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 21 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 87 58
Rank change year-on-year -37 -29 +26
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 938 830 1,502
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.14% 2.83% 3.39%
As % of the Applications category 31.94% 35.18% 41.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 514 526 836
10th Percentile £163 £155 £141
25th Percentile £207 £205 £187
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £325 £263
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +23.81% -31.15%
75th Percentile £535 £518 £488
90th Percentile £689 £600 £620
UK excluding London median daily rate £345 £256 £225
% change year-on-year +34.73% +13.89% -30.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 149 73 320
10th Percentile £12.46 £13.92 £11.00
25th Percentile £13.72 £15.62 £12.63
Median hourly rate £17.94 £20.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -10.33% +24.53% -28.69%
75th Percentile £25.62 £24.66 £26.15
90th Percentile £62.01 £33.95 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.71 £20.00 £15.76
% change year-on-year -16.48% +26.90% -21.20%

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 2,937 2,359 3,587
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 6.70% 8.04% 8.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,716 1,438 1,869
10th Percentile £209 £182 £158
25th Percentile £325 £254 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% - -8.05%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £538
90th Percentile £650 £638 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £370 £350
% change year-on-year +14.86% +5.71% -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 348 228 624
10th Percentile £13.07 £14.84 £11.50
25th Percentile £15.94 £16.75 £14.00
Median hourly rate £19.91 £27.13 £19.19
Median % change year-on-year -26.60% +41.37% -41.86%
75th Percentile £29.50 £46.30 £42.70
90th Percentile £60.00 £76.25 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.07 £27.13 £17.72
% change year-on-year -29.70% +53.08% -45.48%

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 21 March 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 21 March 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 21 March 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 -34 845 £396 +21.85% 586
UK excluding London -16 669 £345 +34.73% 522
London -58 229 £413 -2.65% 140
Work from Home -54 190 £375 -6.25% 210
South East -1 173 £425 +25.93% 166
North of England -42 157 £290 +19.59% 135
South West -8 108 £700 +111.32% 56
North West -17 96 £300 +20.00% 76
Midlands -40 89 £308 -11.32% 83
East of England +1 82 £190 -36.67% 52
West Midlands -53 58 £313 -26.35% 53
Yorkshire -49 52 £290 +22.88% 45
East Midlands -20 31 £180 -10.00% 30
Wales +7 28 £246 -50.75% 17
Scotland -29 23 £290 +45.00% 24
Northern Ireland 0 12 £350 +118.75% 3
North East -16 9 £175 -10.26% 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
1 120 (12.79%) SharePoint
2 94 (10.02%) Confluence
3 70 (7.46%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (1.07%) Skype for Business
5 7 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.53%) CMS
7 3 (0.32%) HCL Notes
8 1 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 322 (34.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 189 (20.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 90 (9.59%) Microsoft Project
4 75 (8.00%) MS Visio
5 11 (1.17%) Spreadsheet
6 6 (0.64%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (0.64%) Trello
7 4 (0.43%) Adobe Captivate
8 3 (0.32%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.11%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.11%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
9 1 (0.11%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 18 (1.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.81%) Remedy ITSM
3 12 (1.28%) Primavera
4 6 (0.64%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 5 (0.53%) Shopify
6 4 (0.43%) Oracle Financials
6 4 (0.43%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.32%) Aladdin
7 3 (0.32%) Fidessa
7 3 (0.32%) Maximo
7 3 (0.32%) SAP MM
7 3 (0.32%) SimCorp Dimension
8 2 (0.21%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.11%) assyst
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle 11i
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 200 (21.32%) Microsoft 365
