Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £215, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 300 330 284
Rank change year-on-year +30 -46 +16
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 227 215 369
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.82% 0.65% 0.86%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.90% 0.70% 0.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 141 262
10th Percentile £153 £140 £133
25th Percentile £163 £165 £153
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £215 £203 £200
Median % change year-on-year +6.17% +1.25% -
75th Percentile £249 £238 £238
90th Percentile £278 £269 £275
UK median daily rate £214 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +6.88% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 13 33
10th Percentile £19.89 £18.13 £15.42
25th Percentile £25.15 £20.00 £17.46
Median hourly rate £29.60 £22.88 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.40% +14.38% -0.65%
75th Percentile £33.75 £27.00 £25.71
90th Percentile £34.38 £31.75 -
UK median hourly rate £25.08 £23.53 £20.00
% change year-on-year +6.58% +17.64% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 25,334 30,643 40,551
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 93.04% 94.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,335 19,292 28,395
10th Percentile £280 £305 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.71% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,355 1,523 1,355
10th Percentile £13.71 £14.66 £15.21
25th Percentile £17.30 £21.25 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.05% +5.56% +70.66%
75th Percentile £53.75 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £75.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.33
% change year-on-year -41.51% -0.76% +66.65%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured Desktop Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Support in England

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in England

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support in England over the 6 months to 13 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in England

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in England

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support in England over the 6 months to 13 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support in England

Desktop Support
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Support within the England region over the 6 months to 13 September 2025. 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
London +9 70 £221 +16.18% 7
South West +46 52 £223 +9.88% 2
North of England +6 48 £210 +10.53% 8
South East +20 34 £215 -2.27% 8
North West +4 26 £210 +3.70% 3
Midlands +6 22 £175 -33.33% 1
West Midlands 0 16 £175 -11.95%
Yorkshire -4 15 £235 +17.50% 2
East of England -8 10 £220 +7.32% 2
North East -2 7 £195 +2.63% 4
East Midlands -3 6 £171 -37.82% 1
Desktop Support
UK

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 13 September 2025, Desktop Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 139 (61.23%) Social Skills
2 137 (60.35%) Windows
3 124 (54.63%) Microsoft
4 101 (44.49%) Microsoft 365
5 98 (43.17%) Active Directory
5 98 (43.17%) Customer Service
6 87 (38.33%) ITIL
7 65 (28.63%) Windows 10
8 63 (27.75%) Finance
9 61 (26.87%) Security Cleared
10 57 (25.11%) SC Cleared
11 52 (22.91%) Microsoft Exchange
12 49 (21.59%) ITSM
13 48 (21.15%) Problem-Solving
14 47 (20.70%) Microsoft Office
15 45 (19.82%) Service Management
16 42 (18.50%) Analytical Skills
17 40 (17.62%) ServiceNow
17 40 (17.62%) Microsoft Intune
18 33 (14.54%) Degree
19 30 (13.22%) Azure
19 30 (13.22%) VPN
20 29 (12.78%) Workflow
21 28 (12.33%) SCCM
22 27 (11.89%) Citrix
23 23 (10.13%) Time Management
24 22 (9.69%) Patch Management
24 22 (9.69%) Inventory Management
25 21 (9.25%) SLA
25 21 (9.25%) SharePoint

Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 52 (22.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (9.25%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.88%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.44%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 47 (20.70%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (5.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (2.20%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (1.32%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.44%) Eikon
2 1 (0.44%) Eze OMS
2 1 (0.44%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 101 (44.49%) Microsoft 365
2 30 (13.22%) Azure
3 15 (6.61%) OneDrive
4 8 (3.52%) Entra ID
5 2 (0.88%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.44%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 30 (13.22%) VPN
2 15 (6.61%) LAN
3 14 (6.17%) DHCP
4 13 (5.73%) DNS
5 10 (4.41%) WAN
6 7 (3.08%) TCP/IP
7 6 (2.64%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (2.20%) Firewall
8 5 (2.20%) Structured Cabling
8 5 (2.20%) Wireless
9 4 (1.76%) Remote Desktop
9 4 (1.76%) VLAN
10 3 (1.32%) Skype
10 3 (1.32%) Telepresence
10 3 (1.32%) Unified Communications
10 3 (1.32%) VoIP
11 2 (0.88%) Internet
11 2 (0.88%) WebEx
12 1 (0.44%) Intranet
12 1 (0.44%) RFID
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.44%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (0.88%) JIRA
General
1 139 (61.23%) Social Skills
2 63 (27.75%) Finance
3 42 (18.50%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (7.49%) Public Sector
5 16 (7.05%) Manufacturing
6 15 (6.61%) Banking
7 11 (4.85%) Electronics
7 11 (4.85%) Marketing
7 11 (4.85%) Telecoms
8 10 (4.41%) Front Office
9 7 (3.08%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.76%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.88%) Legal
12 2 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.44%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.44%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 18 (7.93%) Driving Licence
2 14 (6.17%) iPad
2 14 (6.17%) iPhone
3 8 (3.52%) Onboarding
3 8 (3.52%) Smartphone
4 6 (2.64%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.20%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.20%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (1.76%) CMDB
7 3 (1.32%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.44%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.44%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.44%) Fat Client
8 1 (0.44%) Fixed Income
8 1 (0.44%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.44%) Mobile App
8 1 (0.44%) Reinsurance
8 1 (0.44%) Replication
8 1 (0.44%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 137 (60.35%) Windows
2 65 (28.63%) Windows 10
3 14 (6.17%) Apple iOS
3 14 (6.17%) Mac OS
4 11 (4.85%) Windows Server
5 7 (3.08%) Windows 8
5 7 (3.08%) Windows Server 2012
5 7 (3.08%) Windows XP
6 6 (2.64%) Android
6 6 (2.64%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (2.20%) Windows Server 2003
7 5 (2.20%) Windows Server 2008
8 3 (1.32%) Linux
8 3 (1.32%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.88%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (43.17%) Customer Service
2 87 (38.33%) ITIL
3 49 (21.59%) ITSM
4 48 (21.15%) Problem-Solving
5 45 (19.82%) Service Management
6 29 (12.78%) Workflow
7 23 (10.13%) Time Management
8 22 (9.69%) Inventory Management
8 22 (9.69%) Patch Management
9 20 (8.81%) Asset Management
9 20 (8.81%) Collaborative Working
10 19 (8.37%) Mobile Device Management
11 17 (7.49%) Migration
11 17 (7.49%) Service Delivery
12 15 (6.61%) Workflow Management
13 14 (6.17%) Data Analysis
14 13 (5.73%) Case Management
14 13 (5.73%) Root Cause Analysis
15 12 (5.29%) Antivirus Management
15 12 (5.29%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 20 (8.81%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.32%) SQL
3 1 (0.44%) Python
Qualifications
1 61 (26.87%) Security Cleared
2 57 (25.11%) SC Cleared
3 33 (14.54%) Degree
4 20 (8.81%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (6.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 11 (4.85%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (2.64%) Dell Certification
8 5 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (1.76%) DBS Check
10 3 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.88%) DV Cleared
12 1 (0.44%) CCNA
12 1 (0.44%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.44%) CISSP
12 1 (0.44%) CompTIA Security+
12 1 (0.44%) GIAC
12 1 (0.44%) MCSA
12 1 (0.44%) MCSE
12 1 (0.44%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (9.25%) SLA
2 13 (5.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (4.41%) QA
System Software
1 98 (43.17%) Active Directory
2 16 (7.05%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (1.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.32%) vSphere
5 2 (0.88%) XenApp
6 1 (0.44%) Firmware
6 1 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.44%) Xen
Systems Management
1 40 (17.62%) Microsoft Intune
2 28 (12.33%) SCCM
3 2 (0.88%) AppManager
3 2 (0.88%) McAfee ePO
3 2 (0.88%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 124 (54.63%) Microsoft
2 40 (17.62%) ServiceNow
3 27 (11.89%) Citrix
4 13 (5.73%) HP
5 11 (4.85%) SAP
6 10 (4.41%) Dell
7 8 (3.52%) Apple
7 8 (3.52%) Bloomberg
7 8 (3.52%) Cisco
7 8 (3.52%) McAfee
8 7 (3.08%) Canon
8 7 (3.08%) VMware
9 6 (2.64%) Starlink
9 6 (2.64%) Wyse
10 4 (1.76%) Remedy
11 3 (1.32%) Sage
12 2 (0.88%) Reuters
12 2 (0.88%) Sophos
12 2 (0.88%) Symantec
12 2 (0.88%) Toshiba