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 13 July 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 468 299 298
Rank change year-on-year -169 -1 -17
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 151 215 254
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.79% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.86% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 131 175
10th Percentile £150 £150 £131
25th Percentile £170 £171 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £210 £200
Median % change year-on-year - +5.00% -
75th Percentile £238 £243 £234
90th Percentile £272 £278 £275
UK median daily rate £210 £205 £200
% change year-on-year +2.44% +2.50% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 21 30
10th Percentile £17.13 £15.13 £16.93
25th Percentile £17.77 £18.13 £20.06
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £21.94
Median % change year-on-year -12.52% +14.64% -6.65%
75th Percentile £23.50 £33.75 £27.00
90th Percentile £28.80 - £30.48
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
% change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% -10.64%

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 41,444 25,115 34,097
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 92.03% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,363 16,356 22,299
10th Percentile £325 £290 £300
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £638
90th Percentile £738 £740 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,982 1,217 2,452
10th Percentile £16.01 £13.77 £13.00
25th Percentile £22.20 £17.98 £17.25
Median hourly rate £45.56 £28.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.84% -28.75% -6.98%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.54
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £26.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +64.87% -33.75% -5.88%

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 13 July 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 13 July 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 13 July 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 -74 51 £220 -0.68% 6
South East -79 28 £170 -20.93% 6
South West -62 23 £210 -10.64% 1
North of England -97 22 £230 +17.95% 6
Midlands -52 15 £210 +22.81%
East of England -21 13 £184 -8.13%
Yorkshire -52 12 £230 -2.13% 1
North West -63 10 £240 +33.33% 3
East Midlands -12 8 £200 +16.67%
West Midlands -70 7 £218 +13.58%
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 July 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.

1 109 (72.19%) Windows
2 63 (41.72%) Microsoft
3 60 (39.74%) Active Directory
4 58 (38.41%) Microsoft 365
5 47 (31.13%) Customer Service
6 42 (27.81%) Windows 10
7 34 (22.52%) ITIL
8 30 (19.87%) Security Cleared
9 29 (19.21%) Problem-Solving
9 29 (19.21%) SC Cleared
10 28 (18.54%) Azure
10 28 (18.54%) Microsoft Intune
11 24 (15.89%) Asset Management
12 21 (13.91%) SharePoint
12 21 (13.91%) VPN
13 20 (13.25%) Mac OS
13 20 (13.25%) SCCM
14 19 (12.58%) ITSM
15 18 (11.92%) Entra ID
16 17 (11.26%) Service Management
17 16 (10.60%) Degree
18 15 (9.93%) ServiceNow
19 14 (9.27%) Service Delivery
20 12 (7.95%) Apple iOS
20 12 (7.95%) DHCP
20 12 (7.95%) Microsoft Exchange
20 12 (7.95%) SLA
21 11 (7.28%) DNS
22 10 (6.62%) Android
22 10 (6.62%) 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 21 (13.91%) SharePoint
2 12 (7.95%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.66%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (5.96%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.32%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 58 (38.41%) Microsoft 365
2 28 (18.54%) Azure
3 18 (11.92%) Entra ID
4 8 (5.30%) OneDrive
5 4 (2.65%) Google Ads
6 3 (1.99%) Slack
7 2 (1.32%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
7 2 (1.32%) SaaS
8 1 (0.66%) Google Drive
8 1 (0.66%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 21 (13.91%) VPN
2 12 (7.95%) DHCP
3 11 (7.28%) DNS
4 10 (6.62%) TCP/IP
5 8 (5.30%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (3.97%) LAN
7 4 (2.65%) Wireless
8 2 (1.32%) Firewall
9 1 (0.66%) IPv4
9 1 (0.66%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.66%) Skype
9 1 (0.66%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.66%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (3.97%) JIRA
General
1 63 (41.72%) Social Skills
2 24 (15.89%) Finance
3 15 (9.93%) Organisational Skills
4 12 (7.95%) Banking
5 9 (5.96%) Investment Banking
6 8 (5.30%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (5.30%) Financial Institution
6 8 (5.30%) Spanish Language
7 6 (3.97%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.99%) Law
8 3 (1.99%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.32%) Legal
9 2 (1.32%) Local Government
9 2 (1.32%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.66%) Front Office
10 1 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.66%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 28 (18.54%) Onboarding
2 8 (5.30%) Hedge funds
2 8 (5.30%) iPhone
2 8 (5.30%) Self-Motivation
3 7 (4.64%) Video Conferencing
4 5 (3.31%) Driving Licence
5 4 (2.65%) Smartphone
6 3 (1.99%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (1.99%) iPad
6 3 (1.99%) Mobile App
7 2 (1.32%) BYOD
7 2 (1.32%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 109 (72.19%) Windows
2 42 (27.81%) Windows 10
3 20 (13.25%) Mac OS
4 12 (7.95%) Apple iOS
5 10 (6.62%) Android
6 4 (2.65%) Windows Server
7 3 (1.99%) Windows 7
8 2 (1.32%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.66%) Linux
9 1 (0.66%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (31.13%) Customer Service
2 34 (22.52%) ITIL
3 29 (19.21%) Problem-Solving
4 24 (15.89%) Asset Management
5 19 (12.58%) ITSM
6 17 (11.26%) Service Management
7 14 (9.27%) Service Delivery
8 10 (6.62%) Root Cause Analysis
9 9 (5.96%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (5.96%) Incident Management
9 9 (5.96%) Logistics
9 9 (5.96%) Migration
10 8 (5.30%) Inventory Management
10 8 (5.30%) User Experience
11 6 (3.97%) Patch Management
12 5 (3.31%) Break/Fix
12 5 (3.31%) Business Continuity
12 5 (3.31%) Performance Tuning
12 5 (3.31%) Project Delivery
13 4 (2.65%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (6.62%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.66%) Bash
Qualifications
1 30 (19.87%) Security Cleared
2 29 (19.21%) SC Cleared
3 16 (10.60%) Degree
4 7 (4.64%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 3 (1.99%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.32%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.66%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (7.95%) SLA
System Software
1 60 (39.74%) Active Directory
2 6 (3.97%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (2.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.99%) Firmware
5 2 (1.32%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.66%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.66%) zsh
Systems Management
1 28 (18.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (13.25%) SCCM
3 2 (1.32%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.66%) WSUS
Vendors
1 63 (41.72%) Microsoft
2 15 (9.93%) ServiceNow
3 10 (6.62%) Apple
4 9 (5.96%) HP
5 8 (5.30%) Starlink
6 7 (4.64%) McAfee
7 5 (3.31%) Citrix
8 4 (2.65%) Google
8 4 (2.65%) VMware
9 3 (1.99%) Bloomberg
9 3 (1.99%) Dell
9 3 (1.99%) Remedy
10 1 (0.66%) Adobe
10 1 (0.66%) BMC
10 1 (0.66%) MobileIron
10 1 (0.66%) Nexthink
10 1 (0.66%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.66%) Samsung