Service Desk Analyst Contract Job Trends

Service Desk Analyst
UK

The median Service Desk Analyst daily rate in the UK is £199, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 September 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 487 387 325
Rank change year-on-year -100 -62 -50
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 189 176 279
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.54% 0.72%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.59% 0.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 102 68 134
10th Percentile £120 £130 £130
25th Percentile £150 £149 £152
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £199 £186 £190
Median % change year-on-year +6.71% -1.97% +1.33%
75th Percentile £233 £227 £222
90th Percentile £284 £288 £288
UK excluding London median daily rate £190 £170 £176
% change year-on-year +11.76% -3.55% +0.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 58 82
10th Percentile £14.36 £14.32 £11.80
25th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £15.84 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -2.82% - +1.88%
75th Percentile £21.18 £19.63 £21.32
90th Percentile £26.11 £23.85 £21.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.84 £16.00 £16.30
% change year-on-year -1.00% -1.84% +3.10%

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 49,539 29,677 35,948
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 91.24% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,564 18,735 22,669
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
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 3,586 1,552 1,836
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.89 £53.89 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.16 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%

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 2 September 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 2 September 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 2 September 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 -102 165 £200 +6.67% 49
UK excluding London -89 162 £190 +11.76% 52
North of England -57 59 £175 +7.69% 16
North West -25 50 £169 +3.85% 7
Work from Home -45 43 £145 -19.44% 16
East of England -32 34 £161 -15.13% 10
South East -63 24 £234 +28.08% 8
South West -26 22 £193 -9.41% 8
London -78 17 £225 -18.18% 2
Midlands -62 14 £136 -20.25% 6
Scotland -24 12 - - 1
East Midlands -17 7 £131 -0.44% 1
West Midlands -52 7 £190 -24.00% 5
Yorkshire -42 6 £211 +50.89% 8
North East -46 3 £200 +5.26% 1
Wales -14 2 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 2 September 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 80 (42.33%) Windows
2 79 (41.80%) Customer Service
3 73 (38.62%) Microsoft 365
4 71 (37.57%) Microsoft
5 63 (33.33%) Active Directory
6 50 (26.46%) ITIL
7 47 (24.87%) Problem-Solving
8 40 (21.16%) ServiceNow
9 32 (16.93%) ITSM
10 29 (15.34%) Windows 10
11 26 (13.76%) Security Cleared
12 24 (12.70%) Microsoft Office
13 21 (11.11%) SLA
14 20 (10.58%) Azure
14 20 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
14 20 (10.58%) SC Cleared
15 19 (10.05%) Customer Experience
16 18 (9.52%) Service Management
17 17 (8.99%) Service Delivery
18 16 (8.47%) Incident Management
19 15 (7.94%) SharePoint
20 14 (7.41%) VPN
21 12 (6.35%) Collaborative Working
21 12 (6.35%) Entra ID
21 12 (6.35%) Mac OS
22 11 (5.82%) Android
22 11 (5.82%) Microsoft Exchange
23 10 (5.29%) DNS
24 9 (4.76%) DHCP
24 9 (4.76%) OneDrive

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 15 (7.94%) SharePoint
2 11 (5.82%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.53%) Mattermost
Applications
1 24 (12.70%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (3.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.59%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.53%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 7 (3.70%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 73 (38.62%) Microsoft 365
2 20 (10.58%) Azure
3 12 (6.35%) Entra ID
4 9 (4.76%) OneDrive
5 7 (3.70%) Google Workspace
6 5 (2.65%) GCP
6 5 (2.65%) Mimecast
7 3 (1.59%) Cloud Computing
7 3 (1.59%) IaaS
8 2 (1.06%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.53%) AWS
9 1 (0.53%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.41%) VPN
2 10 (5.29%) DNS
3 9 (4.76%) DHCP
4 5 (2.65%) TCP/IP
4 5 (2.65%) VoIP
5 4 (2.12%) Remote Desktop
6 3 (1.59%) Unified Communications
6 3 (1.59%) Wireless
7 1 (0.53%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (0.53%) LAN
7 1 (0.53%) NAS
7 1 (0.53%) SAN
7 1 (0.53%) WAN
7 1 (0.53%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.53%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (2.12%) JIRA
General
1 65 (34.39%) Social Skills
2 16 (8.47%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (7.94%) Legal
4 13 (6.88%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (4.76%) Finance
6 8 (4.23%) Public Sector
7 7 (3.70%) Banking
7 7 (3.70%) Manufacturing
7 7 (3.70%) Retail
8 5 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (2.12%) Military
10 3 (1.59%) Advertising
10 3 (1.59%) Italian Language
10 3 (1.59%) Law
10 3 (1.59%) Spanish Language
11 2 (1.06%) Dutch Language
11 2 (1.06%) German Language
11 2 (1.06%) Hungarian Language
11 2 (1.06%) Romanian Language
12 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.53%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 17 (8.99%) Onboarding
2 10 (5.29%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (4.23%) Smartphone
4 6 (3.17%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
5 5 (2.65%) NHS
6 3 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (1.59%) Blackberry
7 1 (0.53%) Chip and PIN
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 80 (42.33%) Windows
2 29 (15.34%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.35%) Mac OS
4 11 (5.82%) Android
5 6 (3.17%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.53%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (41.80%) Customer Service
2 50 (26.46%) ITIL
3 47 (24.87%) Problem-Solving
4 32 (16.93%) ITSM
5 20 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
6 19 (10.05%) Customer Experience
7 18 (9.52%) Service Management
8 17 (8.99%) Service Delivery
9 16 (8.47%) Incident Management
10 12 (6.35%) Collaborative Working
11 7 (3.70%) Active Listening
12 6 (3.17%) Data Protection
12 6 (3.17%) User Experience
12 6 (3.17%) Workflow
13 5 (2.65%) Change Management
13 5 (2.65%) CRM
13 5 (2.65%) Process Improvement
14 4 (2.12%) Chat Support
14 4 (2.12%) Digital Strategy
14 4 (2.12%) Proactive Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.53%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 26 (13.76%) Security Cleared
2 20 (10.58%) SC Cleared
3 8 (4.23%) Degree
4 5 (2.65%) ITIL Certification
4 5 (2.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 4 (2.12%) A+ Certification
5 4 (2.12%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (1.06%) MCSE
7 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Certified Professional
8 1 (0.53%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.53%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.53%) MCSA
8 1 (0.53%) MOS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (11.11%) SLA
2 1 (0.53%) Data Quality
System Software
1 63 (33.33%) Active Directory
2 5 (2.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.59%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.06%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.53%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 6 (3.17%) Microsoft Intune
1 6 (3.17%) SCCM
2 1 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
2 1 (0.53%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 71 (37.57%) Microsoft
2 40 (21.16%) ServiceNow
3 9 (4.76%) Remedy
4 7 (3.70%) Google
4 7 (3.70%) iManage
4 7 (3.70%) VMware
5 5 (2.65%) Cisco
5 5 (2.65%) Citrix
5 5 (2.65%) Sophos
6 4 (2.12%) Dell
6 4 (2.12%) Freshdesk
7 3 (1.59%) Adobe
7 3 (1.59%) Intapp
7 3 (1.59%) Litera
8 2 (1.06%) Apple
9 1 (0.53%) HP
9 1 (0.53%) Mitel
9 1 (0.53%) Polycom
9 1 (0.53%) Veeam