Desktop Support Contract Job Trends

Desktop Support
UK

The median Desktop Support daily rate in the UK is £210, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 483 313 322
Rank change year-on-year -170 +9 -19
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 199 257 252
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.79% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.87% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 121 150 163
10th Percentile £140 £144 £135
25th Percentile £170 £163 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £211 £200
Median % change year-on-year -0.59% +5.63% -
75th Percentile £240 £245 £230
90th Percentile £280 £278 £269
UK excluding London median daily rate £211 £210 £203
% change year-on-year +0.60% +3.70% +1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 44 22
10th Percentile £15.68 £13.75 £18.01
25th Percentile £17.25 £14.78 £18.17
Median hourly rate £21.00 £25.08 £23.53
Median % change year-on-year -16.25% +6.58% +17.64%
75th Percentile £23.50 £31.40 £26.30
90th Percentile £24.58 £33.75 £28.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.00 £29.60 £24.18
% change year-on-year -32.43% +22.42% +37.39%

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 50,255 29,550 35,480
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 91.04% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,827 18,649 21,961
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £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 3,770 1,552 1,702
10th Percentile £14.59 £13.69 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.15 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.59% -41.51% -1.96%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +6.95%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -169 170 £225 +4.65% 63
UK excluding London -148 124 £211 +0.60% 39
London -84 72 £213 -3.74% 28
North of England -83 35 £235 +11.90% 9
North West -44 27 £235 +11.90% 6
South East -76 22 £200 -6.98% 17
Scotland -10 20 £175 +4.48% 1
South West -79 20 £210 -5.62% 1
Midlands -54 12 £250 +42.86% 10
East of England -28 10 £173 -21.59% 2
West Midlands -58 9 £218 +24.29% 6
Work from Home -61 9 £226 -9.50% 4
Yorkshire -39 8 £240 +2.13% 3
Northern Ireland +5 5 £175 +6.06%
East Midlands -14 3 £270 +57.89% 4
Wales -14 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 15 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.

1 143 (71.86%) Windows
2 94 (47.24%) Microsoft
3 85 (42.71%) Microsoft 365
4 78 (39.20%) Active Directory
5 63 (31.66%) ITIL
6 54 (27.14%) Customer Service
7 46 (23.12%) ITSM
8 45 (22.61%) Windows 10
9 41 (20.60%) Security Cleared
10 38 (19.10%) Microsoft Intune
11 36 (18.09%) SC Cleared
12 34 (17.09%) SCCM
12 34 (17.09%) ServiceNow
13 32 (16.08%) Service Management
14 28 (14.07%) Service Delivery
14 28 (14.07%) SharePoint
15 27 (13.57%) Degree
15 27 (13.57%) Problem-Solving
16 25 (12.56%) Azure
17 24 (12.06%) Asset Management
17 24 (12.06%) SLA
17 24 (12.06%) VPN
18 22 (11.06%) Entra ID
18 22 (11.06%) Migration
18 22 (11.06%) Virtual Desktop
19 21 (10.55%) Mac OS
20 19 (9.55%) Android
20 19 (9.55%) Apple iOS
20 19 (9.55%) Citrix
20 19 (9.55%) PowerShell

