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

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 76 58
Rank change year-on-year -29 -18 +30
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 967 942 1,557
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.48% 3.03% 3.45%
As % of the Applications category 34.13% 39.14% 41.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 542 570 933
10th Percentile £163 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £192 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +11.11% -28.00%
75th Percentile £538 £500 £500
90th Percentile £698 £600 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £325 £250 £245
% change year-on-year +30.00% +2.04% -30.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 146 61 244
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.26 £11.77
25th Percentile £13.72 £19.00 £13.00
Median hourly rate £17.55 £24.59 £16.66
Median % change year-on-year -28.62% +47.57% -22.51%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £26.50
90th Percentile £40.17 £43.75 £46.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.35 £24.59 £15.85
% change year-on-year -33.50% +55.11% -21.24%

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 2,833 2,407 3,746
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.26% 7.74% 8.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,667 1,413 2,092
10th Percentile £203 £170 £163
25th Percentile £313 £250 £213
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 £638 £666
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £350 £350
% change year-on-year +21.43% - -12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 333 200 506
10th Percentile £12.82 £15.60 £12.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £16.75 £14.13
Median hourly rate £19.10 £27.13 £20.54
Median % change year-on-year -29.59% +32.06% -35.72%
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.75 £42.50
90th Percentile £63.31 £75.73 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.82 £27.13 £19.50
% change year-on-year -30.62% +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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -23 884 £366 +22.00% 627
UK excluding London -19 692 £325 +30.00% 534
London -39 244 £400 +14.29% 166
Work from Home -35 204 £425 +13.33% 231
South East -2 181 £451 +41.02% 177
North of England -31 171 £248 +7.93% 133
South West -4 122 £700 +211.11% 59
North West -9 105 £275 +10.00% 54
Midlands -35 93 £265 -15.26% 96
East of England +1 68 £263 +7.14% 54
West Midlands -50 57 £288 -31.95% 69
Yorkshire -43 55 £290 +28.89% 61
East Midlands -3 36 £229 +14.50% 27
Wales +7 25 £280 -46.28% 13
Scotland -37 21 £324 +61.88% 20
Northern Ireland +3 14 £245 +53.13% 3
North East -16 11 £175 -5.41% 20

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 (16.34%) SharePoint
2 100 (10.34%) Confluence
3 90 (9.31%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (3.21%) Skype for Business
5 8 (0.83%) Exchange Server 2013
6 7 (0.72%) Mattermost
7 4 (0.41%) HCL Notes
8 3 (0.31%) CMS
9 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2003
10 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2007
10 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.10%) IIS
10 1 (0.10%) Office Communications Server
10 1 (0.10%) SAS
10 1 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 313 (32.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 182 (18.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 95 (9.82%) Microsoft Project
4 84 (8.69%) MS Visio
5 11 (1.14%) Spreadsheet
6 8 (0.83%) Trello
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Captivate
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 4 (0.41%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.31%) Photoshop
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe After Effects
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
10 1 (0.10%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 31 (3.21%) Remedy ITSM
2 13 (1.34%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (1.03%) 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%) Aladdin
8 2 (0.21%) Dynamics GP
8 2 (0.21%) Fidessa
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 MM
8 2 (0.21%) SimCorp Dimension
8 2 (0.21%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 223 (23.06%) Microsoft 365
2 107 (11.07%) Azure
3 51 (5.27%) Power Platform
