The first table below looks at the demand for MCDST in IT contracts advertised for the England region. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited MCDST over the 3 months to 21 May 2013 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years. The second table is for comparison and provides aggregates for all Qualifications for the England region.

Note that daily contractor rates and hourly contractor rates are treated separately. When calculating average contractor rates, daily rates are not derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Location
3 months to
21 May 2013
Same period 2012 Same period 2011
Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST)
Rank 486 500 472
Rank change year-on-year
+14 -28
Contract jobs citing MCDST 26 57 83
As % of all contract IT jobs located in England 0.061% 0.107% 0.150%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.345% 0.612% 0.947%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 23 29
Average daily rate £95 £200 £170
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-52.50% +17.64%
90% offered a daily rate of more than £85 £88 £75
10% offered a daily rate of more than £251 £235 £250
UK excluding London average daily rate £95 £125 £119
% change year-on-year
-24.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 12 28
Average hourly rate £12.89 £17.50 £19.75
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
-26.37% -11.39%
90% offered a hourly rate of more than £12.23 £12.00 £12.28
10% offered a hourly rate of more than £15.10 £24.70 £59.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate £12.77 £16.50 £21.25
% change year-on-year
-22.60% -22.35%
All Qualifications
England
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Qualifications category
7537 9312 8766
As % of all contract IT jobs located in England 17.82% 17.40% 15.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 4003 4940 4263
Average daily rate £375 £388 £375
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-3.22% +3.33%
90% offered a daily rate of more than £225 £218 £225
10% offered a daily rate of more than £550 £550 £550
UK excluding London average daily rate £350 £350 £350
Number of hourly rates quoted 425 512 609
Average hourly rate £25.00 £22.00 £22.50
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+13.63% -2.22%
90% offered a hourly rate of more than £12.35 £12.50 £12.07
10% offered a hourly rate of more than £50.00 £44.40 £40.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate £22.50 £22.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year
- -10.00%
MCDST
UK

MCDST
Jobs Demand Trend

This chart provides a 3-month moving total of IT contractor jobs citing MCDST across the England region as a proportion of the total demand within the Qualifications category.

England MCDST Jobs Demand Trend

MCDST
Daily Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing MCDST across the England region.

England MCDST Daily Rate Trend

MCDST
Daily Rate Histogram

This chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing MCDST across the England region over the 3 months to 21 May 2013.

England MCDST Daily Rate Histogram

MCDST
Hourly Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing MCDST across the England region.

England MCDST Hourly Rate Trend

MCDST
Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MCDST within the England region over the 3 months to 21 May 2013. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year.

Location
(Click each for more statistics)
Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Average
Daily Rate
Last 3 Months
Average Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
East of England +8 9 £85 -14.14%
London +5 6 £275 +17.02%
South West +25 3 £206 -8.33%
South East +17 3 - -
North West +15 2 £90 -18.18%
West Midlands +11 1 £135 -
East Midlands 0 1 £115 -42.50%
Yorkshire -1 1 - -
MCDST
UK

MCDST
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 21 May 2013, IT contractor jobs across the England region citing MCDST also mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited MCDST.

1 82 (83.67%) Microsoft Certification
2 73 (74.49%) Windows
3 68 (69.39%) Active Directory
4 60 (61.22%) Microsoft
5 58 (59.18%) ITIL
6 54 (55.10%) MCP
7 52 (53.06%) Windows 7
8 51 (52.04%) Windows XP
9 41 (41.84%) MS Office
10 32 (32.65%) HP
11 31 (31.63%) MCSE
11 31 (31.63%) MS Excel
12 27 (27.55%) MCITP
13 26 (26.53%) SLA
13 26 (26.53%) OpenView
14 24 (24.49%) MS Exchange
15 23 (23.47%) Windows Server 2003
16 19 (19.39%) McAfee
16 19 (19.39%) Citrix
16 19 (19.39%) VPN
17 17 (17.35%) OVSD
17 17 (17.35%) MCSA
17 17 (17.35%) Windows Server 2008
18 16 (16.33%) Lotus Notes
18 16 (16.33%) Lotus
18 16 (16.33%) Blackberry
19 15 (15.31%) TCP/IP
19 15 (15.31%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
19 15 (15.31%) Exchange Server 2003
19 15 (15.31%) Security Cleared

