Microsoft Office Contract Job Trends

Microsoft Office
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Microsoft Office skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 95 76 64
Rank change year-on-year -19 -12 +24
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 983 1,062 1,494
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.75% 2.95% 3.27%
As % of the Applications category 33.98% 42.06% 41.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 568 620 965
10th Percentile £157 £145 £148
25th Percentile £203 £191 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £325 £280
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +16.07% -21.35%
75th Percentile £538 £506 £510
90th Percentile £688 £638 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £323 £260 £242
% change year-on-year +24.04% +7.44% -19.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 143 73 120
10th Percentile £12.75 £14.77 £13.48
25th Percentile £15.50 £18.19 £15.67
Median hourly rate £21.46 £25.00 £19.75
Median % change year-on-year -14.16% +26.58% -0.65%
75th Percentile £28.16 £35.00 £41.13
90th Percentile £50.00 £52.86 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.84 £25.15 £20.71
% change year-on-year -29.06% +21.47% +7.56%

All Software Application Skills
UK

Microsoft Office falls under the Software Applications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring software application skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for software application skills 2,893 2,525 3,629
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 8.10% 7.02% 7.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,669 1,458 2,242
10th Percentile £188 £165 £164
25th Percentile £300 £252 £233
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £430 £402 £405
Median % change year-on-year +7.03% -0.80% -10.00%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £550
90th Percentile £650 £649 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £418 £371 £363
% change year-on-year +12.46% +2.41% -9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 365 240 281
10th Percentile £12.82 £15.26 £14.16
25th Percentile £16.36 £15.62 £17.13
Median hourly rate £22.32 £24.09 £26.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.37% -9.09% +7.24%
75th Percentile £31.00 £42.81 £45.21
90th Percentile £57.65 £65.00 £50.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.02 £23.11 £26.00
% change year-on-year -13.37% -11.12% +7.04%

Microsoft Office
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Microsoft Office job vacancy trend in the UK

Microsoft Office
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Microsoft Office
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Microsoft Office over the 6 months to 1 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Microsoft Office in the UK

Microsoft Office
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Microsoft Office
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Microsoft Office over the 6 months to 1 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Office in the UK

Microsoft Office
Top 17 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 Office within the UK over the 6 months to 1 December 2025. 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 -14 879 £358 +5.29% 641
UK excluding London -17 652 £323 +24.04% 608
London -21 296 £374 -8.73% 150
Work from Home -48 197 £425 +6.25% 227
South East -5 157 £375 +19.05% 226
North of England -20 152 £247 +12.05% 92
Midlands -28 107 £275 -35.29% 108
South West +11 105 £600 +166.67% 81
North West +3 102 £268 +7.20% 51
West Midlands -27 77 £300 -31.03% 55
East of England -4 52 £375 +36.36% 66
Yorkshire -45 40 £290 +32.67% 33
Wales +3 33 £235 +17.50% 19
East Midlands -5 30 £169 -48.55% 52
Scotland -45 25 £358 +58.01% 31
Northern Ireland +3 22 £325 +113.11% 5
North East -13 10 £175 +16.67% 8

