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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 77 62
Rank change year-on-year -25 -15 +26
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 949 931 1,440
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.59% 2.97% 3.36%
As % of the Applications category 33.70% 40.73% 41.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 552 565 909
10th Percentile £163 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £195 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £265
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +13.21% -28.46%
75th Percentile £538 £506 £500
90th Percentile £695 £627 £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 56 136
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.24 £12.13
25th Percentile £14.30 £19.00 £13.40
Median hourly rate £18.82 £24.19 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year -22.18% +27.76% -8.06%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £41.58
90th Percentile £45.75 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £24.60 £18.50
% change year-on-year -28.85% +32.95% -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 2,816 2,286 3,482
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.70% 7.29% 8.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,651 1,345 2,062
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £310 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £403 £400
Median % change year-on-year +10.92% +0.75% -8.57%
75th Percentile £548 £538 £550
90th Percentile £656 £647 £661
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £356 £350
% change year-on-year +19.38% +1.71% -11.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 331 196 304
10th Percentile £12.82 - £12.77
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.62 £15.42
Median hourly rate £20.00 £26.06 £25.25
Median % change year-on-year -23.26% +3.22% -5.54%
75th Percentile £29.61 £44.63 £45.00
90th Percentile £61.57 £78.63 £53.68
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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -17 862 £360 +20.00% 515
UK excluding London -12 655 £325 +30.00% 471
London -38 266 £395 +1.80% 116
Work from Home -39 203 £438 +16.67% 166
South East +1 169 £438 +38.89% 173
North of England -28 157 £240 +6.67% 103
South West +2 123 £688 +205.56% 41
North West +3 102 £250 - 55
Midlands -32 88 £246 -28.98% 78
West Midlands -40 58 £275 -35.29% 47
East of England -3 53 £350 +16.67% 52
Yorkshire -42 45 £290 +30.34% 42
East Midlands -1 31 £185 -11.90% 30
Wales +5 27 £251 -50.98% 9
Scotland -37 24 £358 +55.54% 21
Northern Ireland 0 17 £320 +106.45% 7
North East -12 10 £175 +16.67% 9

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
1 159 (16.75%) SharePoint
2 94 (9.91%) Confluence
3 90 (9.48%) Microsoft Exchange
4 32 (3.37%) Skype for Business
5 13 (1.37%) Exchange Server 2013
6 8 (0.84%) IIS
7 7 (0.74%) 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 (0.32%) CMS
11 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 295 (31.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 185 (19.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 95 (10.01%) Microsoft Project
4 85 (8.96%) MS Visio
5 11 (1.16%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.84%) Trello
7 5 (0.53%) Adobe Captivate
7 5 (0.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.32%) 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 (0.11%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.11%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.11%) Simulink
10 1 (0.11%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 29 (3.06%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (1.16%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.84%) Primavera
4 6 (0.63%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.53%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 4 (0.42%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.42%) Shopify
7 3 (0.32%) Maximo
7 3 (0.32%) 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 (0.11%) Oracle 11i
9 1 (0.11%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 215 (22.66%) Microsoft 365
2 99 (10.43%) Azure
3 51 (5.37%) Power Platform
4 35 (3.69%) Google Workspace
5 26 (2.74%) OneDrive
6 19 (2.00%) AWS
7 13 (1.37%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.37%) OCI
8 12 (1.26%) Entra ID
9 11 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (1.05%) GCP
