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 12 September 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 475 320 321
Rank change year-on-year -155 +1 -19
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 200 261 257
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.79% 0.67%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.87% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 125 150 167
10th Percentile £140 £145 £135
25th Percentile £170 £163 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £215 £200
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% +7.50% -
75th Percentile £243 £249 £231
90th Percentile £278 £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 17 44 22
10th Percentile £16.01 £13.75 £18.01
25th Percentile £17.25 £14.78 £18.17
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.08 £23.53
Median % change year-on-year -12.26% +6.58% +17.64%
75th Percentile £23.50 £31.40 £26.30
90th Percentile £24.80 £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 50,382 30,069 35,903
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 91.09% 93.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,936 18,968 22,276
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% -0.94%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £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 3,746 1,571 1,738
10th Percentile £14.58 £13.75 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.25 £17.04 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.33 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.88 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.59
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.83% +12.32%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -174 171 £225 +3.45% 40
UK excluding London -147 125 £213 -1.16% 28
London -73 72 £213 -4.06% 15
North of England -83 37 £240 +14.29% 5
North West -43 28 £235 +11.90% 3
South East -70 22 £190 -11.63% 11
South West -72 21 £210 -6.67% 1
Scotland -18 20 £175 -4.76% 1
Midlands -60 11 £250 +42.86% 9
East of England -22 9 £173 -21.59% 2
Yorkshire -50 9 £240 +2.13% 2
Work from Home -62 9 £226 -9.50% 4
West Midlands -57 8 £218 +24.29% 6
Northern Ireland +4 5 £175 +6.06%
East Midlands -19 3 £270 +57.89% 3
Wales -18 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 12 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.

1 146 (73.00%) Windows
2 95 (47.50%) Microsoft
3 87 (43.50%) Microsoft 365
4 79 (39.50%) Active Directory
5 64 (32.00%) ITIL
6 56 (28.00%) Customer Service
7 46 (23.00%) ITSM
8 45 (22.50%) Windows 10
9 42 (21.00%) Security Cleared
10 39 (19.50%) Microsoft Intune
11 37 (18.50%) SC Cleared
12 35 (17.50%) ServiceNow
13 34 (17.00%) SCCM
14 32 (16.00%) Service Management
15 28 (14.00%) Problem-Solving
15 28 (14.00%) Service Delivery
15 28 (14.00%) SharePoint
16 27 (13.50%) Degree
17 25 (12.50%) Asset Management
17 25 (12.50%) Azure
17 25 (12.50%) VPN
18 24 (12.00%) SLA
19 22 (11.00%) Entra ID
19 22 (11.00%) Migration
19 22 (11.00%) Virtual Desktop
20 21 (10.50%) Android
20 21 (10.50%) Mac OS
21 19 (9.50%) Apple iOS
21 19 (9.50%) Citrix
21 19 (9.50%) 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 (14.00%) SharePoint
2 12 (6.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.50%) Confluence
3 1 (0.50%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (6.50%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 87 (43.50%) Microsoft 365
2 25 (12.50%) Azure
3 22 (11.00%) Entra ID
4 15 (7.50%) OneDrive
5 7 (3.50%) SaaS
6 2 (1.00%) Microsoft Copilot
6 2 (1.00%) Slack
7 1 (0.50%) IaaS
7 1 (0.50%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 25 (12.50%) VPN
2 13 (6.50%) DHCP
3 12 (6.00%) DNS
3 12 (6.00%) TCP/IP
4 11 (5.50%) Wireless
5 10 (5.00%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (4.00%) LAN
7 3 (1.50%) Cisco IOS
7 3 (1.50%) Firewall
