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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 77 62
Rank change year-on-year -25 -15 +23
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 965 964 1,436
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.62% 2.99% 3.35%
As % of the Applications category 33.75% 41.20% 41.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 557 586 903
10th Percentile £161 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £192 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +11.11% -26.63%
75th Percentile £538 £509 £500
90th Percentile £694 £625 £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 58 131
10th Percentile £12.75 £15.25 £12.58
25th Percentile £15.00 £19.25 £14.22
Median hourly rate £19.10 £24.43 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year -21.80% +29.03% -5.94%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £44.54
90th Percentile £44.95 £43.75 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £25.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year -30.00% +25.00% +0.60%

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 2,859 2,340 3,454
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.76% 7.27% 8.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,678 1,381 2,074
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £307 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £440 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -8.57%
75th Percentile £538 £538 £550
90th Percentile £650 £649 £662
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £363 £350
% change year-on-year +17.24% +3.57% -11.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 338 202 284
10th Percentile £12.82 - £13.29
25th Percentile £16.28 £15.62 £16.28
Median hourly rate £20.26 £25.25 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.78% -2.88% -
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.97 £46.75
90th Percentile £62.22 £75.00 £54.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.91 £26.34 £26.00
% change year-on-year -24.40% +1.29% -1.38%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -18 874 £358 +15.01% 589
UK excluding London -12 657 £325 +30.00% 485
London -25 280 £375 +3.45% 157
Work from Home -33 210 £423 +12.67% 181
South East -4 166 £425 +25.93% 180
North of England -22 154 £240 +6.67% 110
South West +6 123 £688 +161.90% 48
North West -2 102 £263 +5.00% 67
Midlands -25 91 £250 -29.78% 77
West Midlands -41 62 £275 -35.29% 45
East of England -2 53 £350 +7.69% 54
Yorkshire -51 42 £290 +28.89% 33
East Midlands -8 30 £185 -11.90% 31
Wales +3 29 £213 +10.39% 5
Scotland -35 25 £358 +48.96% 13
Northern Ireland -3 19 £325 +109.68% 7
North East -15 10 £175 +16.67% 11

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
1 158 (16.37%) SharePoint
2 94 (9.74%) Confluence
3 89 (9.22%) Microsoft Exchange
4 32 (3.32%) 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 5 (0.52%) HCL Notes
10 3 (0.31%) CMS
11 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 302 (31.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 192 (19.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 94 (9.74%) Microsoft Project
4 87 (9.02%) MS Visio
5 10 (1.04%) 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
9 2 (0.21%) Simulink
9 2 (0.21%) Windchill
10 1 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 29 (3.01%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (1.04%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.73%) Primavera
4 6 (0.62%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.52%) 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%) 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%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.21%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.21%) SAP Payroll
8 2 (0.21%) SAP PLM
8 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 217 (22.49%) Microsoft 365
2 98 (10.16%) Azure
3 51 (5.28%) Power Platform
4 35 (3.63%) Google Workspace
5 26 (2.69%) OneDrive
6 18 (1.87%) AWS
7 13 (1.35%) Entra ID
7 13 (1.35%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.35%) OCI
8 11 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.04%) Google Tag Manager
10 9 (0.93%) GCP
10 9 (0.93%) Google Analytics
