North West Support Specialist Contracts

This section looks at the demand for the Support Specialist role in IT contracts within the North West region compared to all other Job Titles we currently track. Included is a guide to the contractor rates offered in IT jobs that have cited Support Specialist in their job title over the 3 months to 25 July 2008 with a comparison to the same period last year.

Support Specialist
Location Alderley Edge Basingstoke Bedford Bedfordshire Berkshire Birmingham Bournemouth Bracknell Buckinghamshire Bury St Edmunds Cambridgeshire Canary Wharf Cheltenham Cheshire City of London Cornwall Coventry Crewe Croydon Derby Derbyshire Docklands, London Dorset East Midlands East of England Edinburgh England Fareham Gloucestershire Grampian Hampshire Hertfordshire Hinckley Ipswich Knutsford Lancashire Leeds Leicestershire Liverpool Livingston London Maidenhead Manchester Merseyside Midlands Milton Keynes Newbury Newcastle Upon Tyne North East North West Northampton Northamptonshire Northern Ireland Nottingham Nottinghamshire Oxford Oxfordshire Paisley Poole Reading Renfrewshire Salisbury Scotland Sheffield South East South Wales South West South Yorkshire Southampton Suffolk Surrey Thames Valley Torpoint Tyne and Wear UK Wales Warrington Watford West Lothian West Midlands West Yorkshire Wilmslow Wiltshire Winchester Windsor Yorkshire	3 months to 25 Jul 2008	Same period last year
Rank	125	110
Rank change on same period last year	-15
Matching contract IT job ads	18	28
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	0.024 %	0.028 %
As % of the category below	0.509 %	0.747 %
Daily rates quoted	5	12
Average minimum daily rate	£192	£274
Average daily rate	£192	£280
% change on same period last year	-31.46 %
Average maximum daily rate	£192	£287
UK excluding London average daily rate	£324	£315
% change on same period last year	+2.61 %
Hourly rates quoted	0	5
Average minimum hourly rate	-	£24.80
Average hourly rate	-	£26.50
% change on same period last year	-
Average maximum hourly rate	-	£28.20
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£19.31	£25.13
% change on same period last year	-23.18 %
Job Titles North West
Matching contract IT job ads	3534	3747
As % of all UK contract IT job ads sampled	4.711 %	3.791 %
Daily rates quoted	819	800
Average minimum daily rate	£328	£320
Average daily rate	£346	£336
% change on same period last year	+2.80 %
Average maximum daily rate	£364	£353
UK excluding London average daily rate	£357	£353
% change on same period last year	+1.09 %
Hourly rates quoted	421	363
Average minimum hourly rate	£20.71	£21.12
Average hourly rate	£22.79	£22.71
% change on same period last year	+0.33 %
Average maximum hourly rate	£24.86	£24.30
UK excluding London average hourly rate	£23.51	£25.99
% change on same period last year	-9.54 %
Support Specialist England

We calculate average IT contractor rates directly from the figures quoted and do not attempt to derive hourly rates from daily rates or vice versa.

Support Specialist
Demand Trend

The chart provides a 3-month moving total beginning in 2004 of IT contractor jobs citing Support Specialist across the North West region as a proportion of the total demand within the Job Titles category.

Support Specialist
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing Support Specialist across the North West region.

Support Specialist
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing Support Specialist across the North West region over the 3 months to 25 July 2008.

Support Specialist
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing Support Specialist across the North West region.

Support Specialist
Contract Locations

This section looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Support Specialist within the North West region over the 3 months to 25 July 2008. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year. A positive number indicates a relative increase in demand.

Location	Rank Change on Same Period Last Last	Matching Contract IT Job Ads	Average Daily Rate Last 3 Months	Average Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year
Cheshire	-7	8	£178	-38.75 %
Manchester	-15	6	£250	-2.91 %
Merseyside	0	2	-	-
Lancashire	+1	1	-	-

Support Specialist England

Support Specialist
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 25 July 2008, IT contractor jobs across the North West region that cited Support Specialist in their job title mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled with Support Specialist in their job title.

1 15 (57.69 %) Windows 2 10 (38.46 %) Microsoft 3 7 (26.92 %) MS Exchange 3 7 (26.92 %) Exchange Server 2000 4 6 (23.08 %) UNIX 4 6 (23.08 %) Active Directory 5 5 (19.23 %) Solaris 5 5 (19.23 %) ITIL 5 5 (19.23 %) Citrix 5 5 (19.23 %) Firewall 6 4 (15.38 %) Informatics 6 4 (15.38 %) Pharmaceutical 6 4 (15.38 %) Windows Server 2003 6 4 (15.38 %) MS Excel 6 4 (15.38 %) Windows NT

