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 October 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 491 315 334
Rank change year-on-year -176 +19 -27
Contract jobs requiring a Desktop Support 210 265 238
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.80% 0.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.41% 0.88% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 172 152
10th Percentile £140 £150 £136
25th Percentile £170 £160 £165
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £210 £208
Median % change year-on-year - +1.20% +3.75%
75th Percentile £240 £250 £237
90th Percentile £285 £278 £269
UK excluding London median daily rate £210 £214 £205
% change year-on-year -1.75% +4.27% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 42 18
10th Percentile £14.03 £13.75 £18.13
25th Percentile £17.25 £15.12 £22.71
Median hourly rate £22.00 £25.08 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year -12.26% +3.70% +24.00%
75th Percentile £23.50 £31.40 £27.19
90th Percentile £24.20 £33.75 £33.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £24.18
% change year-on-year -16.50% +4.01% +31.77%

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 50,841 30,184 35,017
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 90.90% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,834 19,073 21,148
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,158 1,652 1,437
10th Percentile £14.31 £13.80 £15.09
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year +65.23% -39.05% -8.30%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.30 £68.52 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.06 £25.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +64.24% -41.18% -4.49%

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 October 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 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Top 15 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 October 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 -161 186 £210 -2.33% 14
UK excluding London -141 131 £210 -1.75% 10
London -78 76 £225 +12.50% 6
North of England -84 36 £235 +11.90% 3
North West -47 28 £235 +11.90% 1
South East -75 27 £180 -16.28% 1
Midlands -55 19 £218 +27.19% 3
Scotland -16 17 £150 +0.33% 1
South West -70 16 £225 -4.26% 2
East of England -24 13 £190 -13.64%
West Midlands -47 13 £210 +20.00%
Work from Home -69 12 £225 -10.00% 5
Yorkshire -45 8 £240 +2.13% 2
East Midlands -15 6 £250 +58.73% 3
Northern Ireland +3 4 - -

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

For the 6 months to 15 October 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.

