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 18 May 2026.

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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 166 225 211
Rank change year-on-year +59 -14 +14
Contract jobs requiring an IT Support 745 361 465
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.55% 1.23% 1.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.68% 1.33% 1.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 178 299
10th Percentile £146 £140 £140
25th Percentile £163 £168 £151
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £213 £198
Median % change year-on-year -6.12% +7.59% +3.95%
75th Percentile £241 £283 £241
90th Percentile £380 £413 £325
UK excluding London median daily rate £188 £200 £190
% change year-on-year -6.25% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 64 105
10th Percentile £13.12 £13.00 £10.95
25th Percentile £15.99 £16.75 £12.00
Median hourly rate £18.50 £18.63 £14.49
Median % change year-on-year -0.70% +28.62% -22.75%
75th Percentile £20.69 £23.80 £22.25
90th Percentile £23.75 £35.47 £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 44,273 27,145 39,538
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.37% 92.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,095 17,684 25,719
10th Percentile £325 £293 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -2.82%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,049 2,672
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.31 £18.13 £16.29
Median hourly rate £43.00 £28.15 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.75% -22.88% -18.89%
75th Percentile £67.25 £61.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.13 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -32.19% -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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +47 645 £200 -8.28% 292
UK excluding London +28 587 £188 -6.25% 294
East of England +44 147 £200 +11.11% 44
London -13 137 £200 -15.94% 44
South East +3 119 £210 -18.05% 77
North of England -34 115 £175 -7.89% 65
North West -5 74 £175 -7.28% 30
Work from Home -17 72 £223 -6.32% 50
Midlands -28 72 £188 +25.00% 56
Scotland +33 52 £178 +2.16% 16
South West -7 52 £159 -27.01% 34
East Midlands -4 40 £200 +14.00% 27
Yorkshire -54 33 £190 - 25
West Midlands -46 31 £180 +20.00% 29
Wales -7 19 £160 -22.89% 10
Northern Ireland +1 11 - - 2
North East -16 8 £125 - 12

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

For the 6 months to 18 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.

1 364 (48.86%) Microsoft
2 356 (47.79%) Windows
3 303 (40.67%) Microsoft 365
4 256 (34.36%) Active Directory
5 238 (31.95%) Customer Service
6 145 (19.46%) Windows 10
7 132 (17.72%) Problem-Solving
8 131 (17.58%) ITIL
9 96 (12.89%) Azure
10 89 (11.95%) ServiceNow
11 76 (10.20%) Wi-Fi
12 75 (10.07%) Microsoft Intune
13 63 (8.46%) Entra ID
14 59 (7.92%) SLA
14 59 (7.92%) VPN
15 58 (7.79%) Time Management
16 55 (7.38%) ITSM
17 54 (7.25%) JIRA
18 52 (6.98%) Security Cleared
19 51 (6.85%) SharePoint
20 46 (6.17%) SC Cleared
21 43 (5.77%) DNS
21 43 (5.77%) Microsoft Office
22 42 (5.64%) DHCP
22 42 (5.64%) LAN
23 40 (5.37%) User Experience
24 38 (5.10%) Service Delivery
25 37 (4.97%) Apple iOS
26 36 (4.83%) Degree
26 36 (4.83%) Migration

