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

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 100 77 61
Rank change year-on-year -23 -16 +26
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 957 924 1,484
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.59% 2.93% 3.44%
As % of the Applications category 34.04% 40.07% 41.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 552 564 916
10th Percentile £163 £148 £148
25th Percentile £203 £192 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +11.11% -28.00%
75th Percentile £538 £502 £502
90th Percentile £695 £617 £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 134 59 174
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.25 £11.71
25th Percentile £14.25 £19.00 £13.26
Median hourly rate £18.05 £24.19 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -25.40% +36.51% -17.58%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £34.32
90th Percentile £44.55 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.80 £24.39 £17.50
% change year-on-year -31.11% +39.36% -12.50%

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 2,811 2,306 3,590
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.60% 7.32% 8.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,646 1,358 2,059
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £311 £250 £222
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £550
90th Percentile £659 £649 £669
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £356 £350
% change year-on-year +19.38% +1.71% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 330 201 365
10th Percentile £12.82 - £12.13
25th Percentile £15.69 £15.62 £14.25
Median hourly rate £19.91 £25.50 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.92% +18.60% -26.50%
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.75 £42.64
90th Percentile £61.79 £75.00 £52.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.08 £26.50 £21.10
% change year-on-year -27.99% +25.59% -33.97%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -19 873 £361 +20.42% 666
UK excluding London -10 661 £325 +30.00% 631
London -33 266 £398 +9.66% 126
Work from Home -32 208 £425 +13.33% 231
South East +4 176 £451 +44.98% 204
North of England -20 157 £240 +7.87% 139
South West +4 122 £694 +208.33% 65
North West -3 102 £263 +5.00% 65
Midlands -29 89 £253 -26.96% 112
East of England +3 57 £350 +34.62% 76
West Midlands -40 57 £275 -35.29% 63
Yorkshire -43 45 £290 +31.82% 56
East Midlands -2 33 £185 -11.90% 49
Wales +1 25 £251 -50.98% 20
Scotland -31 23 £358 +49.17% 27
Northern Ireland -1 15 £315 +100.00% 7
North East -17 10 £175 +16.67% 21

