Desktop Support Job Trends

Desktop Support
UK

The median Desktop Support salary in the UK is £35,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 March 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 468 463 513
Rank change year-on-year -5 +50 +34
Permanent jobs requiring a Desktop Support 232 189 346
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.44% 0.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.48% 0.43%
Number of salaries quoted 147 151 301
10th Percentile £26,250 £21,250 £25,760
25th Percentile £31,000 £28,000 £28,290
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £35,000 £32,750 £32,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.87% +0.77% -
75th Percentile £41,500 £41,125 £42,250
90th Percentile £52,500 £53,750 £57,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £35,000 £29,000 £29,000
% change year-on-year +20.69% - -

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 68,588 39,043 80,162
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 90.54% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 43,675 23,259 61,462
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £38,750 £43,750 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £91,934
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -5.65%

Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Desktop Support' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Desktop Support job vacancy trend in the UK

Desktop Support
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Desktop Support job vacancies in the UK

Desktop Support
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Desktop Support over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Desktop Support in the UK

Desktop Support
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Desktop Support within the UK over the 6 months to 16 March 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London +27 186 £35,000 +20.69% 24
England -44 165 £35,170 +7.39% 28
Work from Home +43 73 £32,000 -4.48% 2
Scotland - 53 £40,000 - 2
South West +13 52 £37,500 +20.97% 7
North of England -22 51 £30,000 +3.45% 3
London -22 43 £40,000 -11.11% 11
North West +16 36 £30,000 +13.21% 2
Yorkshire -55 15 £32,500 +12.07% 1
Wales - 10 £35,000 -
South East -54 9 £32,500 -1.52% 11
East of England -20 7 £41,000 +82.22% 2
Midlands -21 2 - -
West Midlands - 2 - -
Northern Ireland - 2 £32,000 -

Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 March 2026, Desktop Support 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 permanent job ads featuring Desktop Support in the job title.

1 161 (69.40%) Windows
2 152 (65.52%) Microsoft 365
3 129 (55.60%) Customer Service
4 128 (55.17%) Microsoft
5 117 (50.43%) ITIL
6 100 (43.10%) Windows 10
7 82 (35.34%) Continuous Improvement
8 79 (34.05%) Active Directory
9 76 (32.76%) SLA
10 74 (31.90%) Degree
10 74 (31.90%) Microsoft Office
11 68 (29.31%) Security Cleared
12 66 (28.45%) Patch Management
13 65 (28.02%) Cybersecurity
14 64 (27.59%) Cisco
14 64 (27.59%) SC Cleared
15 62 (26.72%) Customer Experience
16 60 (25.86%) Analytics
16 60 (25.86%) CTC Cleared
16 60 (25.86%) Customer Acquisition
16 60 (25.86%) Software Deployment
16 60 (25.86%) Ticket Management
17 53 (22.84%) Entra ID
18 37 (15.95%) Problem-Solving
19 35 (15.09%) Microsoft Intune
20 34 (14.66%) SCCM
20 34 (14.66%) Service Delivery
20 34 (14.66%) VPN
21 29 (12.50%) Azure
22 28 (12.07%) DNS

