Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £210, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 June 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 469 287 303
Rank change year-on-year -182 +16 -24
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 146 210 257
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.83% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.90% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 125 173
10th Percentile £149 £153 £127
25th Percentile £163 £182 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £210 £200
Median % change year-on-year - +5.00% -
75th Percentile £238 £244 £225
90th Percentile £273 £278 £275
UK median daily rate £210 £208 £200
% change year-on-year +1.20% +3.75% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 21 31
10th Percentile £18.00 £15.13 £17.00
25th Percentile £19.92 £18.13 £20.11
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £24.86
Median % change year-on-year -12.52% +1.19% +8.07%
75th Percentile £23.50 £33.75 £29.38
90th Percentile £23.90 - £31.50
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
% change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% -8.70%

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 40,088 23,260 34,683
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.37% 92.28% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,631 15,261 22,669
10th Percentile £325 £293 £293
25th Percentile £418 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £635 £638
90th Percentile £734 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,855 1,061 2,606
10th Percentile £15.99 £13.85 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.93 £17.87 £16.67
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.18 £39.78
Median % change year-on-year +59.69% -29.15% -8.17%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £26.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.86% -29.47% -12.79%

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 26 June 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
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 26 June 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 -76 45 £223 +0.79% 8
South East -64 25 £170 -20.93% 8
North of England -83 23 £230 +17.95% 5
Midlands -59 21 £200 +16.67% 1
South West -71 20 £210 -6.67% 3
East of England -28 13 £184 -13.53% 3
East Midlands -3 12 £200 +16.67%
Yorkshire -47 12 £230 -2.13% 2
North West -51 11 £233 +40.91% 3
West Midlands -60 9 £210 -4.55% 1
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 June 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.

1 104 (71.23%) Windows
2 63 (43.15%) Microsoft
3 58 (39.73%) Active Directory
4 56 (38.36%) Microsoft 365
5 42 (28.77%) Windows 10
6 40 (27.40%) Customer Service
7 29 (19.86%) Problem-Solving
8 28 (19.18%) ITIL
9 27 (18.49%) Azure
9 27 (18.49%) Microsoft Intune
10 24 (16.44%) Security Cleared
11 23 (15.75%) SC Cleared
12 22 (15.07%) Asset Management
13 19 (13.01%) SharePoint
14 18 (12.33%) SCCM
14 18 (12.33%) VPN
15 16 (10.96%) Entra ID
15 16 (10.96%) Mac OS
16 14 (9.59%) ServiceNow
17 13 (8.90%) Apple iOS
17 13 (8.90%) Degree
17 13 (8.90%) ITSM
18 12 (8.22%) Continuous Improvement
18 12 (8.22%) Microsoft Exchange
19 11 (7.53%) PowerShell
19 11 (7.53%) Service Delivery
19 11 (7.53%) Service Management
19 11 (7.53%) SLA
20 10 (6.85%) Android
20 10 (6.85%) Apple

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 19 (13.01%) SharePoint
2 12 (8.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.68%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (6.85%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.37%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 56 (38.36%) Microsoft 365
2 27 (18.49%) Azure
3 16 (10.96%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.74%) Google Ads
4 4 (2.74%) OneDrive
5 3 (2.05%) Google Workspace
5 3 (2.05%) Slack
6 2 (1.37%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.68%) Google Drive
7 1 (0.68%) IaaS
7 1 (0.68%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (12.33%) VPN
2 9 (6.16%) DHCP
3 8 (5.48%) DNS
4 7 (4.79%) TCP/IP
4 7 (4.79%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (2.74%) LAN
6 3 (2.05%) Wireless
7 2 (1.37%) Firewall
8 1 (0.68%) IPv4
8 1 (0.68%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.68%) Skype
8 1 (0.68%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.68%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (4.11%) JIRA
General
1 54 (36.99%) Social Skills
2 21 (14.38%) Finance
3 11 (7.53%) Organisational Skills
4 10 (6.85%) Banking
5 8 (5.48%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (4.79%) Investment Banking
7 6 (4.11%) Financial Institution
7 6 (4.11%) Spanish Language
8 4 (2.74%) Law
8 4 (2.74%) Telecoms
9 3 (2.05%) Public Sector
10 2 (1.37%) Local Government
10 2 (1.37%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.68%) Front Office
11 1 (0.68%) Legal
11 1 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.68%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 23 (15.75%) Onboarding
2 9 (6.16%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (5.48%) iPhone
3 8 (5.48%) Smartphone
4 7 (4.79%) Hedge funds
4 7 (4.79%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (2.05%) iPad
7 2 (1.37%) BYOD
7 2 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.37%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.68%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.68%) Mobile App
8 1 (0.68%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 104 (71.23%) Windows
2 42 (28.77%) Windows 10
3 16 (10.96%) Mac OS
4 13 (8.90%) Apple iOS
5 10 (6.85%) Android
6 4 (2.74%) Windows 7
6 4 (2.74%) Windows Server
7 3 (2.05%) Windows 8
8 1 (0.68%) Linux
8 1 (0.68%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (27.40%) Customer Service
2 29 (19.86%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (19.18%) ITIL
4 22 (15.07%) Asset Management
5 13 (8.90%) ITSM
6 12 (8.22%) Continuous Improvement
7 11 (7.53%) Service Delivery
7 11 (7.53%) Service Management
8 10 (6.85%) Migration
8 10 (6.85%) Root Cause Analysis
9 9 (6.16%) Logistics
10 8 (5.48%) Incident Management
10 8 (5.48%) Inventory Management
10 8 (5.48%) User Experience
11 7 (4.79%) Business Continuity
11 7 (4.79%) Project Delivery
12 6 (4.11%) Disaster Recovery
12 6 (4.11%) Patch Management
13 5 (3.42%) Mobile Device Management
13 5 (3.42%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 11 (7.53%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.68%) Bash
2 1 (0.68%) Python
Qualifications
1 24 (16.44%) Security Cleared
2 23 (15.75%) SC Cleared
3 13 (8.90%) Degree
4 5 (3.42%) A+ Certification
5 3 (2.05%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.37%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.37%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (1.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.53%) SLA
System Software
1 58 (39.73%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.11%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (2.05%) Firmware
3 3 (2.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.37%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.68%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.68%) zsh
Systems Management
1 27 (18.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (12.33%) SCCM
3 2 (1.37%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.68%) WSUS
Vendors
1 63 (43.15%) Microsoft
2 14 (9.59%) ServiceNow
3 10 (6.85%) Apple
3 10 (6.85%) HP
4 8 (5.48%) Starlink
5 7 (4.79%) McAfee
6 6 (4.11%) Citrix
7 5 (3.42%) Google
8 3 (2.05%) Bloomberg
8 3 (2.05%) Dell
8 3 (2.05%) Remedy
8 3 (2.05%) VMware
9 1 (0.68%) Adobe
9 1 (0.68%) BMC
9 1 (0.68%) MobileIron
9 1 (0.68%) Nexthink
9 1 (0.68%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.68%) Samsung