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 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 98 74 64
Rank change year-on-year -24 -10 +24
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 996 1,029 1,449
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.71% 3.01% 3.28%
As % of the Applications category 34.04% 42.05% 41.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 569 607 922
10th Percentile £156 £143 £148
25th Percentile £203 £190 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £275
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +9.09% -23.08%
75th Percentile £538 £503 £511
90th Percentile £700 £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 145 70 122
10th Percentile £12.75 £15.16 £13.35
25th Percentile £15.50 £19.09 £15.50
Median hourly rate £20.26 £25.15 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.46% +25.75% -4.44%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £43.62
90th Percentile £48.30 £52.64 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.55 £25.30 £21.00
% change year-on-year -30.63% +20.48% +5.00%

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 2,926 2,447 3,504
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.97% 7.15% 7.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,681 1,426 2,138
10th Percentile £195 £163 £163
25th Percentile £304 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £400 £402
Median % change year-on-year +9.31% -0.44% -9.66%
75th Percentile £540 £538 £550
90th Percentile £668 £638 £657
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £364 £351
% change year-on-year +13.40% +3.78% -12.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 224 270
10th Percentile £12.82 - £14.16
25th Percentile £16.28 £15.62 £17.00
Median hourly rate £20.80 £24.35 £27.25
Median % change year-on-year -14.56% -10.66% +7.88%
75th Percentile £30.00 £43.75 £46.14
90th Percentile £59.13 £68.50 £50.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.91 £24.18 £26.78
% change year-on-year -17.66% -9.71% +7.12%

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025. 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 -17 897 £364 +13.83% 704
UK excluding London -13 674 £325 +30.00% 671
London -35 291 £395 -1.25% 123
Work from Home -42 203 £430 +7.38% 253
South East -5 163 £425 +32.81% 226
North of England -28 154 £235 +5.62% 139
South West +6 120 £700 +211.11% 81
North West -4 104 £259 +3.60% 78
Midlands -23 103 £250 -40.48% 118
West Midlands -33 72 £288 -33.06% 62
East of England -9 56 £350 +27.27% 76
Yorkshire -53 40 £290 +30.34% 45
Wales +5 33 £290 +45.00% 19
East Midlands +2 31 £158 -25.00% 53
Scotland -34 25 £358 +69.23% 22
Northern Ireland +2 21 £320 +106.45% 10
North East -14 10 £175 +16.67% 18

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
1 156 (15.66%) SharePoint
2 93 (9.34%) Confluence
3 89 (8.94%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (3.51%) Skype for Business
5 16 (1.61%) Exchange Server 2013
6 9 (0.90%) Exchange Server 2003
6 9 (0.90%) Exchange Server 2007
6 9 (0.90%) Exchange Server 2010
6 9 (0.90%) Office Communications Server
6 9 (0.90%) SharePoint Server
7 8 (0.80%) IIS
8 7 (0.70%) Mattermost
9 5 (0.50%) HCL Notes
10 3 (0.30%) CMS
11 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 301 (30.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 188 (18.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 95 (9.54%) Microsoft Project
4 77 (7.73%) MS Visio
5 10 (1.00%) Spreadsheet
6 7 (0.70%) Adobe Captivate
6 7 (0.70%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 6 (0.60%) Trello
8 5 (0.50%) Simulink
9 4 (0.40%) Windchill
10 3 (0.30%) Photoshop
11 2 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
11 2 (0.20%) Adobe Illustrator
11 2 (0.20%) Adobe Premiere
11 2 (0.20%) InDesign
11 2 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
12 1 (0.10%) Maya
12 1 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 27 (2.71%) Remedy ITSM
2 10 (1.00%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.70%) Primavera
4 6 (0.60%) Oracle Financials
4 6 (0.60%) Oracle Receivables
5 5 (0.50%) Shopify
6 4 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.40%) SAP PLM
7 3 (0.30%) Oracle EBS R12
8 2 (0.20%) assyst
8 2 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
8 2 (0.20%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.20%) Maximo
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.20%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.20%) SAP Payroll
8 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