1 150 (71.43%) Windows
2 98 (46.67%) Microsoft
3 97 (46.19%) Microsoft 365
4 81 (38.57%) Active Directory
5 68 (32.38%) ITIL
6 67 (31.90%) Customer Service
7 58 (27.62%) ITSM
8 47 (22.38%) Windows 10
9 42 (20.00%) SCCM
10 40 (19.05%) ServiceNow
11 37 (17.62%) Service Management
12 36 (17.14%) Security Cleared
13 35 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
14 33 (15.71%) Service Delivery
15 31 (14.76%) SC Cleared
16 29 (13.81%) SharePoint
17 26 (12.38%) Degree
17 26 (12.38%) SLA
17 26 (12.38%) VPN
18 25 (11.90%) Azure
18 25 (11.90%) Problem-Solving
19 24 (11.43%) Citrix
19 24 (11.43%) macOS
20 23 (10.95%) Asset Management
20 23 (10.95%) Entra ID
21 21 (10.00%) Android
21 21 (10.00%) Apple iOS
21 21 (10.00%) Migration
21 21 (10.00%) Virtual Desktop
22 20 (9.52%) 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 (13.81%) SharePoint
2 16 (7.62%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.48%) Confluence
3 1 (0.48%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (6.67%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.48%) AutoCAD
2 1 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.43%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.48%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.48%) Eikon
Cloud Services
1 97 (46.19%) Microsoft 365
2 25 (11.90%) Azure
3 23 (10.95%) Entra ID
4 19 (9.05%) OneDrive
5 7 (3.33%) SaaS
6 2 (0.95%) Power Platform
6 2 (0.95%) Slack
7 1 (0.48%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 26 (12.38%) VPN
2 14 (6.67%) TCP/IP
3 13 (6.19%) DHCP
3 13 (6.19%) Wireless
4 12 (5.71%) DNS
5 11 (5.24%) LAN
6 8 (3.81%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (1.90%) Value-Added Service
8 3 (1.43%) Internet
8 3 (1.43%) Network Security
9 2 (0.95%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.95%) Firewall
9 2 (0.95%) WAN
9 2 (0.95%) WebEx
10 1 (0.48%) NAS
10 1 (0.48%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.48%) SD-WAN
10 1 (0.48%) Skype
10 1 (0.48%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.48%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (1.90%) JIRA
General
1 89 (42.38%) Social Skills
2 44 (20.95%) Finance
3 22 (10.48%) Banking
4 19 (9.05%) Organisational Skills
5 14 (6.67%) Financial Institution
6 13 (6.19%) Investment Banking
7 12 (5.71%) Legal
8 11 (5.24%) Telecoms
9 10 (4.76%) Spanish Language
10 7 (3.33%) Analytical Skills
10 7 (3.33%) Front Office
11 4 (1.90%) Law
11 4 (1.90%) Public Sector
12 3 (1.43%) Manufacturing
13 2 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 1 (0.48%) Documentation Skills
14 1 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.48%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.33%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 48 (22.86%) Onboarding
2 18 (8.57%) Driving Licence
3 17 (8.10%) Video Conferencing
4 14 (6.67%) Hedge funds
5 11 (5.24%) Smartphone
6 8 (3.81%) Management Information System
7 4 (1.90%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.43%) CMDB
8 3 (1.43%) iPhone
9 2 (0.95%) Augmented Reality
9 2 (0.95%) BYOD
9 2 (0.95%) Mobile Computing
9 2 (0.95%) NHS
9 2 (0.95%) Virtual Reality
10 1 (0.48%) Blackberry
10 1 (0.48%) Data Centre
10 1 (0.48%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.48%) iPad
10 1 (0.48%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 150 (71.43%) Windows
2 47 (22.38%) Windows 10
3 24 (11.43%) macOS
4 21 (10.00%) Android
4 21 (10.00%) Apple iOS
5 4 (1.90%) Linux
5 4 (1.90%) Windows 7
5 4 (1.90%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.43%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (32.38%) ITIL
2 67 (31.90%) Customer Service
3 58 (27.62%) ITSM
4 37 (17.62%) Service Management
5 33 (15.71%) Service Delivery
6 25 (11.90%) Problem-Solving
7 23 (10.95%) Asset Management
8 21 (10.00%) Migration
9 14 (6.67%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (6.19%) Incident Management
11 11 (5.24%) Break/Fix
11 11 (5.24%) User Experience
12 10 (4.76%) Data Protection
12 10 (4.76%) Inventory Management
13 9 (4.29%) Change Management
13 9 (4.29%) Mobile Device Management
14 8 (3.81%) Problem Management
14 8 (3.81%) Software Deployment
15 7 (3.33%) Knowledge Management
16 6 (2.86%) AI
Programming Languages
1 20 (9.52%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.43%) Python
2 3 (1.43%) SQL
2 3 (1.43%) VBScript
3 1 (0.48%) Bash
Qualifications
1 36 (17.14%) Security Cleared
2 31 (14.76%) SC Cleared
3 26 (12.38%) Degree
4 13 (6.19%) A+ Certification
5 6 (2.86%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (2.86%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (1.90%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 3 (1.43%) DV Cleared
7 3 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (1.43%) Network+ Certification
8 2 (0.95%) Microsoft Certified Professional
9 1 (0.48%) CCNP
9 1 (0.48%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.48%) CTC Cleared
9 1 (0.48%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (12.38%) SLA
System Software
1 81 (38.57%) Active Directory
2 21 (10.00%) Virtual Desktop
3 10 (4.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.43%) BitLocker
4 3 (1.43%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.95%) Firmware
6 1 (0.48%) vSphere
6 1 (0.48%) zsh
Systems Management
1 42 (20.00%) SCCM
2 35 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (1.90%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.48%) WSUS
Vendors
1 98 (46.67%) Microsoft
2 40 (19.05%) ServiceNow
3 24 (11.43%) Citrix
4 10 (4.76%) Apple
4 10 (4.76%) VMware
5 7 (3.33%) Cisco
6 6 (2.86%) Adobe
6 6 (2.86%) HP
7 5 (2.38%) Bloomberg
7 5 (2.38%) McAfee
7 5 (2.38%) Samsung
7 5 (2.38%) Tanium
8 4 (1.90%) Autodesk
8 4 (1.90%) Symantec
9 3 (1.43%) BeyondTrust
9 3 (1.43%) Dell
9 3 (1.43%) Meraki
9 3 (1.43%) Remedy
10 2 (0.95%) Google
11 1 (0.48%) Veeam