7 3 (1.50%) Network Security
7 3 (1.50%) Value-Added Service
8 2 (1.00%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (1.00%) WAN
8 2 (1.00%) 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 (2.00%) JIRA
General
1 81 (40.50%) Social Skills
2 39 (19.50%) Finance
3 17 (8.50%) Banking
3 17 (8.50%) Organisational Skills
4 12 (6.00%) Investment Banking
4 12 (6.00%) Legal
5 11 (5.50%) Telecoms
6 10 (5.00%) Financial Institution
6 10 (5.00%) Spanish Language
7 6 (3.00%) Analytical Skills
8 5 (2.50%) Front Office
9 4 (2.00%) Law
10 3 (1.50%) Manufacturing
11 2 (1.00%) Public Sector
12 1 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.50%) Local Government
12 1 (0.50%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.50%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.50%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.50%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 44 (22.00%) Onboarding
2 15 (7.50%) Driving Licence
2 15 (7.50%) Video Conferencing
3 13 (6.50%) Hedge funds
4 9 (4.50%) Smartphone
5 5 (2.50%) iPhone
5 5 (2.50%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (2.00%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.50%) CMDB
8 2 (1.00%) Augmented Reality
8 2 (1.00%) BYOD
8 2 (1.00%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.00%) Mobile Computing
8 2 (1.00%) Virtual Reality
9 1 (0.50%) Blackberry
9 1 (0.50%) Data Centre
9 1 (0.50%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.50%) iPad
9 1 (0.50%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 146 (73.00%) Windows
2 45 (22.50%) Windows 10
3 21 (10.50%) Android
3 21 (10.50%) Mac OS
4 19 (9.50%) Apple iOS
5 5 (2.50%) Windows 7
5 5 (2.50%) Windows Server
6 4 (2.00%) Linux
7 3 (1.50%) Windows XP
8 1 (0.50%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (32.00%) ITIL
2 56 (28.00%) Customer Service
3 46 (23.00%) ITSM
4 32 (16.00%) Service Management
5 28 (14.00%) Problem-Solving
5 28 (14.00%) Service Delivery
6 25 (12.50%) Asset Management
7 22 (11.00%) Migration
8 13 (6.50%) Incident Management
9 12 (6.00%) Break/Fix
10 10 (5.00%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (5.00%) Inventory Management
10 10 (5.00%) Mobile Device Management
10 10 (5.00%) User Experience
11 9 (4.50%) Logistics
12 8 (4.00%) Data Protection
12 8 (4.00%) Problem Management
13 7 (3.50%) Change Management
13 7 (3.50%) Root Cause Analysis
14 6 (3.00%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 19 (9.50%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.50%) Python
2 3 (1.50%) SQL
2 3 (1.50%) VBScript
3 1 (0.50%) Bash
Qualifications
1 42 (21.00%) Security Cleared
2 37 (18.50%) SC Cleared
3 27 (13.50%) Degree
4 12 (6.00%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.00%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (2.00%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.50%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.50%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.00%) 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 (12.00%) SLA
System Software
1 79 (39.50%) Active Directory
2 22 (11.00%) Virtual Desktop
3 10 (5.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.50%) BitLocker
5 2 (1.00%) Firmware
5 2 (1.00%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.50%) zsh
Systems Management
1 39 (19.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (17.00%) SCCM
3 4 (2.00%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.50%) WSUS
Vendors
1 95 (47.50%) Microsoft
2 35 (17.50%) ServiceNow
3 19 (9.50%) Citrix
4 13 (6.50%) Apple
5 10 (5.00%) VMware
6 9 (4.50%) McAfee
7 7 (3.50%) Cisco
8 6 (3.00%) HP
9 5 (2.50%) Adobe
9 5 (2.50%) Starlink
9 5 (2.50%) Tanium
10 4 (2.00%) Samsung
11 3 (1.50%) Autodesk
11 3 (1.50%) BeyondTrust
11 3 (1.50%) Bloomberg
11 3 (1.50%) Dell
11 3 (1.50%) Meraki
11 3 (1.50%) Remedy
11 3 (1.50%) Symantec
12 2 (1.00%) Google