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 10 June 2026.

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

 6 months to
10 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 448 287 295
Rank change year-on-year -161 +8 -11
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 151 202 259
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.83% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.89% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 122 183
10th Percentile £145 £153 £126
25th Percentile £163 £188 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £211 £200
Median % change year-on-year -5.33% +5.63% -
75th Percentile £238 £249 £225
90th Percentile £269 £278 £270
UK median daily rate £200 £210 £200
% change year-on-year -4.64% +5.00% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 21 27
10th Percentile £19.74 £15.13 £16.70
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.13 £19.07
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.52% +19.76% -9.68%
75th Percentile £23.75 £33.75 £27.88
90th Percentile £25.78 - £30.25
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £17.72 £21.00
% change year-on-year +24.19% -15.64% -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 39,011 22,600 34,789
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.37% 92.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,059 14,872 22,778
10th Percentile £325 £290 £288
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £514 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.17% -2.10% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.68% -4.76% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,743 986 2,652
10th Percentile £15.79 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.07 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.80% -24.49% -14.44%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £27.70 £37.50
% change year-on-year +53.43% -26.13% -16.67%

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 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 10 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 -79 45 £213 -5.56% 8
Midlands -55 26 £200 -3.27% 2
North of England -89 24 £230 +17.95% 9
South East -78 23 £163 -22.62% 2
South West -58 19 £210 -8.70% 2
East Midlands -16 18 £200 +10.83%
East of England -21 15 £195 -7.14% 1
North West -43 13 £225 +34.33% 6
Yorkshire -56 11 £230 -2.13% 2
West Midlands -55 8 £150 -31.82% 2
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 105 (69.54%) Windows
2 72 (47.68%) Microsoft
3 64 (42.38%) Active Directory
4 59 (39.07%) Microsoft 365
5 42 (27.81%) Windows 10
6 40 (26.49%) Customer Service
7 32 (21.19%) Microsoft Intune
8 31 (20.53%) Azure
9 30 (19.87%) Problem-Solving
10 24 (15.89%) ITIL
10 24 (15.89%) SC Cleared
10 24 (15.89%) Security Cleared
11 23 (15.23%) Asset Management
11 23 (15.23%) SCCM
12 20 (13.25%) SharePoint
13 18 (11.92%) Entra ID
13 18 (11.92%) VPN
14 17 (11.26%) Mac OS
15 15 (9.93%) ServiceNow
16 14 (9.27%) Continuous Improvement
16 14 (9.27%) Migration
17 13 (8.61%) Apple iOS
17 13 (8.61%) ITSM
18 12 (7.95%) Degree
18 12 (7.95%) Microsoft Exchange
18 12 (7.95%) PowerShell
19 11 (7.28%) Apple
19 11 (7.28%) SLA
20 10 (6.62%) Logistics
20 10 (6.62%) Microsoft Office

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 (13.25%) SharePoint
2 12 (7.95%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 10 (6.62%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.32%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.99%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 59 (39.07%) Microsoft 365
2 31 (20.53%) Azure
3 18 (11.92%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.65%) Google Ads
4 4 (2.65%) Google Workspace
4 4 (2.65%) Slack
5 3 (1.99%) OneDrive
6 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.66%) Google Drive
7 1 (0.66%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (11.92%) VPN
2 9 (5.96%) DHCP
3 8 (5.30%) DNS
4 7 (4.64%) TCP/IP
5 5 (3.31%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (3.31%) Wireless
6 2 (1.32%) Firewall
6 2 (1.32%) LAN
7 1 (0.66%) IPv4
7 1 (0.66%) Skype
7 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 53 (35.10%) Social Skills
2 21 (13.91%) Finance
3 10 (6.62%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (6.62%) Banking
4 9 (5.96%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (4.64%) Investment Banking
6 6 (3.97%) Financial Institution
6 6 (3.97%) Law
6 6 (3.97%) Spanish Language
7 3 (1.99%) Public Sector
8 2 (1.32%) Local Government
8 2 (1.32%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.66%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.66%) Front Office
9 1 (0.66%) Legal
9 1 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.66%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 21 (13.91%) Onboarding
2 13 (8.61%) Smartphone
3 10 (6.62%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (5.30%) iPhone
5 7 (4.64%) Hedge funds
6 6 (3.97%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (3.31%) Video Conferencing
8 3 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.99%) iPad
9 2 (1.32%) Driving Licence
9 2 (1.32%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 105 (69.54%) Windows
2 42 (27.81%) Windows 10
3 17 (11.26%) Mac OS
4 13 (8.61%) Apple iOS
5 9 (5.96%) Android
6 5 (3.31%) Windows 7
6 5 (3.31%) Windows Server
7 4 (2.65%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (26.49%) Customer Service
2 30 (19.87%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (15.89%) ITIL
4 23 (15.23%) Asset Management
5 14 (9.27%) Continuous Improvement
5 14 (9.27%) Migration
6 13 (8.61%) ITSM
7 10 (6.62%) Logistics
7 10 (6.62%) Service Delivery
8 9 (5.96%) Business Continuity
8 9 (5.96%) Project Delivery
8 9 (5.96%) Service Management
9 8 (5.30%) Disaster Recovery
9 8 (5.30%) Root Cause Analysis
9 8 (5.30%) User Experience
10 7 (4.64%) Incident Management
10 7 (4.64%) Inventory Management
11 6 (3.97%) Business Continuity Planning
11 6 (3.97%) Patch Management
11 6 (3.97%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (7.95%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.66%) Bash
2 1 (0.66%) Python
Qualifications
1 24 (15.89%) SC Cleared
1 24 (15.89%) Security Cleared
2 12 (7.95%) Degree
3 5 (3.31%) A+ Certification
4 3 (1.99%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.32%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.28%) SLA
System Software
1 64 (42.38%) Active Directory
2 6 (3.97%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (1.99%) Firmware
4 2 (1.32%) BitLocker
4 2 (1.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.66%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.66%) zsh
Systems Management
1 32 (21.19%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (15.23%) SCCM
3 2 (1.32%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.66%) WSUS
Vendors
1 72 (47.68%) Microsoft
2 15 (9.93%) ServiceNow
3 11 (7.28%) Apple
4 9 (5.96%) HP
5 8 (5.30%) Starlink
6 7 (4.64%) McAfee
7 6 (3.97%) Citrix
8 5 (3.31%) Google
9 4 (2.65%) Remedy
10 3 (1.99%) Bloomberg
11 2 (1.32%) Dell
11 2 (1.32%) Salesforce
11 2 (1.32%) VMware
12 1 (0.66%) Adobe
12 1 (0.66%) Barracuda Networks
12 1 (0.66%) BMC
12 1 (0.66%) CrowdStrike
12 1 (0.66%) Nexthink
12 1 (0.66%) SolarWinds
12 1 (0.66%) Veeam
21 Desktop Support jobs in England