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 3 March 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 351 302 268
Rank change year-on-year -49 -34 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 220 181 305
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.62% 0.72% 0.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.67% 0.78% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 160 124 218
10th Percentile £150 £153 £124
25th Percentile £156 £182 £144
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £205 £205
Median % change year-on-year -4.88% - +2.50%
75th Percentile £234 £245 £224
90th Percentile £288 £269 £291
UK median daily rate £177 £200 £200
% change year-on-year -11.72% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 8 24
10th Percentile £16.25 £16.67 £17.00
25th Percentile £19.54 £17.76 £19.18
Median hourly rate £20.18 £28.25 £22.25
Median % change year-on-year -28.57% +26.97% +14.85%
75th Percentile £21.46 £30.68 £30.06
90th Percentile £31.40 £32.57 £31.13
UK median hourly rate £20.18 £23.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year -12.26% +9.52% +12.00%

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 32,730 23,243 35,186
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.95% 92.89% 92.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,732 14,914 23,562
10th Percentile £306 £300 £270
25th Percentile £411 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £745
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,123 731 2,215
10th Percentile £15.19 £16.25 £13.15
25th Percentile £19.00 £22.00 £16.30
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year - +2.94% -17.10%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £34.31 £34.08
% change year-on-year -2.35% +0.66% -15.85%

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 3 March 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 3 March 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 3 March 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 -48 49 £201 +0.25% 6
Midlands -28 42 £175 -14.63% 1
North of England -46 40 £175 -14.63% 9
East of England -4 34 £195 -4.88%
East Midlands -3 30 £175 -17.65%
South West -17 30 £250 +11.11% 5
South East -43 25 £172 -12.05% 4
North West -33 18 £175 -15.66% 3
Yorkshire -56 13 £221 -0.56% 6
West Midlands -51 12 £175 -12.50% 1
North East -8 9 £175 +12.90% 1
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 March 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.

1 126 (57.27%) Windows
2 94 (42.73%) Microsoft 365
3 83 (37.73%) Microsoft
4 73 (33.18%) Windows 10
5 72 (32.73%) Active Directory
5 72 (32.73%) Customer Service
6 71 (32.27%) Security Cleared
7 70 (31.82%) SC Cleared
8 46 (20.91%) Microsoft Office
9 37 (16.82%) Azure
10 35 (15.91%) Mac OS
11 34 (15.45%) Microsoft Intune
12 33 (15.00%) HP
12 33 (15.00%) SLA
12 33 (15.00%) Wireless
13 30 (13.64%) Android
13 30 (13.64%) Dell
13 30 (13.64%) SCCM
14 29 (13.18%) Apple
15 28 (12.73%) Cisco
16 27 (12.27%) ITIL
16 27 (12.27%) ServiceNow
17 25 (11.36%) Migration
18 24 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
19 23 (10.45%) Business Intelligence
19 23 (10.45%) Digital Marketing
19 23 (10.45%) Programme Management
19 23 (10.45%) SAP
20 22 (10.00%) Service Management
20 22 (10.00%) SharePoint

