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 5 August 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 477 389 301
Rank change year-on-year -88 -88 -16
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 187 162 300
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.49% 0.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.54% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 60 145
10th Percentile £131 £130 £128
25th Percentile £150 £150 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £200 £190
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £238 £241 £238
90th Percentile £292 £288 £295
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £173 £190
% change year-on-year +15.94% -9.21% +13.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 52 109
10th Percentile £14.36 £14.50 £11.65
25th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £15.83 £16.65 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -4.95% +2.15% +5.16%
75th Percentile £21.26 £19.78 £21.37
90th Percentile £26.66 £24.50 £22.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.81 £16.30 £16.30
% change year-on-year -3.01% - +5.16%

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 49,279 30,093 36,428
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.64% 91.45% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,675 19,115 23,531
10th Percentile £330 £282 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,419 1,494 2,063
10th Percentile £15.23 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.99 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.10 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.10 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +75.33% -42.71% +17.07%

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 5 August 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 5 August 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 5 August 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 -103 166 £200 - 34
UK excluding London -82 161 £200 +15.94% 35
North of England -41 56 £175 +16.67% 11
North West -26 48 £169 +8.00% 10
Work from Home -40 42 £156 -16.67% 19
South East -59 27 £230 +15.00% 7
South West -30 26 £213 +6.25% 1
East of England -25 23 £205 -8.89% 7
London -56 21 £220 -7.37% 5
Midlands -55 19 £131 -40.38% 6
Scotland -11 14 - -
East Midlands -5 11 £131 -0.88% 2
West Midlands -60 8 £190 -24.00% 4
Yorkshire -52 5 £225 +60.71%
North East -39 3 £200 +11.11% 1
Wales -10 2 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 5 August 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 (42.25%) Windows
2 75 (40.11%) Customer Service
3 70 (37.43%) Microsoft
4 69 (36.90%) Microsoft 365
5 68 (36.36%) Active Directory
6 54 (28.88%) ITIL
7 47 (25.13%) Problem-Solving
8 37 (19.79%) ServiceNow
9 34 (18.18%) ITSM
10 33 (17.65%) Security Cleared
11 31 (16.58%) Windows 10
12 24 (12.83%) Microsoft Office
13 22 (11.76%) SC Cleared
14 19 (10.16%) Continuous Improvement
14 19 (10.16%) Customer Experience
14 19 (10.16%) SLA
15 18 (9.63%) Azure
15 18 (9.63%) Service Management
16 16 (8.56%) Incident Management
17 15 (8.02%) Service Delivery
18 14 (7.49%) VPN
19 13 (6.95%) Android
19 13 (6.95%) Remedy
20 12 (6.42%) DNS
20 12 (6.42%) Microsoft Exchange
21 11 (5.88%) DHCP
21 11 (5.88%) Mac OS
21 11 (5.88%) Remedy ITSM
21 11 (5.88%) SharePoint
22 10 (5.35%) Collaborative Working

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 12 (6.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (5.88%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.67%) Mattermost
Applications
1 24 (12.83%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (3.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (3.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.60%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.53%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 11 (5.88%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 69 (36.90%) Microsoft 365
2 18 (9.63%) Azure
3 9 (4.81%) Entra ID
3 9 (4.81%) OneDrive
4 8 (4.28%) Google Workspace
5 6 (3.21%) GCP
6 4 (2.14%) Mimecast
7 3 (1.60%) IaaS
8 2 (1.07%) AWS
8 2 (1.07%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.07%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.53%) OCI
9 1 (0.53%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.53%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.49%) VPN
2 12 (6.42%) DNS
3 11 (5.88%) DHCP
4 6 (3.21%) VoIP
5 5 (2.67%) TCP/IP
6 3 (1.60%) Unified Communications
6 3 (1.60%) Wireless
7 2 (1.07%) NAS
7 2 (1.07%) SAN
7 2 (1.07%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.53%) Broadband
8 1 (0.53%) Cisco ASA
8 1 (0.53%) LAN
8 1 (0.53%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.53%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.28%) JIRA
General
1 65 (34.76%) Social Skills
2 17 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (7.49%) Legal
4 10 (5.35%) Public Sector
5 9 (4.81%) Organisational Skills
6 8 (4.28%) Banking
7 6 (3.21%) Finance
7 6 (3.21%) Law
7 6 (3.21%) Manufacturing
7 6 (3.21%) Retail
8 5 (2.67%) Military
9 4 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.60%) Advertising
10 3 (1.60%) Telecoms
11 2 (1.07%) Dutch Language
11 2 (1.07%) Hungarian Language
12 1 (0.53%) German Language
12 1 (0.53%) Italian Language
12 1 (0.53%) Romanian Language
12 1 (0.53%) Spanish Language
Miscellaneous
1 13 (6.95%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.35%) Enterprise Software
3 9 (4.81%) Smartphone
4 6 (3.21%) Management Information System
5 3 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
5 3 (1.60%) Blackberry
6 2 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.07%) Video Conferencing
7 1 (0.53%) CMDB
7 1 (0.53%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.53%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.53%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.53%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 79 (42.25%) Windows
2 31 (16.58%) Windows 10
3 13 (6.95%) Android
4 11 (5.88%) Mac OS
5 8 (4.28%) Apple iOS
6 2 (1.07%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.53%) Unix
7 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (40.11%) Customer Service
2 54 (28.88%) ITIL
3 47 (25.13%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (18.18%) ITSM
5 19 (10.16%) Continuous Improvement
5 19 (10.16%) Customer Experience
6 18 (9.63%) Service Management
7 16 (8.56%) Incident Management
8 15 (8.02%) Service Delivery
9 10 (5.35%) Collaborative Working
10 6 (3.21%) Active Listening
10 6 (3.21%) CRM
10 6 (3.21%) Digital Strategy
11 5 (2.67%) Agile
11 5 (2.67%) Change Management
11 5 (2.67%) DevOps
11 5 (2.67%) Process Improvement
11 5 (2.67%) Workflow
12 4 (2.14%) Cybersecurity
12 4 (2.14%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.07%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 33 (17.65%) Security Cleared
2 22 (11.76%) SC Cleared
3 9 (4.81%) Degree
4 7 (3.74%) ITIL Certification
5 6 (3.21%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.21%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 4 (2.14%) A+ Certification
6 4 (2.14%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (1.60%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 2 (1.07%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (1.07%) MCSE
9 1 (0.53%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.53%) MCSA
9 1 (0.53%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (10.16%) SLA
System Software
1 68 (36.36%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.07%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.53%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.53%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.53%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (3.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.67%) SCCM
3 2 (1.07%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.53%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 70 (37.43%) Microsoft
2 37 (19.79%) ServiceNow
3 13 (6.95%) Remedy
4 8 (4.28%) Google
5 6 (3.21%) Citrix
5 6 (3.21%) iManage
6 4 (2.14%) Cisco
6 4 (2.14%) Freshdesk
6 4 (2.14%) Sophos
6 4 (2.14%) VMware
7 3 (1.60%) Adobe
7 3 (1.60%) Intapp
7 3 (1.60%) Litera
8 2 (1.07%) Dell
9 1 (0.53%) Apple
9 1 (0.53%) Commvault
9 1 (0.53%) HP
9 1 (0.53%) Mitel
9 1 (0.53%) Polycom
9 1 (0.53%) Veeam