Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £190, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026.

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

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 460 343 257
Rank change year-on-year -117 -86 +56
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 168 187 394
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.64% 0.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.69% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 73 85 167
10th Percentile £131 £139 £128
25th Percentile £150 £143 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £190 £188 £175
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% +7.14% -2.78%
75th Percentile £230 £231 £223
90th Percentile £328 £277 £305
UK excluding London median daily rate £180 £178 £175
% change year-on-year +1.41% +1.43% +9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 49 189
10th Percentile £15.19 £14.19 £12.86
25th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £18.50 £16.30 £15.62
Median % change year-on-year +13.50% +4.35% +0.81%
75th Percentile £26.11 £19.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £27.08 £24.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.50 £15.80 £14.81
% change year-on-year +4.43% +6.72% -4.42%

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 43,836 26,998 39,901
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.47% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,861 17,609 25,964
10th Percentile £319 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.07% -2.38% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +4.21% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,872 1,048 2,673
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.34 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £28.60 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.85% -23.73% -16.67%
75th Percentile £66.63 £62.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £27.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.65% -31.25% -5.73%

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 12 May 2026.

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 12 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Service Desk Analyst in the UK

Service Desk Analyst
Top 16 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 12 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 -153 146 £190 - 61
UK excluding London -116 145 £180 +1.41% 66
East of England -36 31 £205 -8.89% 18
North of England -88 30 £175 +11.11% 15
Work from Home -48 29 £131 -12.56% 15
South East -51 27 £175 -8.38% 13
Midlands -46 24 £131 -30.97% 7
London -60 21 £210 -4.00% 2
North West -53 19 £150 -4.76% 10
East Midlands -20 18 £131 -30.97% 2
Scotland +4 15 £275 +111.54%
South West -37 15 £225 +12.50% 9
Yorkshire -59 7 £200 +33.33% 4
West Midlands -68 6 £190 - 5
Wales -8 5 £148 +5.36% 1
North East -19 4 £200 -11.11% 1

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

For the 6 months to 12 May 2026, 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 73 (43.45%) Customer Service
2 70 (41.67%) Windows
3 60 (35.71%) Microsoft
4 57 (33.93%) ITIL
5 55 (32.74%) Active Directory
6 44 (26.19%) Microsoft 365
7 43 (25.60%) Security Cleared
8 39 (23.21%) Problem-Solving
9 35 (20.83%) SC Cleared
10 29 (17.26%) ITSM
11 26 (15.48%) Windows 10
12 22 (13.10%) Android
13 21 (12.50%) Service Management
13 21 (12.50%) ServiceNow
14 20 (11.90%) Microsoft Exchange
15 19 (11.31%) Apple iOS
15 19 (11.31%) Google
15 19 (11.31%) Google Workspace
16 17 (10.12%) Mac OS
16 17 (10.12%) Microsoft Office
17 16 (9.52%) VoIP
18 15 (8.93%) Collaborative Working
18 15 (8.93%) ITIL Certification
18 15 (8.93%) SLA
19 14 (8.33%) GCP
20 13 (7.74%) Customer Experience
21 11 (6.55%) Azure
22 10 (5.95%) DNS
23 9 (5.36%) Digital Strategy
23 9 (5.36%) Problem Management

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 20 (11.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (5.36%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.98%) Mattermost
4 1 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 17 (10.12%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.60%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (2.98%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 44 (26.19%) Microsoft 365
2 19 (11.31%) Google Workspace
3 14 (8.33%) GCP
4 11 (6.55%) Azure
5 8 (4.76%) OneDrive
6 7 (4.17%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.79%) IaaS
8 2 (1.19%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.60%) AWS
9 1 (0.60%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.60%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.60%) OCI
9 1 (0.60%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.60%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.60%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (9.52%) VoIP
2 10 (5.95%) DNS
3 8 (4.76%) DHCP
4 4 (2.38%) Broadband
4 4 (2.38%) TCP/IP
4 4 (2.38%) VPN
5 2 (1.19%) LAN
5 2 (1.19%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.60%) NAS
6 1 (0.60%) Network Security
6 1 (0.60%) SAN
6 1 (0.60%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (2.98%) JIRA
General
1 52 (30.95%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.71%) Public Sector
3 10 (5.95%) Military
4 8 (4.76%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (4.17%) Manufacturing
5 7 (4.17%) Retail
5 7 (4.17%) Romanian Language
6 6 (3.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 6 (3.57%) Law
7 5 (2.98%) Analytical Skills
8 4 (2.38%) Local Government
9 3 (1.79%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.79%) Finance
9 3 (1.79%) Legal
9 3 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.19%) Banking
10 2 (1.19%) Dutch Language
10 2 (1.19%) Hungarian Language
10 2 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.60%) Italian Language
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.33%) Smartphone
2 13 (7.74%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.76%) Management Information System
4 6 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.79%) CMDB
5 3 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.79%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.60%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.60%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.60%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 70 (41.67%) Windows
2 26 (15.48%) Windows 10
3 22 (13.10%) Android
4 19 (11.31%) Apple iOS
5 17 (10.12%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.19%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.60%) Unix
7 1 (0.60%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (43.45%) Customer Service
2 57 (33.93%) ITIL
3 39 (23.21%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (17.26%) ITSM
5 21 (12.50%) Service Management
6 15 (8.93%) Collaborative Working
7 13 (7.74%) Customer Experience
8 9 (5.36%) Digital Strategy
8 9 (5.36%) Problem Management
9 8 (4.76%) Active Listening
9 8 (4.76%) Incident Management
9 8 (4.76%) Process Improvement
9 8 (4.76%) Service Delivery
10 7 (4.17%) Agile
10 7 (4.17%) Continuous Improvement
10 7 (4.17%) DevOps
11 6 (3.57%) CRM
11 6 (3.57%) Cybersecurity
11 6 (3.57%) Migration
12 5 (2.98%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.60%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 43 (25.60%) Security Cleared
2 35 (20.83%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.93%) ITIL Certification
4 7 (4.17%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.38%) Degree
6 3 (1.79%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.60%) A+ Certification
8 1 (0.60%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.60%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.93%) SLA
2 2 (1.19%) GDPR
3 1 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 55 (32.74%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.60%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (3.57%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.98%) SCCM
3 2 (1.19%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.60%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.60%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.60%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 60 (35.71%) Microsoft
2 21 (12.50%) ServiceNow
3 19 (11.31%) Google
4 7 (4.17%) Remedy
5 5 (2.98%) Citrix
6 4 (2.38%) Freshdesk
7 3 (1.79%) Apple
7 3 (1.79%) VMware
8 1 (0.60%) Commvault
8 1 (0.60%) Dell
8 1 (0.60%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.60%) Sophos
8 1 (0.60%) Zerto