10 10 (1.05%) Google Tag Manager
11 9 (0.95%) Google Analytics
12 8 (0.84%) Dynamics 365
13 7 (0.74%) GitHub
14 6 (0.63%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.53%) Figma
15 5 (0.53%) OpenShift
15 5 (0.53%) PowerApps
15 5 (0.53%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 58 (6.11%) Wireless
2 46 (4.85%) VPN
3 45 (4.74%) Skype
4 43 (4.53%) DNS
5 36 (3.79%) DHCP
6 35 (3.69%) Firewall
6 35 (3.69%) TCP/IP
7 34 (3.58%) LAN
8 33 (3.48%) Wi-Fi
9 29 (3.06%) WAN
10 16 (1.69%) Network Security
11 12 (1.26%) Structured Cabling
12 11 (1.16%) SSH
13 9 (0.95%) Cisco IOS
14 8 (0.84%) MPLS
15 7 (0.74%) SAN
16 6 (0.63%) DDNS
16 6 (0.63%) Internet
16 6 (0.63%) Unified Communications
16 6 (0.63%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (5.06%) Power BI
2 12 (1.26%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.26%) Tableau
3 11 (1.16%) Oracle Database
4 8 (0.84%) BigQuery
4 8 (0.84%) Looker
4 8 (0.84%) Power Query
5 7 (0.74%) Relational Database
6 5 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (0.53%) 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 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
8 3 (0.32%) Spotfire
9 2 (0.21%) DB2
9 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.21%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.21%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 117 (12.33%) JIRA
2 12 (1.26%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.26%) Metasploit
3 6 (0.63%) ClearCase
4 5 (0.53%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.53%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.53%) Toad
5 3 (0.32%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.32%) PVCS
5 3 (0.32%) Subversion
6 2 (0.21%) Hudson
7 1 (0.11%) Ant
7 1 (0.11%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.11%) Git
7 1 (0.11%) JUnit
7 1 (0.11%) MLflow
7 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.11%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.11%) TestDirector
General
1 570 (60.06%) Social Skills
2 281 (29.61%) Finance
3 203 (21.39%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (13.70%) Organisational Skills
5 121 (12.75%) Public Sector
6 75 (7.90%) Banking
7 65 (6.85%) Manufacturing
8 52 (5.48%) Marketing
9 49 (5.16%) Telecoms
10 47 (4.95%) Military
11 46 (4.85%) Legal
12 40 (4.21%) Electronics
13 23 (2.42%) Influencing Skills
14 20 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
14 20 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
15 19 (2.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 13 (1.37%) Back Office
16 13 (1.37%) Pharmaceutical
17 12 (1.26%) Investment Banking
18 10 (1.05%) Law
Job Titles
1 205 (21.60%) Analyst
2 107 (11.28%) IT Support
3 74 (7.80%) Support Engineer
4 61 (6.43%) 2nd Line Support
4 61 (6.43%) Support Analyst
5 58 (6.11%) Desktop Support
6 53 (5.58%) Business Analyst
7 47 (4.95%) Administrator
8 45 (4.74%) Architect
9 37 (3.90%) Senior
10 35 (3.69%) Project Manager
11 33 (3.48%) Support Officer
12 32 (3.37%) IT Engineer
13 31 (3.27%) Coordinator
14 30 (3.16%) Lead
14 30 (3.16%) Service Architect
15 27 (2.85%) Desktop Engineer
16 25 (2.63%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
16 25 (2.63%) IT Support Engineer
16 25 (2.63%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.16%) XML
2 6 (0.63%) REST
2 6 (0.63%) Web Services
3 5 (0.53%) .NET
3 5 (0.53%) 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 (0.11%) AngularJS
6 1 (0.11%) IBM Integration Bus
6 1 (0.11%) Kafka
6 1 (0.11%) LangChain
6 1 (0.11%) React
6 1 (0.11%) SAP Fiori
6 1 (0.11%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 52 (5.48%) Data Centre
1 52 (5.48%) Management Information System
2 40 (4.21%) Onboarding
3 39 (4.11%) Product Ownership
4 36 (3.79%) Driving Licence
5 34 (3.58%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
7 19 (2.00%) Mobile App
8 17 (1.79%) PKI
9 15 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
9 15 (1.58%) Virtual Team
10 14 (1.48%) NHS
11 13 (1.37%) Security Posture
12 12 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
13 10 (1.05%) Insider Threat
13 10 (1.05%) PMI
14 9 (0.95%) CMDB
14 9 (0.95%) Replication
14 9 (0.95%) Tandem
15 7 (0.74%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 268 (28.24%) Windows
2 103 (10.85%) Windows 10
3 85 (8.96%) Android
4 67 (7.06%) Mac OS
5 58 (6.11%) Linux
6 37 (3.90%) Apple iOS
7 29 (3.06%) Windows Server
8 18 (1.90%) Unix
9 15 (1.58%) Windows Server 2016
