2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends in England

Second Line Support
UK > England

The median Second Line Support daily rate in England is £210, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 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
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 357 360 307
Rank change year-on-year +3 -53 +11
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 158 170 309
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.57% 0.52% 0.74%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.62% 0.56% 0.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 136 208
10th Percentile £151 £141 £143
25th Percentile £185 £175 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - -1.23%
75th Percentile £269 £270 £250
90th Percentile £300 £360 £300
UK median daily rate £206 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +3.13% - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 8 22
10th Percentile £18.09 £16.90 £15.95
25th Percentile £18.78 £21.20 £18.50
Median hourly rate £24.00 £23.99 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.04% +19.95% -16.35%
75th Percentile £26.84 £24.82 £23.56
90th Percentile £30.30 £28.06 £25.83
UK median hourly rate £22.63 £23.80 £20.00
% change year-on-year -4.94% +19.00% -16.35%

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 25,377 30,623 39,527
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.32% 92.98% 94.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,381 19,128 27,584
10th Percentile £280 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% -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 1,363 1,485 1,349
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.60 £15.25
25th Percentile £17.31 £21.25 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% +2.62% +73.08%
75th Percentile £54.88 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.49 £75.00 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%

2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Support in England

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Trend in England

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

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

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Support in England over the 6 months to 18 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in England

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Trend in England

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

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

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Support in England over the 6 months to 18 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in England

2nd Line 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 Support within the England region over the 6 months to 18 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
London +11 49 £222 -1.56% 10
South East +34 39 £263 -1.77% 41
North of England -4 35 £195 +8.33% 18
Midlands -24 25 £263 +34.62% 18
North West -7 19 £188 +25.42% 9
West Midlands -11 19 £263 +38.16% 6
Yorkshire -14 12 £195 +5.41% 8
South West +11 8 £195 +2.63% 9
East Midlands -9 6 £248 -4.81% 12
North East 0 4 £195 +20.00% 1
East of England +3 2 £200 -11.11% 7
2nd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, 2nd Line 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 Support in the job title.

1 93 (58.86%) Windows
2 87 (55.06%) Microsoft
3 74 (46.84%) Active Directory
4 62 (39.24%) Microsoft 365
5 61 (38.61%) Social Skills
6 45 (28.48%) Windows 10
7 44 (27.85%) ITIL
8 40 (25.32%) Finance
9 36 (22.78%) Customer Service
10 35 (22.15%) Microsoft Office
11 33 (20.89%) SCCM
12 32 (20.25%) VPN
13 31 (19.62%) Problem-Solving
14 29 (18.35%) ServiceNow
15 28 (17.72%) Microsoft Exchange
15 28 (17.72%) Service Management
16 27 (17.09%) Citrix
16 27 (17.09%) Security Cleared
17 24 (15.19%) Mobile Device Management
18 22 (13.92%) ITSM
19 21 (13.29%) Azure
20 19 (12.03%) Degree
20 19 (12.03%) WAN
20 19 (12.03%) Public Sector
21 18 (11.39%) Manufacturing
21 18 (11.39%) WebEx
22 17 (10.76%) Analytical Skills
22 17 (10.76%) Entra ID
22 17 (10.76%) Microsoft Intune
22 17 (10.76%) DHCP

