IT Support Contract Job Trends

IT Support
UK

The median IT Support daily rate in the UK is £175, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 January 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 147 263 206
Rank change year-on-year +116 -57 +39
Contract jobs requiring an IT Support 701 292 517
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.86% 0.93% 1.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.04% 1.00% 1.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 373 143 323
10th Percentile £134 £150 £130
25th Percentile £154 £174 £155
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £175 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +6.67%
75th Percentile £219 £238 £244
90th Percentile £288 £300 £329
UK excluding London median daily rate £175 £191 £200
% change year-on-year -8.38% -4.50% +14.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 178 38 82
10th Percentile £12.60 £16.38 £12.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £18.33 £13.00
Median hourly rate £18.50 £23.70 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.92% +35.40% -1.24%
75th Percentile £21.00 £24.18 £21.94
90th Percentile £23.75 £34.13 £25.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £22.80 £16.00
% change year-on-year -18.84% +42.47% -3.03%

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 34,444 29,232 40,404
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.42% 92.85% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,829 17,869 26,812
10th Percentile £300 £290 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,030 877 1,934
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.92 £13.50
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -18.75% +17.65%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £63.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £74.81
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -19.75% +36.13%

IT Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'IT Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

IT Support job vacancy trend in the UK

IT Support
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for IT Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for IT Support job vacancies in the UK

IT Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IT Support over the 6 months to 21 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for IT Support in the UK

IT Support
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for IT Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for IT Support job vacancies in the UK

IT Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing IT Support over the 6 months to 21 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for IT Support in the UK

IT Support
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IT Support within the UK over the 6 months to 21 January 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 +106 632 £178 -11.25% 299
UK excluding London +76 575 £175 -8.38% 304
North of England +67 173 £175 -16.67% 77
London +13 113 £200 -11.11% 51
South East +37 112 £188 -2.60% 95
East of England +42 99 £203 +12.50% 36
North West +34 89 £175 -2.78% 33
Work from Home +6 72 £190 -19.15% 66
Midlands -28 70 £172 -4.44% 49
South West +6 62 £160 -17.95% 27
Yorkshire -5 55 £190 -18.10% 37
East Midlands -13 42 £200 +14.00% 28
Scotland +32 34 £225 +28.57% 22
North East +10 29 £120 - 11
West Midlands -34 28 £161 -15.26% 21
Wales +5 18 £160 -17.95% 5
Northern Ireland -2 7 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 21 January 2026, IT 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 IT Support in the job title.

1 343 (48.93%) Windows
2 299 (42.65%) Microsoft
3 270 (38.52%) Microsoft 365
4 246 (35.09%) Customer Service
5 183 (26.11%) Active Directory
6 140 (19.97%) Windows 10
7 130 (18.54%) Problem-Solving
8 129 (18.40%) ITIL
9 122 (17.40%) Security Cleared
10 111 (15.83%) SC Cleared
11 108 (15.41%) Microsoft Office
12 80 (11.41%) Asset Management
13 78 (11.13%) ServiceNow
14 75 (10.70%) SLA
15 73 (10.41%) Android
16 63 (8.99%) Degree
16 63 (8.99%) ITSM
17 62 (8.84%) Azure
17 62 (8.84%) Mac OS
18 59 (8.42%) Microsoft Intune
19 55 (7.85%) Time Management
20 54 (7.70%) Business Intelligence
21 53 (7.56%) Cisco
22 51 (7.28%) Service Delivery
23 49 (6.99%) Apple
24 47 (6.70%) SharePoint
25 46 (6.56%) SCCM
25 46 (6.56%) Service Management
26 45 (6.42%) SAP
27 41 (5.85%) Programme Management