10 12 (1.26%) Windows 7
11 11 (1.16%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.74%) Ubuntu
13 6 (0.63%) Windows Server 2003
14 5 (0.53%) Windows Server 2012
15 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 3 (0.32%) CentOS
16 3 (0.32%) Windows 8
17 2 (0.21%) AIX
18 1 (0.11%) Mac OS X
18 1 (0.11%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (22.87%) Problem-Solving
2 175 (18.44%) Agile
3 164 (17.28%) Project Management
4 159 (16.75%) ITIL
5 130 (13.70%) Customer Service
6 125 (13.17%) Stakeholder Management
7 105 (11.06%) Continuous Improvement
8 98 (10.33%) Project Delivery
9 93 (9.80%) Service Management
10 90 (9.48%) Business Intelligence
11 82 (8.64%) Change Management
11 82 (8.64%) PRINCE2
12 65 (6.85%) ITSM
13 60 (6.32%) Information Security
14 57 (6.01%) Service Delivery
15 56 (5.90%) Critical Thinking
16 54 (5.69%) Analytical Thinking
16 54 (5.69%) Decision-Making
17 53 (5.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 53 (5.58%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 75 (7.90%) SQL
2 46 (4.85%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.63%) Python
4 9 (0.95%) Java
4 9 (0.95%) R
4 9 (0.95%) VB
5 8 (0.84%) C
5 8 (0.84%) PHP
5 8 (0.84%) Shell Script
6 7 (0.74%) JavaScript
6 7 (0.74%) PL/SQL
7 5 (0.53%) Perl
7 5 (0.53%) VBScript
8 4 (0.42%) C#
9 3 (0.32%) C++
9 3 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (0.32%) Korn
9 3 (0.32%) VBA
10 1 (0.11%) MATLAB
10 1 (0.11%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 296 (31.19%) Degree
2 245 (25.82%) Security Cleared
3 188 (19.81%) SC Cleared
4 62 (6.53%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.37%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.16%) TOGAF Certification
7 26 (2.74%) PMI Certification
8 25 (2.63%) PMP
9 24 (2.53%) Computer Science Degree
10 20 (2.11%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (1.79%) APMP
12 15 (1.58%) MCSE
13 13 (1.37%) Master's Degree
14 12 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
14 12 (1.26%) CHECK Team Member
14 12 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
14 12 (1.26%) CTC Cleared
15 11 (1.16%) Postgraduate
16 10 (1.05%) A+ Certification
16 10 (1.05%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (9.69%) PMO
2 41 (4.32%) QA
3 30 (3.16%) GDPR
4 28 (2.95%) SLA
5 25 (2.63%) Data Quality
6 20 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.58%) Accessibility
8 14 (1.48%) PCI DSS
9 12 (1.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 6 (0.63%) P3O
11 5 (0.53%) ISO 9001
12 4 (0.42%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.32%) ECSS
14 2 (0.21%) COBIT
14 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.21%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.21%) ISO 20022
14 2 (0.21%) MiFID
14 2 (0.21%) NIST
15 1 (0.11%) HL7
System Software
1 155 (16.33%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.95%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.84%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.63%) Brightmail
5 6 (0.63%) ISA Server
6 5 (0.53%) Firmware
6 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (0.53%) XenApp
7 4 (0.42%) Docker
7 4 (0.42%) XenDesktop
8 3 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.21%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.11%) Snort
Systems Management
1 50 (5.27%) SCCM
2 35 (3.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.16%) OPNET
4 19 (2.00%) SCOM
5 15 (1.58%) HP SiteScope
6 12 (1.26%) Nmap
7 8 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (0.84%) WSUS
8 6 (0.63%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (0.53%) Kubernetes
9 5 (0.53%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 4 (0.42%) Ansible
10 4 (0.42%) SCVMM
11 3 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.32%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.32%) Terraform
11 3 (0.32%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.21%) EnCase
12 2 (0.21%) FTK
12 2 (0.21%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 601 (63.33%) Microsoft
2 79 (8.32%) SAP
3 75 (7.90%) Cisco
4 73 (7.69%) ServiceNow
5 69 (7.27%) Remedy
6 64 (6.74%) Apple
7 58 (6.11%) HP
8 45 (4.74%) Dell
9 43 (4.53%) Atlassian
10 40 (4.21%) Oracle
11 35 (3.69%) Google
12 23 (2.42%) Splunk
13 20 (2.11%) VMware
14 19 (2.00%) Citrix
15 16 (1.69%) MobileIron
16 11 (1.16%) IBM
17 10 (1.05%) Planview
18 9 (0.95%) Adobe
18 9 (0.95%) Veeam
19 8 (0.84%) Salesforce