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 19 May 2026.

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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 474 324 241
Rank change year-on-year -150 -83 +67
Contract jobs requiring a Service Desk Analyst 159 189 391
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.65% 0.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.70% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 85 165
10th Percentile £131 £139 £128
25th Percentile £153 £143 £150
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £190 £188 £175
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% +7.14% -
75th Percentile £240 £231 £223
90th Percentile £327 £277 £314
UK excluding London median daily rate £183 £178 £175
% change year-on-year +2.82% +1.43% +9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 48 189
10th Percentile £15.16 £14.18 £12.86
25th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £14.16
Median hourly rate £17.90 £16.05 £15.66
Median % change year-on-year +11.53% +2.49% +1.10%
75th Percentile £25.07 £19.56 £21.37
90th Percentile £27.29 £24.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.50 £15.62 £14.81
% change year-on-year +5.63% +5.50% -2.89%

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 44,361 26,969 39,513
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.35% 92.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,167 17,560 25,723
10th Percentile £325 £294 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £512 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% -2.38% -3.40%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,886 1,047 2,672
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.31 £18.13 £16.29
Median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.38 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £27.13 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -32.19% -5.88%

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 19 May 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 19 May 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 19 May 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 -121 138 £183 +2.82% 62
England -134 137 £190 - 57
Work from Home -47 29 £131 -12.56% 15
South East -56 27 £178 -7.07% 14
North of England -89 27 £150 - 16
East of England -41 25 £205 -8.89% 8
Midlands -52 24 £131 -30.97% 5
London -70 19 £210 -3.45% 6
East Midlands -17 18 £131 -30.97%
North West -53 18 £150 - 9
South West -28 17 £225 +12.50% 11
Scotland -3 15 £275 +111.54% 1
West Midlands -59 6 £190 - 5
Wales -8 5 £148 +5.36% 2
Yorkshire -59 5 - - 6
North East -22 4 £200 -11.11% 1

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

For the 6 months to 19 May 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 72 (45.28%) Customer Service
2 70 (44.03%) Windows
3 59 (37.11%) Microsoft
4 57 (35.85%) ITIL
5 54 (33.96%) Active Directory
6 44 (27.67%) Microsoft 365
7 41 (25.79%) Security Cleared
8 39 (24.53%) Problem-Solving
9 33 (20.75%) SC Cleared
10 27 (16.98%) ITSM
10 27 (16.98%) Windows 10
11 20 (12.58%) Android
11 20 (12.58%) Microsoft Exchange
11 20 (12.58%) Service Management
11 20 (12.58%) ServiceNow
12 19 (11.95%) Microsoft Office
13 17 (10.69%) Apple iOS
13 17 (10.69%) Google
13 17 (10.69%) Google Workspace
14 15 (9.43%) Mac OS
15 14 (8.81%) VoIP
16 13 (8.18%) Collaborative Working
16 13 (8.18%) Customer Experience
16 13 (8.18%) ITIL Certification
16 13 (8.18%) SLA
17 12 (7.55%) Azure
17 12 (7.55%) GCP
18 10 (6.29%) DNS
19 9 (5.66%) Digital Strategy
19 9 (5.66%) Incident 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 20 (12.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (5.03%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.14%) Mattermost
4 1 (0.63%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 19 (11.95%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.52%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.63%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 5 (3.14%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 44 (27.67%) Microsoft 365
2 17 (10.69%) Google Workspace
3 12 (7.55%) Azure
3 12 (7.55%) GCP
4 8 (5.03%) Entra ID
4 8 (5.03%) OneDrive
5 3 (1.89%) IaaS
6 2 (1.26%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.63%) AWS
7 1 (0.63%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (0.63%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.63%) OCI
7 1 (0.63%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.63%) Rubrik
7 1 (0.63%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (8.81%) VoIP
2 10 (6.29%) DNS
3 8 (5.03%) DHCP
4 4 (2.52%) TCP/IP
4 4 (2.52%) VPN
5 3 (1.89%) Broadband
6 2 (1.26%) LAN
6 2 (1.26%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.63%) NAS
7 1 (0.63%) Network Security
7 1 (0.63%) SAN
7 1 (0.63%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.63%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (3.14%) JIRA
General
1 53 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 16 (10.06%) Public Sector
3 8 (5.03%) Military
3 8 (5.03%) Organisational Skills
4 7 (4.40%) Manufacturing
4 7 (4.40%) Retail
5 6 (3.77%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (3.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 6 (3.77%) Law
6 3 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (1.89%) Legal
6 3 (1.89%) Local Government
6 3 (1.89%) Telecoms
7 2 (1.26%) Banking
7 2 (1.26%) Dutch Language
7 2 (1.26%) Finance
7 2 (1.26%) Hungarian Language
7 2 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (1.26%) Romanian Language
8 1 (0.63%) Spanish Language
Miscellaneous
1 13 (8.18%) Onboarding
2 12 (7.55%) Smartphone
3 7 (4.40%) Management Information System
4 6 (3.77%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.89%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.63%) CMDB
6 1 (0.63%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.63%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.63%) Driving Licence
6 1 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 70 (44.03%) Windows
2 27 (16.98%) Windows 10
3 20 (12.58%) Android
4 17 (10.69%) Apple iOS
5 15 (9.43%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.26%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.63%) Unix
7 1 (0.63%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (45.28%) Customer Service
2 57 (35.85%) ITIL
3 39 (24.53%) Problem-Solving
4 27 (16.98%) ITSM
5 20 (12.58%) Service Management
6 13 (8.18%) Collaborative Working
6 13 (8.18%) Customer Experience
7 9 (5.66%) Digital Strategy
7 9 (5.66%) Incident Management
7 9 (5.66%) Service Delivery
8 8 (5.03%) Active Listening
8 8 (5.03%) Continuous Improvement
8 8 (5.03%) Process Improvement
9 7 (4.40%) Agile
9 7 (4.40%) DevOps
10 6 (3.77%) CRM
10 6 (3.77%) Problem Management
11 5 (3.14%) Cybersecurity
11 5 (3.14%) Migration
12 4 (2.52%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.63%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 41 (25.79%) Security Cleared
2 33 (20.75%) SC Cleared
3 13 (8.18%) ITIL Certification
4 7 (4.40%) DV Cleared
5 5 (3.14%) Degree
6 3 (1.89%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.89%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.26%) A+ Certification
7 2 (1.26%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.63%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.63%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (8.18%) SLA
2 2 (1.26%) GDPR
3 1 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 54 (33.96%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.63%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.63%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.63%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 7 (4.40%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (3.14%) SCCM
3 2 (1.26%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.63%) Dell DRAC
4 1 (0.63%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.63%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 59 (37.11%) Microsoft
2 20 (12.58%) ServiceNow
3 17 (10.69%) Google
4 7 (4.40%) Remedy
5 5 (3.14%) Citrix
6 4 (2.52%) Freshdesk
7 3 (1.89%) Apple
7 3 (1.89%) VMware
8 1 (0.63%) Commvault
8 1 (0.63%) Dell
8 1 (0.63%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.63%) Sophos
8 1 (0.63%) Zerto