IT 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 47 (6.70%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.14%) Confluence
3 1 (0.14%) HCL Notes
3 1 (0.14%) IIS
3 1 (0.14%) Mule
3 1 (0.14%) Tomcat
Applications
1 108 (15.41%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (4.99%) Spreadsheet
3 26 (3.71%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (0.71%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.29%) assyst
3 1 (0.14%) BondVision
3 1 (0.14%) Kondor
3 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 270 (38.52%) Microsoft 365
2 62 (8.84%) Azure
3 40 (5.71%) Entra ID
4 31 (4.42%) Google Workspace
5 17 (2.43%) OneDrive
6 15 (2.14%) SaaS
7 5 (0.71%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Cloud
8 1 (0.14%) GCP
8 1 (0.14%) GitHub
8 1 (0.14%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.14%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 40 (5.71%) DNS
2 39 (5.56%) VPN
3 38 (5.42%) Wi-Fi
4 32 (4.56%) DHCP
4 32 (4.56%) Wireless
5 29 (4.14%) TCP/IP
6 25 (3.57%) Firewall
7 21 (3.00%) LAN
8 16 (2.28%) WAN
9 15 (2.14%) Network Security
10 11 (1.57%) Cisco IOS
11 10 (1.43%) Skype
12 9 (1.28%) Unified Communications
13 7 (1.00%) PABX
14 6 (0.86%) Remote Desktop
14 6 (0.86%) VLAN
15 5 (0.71%) Internet
16 4 (0.57%) VoIP
17 3 (0.43%) DMZ
17 3 (0.43%) IP Telephony
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.14%) Electronic Patient Records
2 1 (0.14%) MySQL
2 1 (0.14%) RDBMS
2 1 (0.14%) Relational Database
2 1 (0.14%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (1.57%) JIRA
2 2 (0.29%) Chocolatey
3 1 (0.14%) Hudson
3 1 (0.14%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.14%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 343 (48.93%) Social Skills
2 79 (11.27%) Manufacturing
3 73 (10.41%) Finance
4 69 (9.84%) Organisational Skills
5 51 (7.28%) Public Sector
6 42 (5.99%) Telecoms
7 41 (5.85%) Marketing
8 40 (5.71%) Electronics
9 23 (3.28%) Analytical Skills
10 18 (2.57%) Banking
11 17 (2.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
13 7 (1.00%) Investment Banking
14 6 (0.86%) Aerospace
14 6 (0.86%) Front Office
14 6 (0.86%) Law
15 5 (0.71%) Financial Institution
16 3 (0.43%) Legal
17 2 (0.29%) Military
17 2 (0.29%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (0.29%) Middleware
1 2 (0.29%) Web Services
2 1 (0.14%) JSON
2 1 (0.14%) XML
2 1 (0.14%) X-Windows
Miscellaneous
1 51 (7.28%) Onboarding
2 28 (3.99%) Driving Licence
2 28 (3.99%) Enterprise Software
3 27 (3.85%) Data Centre
4 23 (3.28%) Self-Motivation
5 19 (2.71%) Video Conferencing
6 17 (2.43%) Management Information System
7 14 (2.00%) Smartphone
8 13 (1.85%) NHS
9 8 (1.14%) Mobile App
10 7 (1.00%) Life Science
10 7 (1.00%) Virtual Team
11 6 (0.86%) BYOD
11 6 (0.86%) Team-Oriented Environment
12 5 (0.71%) Blackberry
12 5 (0.71%) iPhone
12 5 (0.71%) Low-Code
13 4 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
14 3 (0.43%) Manufacturing Execution System
14 3 (0.43%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 343 (48.93%) Windows
2 140 (19.97%) Windows 10
3 73 (10.41%) Android
4 62 (8.84%) Mac OS
5 40 (5.71%) Apple iOS
6 34 (4.85%) Linux
7 25 (3.57%) Windows Server
8 13 (1.85%) Windows Server 2016
9 10 (1.43%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (1.14%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.57%) Windows 8
11 4 (0.57%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.29%) AIX
13 2 (0.29%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.29%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (35.09%) Customer Service
2 130 (18.54%) Problem-Solving
3 129 (18.40%) ITIL
4 80 (11.41%) Asset Management
5 63 (8.99%) ITSM
6 55 (7.85%) Time Management
7 54 (7.70%) Business Intelligence
8 51 (7.28%) Service Delivery
9 46 (6.56%) Service Management
10 41 (5.85%) Programme Management
11 40 (5.71%) Digital Marketing
12 35 (4.99%) Cybersecurity
13 34 (4.85%) Migration
14 32 (4.56%) Continuous Improvement
15 28 (3.99%) Problem Management
16 26 (3.71%) Computer Science
17 25 (3.57%) User Experience
18 23 (3.28%) Incident Management
19 22 (3.14%) Change Management
19 22 (3.14%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 13 (1.85%) PowerShell
2 4 (0.57%) SQL
3 2 (0.29%) Java
4 1 (0.14%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.14%) Perl
4 1 (0.14%) Python
Qualifications
1 122 (17.40%) Security Cleared
2 111 (15.83%) SC Cleared
3 63 (8.99%) Degree
4 28 (3.99%) A+ Certification
5 17 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
8 8 (1.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 8 (1.14%) MCP
9 6 (0.86%) DV Cleared
9 6 (0.86%) HND
10 5 (0.71%) MCDST
11 4 (0.57%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.57%) HNC
12 3 (0.43%) Network+ Certification
13 2 (0.29%) ACTC
13 2 (0.29%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (0.29%) CCNA
13 2 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.29%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (10.70%) SLA
2 5 (0.71%) GDPR
2 5 (0.71%) PMO
3 4 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.14%) QA
System Software
1 183 (26.11%) Active Directory
2 10 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (0.71%) Hyper-V
4 4 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (0.43%) Firmware
6 2 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.14%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 59 (8.42%) Microsoft Intune
2 46 (6.56%) SCCM
3 18 (2.57%) Jamf Pro
4 4 (0.57%) ServiceCenter
5 3 (0.43%) WSUS
6 1 (0.14%) Autotask
6 1 (0.14%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.14%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.14%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 299 (42.65%) Microsoft
2 78 (11.13%) ServiceNow
3 53 (7.56%) Cisco
4 49 (6.99%) Apple
5 45 (6.42%) SAP
6 40 (5.71%) HP
7 37 (5.28%) Dell
8 18 (2.57%) Google
9 13 (1.85%) VMware
10 10 (1.43%) Citrix
11 7 (1.00%) Bloomberg
11 7 (1.00%) Datto
11 7 (1.00%) SOTI
12 6 (0.86%) Autodesk
12 6 (0.86%) Mitel
12 6 (0.86%) Remedy
13 5 (0.71%) iManage
13 5 (0.71%) Palo Alto
13 5 (0.71%) Reuters
14 4 (0.57%) Oracle