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 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 77 62
Rank change year-on-year -24 -15 +26
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 960 941 1,426
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.60% 2.98% 3.35%
As % of the Applications category 33.83% 40.84% 41.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 560 571 897
10th Percentile £162 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £194 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £265
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +13.21% -28.46%
75th Percentile £538 £503 £500
90th Percentile £694 £626 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £325 £250 £240
% change year-on-year +30.00% +4.17% -20.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 131 58 136
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.25 £12.13
25th Percentile £14.25 £19.25 £13.40
Median hourly rate £18.82 £24.39 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year -22.83% +28.83% -5.94%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £41.58
90th Percentile £45.75 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.37 £24.59 £18.50
% change year-on-year -29.37% +32.89% -6.94%

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 2,838 2,304 3,454
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.68% 7.29% 8.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,667 1,357 2,037
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £311 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £448 £401 £400
Median % change year-on-year +11.74% +0.13% -8.57%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £550
90th Percentile £653 £647 £663
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £356 £350
% change year-on-year +19.38% +1.71% -11.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 331 199 302
10th Percentile £12.82 - £12.75
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.62 £15.41
Median hourly rate £20.00 £25.79 £25.25
Median % change year-on-year -22.45% +2.14% -6.01%
75th Percentile £29.61 £44.27 £45.00
90th Percentile £61.57 £76.45 £53.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.10 £27.13 £25.00
% change year-on-year -29.59% +8.50% -14.16%

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 14 January 2026.

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 14 January 2026.

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 14 January 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 -17 872 £360 +20.00% 605
UK excluding London -9 661 £325 +30.00% 549
London -40 271 £395 +1.80% 137
Work from Home -38 204 £438 +16.67% 211
South East 0 170 £450 +42.86% 194
North of England -29 159 £247 +9.56% 131
South West +3 123 £688 +205.56% 44
North West +4 104 £275 +10.00% 67
Midlands -31 87 £246 -28.98% 92
West Midlands -41 57 £275 -35.29% 58
East of England +1 56 £350 +27.27% 62
Yorkshire -47 45 £290 +30.34% 51
East Midlands -5 31 £185 -11.90% 33
Wales +6 28 £251 -50.98% 12
Scotland -39 24 £358 +55.54% 24
Northern Ireland -1 17 £320 +106.45% 6
North East -15 10 £175 +16.67% 15