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 (14.07%) SharePoint
2 10 (5.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.50%) Confluence
3 1 (0.50%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (6.53%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.51%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 85 (42.71%) Microsoft 365
2 25 (12.56%) Azure
3 22 (11.06%) Entra ID
4 15 (7.54%) OneDrive
5 7 (3.52%) SaaS
6 2 (1.01%) Slack
7 1 (0.50%) IaaS
7 1 (0.50%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 24 (12.06%) VPN
2 13 (6.53%) DHCP
3 12 (6.03%) DNS
3 12 (6.03%) TCP/IP
4 11 (5.53%) Wireless
5 10 (5.03%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (4.02%) LAN
7 3 (1.51%) Cisco IOS
7 3 (1.51%) Firewall
7 3 (1.51%) Network Security
7 3 (1.51%) Value-Added Service
8 2 (1.01%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (1.01%) WAN
8 2 (1.01%) WebEx
9 1 (0.50%) NAS
9 1 (0.50%) SD-WAN
9 1 (0.50%) Skype
9 1 (0.50%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.50%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.50%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.01%) JIRA
General
1 81 (40.70%) Social Skills
2 39 (19.60%) Finance
3 17 (8.54%) Banking
4 16 (8.04%) Organisational Skills
5 12 (6.03%) Investment Banking
5 12 (6.03%) Legal
6 11 (5.53%) Telecoms
7 10 (5.03%) Financial Institution
7 10 (5.03%) Spanish Language
8 6 (3.02%) Analytical Skills
9 5 (2.51%) Front Office
10 4 (2.01%) Law
11 3 (1.51%) Manufacturing
12 2 (1.01%) Public Sector
13 1 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
13 1 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.50%) Local Government
13 1 (0.50%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.50%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.52%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.50%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 45 (22.61%) Onboarding
2 15 (7.54%) Driving Licence
2 15 (7.54%) Video Conferencing
3 13 (6.53%) Hedge funds
4 9 (4.52%) Smartphone
5 5 (2.51%) iPhone
5 5 (2.51%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.01%) Mobile App
6 4 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.51%) CMDB
8 2 (1.01%) Augmented Reality
8 2 (1.01%) BYOD
8 2 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.01%) Mobile Computing
8 2 (1.01%) NHS
8 2 (1.01%) Virtual Reality
9 1 (0.50%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.50%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.50%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.50%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 143 (71.86%) Windows
2 45 (22.61%) Windows 10
3 21 (10.55%) Mac OS
4 19 (9.55%) Android
4 19 (9.55%) Apple iOS
5 5 (2.51%) Windows 7
5 5 (2.51%) Windows Server
6 4 (2.01%) Linux
7 3 (1.51%) Windows XP
8 1 (0.50%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (31.66%) ITIL
2 54 (27.14%) Customer Service
3 46 (23.12%) ITSM
4 32 (16.08%) Service Management
5 28 (14.07%) Service Delivery
6 27 (13.57%) Problem-Solving
7 24 (12.06%) Asset Management
8 22 (11.06%) Migration
9 13 (6.53%) Incident Management
10 12 (6.03%) Break/Fix
11 10 (5.03%) Continuous Improvement
11 10 (5.03%) Inventory Management
11 10 (5.03%) Mobile Device Management
12 8 (4.02%) Data Protection
12 8 (4.02%) Logistics
12 8 (4.02%) Problem Management
12 8 (4.02%) User Experience
13 7 (3.52%) Change Management
14 6 (3.02%) Patch Management
14 6 (3.02%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 19 (9.55%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.51%) Python
2 3 (1.51%) SQL
2 3 (1.51%) VBScript
3 1 (0.50%) Bash
Qualifications
1 41 (20.60%) Security Cleared
2 36 (18.09%) SC Cleared
3 27 (13.57%) Degree
4 11 (5.53%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.01%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (2.01%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.01%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.51%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.51%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.51%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.50%) CCNP
8 1 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.50%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.50%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (12.06%) SLA
System Software
1 78 (39.20%) Active Directory
2 22 (11.06%) Virtual Desktop
3 10 (5.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.51%) BitLocker
5 2 (1.01%) Firmware
5 2 (1.01%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.50%) zsh
Systems Management
1 38 (19.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (17.09%) SCCM
3 4 (2.01%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.50%) WSUS
Vendors
1 94 (47.24%) Microsoft
2 34 (17.09%) ServiceNow
3 19 (9.55%) Citrix
4 11 (5.53%) Apple
5 10 (5.03%) VMware
6 8 (4.02%) McAfee
7 7 (3.52%) Cisco
8 6 (3.02%) HP
9 5 (2.51%) Adobe
9 5 (2.51%) Tanium
10 4 (2.01%) Samsung
10 4 (2.01%) Starlink
11 3 (1.51%) Autodesk
11 3 (1.51%) BeyondTrust
11 3 (1.51%) Bloomberg
11 3 (1.51%) Dell
11 3 (1.51%) Meraki
11 3 (1.51%) Remedy
11 3 (1.51%) Symantec
12 2 (1.01%) Google