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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 77 60
Rank change year-on-year -25 -17 +26
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 962 937 1,477
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.59% 2.95% 3.41%
As % of the Applications category 34.04% 40.28% 41.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 555 574 909
10th Percentile £163 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £196 £198
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +11.11% -26.33%
75th Percentile £538 £502 £511
90th Percentile £692 £623 £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 135 59 170
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.25 £11.76
25th Percentile £14.25 £19.00 £13.29
Median hourly rate £18.09 £24.19 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -25.22% +36.51% -16.47%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £34.46
90th Percentile £44.15 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.05 £24.39 £17.50
% change year-on-year -30.09% +39.36% -12.24%

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 2,826 2,326 3,586
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.61% 7.33% 8.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,655 1,373 2,055
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £311 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% - -8.57%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £550
90th Percentile £650 £648 £667
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £356 £350
% change year-on-year +19.38% +1.71% -11.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 332 202 360
10th Percentile £12.82 - £12.24
25th Percentile £15.65 £15.62 £14.34
Median hourly rate £19.91 £25.65 £21.64
Median % change year-on-year -22.36% +18.51% -20.59%
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.75 £42.64
90th Percentile £61.41 £74.63 £52.78
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.04 £26.50 £21.10
% change year-on-year -28.17% +25.59% -32.52%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -19 876 £358 +19.33% 572
UK excluding London -11 666 £325 +30.00% 525
London -28 266 £398 +5.72% 124
Work from Home -36 210 £425 +13.33% 200
South East +1 177 £450 +42.86% 185
North of England -24 158 £240 +6.67% 121
South West +3 122 £694 +208.33% 50
North West 0 103 £263 +5.00% 59
Midlands -35 90 £250 -29.78% 94
West Midlands -43 58 £266 -37.47% 60
East of England +1 57 £350 +34.62% 59
Yorkshire -49 45 £290 +30.34% 48
East Midlands 0 33 £185 -11.90% 34
Wales +5 25 £251 -50.98% 11
Scotland -31 24 £358 +49.06% 19
Northern Ireland 0 16 £320 +103.17% 4
North East -17 10 £175 +16.67% 17

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 96 (9.98%) Confluence
3 89 (9.25%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (3.53%) Skype for Business
5 12 (1.25%) Exchange Server 2013
6 8 (0.83%) IIS
7 7 (0.73%) Mattermost
8 5 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2003
8 5 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2007
8 5 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2010
8 5 (0.52%) Office Communications Server
8 5 (0.52%) 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
1 310 (32.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 189 (19.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 95 (9.88%) Microsoft Project
4 89 (9.25%) MS Visio
5 13 (1.35%) 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
1 213 (22.14%) Microsoft 365
2 100 (10.40%) Azure
3 53 (5.51%) Power Platform
4 34 (3.53%) Google Workspace
5 25 (2.60%) OneDrive
6 21 (2.18%) AWS
7 13 (1.35%) Entra ID
7 13 (1.35%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.35%) OCI
8 11 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (1.14%) GCP
9 10 (1.04%) Google Tag Manager
10 9 (0.94%) Google Analytics
11 7 (0.73%) Dynamics 365
11 7 (0.73%) GitHub
12 6 (0.62%) Power Automate
13 5 (0.52%) Figma
13 5 (0.52%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.52%) SaaS
14 4 (0.42%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 57 (5.93%) Wireless
2 50 (5.20%) VPN
3 48 (4.99%) Skype
4 45 (4.68%) DNS
5 37 (3.85%) DHCP
5 37 (3.85%) LAN
6 36 (3.74%) Firewall
6 36 (3.74%) Wi-Fi
7 34 (3.53%) TCP/IP
8 32 (3.33%) WAN
9 17 (1.77%) Network Security
10 12 (1.25%) Structured Cabling
11 10 (1.04%) SSH
12 9 (0.94%) Cisco IOS
12 9 (0.94%) VLAN
13 8 (0.83%) MPLS
14 6 (0.62%) Internet
14 6 (0.62%) SAN
14 6 (0.62%) Unified Communications
15 5 (0.52%) DDNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (5.20%) Power BI
2 13 (1.35%) SQL Server
3 11 (1.14%) Oracle Database
4 10 (1.04%) Tableau
5 8 (0.83%) BigQuery
5 8 (0.83%) Looker
6 7 (0.73%) Power Query
7 6 (0.62%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.42%) EDMS
9 4 (0.42%) RDBMS
9 4 (0.42%) SQLPlus
10 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
10 3 (0.31%) Metadata
10 3 (0.31%) Spotfire
11 2 (0.21%) DB2
11 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
11 2 (0.21%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.21%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 115 (11.95%) 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%) Git
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%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
7 1 (0.10%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 575 (59.77%) Social Skills
2 288 (29.94%) Finance
3 204 (21.21%) Analytical Skills
4 131 (13.62%) Organisational Skills
5 118 (12.27%) Public Sector
6 74 (7.69%) Banking
7 63 (6.55%) Manufacturing
