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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 88 59
Rank change year-on-year -43 -29 +24
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 901 802 1,472
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.02% 2.76% 3.33%
As % of the Applications category 30.99% 34.01% 41.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 503 503 826
10th Percentile £163 £157 £140
25th Percentile £213 £208 £185
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £325 £255
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +27.45% -32.00%
75th Percentile £535 £525 £488
90th Percentile £690 £600 £619
UK excluding London median daily rate £350 £263 £220
% change year-on-year +33.33% +19.32% -32.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 78 315
10th Percentile £12.31 £14.10 £11.00
25th Percentile £13.72 £15.35 £12.63
Median hourly rate £17.94 £18.21 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% +13.36% -27.26%
75th Percentile £26.64 £24.19 £23.93
90th Percentile £65.00 £31.67 £45.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.29 £18.10 £15.50
% change year-on-year -4.49% +16.79% -22.03%

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 2,907 2,358 3,525
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 6.53% 8.11% 7.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,704 1,444 1,836
10th Percentile £213 £188 £158
25th Percentile £335 £263 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £409 £400
Median % change year-on-year +10.02% +2.25% -5.88%
75th Percentile £551 £538 £538
90th Percentile £650 £639 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £375 £350
% change year-on-year +13.33% +7.14% -11.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 336 235 621
10th Percentile £13.04 £14.57 £11.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £15.84 £14.00
Median hourly rate £19.91 £25.50 £18.80
Median % change year-on-year -21.92% +35.67% -41.99%
75th Percentile £30.15 £45.00 £41.75
90th Percentile £65.00 £75.75 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.10 £26.34 £17.60
% change year-on-year -27.48% +49.63% -37.50%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 -41 811 £400 +23.08% 589
UK excluding London -20 642 £350 +33.33% 523
London -72 217 £413 -2.94% 148
Work from Home -56 188 £350 -12.50% 213
South East -6 165 £439 +25.36% 163
North of England -39 156 £300 +23.71% 139
South West -12 102 £700 +133.33% 58
North West -11 96 £325 +30.00% 76
Midlands -42 82 £313 -7.26% 82
East of England -8 81 £205 -24.77% 50
West Midlands -44 54 £319 -25.06% 54
Yorkshire -46 52 £290 +20.83% 48
East Midlands -26 28 £224 +12.00% 28
Wales +3 24 £191 -44.36% 18
Scotland -30 24 £290 +38.10% 25
Northern Ireland +1 11 £350 +118.75% 5
North East -14 8 £175 -10.26% 21

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
1 115 (12.76%) SharePoint
2 84 (9.32%) Confluence
3 65 (7.21%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.00%) Skype for Business
5 7 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.55%) CMS
7 3 (0.33%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
Applications
1 324 (35.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 193 (21.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 88 (9.77%) Microsoft Project
4 72 (7.99%) MS Visio
5 13 (1.44%) Spreadsheet
6 6 (0.67%) Trello
7 5 (0.55%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.33%) Adobe Captivate
8 3 (0.33%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.11%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.11%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
9 1 (0.11%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 18 (2.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.78%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (1.22%) Primavera
4 6 (0.67%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 5 (0.55%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.55%) Shopify
6 4 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.33%) Aladdin
7 3 (0.33%) Fidessa
7 3 (0.33%) Maximo
7 3 (0.33%) Oracle Payables
7 3 (0.33%) SAP MM
7 3 (0.33%) SimCorp Dimension
8 2 (0.22%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.22%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.11%) assyst
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.11%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 181 (20.09%) Microsoft 365
2 85 (9.43%) Azure