9 1 (0.10%) Hyperion Planning
Cloud Services
1 209 (20.98%) Microsoft 365
2 98 (9.84%) Azure
3 56 (5.62%) Power Platform
4 36 (3.61%) Google Workspace
5 26 (2.61%) OneDrive
6 15 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
6 15 (1.51%) Entra ID
7 14 (1.41%) AWS
8 13 (1.31%) Lucidchart
8 13 (1.31%) OCI
9 10 (1.00%) Google Tag Manager
10 9 (0.90%) GCP
10 9 (0.90%) Google Analytics
10 9 (0.90%) PowerApps
11 7 (0.70%) Dynamics 365
11 7 (0.70%) Figma
11 7 (0.70%) GitHub
11 7 (0.70%) Power Automate
12 6 (0.60%) SaaS
13 4 (0.40%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 61 (6.12%) Wireless
2 54 (5.42%) DNS
3 50 (5.02%) VPN
4 44 (4.42%) DHCP
5 43 (4.32%) Skype
6 39 (3.92%) TCP/IP
7 35 (3.51%) LAN
7 35 (3.51%) Wi-Fi
8 34 (3.41%) Firewall
9 30 (3.01%) WAN
10 16 (1.61%) Network Security
11 14 (1.41%) Cisco IOS
12 12 (1.20%) SSH
12 12 (1.20%) Structured Cabling
13 11 (1.10%) SAN
14 9 (0.90%) DDNS
15 8 (0.80%) MPLS
16 6 (0.60%) Internet
16 6 (0.60%) PuTTY
16 6 (0.60%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (5.12%) Power BI
2 12 (1.20%) Tableau
3 11 (1.10%) Oracle Database
4 9 (0.90%) Power Query
5 8 (0.80%) BigQuery
5 8 (0.80%) Looker
5 8 (0.80%) Relational Database
5 8 (0.80%) SQL Server
6 6 (0.60%) Oracle Reports
6 6 (0.60%) RDBMS
7 5 (0.50%) Metadata
8 4 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.40%) Data Mart
8 4 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.40%) EDMS
8 4 (0.40%) Spotfire
8 4 (0.40%) SQLPlus
9 3 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
10 2 (0.20%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.20%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 126 (12.65%) JIRA
2 9 (0.90%) PVCS
3 8 (0.80%) Burp Suite
3 8 (0.80%) Metasploit
4 6 (0.60%) ClearCase
5 5 (0.50%) Toad
6 4 (0.40%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
6 4 (0.40%) Rational Rhapsody
7 3 (0.30%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.30%) Hudson
8 2 (0.20%) Ant
8 2 (0.20%) Git
8 2 (0.20%) JUnit
8 2 (0.20%) Subversion
8 2 (0.20%) TestPartner
9 1 (0.10%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.10%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.10%) NUnit
9 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 582 (58.43%) Social Skills
2 292 (29.32%) Finance
3 217 (21.79%) Analytical Skills
4 140 (14.06%) Organisational Skills
5 129 (12.95%) Public Sector
6 82 (8.23%) Banking
7 71 (7.13%) Manufacturing
8 54 (5.42%) Marketing
9 49 (4.92%) Legal
9 49 (4.92%) Telecoms
10 45 (4.52%) Military
11 43 (4.32%) Electronics
12 21 (2.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 21 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
14 17 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
15 16 (1.61%) Law
16 14 (1.41%) Back Office
17 13 (1.31%) Front Office
18 11 (1.10%) Retail
Job Titles
1 234 (23.49%) Analyst
2 114 (11.45%) IT Support
3 85 (8.53%) Support Engineer
4 66 (6.63%) Support Analyst
5 62 (6.22%) Desktop Support
6 60 (6.02%) 2nd Line Support
7 56 (5.62%) Administrator
8 51 (5.12%) Business Analyst
9 45 (4.52%) Architect
10 41 (4.12%) Project Manager
11 38 (3.82%) Senior
12 34 (3.41%) IT Engineer
13 32 (3.21%) Coordinator
13 32 (3.21%) Lead
14 30 (3.01%) Desktop Engineer
14 30 (3.01%) Service Architect
14 30 (3.01%) Support Officer
15 26 (2.61%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
15 26 (2.61%) IT Support Engineer
15 26 (2.61%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (1.81%) XML
2 6 (0.60%) .NET
2 6 (0.60%) REST
3 5 (0.50%) SOAP
3 5 (0.50%) Web Services
4 4 (0.40%) Oracle Fusion
5 3 (0.30%) EDI
5 3 (0.30%) HTML
5 3 (0.30%) Middleware
6 2 (0.20%) ADO
6 2 (0.20%) CSS
6 2 (0.20%) FHIR
6 2 (0.20%) NETCONF
6 2 (0.20%) OpenConfig
6 2 (0.20%) RESTCONF
6 2 (0.20%) WF
6 2 (0.20%) XMPP
6 2 (0.20%) YANG
7 1 (0.10%) CrewAI
7 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
Miscellaneous
1 56 (5.62%) Data Centre
2 53 (5.32%) Management Information System
3 38 (3.82%) Self-Motivation
4 37 (3.71%) Product Ownership
5 36 (3.61%) Driving Licence
5 36 (3.61%) Onboarding
6 20 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
7 19 (1.91%) Virtual Team
8 18 (1.81%) Mobile App
9 17 (1.71%) PKI
10 14 (1.41%) Data Protection Act
11 12 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
11 12 (1.20%) NHS
11 12 (1.20%) Replication
12 10 (1.00%) CMDB
12 10 (1.00%) PMI
12 10 (1.00%) Tandem
12 10 (1.00%) Video Conferencing
13 8 (0.80%) e-Learning
13 8 (0.80%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 283 (28.41%) Windows