4 34 (3.52%) Google Workspace
5 27 (2.79%) OneDrive
6 24 (2.48%) AWS
7 16 (1.65%) Entra ID
8 13 (1.34%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (1.34%) OCI
9 12 (1.24%) GCP
9 12 (1.24%) Lucidchart
10 10 (1.03%) Google Tag Manager
11 9 (0.93%) Google Analytics
12 6 (0.62%) Dynamics 365
12 6 (0.62%) Power Automate
12 6 (0.62%) SaaS
13 5 (0.52%) OpenShift
14 4 (0.41%) Figma
14 4 (0.41%) GitHub
14 4 (0.41%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 55 (5.69%) Wireless
2 51 (5.27%) Skype
3 47 (4.86%) VPN
4 41 (4.24%) DNS
4 41 (4.24%) LAN
5 40 (4.14%) Wi-Fi
6 37 (3.83%) Firewall
7 35 (3.62%) DHCP
7 35 (3.62%) WAN
8 32 (3.31%) TCP/IP
9 18 (1.86%) Network Security
10 12 (1.24%) Structured Cabling
11 10 (1.03%) VLAN
12 9 (0.93%) Cisco IOS
13 8 (0.83%) Internet
13 8 (0.83%) MPLS
14 6 (0.62%) Unified Communications
15 5 (0.52%) SSH
15 5 (0.52%) VoIP
16 4 (0.41%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (5.07%) Power BI
2 14 (1.45%) SQL Server
3 8 (0.83%) BigQuery
3 8 (0.83%) Looker
3 8 (0.83%) Relational Database
4 7 (0.72%) Power Query
4 7 (0.72%) Tableau
5 6 (0.62%) Oracle Database
5 6 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
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 (0.21%) DB2
8 2 (0.21%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.21%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.21%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 114 (11.79%) JIRA
2 12 (1.24%) Burp Suite
2 12 (1.24%) Metasploit
3 7 (0.72%) Toad
4 5 (0.52%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.31%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.31%) Git
5 3 (0.31%) MLflow
5 3 (0.31%) PVCS
5 3 (0.31%) Subversion
6 2 (0.21%) Hudson
6 2 (0.21%) JMeter
6 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 2 (0.21%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.10%) ClearCase
7 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 582 (60.19%) Social Skills
2 289 (29.89%) Finance
3 209 (21.61%) Analytical Skills
4 131 (13.55%) Organisational Skills
5 118 (12.20%) Public Sector
6 71 (7.34%) Banking
7 69 (7.14%) Manufacturing
8 54 (5.58%) Telecoms
9 50 (5.17%) Marketing
10 47 (4.86%) Legal
11 41 (4.24%) Military
12 38 (3.93%) Electronics
13 23 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
14 22 (2.28%) Presentation Skills
15 21 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
16 17 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 16 (1.65%) Pharmaceutical
18 13 (1.34%) Investment Banking
19 10 (1.03%) Retail
20 9 (0.93%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 206 (21.30%) Analyst
2 102 (10.55%) IT Support
3 65 (6.72%) Support Engineer
4 64 (6.62%) 2nd Line Support
5 60 (6.20%) Support Analyst
6 57 (5.89%) Desktop Support
7 56 (5.79%) Business Analyst
8 51 (5.27%) Architect
9 43 (4.45%) Administrator
10 41 (4.24%) Support Officer
11 39 (4.03%) Senior
12 33 (3.41%) Lead
13 32 (3.31%) Project Manager
14 30 (3.10%) Service Architect
15 29 (3.00%) IT Engineer
16 25 (2.59%) Coordinator
16 25 (2.59%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
17 24 (2.48%) IT Support Engineer
17 24 (2.48%) Project Officer
17 24 (2.48%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (0.72%) Web Services
2 6 (0.62%) REST
2 6 (0.62%) XML
3 5 (0.52%) .NET
3 5 (0.52%) SOAP
4 4 (0.41%) ADO
4 4 (0.41%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (0.21%) FHIR
5 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Graph
5 2 (0.21%) NETCONF
5 2 (0.21%) NumPy
5 2 (0.21%) OpenConfig
5 2 (0.21%) Pandas
5 2 (0.21%) RESTCONF
5 2 (0.21%) scikit-learn
5 2 (0.21%) Seaborn
5 2 (0.21%) YANG
6 1 (0.10%) CrewAI
6 1 (0.10%) LangChain
6 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
Miscellaneous
1 50 (5.17%) Data Centre
2 49 (5.07%) Management Information System
3 47 (4.86%) Onboarding
4 40 (4.14%) Product Ownership
5 32 (3.31%) Driving Licence
5 32 (3.31%) Self-Motivation
6 19 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
7 18 (1.86%) Mobile App
8 17 (1.76%) NHS
9 13 (1.34%) Security Posture
9 13 (1.34%) Virtual Team
10 12 (1.24%) Insider Threat
11 10 (1.03%) PKI
11 10 (1.03%) PMI
12 8 (0.83%) Video Conferencing
13 7 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
13 7 (0.72%) Client/Server
13 7 (0.72%) CMDB
13 7 (0.72%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 256 (26.47%) Windows
2 110 (11.38%) Windows 10
