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 27 August 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 481 309 325
Rank change year-on-year -172 +16 -23
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 193 259 254
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.79% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.87% 0.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 129 150 170
10th Percentile £140 £144 £126
25th Percentile £170 £160 £151
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £213 £210 £203
Median % change year-on-year +1.19% +3.70% +1.25%
75th Percentile £240 £245 £236
90th Percentile £280 £278 £269
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £210 £204
% change year-on-year +1.19% +3.07% +1.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 40 26
10th Percentile £16.38 - £17.50
25th Percentile £17.25 £13.75 £18.13
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 £24.18
90th Percentile £25.03 £33.75 £27.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.67 £25.15 £21.44
% change year-on-year -17.83% +17.32% +22.50%

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 49,647 29,883 36,109
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.23% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,658 18,862 22,923
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% -1.87%
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 3,547 1,583 1,920
10th Percentile £14.99 £13.66 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.08 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -1.44%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.93 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.20 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +7.50%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -152 166 £225 +4.65% 46
UK excluding London -148 120 £213 +1.19% 26
London -68 70 £225 +1.58% 23
North of England -84 31 £235 +17.50% 9
South West -71 25 £210 -6.67% 3
North West -46 23 £235 +11.90% 8
South East -68 21 £190 -11.63% 11
Scotland -9 20 £194 +5.44% 1
East of England -22 10 £173 -21.59% 1
Midlands -61 10 £250 +46.20% 4
Work from Home -59 9 £226 -9.50% 5
Yorkshire -55 8 £235 - 1
West Midlands -54 7 £225 +30.43% 3
Northern Ireland -3 3 £175 +6.06%
East Midlands -18 3 £270 +57.89% 1
Wales -16 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 27 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.

1 142 (73.58%) Windows
2 95 (49.22%) Microsoft
3 85 (44.04%) Microsoft 365
4 77 (39.90%) Active Directory
5 60 (31.09%) ITIL
6 57 (29.53%) Customer Service
7 47 (24.35%) Windows 10
8 46 (23.83%) Security Cleared
9 43 (22.28%) ITSM
10 41 (21.24%) SC Cleared
11 40 (20.73%) Microsoft Intune
12 33 (17.10%) ServiceNow
13 32 (16.58%) Problem-Solving
14 29 (15.03%) SCCM
14 29 (15.03%) SharePoint
15 28 (14.51%) Service Management
16 27 (13.99%) Azure
16 27 (13.99%) VPN
17 26 (13.47%) Service Delivery
18 25 (12.95%) Degree
19 24 (12.44%) Asset Management
19 24 (12.44%) SLA
20 22 (11.40%) Mac OS
20 22 (11.40%) Virtual Desktop
21 21 (10.88%) Entra ID
21 21 (10.88%) Migration
22 18 (9.33%) Apple iOS
23 17 (8.81%) Android
23 17 (8.81%) Citrix
23 17 (8.81%) 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 29 (15.03%) SharePoint
2 11 (5.70%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.52%) Confluence
3 1 (0.52%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 10 (5.18%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.55%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 85 (44.04%) Microsoft 365
2 27 (13.99%) Azure
3 21 (10.88%) Entra ID
4 14 (7.25%) OneDrive
5 6 (3.11%) SaaS
6 2 (1.04%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.52%) IaaS
7 1 (0.52%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 27 (13.99%) VPN
2 14 (7.25%) DHCP
3 13 (6.74%) DNS
4 12 (6.22%) TCP/IP
5 11 (5.70%) Wireless
6 10 (5.18%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (4.15%) LAN
8 3 (1.55%) Firewall
