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 4 June 2026.

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

 6 months to
4 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 438 286 304
Rank change year-on-year -152 +18 -24
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 162 204 261
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.39% 0.85% 0.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.92% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 127 185
10th Percentile £145 £153 £126
25th Percentile £158 £188 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £210 £200
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £236 £250 £225
90th Percentile £271 £278 £270
UK median daily rate £200 £208 £200
% change year-on-year -3.61% +3.75% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 18 27
10th Percentile £19.39 £15.12 £16.70
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.03 £19.07
Median hourly rate £22.00 £26.83 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.99% +27.74% -10.64%
75th Percentile £23.92 £33.75 £27.88
90th Percentile £28.33 £34.88 £30.25
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 38,587 22,165 34,087
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 92.40% 92.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,812 14,615 22,428
10th Percentile £325 £289 £284
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -1.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,713 946 2,578
10th Percentile £15.75 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.27 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.74% -22.97% -15.56%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.70 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +52.48% -25.33% -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 4 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support in England over the 6 months to 4 June 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 4 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 -78 45 £213 -5.56% 6
Midlands -51 27 £200 -6.12%
North of England -88 25 £230 +17.95% 11
South East -70 24 £163 -20.73% 3
South West -61 22 £210 -7.69% 1
East Midlands -12 19 £200 +1.66%
East of England -29 18 £195 -4.88% 1
North West -34 14 £188 +4.17% 7
Yorkshire -61 11 £230 -2.13% 2
West Midlands -62 8 £150 -31.82%
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 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.

1 113 (69.75%) Windows
2 78 (48.15%) Microsoft
3 67 (41.36%) Active Directory
4 63 (38.89%) Microsoft 365
5 45 (27.78%) Customer Service
5 45 (27.78%) Windows 10
6 35 (21.60%) Azure
6 35 (21.60%) Microsoft Intune
7 33 (20.37%) Problem-Solving
8 25 (15.43%) ITIL
8 25 (15.43%) SC Cleared
8 25 (15.43%) SCCM
8 25 (15.43%) Security Cleared
9 22 (13.58%) Asset Management
10 21 (12.96%) SharePoint
11 20 (12.35%) Mac OS
12 19 (11.73%) Entra ID
13 18 (11.11%) VPN
14 15 (9.26%) Continuous Improvement
14 15 (9.26%) ITSM
14 15 (9.26%) Migration
14 15 (9.26%) ServiceNow
15 14 (8.64%) Apple iOS
15 14 (8.64%) Degree
15 14 (8.64%) PowerShell
16 12 (7.41%) Microsoft Exchange
16 12 (7.41%) Microsoft Office
16 12 (7.41%) SLA
17 11 (6.79%) Apple
17 11 (6.79%) DNS

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 (12.96%) SharePoint
2 12 (7.41%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 12 (7.41%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.85%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.85%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.62%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 63 (38.89%) Microsoft 365
2 35 (21.60%) Azure
3 19 (11.73%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.47%) Google Ads
4 4 (2.47%) Google Workspace
4 4 (2.47%) Slack
5 3 (1.85%) OneDrive
6 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.62%) Google Drive
7 1 (0.62%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 18 (11.11%) VPN
2 11 (6.79%) DNS
3 10 (6.17%) DHCP
3 10 (6.17%) TCP/IP
4 6 (3.70%) Wireless
5 5 (3.09%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.85%) Firewall
7 2 (1.23%) LAN
8 1 (0.62%) IPv4
8 1 (0.62%) Skype
8 1 (0.62%) Softphone
8 1 (0.62%) Telepresence
8 1 (0.62%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.62%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.62%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (3.70%) JIRA
General
1 59 (36.42%) Social Skills
2 21 (12.96%) Finance
3 11 (6.79%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.56%) Banking
5 8 (4.94%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (3.70%) Investment Banking
6 6 (3.70%) Law
7 5 (3.09%) Financial Institution
7 5 (3.09%) Spanish Language
8 3 (1.85%) Pharmaceutical
8 3 (1.85%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.23%) Legal
9 2 (1.23%) Local Government
9 2 (1.23%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.62%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.62%) Front Office
10 1 (0.62%) Retail
10 1 (0.62%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 22 (13.58%) Onboarding
2 14 (8.64%) Smartphone
3 10 (6.17%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (4.94%) Hybrid Cloud
4 8 (4.94%) iPhone
5 6 (3.70%) Hedge funds
6 5 (3.09%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (3.09%) Video Conferencing
7 3 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.85%) iPad
8 2 (1.23%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.23%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 113 (69.75%) Windows
2 45 (27.78%) Windows 10
3 20 (12.35%) Mac OS
4 14 (8.64%) Apple iOS
5 9 (5.56%) Android
6 5 (3.09%) Windows 7
6 5 (3.09%) Windows Server
7 4 (2.47%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (27.78%) Customer Service
2 33 (20.37%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (15.43%) ITIL
4 22 (13.58%) Asset Management
5 15 (9.26%) Continuous Improvement
5 15 (9.26%) ITSM
5 15 (9.26%) Migration
6 11 (6.79%) Service Management
7 10 (6.17%) Logistics
7 10 (6.17%) Service Delivery
8 9 (5.56%) Business Continuity
8 9 (5.56%) Project Delivery
8 9 (5.56%) User Experience
9 8 (4.94%) Disaster Recovery
9 8 (4.94%) Incident Management
9 8 (4.94%) Root Cause Analysis
10 7 (4.32%) BCP
10 7 (4.32%) Inventory Management
11 6 (3.70%) Business Continuity Planning
11 6 (3.70%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 14 (8.64%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.62%) Bash
2 1 (0.62%) Python
Qualifications
1 25 (15.43%) SC Cleared
1 25 (15.43%) Security Cleared
2 14 (8.64%) Degree
3 7 (4.32%) A+ Certification
4 3 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
4 3 (1.85%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (1.23%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (7.41%) SLA
System Software
1 67 (41.36%) Active Directory
2 6 (3.70%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (1.85%) Firmware
4 2 (1.23%) BitLocker
4 2 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.62%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.62%) zsh
Systems Management
1 35 (21.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 25 (15.43%) SCCM
3 2 (1.23%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.62%) WSUS
Vendors
1 78 (48.15%) Microsoft
2 15 (9.26%) ServiceNow
3 11 (6.79%) Apple
3 11 (6.79%) HP
4 8 (4.94%) Starlink
5 7 (4.32%) McAfee
6 6 (3.70%) Citrix
7 5 (3.09%) Dell
7 5 (3.09%) Google
8 4 (2.47%) Bloomberg
8 4 (2.47%) Remedy
9 2 (1.23%) Salesforce
9 2 (1.23%) VMware
10 1 (0.62%) Adobe
10 1 (0.62%) Barracuda Networks
10 1 (0.62%) BMC
10 1 (0.62%) Cisco
10 1 (0.62%) Nexthink
10 1 (0.62%) SolarWinds
10 1 (0.62%) Veeam
20 Desktop Support jobs in England