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 6 December 2025.

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

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 359 361 290
Rank change year-on-year +2 -71 +36
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 180 157 305
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.58% 0.51% 0.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.63% 0.55% 0.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 119 209
10th Percentile £154 £148 £135
25th Percentile £163 £180 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £190 £215 £200
Median % change year-on-year -11.63% +7.50% -11.11%
75th Percentile £227 £279 £238
90th Percentile £288 £402 £292
UK median daily rate £190 £210 £200
% change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 10 26
10th Percentile - £20.70 £15.63
25th Percentile £15.50 £21.05 £17.73
Median hourly rate £18.44 £23.99 £19.31
Median % change year-on-year -23.16% +24.24% -13.21%
75th Percentile £21.94 £28.44 £21.50
90th Percentile £29.08 £29.21 £24.61
UK median hourly rate £18.44 £23.00 £19.31
% change year-on-year -19.85% +19.11% -12.23%

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 28,364 28,410 35,800
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 92.92% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,196 17,553 24,633
10th Percentile £288 £300 £293
25th Percentile £404 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,707 984 1,397
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.34 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.88 £21.17 £19.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.93% -16.67% +36.36%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £74.66 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.90
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.27% +39.88%

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 6 December 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 6 December 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 6 December 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 -12 63 £190 +5.56% 23
London -16 44 £195 -22.00% 14
North West -11 30 £175 - 10
Midlands -29 30 £170 -2.86% 7
Yorkshire -20 25 £205 +5.13% 12
South East -8 20 £175 -25.09% 44
West Midlands -25 19 £200 +14.29% 7
East of England -2 13 £200 -15.79% 8
East Midlands -9 11 £158 -
South West -9 10 £275 +30.95% 7
North East +4 8 £175 +11.11% 2
2nd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 6 December 2025, 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.

1 111 (61.67%) Windows
2 93 (51.67%) Microsoft 365
3 68 (37.78%) Microsoft
4 60 (33.33%) Active Directory
4 60 (33.33%) Microsoft Office
5 47 (26.11%) Customer Service
6 46 (25.56%) ITIL
7 45 (25.00%) Security Cleared
8 38 (21.11%) Android
8 38 (21.11%) SC Cleared
8 38 (21.11%) Windows 10
9 34 (18.89%) Service Management
10 33 (18.33%) Entra ID
11 31 (17.22%) Azure
12 29 (16.11%) Business Intelligence
12 29 (16.11%) Problem-Solving
12 29 (16.11%) SAP
12 29 (16.11%) Wireless
13 28 (15.56%) Digital Marketing
13 28 (15.56%) Mac OS
13 28 (15.56%) Microsoft Intune
13 28 (15.56%) Programme Management
14 27 (15.00%) Apple
15 26 (14.44%) Cisco
15 26 (14.44%) Service Delivery
15 26 (14.44%) SharePoint
16 25 (13.89%) Windows Server
17 23 (12.78%) Dell
17 23 (12.78%) HP
17 23 (12.78%) VPN

