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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 80 58
Rank change year-on-year -19 -22 +28
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 974 934 1,522
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.53% 2.97% 3.47%
As % of the Applications category 34.38% 39.69% 41.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 552 571 920
10th Percentile £163 £145 £148
25th Percentile £203 £192 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £267
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +12.36% -28.80%
75th Percentile £538 £501 £500
90th Percentile £695 £606 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £328 £250 £240
% change year-on-year +31.00% +4.17% -25.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 140 60 217
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.26 £11.73
25th Percentile £13.57 £19.75 £13.15
Median hourly rate £17.50 £24.62 £17.22
Median % change year-on-year -28.93% +42.99% -20.83%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £42.15 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.35 £24.59 £15.85
% change year-on-year -33.50% +55.11% -21.24%

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 2,833 2,353 3,646
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.36% 7.47% 8.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,660 1,380 2,045
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £313 £250 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% - -9.35%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £550
90th Percentile £668 £638 £667
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £351 £350
% change year-on-year +21.26% +0.14% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 327 201 447
10th Percentile £12.75 £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 -27.92% +26.19% -32.84%
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.75 £42.50
90th Percentile £63.75 £75.00 £55.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.82 £26.50 £20.77
% change year-on-year -28.98% +27.59% -35.00%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -21 887 £366 +22.00% 637
UK excluding London -17 685 £328 +31.00% 586
London -38 258 £400 +9.22% 138
Work from Home -26 207 £425 +15.25% 233
South East -6 181 £459 +45.63% 189
North of England -29 166 £243 +8.11% 140
South West +3 121 £700 +211.11% 59
North West -3 104 £275 +10.00% 55
Midlands -44 92 £260 -17.36% 112
East of England +9 64 £350 +42.86% 63
West Midlands -47 55 £275 -34.91% 71
Yorkshire -46 51 £290 +31.82% 70
East Midlands -2 37 £190 -9.52% 41
Scotland -32 27 £335 +45.65% 22
Wales +1 23 £290 -43.41% 19
Northern Ireland 0 14 £245 +53.13% 5
North East -17 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
1 160 (16.43%) SharePoint
2 105 (10.78%) Confluence
3 91 (9.34%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (3.49%) Skype for Business
5 11 (1.13%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.72%) IIS
6 7 (0.72%) Mattermost
7 4 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2003
7 4 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2007
7 4 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2010
7 4 (0.41%) HCL Notes
7 4 (0.41%) Office Communications Server
7 4 (0.41%) SharePoint Server
8 3 (0.31%) CMS
9 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 315 (32.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 189 (19.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 94 (9.65%) Microsoft Project
4 87 (8.93%) 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
Business Applications
1 30 (3.08%) 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%) 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%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.10%) Aladdin
9 1 (0.10%) iTrent
9 1 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.10%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 215 (22.07%) Microsoft 365
2 102 (10.47%) Azure
3 52 (5.34%) Power Platform
4 34 (3.49%) Google Workspace
5 24 (2.46%) OneDrive
6 23 (2.36%) AWS
7 15 (1.54%) Entra ID
8 13 (1.33%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (1.33%) Lucidchart
8 13 (1.33%) OCI
9 12 (1.23%) GCP
10 10 (1.03%) Google Tag Manager
11 9 (0.92%) GitHub
11 9 (0.92%) Google Analytics
12 7 (0.72%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (0.51%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.51%) Power Automate
13 5 (0.51%) SaaS
14 4 (0.41%) Figma
14 4 (0.41%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 55 (5.65%) Wireless
2 50 (5.13%) Skype
3 48 (4.93%) VPN
4 44 (4.52%) DNS
5 40 (4.11%) LAN
6 38 (3.90%) DHCP
6 38 (3.90%) Wi-Fi
7 35 (3.59%) WAN
8 34 (3.49%) Firewall
9 32 (3.29%) TCP/IP
10 18 (1.85%) Network Security
11 12 (1.23%) Structured Cabling
12 10 (1.03%) SSH
12 10 (1.03%) VLAN
13 9 (0.92%) Cisco IOS
14 8 (0.82%) MPLS
15 7 (0.72%) Internet
16 6 (0.62%) Unified Communications
17 5 (0.51%) SAN
18 4 (0.41%) BGP
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
1 116 (11.91%) JIRA
2 12 (1.23%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.23%) Metasploit
3 6 (0.62%) ClearCase
3 6 (0.62%) Toad
4 5 (0.51%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.31%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.31%) Git
5 3 (0.31%) MLflow
5 3 (0.31%) PVCS
5 3 (0.31%) Subversion
6 2 (0.21%) Hudson
