Desktop Support Engineer Contract Job Trends in the South West

Desktop Support Engineer
England > South West

The median Desktop Support Engineer daily rate in the South West is £225, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 September 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
2 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 85 125 140
Rank change year-on-year +40 +15 -5
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 31 18 18
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 1.61% 0.66% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.81% 0.72% 0.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 14 14
10th Percentile £186 £126 £140
25th Percentile £204 £143 £172
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £225 £190 £200
Median % change year-on-year +18.42% -5.00% +1.27%
75th Percentile £235 £219 £224
90th Percentile £237 £226 £235
England median daily rate £223 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +11.25% - +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £25.15 - -
England median hourly rate £24.66 £21.85 £18.35
% change year-on-year +12.89% +19.05% -12.62%

All DemandTrendContract IT Job Vacancies
South West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South West. 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 West with a recognized job title 1,710 2,511 3,161
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 88.97% 92.49% 95.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 978 1,581 2,185
10th Percentile £224 £225 £300
25th Percentile £363 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% +0.96%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £638
90th Percentile £700 £700 £719
England median daily rate £508 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 288 277
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.69 £18.05
25th Percentile £18.13 £33.00 £36.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £67.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -62.74% +12.50% +10.60%
75th Percentile £65.00 £72.50 £70.66
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -44.11% +2.86% +68.27%

Desktop Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Support Engineer in the South West

Desktop Support Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the South West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the South West

Desktop Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the South West.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the South West

Desktop Support Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 2 September 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
Somerset +4 11 £208 +0.24%
Bristol +15 8 £235 +23.68%
Devon +12 8 - -
Gloucestershire +23 5 £220 - 3
Dorset - 1 £215 -
Desktop Support Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 2 September 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 West region featuring Desktop Support Engineer in the job title.

1 27 (87.10%) Social Skills
2 23 (74.19%) Microsoft
3 16 (51.61%) SC Cleared
3 16 (51.61%) Security Cleared
3 16 (51.61%) Customer Service
4 15 (48.39%) Active Directory
5 14 (45.16%) ITIL
6 13 (41.94%) Microsoft Intune
7 12 (38.71%) VPN
8 11 (35.48%) Windows
8 11 (35.48%) Finance
9 10 (32.26%) Microsoft 365
10 9 (29.03%) Microsoft Exchange
10 9 (29.03%) Microsoft Office
11 8 (25.81%) SLA
11 8 (25.81%) Dell Certification
11 8 (25.81%) HP
11 8 (25.81%) Dell
11 8 (25.81%) Driving Licence
11 8 (25.81%) Degree
11 8 (25.81%) Mathematics
11 8 (25.81%) Customer Experience
12 7 (22.58%) Case Management
12 7 (22.58%) Collaborative Working
12 7 (22.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 7 (22.58%) Windows 10
12 7 (22.58%) ServiceNow
12 7 (22.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 7 (22.58%) Citrix
12 7 (22.58%) Service Delivery

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South West 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 9 (29.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (19.35%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (29.03%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 10 (32.26%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (19.35%) Azure
3 1 (3.23%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 12 (38.71%) VPN
2 1 (3.23%) DHCP
2 1 (3.23%) DNS
2 1 (3.23%) LAN
2 1 (3.23%) VLAN
2 1 (3.23%) VoIP
2 1 (3.23%) WAN
2 1 (3.23%) Wi-Fi
General
1 27 (87.10%) Social Skills
2 11 (35.48%) Finance
3 2 (6.45%) Banking
3 2 (6.45%) Investment Banking
3 2 (6.45%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 8 (25.81%) Driving Licence
2 4 (12.90%) Smartphone
3 3 (9.68%) iPad
3 3 (9.68%) iPhone
3 3 (9.68%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (3.23%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 11 (35.48%) Windows
2 7 (22.58%) Windows 10
3 2 (6.45%) Apple iOS
4 1 (3.23%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (51.61%) Customer Service
2 14 (45.16%) ITIL
3 8 (25.81%) Customer Experience
3 8 (25.81%) Mathematics
4 7 (22.58%) Case Management
4 7 (22.58%) Collaborative Working
4 7 (22.58%) ITSM
4 7 (22.58%) Service Delivery
5 6 (19.35%) Problem-Solving
6 5 (16.13%) Antivirus Management
7 4 (12.90%) Inventory Management
8 3 (9.68%) Logistics
8 3 (9.68%) Root Cause Analysis
8 3 (9.68%) Time Management
9 2 (6.45%) Data Entry
9 2 (6.45%) Process Improvement
10 1 (3.23%) Migration
10 1 (3.23%) Patch Management
10 1 (3.23%) Security Patching
10 1 (3.23%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.23%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 16 (51.61%) SC Cleared
1 16 (51.61%) Security Cleared
2 8 (25.81%) Degree
2 8 (25.81%) Dell Certification
3 7 (22.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
4 3 (9.68%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (25.81%) SLA
2 7 (22.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 15 (48.39%) Active Directory
2 1 (3.23%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 13 (41.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (6.45%) SCCM
3 1 (3.23%) AppManager
Vendors
1 23 (74.19%) Microsoft
2 8 (25.81%) Dell
2 8 (25.81%) HP
3 7 (22.58%) Citrix
3 7 (22.58%) ServiceNow
4 3 (9.68%) McAfee
5 1 (3.23%) Ivanti
5 1 (3.23%) VMware