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 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 466 294 310
Rank change year-on-year -172 +16 -38
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 154 220 234
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.80% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.87% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 134 166
10th Percentile £146 £150 £136
25th Percentile £185 £163 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £210 £200
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £243 £245 £230
90th Percentile £280 £278 £271
UK median daily rate £213 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +6.25% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 21 23
10th Percentile - £15.13 £16.40
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.13 £18.13
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.52% +19.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £23.50 £33.75 £27.00
90th Percentile £24.50 - £32.05
UK median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
% change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% -8.70%

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 42,127 25,302 31,377
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.57% 91.67% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,620 16,428 20,708
10th Percentile £328 £285 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,104 1,296 1,911
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.72 £14.13
25th Percentile £22.00 £17.85 £20.50
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.28 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +71.23% -40.14% +2.09%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.31 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.39% +0.96%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -74 60 £225 +2.27% 3
North of England -88 27 £235 +20.51% 2
South West -69 24 £210 -10.64% 1
South East -72 23 £180 -16.28% 2
North West -61 15 £235 +17.50% 2
Yorkshire -38 12 £230 -2.13%
East of England -19 11 £173 -13.75% 1
Midlands -61 10 £250 +46.20% 1
West Midlands -69 6 £225 +32.35% 1
East Midlands -17 4 £260 +52.05%
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 110 (71.43%) Windows
2 67 (43.51%) Microsoft
3 63 (40.91%) Microsoft 365
4 58 (37.66%) Active Directory
5 49 (31.82%) Customer Service
6 42 (27.27%) Windows 10
7 38 (24.68%) ITIL
8 37 (24.03%) Security Cleared
9 36 (23.38%) SC Cleared
10 29 (18.83%) Microsoft Intune
11 27 (17.53%) Problem-Solving
12 25 (16.23%) SharePoint
13 24 (15.58%) Azure
14 22 (14.29%) ITSM
14 22 (14.29%) Service Management
15 21 (13.64%) Asset Management
15 21 (13.64%) Entra ID
15 21 (13.64%) VPN
16 20 (12.99%) Degree
16 20 (12.99%) Mac OS
16 20 (12.99%) SCCM
17 18 (11.69%) ServiceNow
18 17 (11.04%) Service Delivery
19 15 (9.74%) Migration
19 15 (9.74%) SLA
20 14 (9.09%) Apple iOS
21 12 (7.79%) DHCP
21 12 (7.79%) OneDrive
22 11 (7.14%) A+ Certification
22 11 (7.14%) 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 25 (16.23%) SharePoint
2 11 (7.14%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.65%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (4.55%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.30%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 63 (40.91%) Microsoft 365
2 24 (15.58%) Azure
3 21 (13.64%) Entra ID
4 12 (7.79%) OneDrive
5 5 (3.25%) SaaS
6 4 (2.60%) Google Ads
7 2 (1.30%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (0.65%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.65%) IaaS
8 1 (0.65%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.65%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 21 (13.64%) VPN
2 12 (7.79%) DHCP
3 11 (7.14%) DNS
4 10 (6.49%) TCP/IP
5 9 (5.84%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (4.55%) LAN
7 6 (3.90%) Wireless
8 3 (1.95%) Firewall
9 1 (0.65%) NAS
9 1 (0.65%) Network Security
9 1 (0.65%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.65%) Skype
9 1 (0.65%) VLAN
9 1 (0.65%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.65%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (3.25%) JIRA
General
1 66 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 30 (19.48%) Finance
3 18 (11.69%) Organisational Skills
4 13 (8.44%) Banking
5 10 (6.49%) Investment Banking
6 9 (5.84%) Financial Institution
6 9 (5.84%) Spanish Language
7 7 (4.55%) Telecoms
8 6 (3.90%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (3.90%) Legal
9 4 (2.60%) Law
10 3 (1.95%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.95%) Public Sector
11 2 (1.30%) Front Office
11 2 (1.30%) Local Government
12 1 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.65%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.65%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 36 (23.38%) Onboarding
2 10 (6.49%) Hedge funds
3 9 (5.84%) Video Conferencing
4 8 (5.19%) Driving Licence
4 8 (5.19%) iPhone
5 7 (4.55%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (2.60%) Mobile App
6 4 (2.60%) Smartphone
7 3 (1.95%) iPad
8 2 (1.30%) BYOD
8 2 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.65%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.65%) CMDB
9 1 (0.65%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 110 (71.43%) Windows
2 42 (27.27%) Windows 10
3 20 (12.99%) Mac OS
4 14 (9.09%) Apple iOS
5 10 (6.49%) Android
6 4 (2.60%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.30%) Linux
8 1 (0.65%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (31.82%) Customer Service
2 38 (24.68%) ITIL
3 27 (17.53%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (14.29%) ITSM
4 22 (14.29%) Service Management
5 21 (13.64%) Asset Management
6 17 (11.04%) Service Delivery
7 15 (9.74%) Migration
8 10 (6.49%) Incident Management
9 9 (5.84%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (5.84%) Root Cause Analysis
10 8 (5.19%) Break/Fix
10 8 (5.19%) Logistics
10 8 (5.19%) User Experience
11 7 (4.55%) Inventory Management
12 6 (3.90%) Mobile Device Management
12 6 (3.90%) Patch Management
13 5 (3.25%) Business Continuity
13 5 (3.25%) Multi-Factor Authentication
13 5 (3.25%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 11 (7.14%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.65%) Bash
2 1 (0.65%) Python
2 1 (0.65%) SQL
2 1 (0.65%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 37 (24.03%) Security Cleared
2 36 (23.38%) SC Cleared
3 20 (12.99%) Degree
4 11 (7.14%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.60%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 3 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.95%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.95%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.30%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.30%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (1.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.65%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.65%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (9.74%) SLA
System Software
1 58 (37.66%) Active Directory
2 10 (6.49%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (4.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.95%) BitLocker
4 3 (1.95%) Firmware
5 1 (0.65%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.65%) zsh
Systems Management
1 29 (18.83%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (12.99%) SCCM
3 2 (1.30%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.65%) WSUS
Vendors
1 67 (43.51%) Microsoft
2 18 (11.69%) ServiceNow
3 10 (6.49%) Apple
4 8 (5.19%) Citrix
4 8 (5.19%) McAfee
5 7 (4.55%) Starlink
5 7 (4.55%) VMware
6 6 (3.90%) HP
7 3 (1.95%) Bloomberg
7 3 (1.95%) Dell
7 3 (1.95%) Google
8 2 (1.30%) Adobe
8 2 (1.30%) Remedy
9 1 (0.65%) Altiris
9 1 (0.65%) BMC
9 1 (0.65%) Nexthink
9 1 (0.65%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.65%) Samsung
9 1 (0.65%) Sophos
9 1 (0.65%) Ubiquiti