Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £197, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 April 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 418 299 275
Rank change year-on-year -119 -24 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 170 192 302
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.43% 0.78% 0.81%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.46% 0.84% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 128 128 222
10th Percentile £145 £153 £123
25th Percentile £156 £182 £145
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £197 £205 £200
Median % change year-on-year -3.78% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £230 £239 £228
90th Percentile £255 £282 £336
UK median daily rate £195 £200 £200
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 10 27
10th Percentile £16.25 £16.67 £16.70
25th Percentile £18.78 £19.76 £20.00
Median hourly rate £20.05 £27.58 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.31% +31.31% -9.68%
75th Percentile £21.46 £30.68 £28.50
90th Percentile £22.14 £37.50 £30.75
UK median hourly rate £20.18 £22.50 £21.00
% change year-on-year -10.31% +7.14% -5.62%

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 36,659 22,788 34,565
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.72% 92.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,966 15,194 23,034
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,474 881 2,397
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.41 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.79 £19.00 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.06% -8.57% -22.22%
75th Percentile £67.47 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.50 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £30.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +41.67% -14.29% -22.22%

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 23 April 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 23 April 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 23 April 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 -64 36 £216 +2.61% 5
Midlands -45 32 £200 -0.25% 1
East of England -14 29 £195 -10.34% 1
South East -57 25 £172 -12.05% 4
North of England -76 25 £228 +16.67% 6
East Midlands -13 24 £200 +1.66%
South West -50 21 £210 -6.67%
North West -39 12 £225 +16.13% 4
Yorkshire -53 12 £230 +2.22% 2
West Midlands -64 8 £140 -30.00% 1
North East -28 1 £175 +12.90% 1
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 April 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 97 (57.06%) Windows
2 72 (42.35%) Microsoft
3 60 (35.29%) Customer Service
4 59 (34.71%) Active Directory
5 54 (31.76%) Microsoft 365
6 51 (30.00%) Windows 10
7 38 (22.35%) SC Cleared
7 38 (22.35%) Security Cleared
8 36 (21.18%) Azure
9 33 (19.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 27 (15.88%) Problem-Solving
11 25 (14.71%) Migration
12 23 (13.53%) SCCM
13 22 (12.94%) ITIL
14 20 (11.76%) SharePoint
15 19 (11.18%) SLA
16 17 (10.00%) Asset Management
17 16 (9.41%) Mac OS
18 15 (8.82%) ServiceNow
18 15 (8.82%) VPN
19 14 (8.24%) Microsoft Office
19 14 (8.24%) Service Delivery
19 14 (8.24%) Time Management
20 13 (7.65%) Continuous Improvement
20 13 (7.65%) Entra ID
20 13 (7.65%) HP
20 13 (7.65%) Incident Management
21 12 (7.06%) PowerShell
22 11 (6.47%) Apple iOS
23 10 (5.88%) 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 20 (11.76%) SharePoint
2 7 (4.12%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (8.24%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (5.88%) Spreadsheet
3 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.18%) assyst
2 1 (0.59%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 54 (31.76%) Microsoft 365
2 36 (21.18%) Azure
3 13 (7.65%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.35%) Google Ads
4 4 (2.35%) Google Workspace
4 4 (2.35%) Slack
5 3 (1.76%) OneDrive
6 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.59%) Google Drive
7 1 (0.59%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.82%) VPN
2 10 (5.88%) Wireless
3 9 (5.29%) DNS
4 8 (4.71%) TCP/IP
5 7 (4.12%) DHCP
6 3 (1.76%) Softphone
6 3 (1.76%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (1.18%) Firewall
7 2 (1.18%) LAN
8 1 (0.59%) IPv4
8 1 (0.59%) Skype
8 1 (0.59%) Telepresence
8 1 (0.59%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.59%) VoIP
Development Applications
1 4 (2.35%) JIRA
General
1 56 (32.94%) Social Skills
2 17 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (7.65%) Finance
4 9 (5.29%) Retail
5 7 (4.12%) Public Sector
6 6 (3.53%) Law
6 6 (3.53%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.35%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.35%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.76%) Electronics
8 3 (1.76%) Marketing
9 2 (1.18%) Banking
9 2 (1.18%) Legal
9 2 (1.18%) Local Government
9 2 (1.18%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.59%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 19 (11.18%) Self-Motivation
2 16 (9.41%) Smartphone
3 10 (5.88%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.71%) Hybrid Cloud
4 8 (4.71%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.53%) iPhone
6 5 (2.94%) Data Centre
7 4 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.76%) iPad
9 2 (1.18%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.18%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.18%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.59%) Mobile App
10 1 (0.59%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 97 (57.06%) Windows
2 51 (30.00%) Windows 10
3 16 (9.41%) Mac OS
4 11 (6.47%) Apple iOS
5 9 (5.29%) Windows Server
6 8 (4.71%) Android
7 5 (2.94%) Windows 7
8 4 (2.35%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.59%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (35.29%) Customer Service
2 27 (15.88%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (14.71%) Migration
4 22 (12.94%) ITIL
5 17 (10.00%) Asset Management
6 14 (8.24%) Service Delivery
6 14 (8.24%) Time Management
7 13 (7.65%) Continuous Improvement
7 13 (7.65%) Incident Management
8 10 (5.88%) ITSM
9 9 (5.29%) Logistics
9 9 (5.29%) Project Delivery
10 8 (4.71%) Business Impact Analysis
10 8 (4.71%) Disaster Recovery
10 8 (4.71%) Impact Analysis
10 8 (4.71%) Root Cause Analysis
10 8 (4.71%) Service Management
10 8 (4.71%) Workflow
10 8 (4.71%) Workflow Management
11 7 (4.12%) BCP
Programming Languages
1 12 (7.06%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.59%) Python
Qualifications
1 38 (22.35%) SC Cleared
1 38 (22.35%) Security Cleared
2 7 (4.12%) A+ Certification
3 6 (3.53%) Degree
4 3 (1.76%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (11.18%) SLA
2 1 (0.59%) QA
System Software
1 59 (34.71%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.35%) Firmware
3 3 (1.76%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 33 (19.41%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (13.53%) SCCM
3 1 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 72 (42.35%) Microsoft
2 15 (8.82%) ServiceNow
3 13 (7.65%) HP
4 10 (5.88%) Apple
4 10 (5.88%) Dell
5 8 (4.71%) Starlink
6 7 (4.12%) Cisco
6 7 (4.12%) McAfee
7 5 (2.94%) Google
8 3 (1.76%) Bloomberg
8 3 (1.76%) Citrix
8 3 (1.76%) Remedy
8 3 (1.76%) SAP
9 2 (1.18%) Salesforce
9 2 (1.18%) VMware
10 1 (0.59%) Altiris
10 1 (0.59%) Barracuda Networks
10 1 (0.59%) CrowdStrike
10 1 (0.59%) Nexthink
10 1 (0.59%) Veeam