8 3 (1.55%) Network Security
8 3 (1.55%) Value-Added Service
9 2 (1.04%) Remote Desktop
9 2 (1.04%) Skype
10 1 (0.52%) Cisco IOS
10 1 (0.52%) NAS
10 1 (0.52%) VLAN
10 1 (0.52%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.52%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.07%) JIRA
General
1 78 (40.41%) Social Skills
2 35 (18.13%) Finance
3 18 (9.33%) Organisational Skills
4 15 (7.77%) Banking
5 12 (6.22%) Investment Banking
6 11 (5.70%) Telecoms
7 10 (5.18%) Financial Institution
7 10 (5.18%) Spanish Language
8 9 (4.66%) Legal
9 8 (4.15%) Analytical Skills
10 5 (2.59%) Front Office
11 4 (2.07%) Law
11 4 (2.07%) Manufacturing
11 4 (2.07%) Public Sector
12 2 (1.04%) Local Government
13 1 (0.52%) Documentation Skills
13 1 (0.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.52%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.63%) Software Packaging
2 1 (0.52%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 42 (21.76%) Onboarding
2 14 (7.25%) Video Conferencing
3 13 (6.74%) Driving Licence
4 11 (5.70%) Hedge funds
5 9 (4.66%) Smartphone
6 8 (4.15%) iPhone
6 8 (4.15%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.07%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.55%) iPad
8 3 (1.55%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.04%) Augmented Reality
9 2 (1.04%) BYOD
9 2 (1.04%) CMDB
9 2 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.04%) Virtual Reality
10 1 (0.52%) Blackberry
10 1 (0.52%) Data Centre
10 1 (0.52%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 142 (73.58%) Windows
2 47 (24.35%) Windows 10
3 22 (11.40%) Mac OS
4 18 (9.33%) Apple iOS
5 17 (8.81%) Android
6 5 (2.59%) Windows 7
6 5 (2.59%) Windows Server
7 3 (1.55%) Linux
7 3 (1.55%) Windows XP
8 1 (0.52%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (31.09%) ITIL
2 57 (29.53%) Customer Service
3 43 (22.28%) ITSM
4 32 (16.58%) Problem-Solving
5 28 (14.51%) Service Management
6 26 (13.47%) Service Delivery
7 24 (12.44%) Asset Management
8 21 (10.88%) Migration
9 13 (6.74%) Incident Management
10 11 (5.70%) Break/Fix
10 11 (5.70%) Continuous Improvement
10 11 (5.70%) Inventory Management
11 10 (5.18%) Logistics
11 10 (5.18%) Root Cause Analysis
12 9 (4.66%) Mobile Device Management
12 9 (4.66%) User Experience
13 8 (4.15%) Problem Management
14 7 (3.63%) Change Management
14 7 (3.63%) Data Protection
15 5 (2.59%) Fault Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (8.81%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.55%) Python
2 3 (1.55%) SQL
2 3 (1.55%) VBScript
3 1 (0.52%) Bash
Qualifications
1 46 (23.83%) Security Cleared
2 41 (21.24%) SC Cleared
3 25 (12.95%) Degree
4 12 (6.22%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (2.07%) ITIL Certification
5 4 (2.07%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.07%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.55%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.55%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 3 (1.55%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.52%) CTC Cleared
7 1 (0.52%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (12.44%) SLA
System Software
1 77 (39.90%) Active Directory
2 22 (11.40%) Virtual Desktop
3 8 (4.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.55%) BitLocker
5 2 (1.04%) Firmware
6 1 (0.52%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.52%) zsh
Systems Management
1 40 (20.73%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (15.03%) SCCM
3 4 (2.07%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.52%) WSUS
Vendors
1 95 (49.22%) Microsoft
2 33 (17.10%) ServiceNow
3 17 (8.81%) Citrix
4 13 (6.74%) Apple
5 11 (5.70%) McAfee
6 8 (4.15%) Starlink
6 8 (4.15%) VMware
7 6 (3.11%) HP
8 5 (2.59%) Adobe
9 4 (2.07%) Cisco
9 4 (2.07%) Samsung
10 3 (1.55%) Autodesk
10 3 (1.55%) BeyondTrust
10 3 (1.55%) Bloomberg
10 3 (1.55%) Dell
10 3 (1.55%) Remedy
10 3 (1.55%) Symantec
10 3 (1.55%) Tanium
11 2 (1.04%) Google
11 2 (1.04%) Meraki