Microsoft Office
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
1 158 (16.07%) SharePoint
2 93 (9.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 85 (8.65%) Confluence
4 36 (3.66%) Skype for Business
5 17 (1.73%) Exchange Server 2013
6 10 (1.02%) Exchange Server 2003
6 10 (1.02%) Exchange Server 2007
6 10 (1.02%) Exchange Server 2010
6 10 (1.02%) Office Communications Server
6 10 (1.02%) SharePoint Server
7 8 (0.81%) IIS
8 7 (0.71%) Mattermost
9 5 (0.51%) HCL Notes
10 4 (0.41%) Moodle
11 3 (0.31%) CMS
12 2 (0.20%) Alfresco
13 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
13 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 294 (29.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 186 (18.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 96 (9.77%) Microsoft Project
4 72 (7.32%) MS Visio
5 10 (1.02%) Spreadsheet
6 9 (0.92%) Adobe Captivate
7 7 (0.71%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 7 (0.71%) Trello
8 6 (0.61%) Simulink
9 4 (0.41%) Windchill
10 3 (0.31%) Maya
10 3 (0.31%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
11 2 (0.20%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.20%) Adobe Premiere
11 2 (0.20%) InDesign
11 2 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
12 1 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 24 (2.44%) Remedy ITSM
2 7 (0.71%) Oracle Receivables
2 7 (0.71%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.61%) Oracle Financials
3 6 (0.61%) Primavera
4 5 (0.51%) Shopify
5 4 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.41%) SAP PLM
6 3 (0.31%) BPCS
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle EBS R12
7 2 (0.20%) assyst
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
7 2 (0.20%) IntelliMatch
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.20%) SAP HCM
7 2 (0.20%) SAP Payroll
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
8 1 (0.10%) Eze OMS
Cloud Services
1 213 (21.67%) Microsoft 365
2 97 (9.87%) Azure
3 59 (6.00%) Power Platform
4 37 (3.76%) Google Workspace
5 26 (2.64%) OneDrive
6 16 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
6 16 (1.63%) Entra ID
7 13 (1.32%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.32%) OCI
8 11 (1.12%) AWS
8 11 (1.12%) PowerApps
9 9 (0.92%) SaaS
10 8 (0.81%) Google Tag Manager
10 8 (0.81%) Power Automate
11 7 (0.71%) Figma
11 7 (0.71%) GCP
11 7 (0.71%) GitHub
11 7 (0.71%) Google Analytics
12 6 (0.61%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (0.41%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 61 (6.21%) Wireless
2 60 (6.10%) DNS
3 49 (4.98%) DHCP
3 49 (4.98%) VPN
4 42 (4.27%) TCP/IP
5 40 (4.07%) Skype
6 38 (3.87%) LAN
7 36 (3.66%) Wi-Fi
8 34 (3.46%) WAN
9 30 (3.05%) Firewall
10 17 (1.73%) Cisco IOS
11 15 (1.53%) Network Security
12 12 (1.22%) SAN
12 12 (1.22%) SSH
12 12 (1.22%) Structured Cabling
13 10 (1.02%) DDNS
13 10 (1.02%) PuTTY
14 8 (0.81%) Internet
14 8 (0.81%) MPLS
15 6 (0.61%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (5.19%) Power BI
2 12 (1.22%) Tableau
3 11 (1.12%) Oracle Database
4 10 (1.02%) SQL Server
5 8 (0.81%) Power Query
5 8 (0.81%) Relational Database
6 6 (0.61%) BigQuery
6 6 (0.61%) Looker
6 6 (0.61%) RDBMS
7 5 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
8 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.41%) Data Mart
8 4 (0.41%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.41%) EDMS
8 4 (0.41%) Metadata
8 4 (0.41%) Spotfire
8 4 (0.41%) SQLPlus
9 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
10 2 (0.20%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 113 (11.50%) JIRA
2 9 (0.92%) PVCS
3 6 (0.61%) ClearCase
4 5 (0.51%) Toad
5 4 (0.41%) Burp Suite
5 4 (0.41%) Hudson
