2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends in England

Second Line Support
UK > England

The median Second Line Support daily rate in England is £190, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 April 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 419 336 312
Rank change year-on-year -83 -24 +18
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 155 137 249
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.40% 0.57% 0.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.61% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 97 100 181
10th Percentile £163 £160 £140
25th Percentile £170 £188 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £190 £220 £200
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +10.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £238 £252 £238
90th Percentile £272 £319 £300
UK median daily rate £193 £213 £200
% change year-on-year -9.41% +6.25% -7.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 19 21
10th Percentile £12.95 £18.42 £14.27
25th Percentile £15.50 £22.52 £17.25
Median hourly rate £16.50 £26.45 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -37.62% +49.27% -13.22%
75th Percentile £20.25 £28.50 £20.00
90th Percentile £24.58 £30.01 £22.29
UK median hourly rate £16.50 £26.45 £17.72
% change year-on-year -37.62% +49.27% -13.22%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 35,400 22,518 34,832
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.89% 92.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,310 15,068 23,250
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,333 829 2,302
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £12.87
25th Percentile £20.00 £20.64 £16.25
Median hourly rate £42.00 £33.40 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.75% +2.77% -24.42%
75th Percentile £65.25 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.90 £76.44 £71.70
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £32.50 £33.00
% change year-on-year +23.08% -1.52% -25.00%

2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '2nd Line Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

2nd Line Support job vacancy trend 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 3 April 2026.

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 3 April 2026.

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 3 April 2026. 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 -36 57 £175 -10.26% 17
London -63 43 £220 -12.00% 12
Yorkshire -42 30 £195 +18.18% 6
North West -36 22 £175 -14.63% 11
Midlands -73 20 £200 - 9
South East -65 15 £200 -5.88% 23
West Midlands -71 13 £225 +7.14% 6
East of England -32 12 £240 +6.67% 10
South West -23 8 £250 - 8
East Midlands -32 7 £158 -21.25% 3
North East -11 5 £175 -10.26%
2nd Line Support
UK

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 3 April 2026, 2nd Line Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring 2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 96 (61.94%) Windows
2 84 (54.19%) Microsoft 365
3 56 (36.13%) Active Directory
4 53 (34.19%) Microsoft
5 48 (30.97%) Customer Service
6 38 (24.52%) Android
6 38 (24.52%) Microsoft Office
6 38 (24.52%) Windows 10
7 32 (20.65%) Azure
8 29 (18.71%) Microsoft Intune
9 28 (18.06%) Entra ID
10 27 (17.42%) ITIL
10 27 (17.42%) Problem-Solving
11 22 (14.19%) Security Cleared
12 21 (13.55%) SC Cleared
12 21 (13.55%) Service Management
13 19 (12.26%) Apple iOS
14 18 (11.61%) Apple
14 18 (11.61%) Cisco
14 18 (11.61%) SharePoint
14 18 (11.61%) Windows Server
15 17 (10.97%) Mac OS
15 17 (10.97%) Service Delivery
16 16 (10.32%) Wireless
17 15 (9.68%) LAN
17 15 (9.68%) ServiceNow
17 15 (9.68%) WAN
18 14 (9.03%) Business Intelligence
18 14 (9.03%) DHCP
18 14 (9.03%) DNS