MCDST
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 21 May 2013, IT contractor jobs across the England region citing MCDST also mentioned the following IT skills grouped by category. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited MCDST. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

Application Development
1 1 (1.020%) Application Packaging
1 1 (1.020%) X-Windows
1 1 (1.020%) XML
1 1 (1.020%) HTML
1 1 (1.020%) .NET
Application Platforms
1 24 (24.49%) MS Exchange
2 16 (16.33%) Lotus Notes
3 15 (15.31%) Exchange Server 2003
4 13 (13.27%) Exchange Server 2007
5 12 (12.24%) Exchange Server 2010
5 12 (12.24%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
6 8 (8.163%) SharePoint
7 4 (4.082%) LiveLink
8 2 (2.041%) Exchange Server 2000
9 1 (1.020%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 41 (41.84%) MS Office
2 31 (31.63%) MS Excel
3 10 (10.20%) MS PowerPoint
4 9 (9.184%) MS Visio
4 9 (9.184%) MS Project
5 3 (3.061%) Office 365
Communications & Networking
1 19 (19.39%) VPN
2 15 (15.31%) TCP/IP
3 14 (14.29%) LAN
4 11 (11.22%) VoIP
5 10 (10.20%) DNS
5 10 (10.20%) WAN
6 8 (8.163%) Internet
7 7 (7.143%) DHCP
8 4 (4.082%) Wireless
9 3 (3.061%) Firewall
10 2 (2.041%) SAN
11 1 (1.020%) Network Security
11 1 (1.020%) NAS
11 1 (1.020%) IP Telephony
11 1 (1.020%) ADSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.082%) SQL Server
2 3 (3.061%) SQL Server 2005
2 3 (3.061%) SQL Server 2008
2 3 (3.061%) SQL Server 2000
Development Applications
1 1 (1.020%) MSI
General
1 8 (8.163%) Telecoms
2 7 (7.143%) Finance
2 7 (7.143%) Legal
3 6 (6.122%) Law
4 5 (5.102%) Aerospace
5 4 (4.082%) Advertising
6 3 (3.061%) Marketing
7 1 (1.020%) French Language
7 1 (1.020%) German Language
7 1 (1.020%) Spanish Language
7 1 (1.020%) Back Office
7 1 (1.020%) Banking
Job Titles
1 54 (55.10%) Analyst
2 27 (27.55%) Service Analyst
3 26 (26.53%) Service Desk Analyst
4 25 (25.51%) Support Analyst
5 18 (18.37%) 2nd Line Support
6 14 (14.29%) Desktop Support
7 13 (13.27%) Support Engineer
8 10 (10.20%) Help Desk Analyst
9 8 (8.163%) IT Support
10 7 (7.143%) 1st Line Support
10 7 (7.143%) Infrastructure Analyst
10 7 (7.143%) Infrastructure Support Analyst
11 6 (6.122%) Desktop Engineer
12 5 (5.102%) Desktop Team Leader
12 5 (5.102%) Team Leader
13 4 (4.082%) Desktop Support Engineer
13 4 (4.082%) Technical Analyst
13 4 (4.082%) Desktop Analyst
13 4 (4.082%) Technical Support
13 4 (4.082%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 16 (16.33%) Blackberry
2 5 (5.102%) Management Information System
3 4 (4.082%) Handset
3 4 (4.082%) Mathematics
4 2 (2.041%) Statistics
4 2 (2.041%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (2.041%) CMDB
5 1 (1.020%) Computer Science
5 1 (1.020%) iPhone
5 1 (1.020%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (1.020%) iPad
5 1 (1.020%) Replication
5 1 (1.020%) BBC
5 1 (1.020%) NHS
5 1 (1.020%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 73 (74.49%) Windows
2 52 (53.06%) Windows 7
3 51 (52.04%) Windows XP
4 23 (23.47%) Windows Server 2003
5 17 (17.35%) Windows Server 2008
6 9 (9.184%) Windows Vista
6 9 (9.184%) Windows 2000
7 3 (3.061%) Mac OS X
8 2 (2.041%) Windows 2000 Server
9 1 (1.020%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (59.18%) ITIL
