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

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 80 59
Rank change year-on-year -25 -21 +28
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 975 941 1,545
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.52% 2.99% 3.45%
As % of the Applications category 34.14% 39.60% 41.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 549 575 932
10th Percentile £163 £145 £148
25th Percentile £203 £191 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +11.11% -28.00%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £500
90th Percentile £696 £604 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £325 £250 £243
% change year-on-year +30.00% +3.09% -25.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 142 60 226
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.26 £11.68
25th Percentile £13.61 £19.75 £13.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £24.62 £16.89
Median % change year-on-year -28.93% +45.76% -21.43%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £41.43 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.35 £24.59 £15.85
% change year-on-year -33.50% +55.11% -21.73%

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 2,856 2,376 3,729
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.37% 7.56% 8.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,675 1,393 2,083
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £313 £250 £216
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £550
90th Percentile £650 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £351 £350
% change year-on-year +21.26% +0.14% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 332 200 477
10th Percentile £12.76 £15.62 £12.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £16.25 £14.16
Median hourly rate £19.10 £26.50 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.93% +26.19% -34.19%
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.75 £42.64
90th Percentile £63.53 £75.73 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.66 £26.50 £20.77
% change year-on-year -29.58% +27.59% -36.09%

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 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 31 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 31 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 -18 887 £350 +16.67% 665
UK excluding London -17 692 £325 +30.00% 610
London -36 253 £398 +5.72% 149
Work from Home -41 208 £425 +13.33% 240
South East -2 181 £451 +44.98% 191
North of England -29 167 £235 +4.44% 148
South West -4 123 £700 +211.11% 63
North West -14 104 £263 +5.00% 60
Midlands -31 94 £257 -21.14% 116
East of England +7 65 £338 +37.76% 67
West Midlands -51 57 £266 -37.47% 77
Yorkshire -42 52 £290 +28.89% 73
East Midlands +4 37 £190 -9.52% 39
Scotland -32 27 £358 +70.24% 24
Wales +4 24 £251 -50.98% 20
Northern Ireland +3 14 £245 +53.13% 4
North East -19 11 £175 +16.67% 18

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 (16.21%) SharePoint
2 102 (10.46%) Confluence
3 91 (9.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 33 (3.38%) Skype for Business
5 10 (1.03%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.72%) Mattermost
7 4 (0.41%) HCL Notes
8 3 (0.31%) CMS
8 3 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2003
8 3 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2007
8 3 (0.31%) Exchange Server 2010
8 3 (0.31%) Office Communications Server
8 3 (0.31%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.21%) IIS
10 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 319 (32.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 189 (19.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 93 (9.54%) Microsoft Project
4 88 (9.03%) MS Visio
5 13 (1.33%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.82%) Trello
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Captivate
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.31%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.31%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe After Effects
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%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 31 (3.18%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.33%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.92%) Primavera
4 6 (0.62%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.51%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 4 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.41%) Shopify
7 3 (0.31%) Maximo
7 3 (0.31%) Oracle EBS R12
8 2 (0.21%) Aladdin
8 2 (0.21%) Dynamics GP
