Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £178, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 25 April 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 451 349 252
Rank change year-on-year -102 -97 +58
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 176 180 400
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.61% 0.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.41% 0.66% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 86 168
10th Percentile £131 £140 £125
25th Percentile £146 £150 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £178 £190 £173
Median % change year-on-year -6.58% +9.83% -3.89%
75th Percentile £225 £230 £223
90th Percentile £326 £256 £288
UK excluding London median daily rate £173 £184 £173
% change year-on-year -5.99% +6.07% +8.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 47 189
10th Percentile £14.49 £14.46 £12.86
25th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £18.50 £17.00 £15.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.82% +9.68% -
75th Percentile £24.73 £21.41 £21.37
90th Percentile £26.66 £24.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.50 £16.30 £14.81
% change year-on-year +1.23% +10.10% -4.48%

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 43,041 27,334 40,483
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.61% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,619 17,888 26,425
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £408 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.29% -1.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,759 1,027 2,641
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £29.07 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +46.84% -18.11% -21.11%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.25 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £28.75 £37.50
% change year-on-year +56.52% -23.33% -11.76%

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 25 April 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 25 April 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 25 April 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 -87 154 £173 -5.99% 49
England -116 150 £175 -7.89% 40
East of England -45 34 £190 -15.56% 8
Work from Home -19 33 £131 -12.56% 18
North of England -85 31 £150 - 14
South East -55 28 £173 -13.75% 5
Midlands -49 26 £131 -30.97% 7
East Midlands -20 20 £131 -30.97% 1
North West -52 19 £150 -4.76% 11
London -72 19 £210 +5.00% 1
Scotland +16 17 £190 +46.15% 2
South West -47 14 £308 +53.75% 7
Yorkshire -61 8 £200 +52.91% 2
Wales -4 6 £148 +5.36% 2
West Midlands -61 6 £190 - 6
North East -19 4 £200 +6.67% 1

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

For the 6 months to 25 April 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 79 (44.89%) Customer Service
2 65 (36.93%) Windows
3 58 (32.95%) Active Directory
3 58 (32.95%) Microsoft
4 55 (31.25%) ITIL
5 42 (23.86%) Security Cleared
6 40 (22.73%) Microsoft 365
6 40 (22.73%) Problem-Solving
7 35 (19.89%) SC Cleared
8 26 (14.77%) Windows 10
9 25 (14.20%) Microsoft Exchange
10 24 (13.64%) ITSM
11 21 (11.93%) Android
11 21 (11.93%) Service Management
12 19 (10.80%) Google
12 19 (10.80%) Google Workspace
12 19 (10.80%) Microsoft Office
13 18 (10.23%) Apple iOS
14 16 (9.09%) Mac OS
14 16 (9.09%) ServiceNow
15 15 (8.52%) VoIP
16 14 (7.95%) Collaborative Working
16 14 (7.95%) ITIL Certification
16 14 (7.95%) SLA
17 13 (7.39%) GCP
18 12 (6.82%) Customer Experience
19 11 (6.25%) Digital Strategy
20 10 (5.68%) Azure
20 10 (5.68%) DNS
21 9 (5.11%) 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 25 (14.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (4.55%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.84%) Mattermost
4 1 (0.57%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.57%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 19 (10.80%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.57%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (2.84%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 40 (22.73%) Microsoft 365
2 19 (10.80%) Google Workspace
3 13 (7.39%) GCP
4 10 (5.68%) Azure
5 6 (3.41%) Entra ID
6 3 (1.70%) IaaS
7 2 (1.14%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.57%) AWS
8 1 (0.57%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.57%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.57%) OCI
8 1 (0.57%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.57%) Rubrik
8 1 (0.57%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.52%) VoIP
2 10 (5.68%) DNS
3 8 (4.55%) DHCP
4 5 (2.84%) TCP/IP
5 4 (2.27%) Broadband
6 3 (1.70%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (1.14%) LAN
7 2 (1.14%) VPN
8 1 (0.57%) Internet
8 1 (0.57%) NAS
8 1 (0.57%) Network Security
8 1 (0.57%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.57%) SAN
8 1 (0.57%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.57%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (2.84%) JIRA
General
1 54 (30.68%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.23%) Public Sector
3 13 (7.39%) Romanian Language
4 9 (5.11%) Military
5 8 (4.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 7 (3.98%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (3.41%) Law
7 6 (3.41%) Manufacturing
7 6 (3.41%) Retail
8 5 (2.84%) Analytical Skills
9 4 (2.27%) Local Government
10 3 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.70%) Finance
10 3 (1.70%) Legal
10 3 (1.70%) Telecoms
11 2 (1.14%) Banking
11 2 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.57%) Dutch Language
12 1 (0.57%) German Language
12 1 (0.57%) Hungarian Language
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.39%) Smartphone
2 9 (5.11%) Management Information System
2 9 (5.11%) Onboarding
3 6 (3.41%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (2.27%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (1.14%) CMDB
5 2 (1.14%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.57%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.57%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.57%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 65 (36.93%) Windows
2 26 (14.77%) Windows 10
3 21 (11.93%) Android
4 18 (10.23%) Apple iOS
5 16 (9.09%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.14%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.57%) Unix
7 1 (0.57%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (44.89%) Customer Service
2 55 (31.25%) ITIL
3 40 (22.73%) Problem-Solving
4 24 (13.64%) ITSM
5 21 (11.93%) Service Management
6 14 (7.95%) Collaborative Working
7 12 (6.82%) Customer Experience
8 11 (6.25%) Digital Strategy
9 9 (5.11%) Problem Management
9 9 (5.11%) Process Improvement
10 8 (4.55%) Service Delivery
11 7 (3.98%) Active Listening
11 7 (3.98%) Agile
11 7 (3.98%) Continuous Improvement
11 7 (3.98%) DevOps
11 7 (3.98%) Incident Management
11 7 (3.98%) Migration
12 6 (3.41%) CRM
12 6 (3.41%) Cybersecurity
13 5 (2.84%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.57%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 42 (23.86%) Security Cleared
2 35 (19.89%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.95%) ITIL Certification
4 7 (3.98%) DV Cleared
5 5 (2.84%) Degree
6 3 (1.70%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.57%) A+ Certification
8 1 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.57%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.57%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.95%) SLA
2 2 (1.14%) GDPR
3 1 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 58 (32.95%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.57%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.57%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (3.41%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.84%) SCCM
3 2 (1.14%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.57%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.57%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.57%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 58 (32.95%) Microsoft
2 19 (10.80%) Google
3 16 (9.09%) ServiceNow
4 7 (3.98%) Remedy
5 5 (2.84%) Citrix
6 4 (2.27%) VMware
7 3 (1.70%) Apple
8 1 (0.57%) Commvault
8 1 (0.57%) Dell
8 1 (0.57%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.57%) Lotus
8 1 (0.57%) Sophos
8 1 (0.57%) Zerto