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 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 75 64
Rank change year-on-year -26 -11 +20
Contract jobs citing Microsoft Office 978 1,001 1,429
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.64% 3.02% 3.33%
As % of the Applications category 33.68% 41.48% 41.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 564 606 907
10th Percentile £160 £150 £148
25th Percentile £203 £192 £188
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £300 £270
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +11.11% -26.63%
75th Percentile £538 £503 £500
90th Percentile £693 £616 £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 138 61 126
10th Percentile £12.75 £15.26 £12.68
25th Percentile £15.13 £20.00 £14.33
Median hourly rate £19.10 £25.00 £19.25
Median % change year-on-year -23.60% +29.87% -4.35%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £46.31
90th Percentile £42.95 £46.18 £48.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £27.50 £20.71
% change year-on-year -36.36% +32.82% +4.23%

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 2,904 2,413 3,417
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 7.83% 7.27% 7.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,696 1,421 2,080
10th Percentile £200 £170 £163
25th Percentile £306 £250 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £440 £400 £400
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -8.57%
75th Percentile £540 £538 £550
90th Percentile £650 £638 £663
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £363 £350
% change year-on-year +17.24% +3.57% -11.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 347 211 275
10th Percentile £12.82 - £13.31
25th Percentile £16.30 £15.62 £16.62
Median hourly rate £20.26 £25.00 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.98% -7.41% +4.16%
75th Percentile £29.61 £43.90 £46.75
90th Percentile £62.44 £71.25 £55.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.91 £25.09 £26.89
% change year-on-year -20.65% -6.68% +3.40%

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 1 January 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 1 January 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 1 January 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 -15 886 £358 +13.65% 596
UK excluding London -14 669 £325 +30.00% 498
London -28 281 £375 +7.14% 160
Work from Home -39 210 £425 +13.33% 196
South East -2 168 £425 +25.93% 193
North of England -35 156 £240 +6.67% 111
South West +6 123 £688 +182.05% 52
North West -1 104 £259 +3.60% 73
Midlands -27 98 £266 -35.18% 75
West Midlands -33 69 £300 -29.41% 50
East of England -3 53 £350 +7.69% 45
Yorkshire -60 42 £290 +28.89% 27
Wales +1 30 £213 +14.86% 7
East Midlands -2 30 £185 -11.90% 25
Scotland -27 25 £358 +58.89% 16
Northern Ireland 0 19 £325 +109.68% 7
North East -12 10 £175 +16.67% 12

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
1 160 (16.36%) SharePoint
2 94 (9.61%) Confluence
3 88 (9.00%) Microsoft Exchange
4 33 (3.37%) Skype for Business
5 14 (1.43%) Exchange Server 2013
6 8 (0.82%) IIS
7 7 (0.72%) Exchange Server 2003
7 7 (0.72%) Exchange Server 2007
7 7 (0.72%) Exchange Server 2010
7 7 (0.72%) Mattermost
7 7 (0.72%) Office Communications Server
7 7 (0.72%) SharePoint Server
8 5 (0.51%) HCL Notes
9 3 (0.31%) CMS
10 1 (0.10%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.10%) SAS
Applications
1 303 (30.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 190 (19.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 93 (9.51%) Microsoft Project
4 87 (8.90%) MS Visio
5 10 (1.02%) Spreadsheet
6 7 (0.72%) Trello
7 6 (0.61%) Adobe Captivate
7 6 (0.61%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.31%) Photoshop
8 3 (0.31%) Simulink
8 3 (0.31%) Windchill
9 2 (0.20%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.20%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.20%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.20%) InDesign
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle Smart View
10 1 (0.10%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 29 (2.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 9 (0.92%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.72%) Primavera
4 6 (0.61%) Oracle Financials
5 4 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.41%) Shopify
6 3 (0.31%) Maximo
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle EBS R12
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.31%) SAP PLM
6 3 (0.31%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 2 (0.20%) assyst
7 2 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
