The first table below looks at the demand for the 1st Line Support role in IT contracts advertised for the West Midlands region. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited 1st Line Support in their job title over the 3 months to 22 May 2013 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years. The second table is for comparison and provides aggregates for all Job Titles advertised for the West Midlands region.

Note that daily contractor rates and hourly contractor rates are treated separately. When calculating average contractor rates, daily rates are not derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Location
3 months to
22 May 2013
Same period 2012 Same period 2011
First Line Support
Rank 67 95 83
Rank change year-on-year
+28 -12
Contract jobs requiring a 1st Line Support 32 15 16
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the West Midlands 1.908% 0.656% 0.866%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.067% 0.709% 0.939%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 1 4
Average daily rate £93 £90 £125
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+2.77% -28.00%
UK excluding London average daily rate £110 £105 £88
% change year-on-year
+4.76% +20.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 10 6
Average hourly rate £10.00 £9.75 £9.75
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+2.56% -
90% offered a hourly rate of more than £9.43 £8.23 £9.00
10% offered a hourly rate of more than £11.95 £12.63 £12.50
UK excluding London average hourly rate £11.50 £11.21 £11.36
% change year-on-year
+2.58% -1.32%
All Job Titles
West Midlands
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Job Titles category
1548 2117 1704
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the West Midlands 92.31% 92.65% 92.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 702 962 776
Average daily rate £325 £325 £330
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
- -1.51%
90% offered a daily rate of more than £212 £218 £200
10% offered a daily rate of more than £475 £457 £500
UK excluding London average daily rate £350 £350 £350
Number of hourly rates quoted 132 165 145
Average hourly rate £19.50 £15.56 £18.25
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+25.32% -14.73%
90% offered a hourly rate of more than £10.00 £10.00 £10.99
10% offered a hourly rate of more than £37.80 £33.00 £37.50
UK excluding London average hourly rate £17.50 £18.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year
-2.77% -10.00%
1st Line Support
England

1st Line Support
Jobs Demand Trend

This chart provides a 3-month moving total of IT contractor jobs citing 1st Line Support across the West Midlands region as a proportion of the total demand within the Job Titles category.

West Midlands 1st Line Support Jobs Demand Trend

1st Line Support
Daily Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing 1st Line Support across the West Midlands region.

West Midlands 1st Line Support Daily Rate Trend

1st Line Support
Hourly Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing 1st Line Support across the West Midlands region.

West Midlands 1st Line Support Hourly Rate Trend

1st Line Support
Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 1st Line Support within the West Midlands region over the 3 months to 22 May 2013. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year.

Location
(Click each for more statistics)
Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Average
Daily Rate
Last 3 Months
Average Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Birmingham +19 13 £150 +66.66%
Coventry +8 8 £96 +6.94%
Warwickshire - 6 £93 -
Wolverhampton - 3 - -
Walsall - 2 - -
Solihull -2 1 - -
Herefordshire - 1 - -
1st Line Support
England

1st Line Support
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 22 May 2013, IT contractor jobs across the West Midlands region that cited 1st Line Support 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 1st Line Support in their job title.

1 29 (55.77%) Windows
2 26 (50.00%) MS Office
3 21 (40.38%) Microsoft
4 20 (38.46%) SLA
5 18 (34.62%) Windows XP
5 18 (34.62%) Active Directory
6 11 (21.15%) MS Excel
7 8 (15.38%) Problem Management
8 7 (13.46%) Windows 2000
8 7 (13.46%) Windows 7
9 6 (11.54%) MS Exchange
10 4 (7.692%) Incident Management
11 3 (5.769%) Windows Vista
12 2 (3.846%) Time Management
12 2 (3.846%) TCP/IP
12 2 (3.846%) CCIE
12 2 (3.846%) Telecoms
12 2 (3.846%) Lotus Notes
12 2 (3.846%) ITIL
12 2 (3.846%) Linux
12 2 (3.846%) Citrix
12 2 (3.846%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (3.846%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (3.846%) Lotus
13 1 (1.923%) NHS
13 1 (1.923%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (1.923%) MPLS
13 1 (1.923%) MCP
13 1 (1.923%) SharePoint
13 1 (1.923%) Law

1st Line Support
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 22 May 2013, IT contractor jobs across the West Midlands region that cited 1st Line Support 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 1st Line Support in their job title. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

Application Platforms
1 6 (11.54%) MS Exchange
2 2 (3.846%) Lotus Notes
3 1 (1.923%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.923%) Exchange Server 2007
3 1 (1.923%) Exchange Server 2003
Applications
1 26 (50.00%) MS Office
2 11 (21.15%) MS Excel
Communications & Networking
1 2 (3.846%) TCP/IP
2 1 (1.923%) MPLS
2 1 (1.923%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.923%) SQL Server
General
1 2 (3.846%) Telecoms
2 1 (1.923%) Law
2 1 (1.923%) Legal
2 1 (1.923%) German Language
Miscellaneous
1 1 (1.923%) NHS
1 1 (1.923%) Mathematics
Operating Systems
1 29 (55.77%) Windows
2 18 (34.62%) Windows XP
3 7 (13.46%) Windows 2000
3 7 (13.46%) Windows 7
4 3 (5.769%) Windows Vista
5 2 (3.846%) Linux
6 1 (1.923%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (15.38%) Problem Management
2 4 (7.692%) Incident Management
3 2 (3.846%) Time Management
3 2 (3.846%) ITIL
4 1 (1.923%) Service Management
4 1 (1.923%) Disaster Recovery
Qualifications
1 2 (3.846%) CCIE
1 2 (3.846%) Cisco Certification
1 2 (3.846%) Microsoft Certification
2 1 (1.923%) MCP
2 1 (1.923%) MCDST
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (38.46%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (34.62%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 21 (40.38%) Microsoft
2 2 (3.846%) Citrix
2 2 (3.846%) Lotus
3 1 (1.923%) VMware
3 1 (1.923%) Cisco