6 4 (15.38 %) DNS 6 4 (15.38 %) LAN 6 4 (15.38 %) WAN 6 4 (15.38 %) NetWare 7 3 (11.54 %) DHCP 7 3 (11.54 %) MCSE 7 3 (11.54 %) ISA Server 7 3 (11.54 %) Microsoft Certification 7 3 (11.54 %) Cisco 7 3 (11.54 %) Replication 7 3 (11.54 %) Disaster Recovery 7 3 (11.54 %) Exchange Server 2003 7 3 (11.54 %) Resource Management 7 3 (11.54 %) Network Security 7 3 (11.54 %) Spotfire

Support Specialist
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 25 July 2008, IT contractor jobs across the North West region that cited Support Specialist in their job title mentioned the following IT skills grouped by category. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled with Support Specialist in their job title. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

Application Development 1 1 (3.846 %) HTML 1 1 (3.846 %) Middleware 1 1 (3.846 %) WBIMB 1 1 (3.846 %) WebSphere	Application Platforms 1 7 (26.92 %) MS Exchange 1 7 (26.92 %) Exchange Server 2000 2 3 (11.54 %) Exchange Server 2003 3 2 (7.692 %) Exchange Server 2007 3 2 (7.692 %) IIS 4 1 (3.846 %) Exchange Server 5.5
Applications 1 4 (15.38 %) MS Excel	Business Applications 1 1 (3.846 %) assyst
Communications & Networking 1 5 (19.23 %) Firewall 2 4 (15.38 %) LAN 2 4 (15.38 %) WAN 2 4 (15.38 %) DNS 3 3 (11.54 %) DHCP 3 3 (11.54 %) Network Security 4 2 (7.692 %) TCP/IP 4 2 (7.692 %) VPN 5 1 (3.846 %) SAN 5 1 (3.846 %) Internet 5 1 (3.846 %) Ethernet 5 1 (3.846 %) VoIP 5 1 (3.846 %) ADSL 5 1 (3.846 %) IP Telephony	Database & Business Intelligence 1 1 (3.846 %) Oracle 10g
General 1 4 (15.38 %) Pharmaceutical 2 2 (7.692 %) Finance	Miscellaneous 1 4 (15.38 %) Informatics 2 3 (11.54 %) Replication 3 2 (7.692 %) Fat Client 3 2 (7.692 %) Thin Client 4 1 (3.846 %) HACMP 4 1 (3.846 %) Mainframe 4 1 (3.846 %) AS400 4 1 (3.846 %) Chemistry 4 1 (3.846 %) Biology 4 1 (3.846 %) Life Science 4 1 (3.846 %) Clustering 4 1 (3.846 %) Tandem
Operating Systems 1 15 (57.69 %) Windows 2 6 (23.08 %) UNIX 3 5 (19.23 %) Solaris 4 4 (15.38 %) Windows NT 4 4 (15.38 %) NetWare 4 4 (15.38 %) Windows Server 2003 5 2 (7.692 %) AIX 6 1 (3.846 %) HPUX 6 1 (3.846 %) Windows 2000 6 1 (3.846 %) OS/400	Processes & Methodologies 1 5 (19.23 %) ITIL 2 3 (11.54 %) Disaster Recovery 2 3 (11.54 %) Resource Management 3 1 (3.846 %) CTC Cleared 3 1 (3.846 %) Security Cleared 3 1 (3.846 %) Migration 3 1 (3.846 %) Service Management
Programming Languages 1 1 (3.846 %) SQL 1 1 (3.846 %) Shell Script	Qualifications 1 3 (11.54 %) MCSE 1 3 (11.54 %) Microsoft Certification 2 2 (7.692 %) CCA 2 2 (7.692 %) Citrix Certification 2 2 (7.692 %) CCEA 2 2 (7.692 %) Degree 3 1 (3.846 %) MCP 3 1 (3.846 %) Cisco Certification 3 1 (3.846 %) ITIL Certification 3 1 (3.846 %) CCNP 3 1 (3.846 %) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance 1 2 (7.692 %) QA 2 1 (3.846 %) SLA	System Software 1 6 (23.08 %) Active Directory 2 3 (11.54 %) ISA Server 3 1 (3.846 %) MailMarshal 3 1 (3.846 %) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management 1 2 (7.692 %) Tivoli 1 2 (7.692 %) Norton AntiVirus 2 1 (3.846 %) OMEGAMON	Vendors 1 10 (38.46 %) Microsoft 2 5 (19.23 %) Citrix 3 3 (11.54 %) Cisco 3 3 (11.54 %) Spotfire 4 2 (7.692 %) CheckPoint 4 2 (7.692 %) Symantec 4 2 (7.692 %) HP 4 2 (7.692 %) Oracle 5 1 (3.846 %) Cognos 5 1 (3.846 %) Compaq 5 1 (3.846 %) Siemens 5 1 (3.846 %) JD Edwards 5 1 (3.846 %) Agresso 5 1 (3.846 %) Websense 5 1 (3.846 %) VMware 5 1 (3.846 %) Mitel 5 1 (3.846 %) Fujitsu Siemens