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 25 July 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 465 367 353
Rank change year-on-year -98 -14 -39
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 161 148 183
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.54% 0.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.59% 0.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 85 106 148
10th Percentile £176 £154 £141
25th Percentile £185 £188 £169
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £215 £200
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% +7.50% -
75th Percentile £240 £269 £267
90th Percentile £300 £297 £338
UK median daily rate £210 £215 £200
% change year-on-year -2.33% +7.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 22 12
10th Percentile £13.22 £18.10 £14.27
25th Percentile £13.51 £19.36 £16.51
Median hourly rate £16.50 £24.25 £20.93
Median % change year-on-year -31.96% +15.85% +4.66%
75th Percentile £19.24 £28.00 £24.18
90th Percentile £20.25 £28.96 £26.49
UK median hourly rate £17.12 £24.00 £19.28
% change year-on-year -28.69% +24.50% -3.61%

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 41,767 25,148 32,288
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 91.78% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,470 16,339 21,305
10th Percentile £325 £288 £300
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,003 1,263 2,075
10th Percentile £16.00 £13.75 £13.69
25th Percentile £22.42 £17.80 £18.50
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.45 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.13% -38.49% -2.39%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.04 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.85 £25.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +70.39% -39.40% -5.26%

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 25 July 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 25 July 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 25 July 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
London -57 49 £230 -7.90% 10
South East -72 43 £210 -20.00% 20
North of England -61 39 £200 +2.56% 7
Yorkshire -29 27 £200 +58.73% 6
Midlands -64 14 £210 -9.19% 12
North West -51 11 £245 +22.50% 1
South West -29 8 - - 6
East Midlands -18 7 - - 6
East of England -20 7 £240 +20.00% 14
West Midlands -61 7 £210 -23.64% 6
North East -47 1 £290 +48.72%
2nd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 July 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.

1 123 (76.40%) Windows
2 92 (57.14%) Microsoft 365
3 71 (44.10%) Active Directory
4 61 (37.89%) Microsoft
5 54 (33.54%) Customer Service
6 44 (27.33%) Problem-Solving
7 40 (24.84%) Windows 10
8 34 (21.12%) Entra ID
9 32 (19.88%) ITIL
10 31 (19.25%) Azure
11 28 (17.39%) Microsoft Intune
11 28 (17.39%) SharePoint
12 25 (15.53%) Continuous Improvement
12 25 (15.53%) Service Management
13 20 (12.42%) Android
13 20 (12.42%) SQL
14 19 (11.80%) JIRA
14 19 (11.80%) User Experience
15 18 (11.18%) ITSM
15 18 (11.18%) OneDrive
16 17 (10.56%) Microsoft Office
17 16 (9.94%) Apple iOS
17 16 (9.94%) Customer Experience
17 16 (9.94%) Mac OS
17 16 (9.94%) ServiceNow
18 15 (9.32%) SCCM
19 14 (8.70%) DNS
19 14 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
20 13 (8.07%) Security Cleared
20 13 (8.07%) TCP/IP

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 28 (17.39%) SharePoint
2 12 (7.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.24%) Confluence
3 2 (1.24%) IIS
Applications
1 17 (10.56%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 6 (3.73%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 92 (57.14%) Microsoft 365
2 34 (21.12%) Entra ID
3 31 (19.25%) Azure
4 18 (11.18%) OneDrive
5 9 (5.59%) AWS
6 6 (3.73%) GCP
7 2 (1.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 2 (1.24%) Amazon S3
7 2 (1.24%) AWS Lambda
7 2 (1.24%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.24%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (8.70%) DNS
1 14 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
2 13 (8.07%) TCP/IP
3 10 (6.21%) LAN
4 9 (5.59%) DHCP
4 9 (5.59%) VPN
4 9 (5.59%) WAN
5 5 (3.11%) Internet
6 4 (2.48%) Firewall
7 2 (1.24%) Skype
8 1 (0.62%) BGP
8 1 (0.62%) IPsec
8 1 (0.62%) MPLS
8 1 (0.62%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.62%) SAN
8 1 (0.62%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.35%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.73%) MySQL
3 2 (1.24%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 19 (11.80%) JIRA
General
1 76 (47.20%) Social Skills
2 26 (16.15%) Retail
3 24 (14.91%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (14.91%) Finance
4 16 (9.94%) French Language
4 16 (9.94%) Spanish Language
5 10 (6.21%) Manufacturing
6 8 (4.97%) Public Sector
7 7 (4.35%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (3.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (2.48%) Banking
10 3 (1.86%) Legal
11 1 (0.62%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.62%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.62%) Military
11 1 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.24%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 23 (14.29%) Onboarding
2 9 (5.59%) Driving Licence
3 6 (3.73%) Mobile Payment
4 5 (3.11%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (2.48%) CCTV
5 4 (2.48%) iPhone
5 4 (2.48%) NHS
5 4 (2.48%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.24%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.24%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.62%) CMDB
7 1 (0.62%) iPad
7 1 (0.62%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.62%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 123 (76.40%) Windows
2 40 (24.84%) Windows 10
3 20 (12.42%) Android
4 16 (9.94%) Apple iOS
4 16 (9.94%) Mac OS
5 11 (6.83%) Windows Server
6 7 (4.35%) Linux
7 6 (3.73%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.24%) CentOS
8 2 (1.24%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.62%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (33.54%) Customer Service
2 44 (27.33%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (19.88%) ITIL
4 25 (15.53%) Continuous Improvement
4 25 (15.53%) Service Management
5 19 (11.80%) User Experience
6 18 (11.18%) ITSM
7 16 (9.94%) Customer Experience
8 12 (7.45%) Service Delivery
9 9 (5.59%) Asset Management
9 9 (5.59%) Mobile Device Management
10 8 (4.97%) Migration
10 8 (4.97%) Problem Management
11 6 (3.73%) Ticket Management
12 5 (3.11%) AI
13 4 (2.48%) Configuration Management
13 4 (2.48%) Generative AI
13 4 (2.48%) Incident Management
13 4 (2.48%) Operational Stability
13 4 (2.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 20 (12.42%) SQL
2 4 (2.48%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 13 (8.07%) Security Cleared
2 11 (6.83%) SC Cleared
3 9 (5.59%) Degree
4 5 (3.11%) DBS Check
5 4 (2.48%) DV Cleared
6 3 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.24%) CCNA
7 2 (1.24%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (1.24%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.62%) A+ Certification
8 1 (0.62%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.73%) SLA
2 1 (0.62%) GDPR
System Software
1 71 (44.10%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (0.62%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 28 (17.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (9.32%) SCCM
3 4 (2.48%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.24%) AirWatch
5 1 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.62%) WSUS
Vendors
1 61 (37.89%) Microsoft
2 16 (9.94%) ServiceNow
3 10 (6.21%) Google
4 6 (3.73%) Remedy
5 5 (3.11%) Apple
5 5 (3.11%) Cisco
5 5 (3.11%) HP
6 3 (1.86%) Atlassian
6 3 (1.86%) Bloomberg
6 3 (1.86%) Freshdesk
6 3 (1.86%) Meraki
6 3 (1.86%) Samsung
7 2 (1.24%) CrowdStrike
7 2 (1.24%) Dell
7 2 (1.24%) Zscaler
8 1 (0.62%) Charles River
8 1 (0.62%) Citrix
8 1 (0.62%) Juniper
8 1 (0.62%) Tanium
8 1 (0.62%) VMware