Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £200, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 May 2026.

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

 6 months to
9 May 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 417 294 293
Rank change year-on-year -123 -1 -14
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 167 189 284
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.78% 0.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.84% 0.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 131 122 212
10th Percentile £140 £150 £125
25th Percentile £156 £182 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £205 £200
Median % change year-on-year -2.68% +2.50% -1.96%
75th Percentile £231 £248 £225
90th Percentile £265 £299 £299
UK median daily rate £200 £203 £200
% change year-on-year -1.48% +1.25% -1.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 10 28
10th Percentile £16.48 £16.51 £16.78
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.03 £19.53
Median hourly rate £19.91 £24.83 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.81% +18.24% -10.64%
75th Percentile £21.46 £31.60 £29.06
90th Percentile £23.72 £37.50 £30.63
UK median hourly rate £20.05 £17.30 £21.00
% change year-on-year +15.87% -17.62% -9.68%

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 37,604 22,499 34,153
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.58% 92.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,450 14,977 22,653
10th Percentile £313 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -1.46% -2.38% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,560 914 2,443
10th Percentile £15.72 £14.06 £12.87
25th Percentile £20.98 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £47.00 £30.36 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +54.81% -18.34% -17.38%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £44.00 £28.68 £36.65
% change year-on-year +53.44% -21.76% -18.56%

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 9 May 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 9 May 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 9 May 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 -82 37 £223 +5.58% 12
Midlands -41 31 £200 -3.27% 4
East of England -29 26 £195 -10.34%
North of England -74 25 £225 +15.38% 4
East Midlands -12 24 £200 +1.66%
South East -71 24 £172 -14.25% 3
South West -51 22 £210 -7.69% 1
North West -34 14 £188 +11.94% 4
Yorkshire -55 11 £230 -2.13%
West Midlands -58 7 £140 -41.67% 4
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 May 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.

1 107 (64.07%) Windows
2 79 (47.31%) Microsoft
3 62 (37.13%) Microsoft 365
4 61 (36.53%) Active Directory
5 55 (32.93%) Customer Service
6 50 (29.94%) Windows 10
7 35 (20.96%) Azure
8 34 (20.36%) Microsoft Intune
9 32 (19.16%) Problem-Solving
9 32 (19.16%) SC Cleared
9 32 (19.16%) Security Cleared
10 26 (15.57%) SCCM
11 24 (14.37%) ITIL
12 23 (13.77%) Migration
12 23 (13.77%) SharePoint
13 17 (10.18%) Apple iOS
13 17 (10.18%) Asset Management
14 16 (9.58%) Continuous Improvement
14 16 (9.58%) Entra ID
14 16 (9.58%) Mac OS
15 15 (8.98%) Service Delivery
15 15 (8.98%) SLA
15 15 (8.98%) VPN
16 14 (8.38%) ServiceNow
17 13 (7.78%) ITSM
18 12 (7.19%) PowerShell
19 11 (6.59%) HP
19 11 (6.59%) Time Management
20 10 (5.99%) Disaster Recovery
20 10 (5.99%) Logistics

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 23 (13.77%) SharePoint
2 8 (4.79%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 10 (5.99%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (4.79%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.20%) assyst
2 1 (0.60%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 62 (37.13%) Microsoft 365
2 35 (20.96%) Azure
3 16 (9.58%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.40%) Google Ads
4 4 (2.40%) Google Workspace
4 4 (2.40%) Slack
5 3 (1.80%) OneDrive
6 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.60%) Google Drive
7 1 (0.60%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.98%) VPN
2 9 (5.39%) DNS
3 8 (4.79%) DHCP
3 8 (4.79%) TCP/IP
4 7 (4.19%) Wireless
5 4 (2.40%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.80%) Softphone
7 2 (1.20%) Firewall
7 2 (1.20%) LAN
8 1 (0.60%) IPv4
8 1 (0.60%) Skype
8 1 (0.60%) Telepresence
8 1 (0.60%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.60%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.40%) JIRA
General
1 62 (37.13%) Social Skills
2 14 (8.38%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (5.99%) Finance
4 8 (4.79%) Law
5 5 (2.99%) Retail
6 4 (2.40%) Public Sector
7 3 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.80%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.20%) Legal
8 2 (1.20%) Local Government
8 2 (1.20%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.60%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.60%) Banking
Miscellaneous
1 18 (10.78%) Smartphone
2 14 (8.38%) Self-Motivation
3 13 (7.78%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.79%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (4.19%) iPhone
6 4 (2.40%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (2.40%) Management Information System
7 3 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.80%) iPad
8 2 (1.20%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.20%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.20%) Hedge funds
8 2 (1.20%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (1.20%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.60%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 107 (64.07%) Windows
2 50 (29.94%) Windows 10
3 17 (10.18%) Apple iOS
4 16 (9.58%) Mac OS
5 9 (5.39%) Android
6 7 (4.19%) Windows Server
7 5 (2.99%) Windows 7
8 4 (2.40%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.60%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (32.93%) Customer Service
2 32 (19.16%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (14.37%) ITIL
4 23 (13.77%) Migration
5 17 (10.18%) Asset Management
6 16 (9.58%) Continuous Improvement
7 15 (8.98%) Service Delivery
8 13 (7.78%) ITSM
9 11 (6.59%) Time Management
10 10 (5.99%) Disaster Recovery
10 10 (5.99%) Logistics
11 9 (5.39%) BCP
11 9 (5.39%) Incident Management
11 9 (5.39%) Project Delivery
11 9 (5.39%) User Experience
12 8 (4.79%) Root Cause Analysis
12 8 (4.79%) Service Management
13 7 (4.19%) Business Continuity
13 7 (4.19%) Business Continuity Planning
13 7 (4.19%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 12 (7.19%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.60%) Python
Qualifications
1 32 (19.16%) SC Cleared
1 32 (19.16%) Security Cleared
2 7 (4.19%) A+ Certification
2 7 (4.19%) Degree
3 3 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (1.80%) ITIL Certification
4 1 (0.60%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.98%) SLA
System Software
1 61 (36.53%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.80%) Firmware
3 2 (1.20%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.60%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 34 (20.36%) Microsoft Intune
2 26 (15.57%) SCCM
3 1 (0.60%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.60%) WSUS
Vendors
1 79 (47.31%) Microsoft
2 14 (8.38%) ServiceNow
3 11 (6.59%) HP
4 8 (4.79%) Starlink
5 7 (4.19%) Apple
5 7 (4.19%) Dell
5 7 (4.19%) McAfee
6 5 (2.99%) Google
7 3 (1.80%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.80%) Cisco
7 3 (1.80%) Citrix
8 2 (1.20%) Remedy
8 2 (1.20%) Salesforce
8 2 (1.20%) VMware
9 1 (0.60%) Altiris
9 1 (0.60%) Barracuda Networks
9 1 (0.60%) CrowdStrike
9 1 (0.60%) Nexthink
9 1 (0.60%) SolarWinds
9 1 (0.60%) Veeam
23 Desktop Support jobs in England