Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £183, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 395 307 261
Rank change year-on-year -88 -46 +60
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 173 270 470
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.53% 0.70% 0.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.58% 0.75% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 131 258
10th Percentile £130 £128 £125
25th Percentile £149 £140 £155
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £183 £190 £190
Median % change year-on-year -3.95% - +18.75%
75th Percentile £225 £218 £230
90th Percentile £288 £260 £258
UK excluding London median daily rate £170 £175 £180
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.78% +16.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 65 130
10th Percentile £14.19 £14.16 £13.25
25th Percentile £14.50 £14.41 £13.41
Median hourly rate £16.00 £16.30 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.84% +1.88% +3.23%
75th Percentile £19.06 £20.00 £20.56
90th Percentile £23.38 £21.37 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £16.30 £16.00
% change year-on-year -1.84% +1.88% +3.23%

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 30,003 35,798 46,379
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.06% 92.95% 94.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,960 22,064 31,748
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,577 1,684 1,483
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.00
% change year-on-year -44.11% +4.65% +95.45%

Service Desk Analyst
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Service Desk Analyst in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Service Desk Analyst 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 18 September 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
England -56 154 £183 -3.95% 83
UK excluding London -59 148 £170 -2.86% 87
East of England +3 48 £190 -13.64% 11
North of England -14 41 £163 -9.72% 23
North West -9 25 £163 -26.14% 7
Work from Home +1 23 £180 +16.13% 35
London +2 22 £275 +37.50% 9
Midlands -26 19 £170 -10.53% 18
South East -4 18 £180 -1.37% 21
Scotland -9 12 £130 -25.71% 7
West Midlands -20 12 £250 +31.58% 1
Yorkshire -22 12 £163 -5.80% 16
East Midlands -2 7 £132 -17.66% 17
South West +8 6 £225 +28.57% 6
North East 0 4 £190 +35.71%
Northern Ireland -4 3 - - 1
Wales -10 1 - - 2

Service Desk Analyst Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, Service Desk Analyst contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Service Desk Analyst in the job title.

1 94 (54.34%) Customer Service
2 68 (39.31%) Social Skills
3 65 (37.57%) Active Directory
4 61 (35.26%) Windows
5 59 (34.10%) Microsoft
6 55 (31.79%) Microsoft 365
7 52 (30.06%) ITIL
8 48 (27.75%) Problem-Solving
9 32 (18.50%) ServiceNow
9 32 (18.50%) Security Cleared
10 31 (17.92%) Windows 10
11 28 (16.18%) SC Cleared
12 26 (15.03%) Incident Management
13 25 (14.45%) Microsoft Exchange
14 23 (13.29%) A+ Certification
15 22 (12.72%) Public Sector
16 21 (12.14%) Service Delivery
17 20 (11.56%) Microsoft Office
18 19 (10.98%) Service Management
18 19 (10.98%) Microsoft Certification
19 17 (9.83%) ITSM
20 16 (9.25%) Citrix
20 16 (9.25%) Retail
21 14 (8.09%) MCSA
21 14 (8.09%) Wi-Fi
22 13 (7.51%) Microsoft Excel
22 13 (7.51%) SLA
23 12 (6.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
24 11 (6.36%) Entra ID
25 10 (5.78%) Microsoft Intune

Service Desk Analyst Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 25 (14.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (2.89%) Exchange Server 2013
3 4 (2.31%) HCL Notes
3 4 (2.31%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.58%) Confluence
Applications
1 20 (11.56%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (7.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (6.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.73%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 55 (31.79%) Microsoft 365
2 11 (6.36%) Entra ID
3 9 (5.20%) Azure
4 3 (1.73%) GCP
4 3 (1.73%) Google Workspace
5 2 (1.16%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 14 (8.09%) Wi-Fi
2 7 (4.05%) TCP/IP
2 7 (4.05%) VoIP
3 6 (3.47%) DNS
4 5 (2.89%) DHCP
5 4 (2.31%) VPN
6 2 (1.16%) LAN
6 2 (1.16%) SAN
6 2 (1.16%) WAN
7 1 (0.58%) Broadband
7 1 (0.58%) Internet
7 1 (0.58%) Network Security
7 1 (0.58%) Remote Desktop
7 1 (0.58%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.58%) DTS
1 1 (0.58%) Looker
Development Applications
1 6 (3.47%) JIRA
General
1 68 (39.31%) Social Skills
2 22 (12.72%) Public Sector
3 16 (9.25%) Retail
4 10 (5.78%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (5.78%) Manufacturing
4 10 (5.78%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (5.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 7 (4.05%) Finance
6 7 (4.05%) Polish Language
7 6 (3.47%) Military
8 5 (2.89%) Local Government
9 4 (2.31%) Banking
9 4 (2.31%) Legal
9 4 (2.31%) Romanian Language
9 4 (2.31%) Spanish Language
10 3 (1.73%) Telecoms
11 2 (1.16%) German Language
11 2 (1.16%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.58%) Advertising
12 1 (0.58%) Lithuanian Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.16%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 8 (4.62%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (3.47%) NHS
3 5 (2.89%) Enterprise Software
3 5 (2.89%) Smartphone
4 4 (2.31%) Management Information System
4 4 (2.31%) Onboarding
4 4 (2.31%) Video Conferencing
5 3 (1.73%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.16%) Smartcard
7 1 (0.58%) Blackberry
7 1 (0.58%) BYOD
7 1 (0.58%) Reinsurance
7 1 (0.58%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 61 (35.26%) Windows
2 31 (17.92%) Windows 10
3 10 (5.78%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.47%) Android
5 5 (2.89%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (2.31%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.73%) Apple iOS
7 3 (1.73%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.58%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (54.34%) Customer Service
2 52 (30.06%) ITIL
3 48 (27.75%) Problem-Solving
4 26 (15.03%) Incident Management
5 21 (12.14%) Service Delivery
6 19 (10.98%) Service Management
7 17 (9.83%) ITSM
8 9 (5.20%) Continuous Improvement
8 9 (5.20%) Customer Experience
8 9 (5.20%) Mathematics
9 8 (4.62%) Active Listening
10 7 (4.05%) Problem Management
11 4 (2.31%) Asset Management
11 4 (2.31%) CRM
11 4 (2.31%) Digital Strategy
11 4 (2.31%) Migration
11 4 (2.31%) Proactive Monitoring
12 3 (1.73%) Case Management
12 3 (1.73%) Kalman Filter
12 3 (1.73%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.16%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.58%) SQL
Qualifications
1 32 (18.50%) Security Cleared
2 28 (16.18%) SC Cleared
3 23 (13.29%) A+ Certification
4 19 (10.98%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (8.09%) MCSA
6 7 (4.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 6 (3.47%) Degree
8 5 (2.89%) DV Cleared
9 4 (2.31%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (1.16%) CIPD
10 2 (1.16%) HNC
10 2 (1.16%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.51%) SLA
System Software
1 65 (37.57%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.58%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 10 (5.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.89%) SCCM
Vendors
1 59 (34.10%) Microsoft
2 32 (18.50%) ServiceNow
3 16 (9.25%) Citrix
4 4 (2.31%) Lotus
5 3 (1.73%) Apple
5 3 (1.73%) Cisco
5 3 (1.73%) Google
6 2 (1.16%) Barracuda Networks
6 2 (1.16%) Dell
6 2 (1.16%) Ivanti
6 2 (1.16%) Remedy
7 1 (0.58%) Altiris
7 1 (0.58%) Capita
7 1 (0.58%) Oracle
7 1 (0.58%) VMware