IT Support Contract Job Trends

IT Support
UK

The median IT Support daily rate in the UK is £200, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 172 221 213
Rank change year-on-year +49 -8 +5
Contract jobs requiring an IT Support 735 363 468
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.52% 1.25% 1.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.65% 1.35% 1.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 310 175 302
10th Percentile £146 £140 £140
25th Percentile £163 £169 £151
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £213 £198
Median % change year-on-year -6.12% +7.59% +3.95%
75th Percentile £241 £288 £238
90th Percentile £388 £413 £325
UK excluding London median daily rate £188 £200 £188
% change year-on-year -6.25% +6.67% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 184 65 105
10th Percentile £13.12 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £15.79 £16.75 £12.00
Median hourly rate £18.50 £18.51 £14.49
Median % change year-on-year -0.05% +27.79% -22.75%
75th Percentile £20.69 £23.80 £22.25
90th Percentile £23.75 £35.33 £25.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £18.31 £13.00
% change year-on-year +1.07% +40.81% -28.92%

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 44,544 26,886 39,472
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.37% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,258 17,494 25,719
10th Percentile £325 £293 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,057 2,674
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.83
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £27.99 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.50% -23.32% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.50 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.88% -34.16% -5.88%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 +38 637 £200 -9.20% 291
UK excluding London +22 580 £188 -6.25% 301
East of England +43 141 £200 +11.11% 47
London -16 133 £200 -15.79% 40
South East +8 121 £210 -18.05% 73
North of England -34 113 £174 -8.55% 71
Midlands -21 75 £200 +33.00% 49
North West -7 72 £174 -7.95% 34
Work from Home -37 72 £235 +1.62% 53
South West -17 51 £148 -32.95% 38
Scotland +27 49 £178 +2.16% 17
East Midlands -1 43 £200 +14.29% 28
Yorkshire -46 33 £190 -5.00% 28
West Midlands -47 31 £180 +20.00% 21
Wales -5 19 £160 -22.89% 9
Northern Ireland -2 11 - - 6
North East -19 8 £125 - 11

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 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.

1 357 (48.57%) Microsoft
2 353 (48.03%) Windows
3 297 (40.41%) Microsoft 365
4 255 (34.69%) Active Directory
5 235 (31.97%) Customer Service
6 144 (19.59%) Windows 10
7 132 (17.96%) Problem-Solving
8 131 (17.82%) ITIL
9 94 (12.79%) Azure
10 89 (12.11%) ServiceNow
11 76 (10.34%) Wi-Fi
12 75 (10.20%) Microsoft Intune
13 62 (8.44%) Entra ID
14 58 (7.89%) VPN
15 56 (7.62%) JIRA
16 55 (7.48%) ITSM
17 54 (7.35%) SLA
17 54 (7.35%) Time Management
18 50 (6.80%) Security Cleared
18 50 (6.80%) SharePoint
19 44 (5.99%) SC Cleared
20 43 (5.85%) Microsoft Office
21 42 (5.71%) DNS
21 42 (5.71%) LAN
22 41 (5.58%) DHCP
23 40 (5.44%) User Experience
24 37 (5.03%) Migration
24 37 (5.03%) Service Delivery
25 36 (4.90%) Apple iOS
25 36 (4.90%) Degree

