Desktop Support Contracts in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
UK > UK excluding London

The median Desktop Support daily rate in the UK excluding London is £205, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 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
2 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 176 227 164
Rank change year-on-year +51 -63 +10
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 169 175 343
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.32% 0.84% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.43% 0.91% 1.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 136 251
10th Percentile £150 £129 £143
25th Percentile £166 £144 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £205 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% - +14.29%
75th Percentile £235 £218 £250
90th Percentile £250 £230 £290
UK median daily rate £205 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +2.50% - +9.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 14 28
10th Percentile £16.79 £16.30 £13.44
25th Percentile £17.30 £17.25 £16.47
Median hourly rate £23.00 £23.75 £19.38
Median % change year-on-year -3.16% +22.58% +3.33%
75th Percentile £27.58 £30.25 £21.46
90th Percentile £33.14 £31.13 £28.83
UK median hourly rate £18.13 £21.00 £22.25
% change year-on-year -13.67% -5.62% +16.45%

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 11,790 19,217 22,597
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.60% 94.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,554 11,733 15,842
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.55% -1.50% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £599 £598
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 829 2,245 1,162
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.79 £15.75 £18.08
Median hourly rate £28.00 £39.50 £42.43
Median % change year-on-year -29.11% -6.91% +117.60%
75th Percentile £64.52 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.02 £45.00
% change year-on-year -19.49% -19.95% +91.49%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate trend for Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 2 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Hourly rate trend for Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 2 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
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 within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 2 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
North of England +34 39 £195 +21.88% 5
South West +52 38 £220 +15.79% 12
South East +14 30 £205 - 16
East of England +34 17 £218 +12.99% 2
Scotland +11 17 £175 +12.36%
Midlands +21 16 £210 +18.31% 2
North West +12 15 £194 +38.39% 3
Yorkshire +16 14 £230 +17.95% 2
West Midlands +18 12 £210 +10.53% 2
North East +2 10 £155 -18.42%
Northern Ireland -3 8 £150 +7.14% 1
East Midlands +13 4 £196 +60.86%
Wales 0 4 - - 1
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 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 UK excluding London region featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 104 (61.54%) Microsoft
2 93 (55.03%) Windows
2 93 (55.03%) Social Skills
3 65 (38.46%) Customer Service
4 57 (33.73%) Active Directory
5 56 (33.14%) Microsoft 365
6 52 (30.77%) Windows 10
7 51 (30.18%) Security Cleared
8 47 (27.81%) SC Cleared
9 44 (26.04%) ITIL
10 39 (23.08%) Finance
11 36 (21.30%) VPN
12 35 (20.71%) Driving Licence
13 33 (19.53%) Problem-Solving
13 33 (19.53%) Microsoft Office
14 32 (18.93%) Dell
15 29 (17.16%) ServiceNow
16 28 (16.57%) Microsoft Exchange
17 27 (15.98%) SLA
17 27 (15.98%) Microsoft Intune
18 26 (15.38%) Customer Experience
18 26 (15.38%) HP
19 24 (14.20%) Dell Certification
20 23 (13.61%) Mathematics
21 21 (12.43%) SCCM
21 21 (12.43%) Degree
22 20 (11.83%) Citrix
22 20 (11.83%) SharePoint
22 20 (11.83%) Public Sector
23 19 (11.24%) Analytical Skills