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
1 161 (16.77%) SharePoint
2 96 (10.00%) Confluence
3 92 (9.58%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (3.54%) Skype for Business
5 13 (1.35%) Exchange Server 2013
6 8 (0.83%) IIS
7 7 (0.73%) Mattermost
8 6 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2003
8 6 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2007
8 6 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2010
8 6 (0.63%) Office Communications Server
8 6 (0.63%) SharePoint Server
9 4 (0.42%) HCL Notes
10 3 (0.31%) CMS
11 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 304 (31.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 189 (19.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 94 (9.79%) Microsoft Project
4 88 (9.17%) MS Visio
5 12 (1.25%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.83%) Trello
7 5 (0.52%) Adobe Captivate
7 5 (0.52%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.31%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.21%) InDesign
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle Smart View
10 1 (0.10%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.10%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.10%) Simulink
10 1 (0.10%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 29 (3.02%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (1.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.83%) Primavera
4 6 (0.63%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.52%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 4 (0.42%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.42%) Shopify
7 3 (0.31%) Maximo
7 3 (0.31%) Oracle EBS R12
8 2 (0.21%) assyst
8 2 (0.21%) Dynamics GP
8 2 (0.21%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.21%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.21%) SAP Payroll
8 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.10%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 214 (22.29%) Microsoft 365
2 100 (10.42%) Azure
3 51 (5.31%) Power Platform
4 35 (3.65%) Google Workspace
5 26 (2.71%) OneDrive
6 20 (2.08%) AWS
7 13 (1.35%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.35%) OCI
8 12 (1.25%) Entra ID
9 11 (1.15%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (1.04%) GCP
10 10 (1.04%) Google Tag Manager
11 9 (0.94%) Google Analytics
12 8 (0.83%) Dynamics 365
13 7 (0.73%) GitHub
14 6 (0.63%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.52%) Figma
15 5 (0.52%) OpenShift
15 5 (0.52%) PowerApps
15 5 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 57 (5.94%) Wireless
2 48 (5.00%) VPN
3 47 (4.90%) Skype
4 45 (4.69%) DNS
5 38 (3.96%) DHCP
6 36 (3.75%) LAN
7 35 (3.65%) Firewall
7 35 (3.65%) TCP/IP
7 35 (3.65%) Wi-Fi
8 31 (3.23%) WAN
9 16 (1.67%) Network Security
10 12 (1.25%) Structured Cabling
11 11 (1.15%) SSH
12 9 (0.94%) Cisco IOS
13 8 (0.83%) MPLS
13 8 (0.83%) VLAN
14 7 (0.73%) SAN
15 6 (0.63%) DDNS
15 6 (0.63%) Internet
15 6 (0.63%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (5.00%) Power BI
2 12 (1.25%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.25%) Tableau
3 11 (1.15%) Oracle Database
4 8 (0.83%) BigQuery
4 8 (0.83%) Looker
4 8 (0.83%) Power Query
5 7 (0.73%) Relational Database
6 5 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (0.52%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (0.42%) EDMS
7 4 (0.42%) Metadata
7 4 (0.42%) SQLPlus
8 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
8 3 (0.31%) Spotfire
9 2 (0.21%) DB2
9 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.21%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.21%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 119 (12.40%) JIRA
2 12 (1.25%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.25%) Metasploit
3 6 (0.63%) ClearCase
3 6 (0.63%) Toad
4 5 (0.52%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.31%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.31%) PVCS
5 3 (0.31%) Subversion
6 2 (0.21%) Hudson
7 1 (0.10%) Ant
7 1 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.10%) Git
7 1 (0.10%) JUnit
7 1 (0.10%) MLflow
7 1 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.10%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 572 (59.58%) Social Skills
2 284 (29.58%) Finance
3 204 (21.25%) Analytical Skills
4 132 (13.75%) Organisational Skills
5 121 (12.60%) Public Sector
6 76 (7.92%) Banking
7 65 (6.77%) Manufacturing
8 52 (5.42%) Marketing
9 49 (5.10%) Telecoms
10 47 (4.90%) Legal
10 47 (4.90%) Military
11 40 (4.17%) Electronics
12 23 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
13 21 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
14 20 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
15 19 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 13 (1.35%) Back Office
16 13 (1.35%) Investment Banking
16 13 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
17 10 (1.04%) Law
Job Titles
1 208 (21.67%) Analyst
2 108 (11.25%) IT Support
3 74 (7.71%) Support Engineer
4 61 (6.35%) 2nd Line Support
4 61 (6.35%) Support Analyst
5 58 (6.04%) Desktop Support
6 55 (5.73%) Business Analyst
7 47 (4.90%) Architect
8 46 (4.79%) Administrator
9 38 (3.96%) Senior
10 36 (3.75%) Support Officer
11 35 (3.65%) Project Manager
12 32 (3.33%) IT Engineer
13 31 (3.23%) Coordinator
13 31 (3.23%) Lead
14 30 (3.13%) Service Architect
15 27 (2.81%) Desktop Engineer
16 25 (2.60%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
16 25 (2.60%) IT Support Engineer
16 25 (2.60%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.15%) XML
2 6 (0.63%) REST
2 6 (0.63%) Web Services
3 5 (0.52%) .NET