6 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.21%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.10%) Ant
7 1 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.10%) JUnit
7 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
General
1 583 (59.86%) Social Skills
2 295 (30.29%) Finance
3 206 (21.15%) Analytical Skills
4 131 (13.45%) Organisational Skills
5 119 (12.22%) Public Sector
6 70 (7.19%) Banking
7 66 (6.78%) Manufacturing
8 51 (5.24%) Telecoms
9 49 (5.03%) Marketing
10 47 (4.83%) Legal
10 47 (4.83%) Military
11 38 (3.90%) Electronics
12 22 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
13 21 (2.16%) Influencing Skills
13 21 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 15 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
16 13 (1.33%) Investment Banking
17 10 (1.03%) Retail
18 8 (0.82%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 206 (21.15%) Analyst
2 107 (10.99%) IT Support
3 69 (7.08%) Support Engineer
4 63 (6.47%) 2nd Line Support
5 60 (6.16%) Support Analyst
6 56 (5.75%) Desktop Support
7 55 (5.65%) Business Analyst
8 49 (5.03%) Architect
9 43 (4.41%) Administrator
10 39 (4.00%) Senior
10 39 (4.00%) Support Officer
11 32 (3.29%) Lead
11 32 (3.29%) Project Manager
12 30 (3.08%) IT Engineer
12 30 (3.08%) Service Architect
13 29 (2.98%) Coordinator
14 25 (2.57%) IT Support Engineer
14 25 (2.57%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
15 24 (2.46%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
15 24 (2.46%) Desktop Engineer
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 50 (5.13%) Data Centre
2 48 (4.93%) Management Information System
3 44 (4.52%) Onboarding
4 40 (4.11%) Product Ownership
5 32 (3.29%) Driving Licence
6 31 (3.18%) Self-Motivation
7 19 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
8 18 (1.85%) Mobile App
9 16 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
9 16 (1.64%) NHS
9 16 (1.64%) PKI
10 15 (1.54%) Virtual Team
11 13 (1.33%) Security Posture
12 12 (1.23%) Insider Threat
13 11 (1.13%) PMI
14 8 (0.82%) Tandem
15 7 (0.72%) CMDB
15 7 (0.72%) e-Learning
15 7 (0.72%) Replication
15 7 (0.72%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 265 (27.21%) Windows
2 108 (11.09%) Windows 10
3 85 (8.73%) Android
4 64 (6.57%) Mac OS
5 59 (6.06%) Linux
6 37 (3.80%) Apple iOS
7 26 (2.67%) Windows Server
8 18 (1.85%) Unix
9 17 (1.75%) Windows 7
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 2003
13 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.31%) CentOS
15 2 (0.21%) AIX
15 2 (0.21%) Windows 8
16 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 214 (21.97%) Problem-Solving
2 176 (18.07%) Agile
3 171 (17.56%) Project Management
4 153 (15.71%) ITIL
5 140 (14.37%) Customer Service
6 133 (13.66%) Stakeholder Management
7 109 (11.19%) Continuous Improvement
8 105 (10.78%) Project Delivery
9 97 (9.96%) Service Management
10 89 (9.14%) Business Intelligence
11 83 (8.52%) PRINCE2
12 78 (8.01%) Change Management
13 66 (6.78%) ITSM
14 62 (6.37%) Information Security
15 61 (6.26%) Service Delivery
16 59 (6.06%) Analytical Thinking
17 58 (5.95%) Waterfall
18 57 (5.85%) Critical Thinking
18 57 (5.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 57 (5.85%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 85 (8.73%) 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
1 301 (30.90%) Degree
2 252 (25.87%) Security Cleared
3 190 (19.51%) SC Cleared
4 66 (6.78%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.29%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.08%) TOGAF Certification
7 27 (2.77%) PMI Certification
8 25 (2.57%) PMP
9 22 (2.26%) Computer Science Degree
9 22 (2.26%) Microsoft Certification
10 17 (1.75%) APMP
11 15 (1.54%) MCSE
12 14 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (1.44%) CTC Cleared
13 13 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
13 13 (1.33%) Master's Degree
14 12 (1.23%) A+ Certification
14 12 (1.23%) CHECK Team Member
14 12 (1.23%) IIBA
15 11 (1.13%) CBAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (10.27%) PMO
2 44 (4.52%) QA
3 33 (3.39%) SLA
4 23 (2.36%) Data Quality
4 23 (2.36%) GDPR
5 18 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 14 (1.44%) Accessibility
6 14 (1.44%) PCI DSS
7 12 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 7 (0.72%) P3O
9 6 (0.62%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.31%) ECSS
11 3 (0.31%) ISO 20022
12 2 (0.21%) COBIT
12 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.21%) MiFID
12 2 (0.21%) NIST
13 1 (0.10%) ISO 19650
13 1 (0.10%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 151 (15.50%) 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%) Brightmail
6 4 (0.41%) ISA Server
6 4 (0.41%) XenDesktop
7 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.21%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 54 (5.54%) SCCM
2 36 (3.70%) 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%) Terraform
10 4 (0.41%) Microsoft Clustering
10 4 (0.41%) SCVMM
10 4 (0.41%) TeamSite
11 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 624 (64.07%) Microsoft
2 78 (8.01%) SAP
3 75 (7.70%) ServiceNow
4 74 (7.60%) Cisco
5 72 (7.39%) Remedy
6 58 (5.95%) Apple
7 54 (5.54%) HP
8 43 (4.41%) Atlassian
8 43 (4.41%) Dell
9 42 (4.31%) Oracle
10 36 (3.70%) Google
11 23 (2.36%) Splunk
12 18 (1.85%) Citrix
13 16 (1.64%) VMware
14 14 (1.44%) MobileIron
15 10 (1.03%) IBM
15 10 (1.03%) Planview
16 9 (0.92%) Adobe
16 9 (0.92%) Salesforce
16 9 (0.92%) Veeam