11 7 (0.73%) Dynamics 365
11 7 (0.73%) GitHub
11 7 (0.73%) PowerApps
12 6 (0.62%) Power Automate
13 5 (0.52%) Figma
13 5 (0.52%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 59 (6.11%) Wireless
2 49 (5.08%) VPN
3 45 (4.66%) DNS
3 45 (4.66%) Skype
4 37 (3.83%) DHCP
4 37 (3.83%) TCP/IP
5 36 (3.73%) Firewall
6 34 (3.52%) LAN
7 33 (3.42%) Wi-Fi
8 29 (3.01%) WAN
9 16 (1.66%) Network Security
10 12 (1.24%) Structured Cabling
11 11 (1.14%) SSH
12 10 (1.04%) Cisco IOS
13 8 (0.83%) MPLS
14 7 (0.73%) SAN
15 6 (0.62%) DDNS
15 6 (0.62%) Internet
15 6 (0.62%) Unified Communications
15 6 (0.62%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (4.97%) Power BI
2 12 (1.24%) Tableau
3 11 (1.14%) Oracle Database
4 10 (1.04%) SQL Server
5 8 (0.83%) BigQuery
5 8 (0.83%) Looker
5 8 (0.83%) Power Query
6 7 (0.73%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.52%) Metadata
7 5 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
7 5 (0.52%) RDBMS
8 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.41%) EDMS
8 4 (0.41%) SQLPlus
9 3 (0.31%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
9 3 (0.31%) Spotfire
10 2 (0.21%) DB2
10 2 (0.21%) EDRMS
10 2 (0.21%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 119 (12.33%) JIRA
2 12 (1.24%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.24%) Metasploit
3 6 (0.62%) ClearCase
4 5 (0.52%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.52%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.52%) Toad
5 3 (0.31%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.31%) PVCS
5 3 (0.31%) Subversion
6 2 (0.21%) Hudson
6 2 (0.21%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.21%) Rational Rhapsody
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%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 573 (59.38%) Social Skills
2 285 (29.53%) Finance
3 206 (21.35%) Analytical Skills
4 132 (13.68%) Organisational Skills
5 125 (12.95%) Public Sector
6 80 (8.29%) Banking
7 66 (6.84%) Manufacturing
8 54 (5.60%) Marketing
9 49 (5.08%) Telecoms
10 47 (4.87%) Legal
10 47 (4.87%) Military
11 42 (4.35%) Electronics
12 22 (2.28%) Influencing Skills
12 22 (2.28%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
13 19 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 13 (1.35%) Back Office
14 13 (1.35%) Investment Banking
15 12 (1.24%) Law
15 12 (1.24%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 214 (22.18%) Analyst
2 108 (11.19%) IT Support
3 77 (7.98%) Support Engineer
4 61 (6.32%) Desktop Support
5 60 (6.22%) 2nd Line Support
5 60 (6.22%) Support Analyst
6 57 (5.91%) Business Analyst
7 54 (5.60%) Administrator
8 45 (4.66%) Architect
9 38 (3.94%) Senior
10 35 (3.63%) Project Manager
11 32 (3.32%) Coordinator
12 31 (3.21%) IT Engineer
12 31 (3.21%) Support Officer
13 30 (3.11%) Lead
13 30 (3.11%) Service Architect
14 29 (3.01%) Desktop Engineer
15 25 (2.59%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
15 25 (2.59%) IT Support Engineer
15 25 (2.59%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
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 (0.41%) 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%) XMPP
5 2 (0.21%) YANG
6 1 (0.10%) CSS
6 1 (0.10%) EDI
6 1 (0.10%) HTML
6 1 (0.10%) IBM Integration Bus
6 1 (0.10%) JFC
6 1 (0.10%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 53 (5.49%) Data Centre
2 52 (5.39%) Management Information System
3 40 (4.15%) Onboarding
4 39 (4.04%) Product Ownership
5 35 (3.63%) Driving Licence
5 35 (3.63%) Self-Motivation
6 20 (2.07%) Enterprise Software
7 19 (1.97%) Mobile App
8 17 (1.76%) PKI
9 15 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
9 15 (1.55%) Virtual Team
10 14 (1.45%) NHS
11 13 (1.35%) Security Posture
12 12 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
13 10 (1.04%) CMDB
13 10 (1.04%) PMI
14 9 (0.93%) Insider Threat
14 9 (0.93%) Replication
14 9 (0.93%) Tandem
15 7 (0.73%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 273 (28.29%) Windows
2 106 (10.98%) Windows 10
3 86 (8.91%) Android
4 67 (6.94%) Mac OS
5 58 (6.01%) Linux
6 37 (3.83%) Apple iOS
7 30 (3.11%) Windows Server
8 18 (1.87%) Unix
9 15 (1.55%) Windows Server 2016
10 12 (1.24%) Windows 7
11 10 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.73%) Ubuntu
13 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2003
