Virtual Desktop Contract Job Trends in the City of London

Virtual Desktop
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the City of London requiring Virtual Desktop 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 122 111 123
Rank change year-on-year -11 +12 +56
Contract jobs citing Virtual Desktop 4 8 6
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 0.21% 0.43% 0.25%
As % of the System Software category 2.56% 3.74% 2.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 7 6
10th Percentile - £220 £431
25th Percentile £244 £278 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £263 £613 £563
Median % change year-on-year -57.14% +8.89% +4.55%
75th Percentile £281 £700 £807
90th Percentile - £725 £880
Central London median daily rate £575 £613 £563
% change year-on-year -6.12% +8.89% -2.43%

All System Software Skills
City of London

Virtual Desktop falls under the System Software category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring system software skills in the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for system software skills 156 214 262
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 8.29% 11.54% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 132 190
10th Percentile £237 £270 £250
25th Percentile £375 £449 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £575 £488
Median % change year-on-year -11.30% +17.95% -11.36%
75th Percentile £625 £651 £634
90th Percentile £693 £730 £738
Central London median daily rate £525 £552 £478
% change year-on-year -4.89% +15.60% -13.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 5
10th Percentile £24.32 - -
25th Percentile £29.57 - £21.25
Median hourly rate £40.02 £112.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -64.27% +180.00% +100.00%
75th Percentile £50.72 - -
90th Percentile £56.12 - £46.15
Central London median hourly rate £25.47 £112.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -77.26% +180.00% +88.24%

Virtual Desktop
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Virtual Desktop relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Virtual Desktop job vacancy trend in the City of London

Virtual Desktop
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Virtual Desktop.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Virtual Desktop

Virtual Desktop
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Virtual Desktop.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing Virtual Desktop

Virtual Desktop
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 3 (75.00%) Azure
1 3 (75.00%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (50.00%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 2 (50.00%) Firewall
2 1 (25.00%) DNS
2 1 (25.00%) Remote Desktop
2 1 (25.00%) VPN
General
1 2 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 1 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (25.00%) Banking
Job Titles
1 2 (50.00%) 2nd Line Engineer
1 2 (50.00%) 2nd Line Support
1 2 (50.00%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
1 2 (50.00%) Support Engineer
2 1 (25.00%) Citrix Engineer
2 1 (25.00%) Cloud Engineer
2 1 (25.00%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
2 1 (25.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Engineer
2 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Infrastructure Engineer
Operating Systems
1 2 (50.00%) Windows
2 1 (25.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (50.00%) Customer Service
1 2 (50.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 1 (25.00%) Application Packaging
2 1 (25.00%) ITIL
2 1 (25.00%) PRINCE2
2 1 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
Qualifications
1 1 (25.00%) Degree
System Software
1 2 (50.00%) Active Directory
2 1 (25.00%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (25.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 3 (75.00%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 2 (50.00%) Citrix
1 2 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (25.00%) Palo Alto
2 1 (25.00%) VMware