Desktop Support Engineer Contracts 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 £205, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 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
16 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 215 268 262
Rank change year-on-year +53 -6 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support Engineer 131 122 182
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.02% 0.60% 0.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.11% 0.65% 0.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 72 96 144
10th Percentile £150 £125 £145
25th Percentile £163 £140 £179
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £205 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £235 £218 £243
90th Percentile £250 £225 £280
UK median daily rate £200 £195 £200
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 7 6
10th Percentile £16.67 £15.10 £16.02
25th Percentile £18.96 £17.00 £16.54
Median hourly rate £23.00 £18.00 £19.97
Median % change year-on-year +27.78% -9.85% +13.90%
75th Percentile £23.97 £18.20 £27.88
90th Percentile £25.00 £22.46 £29.75
UK median hourly rate £23.00 £18.13 £23.50
% change year-on-year +26.86% -22.85% +33.83%

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 11,837 18,742 21,756
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.97% 92.49% 94.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,537 11,429 15,189
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £595 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 842 2,251 1,113
10th Percentile £13.85 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.75 £18.08
Median hourly rate £27.24 £40.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -31.91% -5.88% +112.50%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.60 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £28.18 £36.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -22.79% -18.89% +87.50%

Desktop Support Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Support Engineer in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support Engineer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Desktop Support Engineer 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 16 May 2025.

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

Desktop Support Engineer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Desktop Support Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend 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 16 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
South West +56 35 £235 +27.72% 1
North of England +31 30 £195 +27.87% 2
South East +29 23 £205 -2.38% 6
East of England +28 16 £210 +20.00% 7
Yorkshire +21 11 £235 +18.99% 2
Midlands +19 11 £190 +55.74%
North West +7 10 £155 +10.71%
West Midlands +19 9 £182 +25.17%
North East +6 9 £155 -20.51%
Northern Ireland -4 7 £150 +7.14%
Scotland +2 6 £150 +19.05% 1
Wales 0 3 - -
East Midlands +6 2 £300 +145.90%
Desktop Support Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 16 May 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 UK excluding London region featuring Desktop Support Engineer in the job title.

1 88 (67.18%) Social Skills
2 80 (61.07%) Microsoft
3 67 (51.15%) Windows
4 50 (38.17%) Active Directory
5 47 (35.88%) Security Cleared
5 47 (35.88%) Customer Service
6 44 (33.59%) SC Cleared
6 44 (33.59%) Microsoft 365
7 40 (30.53%) Windows 10
8 37 (28.24%) Finance
9 35 (26.72%) VPN
9 35 (26.72%) ITIL
10 32 (24.43%) Microsoft Office
11 29 (22.14%) Microsoft Exchange
12 27 (20.61%) Problem-Solving
13 26 (19.85%) Customer Experience
14 24 (18.32%) Driving Licence
14 24 (18.32%) SLA
14 24 (18.32%) Dell
14 24 (18.32%) Microsoft Intune
15 23 (17.56%) Mathematics
15 23 (17.56%) Dell Certification
15 23 (17.56%) HP
16 22 (16.79%) Degree
17 17 (12.98%) Citrix
17 17 (12.98%) ServiceNow
18 16 (12.21%) SharePoint
18 16 (12.21%) Time Management
19 15 (11.45%) SCCM
19 15 (11.45%) Manufacturing

