Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £225, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 September 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 467 303 316
Rank change year-on-year -164 +13 -31
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 170 225 219
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.81% 0.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.89% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 136 146
10th Percentile £145 £154 £140
25th Percentile £178 £163 £165
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £218 £204
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% +6.75% +1.88%
75th Percentile £243 £250 £238
90th Percentile £280 £278 £269
UK median daily rate £213 £215 £200
% change year-on-year -1.16% +7.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 25 13
10th Percentile £16.50 £18.94 £18.13
25th Percentile £17.25 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £22.00 £29.60 £22.88
Median % change year-on-year -25.68% +29.40% +14.38%
75th Percentile £23.50 £33.75 £27.00
90th Percentile £24.10 £34.50 £31.75
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £25.00 £23.53
% change year-on-year -12.00% +6.26% +17.64%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 42,748 25,384 30,473
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 91.33% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,582 16,362 19,224
10th Percentile £325 £281 £305
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,383 1,348 1,536
10th Percentile £14.94 £13.62 £14.56
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.50 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +72.96% -47.05% +7.95%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Desktop Support job vacancy trend 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 10 September 2026.

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 10 September 2026.

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 10 September 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
London -75 73 £225 +1.58% 17
North of England -79 37 £240 +14.29% 5
North West -50 28 £235 +11.90% 4
South West -72 21 £210 -6.67% 2
South East -78 21 £200 -6.98% 10
Midlands -64 10 £250 +42.86% 6
East of England -31 9 £173 -21.59% 2
Yorkshire -50 9 £240 +2.13% 1
West Midlands -51 7 £225 +28.57% 4
East Midlands -19 3 £270 +57.89% 2
Desktop Support
UK

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 10 September 2026, Desktop Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 125 (73.53%) Windows
2 84 (49.41%) Microsoft
3 74 (43.53%) Microsoft 365
4 67 (39.41%) Active Directory
5 58 (34.12%) ITIL
6 46 (27.06%) Customer Service
7 41 (24.12%) Windows 10
8 39 (22.94%) ITSM
9 37 (21.76%) Security Cleared
10 34 (20.00%) Microsoft Intune
10 34 (20.00%) SC Cleared
10 34 (20.00%) SCCM
11 29 (17.06%) Service Management
12 26 (15.29%) Problem-Solving
12 26 (15.29%) ServiceNow
13 25 (14.71%) Degree
14 24 (14.12%) Service Delivery
14 24 (14.12%) SharePoint
15 23 (13.53%) Asset Management
16 21 (12.35%) Azure
16 21 (12.35%) Mac OS
17 20 (11.76%) Entra ID
17 20 (11.76%) PowerShell
17 20 (11.76%) VPN
18 17 (10.00%) Android
18 17 (10.00%) Migration
19 16 (9.41%) Apple iOS
19 16 (9.41%) Virtual Desktop
20 15 (8.82%) OneDrive
20 15 (8.82%) SLA

Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 24 (14.12%) SharePoint
2 11 (6.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.59%) Confluence
3 1 (0.59%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 11 (6.47%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.76%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 74 (43.53%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (12.35%) Azure
3 20 (11.76%) Entra ID
4 15 (8.82%) OneDrive
5 7 (4.12%) SaaS
6 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
6 2 (1.18%) Slack
7 1 (0.59%) IaaS
7 1 (0.59%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 20 (11.76%) VPN
2 14 (8.24%) DHCP
3 13 (7.65%) DNS
4 12 (7.06%) TCP/IP
5 10 (5.88%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (4.12%) Wireless
7 6 (3.53%) LAN
8 3 (1.76%) Firewall
8 3 (1.76%) Network Security
8 3 (1.76%) Value-Added Service
9 2 (1.18%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (1.18%) WAN
9 2 (1.18%) WebEx
10 1 (0.59%) NAS
10 1 (0.59%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.59%) SD-WAN
10 1 (0.59%) Skype
10 1 (0.59%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.59%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.59%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.35%) JIRA
General
1 71 (41.76%) Social Skills
2 37 (21.76%) Finance
3 17 (10.00%) Banking
3 17 (10.00%) Organisational Skills
4 12 (7.06%) Investment Banking
5 10 (5.88%) Financial Institution
5 10 (5.88%) Legal
5 10 (5.88%) Spanish Language
5 10 (5.88%) Telecoms
6 6 (3.53%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (2.94%) Front Office
8 4 (2.35%) Law
9 3 (1.76%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.76%) Public Sector
10 2 (1.18%) Local Government
11 1 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.59%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.76%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 39 (22.94%) Onboarding
2 13 (7.65%) Hedge funds
3 12 (7.06%) Video Conferencing
4 9 (5.29%) Driving Licence
5 5 (2.94%) iPhone
5 5 (2.94%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (2.35%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.76%) CMDB
7 3 (1.76%) Smartphone
8 2 (1.18%) BYOD
8 2 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.18%) Mobile Computing
9 1 (0.59%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.59%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.59%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.59%) iPad
9 1 (0.59%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 125 (73.53%) Windows
2 41 (24.12%) Windows 10
3 21 (12.35%) Mac OS
4 17 (10.00%) Android
5 16 (9.41%) Apple iOS
6 5 (2.94%) Windows Server
7 3 (1.76%) Linux
8 1 (0.59%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (34.12%) ITIL
2 46 (27.06%) Customer Service
3 39 (22.94%) ITSM
4 29 (17.06%) Service Management
5 26 (15.29%) Problem-Solving
6 24 (14.12%) Service Delivery
7 23 (13.53%) Asset Management
8 17 (10.00%) Migration
9 11 (6.47%) Break/Fix
9 11 (6.47%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (6.47%) Incident Management
10 9 (5.29%) Logistics
10 9 (5.29%) User Experience
11 8 (4.71%) Inventory Management
12 7 (4.12%) Data Protection
12 7 (4.12%) Root Cause Analysis
13 6 (3.53%) Mobile Device Management
13 6 (3.53%) Problem Management
14 5 (2.94%) Fault Management
14 5 (2.94%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 20 (11.76%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.76%) Python
2 3 (1.76%) SQL
2 3 (1.76%) VBScript
3 1 (0.59%) Bash
Qualifications
1 37 (21.76%) Security Cleared
2 34 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 25 (14.71%) Degree
4 11 (6.47%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.35%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (2.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 3 (1.76%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.76%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.76%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.18%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.59%) CCNP
8 1 (0.59%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.59%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.59%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.82%) SLA
System Software
1 67 (39.41%) Active Directory
2 16 (9.41%) Virtual Desktop
3 10 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.76%) BitLocker
5 2 (1.18%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.59%) Firmware
6 1 (0.59%) zsh
Systems Management
1 34 (20.00%) Microsoft Intune
1 34 (20.00%) SCCM
2 1 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
2 1 (0.59%) WSUS
Vendors
1 84 (49.41%) Microsoft
2 26 (15.29%) ServiceNow
3 14 (8.24%) Citrix
4 10 (5.88%) VMware
5 9 (5.29%) Apple
5 9 (5.29%) McAfee
6 6 (3.53%) Cisco
7 5 (2.94%) Adobe
7 5 (2.94%) HP
7 5 (2.94%) Starlink
7 5 (2.94%) Tanium
8 4 (2.35%) Samsung
9 3 (1.76%) Autodesk
9 3 (1.76%) BeyondTrust
9 3 (1.76%) Bloomberg
9 3 (1.76%) Remedy
9 3 (1.76%) Symantec
10 2 (1.18%) Dell
10 2 (1.18%) Google
10 2 (1.18%) Meraki