3 85 (8.79%) Android
4 62 (6.41%) Mac OS
5 52 (5.38%) Linux
6 37 (3.83%) Apple iOS
7 26 (2.69%) Windows Server
8 16 (1.65%) Windows 7
9 15 (1.55%) Unix
10 14 (1.45%) Windows Server 2016
11 11 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.72%) Ubuntu
13 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (0.41%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.31%) CentOS
15 1 (0.10%) AIX
15 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 211 (21.82%) Problem-Solving
2 166 (17.17%) Agile
3 162 (16.75%) Project Management
4 146 (15.10%) Customer Service
5 142 (14.68%) ITIL
6 131 (13.55%) Stakeholder Management
7 111 (11.48%) Continuous Improvement
8 101 (10.44%) Project Delivery
9 95 (9.82%) Service Management
10 85 (8.79%) Business Intelligence
11 81 (8.38%) PRINCE2
12 75 (7.76%) Change Management
13 67 (6.93%) ITSM
14 61 (6.31%) Service Delivery
14 61 (6.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 60 (6.20%) Analytical Thinking
16 58 (6.00%) Critical Thinking
16 58 (6.00%) Time Management
17 56 (5.79%) Waterfall
18 55 (5.69%) Acceptance Criteria
Programming Languages
1 81 (8.38%) SQL
2 53 (5.48%) PowerShell
3 27 (2.79%) Python
4 18 (1.86%) VB
5 10 (1.03%) PL/SQL
6 9 (0.93%) VBScript
7 8 (0.83%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.83%) PHP
8 7 (0.72%) Java
9 6 (0.62%) R
10 5 (0.52%) Perl
10 5 (0.52%) VBA
11 4 (0.41%) C
11 4 (0.41%) C#
12 3 (0.31%) C++
12 3 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.31%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.21%) Korn
13 2 (0.21%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 296 (30.61%) Degree
2 248 (25.65%) Security Cleared
3 195 (20.17%) SC Cleared
4 60 (6.20%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.31%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.10%) TOGAF Certification
7 25 (2.59%) PMI Certification
8 23 (2.38%) PMP
9 22 (2.28%) Microsoft Certification
10 19 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (1.76%) APMP
12 15 (1.55%) MCSE
13 14 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
13 14 (1.45%) Cisco Certification
13 14 (1.45%) CTC Cleared
14 13 (1.34%) Master's Degree
15 12 (1.24%) CHECK Team Member
15 12 (1.24%) IIBA
16 11 (1.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 11 (1.14%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (10.03%) PMO
2 43 (4.45%) QA
3 33 (3.41%) SLA
4 27 (2.79%) GDPR
5 23 (2.38%) Data Quality
6 18 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (1.55%) Accessibility
8 14 (1.45%) PCI DSS
9 12 (1.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 7 (0.72%) P3O
11 6 (0.62%) ISO 9001
12 4 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
13 3 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.31%) ECSS
13 3 (0.31%) ISO 20022
13 3 (0.31%) MiFID
14 2 (0.21%) COBIT
15 1 (0.10%) HIPAA
15 1 (0.10%) HL7
15 1 (0.10%) JSP 440
System Software
1 148 (15.31%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.03%) BitLocker
4 8 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.62%) Docker
5 6 (0.62%) Microsoft Virtual Server
5 6 (0.62%) Virtual Servers
6 5 (0.52%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.52%) XenApp
7 4 (0.41%) XenDesktop
8 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.10%) Brightmail
9 1 (0.10%) Firmware
9 1 (0.10%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 53 (5.48%) SCCM
2 36 (3.72%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.10%) OPNET
4 19 (1.96%) SCOM
5 15 (1.55%) HP SiteScope
6 12 (1.24%) Nmap
7 8 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (0.83%) WSUS
8 7 (0.72%) HP Quality Center
9 6 (0.62%) Ansible
10 5 (0.52%) HP ALM
10 5 (0.52%) Kubernetes
10 5 (0.52%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 5 (0.52%) TeamSite
10 5 (0.52%) Terraform
11 4 (0.41%) SCVMM
12 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
12 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.21%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 628 (64.94%) Microsoft
2 79 (8.17%) SAP
3 78 (8.07%) ServiceNow
4 75 (7.76%) Cisco
4 75 (7.76%) Remedy
5 59 (6.10%) Apple
6 58 (6.00%) HP
7 44 (4.55%) Atlassian
8 41 (4.24%) Dell
9 38 (3.93%) Oracle
10 36 (3.72%) Google
11 23 (2.38%) Splunk
12 19 (1.96%) Citrix
13 15 (1.55%) MobileIron
13 15 (1.55%) VMware
14 10 (1.03%) Adobe
14 10 (1.03%) Planview
14 10 (1.03%) Salesforce
15 9 (0.93%) Veeam
16 7 (0.72%) IBM