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

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 79 60
Rank change year-on-year -27 -19 +23
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 979 925 1,520
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.45% 3.02% 3.40%
As % of the Applications category 33.91% 38.88% 41.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 537 561 912
10th Percentile £163 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £200 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £275
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +9.09% -26.67%
75th Percentile £538 £502 £500
90th Percentile £690 £600 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £325 £250 £236
% change year-on-year +30.00% +6.04% -32.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 149 59 244
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.25 £11.77
25th Percentile £13.72 £19.00 £13.00
Median hourly rate £17.60 £24.18 £16.66
Median % change year-on-year -27.21% +45.14% -24.27%
75th Percentile £25.15 £33.88 £26.50
90th Percentile £39.21 £42.75 £46.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.46 £24.19 £15.85
% change year-on-year -31.96% +52.59% -21.73%

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 2,887 2,379 3,683
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.24% 7.75% 8.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,683 1,413 2,045
10th Percentile £203 £175 £163
25th Percentile £313 £250 £213
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 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £363 £351
% change year-on-year +17.24% +3.28% -12.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 340 187 512
10th Percentile £12.94 £15.55 £12.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £16.88 £14.13
Median hourly rate £19.34 £27.13 £20.25
Median % change year-on-year -28.71% +33.95% -37.69%
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.13 £42.50
90th Percentile £61.79 £77.90 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.95 £27.13 £19.50
% change year-on-year -30.14% +39.10% -40.04%

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 16 February 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 16 February 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 16 February 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 -25 893 £367 +21.96% 539
UK excluding London -20 701 £325 +30.00% 491
London -49 244 £413 +14.58% 114
Work from Home -42 209 £425 +13.33% 205
South East -3 183 £450 +38.46% 173
North of England -30 171 £248 +7.12% 114
South West -11 123 £700 +211.11% 56
North West -9 106 £250 - 55
Midlands -34 91 £263 -30.56% 73
East of England +9 75 £200 -18.37% 57
West Midlands -44 59 £300 -29.41% 52
Yorkshire -51 55 £290 +28.89% 45
East Midlands -2 32 £185 -7.50% 21
Wales +8 27 £246 -51.95% 12
Scotland -41 20 £287 +43.50% 20
Northern Ireland +2 14 £245 +55.56% 4
North East -14 10 £175 -5.41% 15

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
1 154 (15.73%) SharePoint
2 98 (10.01%) Confluence
3 90 (9.19%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (3.17%) Skype for Business
5 8 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.72%) Mattermost
7 4 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.41%) CMS
8 3 (0.31%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2003
9 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2007
9 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.10%) IIS
9 1 (0.10%) Office Communications Server
9 1 (0.10%) SAS
9 1 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 315 (32.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 184 (18.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 92 (9.40%) Microsoft Project
4 85 (8.68%) MS Visio
5 12 (1.23%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.82%) Trello
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Captivate
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
8 2 (0.20%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.10%) Adobe After Effects
9 1 (0.10%) Adobe Premiere
9 1 (0.10%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.10%) InDesign
9 1 (0.10%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.10%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 33 (3.37%) Remedy ITSM
2 15 (1.53%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (1.02%) Primavera
4 6 (0.61%) Oracle Financials
5 5 (0.51%) Veritas eDiscovery
6 4 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.41%) Shopify
7 3 (0.31%) Aladdin
7 3 (0.31%) Fidessa
7 3 (0.31%) Maximo
7 3 (0.31%) Oracle EBS R12
7 3 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.31%) SimCorp Dimension
