Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for MCDST qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 731 889 885
Rank change year-on-year +158 -4 +376
Permanent jobs citing MCDST 4 10 12
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.007% 0.010% 0.014%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.016% 0.037% 0.042%
Number of salaries quoted 1 8 11
10th Percentile - £24,575 £22,790
25th Percentile £33,000 £27,875 £31,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £36,000 £31,250 £37,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.20% -16.67% +5.63%
75th Percentile £39,000 £33,938 £48,125
90th Percentile - £34,500 £50,000
UK excluding London median annual salary - £31,250 £27,856
% change year-on-year - +12.19% -30.36%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

MCDST falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 24,938 27,285 28,522
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 41.50% 26.35% 33.22%
Number of salaries quoted 10,580 16,325 14,293
10th Percentile £31,500 £29,000 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,000 £39,000 £42,444
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £53,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% -10.83% +9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £70,500 £77,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% +8.25%

MCDST
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MCDST as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MCDST in the UK

MCDST
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing MCDST.

Salary trend for MCDST in the UK

MCDST
Top 5 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing MCDST within the UK over the 6 months to 12 July 2025. 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
England +146 4 £36,000 +10.77% 4
UK excluding London +151 3 - - 4
Midlands +77 3 - -
East Midlands +40 3 - -
London +89 1 £36,000 +23.08% 2

MCDST
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (25.00%) IIS
1 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Exchange
Business Applications
1 1 (25.00%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 4 (100.00%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (25.00%) AWS
2 1 (25.00%) Azure
2 1 (25.00%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 1 (25.00%) Cisco ASA
1 1 (25.00%) DHCP
1 1 (25.00%) DNS
1 1 (25.00%) Firewall
1 1 (25.00%) FIX Connectivity
1 1 (25.00%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (25.00%) SQL Server
General
1 4 (100.00%) Social Skills
2 1 (25.00%) Banking
2 1 (25.00%) Finance
Job Titles
1 4 (100.00%) Analyst
2 3 (75.00%) Service Analyst
2 3 (75.00%) Service Desk Analyst
3 1 (25.00%) Desktop Analyst
3 1 (25.00%) Desktop Support
3 1 (25.00%) Desktop Support Analyst
3 1 (25.00%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (25.00%) .NET
1 1 (25.00%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Eurex
1 1 (25.00%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 4 (100.00%) Windows
2 1 (25.00%) Linux
2 1 (25.00%) Solaris
2 1 (25.00%) Ubuntu
2 1 (25.00%) Unix
2 1 (25.00%) Windows Server
2 1 (25.00%) Windows Server 2016
2 1 (25.00%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (75.00%) Chat Support
1 3 (75.00%) Customer-Centric Approach
1 3 (75.00%) Customer-Centricity
1 3 (75.00%) Data Security
1 3 (75.00%) Problem-Solving
1 3 (75.00%) User Experience
2 1 (25.00%) Client Onboarding
Programming Languages
1 1 (25.00%) C#
1 1 (25.00%) PowerShell
1 1 (25.00%) Python
1 1 (25.00%) SQL
1 1 (25.00%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 4 (100.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 3 (75.00%) A+ Certification
3 1 (25.00%) MCITP
3 1 (25.00%) MCP
3 1 (25.00%) MCSA
3 1 (25.00%) MCSE
System Software
1 1 (25.00%) Active Directory
1 1 (25.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 3 (75.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (25.00%) Bloomberg
2 1 (25.00%) Cisco
2 1 (25.00%) CQG
2 1 (25.00%) Google
2 1 (25.00%) ION Trading
2 1 (25.00%) Patsystems
2 1 (25.00%) Red Hat
2 1 (25.00%) Reuters
2 1 (25.00%) Trayport
2 1 (25.00%) VMware