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 50 (6.80%) SharePoint
2 31 (4.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.82%) HCL Notes
4 4 (0.54%) Confluence
Applications
1 43 (5.85%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (3.13%) Spreadsheet
3 15 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 7 (0.95%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.27%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.14%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 297 (40.41%) Microsoft 365
2 94 (12.79%) Azure
3 62 (8.44%) Entra ID
4 24 (3.27%) OneDrive
5 23 (3.13%) Azure DevOps
6 11 (1.50%) Google Workspace
7 10 (1.36%) SaaS
8 6 (0.82%) AWS
9 3 (0.41%) IaaS
10 2 (0.27%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.27%) PaaS
10 2 (0.27%) Power Platform
10 2 (0.27%) PowerApps
10 2 (0.27%) Slack
11 1 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Cloud
11 1 (0.14%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.14%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.14%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 76 (10.34%) Wi-Fi
2 58 (7.89%) VPN
3 42 (5.71%) DNS
3 42 (5.71%) LAN
4 41 (5.58%) DHCP
5 24 (3.27%) WAN
6 23 (3.13%) TCP/IP
7 19 (2.59%) Firewall
7 19 (2.59%) SAN
8 17 (2.31%) VLAN
9 11 (1.50%) Wireless
10 9 (1.22%) WLAN
11 7 (0.95%) Internet
11 7 (0.95%) Remote Desktop
12 5 (0.68%) Network Security
12 5 (0.68%) Skype
12 5 (0.68%) VoIP
13 3 (0.41%) Unified Communications
14 2 (0.27%) Cisco IOS
14 2 (0.27%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.54%) Oracle Database
1 4 (0.54%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 56 (7.62%) JIRA
2 6 (0.82%) Git
3 3 (0.41%) Chocolatey
4 1 (0.14%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 344 (46.80%) Social Skills
2 57 (7.76%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (5.71%) Finance
4 39 (5.31%) Organisational Skills
5 35 (4.76%) Manufacturing
6 19 (2.59%) Public Sector
7 16 (2.18%) Law
8 14 (1.90%) Banking
8 14 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.63%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (1.22%) Legal
12 8 (1.09%) Marketing
13 6 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
14 5 (0.68%) Retail
15 4 (0.54%) Back Office
15 4 (0.54%) Front Office
16 3 (0.41%) Local Government
17 2 (0.27%) Billing
17 2 (0.27%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.22%) CSS
2 6 (0.82%) X-Windows
3 4 (0.54%) .NET
3 4 (0.54%) .NET Core
3 4 (0.54%) .NET Framework
3 4 (0.54%) HTML
3 4 (0.54%) React
4 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.14%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 80 (10.88%) Onboarding
2 25 (3.40%) Driving Licence
3 22 (2.99%) Data Centre
4 20 (2.72%) Analytical Mindset
5 18 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
6 15 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (1.77%) Virtual Team
8 9 (1.22%) Video Conferencing
9 7 (0.95%) Smartphone
10 6 (0.82%) Blackberry
11 5 (0.68%) Life Science
11 5 (0.68%) NHS
12 4 (0.54%) CCTV
12 4 (0.54%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.54%) iPhone
12 4 (0.54%) Legacy Systems
13 3 (0.41%) Educational Technology
14 2 (0.27%) Housing Association
14 2 (0.27%) iPad
14 2 (0.27%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 353 (48.03%) Windows
2 144 (19.59%) Windows 10
3 36 (4.90%) Apple iOS
4 31 (4.22%) Windows Server
5 28 (3.81%) Android
6 25 (3.40%) Mac OS
7 10 (1.36%) Linux
8 8 (1.09%) Windows 7
9 6 (0.82%) Mac OS X
10 4 (0.54%) Windows 8
10 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (31.97%) Customer Service
2 132 (17.96%) Problem-Solving
3 131 (17.82%) ITIL
4 55 (7.48%) ITSM
5 54 (7.35%) Time Management
6 40 (5.44%) User Experience
7 37 (5.03%) Migration
7 37 (5.03%) Service Delivery
8 29 (3.95%) Asset Management
9 24 (3.27%) DevOps
10 23 (3.13%) Change Management
11 19 (2.59%) Problem Management
11 19 (2.59%) Service Management
12 18 (2.45%) Break/Fix
13 17 (2.31%) Computer Science
13 17 (2.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 16 (2.18%) Continuous Improvement
14 16 (2.18%) Data Protection
14 16 (2.18%) Process Improvement
15 14 (1.90%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (3.13%) C#
1 23 (3.13%) SQL
2 16 (2.18%) PowerShell
3 6 (0.82%) Python
4 4 (0.54%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 50 (6.80%) Security Cleared
2 44 (5.99%) SC Cleared
3 36 (4.90%) Degree
4 32 (4.35%) A+ Certification
4 32 (4.35%) Microsoft Certification
5 25 (3.40%) Network+ Certification
6 19 (2.59%) CCNA
6 19 (2.59%) Cisco Certification
7 16 (2.18%) MCSE
8 13 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.09%) DV Cleared
10 3 (0.41%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.27%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.14%) HND
12 1 (0.14%) MCSA
12 1 (0.14%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.14%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (7.35%) SLA
2 6 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (0.68%) PMO
4 3 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.27%) GDPR
6 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.14%) GxP
6 1 (0.14%) ITGC
System Software
1 255 (34.69%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.50%) Hyper-V
4 3 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.27%) vSphere
6 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 75 (10.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (3.95%) SCCM
3 15 (2.04%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (1.22%) ServiceCenter
5 3 (0.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.27%) Clonezilla
6 2 (0.27%) PaperCut
7 1 (0.14%) Dell DRAC
7 1 (0.14%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.14%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.14%) WSUS
Vendors
1 357 (48.57%) Microsoft
2 89 (12.11%) ServiceNow
3 31 (4.22%) Dell
4 23 (3.13%) Apple
5 20 (2.72%) HP
6 17 (2.31%) VMware
7 11 (1.50%) Cisco
8 8 (1.09%) Avaya
8 8 (1.09%) Google
8 8 (1.09%) Meraki
8 8 (1.09%) Mitel
8 8 (1.09%) Remedy
9 6 (0.82%) Lotus
9 6 (0.82%) SOTI
10 5 (0.68%) Autodesk
10 5 (0.68%) Citrix
11 4 (0.54%) Barracuda Networks
11 4 (0.54%) Bloomberg
11 4 (0.54%) Oracle
11 4 (0.54%) Palo Alto