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 20 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 153 87 66
Rank change year-on-year -66 -21 +10
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 798 815 1,315
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.66% 2.79% 3.09%
As % of the Applications category 28.96% 33.22% 40.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 421 470 704
10th Percentile £158 £156 £143
25th Percentile £250 £211 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £315 £263
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -30.00%
75th Percentile £500 £500 £500
90th Percentile £630 £600 £606
UK excluding London median daily rate £347 £250 £225
% change year-on-year +38.80% +11.11% -30.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 92 304
10th Percentile £12.29 £13.89 £11.00
25th Percentile £13.72 £14.80 £12.52
Median hourly rate £18.17 £17.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.88% +6.25% -29.72%
75th Percentile £27.50 £23.00 £24.11
90th Percentile £64.14 £26.31 £39.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.28 £16.67 £15.00
% change year-on-year +3.66% +11.10% -25.93%

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 2,756 2,453 3,269
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 5.72% 8.41% 7.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,589 1,428 1,677
10th Percentile £250 £188 £165
25th Percentile £340 £263 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £413 £400
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% +3.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £568 £538 £538
90th Percentile £650 £650 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £375 £350
% change year-on-year +13.33% +7.14% -11.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 308 262 628
10th Percentile £13.34 £14.20 £11.50
25th Percentile £16.25 £15.62 £14.00
Median hourly rate £20.52 £22.27 £17.11
Median % change year-on-year -7.85% +30.16% -47.03%
75th Percentile £35.19 £44.31 £38.51
90th Percentile £70.40 £69.75 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.33 £21.73 £16.06
% change year-on-year -6.47% +35.31% -41.60%

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 20 May 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 20 May 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 20 May 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 -62 709 £400 +27.80% 580
UK excluding London -42 546 £347 +38.80% 534
London -68 212 £413 +10.74% 114
Work from Home -73 171 £350 -12.50% 210
South East -37 139 £438 +25.00% 157
North of England -70 120 £340 +44.68% 146
South West -33 82 £469 +87.60% 58
North West -22 77 £344 +20.70% 73
Midlands -45 74 £324 +3.35% 99
East of England -4 72 £325 +32.65% 48
West Midlands -43 44 £319 -4.21% 59
Yorkshire -83 37 £368 +56.60% 53
East Midlands -17 30 £375 +87.50% 40
Scotland -35 29 £250 - 20
Wales -3 17 £213 -47.69% 14
Northern Ireland -2 15 £350 +70.73% 11
North East -26 6 £263 +34.62% 22

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 (15.04%) SharePoint
2 64 (8.02%) Confluence
3 50 (6.27%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.13%) Skype for Business
5 7 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.88%) CMS
6 6 (0.75%) HCL Notes
7 1 (0.13%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.13%) Drupal
7 1 (0.13%) IIS
7 1 (0.13%) SAS
7 1 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 308 (38.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 198 (24.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 63 (7.89%) MS Visio
4 57 (7.14%) Microsoft Project
5 11 (1.38%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.50%) Trello
7 3 (0.38%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 3 (0.38%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.13%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.13%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 23 (2.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.13%) Remedy ITSM
3 7 (0.88%) Primavera
4 6 (0.75%) Veritas eDiscovery
5 4 (0.50%) Finacle
5 4 (0.50%) Magento
5 4 (0.50%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.50%) SAP Business One
6 3 (0.38%) Aladdin
6 3 (0.38%) Fidessa
6 3 (0.38%) Maximo
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Financials
6 3 (0.38%) SAP MM
6 3 (0.38%) SimCorp Dimension
6 3 (0.38%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.25%) Shopify
