Remote Desktop Contract Job Trends

Remote Desktop
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Remote Desktop skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 650 502 471
Rank change year-on-year -148 -31 +98
Contract jobs citing Remote Desktop 36 55 91
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.066% 0.17% 0.24%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.71% 1.45% 1.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 26 61
10th Percentile £156 £153 £170
25th Percentile £163 £171 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £213 £350
Median % change year-on-year +111.76% -39.29% +55.56%
75th Percentile £478 £434 £538
90th Percentile £614 £449 £628
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £171 £345
% change year-on-year +24.27% -50.43% +76.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 11 7
10th Percentile £19.33 - £18.16
25th Percentile £20.33 - -
Median hourly rate £22.80 £17.30 £18.27
Median % change year-on-year +31.79% -5.31% +4.40%
75th Percentile £25.75 £25.15 £20.58
90th Percentile - - £23.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.80 £17.30 £18.27
% change year-on-year +31.79% -5.31% +4.40%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

Remote Desktop falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,079 3,805 4,583
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.34% 11.55% 11.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,940 2,363 2,666
10th Percentile £231 £225 £225
25th Percentile £392 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% +10.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 411 199 252
10th Percentile £14.30 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £32.50 £42.50 £51.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.53% -16.67% -9.72%
75th Percentile £68.75 £64.38 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.75 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -30.59% -25.89% -0.26%

Remote Desktop
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Remote Desktop relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Remote Desktop job vacancy trend in the UK

Remote Desktop
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Remote Desktop.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Remote Desktop

Remote Desktop
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Remote Desktop over the 6 months to 18 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Remote Desktop in the UK

Remote Desktop
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Remote Desktop.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Remote Desktop

Remote Desktop
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Remote Desktop within the UK over the 6 months to 18 September 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 -122 25 £450 +125.00% 30
UK excluding London -116 23 £213 +24.27% 23
Work from Home -58 10 £470 +4.79% 6
Midlands -46 9 £250 -10.87% 3
London -87 8 £450 +125.00% 7
East Midlands -14 7 - - 3
Scotland -22 7 £163 -27.78% 1
North West -49 3 £450 +16.88% 5
North of England -66 3 £450 +23.29% 8
West Midlands -45 2 £250 -54.13%
South East -67 1 £475 +206.45% 7
South West - 1 £535 - 4
East of England - 1 - - 1
Northern Ireland - 1 £175 -

