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 28 November 2025.

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

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 304 319 283
Rank change year-on-year +15 -36 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 240 197 325
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.78% 0.63% 0.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.86% 0.68% 0.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 157 129 234
10th Percentile £154 £150 £131
25th Percentile £163 £182 £143
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £219 £200
Median % change year-on-year -10.96% +9.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £250 £240 £232
90th Percentile £288 £270 £288
UK median daily rate £190 £215 £200
% change year-on-year -11.63% +7.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 10 16
10th Percentile £16.46 £25.40 £16.90
25th Percentile £19.82 £27.00 £17.87
Median hourly rate £21.46 £30.23 £19.25
Median % change year-on-year -29.00% +57.01% -0.63%
75th Percentile £25.15 £32.04 £20.00
90th Percentile £31.40 £38.60 £21.75
UK median hourly rate £21.46 £24.18 £19.25
% change year-on-year -11.25% +25.61% +6.94%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 28,058 28,947 36,204
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.25% 92.98% 93.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,977 17,729 24,955
10th Percentile £282 £300 £288
25th Percentile £403 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,690 1,071 1,407
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.25 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.88 £21.23 £20.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -11.11% +38.46%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%

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 28 November 2025.

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 28 November 2025.

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 28 November 2025. 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 +19 80 £200 -7.62% 8
North of England -24 46 £175 -20.45% 11
South West +13 39 £250 +12.36% 8
South East -5 33 £187 -12.21% 7
Midlands -9 28 £171 -2.01% 7
North West -11 24 £190 -8.98% 8
East of England -14 21 £220 +4.76% 5
West Midlands -30 15 £175 +0.29% 3
East Midlands -3 13 £158 -42.73% 4
North East +2 12 £175 -
Yorkshire -39 10 £165 -26.67% 3
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 November 2025, 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.

1 138 (57.50%) Windows
2 105 (43.75%) Microsoft 365
3 96 (40.00%) Security Cleared
4 94 (39.17%) SC Cleared
5 92 (38.33%) Microsoft
6 83 (34.58%) Customer Service
7 73 (30.42%) Active Directory
7 73 (30.42%) Windows 10
8 57 (23.75%) ITIL
9 56 (23.33%) Microsoft Office
10 36 (15.00%) Problem-Solving
11 35 (14.58%) Service Management
12 34 (14.17%) Mac OS
13 33 (13.75%) Microsoft Exchange
14 32 (13.33%) Business Intelligence
14 32 (13.33%) Workflow
15 31 (12.92%) Android
15 31 (12.92%) Azure
15 31 (12.92%) Digital Marketing
15 31 (12.92%) Microsoft Intune
15 31 (12.92%) Programme Management
15 31 (12.92%) SAP
16 30 (12.50%) SLA
17 29 (12.08%) Apple
17 29 (12.08%) Cisco
17 29 (12.08%) ITSM
17 29 (12.08%) Wireless
18 28 (11.67%) HP
19 27 (11.25%) Dell
19 27 (11.25%) ServiceNow