2nd Line 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 28 (17.72%) Microsoft Exchange
2 13 (8.23%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.16%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 35 (22.15%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (3.16%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (3.16%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (2.53%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.27%) Alphatax
Cloud Services
1 62 (39.24%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (13.29%) Azure
3 17 (10.76%) Entra ID
4 6 (3.80%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.27%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.63%) AWS
6 1 (0.63%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 32 (20.25%) VPN
2 19 (12.03%) WAN
3 18 (11.39%) WebEx
4 17 (10.76%) DHCP
4 17 (10.76%) DNS
5 16 (10.13%) LAN
6 12 (7.59%) TCP/IP
7 8 (5.06%) BGP
7 8 (5.06%) IPsec
7 8 (5.06%) MPLS
8 6 (3.80%) Firewall
9 5 (3.16%) Wi-Fi
10 2 (1.27%) Cisco Firepower
10 2 (1.27%) VLAN
10 2 (1.27%) VoIP
11 1 (0.63%) Broadband
11 1 (0.63%) Internet
11 1 (0.63%) PABX
11 1 (0.63%) Remote Desktop
11 1 (0.63%) Softphone
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.27%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.27%) JIRA
General
1 61 (38.61%) Social Skills
2 40 (25.32%) Finance
3 19 (12.03%) Public Sector
4 18 (11.39%) Manufacturing
5 17 (10.76%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (5.06%) Banking
6 8 (5.06%) Electronics
6 8 (5.06%) Marketing
6 8 (5.06%) Telecoms
7 6 (3.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (3.16%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (3.16%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (2.53%) Local Government
10 2 (1.27%) Law
10 2 (1.27%) Retail
11 1 (0.63%) Advertising
11 1 (0.63%) Legal
11 1 (0.63%) Multimedia
11 1 (0.63%) Publishing
Miscellaneous
1 8 (5.06%) PKI
2 6 (3.80%) Management Information System
3 5 (3.16%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (1.90%) Driving Licence
4 3 (1.90%) NHS
4 3 (1.90%) Team-Oriented Environment
4 3 (1.90%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (1.27%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.63%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.63%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.63%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.63%) iPad
6 1 (0.63%) iPhone
6 1 (0.63%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.63%) Replication
6 1 (0.63%) Smartphone
6 1 (0.63%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 93 (58.86%) Windows
2 45 (28.48%) Windows 10
3 13 (8.23%) Apple iOS
4 12 (7.59%) Windows Server
5 11 (6.96%) Windows Server 2016
6 7 (4.43%) Windows 8
6 7 (4.43%) Windows Server 2019
6 7 (4.43%) Windows XP
7 6 (3.80%) Mac OS
8 5 (3.16%) Android
8 5 (3.16%) Windows Server 2003
8 5 (3.16%) Windows Server 2008
8 5 (3.16%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (1.90%) Linux
9 3 (1.90%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (27.85%) ITIL
2 36 (22.78%) Customer Service
3 31 (19.62%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (17.72%) Service Management
5 24 (15.19%) Mobile Device Management
6 22 (13.92%) ITSM
7 14 (8.86%) Service Delivery
8 11 (6.96%) Asset Management
9 9 (5.70%) Patch Management
10 8 (5.06%) Business Intelligence
10 8 (5.06%) Digital Marketing
10 8 (5.06%) Programme Management
10 8 (5.06%) Time Management
10 8 (5.06%) Workflow
11 7 (4.43%) Incident Management
12 6 (3.80%) Infrastructure Monitoring
12 6 (3.80%) Mentoring
12 6 (3.80%) Migration
12 6 (3.80%) Project Delivery
12 6 (3.80%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (1.90%) PowerShell
1 3 (1.90%) SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (17.09%) Security Cleared
2 19 (12.03%) Degree
3 15 (9.49%) SC Cleared
4 14 (8.86%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (3.80%) DV Cleared
6 4 (2.53%) MCP
7 3 (1.90%) MCDST
8 2 (1.27%) CCNA
8 2 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (1.27%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.63%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.63%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.63%) IBM Certification
9 1 (0.63%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.63%) MCSA
9 1 (0.63%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.70%) SLA
2 2 (1.27%) QA
3 1 (0.63%) Accessibility
System Software
1 74 (46.84%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.53%) Virtual Desktop
2 4 (2.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.90%) vSphere
3 3 (1.90%) XenApp
4 1 (0.63%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 33 (20.89%) SCCM
2 17 (10.76%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (4.43%) SCOM
4 2 (1.27%) AppManager
4 2 (1.27%) McAfee ePO
4 2 (1.27%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.63%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 87 (55.06%) Microsoft
2 29 (18.35%) ServiceNow
3 27 (17.09%) Citrix
4 17 (10.76%) Sage
5 10 (6.33%) Apple
6 9 (5.70%) Juniper
6 9 (5.70%) SolarWinds
7 8 (5.06%) SAP
8 7 (4.43%) Canon
9 6 (3.80%) VMware
10 5 (3.16%) Cisco
11 4 (2.53%) Dell
11 4 (2.53%) Remedy
12 3 (1.90%) Google
12 3 (1.90%) iManage
12 3 (1.90%) Logitech
12 3 (1.90%) Mitel
12 3 (1.90%) Sophos
12 3 (1.90%) WatchGuard
13 2 (1.27%) ESET