Desktop Support Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 29 (22.14%) Microsoft Exchange
2 16 (12.21%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.76%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
Applications
1 32 (24.43%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (4.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (4.58%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.76%) Final Cut Pro
4 1 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.76%) QuarkXPress
Cloud Services
1 44 (33.59%) Microsoft 365
2 11 (8.40%) Azure
3 7 (5.34%) OneDrive
4 3 (2.29%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 35 (26.72%) VPN
2 12 (9.16%) LAN
3 8 (6.11%) Structured Cabling
4 7 (5.34%) Remote Desktop
4 7 (5.34%) WAN
5 6 (4.58%) DHCP
5 6 (4.58%) DNS
5 6 (4.58%) VLAN
5 6 (4.58%) VoIP
5 6 (4.58%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (3.05%) Firewall
7 3 (2.29%) Wireless
8 2 (1.53%) Telepresence
8 2 (1.53%) Unified Communications
9 1 (0.76%) Internet
9 1 (0.76%) WebEx
General
1 88 (67.18%) Social Skills
2 37 (28.24%) Finance
3 15 (11.45%) Manufacturing
3 15 (11.45%) Public Sector
4 13 (9.92%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (8.40%) Telecoms
6 10 (7.63%) Electronics
6 10 (7.63%) Marketing
7 6 (4.58%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (3.82%) Legal
8 5 (3.82%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.53%) Banking
10 1 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
Miscellaneous
1 24 (18.32%) Driving Licence
2 9 (6.87%) iPhone
2 9 (6.87%) NHS
3 7 (5.34%) iPad
3 7 (5.34%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (4.58%) Management Information System
4 6 (4.58%) Smartphone
5 3 (2.29%) Data Centre
5 3 (2.29%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (1.53%) BYOD
6 2 (1.53%) Device Driver
7 1 (0.76%) Client/Server
7 1 (0.76%) CMDB
7 1 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.76%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.76%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.76%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.76%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.76%) Thin Client
7 1 (0.76%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 67 (51.15%) Windows
2 40 (30.53%) Windows 10
3 6 (4.58%) Mac OS
4 5 (3.82%) Windows 7
4 5 (3.82%) Windows 8
4 5 (3.82%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.82%) Windows Server 2003
4 5 (3.82%) Windows Server 2008
4 5 (3.82%) Windows Server 2012
4 5 (3.82%) Windows Server 2016
4 5 (3.82%) Windows XP
5 3 (2.29%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.76%) Android
6 1 (0.76%) Linux
6 1 (0.76%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (35.88%) Customer Service
2 35 (26.72%) ITIL
3 27 (20.61%) Problem-Solving
4 26 (19.85%) Customer Experience
5 23 (17.56%) Mathematics
6 16 (12.21%) Time Management
7 14 (10.69%) ITSM
8 13 (9.92%) Case Management
8 13 (9.92%) Collaborative Working
8 13 (9.92%) Service Delivery
9 12 (9.16%) Root Cause Analysis
10 10 (7.63%) Business Intelligence
10 10 (7.63%) Digital Marketing
10 10 (7.63%) Programme Management
11 9 (6.87%) Inventory Management
12 7 (5.34%) Antivirus Management
13 6 (4.58%) Asset Management
13 6 (4.58%) Mentoring
13 6 (4.58%) Patch Management
13 6 (4.58%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (6.11%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.76%) Bash
2 1 (0.76%) Python
Qualifications
1 47 (35.88%) Security Cleared
2 44 (33.59%) SC Cleared
3 23 (17.56%) Dell Certification
4 22 (16.79%) Degree
5 14 (10.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 9 (6.87%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (5.34%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (3.82%) A+ Certification
9 3 (2.29%) DBS Check
10 2 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (18.32%) SLA
2 13 (9.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (3.05%) QA
4 1 (0.76%) GxP
System Software
1 50 (38.17%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 24 (18.32%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (11.45%) SCCM
3 6 (4.58%) AppManager
4 1 (0.76%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.76%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 80 (61.07%) Microsoft
2 24 (18.32%) Dell
3 23 (17.56%) HP
4 17 (12.98%) Citrix
4 17 (12.98%) ServiceNow
5 10 (7.63%) SAP
6 7 (5.34%) McAfee
7 6 (4.58%) Ivanti
7 6 (4.58%) VMware
8 5 (3.82%) Apple
8 5 (3.82%) Canon
9 3 (2.29%) Cisco
10 1 (0.76%) Adobe
10 1 (0.76%) Bomgar
10 1 (0.76%) Quark