Desktop Support Engineer Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Desktop Support Engineer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £213, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 December 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 291 265 290
Rank change year-on-year -26 +25 -36
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 96 93 123
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.53% 0.63% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.59% 0.68% 0.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 70 86
10th Percentile £154 £142 £131
25th Percentile £163 £188 £140
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £220 £200
Median % change year-on-year -3.41% +10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £250 £238 £218
90th Percentile £280 £250 £238
UK median daily rate £213 £220 £200
% change year-on-year -3.41% +10.00% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 7 5
10th Percentile £19.54 £22.39 £18.05
25th Percentile £20.98 £22.50 £19.25
Median hourly rate £21.46 £23.00 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.70% +15.00% +18.10%
75th Percentile £22.41 £23.85 £21.75
90th Percentile £34.03 £24.18 -
UK median hourly rate £21.46 £23.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year -6.70% +15.00% +18.10%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 16,345 13,724 18,269
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.08% 92.39% 93.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,035 8,185 11,953
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £369 £363 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £679 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,655 776 1,187
10th Percentile £13.84 £15.36 £14.32
25th Percentile £17.48 £20.26 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -29.16% +83.52%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -23.79% -26.67% +50.00%

Desktop Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Support Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Desktop Support Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 21 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support Engineer in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 21 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support Engineer in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support Engineer
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 21 December 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
South West +1 30 £250 +11.11% 2
North of England -31 22 £195 -13.33% 4
Midlands -19 18 £175 -43.55% 4
East of England -22 16 £213 -3.41% 6
North West -24 13 £213 -5.56% 3
West Midlands -19 11 £175 -12.50% 3
South East -36 9 £250 +16.28% 4
Yorkshire -42 8 £165 -26.67% 1
East Midlands -13 7 £175 -58.33% 1
Scotland 0 3 £132 -30.79% 2
Northern Ireland -9 2 £200 +33.33%
Wales -1 1 £170 -
North East -5 1 £195 -
Desktop Support Engineer
UK

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 21 December 2025, Desktop Support Engineer 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 UK excluding London region featuring Desktop Support Engineer in the job title.

1 80 (83.33%) Windows
2 49 (51.04%) Windows 10
3 45 (46.88%) Active Directory
4 43 (44.79%) SC Cleared
4 43 (44.79%) Security Cleared
5 42 (43.75%) Microsoft 365
6 39 (40.63%) Customer Service
7 38 (39.58%) Microsoft
8 22 (22.92%) Microsoft Intune
9 18 (18.75%) ITIL
9 18 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
9 18 (18.75%) SharePoint
10 16 (16.67%) Azure
11 14 (14.58%) Microsoft Exchange
12 13 (13.54%) Microsoft Excel
12 13 (13.54%) Microsoft Office
12 13 (13.54%) PABX
13 11 (11.46%) Antivirus Management
13 11 (11.46%) Migration
13 11 (11.46%) SLA
14 10 (10.42%) Apple iOS
14 10 (10.42%) Service Management
14 10 (10.42%) ServiceNow
15 9 (9.38%) VPN
16 8 (8.33%) Inventory Management
16 8 (8.33%) SCCM
17 7 (7.29%) GDPR
17 7 (7.29%) ITIL Certification
17 7 (7.29%) McAfee
17 7 (7.29%) Service Delivery

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 18 (18.75%) SharePoint
2 14 (14.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.04%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 13 (13.54%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (13.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.04%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 42 (43.75%) Microsoft 365
2 16 (16.67%) Azure
3 2 (2.08%) OneDrive
4 1 (1.04%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 13 (13.54%) PABX
2 9 (9.38%) VPN
3 5 (5.21%) Structured Cabling
4 4 (4.17%) DHCP
4 4 (4.17%) DNS
4 4 (4.17%) Wireless
5 3 (3.13%) LAN
5 3 (3.13%) WAN
6 2 (2.08%) Firewall
6 2 (2.08%) Telepresence
6 2 (2.08%) Unified Communications
6 2 (2.08%) VLAN
7 1 (1.04%) TCP/IP
7 1 (1.04%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 1 (1.04%) JIRA
General
1 53 (55.21%) Social Skills
2 7 (7.29%) Analytical Skills
2 7 (7.29%) Public Sector
3 6 (6.25%) Aerospace
3 6 (6.25%) Documentation Skills
4 4 (4.17%) Law
5 3 (3.13%) Finance
5 3 (3.13%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.08%) Banking
6 2 (2.08%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.04%) Legal
7 1 (1.04%) Pharmaceutical
Miscellaneous
1 20 (20.83%) Self-Motivation
2 17 (17.71%) Smartphone
3 9 (9.38%) Onboarding
4 7 (7.29%) iPad
4 7 (7.29%) iPhone
5 3 (3.13%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (2.08%) Driving Licence
6 2 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (1.04%) Fat Client
7 1 (1.04%) Thin Client
7 1 (1.04%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 80 (83.33%) Windows
2 49 (51.04%) Windows 10
3 10 (10.42%) Apple iOS
4 7 (7.29%) Windows Server
5 5 (5.21%) Android
6 3 (3.13%) Mac OS
7 2 (2.08%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (1.04%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (40.63%) Customer Service
2 18 (18.75%) ITIL
2 18 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
3 11 (11.46%) Antivirus Management
3 11 (11.46%) Migration
4 10 (10.42%) Service Management
5 8 (8.33%) Inventory Management
6 7 (7.29%) Service Delivery
6 7 (7.29%) Time Management
7 6 (6.25%) Root Cause Analysis
7 6 (6.25%) Workflow
8 5 (5.21%) Workflow Management
9 4 (4.17%) Logistics
9 4 (4.17%) Patch Management
9 4 (4.17%) Process Improvement
10 3 (3.13%) ITSM
11 2 (2.08%) Asset Management
11 2 (2.08%) Computer Science
11 2 (2.08%) Disaster Recovery
11 2 (2.08%) Information Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (3.13%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 43 (44.79%) SC Cleared
1 43 (44.79%) Security Cleared
2 7 (7.29%) ITIL Certification
3 6 (6.25%) Degree
4 4 (4.17%) BPSS Clearance
4 4 (4.17%) DBS Check
5 2 (2.08%) A+ Certification
5 2 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (11.46%) SLA
2 7 (7.29%) GDPR
System Software
1 45 (46.88%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.08%) Firmware
2 2 (2.08%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.04%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 22 (22.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (8.33%) SCCM
Vendors
1 38 (39.58%) Microsoft
2 10 (10.42%) ServiceNow
3 7 (7.29%) McAfee
3 7 (7.29%) Starlink
4 2 (2.08%) Cisco
4 2 (2.08%) Dell
5 1 (1.04%) Barracuda Networks
5 1 (1.04%) Citrix
5 1 (1.04%) CrowdStrike
5 1 (1.04%) HP
5 1 (1.04%) SolarWinds
5 1 (1.04%) Veeam
5 1 (1.04%) VMware
5 1 (1.04%) Wyse