Desktop Support Contracts in England

Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Desktop Support daily rate in England is £205, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 295 284 285
Rank change year-on-year -11 +1 +46
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 189 281 448
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.78% 0.76% 0.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.84% 0.82% 0.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 122 210 316
10th Percentile £150 £125 £140
25th Percentile £182 £150 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £205 £200 £201
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -0.67% +5.97%
75th Percentile £248 £225 £250
90th Percentile £299 £300 £300
UK median daily rate £203 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +1.25% - +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 28 40
10th Percentile £16.51 £16.78 £16.15
25th Percentile £17.03 £19.53 £18.13
Median hourly rate £24.83 £21.00 £24.25
Median % change year-on-year +18.24% -13.40% +27.63%
75th Percentile £31.60 £29.06 £25.71
90th Percentile £37.50 £30.63 £28.78
UK median hourly rate £17.30 £21.00 £23.50
% change year-on-year -17.62% -10.64% +23.68%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 22,494 34,110 46,424
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 92.71% 94.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,975 22,631 32,967
10th Percentile £300 £281 £313
25th Percentile £408 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £645 £663
90th Percentile £750 £750 £760
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 915 2,443 1,373
10th Percentile £14.01 £12.87 £14.26
25th Percentile £18.51 £16.30 £19.92
Median hourly rate £30.32 £37.18 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.45% -17.38% +99.60%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.30 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £77.40
UK median hourly rate £28.60 £36.65 £45.00
% change year-on-year -21.96% -18.56% +88.21%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured Desktop Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Support in England

Desktop Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Desktop Support in England.

Daily rate trend for Desktop Support in England

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support in England over the 6 months to 9 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in England

Desktop Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Desktop Support in England.

Hourly rate trend for Desktop Support in England

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support in England over the 6 months to 9 May 2025.

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 9 May 2025. 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 -23 51 £211 +5.38% 33
South West +46 39 £228 +19.74% 4
North of England +27 37 £195 +21.88% 4
South East +13 30 £200 -2.44% 13
East of England +38 17 £218 +24.29% 7
Yorkshire +20 14 £235 +20.51% 1
North West +10 13 £168 +19.64% 3
Midlands +9 13 £206 +16.20% 7
North East +2 10 £155 -18.42%
West Midlands +15 9 £240 +26.32% 4
East Midlands +8 4 £196 +60.86% 2
Desktop Support
UK

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 9 May 2025, Desktop Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 122 (64.55%) Windows
2 120 (63.49%) Social Skills
3 114 (60.32%) Microsoft
4 86 (45.50%) Active Directory
5 75 (39.68%) Microsoft 365
6 69 (36.51%) Customer Service
7 68 (35.98%) Windows 10
8 54 (28.57%) Security Cleared
9 50 (26.46%) SC Cleared
9 50 (26.46%) Finance
10 48 (25.40%) Microsoft Office
11 42 (22.22%) ITIL
12 38 (20.11%) Problem-Solving
13 37 (19.58%) VPN
14 36 (19.05%) SCCM
15 34 (17.99%) Microsoft Intune
16 33 (17.46%) HP
17 32 (16.93%) Microsoft Exchange
18 30 (15.87%) Dell
18 30 (15.87%) ServiceNow
19 29 (15.34%) SLA
20 26 (13.76%) Driving Licence
21 25 (13.23%) Customer Experience
22 23 (12.17%) Dell Certification
22 23 (12.17%) Degree
22 23 (12.17%) Mathematics
23 22 (11.64%) Citrix
24 21 (11.11%) SharePoint
24 21 (11.11%) Azure
25 20 (10.58%) Time Management

Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 32 (16.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (11.11%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.53%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 48 (25.40%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (3.17%) MS Visio
3 4 (2.12%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.53%) Final Cut Pro
4 1 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.53%) QuarkXPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.53%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 75 (39.68%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (11.11%) Azure
3 13 (6.88%) OneDrive
4 10 (5.29%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.06%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.53%) AWS
6 1 (0.53%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 37 (19.58%) VPN
2 14 (7.41%) LAN
3 13 (6.88%) DHCP
4 12 (6.35%) DNS
5 11 (5.82%) Wi-Fi
6 10 (5.29%) Firewall
6 10 (5.29%) Remote Desktop
7 9 (4.76%) VoIP
7 9 (4.76%) WAN
8 8 (4.23%) Structured Cabling
8 8 (4.23%) VLAN
9 6 (3.17%) Wireless
10 2 (1.06%) TCP/IP
10 2 (1.06%) Telepresence
10 2 (1.06%) Unified Communications
10 2 (1.06%) WebEx
11 1 (0.53%) Internet
11 1 (0.53%) Network Security
11 1 (0.53%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.53%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 3 (1.59%) JIRA
General
1 120 (63.49%) Social Skills
2 50 (26.46%) Finance
3 16 (8.47%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (7.94%) Public Sector
5 14 (7.41%) Manufacturing
6 10 (5.29%) Telecoms
7 9 (4.76%) Electronics
7 9 (4.76%) Marketing
8 7 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (3.70%) Legal
9 6 (3.17%) Banking
10 5 (2.65%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (1.59%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.53%) Back Office
13 1 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
Miscellaneous
1 26 (13.76%) Driving Licence
2 12 (6.35%) iPhone
3 10 (5.29%) Smartphone
4 9 (4.76%) NHS
5 8 (4.23%) iPad
6 7 (3.70%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (2.65%) Life Science
7 5 (2.65%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (2.12%) CMDB
8 4 (2.12%) Data Centre
9 2 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.06%) Handset
10 1 (0.53%) BYOD
10 1 (0.53%) Client/Server
10 1 (0.53%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.53%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.53%) Reinsurance
10 1 (0.53%) Replication
10 1 (0.53%) RSA SecurID
Operating Systems
1 122 (64.55%) Windows
2 68 (35.98%) Windows 10
3 14 (7.41%) Apple iOS
3 14 (7.41%) Mac OS
4 7 (3.70%) Android
4 7 (3.70%) Windows 8
4 7 (3.70%) Windows Server
4 7 (3.70%) Windows XP
5 6 (3.17%) Windows Server 2016
6 5 (2.65%) Windows 7
6 5 (2.65%) Windows Server 2003
6 5 (2.65%) Windows Server 2008
6 5 (2.65%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (2.12%) Mac OS X
8 2 (1.06%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (36.51%) Customer Service
2 42 (22.22%) ITIL
3 38 (20.11%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (13.23%) Customer Experience
5 23 (12.17%) Mathematics
6 20 (10.58%) Time Management
7 19 (10.05%) Asset Management
7 19 (10.05%) ITSM
8 14 (7.41%) Collaborative Working
9 13 (6.88%) Service Delivery
10 11 (5.82%) Case Management
10 11 (5.82%) Root Cause Analysis
11 10 (5.29%) Service Management
12 9 (4.76%) Break/Fix
12 9 (4.76%) Business Intelligence
12 9 (4.76%) Digital Marketing
12 9 (4.76%) Inventory Management
12 9 (4.76%) Patch Management
12 9 (4.76%) Programme Management
13 7 (3.70%) Antivirus Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (6.35%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.06%) Bash
2 2 (1.06%) Python
2 2 (1.06%) SQL
Qualifications
1 54 (28.57%) Security Cleared
2 50 (26.46%) SC Cleared
3 23 (12.17%) Degree
3 23 (12.17%) Dell Certification
4 17 (8.99%) Microsoft Certification
5 13 (6.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 10 (5.29%) A+ Certification
7 7 (3.70%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.59%) MCP
9 2 (1.06%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.53%) ACSP
10 1 (0.53%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.53%) CISSP
10 1 (0.53%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (0.53%) GIAC
10 1 (0.53%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (15.34%) SLA
2 11 (5.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.12%) QA
4 1 (0.53%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.53%) GxP
System Software
1 86 (45.50%) Active Directory
2 10 (5.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.06%) vSphere
3 2 (1.06%) XenApp
4 1 (0.53%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.53%) Firmware
4 1 (0.53%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 36 (19.05%) SCCM
2 34 (17.99%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (4.23%) AppManager
4 2 (1.06%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.06%) McAfee ePO
4 2 (1.06%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.53%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 114 (60.32%) Microsoft
2 33 (17.46%) HP
3 30 (15.87%) Dell
3 30 (15.87%) ServiceNow
4 22 (11.64%) Citrix
5 12 (6.35%) VMware
6 11 (5.82%) Apple
7 9 (4.76%) McAfee
7 9 (4.76%) SAP
8 8 (4.23%) Ivanti
9 7 (3.70%) Canon
9 7 (3.70%) Cisco
10 3 (1.59%) Adobe
10 3 (1.59%) Google
10 3 (1.59%) Sage
10 3 (1.59%) Spiceworks
11 2 (1.06%) Barracuda Networks
11 2 (1.06%) Draytek
11 2 (1.06%) NETGEAR
11 2 (1.06%) WatchGuard