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

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 76 63
Rank change year-on-year -28 -13 +24
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 962 944 1,413
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.59% 2.96% 3.35%
As % of the Applications category 33.85% 40.58% 40.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 562 574 887
10th Percentile £163 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £193 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +11.11% -28.00%
75th Percentile £538 £503 £504
90th Percentile £693 £626 £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 133 58 136
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.25 £12.13
25th Percentile £14.25 £19.25 £13.40
Median hourly rate £18.17 £24.39 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year -25.49% +28.83% -8.06%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £41.58
90th Percentile £44.95 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.14 £24.59 £18.50
% change year-on-year -30.28% +32.89% -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 2,842 2,326 3,449
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.66% 7.31% 8.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,669 1,370 2,015
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £310 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +11.68% +0.06% -8.57%
75th Percentile £548 £538 £550
90th Percentile £651 £645 £663
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £351 £350
% change year-on-year +21.26% +0.14% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 333 199 300
10th Percentile £12.82 - £12.74
25th Percentile £15.75 £15.62 £15.36
Median hourly rate £19.91 £25.79 £25.13
Median % change year-on-year -22.80% +2.65% -7.37%
75th Percentile £29.61 £44.27 £44.30
90th Percentile £61.26 £76.45 £53.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.07 £27.13 £23.24
% change year-on-year -29.70% +16.72% -25.68%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -16 873 £360 +20.00% 606
UK excluding London -19 661 £325 +30.00% 550
London -34 271 £400 +3.09% 140
Work from Home -30 208 £425 +13.33% 212
South East -4 169 £450 +44.58% 197
North of England -21 159 £240 +6.67% 125
South West -2 123 £688 +205.56% 48
North West +4 104 £250 - 61
Midlands -31 88 £250 -27.90% 96
East of England -4 57 £350 +27.27% 62
West Midlands -40 57 £275 -35.29% 60
Yorkshire -46 45 £290 +30.34% 50
East Midlands -8 32 £190 -9.52% 35
Wales +5 27 £213 -58.54% 12
Scotland -33 24 £358 +62.61% 21
Northern Ireland -1 17 £320 +106.45% 6
North East -14 10 £175 +16.67% 16

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 (16.63%) SharePoint
2 95 (9.88%) Confluence
3 90 (9.36%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (3.53%) Skype for Business
5 13 (1.35%) Exchange Server 2013
6 8 (0.83%) IIS
7 7 (0.73%) Mattermost
8 6 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2003
8 6 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2007
8 6 (0.62%) Exchange Server 2010
8 6 (0.62%) Office Communications Server
8 6 (0.62%) SharePoint Server
9 4 (0.42%) HCL Notes
10 3 (0.31%) CMS
11 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 309 (32.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 191 (19.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 94 (9.77%) Microsoft Project
4 89 (9.25%) MS Visio
5 12 (1.25%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.83%) Trello
7 5 (0.52%) Adobe Captivate
7 5 (0.52%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.31%) 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 (0.10%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.10%) ProjectWise
10 1 (0.10%) Simulink
10 1 (0.10%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 29 (3.01%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.83%) Primavera
4 6 (0.62%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.52%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 4 (0.42%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.42%) Shopify
7 3 (0.31%) Maximo
7 3 (0.31%) 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 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.10%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 214 (22.25%) Microsoft 365
2 99 (10.29%) Azure
3 51 (5.30%) Power Platform
4 35 (3.64%) Google Workspace
5 26 (2.70%) OneDrive
6 20 (2.08%) AWS
