Desktop Support Contract Job Trends

Desktop Support
UK

The median Desktop Support daily rate in the UK is £213, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 September 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 482 315 316
Rank change year-on-year -167 +1 -13
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 198 252 252
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.78% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.85% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 145 169
10th Percentile £140 £145 £135
25th Percentile £170 £163 £154
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £215 £200
Median % change year-on-year -1.16% +7.50% -
75th Percentile £241 £250 £233
90th Percentile £280 £278 £269
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £215 £203
% change year-on-year -1.16% +6.17% +1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 40 24
10th Percentile £16.01 - £18.04
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.75 £18.24
Median hourly rate £22.00 £20.98 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.86% -0.10% +6.33%
75th Percentile £23.50 £31.40 £24.89
90th Percentile £24.96 £33.75 £28.23
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.33 £25.15 £23.53
% change year-on-year -23.14% +6.90% +34.44%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 49,563 29,654 35,643
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 91.23% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,606 18,697 22,460
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,581 1,558 1,825
10th Percentile £14.90 £13.68 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.02 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £71.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Desktop Support job vacancy trend in the UK

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 3 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 3 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 3 September 2026. 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
England -166 168 £225 +2.27% 47
UK excluding London -137 124 £213 -1.16% 23
London -67 71 £225 +1.58% 26
North of England -64 36 £238 +13.10% 5
North West -42 26 £235 +11.90% 4
South West -69 22 £210 -6.67% 5
Scotland -16 21 £175 -4.76%
South East -77 21 £190 -11.63% 11
Yorkshire -43 10 £240 +2.13% 1
Midlands -56 10 £250 +46.20% 5
East of England -23 9 £173 -21.59%
Work from Home -46 9 £226 -9.50% 3
West Midlands -54 7 £225 +30.43% 4
Northern Ireland +2 5 £175 +6.06%
East Midlands -21 3 £270 +57.89% 1
Wales -17 1 - -

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 September 2026, Desktop Support 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 featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 142 (71.72%) Windows
2 96 (48.48%) Microsoft
3 88 (44.44%) Microsoft 365
4 79 (39.90%) Active Directory
5 60 (30.30%) ITIL
6 56 (28.28%) Customer Service
7 45 (22.73%) ITSM
7 45 (22.73%) Windows 10
8 43 (21.72%) Security Cleared
9 40 (20.20%) Microsoft Intune
10 38 (19.19%) SC Cleared
11 35 (17.68%) ServiceNow
12 31 (15.66%) SCCM
13 30 (15.15%) Service Management
14 29 (14.65%) Problem-Solving
15 28 (14.14%) SharePoint
16 27 (13.64%) Service Delivery
17 26 (13.13%) Degree
18 25 (12.63%) Azure
18 25 (12.63%) VPN
19 24 (12.12%) Asset Management
19 24 (12.12%) SLA
20 23 (11.62%) Entra ID
21 22 (11.11%) Migration
21 22 (11.11%) Virtual Desktop
22 21 (10.61%) Mac OS
23 19 (9.60%) Android
23 19 (9.60%) Apple iOS
23 19 (9.60%) PowerShell
24 18 (9.09%) Citrix

Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 28 (14.14%) SharePoint
2 11 (5.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.51%) Confluence
3 1 (0.51%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 11 (5.56%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.52%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 88 (44.44%) Microsoft 365
2 25 (12.63%) Azure
3 23 (11.62%) Entra ID
4 15 (7.58%) OneDrive
5 7 (3.54%) SaaS
6 2 (1.01%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.51%) IaaS
7 1 (0.51%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.51%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 25 (12.63%) VPN
2 14 (7.07%) DHCP
3 13 (6.57%) DNS
4 12 (6.06%) TCP/IP
5 11 (5.56%) Wireless
6 10 (5.05%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (4.55%) LAN
8 3 (1.52%) Firewall
8 3 (1.52%) Network Security
8 3 (1.52%) Value-Added Service
9 2 (1.01%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (1.01%) Remote Desktop
9 2 (1.01%) Skype
10 1 (0.51%) NAS
10 1 (0.51%) VLAN
10 1 (0.51%) WAN
10 1 (0.51%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.51%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.02%) JIRA
General
1 80 (40.40%) Social Skills
2 37 (18.69%) Finance
3 18 (9.09%) Organisational Skills
4 16 (8.08%) Banking
5 12 (6.06%) Investment Banking
6 11 (5.56%) Telecoms
7 10 (5.05%) Financial Institution
7 10 (5.05%) Legal
7 10 (5.05%) Spanish Language
8 8 (4.04%) Analytical Skills
9 5 (2.53%) Front Office
10 4 (2.02%) Law
10 4 (2.02%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.52%) Public Sector
12 2 (1.01%) Local Government
13 1 (0.51%) Documentation Skills
13 1 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.51%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.54%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.51%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 43 (21.72%) Onboarding
2 15 (7.58%) Video Conferencing
3 14 (7.07%) Driving Licence
4 12 (6.06%) Hedge funds
5 10 (5.05%) Smartphone
6 6 (3.03%) iPhone
7 5 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (2.02%) Management Information System
8 4 (2.02%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.52%) CMDB
10 2 (1.01%) Augmented Reality
10 2 (1.01%) BYOD
10 2 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (1.01%) Virtual Reality
11 1 (0.51%) Blackberry
11 1 (0.51%) Data Centre
11 1 (0.51%) Enterprise Software
11 1 (0.51%) iPad
11 1 (0.51%) Mobile Computing
Operating Systems
1 142 (71.72%) Windows
2 45 (22.73%) Windows 10
3 21 (10.61%) Mac OS
4 19 (9.60%) Android
4 19 (9.60%) Apple iOS
5 5 (2.53%) Windows 7
5 5 (2.53%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.52%) Linux
6 3 (1.52%) Windows XP
7 1 (0.51%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (30.30%) ITIL
2 56 (28.28%) Customer Service
3 45 (22.73%) ITSM
4 30 (15.15%) Service Management
5 29 (14.65%) Problem-Solving
6 27 (13.64%) Service Delivery
7 24 (12.12%) Asset Management
8 22 (11.11%) Migration
9 13 (6.57%) Incident Management
10 12 (6.06%) Break/Fix
11 11 (5.56%) Continuous Improvement
11 11 (5.56%) Inventory Management
12 10 (5.05%) Mobile Device Management
13 9 (4.55%) Logistics
13 9 (4.55%) User Experience
14 8 (4.04%) Problem Management
15 7 (3.54%) Change Management
15 7 (3.54%) Data Protection
15 7 (3.54%) Root Cause Analysis
16 5 (2.53%) Fault Management
Programming Languages
1 19 (9.60%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.52%) Python
2 3 (1.52%) SQL
2 3 (1.52%) VBScript
3 1 (0.51%) Bash
Qualifications
1 43 (21.72%) Security Cleared
2 38 (19.19%) SC Cleared
3 26 (13.13%) Degree
4 13 (6.57%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (2.02%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.02%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.52%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.52%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.51%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.51%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (12.12%) SLA
System Software
1 79 (39.90%) Active Directory
2 22 (11.11%) Virtual Desktop
3 9 (4.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.52%) BitLocker
5 2 (1.01%) Firmware
6 1 (0.51%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.51%) zsh
Systems Management
1 40 (20.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 31 (15.66%) SCCM
3 4 (2.02%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.51%) WSUS
Vendors
1 96 (48.48%) Microsoft
2 35 (17.68%) ServiceNow
3 18 (9.09%) Citrix
4 13 (6.57%) Apple
5 9 (4.55%) McAfee
5 9 (4.55%) VMware
6 6 (3.03%) HP
7 5 (2.53%) Adobe
7 5 (2.53%) Cisco
7 5 (2.53%) Starlink
8 4 (2.02%) Samsung
8 4 (2.02%) Tanium
9 3 (1.52%) Autodesk
9 3 (1.52%) BeyondTrust
9 3 (1.52%) Bloomberg
9 3 (1.52%) Dell
9 3 (1.52%) Remedy
9 3 (1.52%) Symantec
10 2 (1.01%) Google
10 2 (1.01%) Meraki