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 August 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 488 315 316
Rank change year-on-year -173 +1 -13
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 180 260 258
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.34% 0.79% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.86% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 128 146 180
10th Percentile £140 £145 £126
25th Percentile £171 £160 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% - -
75th Percentile £241 £245 £230
90th Percentile £282 £279 £270
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +6.25% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 40 29
10th Percentile £16.26 - £16.25
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.75 £18.00
Median hourly rate £22.00 £17.30 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.17% -17.62% -8.28%
75th Percentile £23.50 £26.50 £27.00
90th Percentile £25.11 £33.75 £30.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.33 £25.00 £19.14
% change year-on-year -22.68% +30.65% +9.59%

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 49,223 30,273 36,284
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.63% 91.43% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,638 19,224 23,532
10th Percentile £331 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
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 3,407 1,497 2,061
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.63 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +0.58%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.95 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +76.94% -42.71% +11.00%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -174 154 £225 +7.14% 10
UK excluding London -154 117 £213 +6.25% 12
London -66 60 £225 +2.27% 3
North of England -89 27 £235 +20.51% 2
South West -67 24 £210 -10.64% 1
South East -78 23 £180 -16.28% 3
Scotland -1 19 £213 +15.65% 5
North West -61 15 £235 +17.50% 2
Yorkshire -46 12 £230 -2.13%
East of England -17 11 £173 -13.75%
Work from Home -49 11 £207 -17.40% 6
Midlands -55 10 £250 +46.20% 1
West Midlands -66 6 £225 +32.35% 1
East Midlands -17 4 £260 +52.05%
Northern Ireland -1 3 £175 -15.66%
Wales -18 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 3 August 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.

1 130 (72.22%) Windows
2 81 (45.00%) Microsoft
3 74 (41.11%) Microsoft 365
4 69 (38.33%) Active Directory
5 56 (31.11%) Customer Service
6 43 (23.89%) ITIL
6 43 (23.89%) Windows 10
7 42 (23.33%) Security Cleared
8 39 (21.67%) SC Cleared
9 34 (18.89%) Microsoft Intune
10 32 (17.78%) Problem-Solving
11 29 (16.11%) ITSM
11 29 (16.11%) SharePoint
12 27 (15.00%) Azure
13 25 (13.89%) ServiceNow
14 24 (13.33%) VPN
15 23 (12.78%) Service Management
15 23 (12.78%) SLA
16 22 (12.22%) Asset Management
16 22 (12.22%) Degree
16 22 (12.22%) Entra ID
16 22 (12.22%) Service Delivery
17 20 (11.11%) Mac OS
17 20 (11.11%) Migration
17 20 (11.11%) SCCM
18 17 (9.44%) Apple iOS
19 16 (8.89%) Apple
20 15 (8.33%) Virtual Desktop
21 14 (7.78%) Android
22 13 (7.22%) 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 29 (16.11%) SharePoint
2 11 (6.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.56%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (4.44%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.11%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 74 (41.11%) Microsoft 365
2 27 (15.00%) Azure
3 22 (12.22%) Entra ID
4 13 (7.22%) OneDrive
5 5 (2.78%) SaaS
6 2 (1.11%) Google Ads
6 2 (1.11%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.56%) Google Workspace
7 1 (0.56%) IaaS
7 1 (0.56%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.56%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 24 (13.33%) VPN
2 12 (6.67%) DHCP
3 11 (6.11%) DNS
4 10 (5.56%) TCP/IP
4 10 (5.56%) Wireless
5 9 (5.00%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (3.89%) LAN
7 3 (1.67%) Firewall
8 2 (1.11%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.56%) Cisco IOS
9 1 (0.56%) NAS
9 1 (0.56%) Network Security
9 1 (0.56%) Skype
9 1 (0.56%) VLAN
9 1 (0.56%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.56%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (2.78%) JIRA
General
1 74 (41.11%) Social Skills
2 32 (17.78%) Finance
3 19 (10.56%) Organisational Skills
4 14 (7.78%) Banking
5 11 (6.11%) Investment Banking
6 10 (5.56%) Financial Institution
6 10 (5.56%) Spanish Language
7 8 (4.44%) Analytical Skills
7 8 (4.44%) Telecoms
8 7 (3.89%) Legal
9 4 (2.22%) Law
10 3 (1.67%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.67%) Public Sector
11 2 (1.11%) Front Office
11 2 (1.11%) Local Government
12 1 (0.56%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.56%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.78%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.56%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 41 (22.78%) Onboarding
2 13 (7.22%) Driving Licence
3 11 (6.11%) Hedge funds
4 10 (5.56%) Video Conferencing
5 8 (4.44%) iPhone
5 8 (4.44%) Smartphone
6 7 (3.89%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.22%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.67%) iPad
9 2 (1.11%) Augmented Reality
9 2 (1.11%) BYOD
9 2 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.11%) Virtual Reality
10 1 (0.56%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.56%) CMDB
10 1 (0.56%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 130 (72.22%) Windows
2 43 (23.89%) Windows 10
3 20 (11.11%) Mac OS
4 17 (9.44%) Apple iOS
5 14 (7.78%) Android
6 5 (2.78%) Windows Server
7 4 (2.22%) Windows 7
8 3 (1.67%) Linux
8 3 (1.67%) Windows XP
9 1 (0.56%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (31.11%) Customer Service
2 43 (23.89%) ITIL
3 32 (17.78%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (16.11%) ITSM
5 23 (12.78%) Service Management
6 22 (12.22%) Asset Management
6 22 (12.22%) Service Delivery
7 20 (11.11%) Migration
8 11 (6.11%) Break/Fix
9 10 (5.56%) Incident Management
9 10 (5.56%) Mobile Device Management
10 9 (5.00%) Continuous Improvement
10 9 (5.00%) Root Cause Analysis
11 8 (4.44%) Inventory Management
11 8 (4.44%) Logistics
11 8 (4.44%) User Experience
12 7 (3.89%) Problem Management
13 6 (3.33%) Patch Management
14 5 (2.78%) Application Packaging
14 5 (2.78%) Fault Management
Programming Languages
1 11 (6.11%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.56%) Bash
2 1 (0.56%) Python
2 1 (0.56%) SQL
2 1 (0.56%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 42 (23.33%) Security Cleared
2 39 (21.67%) SC Cleared
3 22 (12.22%) Degree
4 12 (6.67%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.22%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.67%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.67%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.11%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.11%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.56%) CTC Cleared
8 1 (0.56%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (12.78%) SLA
System Software
1 69 (38.33%) Active Directory
2 15 (8.33%) Virtual Desktop
3 7 (3.89%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.67%) BitLocker
4 3 (1.67%) Firmware
5 1 (0.56%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.56%) zsh
Systems Management
1 34 (18.89%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (11.11%) SCCM
3 5 (2.78%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 81 (45.00%) Microsoft
2 25 (13.89%) ServiceNow
3 16 (8.89%) Apple
4 13 (7.22%) Citrix
5 8 (4.44%) McAfee
6 7 (3.89%) HP
6 7 (3.89%) Starlink
6 7 (3.89%) VMware
7 4 (2.22%) Dell
8 3 (1.67%) Bloomberg
8 3 (1.67%) Google
9 2 (1.11%) Adobe
9 2 (1.11%) Meraki
9 2 (1.11%) Remedy
10 1 (0.56%) Altiris
10 1 (0.56%) BMC
10 1 (0.56%) Cisco
10 1 (0.56%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.56%) Sophos
10 1 (0.56%) Synology