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 30 April 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 418 293 276
Rank change year-on-year -125 -17 0
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 170 193 291
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.42% 0.79% 0.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.46% 0.86% 0.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 127 218
10th Percentile £145 £153 £123
25th Percentile £158 £186 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £208 £200
Median % change year-on-year -3.86% +3.75% -1.32%
75th Percentile £230 £248 £227
90th Percentile £265 £293 £300
UK median daily rate £200 £205 £200
% change year-on-year -2.68% +2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 11 27
10th Percentile £16.34 £16.67 £16.70
25th Percentile £19.33 £21.40 £20.11
Median hourly rate £19.91 £30.00 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -33.63% +42.86% -7.18%
75th Percentile £21.46 £32.21 £29.38
90th Percentile £22.82 £37.50 £30.75
UK median hourly rate £20.05 £22.50 £21.00
% change year-on-year -10.91% +7.14% -5.08%

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 37,244 22,538 34,519
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.37% 92.63% 92.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,300 15,012 22,927
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £621 £638 £640
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 2,527 898 2,426
10th Percentile £15.75 £14.20 £12.96
25th Percentile £20.90 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £47.00 £31.64 £35.96
Median % change year-on-year +48.55% -12.01% -20.09%
75th Percentile £67.50 £64.50 £61.25
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £44.00 £29.07 £36.00
% change year-on-year +51.36% -19.25% -20.00%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -65 36 £225 +0.78% 3
Midlands -53 31 £200 -5.00% 1
East of England -27 28 £195 -10.34% 1
North of England -89 26 £230 +17.95% 5
South East -56 25 £172 -14.25% 1
East Midlands -9 23 £200 +1.66%
South West -48 22 £210 -5.62%
North West -39 14 £225 +16.13% 3
Yorkshire -59 12 £230 - 2
West Midlands -62 8 £140 -33.33% 1
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 30 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.

1 103 (60.59%) Windows
2 75 (44.12%) Microsoft
3 61 (35.88%) Active Directory
4 58 (34.12%) Customer Service
5 56 (32.94%) Microsoft 365
6 50 (29.41%) Windows 10
7 35 (20.59%) Azure
7 35 (20.59%) SC Cleared
7 35 (20.59%) Security Cleared
8 34 (20.00%) Microsoft Intune
9 29 (17.06%) Problem-Solving
10 24 (14.12%) SCCM
11 23 (13.53%) Migration
12 21 (12.35%) ITIL
12 21 (12.35%) SharePoint
13 19 (11.18%) SLA
14 17 (10.00%) Asset Management
15 15 (8.82%) VPN
16 14 (8.24%) Continuous Improvement
16 14 (8.24%) Entra ID
16 14 (8.24%) Service Delivery
16 14 (8.24%) ServiceNow
17 13 (7.65%) Mac OS
17 13 (7.65%) Time Management
18 12 (7.06%) Apple iOS
18 12 (7.06%) Incident Management
18 12 (7.06%) PowerShell
19 11 (6.47%) HP
20 10 (5.88%) ITSM
20 10 (5.88%) Logistics

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 (12.35%) SharePoint
2 8 (4.71%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 10 (5.88%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (5.29%) 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 56 (32.94%) Microsoft 365
2 35 (20.59%) Azure
3 14 (8.24%) 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 9 (5.29%) DNS
3 8 (4.71%) DHCP
3 8 (4.71%) TCP/IP
4 7 (4.12%) Wireless
5 3 (1.76%) Softphone
5 3 (1.76%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (1.18%) Firewall
6 2 (1.18%) LAN
7 1 (0.59%) IPv4
7 1 (0.59%) Skype
7 1 (0.59%) Telepresence
7 1 (0.59%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.59%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.59%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.35%) JIRA
General
1 58 (34.12%) Social Skills
2 17 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (5.29%) Finance
3 9 (5.29%) Retail
4 6 (3.53%) Law
5 4 (2.35%) Public Sector
6 3 (1.76%) Organisational Skills
6 3 (1.76%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.18%) Legal
7 2 (1.18%) Local Government
7 2 (1.18%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.18%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.59%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.59%) Banking
Miscellaneous
1 17 (10.00%) Self-Motivation
2 16 (9.41%) Smartphone
3 10 (5.88%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.71%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (4.12%) iPhone
5 7 (4.12%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.76%) iPad
8 2 (1.18%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.18%) Hedge funds
8 2 (1.18%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (1.18%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.59%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 103 (60.59%) Windows
2 50 (29.41%) Windows 10
3 13 (7.65%) Mac OS
4 12 (7.06%) Apple iOS
5 9 (5.29%) Windows Server
6 6 (3.53%) Android
7 5 (2.94%) Windows 7
8 4 (2.35%) Windows 8
9 1 (0.59%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (34.12%) Customer Service
2 29 (17.06%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (13.53%) Migration
4 21 (12.35%) ITIL
5 17 (10.00%) Asset Management
6 14 (8.24%) Continuous Improvement
6 14 (8.24%) Service Delivery
7 13 (7.65%) Time Management
8 12 (7.06%) Incident Management
9 10 (5.88%) ITSM
9 10 (5.88%) Logistics
10 9 (5.29%) Project Delivery
11 8 (4.71%) Disaster Recovery
11 8 (4.71%) Root Cause Analysis
11 8 (4.71%) Service Management
12 7 (4.12%) BCP
12 7 (4.12%) Data Migration
12 7 (4.12%) Inventory Management
12 7 (4.12%) Workflow
12 7 (4.12%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (7.06%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.59%) Python
Qualifications
1 35 (20.59%) SC Cleared
1 35 (20.59%) Security Cleared
2 7 (4.12%) A+ Certification
2 7 (4.12%) Degree
3 3 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (1.76%) ITIL Certification
4 1 (0.59%) DV Cleared
4 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (11.18%) SLA
System Software
1 61 (35.88%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.35%) Firmware
3 3 (1.76%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.59%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 34 (20.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 24 (14.12%) SCCM
3 1 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.59%) WSUS
Vendors
1 75 (44.12%) Microsoft
2 14 (8.24%) ServiceNow
3 11 (6.47%) HP
4 8 (4.71%) Starlink
5 7 (4.12%) Apple
5 7 (4.12%) Dell
5 7 (4.12%) McAfee
6 5 (2.94%) Google
7 4 (2.35%) Cisco
8 3 (1.76%) Bloomberg
8 3 (1.76%) Citrix
9 2 (1.18%) Remedy
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%) SolarWinds
10 1 (0.59%) Veeam