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
1 159 (16.61%) SharePoint
2 97 (10.14%) Confluence
3 88 (9.20%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (3.55%) Skype for Business
5 12 (1.25%) Exchange Server 2013
6 8 (0.84%) 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
1 308 (32.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 189 (19.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 95 (9.93%) Microsoft Project
4 90 (9.40%) MS Visio
5 12 (1.25%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.84%) 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
Business Applications
1 29 (3.03%) Remedy ITSM
2 12 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.84%) Primavera
4 6 (0.63%) 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%) Fidessa
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle 11i
Cloud Services
1 211 (22.05%) Microsoft 365
2 100 (10.45%) Azure
3 53 (5.54%) Power Platform
4 34 (3.55%) Google Workspace
5 25 (2.61%) OneDrive
6 21 (2.19%) AWS
7 13 (1.36%) Entra ID
7 13 (1.36%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.36%) OCI
8 12 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (1.15%) GCP
10 10 (1.04%) Google Tag Manager
11 9 (0.94%) Google Analytics
12 7 (0.73%) Dynamics 365
12 7 (0.73%) GitHub
13 6 (0.63%) Power Automate
14 5 (0.52%) Figma
14 5 (0.52%) OpenShift
14 5 (0.52%) SaaS
15 4 (0.42%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 57 (5.96%) Wireless
2 48 (5.02%) Skype
2 48 (5.02%) VPN
3 43 (4.49%) DNS
4 37 (3.87%) LAN
5 36 (3.76%) DHCP
5 36 (3.76%) Wi-Fi
6 34 (3.55%) Firewall
7 32 (3.34%) TCP/IP
7 32 (3.34%) WAN
8 17 (1.78%) Network Security
9 12 (1.25%) Structured Cabling
10 10 (1.04%) SSH
11 9 (0.94%) Cisco IOS
11 9 (0.94%) VLAN
12 8 (0.84%) MPLS
13 6 (0.63%) Internet
13 6 (0.63%) SAN
13 6 (0.63%) Unified Communications
14 5 (0.52%) DDNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (5.22%) Power BI
2 12 (1.25%) SQL Server
3 11 (1.15%) Oracle Database
4 10 (1.04%) Tableau
5 8 (0.84%) BigQuery
5 8 (0.84%) Looker
6 7 (0.73%) Power Query
7 6 (0.63%) 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 (12.02%) JIRA
2 12 (1.25%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.25%) Metasploit
3 6 (0.63%) ClearCase
3 6 (0.63%) 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%) MLflow
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
1 574 (59.98%) Social Skills
2 288 (30.09%) Finance
3 203 (21.21%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (13.58%) Organisational Skills
5 117 (12.23%) Public Sector
6 74 (7.73%) Banking
7 63 (6.58%) Manufacturing
8 51 (5.33%) Marketing
9 49 (5.12%) Telecoms
10 47 (4.91%) Legal
10 47 (4.91%) Military
11 38 (3.97%) Electronics
12 24 (2.51%) Influencing Skills
13 21 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
14 20 (2.09%) Presentation Skills
15 19 (1.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 13 (1.36%) Back Office
16 13 (1.36%) Pharmaceutical
17 12 (1.25%) Investment Banking
18 10 (1.04%) Retail
Job Titles
1 203 (21.21%) Analyst
2 107 (11.18%) IT Support
3 70 (7.31%) Support Engineer
4 62 (6.48%) 2nd Line Support
5 61 (6.37%) Support Analyst
6 56 (5.85%) Desktop Support
7 53 (5.54%) Business Analyst
8 47 (4.91%) Architect
9 43 (4.49%) Administrator
10 38 (3.97%) Senior
11 36 (3.76%) Support Officer
12 33 (3.45%) Project Manager
13 32 (3.34%) Lead
14 31 (3.24%) Coordinator
15 30 (3.13%) Service Architect
16 29 (3.03%) IT Engineer
17 25 (2.61%) Desktop Engineer
17 25 (2.61%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
18 24 (2.51%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
18 24 (2.51%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (1.15%) XML
2 6 (0.63%) REST
2 6 (0.63%) 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%) CSS
6 1 (0.10%) HTML
6 1 (0.10%) Kafka
6 1 (0.10%) React
6 1 (0.10%) SAP Fiori
6 1 (0.10%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 51 (5.33%) Data Centre
1 51 (5.33%) Management Information System
2 43 (4.49%) Onboarding
3 39 (4.08%) Product Ownership
4 34 (3.55%) Driving Licence
5 31 (3.24%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
6 19 (1.99%) Mobile App
7 16 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (1.67%) NHS
7 16 (1.67%) PKI
8 15 (1.57%) Virtual Team
9 13 (1.36%) Security Posture
10 11 (1.15%) Insider Threat
10 11 (1.15%) PMI
11 9 (0.94%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (0.84%) Replication
12 8 (0.84%) Tandem
13 7 (0.73%) Client/Server
13 7 (0.73%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 262 (27.38%) Windows
2 104 (10.87%) Windows 10
3 85 (8.88%) Android
4 66 (6.90%) Mac OS
5 60 (6.27%) Linux
6 37 (3.87%) Apple iOS
7 26 (2.72%) Windows Server
8 17 (1.78%) Unix
9 14 (1.46%) Windows 7
9 14 (1.46%) Windows Server 2016
10 10 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (0.73%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.52%) Windows Server 2003
13 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (0.42%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.31%) CentOS
15 2 (0.21%) AIX
15 2 (0.21%) Windows 8
16 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
16 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (22.68%) Problem-Solving
2 173 (18.08%) Agile
3 167 (17.45%) Project Management
4 156 (16.30%) ITIL
5 134 (14.00%) Customer Service
6 127 (13.27%) Stakeholder Management
7 104 (10.87%) Continuous Improvement
8 102 (10.66%) Project Delivery
9 96 (10.03%) Service Management
10 89 (9.30%) Business Intelligence
11 83 (8.67%) PRINCE2
12 82 (8.57%) Change Management
13 67 (7.00%) ITSM
14 61 (6.37%) Information Security
15 59 (6.17%) Service Delivery
16 57 (5.96%) Critical Thinking
17 55 (5.75%) Analytical Thinking
18 54 (5.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 53 (5.54%) Time Management
20 52 (5.43%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 78 (8.15%) SQL
2 49 (5.12%) PowerShell
3 26 (2.72%) Python
4 12 (1.25%) VB
5 9 (0.94%) Java
5 9 (0.94%) R
6 8 (0.84%) C
6 8 (0.84%) PHP
6 8 (0.84%) Shell Script
6 8 (0.84%) 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%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 294 (30.72%) Degree
2 249 (26.02%) Security Cleared
3 191 (19.96%) SC Cleared
4 65 (6.79%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.34%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.13%) TOGAF Certification
7 27 (2.82%) PMI Certification
8 26 (2.72%) Computer Science Degree
9 25 (2.61%) PMP
10 21 (2.19%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (1.78%) APMP
12 15 (1.57%) MCSE
13 13 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
13 13 (1.36%) CTC Cleared
13 13 (1.36%) Master's Degree
14 12 (1.25%) BPSS Clearance
14 12 (1.25%) CHECK Team Member
15 11 (1.15%) A+ Certification
15 11 (1.15%) Postgraduate
16 10 (1.04%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (10.24%) PMO
2 43 (4.49%) QA
3 32 (3.34%) SLA
4 28 (2.93%) GDPR
5 25 (2.61%) Data Quality
6 20 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.57%) 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
1 150 (15.67%) Active Directory
2 12 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.15%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.63%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.52%) Brightmail
6 5 (0.52%) 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%) XenDesktop
8 3 (0.31%) Firmware
8 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.10%) Snort
9 1 (0.10%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 52 (5.43%) SCCM
2 35 (3.66%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.13%) OPNET
4 19 (1.99%) SCOM
5 15 (1.57%) HP SiteScope
6 12 (1.25%) Nmap
7 8 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (0.84%) 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
1 606 (63.32%) Microsoft
2 76 (7.94%) SAP
3 75 (7.84%) Cisco
4 74 (7.73%) ServiceNow
5 71 (7.42%) Remedy
6 62 (6.48%) Apple
7 56 (5.85%) HP
8 45 (4.70%) Dell
9 43 (4.49%) Atlassian
10 40 (4.18%) Oracle
11 35 (3.66%) Google
12 23 (2.40%) Splunk
13 18 (1.88%) Citrix
14 17 (1.78%) VMware
15 15 (1.57%) MobileIron
16 10 (1.04%) IBM
16 10 (1.04%) Planview
17 9 (0.94%) Adobe
17 9 (0.94%) Salesforce
17 9 (0.94%) Veeam