Desktop Support 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 23 (9.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (7.33%) SharePoint
3 6 (2.59%) Confluence
Applications
1 74 (31.90%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.43%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.43%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.43%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.43%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.86%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 152 (65.52%) Microsoft 365
2 53 (22.84%) Entra ID
3 29 (12.50%) Azure
4 12 (5.17%) OneDrive
5 10 (4.31%) AWS
6 6 (2.59%) Google Workspace
7 5 (2.16%) SaaS
8 4 (1.72%) GCP
9 3 (1.29%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (0.43%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 34 (14.66%) VPN
2 28 (12.07%) DNS
3 25 (10.78%) DHCP
4 16 (6.90%) LAN
5 14 (6.03%) TCP/IP
6 12 (5.17%) WAN
6 12 (5.17%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (3.88%) Firewall
8 7 (3.02%) VLAN
9 3 (1.29%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.86%) Internet
10 2 (0.86%) WebEx
11 1 (0.43%) Remote Desktop
11 1 (0.43%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.16%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.43%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 11 (4.74%) JIRA
General
1 151 (65.09%) Social Skills
2 60 (25.86%) Back Office
3 26 (11.21%) Finance
4 15 (6.47%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (3.88%) Manufacturing
6 8 (3.45%) Front Office
7 7 (3.02%) Analytical Skills
7 7 (3.02%) Banking
8 5 (2.16%) Marketing
8 5 (2.16%) Retail
9 3 (1.29%) Aerospace
9 3 (1.29%) Electronics
9 3 (1.29%) Legal
9 3 (1.29%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.29%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.86%) Games
10 2 (0.86%) Law
11 1 (0.43%) Fire and Rescue
11 1 (0.43%) Police
11 1 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.43%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.91%) Driving Licence
2 15 (6.47%) CMDB
3 13 (5.60%) Management Information System
4 12 (5.17%) Self-Motivation
5 11 (4.74%) Mobile App
6 10 (4.31%) Onboarding
7 6 (2.59%) IoT
8 4 (1.72%) iPhone
8 4 (1.72%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (1.72%) Video\Live Streaming
9 2 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.86%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 2 (0.86%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.43%) Derivative
10 1 (0.43%) Equities
10 1 (0.43%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.43%) Fixed Income
10 1 (0.43%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 1 (0.43%) IPTV
10 1 (0.43%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 161 (69.40%) Windows
2 100 (43.10%) Windows 10
3 18 (7.76%) Android
4 15 (6.47%) Windows Server
5 7 (3.02%) Apple iOS
6 5 (2.16%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.29%) Linux
8 2 (0.86%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (55.60%) Customer Service
2 117 (50.43%) ITIL
3 82 (35.34%) Continuous Improvement
4 66 (28.45%) Patch Management
5 65 (28.02%) Cybersecurity
6 62 (26.72%) Customer Experience
7 60 (25.86%) Analytics
7 60 (25.86%) Customer Acquisition
7 60 (25.86%) Software Deployment
7 60 (25.86%) Ticket Management
8 37 (15.95%) Problem-Solving
9 34 (14.66%) Service Delivery
10 24 (10.34%) People Management
11 21 (9.05%) ITSM
12 15 (6.47%) Mentoring
12 15 (6.47%) Service Management
13 14 (6.03%) Configuration Management
14 13 (5.60%) Time Management
15 12 (5.17%) Asset Management
16 11 (4.74%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (2.16%) SQL
2 4 (1.72%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.43%) Bash
3 1 (0.43%) Python
Qualifications
1 74 (31.90%) Degree
2 68 (29.31%) Security Cleared
3 64 (27.59%) SC Cleared
4 60 (25.86%) CTC Cleared
5 11 (4.74%) A+ Certification
6 10 (4.31%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (2.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 4 (1.72%) Azure Certification
9 3 (1.29%) Network+ Certification
9 3 (1.29%) Server+ Certification
10 1 (0.43%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (32.76%) SLA
2 5 (2.16%) PMO
3 4 (1.72%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 79 (34.05%) Active Directory
2 5 (2.16%) BitLocker
3 3 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.43%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.43%) Terminal Services
4 1 (0.43%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 35 (15.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 34 (14.66%) SCCM
Vendors
1 128 (55.17%) Microsoft
2 64 (27.59%) Cisco
3 12 (5.17%) Citrix
3 12 (5.17%) ServiceNow
4 8 (3.45%) Salesforce
5 7 (3.02%) Adobe
5 7 (3.02%) McAfee
6 6 (2.59%) Google
6 6 (2.59%) HP
7 5 (2.16%) Bloomberg
7 5 (2.16%) CrowdStrike
7 5 (2.16%) Tenable
7 5 (2.16%) Zoho
7 5 (2.16%) Zscaler
8 4 (1.72%) FactSet
9 3 (1.29%) Apple
9 3 (1.29%) SAP
9 3 (1.29%) VMware
10 1 (0.43%) Avaya
10 1 (0.43%) Fortinet