Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £200, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 488 359 267
Rank change year-on-year -129 -92 +46
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 166 177 379
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.32% 0.58% 0.88%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.35% 0.63% 0.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 67 166
10th Percentile £131 £130 £127
25th Percentile £156 £141 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £190 £185
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +2.70% +2.78%
75th Percentile £242 £225 £224
90th Percentile £307 £288 £323
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £170 £175
% change year-on-year +17.65% -2.86% +6.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 52 167
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.41 £12.73
25th Percentile £15.75 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £18.50 £16.30 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.50% +1.88% +10.19%
75th Percentile £21.35 £19.24 £21.37
90th Percentile £26.66 £24.19 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.90 £16.05 £16.00
% change year-on-year +11.53% +0.31% +10.27%

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 47,423 28,164 40,143
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.41% 92.05% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,738 18,025 25,769
10th Percentile £325 £288 £283
25th Percentile £415 £401 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,196 1,261 2,867
10th Percentile £15.61 £13.78 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.23 £17.33 £16.50
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 30 June 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
UK excluding London -101 145 £200 +17.65% 58
England -129 143 £200 +5.26% 53
Work from Home -40 34 £141 -6.28% 22
South East -55 30 £200 - 14
North of England -87 29 £200 +33.33% 25
Midlands -50 25 £131 -27.13% 2
East of England -43 23 £205 -8.89% 6
South West -26 19 £225 +26.76% 7
North West -52 19 £188 +25.00% 13
London -94 19 £230 +4.55% 4
Scotland -11 17 £275 +111.54% 5
East Midlands -6 16 £131 -0.88% 2
West Midlands -55 9 £165 -13.16%
Yorkshire -59 6 £225 +50.00% 9
Wales -10 4 £150 +7.14% 1
North East -32 4 £200 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 30 June 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 75 (45.18%) Customer Service
2 70 (42.17%) Windows
3 61 (36.75%) Microsoft
4 59 (35.54%) Active Directory
5 52 (31.33%) ITIL
5 52 (31.33%) Microsoft 365
6 38 (22.89%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (22.29%) Security Cleared
8 31 (18.67%) ITSM
9 30 (18.07%) Windows 10
10 29 (17.47%) SC Cleared
11 24 (14.46%) ServiceNow
12 21 (12.65%) Microsoft Office
13 20 (12.05%) Microsoft Exchange
13 20 (12.05%) Service Management
14 17 (10.24%) Customer Experience
15 15 (9.04%) Android
16 14 (8.43%) Azure
16 14 (8.43%) Service Delivery
17 13 (7.83%) SLA
18 12 (7.23%) Continuous Improvement
19 11 (6.63%) Apple iOS
19 11 (6.63%) Collaborative Working
19 11 (6.63%) Google
19 11 (6.63%) Google Workspace
19 11 (6.63%) Mac OS
20 10 (6.02%) Entra ID
21 9 (5.42%) Digital Strategy
21 9 (5.42%) DNS
21 9 (5.42%) Incident 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 (12.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (4.22%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.01%) Mattermost
4 1 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 21 (12.65%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.60%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (3.01%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 52 (31.33%) Microsoft 365
2 14 (8.43%) Azure
3 11 (6.63%) Google Workspace
4 10 (6.02%) Entra ID
5 9 (5.42%) OneDrive
6 8 (4.82%) GCP
7 3 (1.81%) IaaS
8 2 (1.20%) AWS
8 2 (1.20%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.20%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.60%) OCI
9 1 (0.60%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 9 (5.42%) DNS
1 9 (5.42%) VoIP
2 8 (4.82%) DHCP
3 4 (2.41%) TCP/IP
3 4 (2.41%) VPN
4 2 (1.20%) NAS
4 2 (1.20%) SAN
4 2 (1.20%) Unified Communications
4 2 (1.20%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.60%) Broadband
5 1 (0.60%) Cisco ASA
5 1 (0.60%) LAN
5 1 (0.60%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.20%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (4.22%) JIRA
General
1 61 (36.75%) Social Skills
2 16 (9.64%) Public Sector
3 10 (6.02%) Organisational Skills
4 7 (4.22%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (4.22%) Manufacturing
4 7 (4.22%) Retail
5 6 (3.61%) Law
5 6 (3.61%) Military
6 5 (3.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.41%) Finance
8 3 (1.81%) Banking
8 3 (1.81%) Legal
8 3 (1.81%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.20%) Dutch Language
9 2 (1.20%) Hungarian Language
9 2 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.20%) Romanian Language
10 1 (0.60%) German Language
10 1 (0.60%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.60%) Spanish Language
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.83%) Onboarding
2 8 (4.82%) Smartphone
3 6 (3.61%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (3.61%) Management Information System
4 3 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (1.81%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (0.60%) CMDB
5 1 (0.60%) Data Centre
5 1 (0.60%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (0.60%) Driving Licence
5 1 (0.60%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 70 (42.17%) Windows
2 30 (18.07%) Windows 10
3 15 (9.04%) Android
4 11 (6.63%) Apple iOS
4 11 (6.63%) Mac OS
5 3 (1.81%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.60%) Unix
6 1 (0.60%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (45.18%) Customer Service
2 52 (31.33%) ITIL
3 38 (22.89%) Problem-Solving
4 31 (18.67%) ITSM
5 20 (12.05%) Service Management
6 17 (10.24%) Customer Experience
7 14 (8.43%) Service Delivery
8 12 (7.23%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (6.63%) Collaborative Working
10 9 (5.42%) Digital Strategy
10 9 (5.42%) Incident Management
11 8 (4.82%) Active Listening
12 7 (4.22%) Agile
12 7 (4.22%) DevOps
12 7 (4.22%) Process Improvement
13 6 (3.61%) CRM
14 4 (2.41%) Configuration Management
14 4 (2.41%) Cybersecurity
14 4 (2.41%) Migration
14 4 (2.41%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.20%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 37 (22.29%) Security Cleared
2 29 (17.47%) SC Cleared
3 9 (5.42%) ITIL Certification
4 8 (4.82%) Degree
5 6 (3.61%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.81%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.81%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.20%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.20%) DBS Check
7 2 (1.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.60%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.83%) SLA
2 2 (1.20%) GDPR
3 1 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 59 (35.54%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.20%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.60%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.60%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 9 (5.42%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.20%) SCCM
2 2 (1.20%) vCenter Server
3 1 (0.60%) Dell DRAC
3 1 (0.60%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 61 (36.75%) Microsoft
2 24 (14.46%) ServiceNow
3 11 (6.63%) Google
4 7 (4.22%) Remedy
5 5 (3.01%) Citrix
6 4 (2.41%) Freshdesk
6 4 (2.41%) VMware
7 2 (1.20%) Apple
7 2 (1.20%) Dell
8 1 (0.60%) Cisco
8 1 (0.60%) Commvault
8 1 (0.60%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.60%) HP
8 1 (0.60%) Mitel
8 1 (0.60%) Polycom
8 1 (0.60%) Veeam
8 1 (0.60%) Zerto