7 2 (0.20%) IntelliMatch
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.20%) SAP HCM
7 2 (0.20%) SAP Payroll
7 2 (0.20%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 216 (22.09%) Microsoft 365
2 95 (9.71%) Azure
3 53 (5.42%) Power Platform
4 36 (3.68%) Google Workspace
5 26 (2.66%) OneDrive
6 16 (1.64%) AWS
7 13 (1.33%) Entra ID
7 13 (1.33%) Lucidchart
7 13 (1.33%) OCI
8 11 (1.12%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.02%) Google Tag Manager
10 9 (0.92%) GCP
10 9 (0.92%) Google Analytics
11 7 (0.72%) Dynamics 365
11 7 (0.72%) GitHub
11 7 (0.72%) PowerApps
12 6 (0.61%) Figma
12 6 (0.61%) Power Automate
12 6 (0.61%) SaaS
13 5 (0.51%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 58 (5.93%) Wireless
2 51 (5.21%) VPN
3 47 (4.81%) DNS
4 45 (4.60%) Skype
5 38 (3.89%) DHCP
5 38 (3.89%) TCP/IP
6 35 (3.58%) Firewall
7 34 (3.48%) Wi-Fi
8 33 (3.37%) LAN
9 28 (2.86%) WAN
10 16 (1.64%) Network Security
11 12 (1.23%) SSH
11 12 (1.23%) Structured Cabling
12 10 (1.02%) Cisco IOS
13 8 (0.82%) MPLS
13 8 (0.82%) SAN
14 7 (0.72%) DDNS
15 6 (0.61%) Internet
15 6 (0.61%) Unified Communications
15 6 (0.61%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (5.11%) Power BI
2 12 (1.23%) Tableau
3 11 (1.12%) Oracle Database
4 10 (1.02%) SQL Server
5 8 (0.82%) BigQuery
5 8 (0.82%) Looker
5 8 (0.82%) Power Query
6 7 (0.72%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.51%) Metadata
7 5 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
7 5 (0.51%) RDBMS
8 4 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.41%) EDMS
8 4 (0.41%) SQLPlus
9 3 (0.31%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
9 3 (0.31%) Spotfire
10 2 (0.20%) EDRMS
10 2 (0.20%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.20%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 121 (12.37%) JIRA
2 10 (1.02%) Burp Suite
2 10 (1.02%) Metasploit
3 9 (0.92%) PVCS
4 6 (0.61%) ClearCase
5 5 (0.51%) Toad
6 4 (0.41%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.41%) Jenkins
7 3 (0.31%) Rational DOORS
7 3 (0.31%) Rational Rhapsody
8 2 (0.20%) Android Studio
8 2 (0.20%) Hudson
8 2 (0.20%) Subversion
9 1 (0.10%) Ant
9 1 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.10%) Git
9 1 (0.10%) JUnit
9 1 (0.10%) MLflow
9 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.10%) TestDirector
General
1 580 (59.30%) Social Skills
2 286 (29.24%) Finance
3 213 (21.78%) Analytical Skills
4 136 (13.91%) Organisational Skills
5 129 (13.19%) Public Sector
6 81 (8.28%) Banking
7 66 (6.75%) Manufacturing
8 54 (5.52%) Marketing
9 49 (5.01%) Legal
9 49 (5.01%) Telecoms
10 47 (4.81%) Military
11 42 (4.29%) Electronics
12 22 (2.25%) Presentation Skills
13 21 (2.15%) Influencing Skills
14 20 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 18 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
16 14 (1.43%) Law
17 13 (1.33%) Back Office
17 13 (1.33%) Investment Banking
18 11 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 221 (22.60%) Analyst
2 110 (11.25%) IT Support
3 79 (8.08%) Support Engineer
4 61 (6.24%) Desktop Support
4 61 (6.24%) Support Analyst
5 60 (6.13%) 2nd Line Support
6 57 (5.83%) Administrator
7 55 (5.62%) Business Analyst
8 45 (4.60%) Architect
9 37 (3.78%) Senior
10 34 (3.48%) Project Manager
11 33 (3.37%) IT Engineer
12 32 (3.27%) Coordinator
12 32 (3.27%) Support Officer
13 31 (3.17%) Lead
14 30 (3.07%) Service Architect
15 29 (2.97%) Desktop Engineer
16 26 (2.66%) IT Support Engineer
17 25 (2.56%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
17 25 (2.56%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.74%) XML
2 6 (0.61%) REST
2 6 (0.61%) Web Services
3 5 (0.51%) .NET
3 5 (0.51%) SOAP
4 4 (0.41%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (0.20%) ADO
5 2 (0.20%) FHIR
5 2 (0.20%) NETCONF
5 2 (0.20%) OpenConfig
5 2 (0.20%) RESTCONF
5 2 (0.20%) WF
5 2 (0.20%) XMPP
5 2 (0.20%) YANG
6 1 (0.10%) CSS
6 1 (0.10%) EDI
6 1 (0.10%) HTML
6 1 (0.10%) JFC
6 1 (0.10%) LangGraph
6 1 (0.10%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 54 (5.52%) Data Centre
2 52 (5.32%) Management Information System
3 40 (4.09%) Onboarding
4 38 (3.89%) Product Ownership
5 36 (3.68%) Driving Licence
6 35 (3.58%) Self-Motivation
7 20 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
8 19 (1.94%) Mobile App
9 17 (1.74%) PKI
10 15 (1.53%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (1.53%) Virtual Team
11 14 (1.43%) NHS
12 12 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
13 10 (1.02%) CMDB
13 10 (1.02%) PMI
13 10 (1.02%) Replication
13 10 (1.02%) Security Posture
13 10 (1.02%) Tandem
14 9 (0.92%) Insider Threat
