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 19 April 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 447 343 312
Rank change year-on-year -104 -31 +19
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 135 140 237
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.57% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.37% 0.62% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 78 101 173
10th Percentile £163 £160 £142
25th Percentile £170 £188 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £222 £200
Median % change year-on-year -9.71% +10.75% -10.11%
75th Percentile £238 £263 £238
90th Percentile £270 £319 £299
UK median daily rate £200 £220 £200
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 18 19
10th Percentile £12.87 £18.38 £14.27
25th Percentile £12.95 £24.06 £17.25
Median hourly rate £18.00 £27.23 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -33.88% +53.64% -12.32%
75th Percentile £20.25 £28.75 £19.48
90th Percentile £24.67 £30.47 £20.92
UK median hourly rate £18.00 £26.98 £17.72
% change year-on-year -33.27% +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 36,438 22,702 34,531
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 92.70% 92.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,879 15,162 23,005
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,439 867 2,382
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.41 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.73 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% -7.14% -19.08%
75th Percentile £67.36 £64.63 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £76.25 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £30.45 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.73% -13.00% -22.22%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -58 43 £175 -10.26% 11
London -47 42 £223 -11.18% 9
Yorkshire -43 23 £200 +24.61% 1
South East -61 18 £200 -5.88% 20
Midlands -78 18 £200 - 15
North West -39 17 £175 -16.67% 8
West Midlands -69 12 £250 +19.05% 7
East of England -29 9 £240 +6.67% 9
East Midlands -34 6 £158 -21.25% 8
South West -25 5 £185 -26.00% 9
North East -15 3 £175 -10.26% 2
2nd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 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 83 (61.48%) Windows
2 70 (51.85%) Microsoft 365
3 50 (37.04%) Microsoft
4 47 (34.81%) Customer Service
5 46 (34.07%) Active Directory
6 36 (26.67%) Windows 10
7 29 (21.48%) Android
8 27 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
9 25 (18.52%) Azure
9 25 (18.52%) Microsoft Office
10 23 (17.04%) ITIL
11 22 (16.30%) Microsoft Intune
12 20 (14.81%) Entra ID
13 17 (12.59%) Apple iOS
14 16 (11.85%) Service Management
15 15 (11.11%) Service Delivery
15 15 (11.11%) ServiceNow
16 14 (10.37%) DHCP
16 14 (10.37%) DNS
16 14 (10.37%) Wi-Fi
16 14 (10.37%) Windows Server
17 13 (9.63%) ITSM
17 13 (9.63%) SCCM
17 13 (9.63%) Security Cleared
18 12 (8.89%) Apple
18 12 (8.89%) LAN
18 12 (8.89%) SC Cleared
18 12 (8.89%) WAN
19 11 (8.15%) Cisco
19 11 (8.15%) Customer 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 10 (7.41%) Microsoft Exchange
1 10 (7.41%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.74%) IIS
Applications
1 25 (18.52%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.74%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 7 (5.19%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.74%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 70 (51.85%) Microsoft 365
2 25 (18.52%) Azure
3 20 (14.81%) Entra ID
4 6 (4.44%) AWS
5 4 (2.96%) Google Workspace
6 3 (2.22%) GCP
6 3 (2.22%) OneDrive
7 2 (1.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 2 (1.48%) Amazon S3
7 2 (1.48%) AWS Lambda
7 2 (1.48%) Serverless
8 1 (0.74%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 14 (10.37%) DHCP
1 14 (10.37%) DNS
1 14 (10.37%) Wi-Fi
2 12 (8.89%) LAN
2 12 (8.89%) WAN
3 8 (5.93%) VPN
3 8 (5.93%) Wireless
4 6 (4.44%) TCP/IP
5 5 (3.70%) Firewall
6 3 (2.22%) Network Security
6 3 (2.22%) VoIP
7 2 (1.48%) BGP
7 2 (1.48%) Internet
7 2 (1.48%) IPsec
7 2 (1.48%) MPLS
7 2 (1.48%) Skype
7 2 (1.48%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.22%) MySQL
1 3 (2.22%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.48%) Amazon Redshift
3 1 (0.74%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (0.74%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 11 (8.15%) JIRA
General
1 57 (42.22%) Social Skills
2 23 (17.04%) Finance
3 21 (15.56%) Public Sector
4 16 (11.85%) Manufacturing
5 10 (7.41%) Organisational Skills
6 9 (6.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (5.93%) Retail
7 8 (5.93%) Telecoms
8 7 (5.19%) Analytical Skills
8 7 (5.19%) Electronics
8 7 (5.19%) Marketing
9 4 (2.96%) Banking
9 4 (2.96%) Legal
10 3 (2.22%) French Language
10 3 (2.22%) Spanish Language
11 2 (1.48%) Investment Banking
11 2 (1.48%) Law
12 1 (0.74%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.74%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.74%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 10 (7.41%) Onboarding
2 9 (6.67%) Driving Licence
3 7 (5.19%) Data Centre
3 7 (5.19%) NHS
4 6 (4.44%) Smartphone
5 4 (2.96%) iPhone
6 3 (2.22%) Mobile Payment
7 2 (1.48%) PKI
8 1 (0.74%) CCTV
8 1 (0.74%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.74%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.74%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.74%) Smartcard
8 1 (0.74%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 1 (0.74%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 83 (61.48%) Windows
2 36 (26.67%) Windows 10
3 29 (21.48%) Android
4 17 (12.59%) Apple iOS
5 14 (10.37%) Windows Server
6 10 (7.41%) Mac OS
7 4 (2.96%) Linux
8 1 (0.74%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (34.81%) Customer Service
2 27 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (17.04%) ITIL
4 16 (11.85%) Service Management
5 15 (11.11%) Service Delivery
6 13 (9.63%) ITSM
7 11 (8.15%) Customer Experience
8 10 (7.41%) Continuous Improvement
9 8 (5.93%) Business Intelligence
10 7 (5.19%) Digital Marketing
10 7 (5.19%) Migration
10 7 (5.19%) Problem Management
10 7 (5.19%) Programme Management
11 6 (4.44%) User Experience
12 5 (3.70%) AI
12 5 (3.70%) Asset Management
12 5 (3.70%) Break/Fix
12 5 (3.70%) Incident Management
13 4 (2.96%) Generative AI
13 4 (2.96%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 6 (4.44%) PowerShell
1 6 (4.44%) SQL
Qualifications
1 13 (9.63%) Security Cleared
2 12 (8.89%) SC Cleared
3 3 (2.22%) DBS Check
3 3 (2.22%) Degree
4 2 (1.48%) CCNA
4 2 (1.48%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (1.48%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.74%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.48%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (0.74%) GDPR
2 1 (0.74%) SLA
System Software
1 46 (34.07%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.74%) BitLocker
2 1 (0.74%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 22 (16.30%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (9.63%) SCCM
3 3 (2.22%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.74%) AirWatch
4 1 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 50 (37.04%) Microsoft
2 15 (11.11%) ServiceNow
3 12 (8.89%) Apple
4 11 (8.15%) Cisco
5 8 (5.93%) HP
5 8 (5.93%) SAP
6 7 (5.19%) Dell
6 7 (5.19%) Google
6 7 (5.19%) Remedy
7 4 (2.96%) Meraki
8 2 (1.48%) Bloomberg
8 2 (1.48%) Juniper
9 1 (0.74%) Ariba
9 1 (0.74%) Charles River
9 1 (0.74%) Citrix
9 1 (0.74%) VMware