Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £225, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 August 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 470 309 321
Rank change year-on-year -161 +12 -35
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 166 220 218
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.79% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.87% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 138 147
10th Percentile £141 £150 £136
25th Percentile £171 £163 £163
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £215 £205
Median % change year-on-year +4.65% +4.88% +2.50%
75th Percentile £243 £249 £238
90th Percentile £280 £278 £271
UK median daily rate £213 £210 £203
% change year-on-year +1.19% +3.70% +1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 21 19
10th Percentile - £15.13 £16.85
25th Percentile £17.25 £25.15 £19.07
Median hourly rate £22.00 £29.60 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.68% +40.95% +6.33%
75th Percentile £23.50 £33.75 £27.00
90th Percentile £24.50 - £29.50
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
% change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% +6.33%

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 42,224 25,400 30,899
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 91.55% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,453 16,393 19,996
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,225 1,375 1,702
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.48 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.65 £25.32 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.44% -43.73% +2.60%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.15 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.13 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -41.51% -1.71%

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 24 August 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 24 August 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 24 August 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 -72 69 £225 +1.58% 7
North of England -78 33 £235 +20.51% 7
South West -69 24 £210 -6.67% 2
North West -46 23 £235 +11.90% 5
South East -80 21 £180 -16.28% 7
East of England -25 10 £173 -17.86%
Yorkshire -41 10 £230 -2.13% 2
Midlands -53 10 £250 +46.20% 2
West Midlands -51 6 £225 +32.35% 1
East Midlands -14 4 £260 +52.05% 1
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 August 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.

1 121 (72.89%) Windows
2 82 (49.40%) Microsoft
3 72 (43.37%) Microsoft 365
4 65 (39.16%) Active Directory
5 54 (32.53%) ITIL
6 47 (28.31%) Customer Service
7 42 (25.30%) Windows 10
8 40 (24.10%) Security Cleared
9 37 (22.29%) SC Cleared
10 35 (21.08%) ITSM
11 34 (20.48%) Microsoft Intune
12 29 (17.47%) Problem-Solving
12 29 (17.47%) SCCM
13 25 (15.06%) Degree
13 25 (15.06%) Service Management
14 24 (14.46%) ServiceNow
14 24 (14.46%) SharePoint
15 23 (13.86%) Azure
16 22 (13.25%) Service Delivery
17 21 (12.65%) Mac OS
17 21 (12.65%) VPN
18 20 (12.05%) Asset Management
18 20 (12.05%) Entra ID
19 18 (10.84%) PowerShell
20 16 (9.64%) Migration
20 16 (9.64%) SLA
20 16 (9.64%) Virtual Desktop
21 15 (9.04%) Apple iOS
22 14 (8.43%) DHCP
23 13 (7.83%) Android

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 24 (14.46%) SharePoint
2 11 (6.63%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.60%) Confluence
3 1 (0.60%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 9 (5.42%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.81%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 72 (43.37%) Microsoft 365
2 23 (13.86%) Azure
3 20 (12.05%) Entra ID
4 13 (7.83%) OneDrive
5 6 (3.61%) SaaS
6 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.60%) Google Workspace
7 1 (0.60%) IaaS
7 1 (0.60%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 21 (12.65%) VPN
2 14 (8.43%) DHCP
3 13 (7.83%) DNS
4 12 (7.23%) TCP/IP
5 10 (6.02%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (4.22%) LAN
6 7 (4.22%) Wireless
7 3 (1.81%) Firewall
7 3 (1.81%) Network Security
8 2 (1.20%) Skype
8 2 (1.20%) Value-Added Service
9 1 (0.60%) NAS
9 1 (0.60%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.60%) VLAN
9 1 (0.60%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.60%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.41%) JIRA
General
1 69 (41.57%) Social Skills
2 33 (19.88%) Finance
3 19 (11.45%) Organisational Skills
4 15 (9.04%) Banking
5 12 (7.23%) Investment Banking
6 10 (6.02%) Financial Institution
6 10 (6.02%) Spanish Language
7 9 (5.42%) Telecoms
8 7 (4.22%) Legal
9 6 (3.61%) Analytical Skills
10 5 (3.01%) Front Office
11 4 (2.41%) Law
11 4 (2.41%) Manufacturing
11 4 (2.41%) Public Sector
12 2 (1.20%) Local Government
13 1 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.60%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.81%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 37 (22.29%) Onboarding
2 11 (6.63%) Hedge funds
2 11 (6.63%) Video Conferencing
3 8 (4.82%) Driving Licence
3 8 (4.82%) iPhone
3 8 (4.82%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (2.41%) Mobile App
4 4 (2.41%) Smartphone
5 3 (1.81%) iPad
5 3 (1.81%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.20%) BYOD
6 2 (1.20%) CMDB
6 2 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.60%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.60%) Blackberry
7 1 (0.60%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 121 (72.89%) Windows
2 42 (25.30%) Windows 10
3 21 (12.65%) Mac OS
4 15 (9.04%) Apple iOS
5 13 (7.83%) Android
6 4 (2.41%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.20%) Linux
8 1 (0.60%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (32.53%) ITIL
2 47 (28.31%) Customer Service
3 35 (21.08%) ITSM
4 29 (17.47%) Problem-Solving
5 25 (15.06%) Service Management
6 22 (13.25%) Service Delivery
7 20 (12.05%) Asset Management
8 16 (9.64%) Migration
9 11 (6.63%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (6.02%) Incident Management
10 10 (6.02%) Logistics
11 9 (5.42%) Break/Fix
11 9 (5.42%) Root Cause Analysis
11 9 (5.42%) User Experience
12 7 (4.22%) Inventory Management
12 7 (4.22%) Problem Management
13 6 (3.61%) Data Protection
13 6 (3.61%) Patch Management
14 5 (3.01%) Mobile Device Management
14 5 (3.01%) Multi-Factor Authentication
Programming Languages
1 18 (10.84%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.81%) Python
2 3 (1.81%) SQL
2 3 (1.81%) VBScript
3 1 (0.60%) Bash
Qualifications
1 40 (24.10%) Security Cleared
2 37 (22.29%) SC Cleared
3 25 (15.06%) Degree
4 12 (7.23%) A+ Certification
5 5 (3.01%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (2.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 3 (1.81%) DV Cleared
7 3 (1.81%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (1.81%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (1.81%) Network+ Certification
8 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.60%) CTC Cleared
9 1 (0.60%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (9.64%) SLA
System Software
1 65 (39.16%) Active Directory
2 16 (9.64%) Virtual Desktop
3 8 (4.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.81%) BitLocker
5 2 (1.20%) Firmware
6 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.60%) zsh
Systems Management
1 34 (20.48%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (17.47%) SCCM
3 1 (0.60%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.60%) WSUS
Vendors
1 82 (49.40%) Microsoft
2 24 (14.46%) ServiceNow
3 12 (7.23%) Citrix
4 10 (6.02%) McAfee
5 9 (5.42%) Apple
6 8 (4.82%) VMware
7 7 (4.22%) Starlink
8 5 (3.01%) HP
9 4 (2.41%) Adobe
10 3 (1.81%) BeyondTrust
10 3 (1.81%) Bloomberg
10 3 (1.81%) Google
10 3 (1.81%) Remedy
10 3 (1.81%) Samsung
10 3 (1.81%) Tanium
11 2 (1.20%) Autodesk
11 2 (1.20%) Cisco
11 2 (1.20%) Dell
11 2 (1.20%) Symantec
12 1 (0.60%) Sophos