7 13 (1.35%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.35%) OCI
8 12 (1.25%) Entra ID
9 11 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (1.04%) GCP
10 10 (1.04%) Google Tag Manager
11 9 (0.94%) Google Analytics
12 8 (0.83%) Dynamics 365
13 7 (0.73%) GitHub
14 6 (0.62%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.52%) Figma
15 5 (0.52%) OpenShift
15 5 (0.52%) PowerApps
15 5 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 57 (5.93%) Wireless
2 48 (4.99%) VPN
3 47 (4.89%) Skype
4 45 (4.68%) DNS
5 38 (3.95%) DHCP
6 36 (3.74%) LAN
7 35 (3.64%) Firewall
8 34 (3.53%) TCP/IP
8 34 (3.53%) Wi-Fi
9 31 (3.22%) WAN
10 16 (1.66%) Network Security
11 12 (1.25%) Structured Cabling
12 11 (1.14%) SSH
13 9 (0.94%) Cisco IOS
14 8 (0.83%) MPLS
14 8 (0.83%) VLAN
15 7 (0.73%) SAN
16 6 (0.62%) DDNS
16 6 (0.62%) Internet
16 6 (0.62%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (4.99%) Power BI
2 12 (1.25%) SQL Server
3 11 (1.14%) Oracle Database
3 11 (1.14%) Tableau
4 8 (0.83%) BigQuery
4 8 (0.83%) Looker
4 8 (0.83%) Power Query
5 7 (0.73%) Relational Database
6 5 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (0.52%) 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 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
8 3 (0.31%) Spotfire
9 2 (0.21%) DB2
9 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
9 2 (0.21%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.21%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 116 (12.06%) JIRA
2 12 (1.25%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.25%) Metasploit
3 6 (0.62%) ClearCase
3 6 (0.62%) Toad
4 5 (0.52%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.31%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.31%) PVCS
5 3 (0.31%) Subversion
6 2 (0.21%) Hudson
7 1 (0.10%) Ant
7 1 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.10%) Git
7 1 (0.10%) JUnit
7 1 (0.10%) MLflow
7 1 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.10%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 574 (59.67%) Social Skills
2 287 (29.83%) Finance
3 207 (21.52%) Analytical Skills
4 133 (13.83%) Organisational Skills
5 120 (12.47%) Public Sector
6 77 (8.00%) Banking
7 64 (6.65%) Manufacturing
8 52 (5.41%) Marketing
9 50 (5.20%) Telecoms
10 49 (5.09%) Legal
11 47 (4.89%) Military
12 40 (4.16%) Electronics
13 23 (2.39%) Influencing Skills
14 21 (2.18%) Documentation Skills
15 19 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 19 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
16 14 (1.46%) Investment Banking
17 13 (1.35%) Back Office
17 13 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
18 10 (1.04%) Law
Job Titles
1 207 (21.52%) Analyst
2 108 (11.23%) IT Support
3 73 (7.59%) Support Engineer
4 62 (6.44%) 2nd Line Support
5 61 (6.34%) Support Analyst
6 58 (6.03%) Desktop Support
7 54 (5.61%) Business Analyst
8 47 (4.89%) Architect
9 45 (4.68%) Administrator
10 38 (3.95%) Senior
11 37 (3.85%) Support Officer
12 34 (3.53%) Project Manager
13 31 (3.22%) Coordinator
13 31 (3.22%) IT Engineer
14 30 (3.12%) Service Architect
15 29 (3.01%) Lead
16 27 (2.81%) Desktop Engineer
17 25 (2.60%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
17 25 (2.60%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
18 24 (2.49%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.14%) XML
2 6 (0.62%) REST
2 6 (0.62%) Web Services
3 5 (0.52%) .NET
3 5 (0.52%) 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 (0.10%) AngularJS
6 1 (0.10%) CrewAI
6 1 (0.10%) Kafka
6 1 (0.10%) LangChain
6 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
6 1 (0.10%) React
6 1 (0.10%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 52 (5.41%) Management Information System
2 51 (5.30%) Data Centre
3 44 (4.57%) Onboarding
4 39 (4.05%) Product Ownership
5 35 (3.64%) Driving Licence
6 34 (3.53%) Self-Motivation
7 20 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
8 19 (1.98%) Mobile App
9 16 (1.66%) NHS
9 16 (1.66%) PKI
10 15 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (1.56%) Virtual Team
11 13 (1.35%) Security Posture
12 12 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
13 11 (1.14%) Insider Threat
14 10 (1.04%) PMI
15 9 (0.94%) Replication
15 9 (0.94%) Tandem
16 8 (0.83%) CMDB
17 7 (0.73%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 270 (28.07%) Windows
2 106 (11.02%) Windows 10
3 84 (8.73%) Android
4 66 (6.86%) Mac OS
5 60 (6.24%) Linux
6 37 (3.85%) Apple iOS