2 95 (9.54%) Windows 10
3 85 (8.53%) Android
4 71 (7.13%) Mac OS
5 58 (5.82%) Linux
6 36 (3.61%) Apple iOS
7 33 (3.31%) Windows Server
8 19 (1.91%) Unix
9 15 (1.51%) Windows Server 2016
10 10 (1.00%) Windows 7
11 9 (0.90%) Windows Server 2003
12 8 (0.80%) Windows Server 2012
12 8 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
13 7 (0.70%) Ubuntu
14 4 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
15 3 (0.30%) CentOS
15 3 (0.30%) Windows 8
16 2 (0.20%) AIX
17 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
17 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 236 (23.69%) Problem-Solving
2 180 (18.07%) Agile
3 174 (17.47%) ITIL
4 167 (16.77%) Project Management
5 137 (13.76%) Customer Service
6 123 (12.35%) Stakeholder Management
7 100 (10.04%) Continuous Improvement
8 96 (9.64%) Business Intelligence
9 94 (9.44%) Service Management
10 92 (9.24%) Project Delivery
11 84 (8.43%) Change Management
12 77 (7.73%) PRINCE2
13 69 (6.93%) ITSM
14 62 (6.22%) Decision-Making
15 59 (5.92%) Analytics
16 57 (5.72%) Service Delivery
16 57 (5.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 56 (5.62%) Information Security
18 55 (5.52%) Critical Thinking
19 54 (5.42%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 81 (8.13%) SQL
2 39 (3.92%) PowerShell
3 27 (2.71%) Python
4 11 (1.10%) Java
5 10 (1.00%) R
6 9 (0.90%) C
6 9 (0.90%) VB
7 8 (0.80%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.80%) PHP
7 8 (0.80%) Shell Script
8 7 (0.70%) PL/SQL
9 5 (0.50%) C#
9 5 (0.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (0.50%) Perl
9 5 (0.50%) VBScript
10 4 (0.40%) C++
10 4 (0.40%) MATLAB
10 4 (0.40%) VBA
11 3 (0.30%) Korn
12 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 304 (30.52%) Degree
2 247 (24.80%) Security Cleared
3 186 (18.67%) SC Cleared
4 62 (6.22%) DV Cleared
5 33 (3.31%) Computer Science Degree
6 32 (3.21%) ITIL Certification
7 30 (3.01%) TOGAF Certification
8 23 (2.31%) PMI Certification
9 22 (2.21%) PMP
10 17 (1.71%) APMP
10 17 (1.71%) Microsoft Certification
11 16 (1.61%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (1.41%) Master's Degree
13 13 (1.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 12 (1.20%) BPSS Clearance
14 12 (1.20%) HNC
15 11 (1.10%) HND
15 11 (1.10%) MCSE
16 10 (1.00%) CCNA
16 10 (1.00%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (8.63%) PMO
2 34 (3.41%) QA
3 30 (3.01%) SLA
4 28 (2.81%) GDPR
5 20 (2.01%) Data Quality
6 18 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 16 (1.61%) Accessibility
8 12 (1.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 8 (0.80%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.60%) ISO 9001
10 6 (0.60%) P3O
11 5 (0.50%) NIST
12 4 (0.40%) COBIT
12 4 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.30%) Def Stans
13 3 (0.30%) ECSS
13 3 (0.30%) IEC 61508
13 3 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 15288
14 2 (0.20%) MiFID
15 1 (0.10%) HL7
System Software
1 161 (16.16%) Active Directory
2 18 (1.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.00%) BitLocker
3 10 (1.00%) Firmware
4 9 (0.90%) Brightmail
4 9 (0.90%) ISA Server
4 9 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
5 8 (0.80%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.50%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.50%) Terminal Services
6 5 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.40%) Docker
8 2 (0.20%) XenApp
9 1 (0.10%) Snort
9 1 (0.10%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 52 (5.22%) SCCM
2 31 (3.11%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.01%) OPNET
4 19 (1.91%) SCOM
5 15 (1.51%) HP SiteScope
6 9 (0.90%) Microsoft Clustering
7 8 (0.80%) Nmap
7 8 (0.80%) WSUS
8 6 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (0.50%) Kubernetes
9 5 (0.50%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.40%) Ansible
11 3 (0.30%) Functional Safety
11 3 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (0.30%) PaperCut
11 3 (0.30%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 3 (0.30%) Terraform
12 2 (0.20%) EnCase
12 2 (0.20%) FTK
12 2 (0.20%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 628 (63.05%) Microsoft
2 92 (9.24%) SAP
3 86 (8.63%) Cisco
4 79 (7.93%) ServiceNow
5 74 (7.43%) Apple
6 67 (6.73%) HP
6 67 (6.73%) Remedy
7 52 (5.22%) Dell
8 51 (5.12%) Oracle
9 41 (4.12%) Atlassian
10 36 (3.61%) Google
11 25 (2.51%) VMware
12 23 (2.31%) Splunk
13 18 (1.81%) Citrix
14 17 (1.71%) MobileIron
15 15 (1.51%) Adobe
16 12 (1.20%) IBM
17 9 (0.90%) Salesforce
17 9 (0.90%) Veeam
18 8 (0.80%) McAfee