Desktop Support Engineer Contracts in the South East

Desktop Support Engineer
England > South East

The median Desktop Support Engineer daily rate in the South East is £250, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 August 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
7 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 155 162 166
Rank change year-on-year +7 +4 +32
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 14 27 48
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.40% 0.55% 0.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.59% 0.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 23 39
10th Percentile - £149 £167
25th Percentile £208 £205 £178
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £250 £215 £200
Median % change year-on-year +16.28% +7.50% +5.26%
75th Percentile - £228 £222
90th Percentile - £240 £251
England median daily rate £215 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +7.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
Median hourly rate £15.12 - -
England median hourly rate £17.16 £18.13 £17.70
% change year-on-year -5.38% +2.43% -15.71%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 the South East with a recognized job title 3,170 4,553 5,361
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.75% 92.00% 95.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,060 2,783 3,673
10th Percentile £208 £250 £225
25th Percentile £375 £400 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £519 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.66% +3.80% -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £613
90th Percentile £663 £700 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 257 377 236
10th Percentile £13.75 £16.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £26.73 £19.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.35 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.15% +14.70% +133.75%
75th Percentile £57.50 £72.33 £64.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £43.00
% change year-on-year -42.22% +4.65% +68.63%

Desktop Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Support Engineer in the South East

Desktop Support Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Desktop Support Engineer in the South East

Desktop Support Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Desktop Support Engineer in the South East

Desktop Support Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 7 August 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
Surrey +21 8 £233 +27.40%
Thames Valley -4 5 £250 +13.64%
Buckinghamshire +2 2 - -
Oxfordshire - 2 £250 -
West Sussex - 2 £238 -
Berkshire +5 1 £250 +16.28%
Desktop Support Engineer
England

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 7 August 2025, Desktop Support Engineer 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 South East region featuring Desktop Support Engineer in the job title.

1 14 (100.00%) Windows
2 12 (85.71%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (71.43%) Microsoft
3 10 (71.43%) Active Directory
4 8 (57.14%) Social Skills
5 5 (35.71%) Customer Service
5 5 (35.71%) ITIL
5 5 (35.71%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (28.57%) Microsoft Office
6 4 (28.57%) Service Management
6 4 (28.57%) Degree
6 4 (28.57%) Patch Management
6 4 (28.57%) Windows 10
7 2 (14.29%) SC Cleared
7 2 (14.29%) Security Cleared
7 2 (14.29%) Apple iOS
7 2 (14.29%) Coaching
7 2 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
7 2 (14.29%) Onboarding
7 2 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
7 2 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 2 (14.29%) Entra ID
7 2 (14.29%) QA
7 2 (14.29%) SCCM
7 2 (14.29%) Time Management
7 2 (14.29%) Asset Management
7 2 (14.29%) Logistics
7 2 (14.29%) DNS
7 2 (14.29%) Apple
7 2 (14.29%) DHCP

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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 5 (35.71%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (7.14%) Exchange Server 2010
2 1 (7.14%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (28.57%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 12 (85.71%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (14.29%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 2 (14.29%) DHCP
1 2 (14.29%) DNS
2 1 (7.14%) LAN
2 1 (7.14%) TCP/IP
2 1 (7.14%) WAN
General
1 8 (57.14%) Social Skills
2 2 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
Miscellaneous
1 2 (14.29%) Onboarding
2 1 (7.14%) Enterprise Software
2 1 (7.14%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 14 (100.00%) Windows
2 4 (28.57%) Windows 10
3 2 (14.29%) Apple iOS
4 1 (7.14%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (35.71%) Customer Service
1 5 (35.71%) ITIL
2 4 (28.57%) Patch Management
2 4 (28.57%) Service Management
3 2 (14.29%) Asset Management
3 2 (14.29%) Coaching
3 2 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 2 (14.29%) Logistics
3 2 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (14.29%) Time Management
4 1 (7.14%) Configuration Management
4 1 (7.14%) Disk Encryption
4 1 (7.14%) IT Asset Management
4 1 (7.14%) Mobile Device Management
Qualifications
1 4 (28.57%) Degree
2 2 (14.29%) SC Cleared
2 2 (14.29%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (14.29%) QA
System Software
1 10 (71.43%) Active Directory
2 1 (7.14%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 2 (14.29%) SCCM
2 1 (7.14%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 10 (71.43%) Microsoft
2 2 (14.29%) Apple
3 1 (7.14%) Citrix
3 1 (7.14%) Wyse