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 51 (6.85%) SharePoint
2 32 (4.30%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.67%) HCL Notes
4 4 (0.54%) Confluence
Applications
1 43 (5.77%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (3.49%) Spreadsheet
3 17 (2.28%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 8 (1.07%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.27%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.13%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 303 (40.67%) Microsoft 365
2 96 (12.89%) Azure
3 63 (8.46%) Entra ID
4 24 (3.22%) OneDrive
5 23 (3.09%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (1.34%) Google Workspace
7 9 (1.21%) SaaS
8 5 (0.67%) AWS
9 3 (0.40%) IaaS
10 2 (0.27%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.27%) PaaS
10 2 (0.27%) Power Platform
10 2 (0.27%) PowerApps
11 1 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Cloud
11 1 (0.13%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.13%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.13%) Slack
11 1 (0.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 76 (10.20%) Wi-Fi
2 59 (7.92%) VPN
3 43 (5.77%) DNS
4 42 (5.64%) DHCP
4 42 (5.64%) LAN
5 24 (3.22%) WAN
6 22 (2.95%) TCP/IP
7 19 (2.55%) Firewall
7 19 (2.55%) SAN
8 16 (2.15%) VLAN
9 13 (1.74%) Wireless
10 8 (1.07%) WLAN
11 7 (0.94%) Internet
11 7 (0.94%) Remote Desktop
12 6 (0.81%) VoIP
13 5 (0.67%) Network Security
13 5 (0.67%) Skype
14 3 (0.40%) Unified Communications
15 2 (0.27%) Cisco IOS
15 2 (0.27%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.54%) Oracle Database
1 4 (0.54%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 54 (7.25%) JIRA
2 6 (0.81%) Git
3 3 (0.40%) Chocolatey
4 1 (0.13%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 350 (46.98%) Social Skills
2 56 (7.52%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (5.64%) Finance
4 40 (5.37%) Organisational Skills
5 35 (4.70%) Manufacturing
6 19 (2.55%) Public Sector
7 17 (2.28%) Law
8 15 (2.01%) Banking
8 15 (2.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.61%) Telecoms
10 11 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (1.21%) Marketing
12 8 (1.07%) Legal
13 7 (0.94%) Pharmaceutical
14 4 (0.54%) Front Office
14 4 (0.54%) Retail
15 3 (0.40%) Back Office
15 3 (0.40%) Local Government
16 2 (0.27%) Electronics
16 2 (0.27%) Japanese Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.21%) CSS
2 6 (0.81%) 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
4 2 (0.27%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 80 (10.74%) Onboarding
2 26 (3.49%) Driving Licence
3 22 (2.95%) Data Centre
4 20 (2.68%) Self-Motivation
5 19 (2.55%) Analytical Mindset
6 15 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
7 11 (1.48%) Virtual Team
8 9 (1.21%) Video Conferencing
9 7 (0.94%) Smartphone
10 5 (0.67%) Blackberry
10 5 (0.67%) iPhone
10 5 (0.67%) Life Science
10 5 (0.67%) NHS
11 4 (0.54%) CCTV
11 4 (0.54%) Greenfield Project
11 4 (0.54%) Legacy Systems
12 3 (0.40%) Educational Technology
13 2 (0.27%) Housing Association
13 2 (0.27%) IoT
13 2 (0.27%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 356 (47.79%) Windows
2 145 (19.46%) Windows 10
3 37 (4.97%) Apple iOS
4 33 (4.43%) Windows Server
5 29 (3.89%) Android
6 26 (3.49%) Mac OS
7 10 (1.34%) Linux
8 8 (1.07%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.94%) 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 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (31.95%) Customer Service
2 132 (17.72%) Problem-Solving
3 131 (17.58%) ITIL
4 58 (7.79%) Time Management
5 55 (7.38%) ITSM
6 40 (5.37%) User Experience
7 38 (5.10%) Service Delivery
8 36 (4.83%) Migration
9 33 (4.43%) Asset Management
10 24 (3.22%) DevOps
11 23 (3.09%) Change Management
12 19 (2.55%) Break/Fix
12 19 (2.55%) Problem Management
12 19 (2.55%) Service Management
13 18 (2.42%) Process Improvement
14 17 (2.28%) Computer Science
14 17 (2.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 16 (2.15%) Continuous Improvement
16 15 (2.01%) Data Protection
17 14 (1.88%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (3.09%) C#
1 23 (3.09%) SQL
2 16 (2.15%) PowerShell
3 6 (0.81%) Python
4 4 (0.54%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 52 (6.98%) Security Cleared
2 46 (6.17%) SC Cleared
3 36 (4.83%) Degree
4 33 (4.43%) A+ Certification
5 32 (4.30%) Microsoft Certification
6 25 (3.36%) Network+ Certification
7 19 (2.55%) CCNA
7 19 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
8 16 (2.15%) MCSE
9 13 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.21%) DV Cleared
11 3 (0.40%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.27%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.13%) HND
13 1 (0.13%) MCSA
13 1 (0.13%) PMI Certification
13 1 (0.13%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (7.92%) SLA
2 6 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (0.67%) PMO
4 2 (0.27%) GDPR
4 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.13%) GxP
5 1 (0.13%) ITGC
System Software
1 256 (34.36%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.48%) Hyper-V
4 3 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.27%) vSphere
6 1 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 75 (10.07%) Microsoft Intune
2 31 (4.16%) SCCM
3 15 (2.01%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (1.21%) ServiceCenter
5 3 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.27%) PaperCut
7 1 (0.13%) Clonezilla
7 1 (0.13%) Dell DRAC
7 1 (0.13%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.13%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.13%) WSUS
Vendors
1 364 (48.86%) Microsoft
2 89 (11.95%) ServiceNow
3 32 (4.30%) Dell
4 25 (3.36%) Apple
5 21 (2.82%) HP
6 17 (2.28%) VMware
7 12 (1.61%) Cisco
8 9 (1.21%) Remedy
9 8 (1.07%) Avaya
9 8 (1.07%) Meraki
9 8 (1.07%) Mitel
10 7 (0.94%) Google
10 7 (0.94%) SOTI
11 5 (0.67%) Autodesk
11 5 (0.67%) Citrix
11 5 (0.67%) Lotus
11 5 (0.67%) Oracle
12 4 (0.54%) Barracuda Networks
12 4 (0.54%) Bloomberg
12 4 (0.54%) Palo Alto