Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £175, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 April 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 441 342 257
Rank change year-on-year -99 -85 +60
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 180 182 408
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.62% 0.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.67% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 90 174
10th Percentile £131 £140 £125
25th Percentile £138 £150 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £175 £190 £174
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% +9.20% -3.33%
75th Percentile £220 £225 £223
90th Percentile £315 £251 £288
UK excluding London median daily rate £170 £190 £173
% change year-on-year -10.53% +9.83% +8.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 46 190
10th Percentile £14.39 £14.45 £12.86
25th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £17.90 £17.50 £15.46
Median % change year-on-year +2.29% +13.21% -0.27%
75th Percentile £24.42 £21.46 £21.28
90th Percentile £26.66 £24.58 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.25 £17.25 £14.81
% change year-on-year -5.80% +16.48% -4.45%

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 42,677 27,265 40,508
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 92.61% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,446 17,875 26,447
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £748
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,718 997 2,615
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.50 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £19.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.45 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.73% -13.00% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.60 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.65 £75.35 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 £29.53 £36.50
% change year-on-year +45.64% -19.11% -14.12%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -93 157 £170 -10.53% 53
England -136 154 £175 -7.89% 45
Work from Home -33 35 £131 -23.96% 14
East of England -35 34 £190 -15.56% 9
North of England -77 32 £150 - 16
South East -47 28 £173 -13.75% 7
Midlands -57 28 £131 -30.97% 7
East Midlands -16 21 £131 -30.97% 2
London -57 20 £230 +15.00% 1
North West -57 19 £150 -4.76% 13
Scotland +7 17 £190 +22.19% 4
South West -35 14 £220 +7.32% 7
Yorkshire -58 9 £175 +33.80%
West Midlands -66 7 £190 - 5
Wales -4 6 £148 +5.36% 2
North East -18 4 £200 +6.67% 3

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

For the 6 months to 20 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 82 (45.56%) Customer Service
2 68 (37.78%) Windows
3 62 (34.44%) Microsoft
4 60 (33.33%) Active Directory
5 55 (30.56%) ITIL
6 43 (23.89%) Microsoft 365
7 42 (23.33%) Problem-Solving
8 40 (22.22%) Security Cleared
9 34 (18.89%) SC Cleared
10 28 (15.56%) Windows 10
11 27 (15.00%) Microsoft Exchange
12 24 (13.33%) ITSM
13 21 (11.67%) Android
14 20 (11.11%) Microsoft Office
14 20 (11.11%) Service Management
15 19 (10.56%) Google
15 19 (10.56%) Google Workspace
16 18 (10.00%) Apple iOS
17 17 (9.44%) ServiceNow
18 16 (8.89%) Mac OS
19 15 (8.33%) VoIP
20 14 (7.78%) Collaborative Working
20 14 (7.78%) ITIL Certification
21 13 (7.22%) GCP
21 13 (7.22%) SLA
22 12 (6.67%) Customer Experience
22 12 (6.67%) Digital Strategy
23 11 (6.11%) Azure
24 10 (5.56%) DNS
25 9 (5.00%) 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 27 (15.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (4.44%) SharePoint
3 4 (2.22%) Mattermost
4 2 (1.11%) HCL Notes
5 1 (0.56%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 20 (11.11%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.56%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (2.22%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 43 (23.89%) Microsoft 365
2 19 (10.56%) Google Workspace
3 13 (7.22%) GCP
4 11 (6.11%) Azure
5 7 (3.89%) Entra ID
6 3 (1.67%) IaaS
7 2 (1.11%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.56%) AWS
8 1 (0.56%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.56%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.56%) OCI
8 1 (0.56%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.56%) Rubrik
8 1 (0.56%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.33%) VoIP
2 10 (5.56%) DNS
3 8 (4.44%) DHCP
4 5 (2.78%) TCP/IP
5 4 (2.22%) Broadband
6 3 (1.67%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (1.11%) LAN
7 2 (1.11%) VPN
8 1 (0.56%) Internet
8 1 (0.56%) NAS
8 1 (0.56%) Network Security
8 1 (0.56%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.56%) SAN
8 1 (0.56%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.56%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (2.22%) JIRA
General
1 55 (30.56%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.00%) Public Sector
3 13 (7.22%) Romanian Language
4 9 (5.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 9 (5.00%) Military
5 7 (3.89%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (3.33%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.33%) Law
6 6 (3.33%) Manufacturing
6 6 (3.33%) Retail
7 4 (2.22%) Finance
7 4 (2.22%) Local Government
8 3 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.67%) Legal
8 3 (1.67%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.11%) Banking
9 2 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.56%) Dutch Language
10 1 (0.56%) French Language
10 1 (0.56%) German Language
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.22%) Smartphone
2 9 (5.00%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.44%) Management Information System
4 6 (3.33%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.22%) Video Conferencing
6 3 (1.67%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.11%) CMDB
8 1 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.56%) Driving Licence
8 1 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 68 (37.78%) Windows
2 28 (15.56%) Windows 10
3 21 (11.67%) Android
4 18 (10.00%) Apple iOS
5 16 (8.89%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.11%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.56%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.56%) Unix
7 1 (0.56%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (45.56%) Customer Service
2 55 (30.56%) ITIL
3 42 (23.33%) Problem-Solving
4 24 (13.33%) ITSM
5 20 (11.11%) Service Management
6 14 (7.78%) Collaborative Working
7 12 (6.67%) Customer Experience
7 12 (6.67%) Digital Strategy
8 9 (5.00%) Problem Management
8 9 (5.00%) Process Improvement
9 7 (3.89%) Active Listening
9 7 (3.89%) Incident Management
9 7 (3.89%) Migration
9 7 (3.89%) Service Delivery
10 6 (3.33%) Agile
10 6 (3.33%) Continuous Improvement
10 6 (3.33%) Cybersecurity
10 6 (3.33%) DevOps
11 5 (2.78%) Root Cause Analysis
11 5 (2.78%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.11%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 40 (22.22%) Security Cleared
2 34 (18.89%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.78%) ITIL Certification
4 6 (3.33%) DV Cleared
5 5 (2.78%) Degree
6 3 (1.67%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.11%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (1.11%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.56%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.56%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.22%) SLA
2 2 (1.11%) GDPR
3 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 60 (33.33%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.56%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.56%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (4.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (3.33%) SCCM
3 2 (1.11%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.56%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.56%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 62 (34.44%) Microsoft
2 19 (10.56%) Google
3 17 (9.44%) ServiceNow
4 6 (3.33%) Remedy
5 5 (2.78%) Citrix
6 4 (2.22%) Apple
6 4 (2.22%) VMware
7 2 (1.11%) Lotus
8 1 (0.56%) Altiris
8 1 (0.56%) Bomgar
8 1 (0.56%) Commvault
8 1 (0.56%) Dell
8 1 (0.56%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.56%) Sophos
8 1 (0.56%) Zerto