3 45 (4.99%) Power Platform
4 37 (4.11%) Google Workspace
5 30 (3.33%) AWS
6 13 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (1.44%) SaaS
7 12 (1.33%) Entra ID
8 10 (1.11%) GCP
8 10 (1.11%) OneDrive
9 8 (0.89%) GitHub
10 7 (0.78%) Amazon SageMaker
10 7 (0.78%) Dagster
10 7 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (0.78%) Google Analytics
10 7 (0.78%) Google Tag Manager
11 6 (0.67%) Google Docs
12 5 (0.55%) Figma
12 5 (0.55%) Google Sheets
12 5 (0.55%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 42 (4.66%) Wireless
2 39 (4.33%) VPN
3 38 (4.22%) Firewall
4 37 (4.11%) TCP/IP
5 35 (3.88%) Wi-Fi
6 32 (3.55%) LAN
7 30 (3.33%) Skype
8 27 (3.00%) WAN
9 26 (2.89%) DNS
10 22 (2.44%) Network Security
11 20 (2.22%) DHCP
12 15 (1.66%) Ethernet
13 11 (1.22%) MPLS
14 10 (1.11%) Cisco IOS
14 10 (1.11%) VLAN
15 9 (1.00%) Internet
16 6 (0.67%) BGP
17 5 (0.55%) NetScaler
17 5 (0.55%) TACACS
18 4 (0.44%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (4.66%) Power BI
2 14 (1.55%) SQL Server
3 6 (0.67%) Oracle Database
3 6 (0.67%) Relational Database
4 5 (0.55%) BigQuery
4 5 (0.55%) Electronic Patient Records
4 5 (0.55%) Looker
4 5 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (0.44%) EDMS
5 4 (0.44%) RDBMS
5 4 (0.44%) SQLPlus
5 4 (0.44%) Tableau
6 3 (0.33%) MySQL
6 3 (0.33%) Power Query
7 2 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.22%) GIS
7 2 (0.22%) Metadata
8 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Database 10g
Development Applications
1 106 (11.76%) JIRA
2 13 (1.44%) Burp Suite
2 13 (1.44%) Metasploit
3 8 (0.89%) Git
3 8 (0.89%) MLflow
3 8 (0.89%) Toad
4 5 (0.55%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.44%) Subversion
6 3 (0.33%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.33%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.33%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.22%) JMeter
7 2 (0.22%) PVCS
7 2 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.22%) Tricentis qTest
8 1 (0.11%) Ant
8 1 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.11%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.11%) JUnit
8 1 (0.11%) TestDirector
General
1 539 (59.82%) Social Skills
2 249 (27.64%) Finance
3 195 (21.64%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (13.54%) Organisational Skills
5 101 (11.21%) Public Sector
6 72 (7.99%) Banking
7 50 (5.55%) Legal
8 47 (5.22%) Marketing
9 44 (4.88%) Telecoms
10 42 (4.66%) Manufacturing
10 42 (4.66%) Military
10 42 (4.66%) Presentation Skills
11 29 (3.22%) Electronics
12 27 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
12 27 (3.00%) Influencing Skills
12 27 (3.00%) Pharmaceutical
13 25 (2.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 16 (1.78%) Investment Banking
15 14 (1.55%) Retail
16 12 (1.33%) Law
Job Titles
1 164 (18.20%) Analyst
2 79 (8.77%) IT Support
3 56 (6.22%) Business Analyst
4 50 (5.55%) Architect
5 47 (5.22%) Administrator
6 45 (4.99%) Support Engineer
7 42 (4.66%) 2nd Line Support
8 38 (4.22%) Senior
8 38 (4.22%) Support Officer
9 35 (3.88%) Desktop Support
10 34 (3.77%) Lead
11 30 (3.33%) Service Architect
12 29 (3.22%) Project Manager
13 27 (3.00%) Support Analyst
14 26 (2.89%) Project Officer
15 24 (2.66%) Project Support Officer
15 24 (2.66%) Service Analyst
16 23 (2.55%) Coordinator
16 23 (2.55%) IT Engineer
17 22 (2.44%) PMO Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (0.89%) Web Services
2 7 (0.78%) NumPy
2 7 (0.78%) Pandas
2 7 (0.78%) scikit-learn
2 7 (0.78%) Seaborn
2 7 (0.78%) SOAP
3 6 (0.67%) REST
4 5 (0.55%) XML
5 4 (0.44%) .NET
5 4 (0.44%) FHIR
5 4 (0.44%) NETCONF
5 4 (0.44%) OpenConfig
5 4 (0.44%) RESTCONF
5 4 (0.44%) YANG
6 3 (0.33%) JDO
6 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Graph
6 3 (0.33%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.22%) ADO
7 2 (0.22%) HTML
7 2 (0.22%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 53 (5.88%) Onboarding
2 50 (5.55%) Self-Motivation
3 46 (5.11%) Management Information System
4 41 (4.55%) Product Ownership
5 34 (3.77%) Data Centre
6 24 (2.66%) Driving Licence
7 16 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (1.78%) Industry 4.0
7 16 (1.78%) NHS
7 16 (1.78%) Robotics
8 15 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
8 15 (1.66%) PMI
9 14 (1.55%) Mobile App
10 13 (1.44%) Insider Threat
10 13 (1.44%) Security Posture
11 10 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.00%) Social Media
13 8 (0.89%) Client/Server