13 6 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
14 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 3 (0.31%) CentOS
15 3 (0.31%) Windows 8
16 2 (0.21%) AIX
17 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
17 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 220 (22.80%) Problem-Solving
2 175 (18.13%) Agile
3 164 (16.99%) Project Management
4 162 (16.79%) ITIL
5 129 (13.37%) Customer Service
6 128 (13.26%) Stakeholder Management
7 107 (11.09%) Continuous Improvement
8 98 (10.16%) Project Delivery
9 93 (9.64%) Service Management
10 91 (9.43%) Business Intelligence
11 82 (8.50%) Change Management
11 82 (8.50%) PRINCE2
12 68 (7.05%) ITSM
13 60 (6.22%) Information Security
14 56 (5.80%) Critical Thinking
14 56 (5.80%) Decision-Making
14 56 (5.80%) Service Delivery
15 55 (5.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 53 (5.49%) Time Management
16 53 (5.49%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 76 (7.88%) SQL
2 46 (4.77%) PowerShell
3 24 (2.49%) Python
4 9 (0.93%) Java
4 9 (0.93%) R
4 9 (0.93%) VB
5 8 (0.83%) C
5 8 (0.83%) PHP
5 8 (0.83%) Shell Script
6 7 (0.73%) JavaScript
6 7 (0.73%) PL/SQL
7 5 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 5 (0.52%) Perl
7 5 (0.52%) VBScript
8 4 (0.41%) C#
9 3 (0.31%) C++
9 3 (0.31%) Korn
9 3 (0.31%) VBA
10 2 (0.21%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 299 (30.98%) Degree
2 251 (26.01%) Security Cleared
3 194 (20.10%) SC Cleared
4 61 (6.32%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.32%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.11%) TOGAF Certification
7 26 (2.69%) PMI Certification
8 25 (2.59%) PMP
9 23 (2.38%) Computer Science Degree
10 21 (2.18%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (1.76%) APMP
12 16 (1.66%) MCSE
13 13 (1.35%) Master's Degree
14 12 (1.24%) BPSS Clearance
14 12 (1.24%) CHECK Team Member
14 12 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
15 11 (1.14%) CTC Cleared
15 11 (1.14%) HNC
15 11 (1.14%) Postgraduate
16 10 (1.04%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (9.53%) PMO
2 41 (4.25%) QA
3 30 (3.11%) GDPR
4 28 (2.90%) SLA
5 24 (2.49%) Data Quality
6 21 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.55%) Accessibility
8 12 (1.24%) PCI DSS
8 12 (1.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (0.62%) P3O
10 5 (0.52%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.52%) NIST
11 4 (0.41%) COBIT
11 4 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.31%) ECSS
13 2 (0.21%) Def Stans
13 2 (0.21%) IEC 61508
13 2 (0.21%) ISO 19650
13 2 (0.21%) ISO 20022
13 2 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 15288
System Software
1 159 (16.48%) Active Directory
2 15 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.93%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.83%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.62%) Brightmail
5 6 (0.62%) Firmware
5 6 (0.62%) ISA Server
6 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.41%) Docker
7 4 (0.41%) XenApp
8 3 (0.31%) Terminal Services
8 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.31%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.10%) Snort
Systems Management
1 52 (5.39%) SCCM
2 36 (3.73%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.11%) OPNET
4 19 (1.97%) SCOM
5 15 (1.55%) HP SiteScope
6 12 (1.24%) Nmap
7 11 (1.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 8 (0.83%) WSUS
9 6 (0.62%) Microsoft Clustering
10 5 (0.52%) Kubernetes
10 5 (0.52%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 4 (0.41%) Ansible
12 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
12 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.31%) SCVMM
12 3 (0.31%) Terraform
12 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.21%) EnCase
13 2 (0.21%) FTK
13 2 (0.21%) TeamSite
Vendors
1 617 (63.94%) Microsoft
2 84 (8.70%) SAP
3 78 (8.08%) Cisco
4 77 (7.98%) ServiceNow
5 69 (7.15%) Remedy
6 66 (6.84%) Apple
7 60 (6.22%) HP
8 47 (4.87%) Dell
9 43 (4.46%) Atlassian
10 41 (4.25%) Oracle
11 34 (3.52%) Google
12 23 (2.38%) Splunk
13 21 (2.18%) VMware
14 19 (1.97%) Citrix
15 16 (1.66%) MobileIron
16 11 (1.14%) IBM
17 10 (1.04%) Adobe
17 10 (1.04%) Planview
18 9 (0.93%) Salesforce
18 9 (0.93%) Veeam