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
8 2 (0.20%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.20%) SAP MM
8 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 224 (22.88%) Microsoft 365
2 105 (10.73%) Azure
3 49 (5.01%) Power Platform
4 35 (3.58%) Google Workspace
5 29 (2.96%) AWS
6 27 (2.76%) OneDrive
7 14 (1.43%) Entra ID
7 14 (1.43%) Lucidchart
8 13 (1.33%) OCI
9 12 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
9 12 (1.23%) GCP
10 10 (1.02%) Google Tag Manager
11 9 (0.92%) Google Analytics
12 6 (0.61%) SaaS
13 5 (0.51%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (0.51%) GitHub
13 5 (0.51%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.51%) Power Automate
14 4 (0.41%) Figma
14 4 (0.41%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 54 (5.52%) Wireless
2 53 (5.41%) Skype
3 48 (4.90%) VPN
4 42 (4.29%) LAN
5 41 (4.19%) TCP/IP
6 40 (4.09%) Wi-Fi
7 39 (3.98%) DNS
8 38 (3.88%) Firewall
9 34 (3.47%) DHCP
9 34 (3.47%) WAN
10 18 (1.84%) Network Security
11 12 (1.23%) Structured Cabling
12 11 (1.12%) VLAN
13 10 (1.02%) Cisco IOS
13 10 (1.02%) Ethernet
14 9 (0.92%) Internet
14 9 (0.92%) MPLS
15 6 (0.61%) Unified Communications
16 5 (0.51%) NetScaler
16 5 (0.51%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (4.80%) Power BI
2 15 (1.53%) SQL Server
3 8 (0.82%) BigQuery
3 8 (0.82%) Looker
3 8 (0.82%) Relational Database
4 7 (0.72%) Oracle Reports
5 6 (0.61%) Oracle Database
5 6 (0.61%) Power Query
5 6 (0.61%) Tableau
6 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (0.41%) EDMS
6 4 (0.41%) RDBMS
6 4 (0.41%) SQLPlus
7 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
7 3 (0.31%) Metadata
7 3 (0.31%) MySQL
8 2 (0.20%) DB2
8 2 (0.20%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.20%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.20%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 111 (11.34%) JIRA
2 13 (1.33%) Burp Suite
2 13 (1.33%) Metasploit
3 8 (0.82%) Toad
4 5 (0.51%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.51%) Git
4 5 (0.51%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.51%) MLflow
5 3 (0.31%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.31%) Subversion
6 2 (0.20%) Hudson
6 2 (0.20%) JMeter
6 2 (0.20%) PVCS
6 2 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.20%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.10%) Ant
7 1 (0.10%) ClearCase
7 1 (0.10%) JUnit
7 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 599 (61.18%) Social Skills
2 291 (29.72%) Finance
3 216 (22.06%) Analytical Skills
4 137 (13.99%) Organisational Skills
5 120 (12.26%) Public Sector
6 69 (7.05%) Banking
7 68 (6.95%) Manufacturing
8 56 (5.72%) Telecoms
9 54 (5.52%) Marketing
10 47 (4.80%) Legal
11 40 (4.09%) Military
12 38 (3.88%) Electronics
13 33 (3.37%) Presentation Skills
14 25 (2.55%) Documentation Skills
15 24 (2.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 20 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
17 19 (1.94%) Pharmaceutical
18 14 (1.43%) Investment Banking
19 10 (1.02%) Back Office
19 10 (1.02%) Retail
Job Titles
1 205 (20.94%) Analyst
2 99 (10.11%) IT Support
3 64 (6.54%) Support Engineer
4 62 (6.33%) 2nd Line Support
5 60 (6.13%) Business Analyst
5 60 (6.13%) Support Analyst
6 57 (5.82%) Desktop Support
7 51 (5.21%) Architect
8 44 (4.49%) Administrator
9 40 (4.09%) Support Officer
10 37 (3.78%) Senior
11 32 (3.27%) Lead
12 30 (3.06%) Project Manager
12 30 (3.06%) Service Architect
13 28 (2.86%) IT Engineer
14 27 (2.76%) Coordinator
15 25 (2.55%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
16 24 (2.45%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
16 24 (2.45%) Project Officer
17 23 (2.35%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (0.72%) Web Services
2 6 (0.61%) REST
2 6 (0.61%) SOAP
2 6 (0.61%) XML
3 5 (0.51%) .NET
4 4 (0.41%) NumPy
4 4 (0.41%) Oracle Fusion
4 4 (0.41%) Pandas
4 4 (0.41%) scikit-learn
4 4 (0.41%) Seaborn
5 3 (0.31%) ADO
6 2 (0.20%) FHIR
6 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Graph
6 2 (0.20%) NETCONF
6 2 (0.20%) OpenConfig
6 2 (0.20%) RESTCONF
6 2 (0.20%) YANG
7 1 (0.10%) CrewAI
7 1 (0.10%) LangChain
7 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
Miscellaneous
1 49 (5.01%) Data Centre
1 49 (5.01%) Management Information System
2 45 (4.60%) Onboarding
3 40 (4.09%) Product Ownership
4 39 (3.98%) Self-Motivation
5 30 (3.06%) Driving Licence
6 18 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
6 18 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
6 18 (1.84%) NHS
7 17 (1.74%) Mobile App
8 14 (1.43%) Security Posture
9 12 (1.23%) Insider Threat
9 12 (1.23%) Virtual Team