8 51 (5.30%) Marketing
9 49 (5.09%) Legal
9 49 (5.09%) Telecoms
10 47 (4.89%) Military
11 38 (3.95%) Electronics
12 24 (2.49%) Influencing Skills
13 21 (2.18%) Documentation Skills
14 20 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
15 19 (1.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 13 (1.35%) Back Office
16 13 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
17 12 (1.25%) Investment Banking
18 10 (1.04%) Retail
Job Titles
1 203 (21.10%) Analyst
2 108 (11.23%) IT Support
3 70 (7.28%) Support Engineer
4 62 (6.44%) 2nd Line Support
5 61 (6.34%) Support Analyst
6 56 (5.82%) Desktop Support
7 53 (5.51%) Business Analyst
8 47 (4.89%) Architect
9 44 (4.57%) Administrator
10 38 (3.95%) Senior
10 38 (3.95%) Support Officer
11 33 (3.43%) Project Manager
12 31 (3.22%) Coordinator
12 31 (3.22%) Lead
13 30 (3.12%) IT Engineer
13 30 (3.12%) Service Architect
14 25 (2.60%) Desktop Engineer
14 25 (2.60%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
15 24 (2.49%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
15 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%) CSS
6 1 (0.10%) EDI
6 1 (0.10%) HTML
6 1 (0.10%) JFC
6 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
6 1 (0.10%) Middleware
6 1 (0.10%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 51 (5.30%) Data Centre
1 51 (5.30%) Management Information System
2 43 (4.47%) Onboarding
3 39 (4.05%) Product Ownership
4 35 (3.64%) Driving Licence
5 32 (3.33%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (1.98%) Mobile App
7 16 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (1.66%) NHS
7 16 (1.66%) PKI
8 15 (1.56%) Virtual Team
9 13 (1.35%) Security Posture
10 11 (1.14%) Insider Threat
11 10 (1.04%) PMI
12 9 (0.94%) Analytical Mindset
13 8 (0.83%) Replication
13 8 (0.83%) Tandem
14 7 (0.73%) Client/Server
14 7 (0.73%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 264 (27.44%) Windows
2 105 (10.91%) Windows 10
3 85 (8.84%) Android
4 66 (6.86%) Mac OS
5 60 (6.24%) Linux
6 37 (3.85%) Apple iOS
7 28 (2.91%) Windows Server
8 17 (1.77%) Unix
9 15 (1.56%) Windows Server 2016
10 14 (1.46%) Windows 7
11 10 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.73%) Ubuntu
13 5 (0.52%) Windows Server 2003
13 5 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 3 (0.31%) CentOS
16 2 (0.21%) AIX
16 2 (0.21%) Windows 8
17 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
17 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 219 (22.77%) Problem-Solving
2 172 (17.88%) Agile
3 166 (17.26%) Project Management
4 157 (16.32%) ITIL
5 134 (13.93%) Customer Service
6 127 (13.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 105 (10.91%) Continuous Improvement
8 102 (10.60%) Project Delivery
9 96 (9.98%) Service Management
10 89 (9.25%) Business Intelligence
11 84 (8.73%) PRINCE2
12 82 (8.52%) Change Management
13 67 (6.96%) ITSM
14 61 (6.34%) Information Security
15 59 (6.13%) Service Delivery
16 57 (5.93%) Critical Thinking
17 55 (5.72%) Analytical Thinking
18 53 (5.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 53 (5.51%) Time Management
19 51 (5.30%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 78 (8.11%) SQL
2 49 (5.09%) PowerShell
3 26 (2.70%) Python
4 12 (1.25%) 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
6 8 (0.83%) VBScript
7 7 (0.73%) JavaScript
7 7 (0.73%) PL/SQL
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
1 294 (30.56%) Degree
2 249 (25.88%) Security Cleared
3 191 (19.85%) SC Cleared
4 65 (6.76%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.33%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.12%) TOGAF Certification
7 26 (2.70%) PMI Certification
8 25 (2.60%) Computer Science Degree
8 25 (2.60%) PMP
9 21 (2.18%) Microsoft Certification
10 17 (1.77%) APMP
11 15 (1.56%) MCSE
12 13 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (1.35%) CTC Cleared
12 13 (1.35%) Master's Degree
13 12 (1.25%) BPSS Clearance
13 12 (1.25%) CHECK Team Member
14 11 (1.14%) A+ Certification
14 11 (1.14%) Postgraduate
15 10 (1.04%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (10.19%) PMO
2 43 (4.47%) QA
3 32 (3.33%) SLA
4 29 (3.01%) GDPR
5 25 (2.60%) 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 7 (0.73%) 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
1 151 (15.70%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.14%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.83%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.52%) Brightmail
5 5 (0.52%) ISA Server
5 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 5 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
5 5 (0.52%) XenApp
6 4 (0.42%) Docker
6 4 (0.42%) Firmware
6 4 (0.42%) XenDesktop
7 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.21%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.10%) Snort
Systems Management
1 52 (5.41%) 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 5 (0.52%) Ansible
8 5 (0.52%) Kubernetes
8 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Clustering
8 5 (0.52%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 4 (0.42%) SCVMM
9 4 (0.42%) TeamSite
9 4 (0.42%) Terraform
10 3 (0.31%) HP Quality Center
10 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
10 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 611 (63.51%) Microsoft
2 78 (8.11%) SAP
3 75 (7.80%) Cisco
4 74 (7.69%) ServiceNow
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 19 (1.98%) Citrix
13 19 (1.98%) VMware
14 15 (1.56%) MobileIron
15 10 (1.04%) IBM
15 10 (1.04%) Planview
16 9 (0.94%) Adobe
16 9 (0.94%) Salesforce
16 9 (0.94%) Veeam