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 9 July 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 479 298 312
Rank change year-on-year -181 +14 -36
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 148 212 258
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.33% 0.79% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.85% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 116 128 178
10th Percentile £150 £152 £131
25th Percentile £170 £171 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £210 £200
Median % change year-on-year - +5.00% -
75th Percentile £238 £239 £236
90th Percentile £275 £278 £275
UK median daily rate £210 £203 £200
% change year-on-year +3.70% +1.25% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 21 31
10th Percentile £17.00 £15.13 £17.00
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.13 £20.11
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £24.86
Median % change year-on-year -12.52% +1.19% -0.58%
75th Percentile £23.50 £33.75 £29.38
90th Percentile £33.10 - £31.50
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
% change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% -16.00%

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 41,323 24,840 34,624
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.42% 92.06% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,324 16,186 22,692
10th Percentile £325 £293 £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 £745 £750
UK median daily rate £523 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,956 1,184 2,511
10th Percentile £16.01 £13.76 £12.88
25th Percentile £22.08 £17.87 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £28.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.71% -30.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £26.39 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.87% -29.64% -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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -76 50 £225 +1.93% 8
South East -60 27 £175 -18.60% 11
South West -66 22 £210 -8.70% 2
North of England -99 22 £230 +17.95% 3
Midlands -63 15 £205 +19.74%
East of England -23 13 £184 -8.13%
Yorkshire -51 12 £230 -2.13% 2
North West -50 10 £240 +45.45%
West Midlands -68 8 £210 +9.66%
East Midlands -12 7 £200 +16.67%
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 106 (71.62%) Windows
2 61 (41.22%) Microsoft
3 57 (38.51%) Active Directory
4 56 (37.84%) Microsoft 365
5 43 (29.05%) Customer Service
6 41 (27.70%) Windows 10
7 32 (21.62%) ITIL
8 29 (19.59%) Problem-Solving
8 29 (19.59%) Security Cleared
9 28 (18.92%) SC Cleared
10 26 (17.57%) Azure
10 26 (17.57%) Microsoft Intune
11 23 (15.54%) Asset Management
12 20 (13.51%) VPN
13 19 (12.84%) Mac OS
13 19 (12.84%) SharePoint
14 18 (12.16%) SCCM
15 17 (11.49%) ITSM
16 16 (10.81%) Entra ID
17 15 (10.14%) Degree
17 15 (10.14%) Service Management
17 15 (10.14%) ServiceNow
18 13 (8.78%) Service Delivery
19 12 (8.11%) Apple iOS
20 11 (7.43%) Microsoft Exchange
20 11 (7.43%) PowerShell
20 11 (7.43%) SLA
21 10 (6.76%) Android
21 10 (6.76%) Apple
21 10 (6.76%) DHCP

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 (12.84%) SharePoint
2 11 (7.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.68%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (6.76%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.35%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 56 (37.84%) Microsoft 365
2 26 (17.57%) Azure
3 16 (10.81%) Entra ID
4 6 (4.05%) OneDrive
5 4 (2.70%) Google Ads
6 3 (2.03%) Slack
7 2 (1.35%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.35%) Microsoft Copilot
7 2 (1.35%) SaaS
8 1 (0.68%) Google Drive
8 1 (0.68%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 20 (13.51%) VPN
2 10 (6.76%) DHCP
3 9 (6.08%) DNS
4 8 (5.41%) TCP/IP
4 8 (5.41%) Wi-Fi
5 6 (4.05%) LAN
6 3 (2.03%) Wireless
7 2 (1.35%) 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 (4.05%) JIRA
General
1 59 (39.86%) Social Skills
2 24 (16.22%) Finance
3 14 (9.46%) Organisational Skills
4 11 (7.43%) Banking
5 8 (5.41%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (5.41%) Investment Banking
6 7 (4.73%) Financial Institution
6 7 (4.73%) Spanish Language
7 6 (4.05%) Telecoms
8 3 (2.03%) Law
8 3 (2.03%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.35%) Legal
9 2 (1.35%) Local Government
9 2 (1.35%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.68%) Front Office
10 1 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.68%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 27 (18.24%) Onboarding
2 9 (6.08%) Video Conferencing
3 8 (5.41%) Hedge funds
3 8 (5.41%) iPhone
3 8 (5.41%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (2.70%) Smartphone
5 3 (2.03%) Driving Licence
5 3 (2.03%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (2.03%) iPad
6 2 (1.35%) BYOD
6 2 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.35%) Mobile App
7 1 (0.68%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 106 (71.62%) Windows
2 41 (27.70%) Windows 10
3 19 (12.84%) Mac OS
4 12 (8.11%) Apple iOS
5 10 (6.76%) Android
6 4 (2.70%) Windows Server
7 3 (2.03%) Windows 7
8 2 (1.35%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.68%) Linux
9 1 (0.68%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (29.05%) Customer Service
2 32 (21.62%) ITIL
3 29 (19.59%) Problem-Solving
4 23 (15.54%) Asset Management
5 17 (11.49%) ITSM
6 15 (10.14%) Service Management
7 13 (8.78%) Service Delivery
8 10 (6.76%) Root Cause Analysis
9 9 (6.08%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (6.08%) Incident Management
9 9 (6.08%) Logistics
9 9 (6.08%) Migration
10 8 (5.41%) Inventory Management
10 8 (5.41%) User Experience
11 6 (4.05%) Patch Management
12 5 (3.38%) Break/Fix
12 5 (3.38%) Business Continuity
12 5 (3.38%) Mobile Device Management
12 5 (3.38%) Performance Tuning
12 5 (3.38%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 11 (7.43%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.68%) Bash
2 1 (0.68%) Python
Qualifications
1 29 (19.59%) Security Cleared
2 28 (18.92%) SC Cleared
3 15 (10.14%) Degree
4 6 (4.05%) A+ Certification
5 3 (2.03%) ITIL Certification
5 3 (2.03%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.35%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.35%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 1 (0.68%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.68%) CTC Cleared
7 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.68%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.43%) SLA
System Software
1 57 (38.51%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.05%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (2.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (2.03%) Firmware
5 2 (1.35%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.68%) zsh
Systems Management
1 26 (17.57%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (12.16%) SCCM
3 2 (1.35%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.68%) WSUS
Vendors
1 61 (41.22%) Microsoft
2 15 (10.14%) ServiceNow
3 10 (6.76%) Apple
4 9 (6.08%) HP
5 8 (5.41%) Starlink
6 7 (4.73%) McAfee
7 6 (4.05%) Citrix
8 4 (2.70%) Google
8 4 (2.70%) VMware
9 3 (2.03%) Bloomberg
9 3 (2.03%) Dell
9 3 (2.03%) Remedy
10 1 (0.68%) Adobe
10 1 (0.68%) BMC
10 1 (0.68%) MobileIron
10 1 (0.68%) Nexthink
10 1 (0.68%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.68%) Samsung