7 29 (3.01%) Windows Server
8 18 (1.87%) Unix
9 15 (1.56%) Windows Server 2016
10 14 (1.46%) Windows 7
11 11 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.73%) Ubuntu
13 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2003
14 5 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
15 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
16 3 (0.31%) CentOS
16 3 (0.31%) Windows 8
17 2 (0.21%) AIX
18 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
18 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 220 (22.87%) Problem-Solving
2 175 (18.19%) Agile
3 167 (17.36%) Project Management
4 162 (16.84%) ITIL
5 131 (13.62%) Customer Service
6 125 (12.99%) Stakeholder Management
7 105 (10.91%) Continuous Improvement
8 100 (10.40%) Project Delivery
9 97 (10.08%) Service Management
10 90 (9.36%) Business Intelligence
11 83 (8.63%) Change Management
11 83 (8.63%) PRINCE2
12 68 (7.07%) ITSM
13 62 (6.44%) Information Security
14 58 (6.03%) Service Delivery
15 57 (5.93%) Critical Thinking
16 55 (5.72%) Analytical Thinking
17 54 (5.61%) Decision-Making
18 53 (5.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 53 (5.51%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 76 (7.90%) SQL
2 48 (4.99%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.60%) Python
4 11 (1.14%) VB
5 9 (0.94%) Java
5 9 (0.94%) R
6 8 (0.83%) C
6 8 (0.83%) PHP
6 8 (0.83%) Shell Script
7 7 (0.73%) JavaScript
7 7 (0.73%) PL/SQL
7 7 (0.73%) VBScript
8 5 (0.52%) Perl
9 4 (0.42%) C#
9 4 (0.42%) VBA
10 3 (0.31%) C++
10 3 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.31%) Korn
11 1 (0.10%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 296 (30.77%) Degree
2 250 (25.99%) Security Cleared
3 193 (20.06%) SC Cleared
4 65 (6.76%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.33%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.12%) TOGAF Certification
7 25 (2.60%) Computer Science Degree
7 25 (2.60%) PMI Certification
8 24 (2.49%) PMP
9 21 (2.18%) Microsoft Certification
10 17 (1.77%) APMP
11 15 (1.56%) MCSE
12 13 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
12 13 (1.35%) CTC Cleared
12 13 (1.35%) Master's Degree
13 12 (1.25%) CHECK Team Member
13 12 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
14 11 (1.14%) A+ Certification
14 11 (1.14%) Postgraduate
15 10 (1.04%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (9.88%) PMO
2 42 (4.37%) QA
3 31 (3.22%) SLA
4 30 (3.12%) GDPR
5 26 (2.70%) Data Quality
6 20 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.56%) Accessibility
8 14 (1.46%) PCI DSS
9 12 (1.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 6 (0.62%) P3O
11 5 (0.52%) ISO 9001
12 4 (0.42%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.31%) ECSS
13 3 (0.31%) ISO 20022
14 2 (0.21%) COBIT
14 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.21%) ISO 19650
14 2 (0.21%) MiFID
14 2 (0.21%) NIST
15 1 (0.10%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 154 (16.01%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.04%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.83%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.62%) Brightmail
5 6 (0.62%) ISA Server
6 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (0.52%) XenApp
7 4 (0.42%) Docker
7 4 (0.42%) Firmware
7 4 (0.42%) XenDesktop
8 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.21%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.10%) Snort
Systems Management
1 51 (5.30%) SCCM
2 35 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.12%) OPNET
4 19 (1.98%) SCOM
5 15 (1.56%) HP SiteScope
6 12 (1.25%) Nmap
7 8 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (0.83%) WSUS
8 6 (0.62%) Microsoft Clustering
9 5 (0.52%) Kubernetes
9 5 (0.52%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 4 (0.42%) Ansible
10 4 (0.42%) SCVMM
10 4 (0.42%) TeamSite
11 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.31%) Terraform
11 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
12 2 (0.21%) EnCase
12 2 (0.21%) FTK
Vendors
1 613 (63.72%) Microsoft
2 79 (8.21%) SAP
3 75 (7.80%) ServiceNow
4 74 (7.69%) Cisco
5 71 (7.38%) Remedy
6 62 (6.44%) Apple
7 56 (5.82%) HP
8 45 (4.68%) Dell
9 43 (4.47%) Atlassian
10 40 (4.16%) Oracle
11 35 (3.64%) Google
12 23 (2.39%) Splunk
13 20 (2.08%) VMware
14 19 (1.98%) Citrix
15 15 (1.56%) MobileIron
16 11 (1.14%) IBM
17 10 (1.04%) Planview
18 9 (0.94%) Adobe
18 9 (0.94%) Veeam
19 8 (0.83%) Salesforce