5 4 (0.41%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.41%) Metasploit
5 4 (0.41%) Rational DOORS
5 4 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
6 3 (0.31%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.20%) Ant
7 2 (0.20%) Git
7 2 (0.20%) JUnit
7 2 (0.20%) Subversion
7 2 (0.20%) TestPartner
8 1 (0.10%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.10%) NUnit
8 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 549 (55.85%) Social Skills
2 294 (29.91%) Finance
3 209 (21.26%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (12.41%) Organisational Skills
5 112 (11.39%) Public Sector
6 85 (8.65%) Banking
7 72 (7.32%) Manufacturing
8 53 (5.39%) Marketing
9 49 (4.98%) Telecoms
10 42 (4.27%) Electronics
11 40 (4.07%) Legal
11 40 (4.07%) Military
12 26 (2.64%) Presentation Skills
13 23 (2.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 22 (2.24%) Influencing Skills
15 17 (1.73%) Law
16 15 (1.53%) Back Office
17 14 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
18 13 (1.32%) Financial Institution
18 13 (1.32%) Retail
Job Titles
1 239 (24.31%) Analyst
2 114 (11.60%) IT Support
3 94 (9.56%) Support Engineer
4 66 (6.71%) Support Analyst
5 65 (6.61%) 2nd Line Support
5 65 (6.61%) Desktop Support
6 52 (5.29%) Administrator
7 51 (5.19%) Business Analyst
8 41 (4.17%) Architect
8 41 (4.17%) Project Manager
8 41 (4.17%) Senior
9 36 (3.66%) Lead
10 35 (3.56%) Coordinator
10 35 (3.56%) IT Engineer
11 32 (3.26%) Desktop Engineer
12 30 (3.05%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
13 27 (2.75%) Desktop Support Engineer
13 27 (2.75%) IT Support Engineer
14 26 (2.64%) Service Analyst
14 26 (2.64%) Support Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (1.83%) XML
2 8 (0.81%) HTML
3 7 (0.71%) EDI
4 6 (0.61%) .NET
5 5 (0.51%) CSS
6 3 (0.31%) Django
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle Fusion
6 3 (0.31%) Unreal Engine
6 3 (0.31%) V-Ray
7 2 (0.20%) ADO
7 2 (0.20%) FHIR
7 2 (0.20%) Middleware
7 2 (0.20%) NETCONF
7 2 (0.20%) OpenConfig
7 2 (0.20%) REST
7 2 (0.20%) RESTCONF
7 2 (0.20%) WF
7 2 (0.20%) XMPP
7 2 (0.20%) YANG
8 1 (0.10%) ADO.NET
Miscellaneous
1 59 (6.00%) Data Centre
2 50 (5.09%) Management Information System
3 39 (3.97%) Self-Motivation
4 38 (3.87%) Driving Licence
5 36 (3.66%) Onboarding
6 31 (3.15%) Product Ownership
7 21 (2.14%) Virtual Team
8 20 (2.03%) Mobile App
9 17 (1.73%) PKI
10 16 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
11 13 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
12 12 (1.22%) NHS
12 12 (1.22%) Replication
12 12 (1.22%) Video Conferencing
13 11 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
14 10 (1.02%) CMDB
14 10 (1.02%) e-Learning
14 10 (1.02%) Tandem
15 9 (0.92%) PMI
16 6 (0.61%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 279 (28.38%) Windows
2 95 (9.66%) Windows 10
3 87 (8.85%) Android
4 73 (7.43%) Mac OS
5 54 (5.49%) Linux
6 37 (3.76%) Apple iOS
7 32 (3.26%) Windows Server
8 18 (1.83%) Unix
9 15 (1.53%) Windows Server 2016
10 13 (1.32%) Windows 7
11 10 (1.02%) Windows Server 2003
12 8 (0.81%) Windows Server 2012
12 8 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
13 6 (0.61%) Ubuntu
14 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 3 (0.31%) CentOS
15 3 (0.31%) Windows 8
16 2 (0.20%) AIX
16 2 (0.20%) Mac OS X
17 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 222 (22.58%) Problem-Solving
2 181 (18.41%) ITIL
3 168 (17.09%) Agile
4 166 (16.89%) Project Management
5 137 (13.94%) Customer Service
6 120 (12.21%) Stakeholder Management
7 96 (9.77%) Business Intelligence
7 96 (9.77%) Project Delivery
8 95 (9.66%) Continuous Improvement
8 95 (9.66%) Service Management
9 92 (9.36%) Change Management
