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 26 August 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 491 387 312
Rank change year-on-year -104 -75 -31
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 189 174 285
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.53% 0.73%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.58% 0.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 102 67 135
10th Percentile £120 £130 £129
25th Percentile £150 £149 £153
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £199 £185 £190
Median % change year-on-year +7.43% -2.63% +2.70%
75th Percentile £233 £229 £224
90th Percentile £284 £288 £288
UK excluding London median daily rate £185 £168 £178
% change year-on-year +10.45% -6.03% +1.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 57 94
10th Percentile £14.36 £14.39 £11.07
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 £21.35 £19.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £26.66 £23.95 £22.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.83 £16.30 £16.30
% change year-on-year -2.91% - +1.88%

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 49,591 29,856 36,116
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.25% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,677 18,858 22,961
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £622 £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 3,535 1,578 1,930
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.68 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.08 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -1.44%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.47 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.19% -41.51% +7.50%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -101 164 £199 +6.71% 34
UK excluding London -73 162 £185 +10.45% 38
North of England -52 59 £175 +7.69% 15
North West -24 50 £163 +4.00% 8
Work from Home -49 42 £145 -19.44% 13
East of England -33 31 £161 -28.33% 4
South East -68 24 £234 +28.08% 3
South West -30 22 £193 -3.75% 6
London -82 18 £225 -18.18% 1
Midlands -59 15 £131 -22.84% 6
Scotland -17 14 - - 2
East Midlands -16 8 £131 -0.44% 1
West Midlands -64 7 £190 -24.00% 5
Yorkshire -42 6 £211 +50.89% 5
North East -42 3 £200 +5.26% 2
Wales -13 2 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 26 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 80 (42.33%) Windows
2 79 (41.80%) Customer Service
3 72 (38.10%) Microsoft
3 72 (38.10%) Microsoft 365
4 63 (33.33%) Active Directory
5 50 (26.46%) ITIL
6 48 (25.40%) Problem-Solving
7 39 (20.63%) ServiceNow
8 32 (16.93%) ITSM
9 31 (16.40%) Windows 10
10 26 (13.76%) Security Cleared
11 24 (12.70%) Microsoft Office
12 21 (11.11%) Azure
12 21 (11.11%) SLA
13 20 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
13 20 (10.58%) SC Cleared
14 19 (10.05%) Service Management
15 18 (9.52%) Customer Experience
16 17 (8.99%) Service Delivery
17 16 (8.47%) Incident Management
18 15 (7.94%) SharePoint
19 14 (7.41%) VPN
20 12 (6.35%) Android
20 12 (6.35%) Entra ID
21 11 (5.82%) Collaborative Working
21 11 (5.82%) Mac OS
21 11 (5.82%) Microsoft Exchange
22 10 (5.29%) DNS
23 9 (4.76%) DHCP
23 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 72 (38.10%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (11.11%) 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%) Broadband
7 1 (0.53%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (0.53%) NAS
7 1 (0.53%) SAN
7 1 (0.53%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.53%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (2.12%) JIRA
General
1 64 (33.86%) Social Skills
2 17 (8.99%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (7.41%) Legal
4 12 (6.35%) Organisational Skills
5 10 (5.29%) Finance
6 9 (4.76%) Public Sector
7 7 (3.70%) Banking
8 6 (3.17%) Manufacturing
8 6 (3.17%) Retail
9 5 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (2.12%) Law
10 4 (2.12%) Military
11 3 (1.59%) Advertising
11 3 (1.59%) Italian Language
11 3 (1.59%) Spanish Language
12 2 (1.06%) Dutch Language
12 2 (1.06%) German Language
12 2 (1.06%) Hungarian Language
13 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.53%) Local Government
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 7 (3.70%) 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%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.53%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.53%) Smartcard
7 1 (0.53%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 80 (42.33%) Windows
2 31 (16.40%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.35%) Android
4 11 (5.82%) Mac OS
5 7 (3.70%) Apple iOS
6 2 (1.06%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (41.80%) Customer Service
2 50 (26.46%) ITIL
3 48 (25.40%) Problem-Solving
4 32 (16.93%) ITSM
5 20 (10.58%) Continuous Improvement
6 19 (10.05%) Service Management
7 18 (9.52%) Customer Experience
8 17 (8.99%) Service Delivery
9 16 (8.47%) Incident Management
10 11 (5.82%) Collaborative Working
11 6 (3.17%) Active Listening
11 6 (3.17%) Data Protection
11 6 (3.17%) User Experience
11 6 (3.17%) Workflow
12 5 (2.65%) Change Management
12 5 (2.65%) CRM
12 5 (2.65%) Digital Strategy
12 5 (2.65%) Process Improvement
13 4 (2.12%) Proactive Monitoring
13 4 (2.12%) Problem Management
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 2 (1.06%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (1.06%) MCSE
6 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 1 (0.53%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.53%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.53%) MCSA
7 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 72 (38.10%) Microsoft
2 39 (20.63%) ServiceNow
3 9 (4.76%) Remedy
4 7 (3.70%) Google
5 6 (3.17%) Citrix
5 6 (3.17%) iManage
5 6 (3.17%) VMware
6 5 (2.65%) Sophos
7 4 (2.12%) Cisco
7 4 (2.12%) Freshdesk
8 3 (1.59%) Adobe
8 3 (1.59%) Dell
8 3 (1.59%) Intapp
8 3 (1.59%) Litera
9 1 (0.53%) Apple
9 1 (0.53%) HP
9 1 (0.53%) Mitel
9 1 (0.53%) Polycom
9 1 (0.53%) Veeam