2.80%) Google Workspace
14 56 (2.57%) Dynamics 365
15 50 (2.29%) Azure AI
16 45 (2.06%) Azure Sentinel
17 39 (1.79%) GCP
18 36 (1.65%) Azure Logic Apps
19 34 (1.56%) Mimecast
20 33 (1.51%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 192 (8.80%) DNS
2 185 (8.48%) VPN
3 138 (6.33%) DHCP
4 132 (6.05%) TCP/IP
5 129 (5.91%) Firewall
6 113 (5.18%) Wi-Fi
7 76 (3.48%) LAN
8 61 (2.80%) WAN
9 47 (2.15%) Wireless
10 46 (2.11%) Network Security
11 38 (1.74%) VLAN
12 25 (1.15%) SAN
13 18 (0.83%) DKIM
13 18 (0.83%) Intranet
14 16 (0.73%) DMARC
15 15 (0.69%) Cisco IOS
16 14 (0.64%) SSL
17 13 (0.60%) Remote Desktop
17 13 (0.60%) SMTP
17 13 (0.60%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 148 (6.79%) Power BI
2 45 (2.06%) SQL Server
3 30 (1.38%) Metadata
4 9 (0.41%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.41%) EDRMS
5 8 (0.37%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.32%) Tableau
7 6 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
8 5 (0.23%) Data Lake
9 4 (0.18%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.14%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.14%) Power Query
10 3 (0.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.092%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.092%) Data Mining
11 2 (0.092%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.092%) Oracle Database
11 2 (0.092%) SAS Data Integration Studio
11 2 (0.092%) SAS Enterprise Guide
11 2 (0.092%) SAS Visual Analytics
Development Applications
1 99 (4.54%) JIRA
2 8 (0.37%) MSI
3 6 (0.28%) Browser DevTools
4 5 (0.23%) Chocolatey
4 5 (0.23%) Fiddler
5 4 (0.18%) Git
5 4 (0.18%) Zephyr
6 3 (0.14%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.092%) AdminStudio
7 2 (0.092%) GitLab
7 2 (0.092%) InstallShield
7 2 (0.092%) Postman
7 2 (0.092%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.092%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.092%) TestRail
7 2 (0.092%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.046%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.046%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.046%) Vagrant
General
1 981 (44.98%) Social Skills
2 311 (14.26%) Finance
3 215 (9.86%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (9.03%) Public Sector
5 106 (4.86%) Legal
6 90 (4.13%) Banking
7 87 (3.99%) Organisational Skills
8 64 (2.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 59 (2.71%) Documentation Skills
10 40 (1.83%) Manufacturing
11 31 (1.42%) Law
12 29 (1.33%) Military
13 26 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
14 23 (1.05%) Local Government
15 21 (0.96%) Telecoms
16 20 (0.92%) Front Office
16 20 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
17 16 (0.73%) Investment Banking
18 14 (0.64%) Retail
19 13 (0.60%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 393 (18.02%) IT Support
2 363 (16.64%) Support Engineer
3 260 (11.92%) IT Engineer
4 255 (11.69%) Analyst
5 237 (10.87%) IT Support Engineer
6 134 (6.14%) Architect
7 133 (6.10%) Senior
8 102 (4.68%) 2nd Line Support
9 100 (4.59%) Support Analyst
10 99 (4.54%) Developer
11 96 (4.40%) Lead
12 91 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 90 (4.13%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
14 89 (4.08%) IT Analyst
15 87 (3.99%) 1st Line Support
16 86 (3.94%) Consultant
17 85 (3.90%) Desktop Support
18 77 (3.53%) Administrator
19 76 (3.48%) Service Analyst
20 73 (3.35%) Service Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (2.25%) Microsoft Graph
2 44 (2.02%) REST
3 34 (1.56%) React
4 33 (1.51%) SPFx
5 31 (1.42%) CSS
5 31 (1.42%) Terraform
6 27 (1.24%) HTML
7 23 (1.05%) .NET
8 20 (0.92%) OAuth
9 19 (0.87%) JSON
10 14 (0.64%) SAML
11 11 (0.50%) Software Packaging
12 10 (0.46%) Model Context Protocol
13 9 (0.41%) OpenID
14 8 (0.37%) jQuery
15 7 (0.32%) AngularJS
15 7 (0.32%) ASP.NET
15 7 (0.32%) LDAP
16 6 (0.28%) OAuth2
16 6 (0.28%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 254 (11.65%) Onboarding
2 74 (3.39%) Management Information System
3 54 (2.48%) Security Posture
4 53 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
5 51 (2.34%) Video Conferencing
6 46 (2.11%) Driving Licence
7 44 (2.02%) Data Centre
8 42 (1.93%) AI Agents
9 36 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
10 33 (1.51%) CMDB
11 29 (1.33%) Product Ownership
12 27 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
12 27 (1.24%) Self-Motivation
13 25 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
14 24 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
14 24 (1.10%) Low-Code
14 24 (1.10%) Smartphone
15 22 (1.01%) Mobile App
16 20 (0.92%) Freedom of Information
16 20 (0.92%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 1,023 (46.91%) Windows