2 90 (9.59%) Azure
3 45 (4.80%) Power Platform
4 33 (3.52%) Google Workspace
5 31 (3.30%) AWS
6 13 (1.39%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (1.39%) Entra ID
7 12 (1.28%) SaaS
8 10 (1.07%) GCP
8 10 (1.07%) OneDrive
9 9 (0.96%) Lucidchart
10 8 (0.85%) GitHub
11 7 (0.75%) Amazon SageMaker
11 7 (0.75%) Dagster
11 7 (0.75%) GitHub Actions
11 7 (0.75%) Google Analytics
11 7 (0.75%) Google Tag Manager
12 6 (0.64%) Figma
13 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Purview
13 5 (0.53%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 53 (5.65%) Wireless
2 42 (4.48%) VPN
3 39 (4.16%) Wi-Fi
4 38 (4.05%) TCP/IP
5 36 (3.84%) Firewall
6 34 (3.62%) LAN
7 32 (3.41%) Skype
8 29 (3.09%) WAN
9 27 (2.88%) DNS
10 21 (2.24%) DHCP
11 19 (2.03%) Network Security
12 15 (1.60%) Ethernet
13 11 (1.17%) MPLS
14 10 (1.07%) Cisco IOS
14 10 (1.07%) VLAN
15 8 (0.85%) Internet
16 6 (0.64%) BGP
16 6 (0.64%) Structured Cabling
17 5 (0.53%) NetScaler
17 5 (0.53%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (4.48%) Power BI
2 14 (1.49%) SQL Server
3 7 (0.75%) Relational Database
4 6 (0.64%) Oracle Database
5 5 (0.53%) BigQuery
5 5 (0.53%) Electronic Patient Records
5 5 (0.53%) Looker
5 5 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
5 5 (0.53%) Tableau
6 4 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (0.43%) EDMS
6 4 (0.43%) RDBMS
6 4 (0.43%) SQLPlus
7 3 (0.32%) MySQL
7 3 (0.32%) Power Query
8 2 (0.21%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.21%) DB2
8 2 (0.21%) GIS
8 2 (0.21%) Metadata
8 2 (0.21%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 107 (11.41%) JIRA
2 13 (1.39%) Burp Suite
2 13 (1.39%) Metasploit
3 8 (0.85%) MLflow
3 8 (0.85%) Toad
4 7 (0.75%) Git
5 5 (0.53%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.32%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.32%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 3 (0.32%) Subversion
7 2 (0.21%) JMeter
7 2 (0.21%) PVCS
7 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.21%) Tricentis qTest
8 1 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.11%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.11%) GitLab
8 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.11%) TestDirector
General
1 560 (59.70%) Social Skills
2 266 (28.36%) Finance
3 205 (21.86%) Analytical Skills
4 127 (13.54%) Organisational Skills
5 114 (12.15%) Public Sector
6 74 (7.89%) Banking
7 57 (6.08%) Manufacturing
8 53 (5.65%) Legal
8 53 (5.65%) Marketing
9 51 (5.44%) Telecoms
10 41 (4.37%) Military
11 40 (4.26%) Presentation Skills
12 36 (3.84%) Electronics
13 27 (2.88%) Documentation Skills
13 27 (2.88%) Influencing Skills
14 26 (2.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 26 (2.77%) Pharmaceutical
15 15 (1.60%) Investment Banking
16 13 (1.39%) Retail
17 11 (1.17%) Law
Job Titles
1 175 (18.66%) Analyst
2 86 (9.17%) IT Support
3 59 (6.29%) Business Analyst
4 52 (5.54%) 2nd Line Support
5 50 (5.33%) Architect
6 49 (5.22%) Administrator
7 47 (5.01%) Desktop Support
8 46 (4.90%) Support Engineer
9 39 (4.16%) Support Officer
10 38 (4.05%) Senior
11 36 (3.84%) Lead
12 33 (3.52%) Support Analyst
13 32 (3.41%) Project Manager
14 30 (3.20%) Service Architect
15 26 (2.77%) Project Officer
16 24 (2.56%) Coordinator
16 24 (2.56%) IT Engineer
16 24 (2.56%) Project Support Officer
16 24 (2.56%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
17 23 (2.45%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (0.85%) Web Services
2 7 (0.75%) NumPy
2 7 (0.75%) Pandas
2 7 (0.75%) scikit-learn
2 7 (0.75%) Seaborn
2 7 (0.75%) SOAP
3 6 (0.64%) REST
4 5 (0.53%) XML
5 4 (0.43%) .NET
5 4 (0.43%) FHIR
5 4 (0.43%) NETCONF
5 4 (0.43%) OpenConfig
5 4 (0.43%) RESTCONF
5 4 (0.43%) YANG
6 3 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
6 3 (0.32%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.21%) ADO
7 2 (0.21%) JDO
7 2 (0.21%) Middleware
8 1 (0.11%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 51 (5.44%) Management Information System
2 50 (5.33%) Onboarding
2 50 (5.33%) Self-Motivation
3 46 (4.90%) Data Centre
4 41 (4.37%) Product Ownership
5 28 (2.99%) Driving Licence
6 18 (1.92%) NHS
7 16 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
7 16 (1.71%) Industry 4.0
7 16 (1.71%) Robotics
8 15 (1.60%) Mobile App
9 14 (1.49%) PMI
9 14 (1.49%) Security Posture
10 13 (1.39%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (1.39%) Insider Threat