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 33 (13.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (8.75%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.42%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 56 (23.33%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (4.17%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.83%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.42%) assyst
2 1 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.42%) Eikon
2 1 (0.42%) Eze OMS
2 1 (0.42%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 105 (43.75%) Microsoft 365
2 31 (12.92%) Azure
3 16 (6.67%) OneDrive
4 5 (2.08%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.42%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 29 (12.08%) Wireless
2 17 (7.08%) VPN
3 13 (5.42%) PABX
4 10 (4.17%) DHCP
4 10 (4.17%) DNS
5 7 (2.92%) TCP/IP
6 5 (2.08%) LAN
6 5 (2.08%) Structured Cabling
6 5 (2.08%) WAN
7 4 (1.67%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (0.83%) Softphone
8 2 (0.83%) VLAN
9 1 (0.42%) Internet
9 1 (0.42%) Intranet
9 1 (0.42%) IP Telephony
9 1 (0.42%) NetScaler
9 1 (0.42%) Network Security
9 1 (0.42%) Skype
9 1 (0.42%) Telepresence
9 1 (0.42%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.42%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (0.42%) JIRA
General
1 118 (49.17%) Social Skills
2 77 (32.08%) Finance
3 38 (15.83%) Public Sector
4 33 (13.75%) Telecoms
5 31 (12.92%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (12.92%) Electronics
5 31 (12.92%) Manufacturing
5 31 (12.92%) Marketing
6 15 (6.25%) Banking
7 10 (4.17%) Front Office
8 7 (2.92%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.92%) Retail
9 6 (2.50%) Aerospace
10 5 (2.08%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (1.67%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.42%) Law
12 1 (0.42%) Legal
12 1 (0.42%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.42%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.42%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 27 (11.25%) Self-Motivation
2 25 (10.42%) Data Centre
3 15 (6.25%) Smartphone
4 14 (5.83%) iPad
4 14 (5.83%) iPhone
5 10 (4.17%) Driving Licence
6 9 (3.75%) Onboarding
7 7 (2.92%) Video Conferencing
8 6 (2.50%) Management Information System
9 5 (2.08%) Hedge funds
10 3 (1.25%) CMDB
10 3 (1.25%) Mobile App
10 3 (1.25%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.83%) Tandem
12 1 (0.42%) BYOD
12 1 (0.42%) Data Protection Act
12 1 (0.42%) Fat Client
12 1 (0.42%) Fixed Income
12 1 (0.42%) Legacy Systems
12 1 (0.42%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 138 (57.50%) Windows
2 73 (30.42%) Windows 10
3 34 (14.17%) Mac OS
4 31 (12.92%) Android
5 13 (5.42%) Apple iOS
6 12 (5.00%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.83%) Linux
7 2 (0.83%) Windows 7
7 2 (0.83%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.42%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (34.58%) Customer Service
2 57 (23.75%) ITIL
3 36 (15.00%) Problem-Solving
4 35 (14.58%) Service Management
5 32 (13.33%) Business Intelligence
5 32 (13.33%) Workflow
6 31 (12.92%) Digital Marketing
6 31 (12.92%) Programme Management
7 29 (12.08%) ITSM
8 26 (10.83%) Time Management
9 24 (10.00%) Migration
10 23 (9.58%) Inventory Management
11 21 (8.75%) Patch Management
11 21 (8.75%) Workflow Management
12 17 (7.08%) Service Delivery
13 15 (6.25%) Mobile Device Management
14 13 (5.42%) Antivirus Management
15 10 (4.17%) Data Analysis
15 10 (4.17%) Investment Management
16 9 (3.75%) Asset Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (7.08%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.42%) Python
2 1 (0.42%) SQL
Qualifications
1 96 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 94 (39.17%) SC Cleared
3 16 (6.67%) Degree
4 12 (5.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (4.17%) ITIL Certification
6 4 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.67%) DBS Check
6 4 (1.67%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.42%) A+ Certification
7 1 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.42%) MCSA
7 1 (0.42%) MCSE
7 1 (0.42%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (12.50%) SLA
2 9 (3.75%) QA
3 7 (2.92%) GDPR
System Software
1 73 (30.42%) Active Directory
2 15 (6.25%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (1.67%) Firmware
4 1 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.42%) vSphere
4 1 (0.42%) Xen
Systems Management
1 31 (12.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (9.58%) SCCM
Vendors
1 92 (38.33%) Microsoft
2 31 (12.92%) SAP
3 29 (12.08%) Apple
3 29 (12.08%) Cisco
4 28 (11.67%) HP
5 27 (11.25%) Dell
5 27 (11.25%) ServiceNow
6 10 (4.17%) Bloomberg
7 9 (3.75%) McAfee
8 7 (2.92%) Starlink
9 5 (2.08%) Citrix
9 5 (2.08%) Remedy
10 2 (0.83%) Reuters
10 2 (0.83%) Tradeweb
10 2 (0.83%) VMware
10 2 (0.83%) Wyse
11 1 (0.42%) Altiris
11 1 (0.42%) Eze Software Group
11 1 (0.42%) FactSet
11 1 (0.42%) Trayport