2nd Line Desktop Support Contracts in England

Second Line Desktop Support
UK > England

The median Second Line Desktop Support daily rate in England is £195, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 459 509 575
Rank change year-on-year +50 +66 +83
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Desktop Support 26 33 78
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.11% 0.089% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.096% 0.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 29 52
10th Percentile £138 £144 £178
25th Percentile £184 £155 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £190 £210
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -9.52% +8.39%
75th Percentile £234 £208 £250
90th Percentile £250 £217 £299
UK median daily rate £195 £190 £210
% change year-on-year +2.63% -9.52% +7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £22.75
Median hourly rate £24.66 - £23.50
75th Percentile - - £24.25
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £23.00 - £23.50
% change year-on-year - - +30.56%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. 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 England with a recognized job title 22,549 34,488 47,741
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 92.73% 94.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,007 22,894 33,903
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £643 £663
90th Percentile £750 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 900 2,432 1,409
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.00 £14.35
25th Percentile £18.51 £16.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £30.62 £36.31 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.67% -19.32% +100.00%
75th Percentile £63.75 £61.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £76.60
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

2nd Line Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured 2nd Line Desktop Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support in England

2nd Line Desktop Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Desktop Support in England.

Daily rate trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support in England

2nd Line Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Desktop Support in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Desktop Support in England

2nd Line Desktop Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Desktop Support in England.

Hourly rate trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support in England

2nd Line Desktop Support
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 2nd Line Desktop Support within the England region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England +23 13 £195 -
North West +20 6 £240 +96.72%
South East +44 5 £195 -4.88%
London +32 5 £225 +40.63% 2
Yorkshire +8 4 £126 -36.20%
North East +1 3 £195 -
East Midlands - 2 £165 -
Midlands - 2 £165 - 1
East of England - 1 £250 -
2nd Line Desktop Support
UK

2nd Line Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, 2nd Line Desktop Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring 2nd Line Desktop Support in the job title.

1 23 (88.46%) Windows
2 18 (69.23%) Microsoft
3 17 (65.38%) Active Directory
4 14 (53.85%) Microsoft 365
5 13 (50.00%) ITIL
6 10 (38.46%) Social Skills
7 9 (34.62%) Problem-Solving
7 9 (34.62%) Microsoft Office
8 8 (30.77%) Time Management
8 8 (30.77%) SCCM
8 8 (30.77%) Analytical Skills
8 8 (30.77%) Windows 10
9 7 (26.92%) Patch Management
9 7 (26.92%) Asset Management
9 7 (26.92%) Degree
9 7 (26.92%) Microsoft Exchange
9 7 (26.92%) Service Management
10 6 (23.08%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (23.08%) VPN
11 5 (19.23%) Infrastructure Monitoring
11 5 (19.23%) Canon
11 5 (19.23%) Mentoring
11 5 (19.23%) Technical Analysis
11 5 (19.23%) Windows 8
11 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (19.23%) Windows Server
11 5 (19.23%) Proactive Maintenance
11 5 (19.23%) Project Delivery
11 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (19.23%) Business Case

2nd Line Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England 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 7 (26.92%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 9 (34.62%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (19.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (19.23%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 14 (53.85%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (11.54%) Azure
3 1 (3.85%) AWS
3 1 (3.85%) Entra ID
3 1 (3.85%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 6 (23.08%) VPN
2 5 (19.23%) LAN
3 2 (7.69%) Firewall
4 1 (3.85%) Network Security
4 1 (3.85%) Remote Desktop
4 1 (3.85%) VoIP
Development Applications
1 1 (3.85%) JIRA
General
1 10 (38.46%) Social Skills
2 8 (30.77%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (19.23%) Documentation Skills
3 5 (19.23%) Manufacturing
3 5 (19.23%) Presentation Skills
4 3 (11.54%) Finance
5 2 (7.69%) Banking
6 1 (3.85%) Back Office
6 1 (3.85%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (3.85%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 5 (19.23%) Management Information System
2 4 (15.38%) iPhone
3 2 (7.69%) Driving Licence
4 1 (3.85%) Client/Server
4 1 (3.85%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (3.85%) Smartphone
4 1 (3.85%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 23 (88.46%) Windows
2 8 (30.77%) Windows 10
3 5 (19.23%) Windows 8
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2003
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2008
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2012
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2016
3 5 (19.23%) Windows XP
4 3 (11.54%) Apple iOS
5 2 (7.69%) Android
6 1 (3.85%) Linux
6 1 (3.85%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (50.00%) ITIL
2 9 (34.62%) Problem-Solving
3 8 (30.77%) Time Management
4 7 (26.92%) Asset Management
4 7 (26.92%) Patch Management
4 7 (26.92%) Service Management
5 5 (19.23%) Business Case
5 5 (19.23%) Customer Service
5 5 (19.23%) Infrastructure Monitoring
5 5 (19.23%) Mentoring
5 5 (19.23%) Proactive Maintenance
5 5 (19.23%) Project Delivery
5 5 (19.23%) Technical Analysis
6 2 (7.69%) Coaching
7 1 (3.85%) Change Control
7 1 (3.85%) Cybersecurity
7 1 (3.85%) Deployment Automation
7 1 (3.85%) IT Asset Management
7 1 (3.85%) Security Patching
7 1 (3.85%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.85%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 7 (26.92%) Degree
2 6 (23.08%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (3.85%) A+ Certification
3 1 (3.85%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
3 1 (3.85%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (7.69%) QA
1 2 (7.69%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (65.38%) Active Directory
2 1 (3.85%) Hyper-V
2 1 (3.85%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (30.77%) SCCM
2 4 (15.38%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 18 (69.23%) Microsoft
2 5 (19.23%) Canon
3 3 (11.54%) Apple
3 3 (11.54%) Citrix
4 1 (3.85%) Cisco
4 1 (3.85%) Dell
4 1 (3.85%) Google
4 1 (3.85%) HP
4 1 (3.85%) ServiceNow
4 1 (3.85%) VMware