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 26 (14.44%) SharePoint
2 19 (10.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (2.78%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 60 (33.33%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.11%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.56%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 93 (51.67%) Microsoft 365
2 33 (18.33%) Entra ID
3 31 (17.22%) Azure
4 14 (7.78%) OneDrive
5 6 (3.33%) Google Workspace
6 2 (1.11%) AWS
7 1 (0.56%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.56%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 29 (16.11%) Wireless
2 23 (12.78%) VPN
3 21 (11.67%) DHCP
3 21 (11.67%) DNS
3 21 (11.67%) TCP/IP
3 21 (11.67%) WAN
4 17 (9.44%) LAN
5 9 (5.00%) Firewall
6 6 (3.33%) Network Security
6 6 (3.33%) PABX
6 6 (3.33%) Structured Cabling
6 6 (3.33%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (2.22%) BGP
7 4 (2.22%) IPsec
7 4 (2.22%) MPLS
8 3 (1.67%) VoIP
9 1 (0.56%) Broadband
9 1 (0.56%) Remote Desktop
9 1 (0.56%) VLAN
9 1 (0.56%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.56%) Electronic Patient Records
1 1 (0.56%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (0.56%) JIRA
General
1 65 (36.11%) Social Skills
2 37 (20.56%) Public Sector
3 35 (19.44%) Finance
4 33 (18.33%) Manufacturing
5 28 (15.56%) Electronics
5 28 (15.56%) Marketing
5 28 (15.56%) Telecoms
6 9 (5.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (4.44%) Analytical Skills
8 5 (2.78%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.67%) Legal
9 3 (1.67%) Retail
10 2 (1.11%) Banking
10 2 (1.11%) Law
11 1 (0.56%) Advertising
11 1 (0.56%) Local Government
11 1 (0.56%) Multimedia
11 1 (0.56%) Publishing
Miscellaneous
1 23 (12.78%) Data Centre
2 12 (6.67%) Driving Licence
3 10 (5.56%) NHS
4 8 (4.44%) Management Information System
5 7 (3.89%) Smartphone
6 6 (3.33%) CMDB
6 6 (3.33%) Onboarding
6 6 (3.33%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (2.78%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 4 (2.22%) PKI
9 3 (1.67%) iPhone
9 3 (1.67%) Video Conferencing
10 2 (1.11%) Client/Server
10 2 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
11 1 (0.56%) CCTV
11 1 (0.56%) Enterprise Software
11 1 (0.56%) Hedge funds
11 1 (0.56%) Replication
11 1 (0.56%) Smartcard
11 1 (0.56%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 111 (61.67%) Windows
2 38 (21.11%) Android
2 38 (21.11%) Windows 10
3 28 (15.56%) Mac OS
4 25 (13.89%) Windows Server
5 13 (7.22%) Apple iOS
6 8 (4.44%) Linux
7 7 (3.89%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (3.33%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.56%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (26.11%) Customer Service
2 46 (25.56%) ITIL
3 34 (18.89%) Service Management
4 29 (16.11%) Business Intelligence
4 29 (16.11%) Problem-Solving
5 28 (15.56%) Digital Marketing
5 28 (15.56%) Programme Management
6 26 (14.44%) Service Delivery
7 16 (8.89%) ITSM
8 9 (5.00%) Customer Experience
8 9 (5.00%) Migration
9 8 (4.44%) Asset Management
9 8 (4.44%) Mobile Device Management
9 8 (4.44%) Network Management
10 7 (3.89%) Incident Management
10 7 (3.89%) Workflow
11 6 (3.33%) Break/Fix
11 6 (3.33%) Change Management
11 6 (3.33%) Network Monitoring
11 6 (3.33%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.00%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.56%) SQL
Qualifications
1 45 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 38 (21.11%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.33%) Degree
4 9 (5.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (3.33%) ECDL
5 6 (3.33%) MCP
6 5 (2.78%) MCDST
7 3 (1.67%) DV Cleared
8 2 (1.11%) DBS Check
8 2 (1.11%) MCSE
9 1 (0.56%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.56%) CCNA
9 1 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.56%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.56%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 1 (0.56%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.56%) SLA
2 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 60 (33.33%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.22%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.56%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.56%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 28 (15.56%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (11.11%) SCCM
3 3 (1.67%) Jamf Pro
3 3 (1.67%) SCOM
Vendors
1 68 (37.78%) Microsoft
2 29 (16.11%) SAP
3 27 (15.00%) Apple
4 26 (14.44%) Cisco
5 23 (12.78%) Dell
5 23 (12.78%) HP
6 11 (6.11%) ServiceNow
7 7 (3.89%) Google
8 6 (3.33%) Citrix
9 5 (2.78%) iManage
9 5 (2.78%) Mitel
10 4 (2.22%) Juniper
11 3 (1.67%) Logitech
11 3 (1.67%) Meraki
11 3 (1.67%) SolarWinds
11 3 (1.67%) VMware
12 2 (1.11%) Remedy
13 1 (0.56%) Sage
13 1 (0.56%) Sophos
13 1 (0.56%) WatchGuard