11 9 (0.96%) Social Media
11 9 (0.96%) Virtual Team
12 8 (0.85%) Client/Server
12 8 (0.85%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 230 (24.52%) Windows
2 96 (10.23%) Windows 10
3 74 (7.89%) Android
4 50 (5.33%) Mac OS
5 47 (5.01%) Linux
6 24 (2.56%) Apple iOS
7 21 (2.24%) Windows Server
8 14 (1.49%) Windows 7
9 12 (1.28%) Unix
10 10 (1.07%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.85%) Ubuntu
12 6 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.32%) AIX
14 3 (0.32%) CentOS
15 2 (0.21%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 225 (23.99%) Problem-Solving
2 162 (17.27%) Agile
3 151 (16.10%) Project Management
4 142 (15.14%) Customer Service
5 119 (12.69%) Stakeholder Management
6 111 (11.83%) Continuous Improvement
7 110 (11.73%) ITIL
8 101 (10.77%) Project Delivery
9 85 (9.06%) Service Management
10 84 (8.96%) PRINCE2
11 77 (8.21%) Change Management
12 75 (8.00%) Business Intelligence
13 71 (7.57%) Decision-Making
14 68 (7.25%) Analytical Thinking
15 67 (7.14%) Time Management
16 59 (6.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 57 (6.08%) Waterfall
18 56 (5.97%) Critical Thinking
19 55 (5.86%) AI
19 55 (5.86%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 65 (6.93%) SQL
2 37 (3.94%) PowerShell
3 28 (2.99%) Python
4 18 (1.92%) VB
5 10 (1.07%) PHP
6 9 (0.96%) PL/SQL
6 9 (0.96%) VBScript
7 6 (0.64%) Java
7 6 (0.64%) JavaScript
8 5 (0.53%) Perl
8 5 (0.53%) VBA
9 4 (0.43%) R
10 3 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (0.32%) Shell Script
10 3 (0.32%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.21%) C
12 1 (0.11%) Bash
12 1 (0.11%) C++
12 1 (0.11%) Korn
Qualifications
1 313 (33.37%) Degree
2 256 (27.29%) Security Cleared
3 203 (21.64%) SC Cleared
4 58 (6.18%) DV Cleared
5 30 (3.20%) PMI Certification
5 30 (3.20%) TOGAF Certification
6 28 (2.99%) PMP
7 19 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
8 17 (1.81%) APMP
9 16 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
9 16 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
9 16 (1.71%) CTC Cleared
10 15 (1.60%) ITIL Certification
11 13 (1.39%) CHECK Team Member
11 13 (1.39%) MCSE
12 12 (1.28%) CBAP
12 12 (1.28%) Master's Degree
12 12 (1.28%) Postgraduate
13 11 (1.17%) CREST Certified
13 11 (1.17%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (10.34%) PMO
2 43 (4.58%) QA
3 32 (3.41%) SLA
4 26 (2.77%) GDPR
5 25 (2.67%) Data Quality
6 19 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 16 (1.71%) PCI DSS
8 15 (1.60%) Accessibility
9 8 (0.85%) P3O
10 6 (0.64%) ISO 9001
11 5 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.53%) MiFID
12 4 (0.43%) NIST
12 4 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.32%) ECSS
13 3 (0.32%) HL7
13 3 (0.32%) ISO 20022
14 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 105 (11.19%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.17%) Docker
2 11 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.07%) BitLocker
4 7 (0.75%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.53%) Hyper-V
5 5 (0.53%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.53%) XenApp
5 5 (0.53%) XenDesktop
6 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 2 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.11%) Citrix Presentation Server
7 1 (0.11%) Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.11%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (4.48%) SCCM
2 30 (3.20%) OPNET
3 25 (2.67%) Microsoft Intune
4 13 (1.39%) Nmap
5 10 (1.07%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (0.85%) Ansible
6 8 (0.85%) HP Quality Center
7 5 (0.53%) HP ALM
7 5 (0.53%) Kubernetes
7 5 (0.53%) SCOM
7 5 (0.53%) SCVMM
7 5 (0.53%) TeamSite
7 5 (0.53%) WSUS
8 4 (0.43%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.32%) PaperCut
9 3 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.32%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.32%) Terraform
10 1 (0.11%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.11%) Puppet
Vendors
1 607 (64.71%) Microsoft
2 83 (8.85%) SAP
3 72 (7.68%) ServiceNow
4 67 (7.14%) Cisco
5 60 (6.40%) Remedy
6 58 (6.18%) HP
7 53 (5.65%) Apple
8 45 (4.80%) Atlassian
9 37 (3.94%) Dell
10 36 (3.84%) Google
11 28 (2.99%) Oracle
12 24 (2.56%) Citrix
13 15 (1.60%) MobileIron
13 15 (1.60%) Siemens
13 15 (1.60%) VMware
14 14 (1.49%) Adobe
15 9 (0.96%) Salesforce
16 8 (0.85%) Planview
17 6 (0.64%) Thales
17 6 (0.64%) Veeam