8 2 (0.21%) Fidessa
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%) SimCorp Dimension
8 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.10%) iTrent
9 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 218 (22.36%) Microsoft 365
2 104 (10.67%) Azure
3 52 (5.33%) Power Platform
4 34 (3.49%) Google Workspace
5 24 (2.46%) AWS
5 24 (2.46%) OneDrive
6 15 (1.54%) Entra ID
7 13 (1.33%) Azure DevOps
7 13 (1.33%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.33%) OCI
8 12 (1.23%) GCP
9 10 (1.03%) Google Tag Manager
10 9 (0.92%) GitHub
10 9 (0.92%) Google Analytics
11 7 (0.72%) Dynamics 365
12 5 (0.51%) OpenShift
12 5 (0.51%) Power Automate
12 5 (0.51%) SaaS
13 4 (0.41%) Figma
14 3 (0.31%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 55 (5.64%) Wireless
2 51 (5.23%) Skype
3 49 (5.03%) VPN
4 43 (4.41%) DNS
5 41 (4.21%) LAN
6 39 (4.00%) Wi-Fi
7 37 (3.79%) DHCP
8 35 (3.59%) WAN
9 34 (3.49%) Firewall
10 32 (3.28%) TCP/IP
11 18 (1.85%) Network Security
12 12 (1.23%) Structured Cabling
13 10 (1.03%) VLAN
14 9 (0.92%) Cisco IOS
15 8 (0.82%) MPLS
16 7 (0.72%) Internet
16 7 (0.72%) SSH
17 6 (0.62%) Unified Communications
18 5 (0.51%) VoIP
19 4 (0.41%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (5.03%) Power BI
2 14 (1.44%) SQL Server
3 11 (1.13%) Oracle Database
4 8 (0.82%) BigQuery
4 8 (0.82%) Looker
4 8 (0.82%) Tableau
5 7 (0.72%) Power Query
5 7 (0.72%) Relational Database
6 6 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
7 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (0.41%) EDMS
7 4 (0.41%) RDBMS
7 4 (0.41%) SQLPlus
8 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
8 3 (0.31%) Metadata
8 3 (0.31%) MySQL
9 2 (0.21%) DB2
9 2 (0.21%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.21%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.21%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 114 (11.69%) JIRA
2 12 (1.23%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.23%) Metasploit
3 7 (0.72%) Toad
4 6 (0.62%) ClearCase
5 5 (0.51%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.51%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.31%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.31%) Git
6 3 (0.31%) MLflow
6 3 (0.31%) PVCS
6 3 (0.31%) Subversion
7 2 (0.21%) Hudson
7 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (0.21%) Tricentis qTest
8 1 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
8 1 (0.10%) JMeter
8 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 587 (60.21%) Social Skills
2 291 (29.85%) Finance
3 207 (21.23%) Analytical Skills
4 134 (13.74%) Organisational Skills
5 119 (12.21%) Public Sector
6 71 (7.28%) Banking
7 67 (6.87%) Manufacturing
8 53 (5.44%) Telecoms
9 49 (5.03%) Marketing
10 46 (4.72%) Legal
11 42 (4.31%) Military
12 38 (3.90%) Electronics
13 22 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
14 21 (2.15%) Influencing Skills
14 21 (2.15%) Presentation Skills
15 18 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 15 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
17 13 (1.33%) Investment Banking
18 10 (1.03%) Retail
19 9 (0.92%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 206 (21.13%) Analyst
2 107 (10.97%) IT Support
3 69 (7.08%) Support Engineer
4 63 (6.46%) 2nd Line Support
5 59 (6.05%) Support Analyst
6 58 (5.95%) Desktop Support
7 57 (5.85%) Business Analyst
8 49 (5.03%) Architect
9 45 (4.62%) Administrator
10 40 (4.10%) Support Officer
11 38 (3.90%) Senior
12 32 (3.28%) Lead
13 31 (3.18%) Project Manager
14 30 (3.08%) IT Engineer
14 30 (3.08%) Service Architect
15 25 (2.56%) Coordinator
15 25 (2.56%) Desktop Engineer
15 25 (2.56%) IT Support Engineer
15 25 (2.56%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
16 24 (2.46%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (0.72%) Web Services
2 6 (0.62%) REST
2 6 (0.62%) XML
3 5 (0.51%) .NET
3 5 (0.51%) SOAP
4 4 (0.41%) Oracle Fusion
5 3 (0.31%) ADO
6 2 (0.21%) FHIR
6 2 (0.21%) NETCONF
6 2 (0.21%) NumPy
6 2 (0.21%) OpenConfig
6 2 (0.21%) Pandas
6 2 (0.21%) RESTCONF
6 2 (0.21%) scikit-learn
6 2 (0.21%) Seaborn
6 2 (0.21%) YANG
7 1 (0.10%) CrewAI
7 1 (0.10%) LangChain
7 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
7 1 (0.10%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 49 (5.03%) Data Centre
2 48 (4.92%) Management Information System
3 47 (4.82%) Onboarding
4 40 (4.10%) Product Ownership
5 32 (3.28%) Driving Licence
5 32 (3.28%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (1.85%) Mobile App
8 17 (1.74%) NHS
9 16 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (1.54%) Virtual Team
