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 16 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 478 298 319
Rank change year-on-year -180 +21 -27
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 175 252 291
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.78% 0.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.85% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 139 202
10th Percentile £148 £150 £125
25th Percentile £170 £163 £144
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -1.96%
75th Percentile £238 £244 £225
90th Percentile £276 £278 £272
UK excluding London median daily rate £210 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 41 34
10th Percentile £16.13 - £16.48
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.75 £18.13
Median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% -10.64%
75th Percentile £23.75 £25.25 £27.00
90th Percentile £25.18 £33.75 £30.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.67 £23.75 £20.00
% change year-on-year -12.99% +18.75% +16.30%

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 48,701 29,792 39,645
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.70% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,482 18,952 25,549
10th Percentile £325 £287 £288
25th Percentile £419 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,274 1,409 2,702
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.75 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.27 £17.30 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.21 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.69% -34.48% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.49 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.04 £74.00 £73.98
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +81.13% -37.13% +6.67%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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 16 July 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 -163 151 £210 - 18
UK excluding London -152 120 £210 +5.00% 13
London -76 52 £223 +0.79% 7
South East -66 26 £180 -16.28% 6
North of England -101 23 £230 +17.95% 7
South West -58 22 £210 -10.64% 1
Scotland -9 17 £213 +6.25%
Midlands -64 15 £210 +22.81%
East of England -20 14 £184 -8.13%
Yorkshire -52 12 £230 -2.13% 2
Work from Home -65 12 £201 -19.80% 4
North West -61 11 £238 +31.94% 3
East Midlands -10 8 £200 +16.67%
West Midlands -61 7 £218 +13.58%
Northern Ireland -2 3 £175 +6.06%
Wales -13 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 16 July 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.

1 125 (71.43%) Windows
2 74 (42.29%) Microsoft
3 68 (38.86%) Microsoft 365
4 67 (38.29%) Active Directory
5 53 (30.29%) Customer Service
6 43 (24.57%) Windows 10
7 37 (21.14%) ITIL
7 37 (21.14%) Security Cleared
8 34 (19.43%) Problem-Solving
8 34 (19.43%) SC Cleared
9 32 (18.29%) Microsoft Intune
10 29 (16.57%) Azure
11 26 (14.86%) SharePoint
12 25 (14.29%) Asset Management
13 23 (13.14%) ITSM
13 23 (13.14%) VPN
14 21 (12.00%) Mac OS
14 21 (12.00%) Service Management
15 20 (11.43%) Entra ID
15 20 (11.43%) SCCM
15 20 (11.43%) ServiceNow
16 18 (10.29%) Degree
16 18 (10.29%) Service Delivery
16 18 (10.29%) SLA
17 16 (9.14%) Apple
17 16 (9.14%) Apple iOS
18 15 (8.57%) Migration
19 14 (8.00%) Android
20 13 (7.43%) Microsoft Exchange
21 12 (6.86%) DHCP

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 26 (14.86%) SharePoint
2 13 (7.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.57%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (5.71%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.14%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 68 (38.86%) Microsoft 365
2 29 (16.57%) Azure
3 20 (11.43%) Entra ID
4 10 (5.71%) OneDrive
5 4 (2.29%) Google Ads
6 3 (1.71%) SaaS
6 3 (1.71%) Slack
7 2 (1.14%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
8 1 (0.57%) Google Drive
8 1 (0.57%) IaaS
8 1 (0.57%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 23 (13.14%) VPN
2 12 (6.86%) DHCP
3 11 (6.29%) DNS
4 10 (5.71%) TCP/IP
5 9 (5.14%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (4.57%) Wireless
7 7 (4.00%) LAN
8 3 (1.71%) Firewall
9 2 (1.14%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.57%) Cisco IOS
10 1 (0.57%) IPv4
10 1 (0.57%) NAS
10 1 (0.57%) Skype
10 1 (0.57%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.57%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (3.43%) JIRA
General
1 71 (40.57%) Social Skills
2 25 (14.29%) Finance
3 16 (9.14%) Organisational Skills
4 12 (6.86%) Banking
5 10 (5.71%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (5.14%) Investment Banking
7 8 (4.57%) Financial Institution
7 8 (4.57%) Spanish Language
7 8 (4.57%) Telecoms
8 4 (2.29%) Legal
9 3 (1.71%) Law
9 3 (1.71%) Public Sector
10 2 (1.14%) Local Government
10 2 (1.14%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.57%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.57%) Front Office
11 1 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.57%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.29%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.57%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 31 (17.71%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.71%) Driving Licence
3 9 (5.14%) Video Conferencing
4 8 (4.57%) Hedge funds
4 8 (4.57%) iPhone
4 8 (4.57%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (4.57%) Smartphone
5 3 (1.71%) iPad
5 3 (1.71%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.14%) Augmented Reality
6 2 (1.14%) BYOD
6 2 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.14%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.14%) Virtual Reality
7 1 (0.57%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.57%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 125 (71.43%) Windows
2 43 (24.57%) Windows 10
3 21 (12.00%) Mac OS
4 16 (9.14%) Apple iOS
5 14 (8.00%) Android
6 7 (4.00%) Windows 7
7 5 (2.86%) Windows Server
8 3 (1.71%) Windows XP
9 2 (1.14%) Linux
9 2 (1.14%) Windows 8
10 1 (0.57%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (30.29%) Customer Service
2 37 (21.14%) ITIL
3 34 (19.43%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (14.29%) Asset Management
5 23 (13.14%) ITSM
6 21 (12.00%) Service Management
7 18 (10.29%) Service Delivery
8 15 (8.57%) Migration
9 10 (5.71%) Incident Management
9 10 (5.71%) Inventory Management
9 10 (5.71%) Root Cause Analysis
10 9 (5.14%) Break/Fix
10 9 (5.14%) Continuous Improvement
10 9 (5.14%) Logistics
11 8 (4.57%) Mobile Device Management
11 8 (4.57%) User Experience
12 6 (3.43%) Patch Management
12 6 (3.43%) Problem Management
13 5 (2.86%) Application Packaging
13 5 (2.86%) Fault Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.14%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.57%) Bash
Qualifications
1 37 (21.14%) Security Cleared
2 34 (19.43%) SC Cleared
3 18 (10.29%) Degree
4 9 (5.14%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 3 (1.71%) ITIL Certification
6 3 (1.71%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.71%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.14%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.14%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.14%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.57%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (10.29%) SLA
System Software
1 67 (38.29%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.57%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (2.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.71%) Firmware
5 2 (1.14%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.57%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.57%) zsh
Systems Management
1 32 (18.29%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (11.43%) SCCM
3 5 (2.86%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.57%) WSUS
Vendors
1 74 (42.29%) Microsoft
2 20 (11.43%) ServiceNow
3 16 (9.14%) Apple
4 10 (5.71%) HP
5 8 (4.57%) Starlink
6 7 (4.00%) Citrix
6 7 (4.00%) McAfee
7 5 (2.86%) VMware
8 4 (2.29%) Dell
8 4 (2.29%) Google
9 3 (1.71%) Bloomberg
9 3 (1.71%) Remedy
10 2 (1.14%) Adobe
10 2 (1.14%) Meraki
11 1 (0.57%) Cisco
11 1 (0.57%) MobileIron
11 1 (0.57%) Nexthink
11 1 (0.57%) Samsung
11 1 (0.57%) Synology
11 1 (0.57%) Ubiquiti