13 8 (0.89%) Life Science
13 8 (0.89%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 216 (23.97%) Windows
2 94 (10.43%) Windows 10
3 62 (6.88%) Android
4 45 (4.99%) Linux
5 38 (4.22%) Mac OS
6 24 (2.66%) Apple iOS
7 18 (2.00%) Windows Server
8 14 (1.55%) Windows 7
9 10 (1.11%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (0.89%) Ubuntu
10 8 (0.89%) Unix
11 6 (0.67%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.33%) AIX
13 3 (0.33%) CentOS
14 2 (0.22%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 221 (24.53%) Problem-Solving
2 156 (17.31%) Agile
3 143 (15.87%) Project Management
4 139 (15.43%) Customer Service
5 113 (12.54%) Stakeholder Management
6 111 (12.32%) Continuous Improvement
7 108 (11.99%) ITIL
8 103 (11.43%) Project Delivery
9 87 (9.66%) Service Management
10 82 (9.10%) PRINCE2
11 77 (8.55%) Change Management
12 70 (7.77%) Decision-Making
13 68 (7.55%) Analytical Thinking
13 68 (7.55%) Business Intelligence
14 65 (7.21%) Time Management
15 57 (6.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 56 (6.22%) AI
16 56 (6.22%) Waterfall
17 54 (5.99%) Critical Thinking
18 53 (5.88%) Acceptance Criteria
Programming Languages
1 59 (6.55%) SQL
2 36 (4.00%) PowerShell
3 24 (2.66%) Python
4 17 (1.89%) VB
5 10 (1.11%) PHP
6 9 (1.00%) VBScript
7 8 (0.89%) PL/SQL
8 7 (0.78%) JavaScript
9 6 (0.67%) Java
10 5 (0.55%) Perl
10 5 (0.55%) VBA
11 4 (0.44%) C
12 3 (0.33%) C++
12 3 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.33%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.33%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.22%) R
14 1 (0.11%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.11%) Korn
Qualifications
1 310 (34.41%) Degree
2 239 (26.53%) Security Cleared
3 188 (20.87%) SC Cleared
4 58 (6.44%) DV Cleared
5 31 (3.44%) PMI Certification
6 30 (3.33%) TOGAF Certification
7 28 (3.11%) PMP
8 20 (2.22%) Microsoft Certification
9 18 (2.00%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (1.78%) APMP
10 16 (1.78%) CTC Cleared
11 15 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
12 14 (1.55%) ITIL Certification
13 13 (1.44%) CHECK Team Member
14 12 (1.33%) CBAP
14 12 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
14 12 (1.33%) MCSE
14 12 (1.33%) Postgraduate
15 11 (1.22%) CREST Certified
15 11 (1.22%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (11.21%) PMO
2 41 (4.55%) QA
3 32 (3.55%) SLA
4 26 (2.89%) Data Quality
5 25 (2.77%) GDPR
6 19 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 16 (1.78%) PCI DSS
8 14 (1.55%) Accessibility
9 8 (0.89%) P3O
10 7 (0.78%) ISO 9001
11 5 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.55%) MiFID
12 4 (0.44%) NIST
13 3 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.33%) ECSS
13 3 (0.33%) HL7
13 3 (0.33%) ISO 20022
14 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.22%) WCAG
15 1 (0.11%) GRC
System Software
1 97 (10.77%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.22%) Docker
3 10 (1.11%) BitLocker
3 10 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.78%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.55%) Hyper-V
5 5 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.55%) XenApp
5 5 (0.55%) XenDesktop
6 1 (0.11%) Citrix Presentation Server
6 1 (0.11%) Firmware
6 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.11%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.11%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 39 (4.33%) SCCM
2 30 (3.33%) OPNET
3 24 (2.66%) Microsoft Intune
4 13 (1.44%) Nmap
5 11 (1.22%) Ansible
6 8 (0.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 7 (0.78%) HP Quality Center
8 5 (0.55%) Kubernetes
8 5 (0.55%) SCOM
8 5 (0.55%) SCVMM
8 5 (0.55%) TeamSite
9 4 (0.44%) HP ALM
9 4 (0.44%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.44%) WSUS
10 3 (0.33%) Cisco Prime
10 3 (0.33%) PaperCut
10 3 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.33%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 3 (0.33%) Terraform
11 1 (0.11%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 588 (65.26%) Microsoft
2 73 (8.10%) SAP
2 73 (8.10%) ServiceNow
3 58 (6.44%) Remedy
4 57 (6.33%) Cisco
5 43 (4.77%) Atlassian
6 41 (4.55%) Google
6 41 (4.55%) HP
7 39 (4.33%) Apple
8 25 (2.77%) Dell
8 25 (2.77%) Oracle
9 24 (2.66%) Citrix
10 15 (1.66%) Siemens
11 14 (1.55%) VMware
12 12 (1.33%) Adobe
13 11 (1.22%) MobileIron
14 10 (1.11%) Planview
15 9 (1.00%) Salesforce
16 6 (0.67%) Ariba
17 5 (0.55%) Juniper