2 12 (12.24%) Incident Management
3 8 (8.163%) Software Deployment
4 6 (6.122%) Service Management
5 4 (4.082%) Disaster Recovery
6 3 (3.061%) Data Protection
6 3 (3.061%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (3.061%) Network Management
6 3 (3.061%) Mobile Marketing
6 3 (3.061%) Mobile Commerce
6 3 (3.061%) Information Management
7 2 (2.041%) Test Scripting
7 2 (2.041%) Problem Management
8 1 (1.020%) User Acceptance Testing
8 1 (1.020%) Risk Analysis
8 1 (1.020%) OpenUP
8 1 (1.020%) Root Cause Analysis
8 1 (1.020%) Migration
8 1 (1.020%) Business Continuity
Programming Languages
1 5 (5.102%) C
2 1 (1.020%) PHP
2 1 (1.020%) SQL
Qualifications
1 82 (83.67%) Microsoft Certification
2 54 (55.10%) MCP
3 31 (31.63%) MCSE
4 27 (27.55%) MCITP
5 17 (17.35%) MCSA
6 15 (15.31%) Security Cleared
7 9 (9.184%) SC Cleared
7 9 (9.184%) MOS
8 6 (6.122%) A+ Certification
8 6 (6.122%) MCTS
9 3 (3.061%) MCT
10 2 (2.041%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (2.041%) Degree
11 1 (1.020%) ECDL
11 1 (1.020%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (1.020%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (26.53%) SLA
2 10 (10.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (7.143%) BS25999
3 7 (7.143%) ISO 9000
System Software
1 68 (69.39%) Active Directory
2 5 (5.102%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (5.102%) XenApp
2 5 (5.102%) VMware ESXi
3 3 (3.061%) XenDesktop
3 3 (3.061%) Terminal Services
4 2 (2.041%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 26 (26.53%) OpenView
2 17 (17.35%) OVSD
3 15 (15.31%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 9 (9.184%) ServiceCenter
4 9 (9.184%) SCCM
5 5 (5.102%) Backup Exec
6 3 (3.061%) Norton AntiVirus
7 2 (2.041%) OpenView Configuration Management
7 2 (2.041%) DameWare
7 2 (2.041%) McAfee ePO
8 1 (1.020%) WSUS
Vendors
1 60 (61.22%) Microsoft
2 32 (32.65%) HP
3 19 (19.39%) McAfee
3 19 (19.39%) Citrix
4 16 (16.33%) Lotus
5 11 (11.22%) Cisco
6 5 (5.102%) VMware
6 5 (5.102%) Dell
7 4 (4.082%) Avaya
7 4 (4.082%) Symantec
8 3 (3.061%) Sophos
8 3 (3.061%) Juniper
8 3 (3.061%) Sage
9 2 (2.041%) Veritas
9 2 (2.041%) Remedy
10 1 (1.020%) Open Text
10 1 (1.020%) Altiris
10 1 (1.020%) AppSense
10 1 (1.020%) Siemens
10 1 (1.020%) SAP
Witham, Essex
As a First Line Support/Call Logger Service Desk Analyst you will be working on an Extremely busy 1st Line Helpdesk/Service Desk role, answering between 40 - 60...
Global Technology Solutions Ltd
Rate: £80 - £100 per day
Posted: 17 May 2013
Preston, Lancashire
Skills: Wise, MSI, APPV, ORCA, Packaging, Enterprise Desktop Deployment, AdminStudio, InstallSheild, Windows 7, SCCM, SCOM... * Good knowledge of VB Scripting and Citrix... * MCDST qualification essential, MCITP / MCSE qualification...
Stafford-Sharp Associates
Rate: From £250 to £300 per annum
Posted: 20 May 2013
Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria
Skills: Wise, MSI, APPV, ORCA, Packaging, Enterprise Desktop Deployment, AdminStudio, InstallSheild, Windows 7, SCCM, SCOM... * Good knowledge of VB Scripting and Citrix... * MCDST qualification essential, MCITP / MCSE qualification...
Stafford-Sharp Associates
Rate: From £250 to £300 per day
Posted: 17 May 2013