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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 171 94 78
Rank change year-on-year -77 -16 -6
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 889 901 1,013
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.65% 2.73% 2.62%
As % of the Applications category 31.03% 31.83% 39.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 427 487 555
10th Percentile £150 £156 £142
25th Percentile £213 £218 £196
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £358 £325
Median % change year-on-year -9.22% +10.15% -1.52%
75th Percentile £496 £525 £500
90th Percentile £594 £638 £610
UK excluding London median daily rate £323 £300 £250
% change year-on-year +7.75% +20.00% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 134 110
10th Percentile £12.83 £14.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £14.10 £15.84 £13.50
Median hourly rate £16.50 £20.11 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.96% +3.14% +3.01%
75th Percentile £21.98 £25.15 £28.36
90th Percentile £48.75 £35.00 £45.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.46 £18.00 £18.00
% change year-on-year -8.57% +0.01% +1.64%

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 2,865 2,831 2,542
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 5.33% 8.59% 6.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,508 1,594 1,428
10th Percentile £210 £200 £168
25th Percentile £313 £300 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £441 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year +3.71% +6.25% -5.88%
75th Percentile £555 £545 £525
90th Percentile £638 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £410 £400 £375
% change year-on-year +2.50% +6.67% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 400 363 317
10th Percentile £13.49 £13.65 £12.57
25th Percentile £15.03 £15.84 £15.00
Median hourly rate £20.00 £22.90 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.66% +30.86% -22.29%
75th Percentile £35.78 £34.57 £36.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £56.50 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.41 £22.00 £16.23
% change year-on-year -11.77% +35.55% -24.51%

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 August 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 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Microsoft Office in the UK

Microsoft Office
Top 18 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 August 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 -82 752 £331 -7.54% 992
UK excluding London -47 586 £323 +7.75% 883
London -97 245 £350 -12.50% 254
Work from Home -43 225 £360 -16.18% 244
South East -28 153 £368 +47.00% 262
North of England -61 134 £375 +31.21% 208
North West -4 101 £365 -8.88% 109
Midlands -41 97 £325 +3.50% 150
South West -38 72 £292 +16.90% 112
Scotland -3 60 £175 -47.76% 48
West Midlands -60 51 £325 +1.56% 76
East Midlands +10 46 £325 +88.41% 74
East of England -18 46 £220 -45.51% 82
Yorkshire -80 29 £400 +50.80% 69
Northern Ireland -2 20 £225 -39.60% 15
Wales -21 14 £306 +3.81% 25
North East -39 6 £325 +66.67% 35
Channel Islands - 1 £550 -

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
1 117 (13.16%) SharePoint
2 50 (5.62%) Microsoft Exchange
3 32 (3.60%) Confluence
4 18 (2.02%) Skype for Business
5 14 (1.57%) HCL Notes
6 11 (1.24%) CMS
7 8 (0.90%) IIS
8 4 (0.45%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.34%) Sitecore CMS
10 2 (0.22%) Drupal
10 2 (0.22%) Moodle
10 2 (0.22%) Oracle Service Bus
10 2 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.22%) WebLogic
11 1 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
11 1 (0.11%) SAS
11 1 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 364 (40.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 202 (22.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 59 (6.64%) Microsoft Project
3 59 (6.64%) MS Visio
4 17 (1.91%) Spreadsheet
5 7 (0.79%) AutoCAD
5 7 (0.79%) Navisworks
5 7 (0.79%) ProjectWise
5 7 (0.79%) Revit
6 4 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.22%) Windchill
8 1 (0.11%) Adobe Captivate
8 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.11%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (2.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.24%) Magento
2 11 (1.24%) Primavera
3 10 (1.12%) Finacle
4 8 (0.90%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 5 (0.56%) SAP MM
5 5 (0.56%) SAP PSCD
6 4 (0.45%) iTrent
6 4 (0.45%) SAP Business One
7 3 (0.34%) Oracle Financials
7 3 (0.34%) SAP CRM
7 3 (0.34%) Teamcenter