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 22 (10.00%) SharePoint
2 16 (7.27%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 46 (20.91%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (6.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (6.82%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.91%) assyst
2 1 (0.45%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 94 (42.73%) Microsoft 365
2 37 (16.82%) Azure
3 14 (6.36%) OneDrive
4 12 (5.45%) Entra ID
5 4 (1.82%) Google Ads
5 4 (1.82%) Google Workspace
5 4 (1.82%) Slack
6 1 (0.45%) Google Drive
Communications & Networking
1 33 (15.00%) Wireless
2 19 (8.64%) VPN
3 13 (5.91%) PABX
4 11 (5.00%) DNS
5 9 (4.09%) DHCP
5 9 (4.09%) TCP/IP
6 3 (1.36%) Softphone
6 3 (1.36%) Structured Cabling
7 2 (0.91%) Firewall
7 2 (0.91%) LAN
7 2 (0.91%) Telepresence
7 2 (0.91%) Unified Communications
8 1 (0.45%) IPv4
8 1 (0.45%) Network Security
8 1 (0.45%) VLAN
8 1 (0.45%) VoIP
8 1 (0.45%) WAN
8 1 (0.45%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 4 (1.82%) JIRA
General
1 85 (38.64%) Social Skills
2 46 (20.91%) Finance
3 27 (12.27%) Public Sector
4 26 (11.82%) Telecoms
5 23 (10.45%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (10.45%) Electronics
5 23 (10.45%) Manufacturing
5 23 (10.45%) Marketing
6 9 (4.09%) Retail
7 7 (3.18%) Aerospace
8 6 (2.73%) Banking
8 6 (2.73%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.73%) Law
9 4 (1.82%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.36%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.91%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.91%) Legal
12 1 (0.45%) Financial Institution
Miscellaneous
1 28 (12.73%) Self-Motivation
1 28 (12.73%) Smartphone
2 25 (11.36%) Data Centre
3 11 (5.00%) Onboarding
4 8 (3.64%) Hybrid Cloud
4 8 (3.64%) Management Information System
5 6 (2.73%) Video Conferencing
6 5 (2.27%) Virtual Team
7 4 (1.82%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.82%) iPad
7 4 (1.82%) iPhone
8 3 (1.36%) Hedge funds
9 2 (0.91%) Mobile App
9 2 (0.91%) Tandem
10 1 (0.45%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.45%) BYOD
10 1 (0.45%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.45%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 126 (57.27%) Windows
2 73 (33.18%) Windows 10
3 35 (15.91%) Mac OS
4 30 (13.64%) Android
5 16 (7.27%) Apple iOS
6 10 (4.55%) Windows Server
7 5 (2.27%) Windows 7
8 4 (1.82%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.45%) Linux
9 1 (0.45%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (32.73%) Customer Service
2 27 (12.27%) ITIL
3 25 (11.36%) Migration
4 24 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
5 23 (10.45%) Business Intelligence
5 23 (10.45%) Digital Marketing
5 23 (10.45%) Programme Management
6 22 (10.00%) Service Management
7 19 (8.64%) Service Delivery
7 19 (8.64%) Time Management
8 18 (8.18%) ITSM
9 14 (6.36%) Asset Management
9 14 (6.36%) Incident Management
10 12 (5.45%) Inventory Management
10 12 (5.45%) Workflow
11 11 (5.00%) Continuous Improvement
12 10 (4.55%) Patch Management
13 9 (4.09%) Mobile Device Management
13 9 (4.09%) Project Delivery
14 8 (3.64%) Impact Analysis
Programming Languages
1 17 (7.73%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.45%) Python
Qualifications
1 71 (32.27%) Security Cleared
2 70 (31.82%) SC Cleared
3 8 (3.64%) Degree
4 6 (2.73%) A+ Certification
5 4 (1.82%) ITIL Certification
6 3 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (15.00%) SLA
2 7 (3.18%) GDPR
3 2 (0.91%) QA
System Software
1 72 (32.73%) Active Directory
2 8 (3.64%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (2.27%) Firmware
4 1 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.45%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.45%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 34 (15.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (13.64%) SCCM
3 1 (0.45%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 83 (37.73%) Microsoft
2 33 (15.00%) HP
3 30 (13.64%) Dell
4 29 (13.18%) Apple
5 28 (12.73%) Cisco
6 27 (12.27%) ServiceNow
7 23 (10.45%) SAP
8 6 (2.73%) McAfee
9 5 (2.27%) Google
9 5 (2.27%) Remedy
10 4 (1.82%) Starlink
11 3 (1.36%) Bloomberg
12 2 (0.91%) Salesforce
13 1 (0.45%) Altiris
13 1 (0.45%) Barracuda Networks
13 1 (0.45%) Citrix
13 1 (0.45%) CrowdStrike
13 1 (0.45%) Nexthink
13 1 (0.45%) SolarWinds
13 1 (0.45%) VMware