10 72 (7.32%) ITSM
11 65 (6.61%) PRINCE2
12 58 (5.90%) Computer Science
12 58 (5.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 57 (5.80%) Service Delivery
14 55 (5.60%) Decision-Making
15 51 (5.19%) Analytics
16 50 (5.09%) Information Security
17 48 (4.88%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 79 (8.04%) SQL
2 39 (3.97%) PowerShell
3 26 (2.64%) Python
4 14 (1.42%) Java
5 11 (1.12%) VB
6 9 (0.92%) C
7 8 (0.81%) PL/SQL
7 8 (0.81%) R
7 8 (0.81%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.61%) C#
8 6 (0.61%) C++
9 5 (0.51%) Perl
9 5 (0.51%) VBScript
10 4 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 4 (0.41%) JavaScript
10 4 (0.41%) MATLAB
10 4 (0.41%) PHP
10 4 (0.41%) VBA
11 3 (0.31%) Korn
12 1 (0.10%) Bash
Qualifications
1 293 (29.81%) Degree
2 224 (22.79%) Security Cleared
3 170 (17.29%) SC Cleared
4 59 (6.00%) DV Cleared
5 34 (3.46%) ITIL Certification
6 33 (3.36%) Computer Science Degree
7 26 (2.64%) TOGAF Certification
8 24 (2.44%) PMI Certification
9 21 (2.14%) PMP
10 20 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
11 19 (1.93%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (1.42%) CCNA
12 14 (1.42%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 14 (1.42%) Master's Degree
13 12 (1.22%) HNC
13 12 (1.22%) MCSE
14 11 (1.12%) APMP
14 11 (1.12%) BPSS Clearance
14 11 (1.12%) HND
15 10 (1.02%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (8.04%) PMO
2 32 (3.26%) SLA
3 30 (3.05%) QA
4 24 (2.44%) GDPR
5 19 (1.93%) Accessibility
6 16 (1.63%) Data Quality
7 15 (1.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 12 (1.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 9 (0.92%) NIST
10 6 (0.61%) ISO 9001
10 6 (0.61%) P3O
11 4 (0.41%) COBIT
11 4 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.41%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.41%) WCAG
12 3 (0.31%) Def Stans
12 3 (0.31%) ECSS
12 3 (0.31%) IEC 61508
12 3 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 2 (0.20%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 164 (16.68%) Active Directory
2 16 (1.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.12%) BitLocker
3 11 (1.12%) Firmware
4 10 (1.02%) Brightmail
4 10 (1.02%) ISA Server
4 10 (1.02%) Virtual Desktop
5 8 (0.81%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.51%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.51%) Terminal Services
6 5 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.31%) Docker
7 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.20%) XenApp
9 1 (0.10%) Snort
9 1 (0.10%) vSphere
9 1 (0.10%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 53 (5.39%) SCCM
2 32 (3.26%) Microsoft Intune
3 26 (2.64%) OPNET
4 19 (1.93%) SCOM
5 15 (1.53%) HP SiteScope
6 10 (1.02%) Microsoft Clustering
7 8 (0.81%) WSUS
8 6 (0.61%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (0.51%) Kubernetes
10 4 (0.41%) Ansible
10 4 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
10 4 (0.41%) Nmap
11 3 (0.31%) Functional Safety
11 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.31%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.31%) Terraform
11 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.20%) EnCase
12 2 (0.20%) FTK
12 2 (0.20%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 637 (64.80%) Microsoft
2 88 (8.95%) Cisco
2 88 (8.95%) SAP
3 82 (8.34%) ServiceNow
4 79 (8.04%) Apple
5 67 (6.82%) HP
6 60 (6.10%) Remedy
7 54 (5.49%) Dell
8 51 (5.19%) Oracle
9 36 (3.66%) Atlassian
10 35 (3.56%) Google
11 23 (2.34%) Splunk
12 21 (2.14%) VMware
13 20 (2.03%) Adobe
14 16 (1.63%) Citrix
14 16 (1.63%) MobileIron
15 12 (1.22%) IBM
16 9 (0.92%) McAfee
16 9 (0.92%) Salesforce
17 8 (0.81%) Veeam