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 18 (11.61%) SharePoint
2 12 (7.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.65%) IIS
Applications
1 38 (24.52%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (4.52%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.65%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 84 (54.19%) Microsoft 365
2 32 (20.65%) Azure
3 28 (18.06%) Entra ID
4 9 (5.81%) OneDrive
5 7 (4.52%) Google Workspace
6 6 (3.87%) AWS
7 3 (1.94%) GCP
8 2 (1.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 2 (1.29%) Amazon S3
8 2 (1.29%) AWS Lambda
8 2 (1.29%) Serverless
9 1 (0.65%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 16 (10.32%) Wireless
2 15 (9.68%) LAN
2 15 (9.68%) WAN
3 14 (9.03%) DHCP
3 14 (9.03%) DNS
3 14 (9.03%) Wi-Fi
4 9 (5.81%) TCP/IP
5 8 (5.16%) Firewall
5 8 (5.16%) VPN
6 6 (3.87%) Network Security
7 3 (1.94%) Structured Cabling
7 3 (1.94%) VoIP
8 2 (1.29%) BGP
8 2 (1.29%) Internet
8 2 (1.29%) IPsec
8 2 (1.29%) MPLS
8 2 (1.29%) PABX
8 2 (1.29%) Skype
8 2 (1.29%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.94%) MySQL
1 3 (1.94%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.29%) Amazon Redshift
3 1 (0.65%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.65%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 11 (7.10%) JIRA
General
1 57 (36.77%) Social Skills
2 28 (18.06%) Finance
2 28 (18.06%) Public Sector
3 22 (14.19%) Manufacturing
4 14 (9.03%) Telecoms
5 13 (8.39%) Electronics
5 13 (8.39%) Marketing
6 10 (6.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 10 (6.45%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (3.87%) Retail
8 5 (3.23%) Analytical Skills
9 4 (2.58%) Banking
9 4 (2.58%) Legal
10 2 (1.29%) Investment Banking
10 2 (1.29%) Law
11 1 (0.65%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.65%) French Language
11 1 (0.65%) Military
11 1 (0.65%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.65%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 13 (8.39%) Data Centre
1 13 (8.39%) Driving Licence
2 12 (7.74%) Onboarding
3 10 (6.45%) NHS
4 8 (5.16%) Smartphone
5 4 (2.58%) iPhone
5 4 (2.58%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.94%) CMDB
6 3 (1.94%) Mobile Payment
7 2 (1.29%) PKI
8 1 (0.65%) CCTV
8 1 (0.65%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.65%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.65%) Smartcard
8 1 (0.65%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 1 (0.65%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 96 (61.94%) Windows
2 38 (24.52%) Android
2 38 (24.52%) Windows 10
3 19 (12.26%) Apple iOS
4 18 (11.61%) Windows Server
5 17 (10.97%) Mac OS
6 7 (4.52%) Linux
7 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (30.97%) Customer Service
2 27 (17.42%) ITIL
2 27 (17.42%) Problem-Solving
3 21 (13.55%) Service Management
4 17 (10.97%) Service Delivery
5 14 (9.03%) Business Intelligence
6 13 (8.39%) Digital Marketing
6 13 (8.39%) ITSM
6 13 (8.39%) Programme Management
7 10 (6.45%) Customer Experience
8 9 (5.81%) Asset Management
9 8 (5.16%) Continuous Improvement
10 7 (4.52%) Migration
10 7 (4.52%) Problem Management
11 6 (3.87%) User Experience
12 5 (3.23%) AI
12 5 (3.23%) Break/Fix
12 5 (3.23%) Incident Management
12 5 (3.23%) Kalman Filter
12 5 (3.23%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 6 (3.87%) PowerShell
2 4 (2.58%) SQL
Qualifications
1 22 (14.19%) Security Cleared
2 21 (13.55%) SC Cleared
3 3 (1.94%) DBS Check
3 3 (1.94%) Degree
3 3 (1.94%) ECDL
4 2 (1.29%) CCNA
4 2 (1.29%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (1.29%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.65%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (1.94%) SLA
2 2 (1.29%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.65%) GDPR
System Software
1 56 (36.13%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.65%) BitLocker
2 1 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 29 (18.71%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (7.74%) SCCM
3 4 (2.58%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.65%) AirWatch
4 1 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 53 (34.19%) Microsoft
2 18 (11.61%) Apple
2 18 (11.61%) Cisco
3 15 (9.68%) ServiceNow
4 14 (9.03%) HP
4 14 (9.03%) SAP
5 13 (8.39%) Dell
6 10 (6.45%) Google
7 7 (4.52%) Remedy
8 5 (3.23%) Meraki
9 2 (1.29%) Bloomberg
9 2 (1.29%) Juniper
10 1 (0.65%) Ariba
10 1 (0.65%) Charles River
10 1 (0.65%) Citrix
10 1 (0.65%) VMware