Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £175, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 November 2025.

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

6 months to
13 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 397 305 249
Rank change year-on-year -92 -56 +50
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 181 264 461
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.51% 0.72% 1.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.56% 0.78% 1.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 138 271
10th Percentile £131 £127 £125
25th Percentile £141 £140 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £175 £190 £188
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% +1.33% +13.64%
75th Percentile £216 £220 £230
90th Percentile £265 £282 £263
UK excluding London median daily rate £165 £178 £175
% change year-on-year -7.04% +1.43% +9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 35 127
10th Percentile £13.80 £14.85 £13.27
25th Percentile £14.38 £15.62 £13.41
Median hourly rate £16.00 £17.50 £15.65
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% +11.82% +0.97%
75th Percentile £19.50 £21.46 £18.75
90th Percentile £23.53 £28.75 £20.56
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £17.50 £15.64
% change year-on-year -8.57% +11.93% +0.87%

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 32,276 33,867 43,312
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.91% 92.88% 93.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,494 20,433 29,418
10th Percentile £278 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,854 1,264 1,533
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.13 £14.94
25th Percentile £17.79 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +60.48%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +85.42%

Service Desk Analyst
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Service Desk Analyst job vacancy trend in the UK

Service Desk Analyst
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Desk Analyst job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Desk Analyst job vacancies in the UK

Service Desk Analyst
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Desk Analyst over the 6 months to 13 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Service Desk Analyst in the UK

Service Desk Analyst
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Desk Analyst job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Desk Analyst job vacancies in the UK

Service Desk Analyst
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Service Desk Analyst over the 6 months to 13 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Desk Analyst in the UK

Service Desk Analyst
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 Service Desk Analyst within the UK over the 6 months to 13 November 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
UK excluding London -78 160 £165 -7.04% 64
England -93 160 £175 -7.89% 66
East of England +4 55 £155 -29.55% 5
North of England -46 38 £163 +8.33% 16
Work from Home -27 26 £132 -18.57% 18
Midlands -36 23 £132 -30.44% 12
North West -19 22 £163 +8.33% 6
South East -26 20 £183 -3.95% 14
London -27 17 £275 +37.50% 8
West Midlands -34 12 £250 +31.58% 4
Yorkshire -38 12 £150 +11.11% 7
East Midlands -5 11 £131 -27.13% 8
Scotland -10 11 £190 -1.55% 3
South West -13 7 £213 +6.25% 13
North East -16 4 £180 +20.00% 3
Northern Ireland -6 3 - -
Wales -15 3 - - 2

Service Desk Analyst Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 13 November 2025, Service Desk Analyst 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 Service Desk Analyst in the job title.

1 104 (57.46%) Customer Service
2 69 (38.12%) Active Directory
3 62 (34.25%) Microsoft
4 60 (33.15%) Windows
5 52 (28.73%) Microsoft 365
6 43 (23.76%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (20.44%) ITIL
7 37 (20.44%) Windows 10
8 28 (15.47%) Microsoft Exchange
9 27 (14.92%) ServiceNow
10 26 (14.36%) ITSM
11 24 (13.26%) Security Cleared
12 22 (12.15%) Microsoft Office
13 21 (11.60%) Service Management
14 18 (9.94%) SC Cleared
15 15 (8.29%) Service Delivery
16 13 (7.18%) A+ Certification
16 13 (7.18%) Entra ID
16 13 (7.18%) Microsoft Intune
16 13 (7.18%) SLA
17 12 (6.63%) DNS
17 12 (6.63%) Incident Management
18 11 (6.08%) Azure
18 11 (6.08%) SCCM
19 10 (5.52%) Continuous Improvement
19 10 (5.52%) Microsoft Certification
20 9 (4.97%) Customer Experience
20 9 (4.97%) Degree
20 9 (4.97%) TCP/IP
21 8 (4.42%) Active Listening

