2nd Line Desktop Support Contract Job Trends 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 20 September 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
20 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 491 508 558
Rank change year-on-year +17 +50 +108
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Desktop Support 30 26 38
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.11% 0.079% 0.089%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.085% 0.095%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 23 23
10th Percentile £145 £150 £165
25th Percentile £155 £156 £176
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £190 £200
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £203 £229 £216
90th Percentile £223 £268 £248
UK median daily rate £170 £190 £200
% change year-on-year -10.53% -5.00% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 3
10th Percentile - - £19.35
25th Percentile - - £20.63
Median hourly rate £24.66 - £23.50
75th Percentile - - £24.25
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £24.66 - £23.50
% change year-on-year - - +11.90%

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 25,374 30,624 40,138
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.35% 92.98% 94.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,359 19,070 28,007
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £401 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,370 1,470 1,375
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.69 £15.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £21.25 £19.18
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% +2.62% +73.08%
75th Percentile £53.99 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £75.00 £77.80
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%

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
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support job vacancies in England

2nd Line Desktop Support
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support job vacancies 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 20 September 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
South East +20 9 £195 -44.29% 1
London +14 9 £200 +33.33% 2
North of England -28 7 £161 -14.40% 5
South West +21 3 £168 -12.99%
North West -13 3 - - 4
Yorkshire -12 2 £126 -32.80%
Midlands - 2 £183 - 1
North East - 2 £195 - 1
East Midlands - 1 £195 - 1
West Midlands - 1 £170 -
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 20 September 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 20 (66.67%) Windows
2 17 (56.67%) Microsoft 365
3 16 (53.33%) Active Directory
4 15 (50.00%) Microsoft
4 15 (50.00%) Social Skills
5 14 (46.67%) Microsoft Office
6 13 (43.33%) ITIL
7 12 (40.00%) Microsoft Exchange
8 11 (36.67%) Manufacturing
9 10 (33.33%) Finance
9 10 (33.33%) Service Management
10 9 (30.00%) Degree
10 9 (30.00%) Patch Management
11 8 (26.67%) Public Sector
11 8 (26.67%) Digital Marketing
11 8 (26.67%) Marketing
11 8 (26.67%) Electronics
11 8 (26.67%) Telecoms
11 8 (26.67%) Programme Management
11 8 (26.67%) Business Intelligence
11 8 (26.67%) SAP
12 7 (23.33%) Workflow
13 6 (20.00%) Customer Service
13 6 (20.00%) Windows 10
13 6 (20.00%) Analytical Skills
13 6 (20.00%) SC Cleared
13 6 (20.00%) Security Cleared
13 6 (20.00%) Migration
13 6 (20.00%) Workflow Management
14 5 (16.67%) Asset Management

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 12 (40.00%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (46.67%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (10.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (10.00%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 17 (56.67%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (6.67%) Azure
2 2 (6.67%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 4 (13.33%) LAN
2 3 (10.00%) VPN
3 2 (6.67%) DHCP
3 2 (6.67%) DNS
3 2 (6.67%) Firewall
4 1 (3.33%) Internet
4 1 (3.33%) WAN
General
1 15 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 11 (36.67%) Manufacturing
3 10 (33.33%) Finance
4 8 (26.67%) Electronics
4 8 (26.67%) Marketing
4 8 (26.67%) Public Sector
4 8 (26.67%) Telecoms
5 6 (20.00%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (10.00%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (10.00%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (6.67%) Banking
Miscellaneous
1 3 (10.00%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 20 (66.67%) Windows
2 6 (20.00%) Windows 10
3 5 (16.67%) Windows 8
3 5 (16.67%) Windows XP
4 4 (13.33%) Apple iOS
5 3 (10.00%) Windows Server
5 3 (10.00%) Windows Server 2003
5 3 (10.00%) Windows Server 2008
5 3 (10.00%) Windows Server 2012
5 3 (10.00%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (6.67%) Mac OS X
7 1 (3.33%) Linux
7 1 (3.33%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (43.33%) ITIL
2 10 (33.33%) Service Management
3 9 (30.00%) Patch Management
4 8 (26.67%) Business Intelligence
4 8 (26.67%) Digital Marketing
4 8 (26.67%) Programme Management
5 7 (23.33%) Workflow
6 6 (20.00%) Customer Service
6 6 (20.00%) Migration
6 6 (20.00%) Workflow Management
7 5 (16.67%) Asset Management
7 5 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
7 5 (16.67%) Time Management
8 3 (10.00%) Business Case
8 3 (10.00%) Infrastructure Monitoring
8 3 (10.00%) Mentoring
8 3 (10.00%) Proactive Maintenance
8 3 (10.00%) Project Delivery
8 3 (10.00%) Technical Analysis
9 2 (6.67%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 2 (6.67%) SQL
Qualifications
1 9 (30.00%) Degree
2 6 (20.00%) SC Cleared
2 6 (20.00%) Security Cleared
3 3 (10.00%) Microsoft Certification
4 1 (3.33%) CCNA
4 1 (3.33%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (6.67%) QA
2 1 (3.33%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (53.33%) Active Directory
2 2 (6.67%) vSphere
2 2 (6.67%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 4 (13.33%) SCCM
2 2 (6.67%) McAfee ePO
2 2 (6.67%) Norton AntiVirus
3 1 (3.33%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 15 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 8 (26.67%) SAP
3 5 (16.67%) Canon
4 4 (13.33%) Apple
4 4 (13.33%) Citrix
5 3 (10.00%) Cisco
6 2 (6.67%) Adobe
6 2 (6.67%) Autodesk
6 2 (6.67%) ConnectWise
6 2 (6.67%) Dell
6 2 (6.67%) ESET
6 2 (6.67%) HP
6 2 (6.67%) McAfee
6 2 (6.67%) Sage
6 2 (6.67%) Sophos
6 2 (6.67%) Symantec
6 2 (6.67%) Toshiba
6 2 (6.67%) VMware
6 2 (6.67%) Wyse
6 2 (6.67%) Xerox