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 1 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.13%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 149 (18.67%) Microsoft 365
2 87 (10.90%) Azure
3 51 (6.39%) Power Platform
4 37 (4.64%) AWS
5 19 (2.38%) Entra ID
6 18 (2.26%) Google Workspace
7 16 (2.01%) SaaS
8 11 (1.38%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (1.38%) GCP
9 8 (1.00%) OneDrive
10 7 (0.88%) Amazon SageMaker
10 7 (0.88%) Dagster
10 7 (0.88%) GitHub
10 7 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
11 6 (0.75%) Google Analytics
11 6 (0.75%) Google Docs
11 6 (0.75%) Mimecast
12 5 (0.63%) Google Sheets
12 5 (0.63%) Google Tag Manager
12 5 (0.63%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 39 (4.89%) VPN
2 29 (3.63%) Firewall
3 28 (3.51%) TCP/IP
4 24 (3.01%) Skype
5 20 (2.51%) Wireless
6 19 (2.38%) Wi-Fi
7 18 (2.26%) DNS
8 16 (2.01%) Ethernet
8 16 (2.01%) LAN
9 14 (1.75%) Network Security
9 14 (1.75%) WAN
10 12 (1.50%) DHCP
11 7 (0.88%) Internet
12 6 (0.75%) Cisco IOS
12 6 (0.75%) VoIP
13 5 (0.63%) BGP
13 5 (0.63%) MPLS
13 5 (0.63%) VLAN
13 5 (0.63%) WebEx
14 4 (0.50%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (5.89%) Power BI
2 17 (2.13%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.00%) Relational Database
4 6 (0.75%) Oracle Database
4 6 (0.75%) RDBMS
4 6 (0.75%) Tableau
5 5 (0.63%) MySQL
5 5 (0.63%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.38%) BigQuery
7 3 (0.38%) Data Mining
7 3 (0.38%) Looker
7 3 (0.38%) Metadata
7 3 (0.38%) Power Query
8 2 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.25%) PowerPivot
8 2 (0.25%) SQLPlus
9 1 (0.13%) DB2
9 1 (0.13%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 80 (10.03%) JIRA
2 13 (1.63%) Burp Suite
2 13 (1.63%) Git
2 13 (1.63%) Metasploit
3 9 (1.13%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.00%) Subversion
5 7 (0.88%) MLflow
6 5 (0.63%) Toad
7 3 (0.38%) Android Studio
7 3 (0.38%) Bitbucket
7 3 (0.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.25%) JMeter
8 2 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.25%) Tricentis qTest
9 1 (0.13%) LabVIEW
9 1 (0.13%) PVCS
9 1 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.13%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio
General
1 460 (57.64%) Social Skills
2 222 (27.82%) Finance
3 188 (23.56%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (15.16%) Organisational Skills
5 72 (9.02%) Public Sector
6 67 (8.40%) Banking
7 47 (5.89%) Legal
8 42 (5.26%) Presentation Skills
9 32 (4.01%) Military
10 29 (3.63%) Pharmaceutical
11 25 (3.13%) Marketing
12 24 (3.01%) Documentation Skills
12 24 (3.01%) Telecoms
13 23 (2.88%) Manufacturing
14 21 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 20 (2.51%) Retail
16 19 (2.38%) Investment Banking
17 18 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
18 17 (2.13%) Law
19 15 (1.88%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 154 (19.30%) Analyst
2 55 (6.89%) Business Analyst
3 45 (5.64%) Administrator
4 43 (5.39%) IT Support
5 41 (5.14%) Senior
6 40 (5.01%) Support Officer
7 34 (4.26%) Support Engineer
8 33 (4.14%) Architect
8 33 (4.14%) Project Officer
9 32 (4.01%) Project Support Officer
10 31 (3.88%) Project Manager
11 26 (3.26%) IT Analyst
11 26 (3.26%) Support Analyst
11 26 (3.26%) Technical Engineer
12 24 (3.01%) Service Analyst
13 23 (2.88%) Coordinator
14 19 (2.38%) 2nd Line Support
14 19 (2.38%) Service Desk Analyst
15 18 (2.26%) Desktop Engineer
15 18 (2.26%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.00%) Web Services
2 7 (0.88%) NumPy
2 7 (0.88%) Pandas
2 7 (0.88%) REST
2 7 (0.88%) scikit-learn
2 7 (0.88%) Seaborn
3 6 (0.75%) SOAP
4 5 (0.63%) .NET
4 5 (0.63%) JDO
4 5 (0.63%) VML
5 4 (0.50%) HTML
6 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Graph
6 3 (0.38%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.38%) OpenConfig
6 3 (0.38%) RESTCONF
6 3 (0.38%) XML
6 3 (0.38%) YANG
7 2 (0.25%) FHIR
7 2 (0.25%) Middleware
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 55 (6.89%) Onboarding
2 47 (5.89%) Self-Motivation
3 41 (5.14%) Management Information System
4 28 (3.51%) Product Ownership
5 20 (2.51%) Robotics
6 19 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
7 18 (2.26%) Social Media
8 16 (2.01%) Industry 4.0
9 13 (1.63%) Data Centre
9 13 (1.63%) Security Posture
9 13 (1.63%) Virtual Team
10 12 (1.50%) Analytical Mindset
11 11 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (1.38%) Life Science
12 10 (1.25%) PMI
13 9 (1.13%) Insider Threat
14 8 (1.00%) Driving Licence
14 8 (1.00%) Legacy Systems
14 8 (1.00%) NHS