7 3 (0.34%) TrackWise
8 2 (0.22%) Changepoint
8 2 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
8 2 (0.22%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
8 2 (0.22%) Shopify
8 2 (0.22%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 133 (14.96%) Microsoft 365
2 88 (9.90%) Azure
3 59 (6.64%) Power Platform
4 28 (3.15%) Entra ID
5 26 (2.92%) AWS
6 24 (2.70%) OneDrive
7 20 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
8 17 (1.91%) Google Workspace
9 15 (1.69%) SaaS
10 11 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
11 9 (1.01%) GCP
11 9 (1.01%) Google Sheets
12 6 (0.67%) Mimecast
13 5 (0.56%) Google Docs
13 5 (0.56%) Microsoft Copilot
14 4 (0.45%) GitHub
14 4 (0.45%) OCI
14 4 (0.45%) OpenShift
14 4 (0.45%) SAP Commerce Cloud
14 4 (0.45%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 56 (6.30%) VPN
2 34 (3.82%) WAN
3 33 (3.71%) Wi-Fi
4 30 (3.37%) LAN
5 27 (3.04%) Skype
6 24 (2.70%) DNS
7 22 (2.47%) Firewall
8 21 (2.36%) Network Security
9 18 (2.02%) TCP/IP
10 17 (1.91%) DHCP
11 11 (1.24%) Cisco IOS
11 11 (1.24%) MPLS
12 10 (1.12%) Wireless
13 8 (0.90%) Internet
13 8 (0.90%) Unified Communications
13 8 (0.90%) VLAN
14 7 (0.79%) BGP
14 7 (0.79%) VoIP
15 6 (0.67%) WebEx
16 5 (0.56%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (6.07%) Power BI
2 35 (3.94%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.69%) Oracle Database
4 12 (1.35%) Relational Database
5 11 (1.24%) RDBMS
6 7 (0.79%) MS Access
6 7 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 6 (0.67%) Data Mining
7 6 (0.67%) MySQL
7 6 (0.67%) Tableau
8 5 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.56%) Power Query
9 4 (0.45%) EDMS
9 4 (0.45%) Metadata
10 3 (0.34%) BusinessObjects
10 3 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
10 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database 10g
11 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database 12c
11 2 (0.22%) PowerPivot
Development Applications
1 68 (7.65%) JIRA
2 18 (2.02%) Git
3 14 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.01%) Subversion
5 7 (0.79%) Visual Studio
6 6 (0.67%) Team Foundation Server
7 5 (0.56%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 4 (0.45%) Rational DOORS
8 4 (0.45%) Rational Rhapsody
9 3 (0.34%) MLflow
9 3 (0.34%) Selenium
10 2 (0.22%) eggPlant
10 2 (0.22%) HP UFT
10 2 (0.22%) Rational Functional Tester
10 2 (0.22%) SilkTest
10 2 (0.22%) SOAtest
11 1 (0.11%) LabVIEW
11 1 (0.11%) LoadRunner
11 1 (0.11%) MSI
11 1 (0.11%) TestDirector
General
1 515 (57.93%) Social Skills
2 220 (24.75%) Finance
3 215 (24.18%) Analytical Skills
4 206 (23.17%) Organisational Skills
5 60 (6.75%) Banking
6 59 (6.64%) Public Sector
7 42 (4.72%) Retail
8 38 (4.27%) Presentation Skills
9 36 (4.05%) Legal
10 33 (3.71%) Marketing
11 30 (3.37%) Telecoms
12 29 (3.26%) Manufacturing
13 24 (2.70%) Front Office
14 22 (2.47%) Law
15 18 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
16 16 (1.80%) Back Office
17 14 (1.57%) French Language
17 14 (1.57%) Pharmaceutical
18 13 (1.46%) Military
19 12 (1.35%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 137 (15.41%) Analyst
2 94 (10.57%) Administrator
3 64 (7.20%) IT Support
4 52 (5.85%) Support Engineer
5 49 (5.51%) Senior
6 40 (4.50%) Coordinator
7 39 (4.39%) Project Manager
8 36 (4.05%) IT Analyst
8 36 (4.05%) Support Officer
9 34 (3.82%) Consultant
10 32 (3.60%) Support Analyst
11 31 (3.49%) IT Engineer
12 29 (3.26%) Business Analyst
13 28 (3.15%) Project Officer
13 28 (3.15%) Service Analyst
14 25 (2.81%) IT Support Analyst
14 25 (2.81%) Lead
15 24 (2.70%) Service Desk Analyst
16 23 (2.59%) 2nd Line Support
16 23 (2.59%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.91%) .NET
2 12 (1.35%) HTML
2 12 (1.35%) XML
3 10 (1.12%) JSON
4 9 (1.01%) SOAP
4 9 (1.01%) VML
5 7 (0.79%) ASP.NET
5 7 (0.79%) REST
5 7 (0.79%) WinForms
6 6 (0.67%) ASP.NET Web API
6 6 (0.67%) WCF
6 6 (0.67%) XSLT
7 5 (0.56%) Apache FOP
7 5 (0.56%) IDoc
7 5 (0.56%) JDBC
7 5 (0.56%) NETCONF
7 5 (0.56%) OpenConfig
7 5 (0.56%) RESTCONF
7 5 (0.56%) SAP PI
7 5 (0.56%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 99 (11.14%) Onboarding
2 84 (9.45%) Management Information System
3 42 (4.72%) Self-Motivation
4 26 (2.92%) Analytical Mindset
5 19 (2.14%) Blackberry
5 19 (2.14%) Data Centre
6 17 (1.91%) Social Media
6 17 (1.91%) Virtual Team
7 16 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
8 13 (1.46%) Driving Licence
9 11 (1.24%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (1.24%) Product Ownership
9 11 (1.24%) Video Conferencing
10 10 (1.12%) Life Science