Service Desk Analyst 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 28 (15.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.21%) Exchange Server 2013
2 4 (2.21%) HCL Notes
2 4 (2.21%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.55%) Confluence
Applications
1 22 (12.15%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (2.76%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (1.10%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.55%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 52 (28.73%) Microsoft 365
2 13 (7.18%) Entra ID
3 11 (6.08%) Azure
4 2 (1.10%) Google Workspace
4 2 (1.10%) Power Platform
5 1 (0.55%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.63%) DNS
2 9 (4.97%) TCP/IP
3 8 (4.42%) DHCP
4 6 (3.31%) VoIP
4 6 (3.31%) VPN
4 6 (3.31%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (1.10%) Internet
5 2 (1.10%) LAN
5 2 (1.10%) Remote Desktop
5 2 (1.10%) SAN
5 2 (1.10%) WAN
6 1 (0.55%) Broadband
6 1 (0.55%) Network Security
6 1 (0.55%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.55%) DTS
1 1 (0.55%) Looker
Development Applications
1 5 (2.76%) JIRA
General
1 87 (48.07%) Social Skills
2 20 (11.05%) Public Sector
3 16 (8.84%) Romanian Language
4 12 (6.63%) Polish Language
5 11 (6.08%) Retail
6 10 (5.52%) Manufacturing
6 10 (5.52%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (4.97%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (4.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (2.76%) Local Government
9 4 (2.21%) Legal
9 4 (2.21%) Military
9 4 (2.21%) Spanish Language
10 3 (1.66%) Finance
10 3 (1.66%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.55%) Advertising
11 1 (0.55%) Banking
11 1 (0.55%) French Language
11 1 (0.55%) Lithuanian Language
11 1 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.10%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 8 (4.42%) Management Information System
2 7 (3.87%) NHS
2 7 (3.87%) Self-Motivation
2 7 (3.87%) Video Conferencing
3 5 (2.76%) Enterprise Software
3 5 (2.76%) Onboarding
4 4 (2.21%) Data Centre
5 3 (1.66%) Smartphone
6 2 (1.10%) Smartcard
7 1 (0.55%) Blackberry
7 1 (0.55%) BYOD
7 1 (0.55%) CMDB
7 1 (0.55%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 60 (33.15%) Windows
2 37 (20.44%) Windows 10
3 5 (2.76%) Windows Server
4 4 (2.21%) Windows Server 2012
5 3 (1.66%) Android
5 3 (1.66%) Windows 7
6 2 (1.10%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.55%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.55%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (57.46%) Customer Service
2 43 (23.76%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (20.44%) ITIL
4 26 (14.36%) ITSM
5 21 (11.60%) Service Management
6 15 (8.29%) Service Delivery
7 12 (6.63%) Incident Management
8 10 (5.52%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (4.97%) Customer Experience
10 8 (4.42%) Active Listening
10 8 (4.42%) Digital Strategy
11 6 (3.31%) Problem Management
12 5 (2.76%) Migration
12 5 (2.76%) User Experience
13 4 (2.21%) Mathematics
13 4 (2.21%) Proactive Monitoring
14 3 (1.66%) Case Management
14 3 (1.66%) Configuration Management
14 3 (1.66%) Kalman Filter
14 3 (1.66%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 3 (1.66%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.55%) SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (13.26%) Security Cleared
2 18 (9.94%) SC Cleared
3 13 (7.18%) A+ Certification
4 10 (5.52%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (4.97%) Degree
6 8 (4.42%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 7 (3.87%) DV Cleared
8 3 (1.66%) MCSA
9 2 (1.10%) CIPD
9 2 (1.10%) HNC
9 2 (1.10%) HND
9 2 (1.10%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.55%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.18%) SLA
System Software
1 69 (38.12%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.55%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 13 (7.18%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.08%) SCCM
Vendors
1 62 (34.25%) Microsoft
2 27 (14.92%) ServiceNow
3 5 (2.76%) Citrix
4 4 (2.21%) Lotus
4 4 (2.21%) Remedy
5 3 (1.66%) Cisco
6 2 (1.10%) Altiris
6 2 (1.10%) Apple
6 2 (1.10%) Barracuda Networks
6 2 (1.10%) Dell
6 2 (1.10%) Google
6 2 (1.10%) VMware
7 1 (0.55%) Bomgar
7 1 (0.55%) Capita
7 1 (0.55%) Ivanti