14 9 (0.92%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 281 (28.73%) Windows
2 106 (10.84%) Windows 10
3 86 (8.79%) Android
4 68 (6.95%) Mac OS
5 58 (5.93%) Linux
6 37 (3.78%) Apple iOS
7 31 (3.17%) Windows Server
8 19 (1.94%) Unix
9 16 (1.64%) Windows Server 2016
10 12 (1.23%) Windows 7
11 10 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
12 7 (0.72%) Ubuntu
12 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2003
12 7 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 3 (0.31%) CentOS
14 3 (0.31%) Windows 8
15 2 (0.20%) AIX
16 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
16 1 (0.10%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 224 (22.90%) Problem-Solving
2 177 (18.10%) Agile
3 167 (17.08%) ITIL
4 162 (16.56%) Project Management
5 131 (13.39%) Customer Service
6 128 (13.09%) Stakeholder Management
7 106 (10.84%) Continuous Improvement
8 97 (9.92%) Project Delivery
9 94 (9.61%) Business Intelligence
9 94 (9.61%) Service Management
10 86 (8.79%) Change Management
11 82 (8.38%) PRINCE2
12 70 (7.16%) ITSM
13 61 (6.24%) Decision-Making
14 59 (6.03%) Information Security
15 57 (5.83%) Service Delivery
15 57 (5.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 56 (5.73%) Analytics
16 56 (5.73%) Critical Thinking
17 53 (5.42%) Analytical Thinking
Programming Languages
1 76 (7.77%) SQL
2 44 (4.50%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.56%) Python
4 9 (0.92%) C
4 9 (0.92%) Java
4 9 (0.92%) R
4 9 (0.92%) VB
5 8 (0.82%) PHP
5 8 (0.82%) Shell Script
6 7 (0.72%) JavaScript
6 7 (0.72%) PL/SQL
7 5 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 5 (0.51%) Perl
7 5 (0.51%) VBScript
8 4 (0.41%) C#
8 4 (0.41%) VBA
9 3 (0.31%) C++
9 3 (0.31%) Korn
9 3 (0.31%) MATLAB
10 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 294 (30.06%) Degree
2 255 (26.07%) Security Cleared
3 195 (19.94%) SC Cleared
4 63 (6.44%) DV Cleared
5 32 (3.27%) ITIL Certification
6 30 (3.07%) TOGAF Certification
7 25 (2.56%) PMI Certification
8 24 (2.45%) Computer Science Degree
8 24 (2.45%) PMP
9 19 (1.94%) Microsoft Certification
10 17 (1.74%) APMP
11 14 (1.43%) MCSE
12 13 (1.33%) Master's Degree
13 12 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
13 12 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
13 12 (1.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 11 (1.12%) CTC Cleared
14 11 (1.12%) HNC
15 10 (1.02%) CHECK Team Member
15 10 (1.02%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (9.10%) PMO
2 40 (4.09%) QA
3 30 (3.07%) GDPR
4 29 (2.97%) SLA
5 25 (2.56%) Data Quality
6 20 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 16 (1.64%) Accessibility
8 12 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 10 (1.02%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.61%) ISO 9001
10 6 (0.61%) P3O
11 5 (0.51%) NIST
12 4 (0.41%) COBIT
12 4 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
13 3 (0.31%) ECSS
14 2 (0.20%) Def Stans
14 2 (0.20%) IEC 61508
14 2 (0.20%) ISO 20022
14 2 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 15288
14 2 (0.20%) MiFID
System Software
1 161 (16.46%) Active Directory
2 16 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (0.92%) BitLocker
3 9 (0.92%) Hyper-V
4 8 (0.82%) Firmware
4 8 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
5 7 (0.72%) Brightmail
5 7 (0.72%) ISA Server
6 5 (0.51%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.41%) Docker
7 4 (0.41%) Terminal Services
7 4 (0.41%) XenApp
8 3 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.31%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.10%) Snort
Systems Management
1 52 (5.32%) SCCM
2 34 (3.48%) Microsoft Intune
3 30 (3.07%) OPNET
4 19 (1.94%) SCOM
5 15 (1.53%) HP SiteScope
6 10 (1.02%) Nmap
7 9 (0.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 8 (0.82%) WSUS
9 7 (0.72%) Microsoft Clustering
10 5 (0.51%) Kubernetes
11 4 (0.41%) Ansible
11 4 (0.41%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 3 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
12 3 (0.31%) PaperCut
12 3 (0.31%) SCVMM
12 3 (0.31%) Terraform
12 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.20%) EnCase
13 2 (0.20%) FTK
13 2 (0.20%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 622 (63.60%) Microsoft
2 86 (8.79%) SAP
3 81 (8.28%) Cisco
4 77 (7.87%) ServiceNow
5 69 (7.06%) Remedy
6 68 (6.95%) Apple
7 62 (6.34%) HP
8 48 (4.91%) Dell
9 42 (4.29%) Atlassian
9 42 (4.29%) Oracle
10 35 (3.58%) Google
11 23 (2.35%) Splunk
12 22 (2.25%) VMware
13 20 (2.04%) Citrix
14 16 (1.64%) MobileIron
15 12 (1.23%) IBM
16 11 (1.12%) Adobe
17 10 (1.02%) Planview
18 9 (0.92%) Salesforce
18 9 (0.92%) Veeam