Desktop Support 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 28 (16.57%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (11.83%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.59%) Blackberry Enterprise Server
3 1 (0.59%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 33 (19.53%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (4.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (4.14%) MS Visio
3 5 (2.96%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.59%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.59%) Final Cut Pro
5 1 (0.59%) QuarkXPress
Business Applications
1 1 (0.59%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 56 (33.14%) Microsoft 365
2 16 (9.47%) Azure
3 9 (5.33%) OneDrive
4 6 (3.55%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.59%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 36 (21.30%) VPN
2 15 (8.88%) Remote Desktop
3 13 (7.69%) LAN
4 9 (5.33%) DHCP
5 8 (4.73%) DNS
5 8 (4.73%) Structured Cabling
5 8 (4.73%) VoIP
5 8 (4.73%) WAN
6 7 (4.14%) VLAN
6 7 (4.14%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (2.96%) Firewall
8 3 (1.78%) WebEx
8 3 (1.78%) Wireless
9 2 (1.18%) Internet
10 1 (0.59%) Intranet
10 1 (0.59%) TCP/IP
10 1 (0.59%) Telepresence
10 1 (0.59%) Unified Communications
General
1 93 (55.03%) Social Skills
2 39 (23.08%) Finance
3 20 (11.83%) Public Sector
4 19 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (9.47%) Manufacturing
6 12 (7.10%) Telecoms
7 11 (6.51%) Electronics
7 11 (6.51%) Marketing
8 7 (4.14%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (4.14%) Legal
9 5 (2.96%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.18%) Banking
10 2 (1.18%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.59%) CSS
1 1 (0.59%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 35 (20.71%) Driving Licence
2 13 (7.69%) iPhone
3 9 (5.33%) NHS
4 7 (4.14%) iPad
4 7 (4.14%) Management Information System
4 7 (4.14%) Self-Motivation
4 7 (4.14%) Smartphone
5 4 (2.37%) Video Conferencing
6 3 (1.78%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.18%) Blackberry
7 2 (1.18%) BYOD
7 2 (1.18%) CMDB
7 2 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.18%) Device Driver
7 2 (1.18%) Fat Client
7 2 (1.18%) Mobile App
7 2 (1.18%) Thin Client
7 2 (1.18%) Virtual Team
8 1 (0.59%) Client/Server
8 1 (0.59%) PDA
Operating Systems
1 93 (55.03%) Windows
2 52 (30.77%) Windows 10
3 7 (4.14%) Mac OS
4 6 (3.55%) Windows Server 2008
4 6 (3.55%) Windows Server 2012
4 6 (3.55%) Windows Server 2016
4 6 (3.55%) Windows XP
5 5 (2.96%) Apple iOS
5 5 (2.96%) Windows 7
5 5 (2.96%) Windows 8
5 5 (2.96%) Windows Server
5 5 (2.96%) Windows Server 2003
6 2 (1.18%) Linux
7 1 (0.59%) Android
7 1 (0.59%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (38.46%) Customer Service
2 44 (26.04%) ITIL
3 33 (19.53%) Problem-Solving
4 26 (15.38%) Customer Experience
5 23 (13.61%) Mathematics
6 18 (10.65%) ITSM
7 16 (9.47%) Time Management
8 14 (8.28%) Root Cause Analysis
9 11 (6.51%) Asset Management
9 11 (6.51%) Business Intelligence
9 11 (6.51%) Digital Marketing
9 11 (6.51%) Inventory Management
9 11 (6.51%) Programme Management
9 11 (6.51%) Service Management
10 10 (5.92%) Break/Fix
10 10 (5.92%) Service Delivery
11 9 (5.33%) Case Management
11 9 (5.33%) Collaborative Working
12 7 (4.14%) Antivirus Management
12 7 (4.14%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 10 (5.92%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.59%) Bash
2 1 (0.59%) Python
Qualifications
1 51 (30.18%) Security Cleared
2 47 (27.81%) SC Cleared
3 24 (14.20%) Dell Certification
4 21 (12.43%) Degree
5 18 (10.65%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (6.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 9 (5.33%) A+ Certification
8 7 (4.14%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (2.96%) DBS Check
10 4 (2.37%) MCP
11 2 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.59%) BPSS Clearance
12 1 (0.59%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.59%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (15.98%) SLA
2 9 (5.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.37%) QA
4 1 (0.59%) GxP
System Software
1 57 (33.73%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 27 (15.98%) Microsoft Intune
2 21 (12.43%) SCCM
3 7 (4.14%) AppManager
4 2 (1.18%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 1 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.59%) ServiceCenter
5 1 (0.59%) WSUS
Vendors
1 104 (61.54%) Microsoft
2 32 (18.93%) Dell
3 29 (17.16%) ServiceNow
4 26 (15.38%) HP
5 20 (11.83%) Citrix
6 11 (6.51%) SAP
7 8 (4.73%) Apple
8 7 (4.14%) Ivanti
8 7 (4.14%) McAfee
8 7 (4.14%) VMware
9 5 (2.96%) Canon
10 3 (1.78%) Cisco
11 2 (1.18%) Adobe
11 2 (1.18%) Bomgar
12 1 (0.59%) Google
12 1 (0.59%) Lotus
12 1 (0.59%) Peregrine
12 1 (0.59%) Quark
12 1 (0.59%) Sage
12 1 (0.59%) Spiceworks