IT Systems Administrator Contract Job Trends

IT System Administrator
UK

The median IT System Administrator daily rate in the UK is £350, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 544 564 647
Rank change year-on-year +20 +83 +202
Contract jobs requiring an IT Systems Administrator 3 5 15
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.009% 0.013% 0.030%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.010% 0.014% 0.032%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 1 7
10th Percentile £279 - £198
25th Percentile £303 £463 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £475 £320
Median % change year-on-year -26.32% +48.44% -13.22%
75th Percentile £391 £488 £409
90th Percentile £411 - £478
UK excluding London median daily rate - £475 £310
% change year-on-year - +53.23% -15.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 2
10th Percentile - - £27.69
25th Percentile - £12.13 £29.84
Median hourly rate - £12.25 £35.63
Median % change year-on-year - -65.61% +1.79%
75th Percentile - £12.38 £42.34
90th Percentile - - £45.06
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £12.25 £35.63
% change year-on-year - -65.61% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 29,740 35,350 47,152
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.05% 92.95% 94.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,772 21,777 32,303
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,564 1,687 1,507
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.77
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%
75th Percentile £52.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
% change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%

IT Systems Administrator
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured IT Systems Administrator in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for IT Systems Administrator in the UK

IT Systems Administrator
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

IT Systems Administrator
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IT Systems Administrator over the 6 months to 16 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for IT Systems Administrator in the UK

IT Systems Administrator
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

IT Systems Administrator
Top 4 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 Systems Administrator within the UK over the 6 months to 16 September 2025. 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 +13 3 £350 - 10
London +31 2 £350 - 6
UK excluding London +1 1 - - 7
South East - 1 - - 5

IT Systems Administrator Skill Set
Top 22 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 September 2025, IT Systems Administrator contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring IT Systems Administrator in the job title.

1 3 (100.00%) Active Directory
2 2 (66.67%) Azure
2 2 (66.67%) Entra ID
2 2 (66.67%) Windows Server
2 2 (66.67%) Disaster Recovery
2 2 (66.67%) Windows
3 1 (33.33%) Linux
3 1 (33.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (33.33%) Microsoft
3 1 (33.33%) Firewall
3 1 (33.33%) Migration
3 1 (33.33%) VMware
3 1 (33.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (33.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (33.33%) Hyper-V
3 1 (33.33%) Public Sector
3 1 (33.33%) ITIL
3 1 (33.33%) Patch Management
3 1 (33.33%) Remote Desktop
3 1 (33.33%) Identity Access Management
3 1 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (33.33%) Red Hat

IT Systems Administrator Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 2 (66.67%) Azure
1 2 (66.67%) Entra ID
2 1 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 1 (33.33%) Firewall
1 1 (33.33%) Remote Desktop
General
1 1 (33.33%) Public Sector
Operating Systems
1 2 (66.67%) Windows
1 2 (66.67%) Windows Server
2 1 (33.33%) Linux
2 1 (33.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Disaster Recovery
2 1 (33.33%) Identity Access Management
2 1 (33.33%) ITIL
2 1 (33.33%) Migration
2 1 (33.33%) Patch Management
System Software
1 3 (100.00%) Active Directory
2 1 (33.33%) Hyper-V
2 1 (33.33%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 1 (33.33%) Microsoft
1 1 (33.33%) Red Hat
1 1 (33.33%) VMware