10 11 (1.12%) Industry 4.0
10 11 (1.12%) PKI
10 11 (1.12%) PMI
10 11 (1.12%) Robotics
11 9 (0.92%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (0.82%) Social Media
12 8 (0.82%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 262 (26.76%) Windows
2 114 (11.64%) Windows 10
3 81 (8.27%) Android
4 58 (5.92%) Mac OS
5 54 (5.52%) Linux
6 36 (3.68%) Apple iOS
7 27 (2.76%) Windows Server
8 16 (1.63%) Windows 7
9 15 (1.53%) Unix
10 14 (1.43%) Windows Server 2016
11 11 (1.12%) Windows Server 2019
12 8 (0.82%) Ubuntu
13 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.31%) CentOS
15 2 (0.20%) AIX
16 1 (0.10%) Solaris
16 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 225 (22.98%) Problem-Solving
2 164 (16.75%) Agile
3 156 (15.93%) Customer Service
4 154 (15.73%) Project Management
5 142 (14.50%) ITIL
6 123 (12.56%) Stakeholder Management
7 107 (10.93%) Continuous Improvement
8 99 (10.11%) Project Delivery
9 95 (9.70%) Service Management
10 83 (8.48%) Business Intelligence
11 82 (8.38%) PRINCE2
12 73 (7.46%) Change Management
13 68 (6.95%) ITSM
14 63 (6.44%) Analytical Thinking
15 62 (6.33%) Service Delivery
15 62 (6.33%) Time Management
16 61 (6.23%) Decision-Making
17 60 (6.13%) Critical Thinking
18 58 (5.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 57 (5.82%) Acceptance Criteria
Programming Languages
1 83 (8.48%) SQL
2 52 (5.31%) PowerShell
3 28 (2.86%) Python
4 19 (1.94%) VB
5 10 (1.02%) PL/SQL
6 9 (0.92%) PHP
6 9 (0.92%) VBScript
7 8 (0.82%) JavaScript
8 7 (0.72%) Java
9 5 (0.51%) Perl
9 5 (0.51%) R
10 4 (0.41%) VBA
11 3 (0.31%) C
11 3 (0.31%) C#
11 3 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.31%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.20%) C++
12 2 (0.20%) Korn
12 2 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 313 (31.97%) Degree
2 252 (25.74%) Security Cleared
3 200 (20.43%) SC Cleared
4 59 (6.03%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.27%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.06%) TOGAF Certification
7 24 (2.45%) PMI Certification
8 23 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
8 23 (2.35%) PMP
9 17 (1.74%) APMP
9 17 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
10 16 (1.63%) MCSE
11 15 (1.53%) CTC Cleared
11 15 (1.53%) Master's Degree
12 14 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
12 14 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
13 13 (1.33%) CHECK Team Member
14 12 (1.23%) IIBA
14 12 (1.23%) Postgraduate
15 11 (1.12%) CBAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (9.81%) PMO
2 44 (4.49%) QA
3 32 (3.27%) SLA
4 26 (2.66%) GDPR
5 24 (2.45%) Data Quality
6 20 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.53%) Accessibility
7 15 (1.53%) PCI DSS
8 12 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 7 (0.72%) P3O
10 6 (0.61%) ISO 9001
11 5 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
12 3 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.31%) ECSS
12 3 (0.31%) ISO 20022
12 3 (0.31%) MiFID
12 3 (0.31%) NIST
13 2 (0.20%) COBIT
14 1 (0.10%) HL7
14 1 (0.10%) JSP 440
System Software
1 148 (15.12%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.02%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.82%) Docker
5 7 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (0.61%) Hyper-V
6 6 (0.61%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 6 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
6 6 (0.61%) XenApp
7 5 (0.51%) XenDesktop
8 4 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.10%) Brightmail
9 1 (0.10%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.10%) Firmware
9 1 (0.10%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 55 (5.62%) SCCM
2 35 (3.58%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.06%) OPNET
4 19 (1.94%) SCOM
5 15 (1.53%) HP SiteScope
6 13 (1.33%) Nmap
7 9 (0.92%) WSUS
8 8 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 7 (0.72%) HP Quality Center
10 6 (0.61%) Ansible
11 5 (0.51%) HP ALM
11 5 (0.51%) Kubernetes
11 5 (0.51%) SCVMM
11 5 (0.51%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 5 (0.51%) TeamSite
11 5 (0.51%) Terraform
12 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
12 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 632 (64.56%) Microsoft
2 84 (8.58%) SAP
3 77 (7.87%) Remedy
3 77 (7.87%) ServiceNow
4 76 (7.76%) Cisco
5 57 (5.82%) Apple
6 56 (5.72%) HP
7 44 (4.49%) Atlassian
8 39 (3.98%) Dell
9 38 (3.88%) Oracle
10 37 (3.78%) Google
11 23 (2.35%) Citrix
12 22 (2.25%) Splunk
13 17 (1.74%) VMware
14 15 (1.53%) MobileIron
15 11 (1.12%) Siemens
16 10 (1.02%) Adobe
16 10 (1.02%) Planview
17 9 (0.92%) Salesforce
17 9 (0.92%) Veeam