Desktop Support Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
UK > UK excluding London

The median Desktop Support daily rate in the UK excluding London is £215, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 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
26 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 212 232 215
Rank change year-on-year +20 -17 -38
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 177 152 227
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.13% 0.86% 1.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.26% 0.93% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 107 163
10th Percentile £150 £135 £136
25th Percentile £160 £152 £161
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £215 £203 £200
Median % change year-on-year +6.17% +1.25% +5.26%
75th Percentile £248 £223 £227
90th Percentile £278 £245 £268
UK median daily rate £215 £203 £200
% change year-on-year +6.17% +1.25% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 12 17
10th Percentile £15.34 £18.01 £14.39
25th Percentile £17.30 £21.20 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.20 £24.18 £17.70
Median % change year-on-year +4.22% +36.61% -3.67%
75th Percentile £33.00 £25.32 £19.75
90th Percentile £33.75 £32.13 £20.70
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £24.18 £19.75
% change year-on-year +3.39% +22.43% +5.33%

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 13,994 16,371 20,262
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.71% 92.27% 94.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,606 9,355 13,519
10th Percentile £213 £220 £225
25th Percentile £361 £375 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £663 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £528
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.57% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,306 1,353 1,206
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.51 £14.19
25th Percentile £16.50 £19.59 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.17
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -0.38% +96.20%
75th Percentile £51.65 £66.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.70 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year -41.51% -2.27% +69.23%

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
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies 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 26 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies 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 26 September 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 26 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
South West +57 52 £235 +11.90% 3
North of England +5 48 £211 +9.74% 10
South East +18 35 £215 - 8
North West +1 26 £210 +3.70% 3
Midlands +4 25 £173 -34.10% 3
West Midlands 0 17 £175 -11.95% 1
Yorkshire -3 15 £235 +13.25% 5
Scotland -13 14 £150 -25.25% 2
East Midlands -4 8 £164 -40.27% 2
North East -5 7 £195 +2.63% 2
East of England -16 7 £220 +10.00%
Northern Ireland -4 4 £165 +6.45%
Wales +5 3 £168 -23.86% 3
Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 September 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.

1 110 (62.15%) Social Skills
2 97 (54.80%) Windows
3 88 (49.72%) Microsoft
4 87 (49.15%) Customer Service
5 69 (38.98%) Active Directory
6 68 (38.42%) Microsoft 365
7 67 (37.85%) ITIL
8 63 (35.59%) Security Cleared
9 59 (33.33%) SC Cleared
10 51 (28.81%) Windows 10
11 43 (24.29%) Service Management
12 42 (23.73%) Microsoft Office
13 41 (23.16%) ITSM
14 40 (22.60%) Analytical Skills
14 40 (22.60%) Problem-Solving
15 39 (22.03%) Microsoft Exchange
16 37 (20.90%) ServiceNow
17 34 (19.21%) Workflow
18 31 (17.51%) Finance
19 30 (16.95%) Degree
20 29 (16.38%) Microsoft Intune
21 27 (15.25%) VPN
22 25 (14.12%) Public Sector
23 23 (12.99%) Citrix
23 23 (12.99%) Service Delivery
24 21 (11.86%) Inventory Management
24 21 (11.86%) Manufacturing
24 21 (11.86%) Migration
25 19 (10.73%) Workflow Management
26 18 (10.17%) Time Management