10 10 (1.12%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 9 (1.01%) e-Learning
11 9 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (1.01%) Learning Management System
11 9 (1.01%) Smartphone
12 8 (0.90%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 214 (24.07%) Windows
2 86 (9.67%) Windows 10
3 36 (4.05%) Android
4 28 (3.15%) Linux
5 23 (2.59%) Windows 7
6 17 (1.91%) Windows Server
7 14 (1.57%) Unix
8 10 (1.12%) Apple iOS
9 8 (0.90%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.45%) FreeRTOS
11 3 (0.34%) VMS
12 2 (0.22%) Solaris
12 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.11%) MVS
13 1 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.11%) SUSE
13 1 (0.11%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.11%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 263 (29.58%) Problem-Solving
2 170 (19.12%) Stakeholder Management
3 161 (18.11%) Project Management
4 158 (17.77%) Customer Service
5 142 (15.97%) Continuous Improvement
6 115 (12.94%) ITIL
7 104 (11.70%) Project Delivery
8 101 (11.36%) Agile
9 88 (9.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 86 (9.67%) Service Management
11 71 (7.99%) ITSM
12 70 (7.87%) Service Delivery
13 68 (7.65%) Change Management
14 60 (6.75%) Customer Experience
15 59 (6.64%) Data Analysis
16 57 (6.41%) Collaborative Working
16 57 (6.41%) Process Improvement
16 57 (6.41%) Waterfall
17 56 (6.30%) Decision-Making
17 56 (6.30%) Time Management
Programming Languages
1 63 (7.09%) SQL
2 30 (3.37%) PowerShell
3 24 (2.70%) Python
4 21 (2.36%) VBScript
5 17 (1.91%) VB
6 11 (1.24%) Java
7 10 (1.12%) PL/SQL
7 10 (1.12%) VBA
8 9 (1.01%) T-SQL
8 9 (1.01%) VB.NET
9 8 (0.90%) C#
10 6 (0.67%) C++
10 6 (0.67%) XPath
11 5 (0.56%) ABAP
12 4 (0.45%) Ada
13 3 (0.34%) C
14 2 (0.22%) JavaScript
14 2 (0.22%) Perl
15 1 (0.11%) PHP
15 1 (0.11%) REXX
Qualifications
1 243 (27.33%) Degree
2 162 (18.22%) Security Cleared
3 126 (14.17%) SC Cleared
4 29 (3.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 28 (3.15%) PMI Certification
5 28 (3.15%) PMP
6 27 (3.04%) DBS Check
7 22 (2.47%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (2.47%) Computer Science Degree
8 21 (2.36%) DV Cleared
9 17 (1.91%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 16 (1.80%) CCNP
11 15 (1.69%) Microsoft Certification
12 13 (1.46%) A+ Certification
13 10 (1.12%) BC Cleared
14 9 (1.01%) CCNA
14 9 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (0.90%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 8 (0.90%) Master's Degree
16 7 (0.79%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (8.21%) PMO
2 53 (5.96%) SLA
3 33 (3.71%) QA
4 25 (2.81%) Data Quality
5 19 (2.14%) GDPR
6 11 (1.24%) P3O
7 10 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 8 (0.90%) GRC
8 8 (0.90%) ISO 19650
9 7 (0.79%) Accessibility
10 6 (0.67%) PCI DSS
11 5 (0.56%) EMIR
11 5 (0.56%) NIST
12 4 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
13 3 (0.34%) GMP
13 3 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.34%) MiFID
13 3 (0.34%) MISRA
13 3 (0.34%) MISRA C
13 3 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 93 (10.46%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.91%) BitLocker
3 8 (0.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.79%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.34%) Docker
5 3 (0.34%) vSphere
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.11%) Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Job Entry Subsystem
7 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 59 (6.64%) SCCM
2 37 (4.16%) Microsoft Intune
3 11 (1.24%) Ansible
4 5 (0.56%) Cisco CUCM
5 4 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 4 (0.45%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 3 (0.34%) Cisco Prime
6 3 (0.34%) SCOM
6 3 (0.34%) SCSM
6 3 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.22%) Data Guard
7 2 (0.22%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.11%) Control-M
8 1 (0.11%) Dell DRAC
8 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.11%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.11%) RSA Archer
8 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 685 (77.05%) Microsoft
2 97 (10.91%) ServiceNow
3 61 (6.86%) SAP
4 48 (5.40%) Cisco
5 42 (4.72%) Oracle
6 34 (3.82%) Google
7 29 (3.26%) Apple
8 19 (2.14%) HP
9 17 (1.91%) Lotus
10 16 (1.80%) VMware
11 13 (1.46%) Adobe
12 11 (1.24%) CyberArk
13 9 (1.01%) Fortinet
13 9 (1.01%) Planview
13 9 (1.01%) Splunk
14 8 (0.90%) Autodesk
14 8 (0.90%) Workday
15 7 (0.79%) Altiris
15 7 (0.79%) JD Edwards
16 6 (0.67%) NEC