2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends in England

Second Line Support
UK > England

The median Second Line Support daily rate in England is £200, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 May 2026.

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

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 453 334 352
Rank change year-on-year -119 +18 -37
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 128 141 208
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.31% 0.58% 0.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.63% 0.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 70 105 158
10th Percentile £163 £153 £150
25th Percentile £173 £188 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £222 £200
Median % change year-on-year -9.71% +10.75% -4.76%
75th Percentile £238 £269 £238
90th Percentile £283 £303 £300
UK median daily rate £200 £220 £200
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 16 17
10th Percentile £12.78 £18.30 £14.27
25th Percentile £12.95 £24.19 £17.25
Median hourly rate £16.50 £27.23 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -39.39% +53.64% -12.32%
75th Percentile £20.25 £28.00 £20.37
90th Percentile £24.39 £31.41 £23.77
UK median hourly rate £16.50 £26.98 £17.72
% change year-on-year -38.83% +52.23% -11.40%

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 37,604 22,499 34,153
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.58% 92.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,450 14,977 22,653
10th Percentile £313 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -1.46% -2.38% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,560 914 2,443
10th Percentile £15.72 £14.06 £12.87
25th Percentile £20.98 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £47.00 £30.36 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +54.81% -18.34% -17.38%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £44.00 £28.68 £36.65
% change year-on-year +53.44% -21.76% -18.56%

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 9 May 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 9 May 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 9 May 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 -71 41 £235 -6.00% 14
North of England -51 36 £175 -10.26% 13
South East -79 23 £200 -7.51% 27
North West -29 18 £175 -12.50% 8
Yorkshire -44 17 £190 +18.38% 4
Midlands -68 16 £225 +12.50% 13
West Midlands -61 11 £225 -14.29% 11
East of England -38 7 £240 +6.67% 11
South West -32 5 - - 11
East Midlands -36 5 - - 2
North East -21 1 £175 -10.26% 1
2nd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 May 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 88 (68.75%) Windows
2 68 (53.13%) Microsoft 365
3 54 (42.19%) Microsoft
4 48 (37.50%) Customer Service
5 45 (35.16%) Active Directory
6 35 (27.34%) Windows 10
7 27 (21.09%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (18.75%) Android
8 24 (18.75%) Azure
9 23 (17.97%) ITIL
10 22 (17.19%) Microsoft Intune
11 21 (16.41%) Apple iOS
12 19 (14.84%) Service Delivery
13 18 (14.06%) ITSM
14 16 (12.50%) Entra ID
14 16 (12.50%) ServiceNow
15 15 (11.72%) Wi-Fi
16 14 (10.94%) Microsoft Office
16 14 (10.94%) SCCM
16 14 (10.94%) Service Management
17 13 (10.16%) Customer Experience
18 12 (9.38%) Continuous Improvement
18 12 (9.38%) DNS
18 12 (9.38%) JIRA
18 12 (9.38%) Windows Server
19 11 (8.59%) DHCP
19 11 (8.59%) SharePoint
20 10 (7.81%) LAN
20 10 (7.81%) Microsoft Exchange
20 10 (7.81%) User Experience

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 11 (8.59%) SharePoint
2 10 (7.81%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.56%) IIS
4 1 (0.78%) Confluence
Applications
1 14 (10.94%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.78%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 7 (5.47%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 68 (53.13%) Microsoft 365
2 24 (18.75%) Azure
3 16 (12.50%) Entra ID
4 8 (6.25%) AWS
5 5 (3.91%) OneDrive
6 4 (3.13%) GCP
7 2 (1.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 2 (1.56%) Amazon S3
7 2 (1.56%) AWS Lambda
7 2 (1.56%) Serverless
8 1 (0.78%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.78%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 15 (11.72%) Wi-Fi
2 12 (9.38%) DNS
3 11 (8.59%) DHCP
4 10 (7.81%) LAN
4 10 (7.81%) WAN
5 9 (7.03%) VPN
6 4 (3.13%) TCP/IP
7 2 (1.56%) BGP
7 2 (1.56%) Firewall
7 2 (1.56%) Internet
7 2 (1.56%) IPsec
7 2 (1.56%) MPLS
7 2 (1.56%) Skype
7 2 (1.56%) VLAN
8 1 (0.78%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.78%) SAN
8 1 (0.78%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.91%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.13%) MySQL
3 2 (1.56%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.78%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 12 (9.38%) JIRA
General
1 62 (48.44%) Social Skills
2 20 (15.63%) Finance
3 13 (10.16%) Public Sector
4 12 (9.38%) Retail
5 10 (7.81%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (7.81%) Manufacturing
5 10 (7.81%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (4.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (3.91%) Banking
7 5 (3.91%) French Language
7 5 (3.91%) Spanish Language
8 4 (3.13%) Legal
9 2 (1.56%) Investment Banking
9 2 (1.56%) Law
10 1 (0.78%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.78%) Military
10 1 (0.78%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.56%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 14 (10.94%) Onboarding
2 8 (6.25%) Driving Licence
3 6 (4.69%) NHS
3 6 (4.69%) Smartphone
4 4 (3.13%) Mobile Payment
5 2 (1.56%) CCTV
5 2 (1.56%) iPhone
5 2 (1.56%) PKI
5 2 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.78%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.78%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 88 (68.75%) Windows
2 35 (27.34%) Windows 10
3 24 (18.75%) Android
4 21 (16.41%) Apple iOS
5 12 (9.38%) Windows Server
6 6 (4.69%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.56%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.78%) Linux
8 1 (0.78%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (37.50%) Customer Service
2 27 (21.09%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (17.97%) ITIL
4 19 (14.84%) Service Delivery
5 18 (14.06%) ITSM
6 14 (10.94%) Service Management
7 13 (10.16%) Customer Experience
8 12 (9.38%) Continuous Improvement
9 10 (7.81%) User Experience
10 8 (6.25%) Problem Management
11 7 (5.47%) Asset Management
12 6 (4.69%) Migration
13 5 (3.91%) AI
13 5 (3.91%) Incident Management
13 5 (3.91%) Mobile Device Management
14 4 (3.13%) BCP
14 4 (3.13%) Generative AI
14 4 (3.13%) Process Improvement
15 3 (2.34%) Business Continuity
15 3 (2.34%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 9 (7.03%) SQL
2 1 (0.78%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 5 (3.91%) SC Cleared
1 5 (3.91%) Security Cleared
2 4 (3.13%) Degree
3 3 (2.34%) DBS Check
3 3 (2.34%) ITIL Certification
4 2 (1.56%) CCNA
4 2 (1.56%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.34%) SLA
2 2 (1.56%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.78%) GDPR
System Software
1 45 (35.16%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.56%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.78%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 22 (17.19%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (10.94%) SCCM
3 2 (1.56%) AirWatch
3 2 (1.56%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.78%) WSUS
Vendors
1 54 (42.19%) Microsoft
2 16 (12.50%) ServiceNow
3 7 (5.47%) Remedy
4 5 (3.91%) Apple
4 5 (3.91%) Google
5 3 (2.34%) Bloomberg
5 3 (2.34%) HP
6 2 (1.56%) Cisco
6 2 (1.56%) Citrix
6 2 (1.56%) Juniper
6 2 (1.56%) Meraki
7 1 (0.78%) Charles River
7 1 (0.78%) Dell
7 1 (0.78%) Freshdesk
7 1 (0.78%) Tanium
7 1 (0.78%) VMware