11 13 (1.33%) Security Posture
12 12 (1.23%) Insider Threat
13 11 (1.13%) PKI
13 11 (1.13%) PMI
14 7 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
14 7 (0.72%) Client/Server
14 7 (0.72%) CMDB
14 7 (0.72%) e-Learning
14 7 (0.72%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 264 (27.08%) Windows
2 110 (11.28%) Windows 10
3 85 (8.72%) Android
4 64 (6.56%) Mac OS
5 60 (6.15%) Linux
6 37 (3.79%) Apple iOS
7 26 (2.67%) Windows Server
8 18 (1.85%) Windows 7
9 15 (1.54%) Unix
10 14 (1.44%) Windows Server 2016
11 11 (1.13%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.72%) Ubuntu
13 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.31%) CentOS
14 3 (0.31%) Windows Server 2003
15 2 (0.21%) AIX
15 2 (0.21%) Windows 8
16 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (22.26%) Problem-Solving
2 170 (17.44%) Agile
3 165 (16.92%) Project Management
4 146 (14.97%) ITIL
5 144 (14.77%) Customer Service
6 129 (13.23%) Stakeholder Management
7 110 (11.28%) Continuous Improvement
8 102 (10.46%) Project Delivery
9 95 (9.74%) Service Management
10 88 (9.03%) Business Intelligence
11 82 (8.41%) PRINCE2
12 73 (7.49%) Change Management
13 68 (6.97%) ITSM
14 61 (6.26%) Service Delivery
15 59 (6.05%) Analytical Thinking
15 59 (6.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 58 (5.95%) Critical Thinking
16 58 (5.95%) Time Management
17 57 (5.85%) Waterfall
18 55 (5.64%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 85 (8.72%) SQL
2 50 (5.13%) PowerShell
3 28 (2.87%) Python
4 15 (1.54%) VB
5 10 (1.03%) Java
6 9 (0.92%) VBScript
7 8 (0.82%) C
7 8 (0.82%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.82%) PHP
7 8 (0.82%) PL/SQL
8 7 (0.72%) R
8 7 (0.72%) Shell Script
9 5 (0.51%) Perl
9 5 (0.51%) VBA
10 4 (0.41%) C#
11 3 (0.31%) C++
11 3 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.21%) Korn
12 2 (0.21%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 296 (30.36%) Degree
2 247 (25.33%) Security Cleared
3 191 (19.59%) SC Cleared
4 62 (6.36%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.28%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.08%) TOGAF Certification
7 26 (2.67%) PMI Certification
8 24 (2.46%) PMP
9 22 (2.26%) Microsoft Certification
10 19 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (1.74%) APMP
12 15 (1.54%) MCSE
13 14 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
13 14 (1.44%) CTC Cleared
14 13 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
14 13 (1.33%) Master's Degree
15 12 (1.23%) A+ Certification
15 12 (1.23%) CHECK Team Member
15 12 (1.23%) IIBA
16 11 (1.13%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (10.26%) PMO
2 43 (4.41%) QA
3 34 (3.49%) SLA
4 24 (2.46%) GDPR
5 23 (2.36%) Data Quality
6 18 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.54%) Accessibility
8 14 (1.44%) PCI DSS
9 12 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 7 (0.72%) P3O
11 6 (0.62%) ISO 9001
12 3 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.31%) ECSS
12 3 (0.31%) ISO 20022
13 2 (0.21%) COBIT
13 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.21%) MiFID
13 2 (0.21%) NIST
14 1 (0.10%) HL7
14 1 (0.10%) ISO 19650
System Software
1 152 (15.59%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.13%) BitLocker
2 11 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.62%) Docker
4 6 (0.62%) Microsoft Virtual Server
4 6 (0.62%) Virtual Servers
5 5 (0.51%) Hyper-V
5 5 (0.51%) XenApp
6 4 (0.41%) XenDesktop
7 3 (0.31%) Brightmail
7 3 (0.31%) ISA Server
8 2 (0.21%) Firmware
8 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 54 (5.54%) SCCM
2 36 (3.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.08%) OPNET
4 19 (1.95%) SCOM
5 15 (1.54%) HP SiteScope
6 12 (1.23%) Nmap
7 8 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (0.82%) WSUS
8 6 (0.62%) Ansible
8 6 (0.62%) HP Quality Center
9 5 (0.51%) Kubernetes
9 5 (0.51%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 5 (0.51%) TeamSite
9 5 (0.51%) Terraform
10 4 (0.41%) SCVMM
11 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Clustering
11 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
12 2 (0.21%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 627 (64.31%) Microsoft
2 77 (7.90%) SAP
3 76 (7.79%) ServiceNow
4 75 (7.69%) Cisco
4 75 (7.69%) Remedy
5 58 (5.95%) Apple
6 54 (5.54%) HP
7 43 (4.41%) Atlassian
7 43 (4.41%) Dell
8 42 (4.31%) Oracle
9 36 (3.69%) Google
10 23 (2.36%) Splunk
11 19 (1.95%) Citrix
12 15 (1.54%) VMware
13 14 (1.44%) MobileIron
14 10 (1.03%) Planview
15 9 (0.92%) Adobe
15 9 (0.92%) Salesforce
15 9 (0.92%) Veeam
16 7 (0.72%) IBM