Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £195, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 April 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 410 298 266
Rank change year-on-year -112 -32 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 176 191 307
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.45% 0.78% 0.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.48% 0.84% 0.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 133 127 224
10th Percentile £146 £153 £123
25th Percentile £156 £182 £146
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £205 £201
Median % change year-on-year -4.88% +1.86% +0.63%
75th Percentile £225 £246 £228
90th Percentile £249 £273 £338
UK median daily rate £195 £200 £200
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 10 28
10th Percentile £16.25 £16.67 £16.78
25th Percentile £19.54 £19.76 £19.74
Median hourly rate £19.91 £27.58 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.80% +31.31% -7.18%
75th Percentile £21.46 £30.68 £27.75
90th Percentile £21.91 £37.50 £30.63
UK median hourly rate £20.05 £23.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year -12.85% +9.52% -4.55%

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 36,438 22,702 34,531
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 92.70% 92.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,879 15,162 23,005
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,439 867 2,382
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.41 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.73 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% -7.14% -19.08%
75th Percentile £67.36 £64.63 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £76.25 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £30.45 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.73% -13.00% -22.22%

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 19 April 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 19 April 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 19 April 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 -56 39 £213 +6.25% 7
Midlands -50 33 £187 -6.38% 3
East of England -18 30 £195 -10.34% 1
North of England -87 26 £219 +12.18% 10
East Midlands -10 25 £200 +1.66%
South East -52 25 £172 -12.05% 2
South West -47 21 £210 -6.67% 1
North West -47 12 £200 -3.61% 8
Yorkshire -56 12 £230 +2.22% 2
West Midlands -65 8 £140 -30.00% 3
North East -23 2 £175 +12.90% 1
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 April 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 99 (56.25%) Windows
2 74 (42.05%) Microsoft
3 60 (34.09%) Active Directory
3 60 (34.09%) Customer Service
4 59 (33.52%) Microsoft 365
5 51 (28.98%) Windows 10
6 42 (23.86%) SC Cleared
6 42 (23.86%) Security Cleared
7 35 (19.89%) Azure
8 33 (18.75%) Microsoft Intune
9 27 (15.34%) Problem-Solving
10 24 (13.64%) Migration
11 23 (13.07%) ITIL
11 23 (13.07%) SCCM
12 20 (11.36%) Mac OS
12 20 (11.36%) SharePoint
12 20 (11.36%) SLA
13 19 (10.80%) Microsoft Office
14 17 (9.66%) Asset Management
14 17 (9.66%) HP
15 16 (9.09%) ServiceNow
16 15 (8.52%) Time Management
16 15 (8.52%) VPN
17 14 (7.95%) Apple
17 14 (7.95%) Dell
17 14 (7.95%) Service Delivery
17 14 (7.95%) Wireless
18 13 (7.39%) Continuous Improvement
18 13 (7.39%) Entra ID
18 13 (7.39%) Incident Management

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 20 (11.36%) SharePoint
2 7 (3.98%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 19 (10.80%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (6.25%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.14%) assyst
2 1 (0.57%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 59 (33.52%) Microsoft 365
2 35 (19.89%) Azure
3 13 (7.39%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.27%) Google Ads
4 4 (2.27%) Google Workspace
4 4 (2.27%) Slack
5 3 (1.70%) OneDrive
6 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.57%) Google Drive
7 1 (0.57%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.52%) VPN
2 14 (7.95%) Wireless
3 9 (5.11%) DNS
4 8 (4.55%) TCP/IP
5 7 (3.98%) DHCP
6 3 (1.70%) Softphone
6 3 (1.70%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (1.14%) Firewall
7 2 (1.14%) LAN
8 1 (0.57%) IPv4
8 1 (0.57%) Skype
8 1 (0.57%) Telepresence
8 1 (0.57%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.57%) VoIP
Development Applications
1 4 (2.27%) JIRA
General
1 57 (32.39%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.23%) Finance
3 17 (9.66%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (6.25%) Public Sector
5 10 (5.68%) Telecoms
6 9 (5.11%) Retail
7 8 (4.55%) Manufacturing
8 7 (3.98%) Electronics
8 7 (3.98%) Marketing
9 6 (3.41%) Law
10 4 (2.27%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (1.70%) Banking
12 2 (1.14%) Legal
12 2 (1.14%) Local Government
12 2 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.57%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 19 (10.80%) Self-Motivation
2 16 (9.09%) Smartphone
3 10 (5.68%) Onboarding
4 9 (5.11%) Data Centre
5 8 (4.55%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (4.55%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.41%) iPhone
7 4 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.70%) iPad
9 2 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.14%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.14%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.14%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.57%) Mobile App
10 1 (0.57%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 99 (56.25%) Windows
2 51 (28.98%) Windows 10
3 20 (11.36%) Mac OS
4 12 (6.82%) Android
5 11 (6.25%) Apple iOS
6 9 (5.11%) Windows Server
7 5 (2.84%) Windows 7
8 4 (2.27%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.57%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (34.09%) Customer Service
2 27 (15.34%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (13.64%) Migration
4 23 (13.07%) ITIL
5 17 (9.66%) Asset Management
6 15 (8.52%) Time Management
7 14 (7.95%) Service Delivery
8 13 (7.39%) Continuous Improvement
8 13 (7.39%) Incident Management
9 10 (5.68%) ITSM
10 9 (5.11%) Logistics
10 9 (5.11%) Project Delivery
10 9 (5.11%) Service Management
11 8 (4.55%) Business Impact Analysis
11 8 (4.55%) Disaster Recovery
11 8 (4.55%) Impact Analysis
11 8 (4.55%) Root Cause Analysis
11 8 (4.55%) Workflow
11 8 (4.55%) Workflow Management
12 7 (3.98%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 12 (6.82%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.57%) Python
Qualifications
1 42 (23.86%) SC Cleared
1 42 (23.86%) Security Cleared
2 8 (4.55%) A+ Certification
3 7 (3.98%) Degree
4 3 (1.70%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (11.36%) SLA
2 1 (0.57%) QA
System Software
1 60 (34.09%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.27%) Firmware
3 2 (1.14%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 33 (18.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (13.07%) SCCM
3 1 (0.57%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 74 (42.05%) Microsoft
2 17 (9.66%) HP
3 16 (9.09%) ServiceNow
4 14 (7.95%) Apple
4 14 (7.95%) Dell
5 11 (6.25%) Cisco
6 8 (4.55%) Starlink
7 7 (3.98%) McAfee
7 7 (3.98%) SAP
8 5 (2.84%) Google
9 4 (2.27%) Remedy
10 3 (1.70%) Bloomberg
11 2 (1.14%) Citrix
11 2 (1.14%) Salesforce
12 1 (0.57%) Altiris
12 1 (0.57%) Barracuda Networks
12 1 (0.57%) CrowdStrike
12 1 (0.57%) Nexthink
12 1 (0.57%) Veeam
12 1 (0.57%) VMware