14 8 (1.00%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 182 (22.81%) Windows
2 85 (10.65%) Windows 10
3 32 (4.01%) Android
4 20 (2.51%) Linux
5 18 (2.26%) Windows 7
6 13 (1.63%) Apple iOS
6 13 (1.63%) Windows Server
7 12 (1.50%) Mac OS
8 9 (1.13%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.75%) Unix
11 3 (0.38%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.25%) AIX
12 2 (0.25%) Solaris
13 1 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.13%) MVS
13 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.13%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 221 (27.69%) Problem-Solving
2 139 (17.42%) Project Management
3 131 (16.42%) Agile
4 122 (15.29%) Customer Service
5 116 (14.54%) Stakeholder Management
6 95 (11.90%) Continuous Improvement
7 92 (11.53%) ITIL
8 86 (10.78%) Project Delivery
9 79 (9.90%) Decision-Making
10 73 (9.15%) Service Management
11 64 (8.02%) Change Management
12 63 (7.89%) AI
13 61 (7.64%) Time Management
14 59 (7.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 58 (7.27%) PRINCE2
16 57 (7.14%) Waterfall
17 51 (6.39%) Analytical Thinking
18 48 (6.02%) Data Analysis
18 48 (6.02%) Data Protection
19 46 (5.76%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 52 (6.52%) SQL
2 34 (4.26%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.01%) Python
4 17 (2.13%) VB
5 10 (1.25%) VBScript
6 8 (1.00%) PHP
7 7 (0.88%) JavaScript
8 6 (0.75%) PL/SQL
8 6 (0.75%) VBA
9 4 (0.50%) C
9 4 (0.50%) Java
9 4 (0.50%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.38%) C++
10 3 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.25%) Perl
11 2 (0.25%) R
11 2 (0.25%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.13%) C#
12 1 (0.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.13%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 289 (36.22%) Degree
2 187 (23.43%) Security Cleared
3 144 (18.05%) SC Cleared
4 38 (4.76%) DV Cleared
5 22 (2.76%) Microsoft Certification
5 22 (2.76%) PMI Certification
5 22 (2.76%) PMP
6 20 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
7 18 (2.26%) TOGAF Certification
8 17 (2.13%) DBS Check
9 16 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
10 15 (1.88%) Cisco Certification
11 13 (1.63%) A+ Certification
11 13 (1.63%) CHECK Team Member
11 13 (1.63%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 12 (1.50%) CBAP
12 12 (1.50%) CCNP
13 11 (1.38%) CTC Cleared
13 11 (1.38%) IIBA
13 11 (1.38%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (9.52%) PMO
2 38 (4.76%) QA
3 36 (4.51%) SLA
4 26 (3.26%) GDPR
5 24 (3.01%) Data Quality
5 24 (3.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 18 (2.26%) PCI DSS
7 10 (1.25%) Accessibility
8 8 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
9 6 (0.75%) NIST
10 5 (0.63%) MiFID
10 5 (0.63%) P3O
11 4 (0.50%) EMIR
12 3 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 3 (0.38%) WCAG
13 2 (0.25%) GRC
13 2 (0.25%) HL7
13 2 (0.25%) ISO 20022
13 2 (0.25%) ISO 9001
13 2 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 89 (11.15%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.25%) BitLocker
4 9 (1.13%) Docker
5 6 (0.75%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.63%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.50%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.50%) XenApp
7 4 (0.50%) XenDesktop
8 3 (0.38%) vSphere
9 1 (0.13%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.13%) Firmware
9 1 (0.13%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.13%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 41 (5.14%) SCCM
2 28 (3.51%) Microsoft Intune
3 18 (2.26%) OPNET
4 13 (1.63%) Nmap
5 9 (1.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 9 (1.13%) Ansible
6 7 (0.88%) HP Quality Center
7 5 (0.63%) TeamSite
7 5 (0.63%) vCenter Server
8 4 (0.50%) HP ALM
8 4 (0.50%) SCVMM
8 4 (0.50%) Terraform
9 3 (0.38%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.38%) Cisco Prime
9 3 (0.38%) SCOM
9 3 (0.38%) SCSM
9 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.38%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 1 (0.13%) Control-M
10 1 (0.13%) Dell DRAC
Vendors
1 546 (68.42%) Microsoft
2 77 (9.65%) ServiceNow
3 54 (6.77%) SAP
4 37 (4.64%) Cisco
4 37 (4.64%) Remedy
5 31 (3.88%) Google
6 28 (3.51%) Atlassian
6 28 (3.51%) Oracle
7 20 (2.51%) Apple
8 17 (2.13%) Citrix
9 16 (2.01%) HP
10 15 (1.88%) Siemens
11 13 (1.63%) Adobe
11 13 (1.63%) VMware
12 10 (1.25%) Salesforce
13 8 (1.00%) Planview
13 8 (1.00%) Workday
14 6 (0.75%) Lotus
14 6 (0.75%) Splunk
15 5 (0.63%) Bloomberg