3 5 (0.52%) SOAP
4 4 (0.42%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (0.21%) ADO
5 2 (0.21%) FHIR
5 2 (0.21%) NETCONF
5 2 (0.21%) OpenConfig
5 2 (0.21%) RESTCONF
5 2 (0.21%) WF
5 2 (0.21%) YANG
6 1 (0.10%) AngularJS
6 1 (0.10%) CrewAI
6 1 (0.10%) Kafka
6 1 (0.10%) LangChain
6 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
6 1 (0.10%) React
6 1 (0.10%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 52 (5.42%) Management Information System
2 51 (5.31%) Data Centre
3 40 (4.17%) Onboarding
4 39 (4.06%) Product Ownership
5 35 (3.65%) Driving Licence
6 34 (3.54%) Self-Motivation
7 20 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
8 19 (1.98%) Mobile App
9 17 (1.77%) PKI
10 16 (1.67%) NHS
11 15 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
11 15 (1.56%) Virtual Team
12 13 (1.35%) Security Posture
13 11 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
14 10 (1.04%) Insider Threat
14 10 (1.04%) PMI
15 9 (0.94%) CMDB
15 9 (0.94%) Replication
15 9 (0.94%) Tandem
16 7 (0.73%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 270 (28.13%) Windows
2 105 (10.94%) Windows 10
3 84 (8.75%) Android
4 66 (6.88%) Mac OS
5 60 (6.25%) Linux
6 37 (3.85%) Apple iOS
7 29 (3.02%) Windows Server
8 18 (1.88%) Unix
9 15 (1.56%) Windows Server 2016
10 14 (1.46%) Windows 7
11 11 (1.15%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.73%) Ubuntu
13 6 (0.63%) Windows Server 2003
14 5 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
15 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 3 (0.31%) CentOS
16 3 (0.31%) Windows 8
17 2 (0.21%) AIX
18 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
18 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 218 (22.71%) Problem-Solving
2 177 (18.44%) Agile
3 168 (17.50%) Project Management
4 160 (16.67%) ITIL
5 130 (13.54%) Customer Service
6 127 (13.23%) Stakeholder Management
7 105 (10.94%) Continuous Improvement
8 100 (10.42%) Project Delivery
9 95 (9.90%) Service Management
10 90 (9.38%) Business Intelligence
11 84 (8.75%) PRINCE2
12 83 (8.65%) Change Management
13 67 (6.98%) ITSM
14 60 (6.25%) Information Security
15 58 (6.04%) Critical Thinking
16 57 (5.94%) Service Delivery
17 55 (5.73%) Decision-Making
18 54 (5.63%) Analytical Thinking
18 54 (5.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 54 (5.63%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 76 (7.92%) SQL
2 48 (5.00%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.60%) Python
4 11 (1.15%) VB
5 9 (0.94%) Java
5 9 (0.94%) R
6 8 (0.83%) C
6 8 (0.83%) PHP
6 8 (0.83%) Shell Script
7 7 (0.73%) JavaScript
7 7 (0.73%) PL/SQL
7 7 (0.73%) VBScript
8 5 (0.52%) Perl
9 4 (0.42%) C#
10 3 (0.31%) C++
10 3 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.31%) Korn
10 3 (0.31%) VBA
11 1 (0.10%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 296 (30.83%) Degree
2 249 (25.94%) Security Cleared
3 192 (20.00%) SC Cleared
4 64 (6.67%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.33%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.13%) TOGAF Certification
7 26 (2.71%) PMI Certification
8 25 (2.60%) PMP
9 24 (2.50%) Computer Science Degree
10 20 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (1.77%) APMP
12 15 (1.56%) MCSE
13 13 (1.35%) Master's Degree
14 12 (1.25%) BPSS Clearance
14 12 (1.25%) CHECK Team Member
14 12 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
14 12 (1.25%) CTC Cleared
15 11 (1.15%) Postgraduate
16 10 (1.04%) A+ Certification
16 10 (1.04%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (9.79%) PMO
2 41 (4.27%) QA
3 30 (3.13%) GDPR
4 29 (3.02%) SLA
5 25 (2.60%) Data Quality
6 20 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.56%) Accessibility
8 14 (1.46%) PCI DSS
9 12 (1.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 6 (0.63%) P3O
11 5 (0.52%) ISO 9001
12 4 (0.42%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.31%) ECSS
13 3 (0.31%) ISO 20022
14 2 (0.21%) COBIT
14 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.21%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.21%) MiFID
14 2 (0.21%) NIST
15 1 (0.10%) GxP
System Software
1 155 (16.15%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.15%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.83%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.63%) Brightmail
5 6 (0.63%) ISA Server
6 5 (0.52%) Firmware
6 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (0.52%) XenApp
7 4 (0.42%) Docker
7 4 (0.42%) XenDesktop
8 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.21%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.10%) Snort
Systems Management
1 52 (5.42%) SCCM
2 35 (3.65%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.13%) OPNET
4 19 (1.98%) SCOM
5 15 (1.56%) HP SiteScope
6 12 (1.25%) Nmap
7 8 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (0.83%) WSUS
8 6 (0.63%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (0.52%) Kubernetes
9 5 (0.52%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 4 (0.42%) Ansible
10 4 (0.42%) SCVMM
10 4 (0.42%) TeamSite
11 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.31%) Terraform
11 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.21%) EnCase
12 2 (0.21%) FTK
Vendors
1 612 (63.75%) Microsoft
2 79 (8.23%) SAP
3 75 (7.81%) ServiceNow
4 74 (7.71%) Cisco
5 71 (7.40%) Remedy
6 63 (6.56%) Apple
7 57 (5.94%) HP
8 44 (4.58%) Dell
9 43 (4.48%) Atlassian
10 40 (4.17%) Oracle
11 35 (3.65%) Google
12 23 (2.40%) Splunk
13 20 (2.08%) VMware
14 19 (1.98%) Citrix
15 16 (1.67%) MobileIron
16 11 (1.15%) IBM
17 10 (1.04%) Planview
18 9 (0.94%) Adobe
18 9 (0.94%) Veeam
19 8 (0.83%) Salesforce