Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £190, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 July 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 471 360 274
Rank change year-on-year -111 -86 +34
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 183 181 372
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.57% 0.86%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.62% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 100 72 164
10th Percentile £131 £130 £127
25th Percentile £150 £142 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £190 £190 £190
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.56%
75th Percentile £231 £232 £232
90th Percentile £296 £288 £332
UK excluding London median daily rate £183 £174 £175
% change year-on-year +5.04% -0.71% +6.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 51 161
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.41 £12.53
25th Percentile £15.77 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £17.90 £16.30 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.82% +1.88% +7.89%
75th Percentile £21.35 £19.63 £21.37
90th Percentile £26.66 £24.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.30 £16.30 £16.00
% change year-on-year +6.13% +1.88% +9.03%

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 48,135 29,273 40,238
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.98% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,133 18,680 25,890
10th Percentile £325 £287 £285
25th Percentile £417 £400 £409
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 3,254 1,329 2,797
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.75 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.44 £16.65
Median hourly rate £42.59 £26.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.03% -29.47% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +76.94% -37.13% +1.14%

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 7 July 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 7 July 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 7 July 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 -109 158 £190 - 61
UK excluding London -110 158 £183 +5.04% 68
Work from Home -41 41 £145 -3.33% 21
North of England -70 40 £156 +4.17% 22
North West -38 30 £150 - 11
South East -55 30 £200 - 16
Midlands -51 25 £131 -30.97% 5
East of England -43 24 £205 -8.89% 12
London -85 22 £210 -4.55% 5
South West -29 20 £225 +26.76% 8
Scotland -11 18 £275 +111.54% 5
East Midlands -6 16 £131 -0.88% 5
West Midlands -63 9 £165 -25.00%
Yorkshire -55 6 £225 +55.17% 7
Wales -14 4 £150 +7.14% 1
North East -35 4 £200 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 7 July 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 81 (44.26%) Windows
2 80 (43.72%) Customer Service
3 71 (38.80%) Microsoft
4 68 (37.16%) Active Directory
5 62 (33.88%) Microsoft 365
6 59 (32.24%) ITIL
7 43 (23.50%) Problem-Solving
8 37 (20.22%) Security Cleared
9 35 (19.13%) ITSM
10 34 (18.58%) Windows 10
11 31 (16.94%) ServiceNow
12 28 (15.30%) SC Cleared
13 23 (12.57%) Microsoft Office
14 22 (12.02%) Microsoft Exchange
15 20 (10.93%) Service Management
16 18 (9.84%) Azure
16 18 (9.84%) Customer Experience
17 16 (8.74%) Android
18 15 (8.20%) Service Delivery
18 15 (8.20%) SLA
19 14 (7.65%) Continuous Improvement
20 13 (7.10%) Incident Management
21 12 (6.56%) Collaborative Working
21 12 (6.56%) DNS
21 12 (6.56%) Mac OS
22 11 (6.01%) Apple iOS
22 11 (6.01%) DHCP
22 11 (6.01%) Entra ID
22 11 (6.01%) Google
22 11 (6.01%) Google Workspace

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 22 (12.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (5.46%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.73%) Mattermost
4 1 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 23 (12.57%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.55%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.55%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 7 (3.83%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 62 (33.88%) Microsoft 365
2 18 (9.84%) Azure
3 11 (6.01%) Entra ID
3 11 (6.01%) Google Workspace
4 9 (4.92%) OneDrive
5 8 (4.37%) GCP
6 3 (1.64%) IaaS
6 3 (1.64%) Mimecast
7 2 (1.09%) AWS
7 2 (1.09%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.09%) Cloud Computing
7 2 (1.09%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.55%) OCI
8 1 (0.55%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.56%) DNS
2 11 (6.01%) DHCP
3 9 (4.92%) VoIP
3 9 (4.92%) VPN
4 5 (2.73%) TCP/IP
5 2 (1.09%) NAS
5 2 (1.09%) SAN
5 2 (1.09%) Unified Communications
5 2 (1.09%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.55%) Broadband
6 1 (0.55%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (0.55%) LAN
6 1 (0.55%) WAN
6 1 (0.55%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.09%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (3.83%) JIRA
General
1 67 (36.61%) Social Skills
2 15 (8.20%) Public Sector
3 10 (5.46%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (5.46%) Organisational Skills
4 7 (3.83%) Law
4 7 (3.83%) Legal
4 7 (3.83%) Manufacturing
4 7 (3.83%) Retail
5 6 (3.28%) Finance
5 6 (3.28%) Military
6 5 (2.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.19%) Banking
8 3 (1.64%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.09%) Advertising
9 2 (1.09%) Dutch Language
9 2 (1.09%) Hungarian Language
9 2 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.09%) Romanian Language
10 1 (0.55%) Italian Language
10 1 (0.55%) Spanish Language
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.10%) Onboarding
2 9 (4.92%) Smartphone
3 8 (4.37%) Enterprise Software
4 7 (3.83%) Management Information System
5 3 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.64%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.55%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.55%) Blackberry
6 1 (0.55%) CMDB
6 1 (0.55%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.55%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.55%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.55%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 81 (44.26%) Windows
2 34 (18.58%) Windows 10
3 16 (8.74%) Android
4 12 (6.56%) Mac OS
5 11 (6.01%) Apple iOS
6 3 (1.64%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.55%) Unix
7 1 (0.55%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (43.72%) Customer Service
2 59 (32.24%) ITIL
3 43 (23.50%) Problem-Solving
4 35 (19.13%) ITSM
5 20 (10.93%) Service Management
6 18 (9.84%) Customer Experience
7 15 (8.20%) Service Delivery
8 14 (7.65%) Continuous Improvement
9 13 (7.10%) Incident Management
10 12 (6.56%) Collaborative Working
11 9 (4.92%) Digital Strategy
12 8 (4.37%) Active Listening
13 7 (3.83%) Agile
13 7 (3.83%) DevOps
14 6 (3.28%) CRM
14 6 (3.28%) Process Improvement
15 4 (2.19%) Configuration Management
15 4 (2.19%) Migration
15 4 (2.19%) Problem Management
15 4 (2.19%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.09%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 37 (20.22%) Security Cleared
2 28 (15.30%) SC Cleared
3 9 (4.92%) Degree
3 9 (4.92%) ITIL Certification
4 6 (3.28%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.19%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.19%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (2.19%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 2 (1.09%) A+ Certification
6 2 (1.09%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.55%) MCSA
7 1 (0.55%) MCSE
7 1 (0.55%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.20%) SLA
2 2 (1.09%) GDPR
3 1 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 68 (37.16%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (1.09%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.55%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.55%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 9 (4.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (2.73%) SCCM
3 2 (1.09%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.55%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.55%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 71 (38.80%) Microsoft
2 31 (16.94%) ServiceNow
3 11 (6.01%) Google
4 9 (4.92%) Remedy
5 7 (3.83%) Citrix
6 4 (2.19%) Freshdesk
6 4 (2.19%) VMware
7 3 (1.64%) Sophos
8 2 (1.09%) Apple
8 2 (1.09%) Cisco
8 2 (1.09%) Dell
9 1 (0.55%) Adobe
9 1 (0.55%) Commvault
9 1 (0.55%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.55%) HP
9 1 (0.55%) Intapp
9 1 (0.55%) Litera
9 1 (0.55%) Mitel
9 1 (0.55%) Polycom
9 1 (0.55%) Veeam