2 334 (15.31%) Windows 10
3 177 (8.12%) Windows Server
4 124 (5.69%) Mac OS
5 102 (4.68%) Apple iOS
6 84 (3.85%) Android
7 66 (3.03%) Linux
8 20 (0.92%) Windows 7
9 18 (0.83%) Ubuntu
10 15 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
11 12 (0.55%) CentOS
12 8 (0.37%) Unix
13 7 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
14 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.14%) Windows XP
15 2 (0.092%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.092%) VMS
15 2 (0.092%) Windows Server 2008
16 1 (0.046%) Amazon Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 525 (24.07%) Problem-Solving
2 457 (20.95%) Customer Service
3 390 (17.88%) ITIL
4 308 (14.12%) Migration
5 264 (12.10%) ITSM
6 255 (11.69%) Stakeholder Management
7 242 (11.10%) Continuous Improvement
8 229 (10.50%) AI
8 229 (10.50%) Cybersecurity
9 211 (9.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 203 (9.31%) Service Management
11 197 (9.03%) Agile
12 149 (6.83%) User Experience
13 134 (6.14%) Service Delivery
14 132 (6.05%) Data Protection
15 130 (5.96%) Business Intelligence
15 130 (5.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 128 (5.87%) Project Delivery
17 127 (5.82%) Roadmaps
18 123 (5.64%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 242 (11.10%) PowerShell
2 61 (2.80%) JavaScript
2 61 (2.80%) SQL
3 60 (2.75%) Python
4 31 (1.42%) TypeScript
5 26 (1.19%) C#
6 14 (0.64%) Bash
7 13 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
7 13 (0.60%) T-SQL
8 9 (0.41%) Bicep
9 8 (0.37%) PL/SQL
10 7 (0.32%) Java
11 5 (0.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.14%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.14%) VBA
12 3 (0.14%) VBScript
13 2 (0.092%) C
13 2 (0.092%) C++
13 2 (0.092%) Objective-C
13 2 (0.092%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 334 (15.31%) Security Cleared
2 261 (11.97%) SC Cleared
3 230 (10.55%) Degree
4 124 (5.69%) Microsoft Certification
5 61 (2.80%) Azure Certification
6 55 (2.52%) DV Cleared
7 51 (2.34%) BPSS Clearance
8 50 (2.29%) Computer Science Degree
9 41 (1.88%) A+ Certification
10 35 (1.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 33 (1.51%) DBS Check
12 32 (1.47%) Cisco Certification
13 30 (1.38%) CISSP
14 29 (1.33%) PMP
15 28 (1.28%) PMI Certification
16 26 (1.19%) ITIL Certification
17 22 (1.01%) MCSE
17 22 (1.01%) Network+ Certification
18 16 (0.73%) Microsoft Certified Professional
19 14 (0.64%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (5.27%) SLA
2 86 (3.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 78 (3.58%) Cyber Essentials
4 67 (3.07%) GDPR
5 56 (2.57%) NIST
6 35 (1.60%) PMO
7 33 (1.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 33 (1.51%) Data Quality
8 26 (1.19%) QA
9 21 (0.96%) Accessibility
10 18 (0.83%) NCSC
11 16 (0.73%) PCI DSS
12 15 (0.69%) GRC
13 9 (0.41%) ISO 31000
14 7 (0.32%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 6 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
15 6 (0.28%) WCAG
16 5 (0.23%) COBIT
16 5 (0.23%) NIST 800
16 5 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 866 (39.71%) Active Directory
2 86 (3.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 62 (2.84%) Hyper-V
4 57 (2.61%) Virtual Desktop
5 14 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
6 13 (0.60%) Docker
7 12 (0.55%) vSphere
8 8 (0.37%) Firmware
9 5 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.18%) BitLocker
11 2 (0.092%) VMware NSX
11 2 (0.092%) zsh
12 1 (0.046%) Dovecot
12 1 (0.046%) Microsoft App-V
12 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.046%) NFS
12 1 (0.046%) Postfix
12 1 (0.046%) Squid
12 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.046%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 433 (19.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 151 (6.92%) SCCM
3 54 (2.48%) Jamf Pro
4 46 (2.11%) Single Sign-On
5 17 (0.78%) Kubernetes
6 15 (0.69%) WSUS
7 8 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 6 (0.28%) FortiGate
8 6 (0.28%) Nessus
8 6 (0.28%) QRadar
9 5 (0.23%) Ansible
10 4 (0.18%) Podman
10 4 (0.18%) SCOM
11 3 (0.14%) Norton AntiVirus
11 3 (0.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.14%) vCenter Server
11 3 (0.14%) VxRail
12 2 (0.092%) Cisco CUCM
12 2 (0.092%) vMotion
13 1 (0.046%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 1,825 (83.68%) Microsoft
2 280 (12.84%) ServiceNow
3 119 (5.46%) VMware
4 103 (4.72%) Cisco
5 79 (3.62%) Citrix
6 78 (3.58%) Google
7 70 (3.21%) Apple
8 41 (1.88%) Meraki
9 30 (1.38%) SAP
10 29 (1.33%) OpenAI
11 28 (1.28%) iManage
12 27 (1.24%) Oracle
13 26 (1.19%) Adobe
14 24 (1.10%) Zscaler
15 23 (1.05%) Remedy
16 22 (1.01%) Sophos
16 22 (1.01%) Splunk
17 20 (0.92%) Bloomberg
17 20 (0.92%) Okta
18 19 (0.87%) CyberArk