Remote Desktop
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 4 (11.11%) SharePoint
2 3 (8.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (2.78%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 14 (38.89%) Azure
2 13 (36.11%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (27.78%) Entra ID
4 5 (13.89%) AWS
5 2 (5.56%) Amazon EKS
5 2 (5.56%) GitHub
5 2 (5.56%) GitHub Actions
5 2 (5.56%) OneDrive
6 1 (2.78%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (2.78%) IaaS
6 1 (2.78%) PaaS
6 1 (2.78%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 7 (19.44%) DNS
2 6 (16.67%) VPN
3 5 (13.89%) DHCP
4 4 (11.11%) TCP/IP
5 3 (8.33%) Firewall
5 3 (8.33%) PCoIP
6 2 (5.56%) Network Security
7 1 (2.78%) Cisco IOS
7 1 (2.78%) Internet
7 1 (2.78%) SAN
7 1 (2.78%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (11.11%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 3 (8.33%) JIRA
General
1 10 (27.78%) Social Skills
2 8 (22.22%) Finance
3 5 (13.89%) Public Sector
4 4 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (8.33%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (5.56%) Automotive
6 2 (5.56%) Banking
6 2 (5.56%) Local Government
6 2 (5.56%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 7 (19.44%) Analyst
1 7 (19.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 5 (13.89%) Desktop Engineer
2 5 (13.89%) IT Support
3 4 (11.11%) IT Engineer
3 4 (11.11%) Remote Desktop Engineer
3 4 (11.11%) Service Analyst
3 4 (11.11%) Service Desk Analyst
3 4 (11.11%) Support Engineer
4 3 (8.33%) 1st Line Support
4 3 (8.33%) 1st Line Support Analyst
4 3 (8.33%) IT Technician
4 3 (8.33%) Support Analyst
4 3 (8.33%) Support Technician
4 3 (8.33%) Systems Engineer
4 3 (8.33%) Wintel Engineer
5 2 (5.56%) Administrator
5 2 (5.56%) IT Support Engineer
5 2 (5.56%) IT Support Technician
5 2 (5.56%) Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.56%) OpenGL
1 2 (5.56%) Qt
1 2 (5.56%) Software Packaging
1 2 (5.56%) Terraform
2 1 (2.78%) LDAP
2 1 (2.78%) SAML
2 1 (2.78%) XMPP
2 1 (2.78%) X-Windows
Miscellaneous
1 5 (13.89%) Onboarding
2 3 (8.33%) Chip and PIN
2 3 (8.33%) Data Protection Act
3 2 (5.56%) CUDA
3 2 (5.56%) Data Centre
3 2 (5.56%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (2.78%) Driving Licence
4 1 (2.78%) Enterprise Cloud
4 1 (2.78%) Management Information System
4 1 (2.78%) Replication
4 1 (2.78%) Video Editing
Operating Systems
1 21 (58.33%) Windows
2 7 (19.44%) Linux
2 7 (19.44%) Windows 10
3 3 (8.33%) Android
3 3 (8.33%) Windows Server
4 2 (5.56%) Apple iOS
5 1 (2.78%) Mac OS
5 1 (2.78%) Mac OS X
5 1 (2.78%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (41.67%) Problem-Solving
2 10 (27.78%) Customer Service
3 7 (19.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 5 (13.89%) ITIL
4 5 (13.89%) ITSM
5 4 (11.11%) Break/Fix
5 4 (11.11%) Data Protection
5 4 (11.11%) Low Latency
5 4 (11.11%) Project Delivery
5 4 (11.11%) User Experience
6 3 (8.33%) Chat Support
6 3 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
6 3 (8.33%) Identity Access Management
6 3 (8.33%) Kalman Filter
6 3 (8.33%) Service Management
6 3 (8.33%) Vulnerability Remediation
7 2 (5.56%) Change Management
7 2 (5.56%) Continuous Improvement
7 2 (5.56%) Service Delivery
7 2 (5.56%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 6 (16.67%) PowerShell
2 4 (11.11%) Python
3 2 (5.56%) Bash
4 1 (2.78%) PHP
Qualifications
1 6 (16.67%) Security Cleared
2 5 (13.89%) SC Cleared
3 4 (11.11%) Microsoft Certification
4 3 (8.33%) AWS Certification
4 3 (8.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 2 (5.56%) A+ Certification
5 2 (5.56%) Azure Certification
5 2 (5.56%) DV Cleared
5 2 (5.56%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 2 (5.56%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
6 1 (2.78%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (5.56%) Cyber Essentials
1 2 (5.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 2 (5.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 2 (5.56%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (47.22%) Active Directory
2 10 (27.78%) Virtual Desktop
3 8 (22.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (8.33%) Hyper-V
5 2 (5.56%) Docker
5 2 (5.56%) Microsoft App-V
5 2 (5.56%) VMware Workstation
5 2 (5.56%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (13.89%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (5.56%) Ansible
2 2 (5.56%) Packer
2 2 (5.56%) SCCM
Vendors
1 18 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 9 (25.00%) Citrix
3 8 (22.22%) VMware
4 5 (13.89%) ServiceNow
5 3 (8.33%) Dell
6 2 (5.56%) Dynatrace
6 2 (5.56%) F5
6 2 (5.56%) HP
6 2 (5.56%) Leostream
6 2 (5.56%) NVIDIA
6 2 (5.56%) Palo Alto
6 2 (5.56%) Ping Identity
6 2 (5.56%) Zscaler
7 1 (2.78%) Apple
7 1 (2.78%) Avid
7 1 (2.78%) Cisco
7 1 (2.78%) Teradici
7 1 (2.78%) Veeam