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 39 (22.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (10.17%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.56%) Exchange Server 2010
3 1 (0.56%) HCL Notes
3 1 (0.56%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 42 (23.73%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (10.17%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.69%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.56%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 68 (38.42%) Microsoft 365
2 17 (9.60%) Azure
3 8 (4.52%) OneDrive
4 3 (1.69%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 27 (15.25%) VPN
2 10 (5.65%) LAN
3 9 (5.08%) Wireless
4 8 (4.52%) DHCP
4 8 (4.52%) Remote Desktop
5 7 (3.95%) DNS
5 7 (3.95%) PABX
6 6 (3.39%) WAN
7 5 (2.82%) Structured Cabling
8 4 (2.26%) Firewall
8 4 (2.26%) VLAN
9 3 (1.69%) Telepresence
9 3 (1.69%) Unified Communications
10 2 (1.13%) TCP/IP
10 2 (1.13%) VoIP
10 2 (1.13%) WebEx
10 2 (1.13%) Wi-Fi
11 1 (0.56%) IP Telephony
11 1 (0.56%) Skype
11 1 (0.56%) WLAN
General
1 110 (62.15%) Social Skills
2 40 (22.60%) Analytical Skills
3 31 (17.51%) Finance
4 25 (14.12%) Public Sector
5 21 (11.86%) Manufacturing
6 17 (9.60%) Electronics
6 17 (9.60%) Marketing
6 17 (9.60%) Telecoms
7 7 (3.95%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.82%) Banking
9 3 (1.69%) Aerospace
9 3 (1.69%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.13%) Legal
10 2 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.56%) X-Windows
Miscellaneous
1 18 (10.17%) Driving Licence
2 12 (6.78%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (5.65%) Smartphone
4 8 (4.52%) Onboarding
5 7 (3.95%) iPad
5 7 (3.95%) iPhone
6 3 (1.69%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.69%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.69%) Video Conferencing
7 2 (1.13%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.56%) Blackberry
8 1 (0.56%) CMDB
8 1 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.56%) Fat Client
8 1 (0.56%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.56%) Thin Client
8 1 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 97 (54.80%) Windows
2 51 (28.81%) Windows 10
3 14 (7.91%) Apple iOS
4 10 (5.65%) Android
4 10 (5.65%) Mac OS
5 8 (4.52%) Windows Server
6 5 (2.82%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (1.69%) Windows 8
7 3 (1.69%) Windows Server 2003
7 3 (1.69%) Windows Server 2008
7 3 (1.69%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (1.69%) Windows XP
8 2 (1.13%) Linux
9 1 (0.56%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (49.15%) Customer Service
2 67 (37.85%) ITIL
3 43 (24.29%) Service Management
4 41 (23.16%) ITSM
5 40 (22.60%) Problem-Solving
6 34 (19.21%) Workflow
7 23 (12.99%) Service Delivery
8 21 (11.86%) Inventory Management
8 21 (11.86%) Migration
9 19 (10.73%) Workflow Management
10 18 (10.17%) Time Management
11 17 (9.60%) Business Intelligence
11 17 (9.60%) Digital Marketing
11 17 (9.60%) Programme Management
12 16 (9.04%) Patch Management
13 15 (8.47%) Collaborative Working
14 14 (7.91%) Data Analysis
15 12 (6.78%) Case Management
15 12 (6.78%) Root Cause Analysis
16 10 (5.65%) Antivirus Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (4.52%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 63 (35.59%) Security Cleared
2 59 (33.33%) SC Cleared
3 30 (16.95%) Degree
4 13 (7.34%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 11 (6.21%) ITIL Certification
5 11 (6.21%) Microsoft Certification
6 5 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (2.26%) DBS Check
8 3 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.13%) A+ Certification
9 2 (1.13%) DV Cleared
10 1 (0.56%) Dell Certification
10 1 (0.56%) MCP
10 1 (0.56%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (9.60%) SLA
2 12 (6.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.95%) QA
4 4 (2.26%) GDPR
5 1 (0.56%) COBIT
System Software
1 69 (38.98%) Active Directory
2 9 (5.08%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.56%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 29 (16.38%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (7.91%) SCCM
3 1 (0.56%) AppManager
Vendors
1 88 (49.72%) Microsoft
2 37 (20.90%) ServiceNow
3 23 (12.99%) Citrix
4 18 (10.17%) SAP
5 11 (6.21%) Dell
6 9 (5.08%) Apple
7 7 (3.95%) Cisco
7 7 (3.95%) McAfee
8 6 (3.39%) Starlink
9 4 (2.26%) HP
10 3 (1.69%) Canon
11 2 (1.13%) VMware
11 2 (1.13%) Wyse
12 1 (0.56%) Ivanti
12 1 (0.56%) Lotus
12 1 (0.56%) Oracle
12 1 (0.56%) Remedy
12 1 (0.56%) Sage