2nd Line Support Contracts in England

Second Line Support
UK > England

The median Second Line Support daily rate in England is £220, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 July 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

 6 months to
1 Jul 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 344 357 334
Rank change year-on-year +13 -23 -19
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 152 201 338
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.59% 0.54% 0.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.64% 0.58% 0.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 155 240
10th Percentile £158 £148 £162
25th Percentile £188 £175 £181
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £220 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -0.12% +5.39%
75th Percentile £269 £248 £266
90th Percentile £289 £300 £322
UK median daily rate £220 £200 £200
% change year-on-year +10.00% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 16 22
10th Percentile £18.10 £14.27 £15.50
25th Percentile £20.66 £17.19 £17.06
Median hourly rate £24.58 £17.61 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.58% -11.95% -6.98%
75th Percentile £28.00 £23.27 £24.25
90th Percentile £29.16 £24.18 £25.64
UK median hourly rate £24.00 £17.72 £20.00
% change year-on-year +35.44% -11.40% -6.98%

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 23,627 34,496 44,733
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.12% 92.91% 94.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,455 22,543 31,717
10th Percentile £290 £298 £313
25th Percentile £404 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +2.33%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £663
90th Percentile £748 £750 £763
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +1.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,101 2,588 1,360
10th Percentile £13.85 £12.86 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.88 £16.72 £19.50
Median hourly rate £28.18 £39.55 £43.93
Median % change year-on-year -28.75% -9.97% +75.72%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.51 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £37.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -29.33% -12.79% +69.37%

2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings that featured 2nd Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Support in England

2nd Line Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Support in England.

Daily rate trend for 2nd Line Support 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 1 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in England

2nd Line Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Support in England.

Hourly rate trend for 2nd Line Support 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 1 July 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 1 July 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
South East +72 47 £215 +4.88% 52
London +30 44 £250 +25.00% 67
Midlands -18 24 £200 - 24
North of England +2 21 £195 +2.63% 29
West Midlands -20 14 £263 +31.25% 13
East Midlands -1 10 £200 -20.00% 11
East of England +25 9 £200 -11.11% 11
North West +9 9 £178 -11.25% 18
South West +23 7 £200 +5.26% 29
Yorkshire -8 7 £126 -33.68% 7
North East +3 5 £195 +9.09% 4
2nd Line Support
UK

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 1 July 2025, 2nd Line Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring 2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 90 (59.21%) Windows
2 82 (53.95%) Microsoft
3 81 (53.29%) Active Directory
4 69 (45.39%) Microsoft 365
5 47 (30.92%) Social Skills
6 43 (28.29%) Windows 10
7 42 (27.63%) Problem-Solving
7 42 (27.63%) ITIL
8 35 (23.03%) Customer Service
9 34 (22.37%) Finance
10 30 (19.74%) Microsoft Office
10 30 (19.74%) Citrix
11 29 (19.08%) VPN
12 27 (17.76%) Service Management
12 27 (17.76%) ITSM
12 27 (17.76%) Security Cleared
13 26 (17.11%) SCCM
13 26 (17.11%) ServiceNow
14 24 (15.79%) Azure
15 23 (15.13%) Mobile Device Management
16 22 (14.47%) Microsoft Exchange
17 18 (11.84%) WebEx
18 17 (11.18%) SC Cleared
18 17 (11.18%) Microsoft Intune
18 17 (11.18%) Sage
19 14 (9.21%) WAN
19 14 (9.21%) Asset Management
19 14 (9.21%) Degree
19 14 (9.21%) Apple iOS
19 14 (9.21%) Public Sector

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 22 (14.47%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (4.61%) SharePoint
Applications
1 30 (19.74%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (3.29%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.97%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.32%) Alphatax
Cloud Services
1 69 (45.39%) Microsoft 365
2 24 (15.79%) Azure
3 9 (5.92%) Entra ID
4 6 (3.95%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.32%) Asana
5 2 (1.32%) Google Workspace
5 2 (1.32%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 29 (19.08%) VPN
2 18 (11.84%) WebEx
3 14 (9.21%) WAN
4 12 (7.89%) LAN
5 9 (5.92%) DHCP
5 9 (5.92%) DNS
6 7 (4.61%) BGP
6 7 (4.61%) Firewall
6 7 (4.61%) IPsec
6 7 (4.61%) MPLS
6 7 (4.61%) Remote Desktop
6 7 (4.61%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (2.63%) TCP/IP
7 4 (2.63%) VLAN
7 4 (2.63%) Wireless
8 2 (1.32%) Cisco Firepower
8 2 (1.32%) NetScaler
8 2 (1.32%) Softphone
8 2 (1.32%) VoIP
9 1 (0.66%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.97%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 3 (1.97%) JIRA
General
1 47 (30.92%) Social Skills
2 34 (22.37%) Finance
3 14 (9.21%) Public Sector
4 13 (8.55%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (5.26%) Manufacturing
6 7 (4.61%) Banking
7 5 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (3.29%) Legal
7 5 (3.29%) Local Government
7 5 (3.29%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (2.63%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.97%) Electronics
9 3 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.97%) Marketing
10 2 (1.32%) Law
10 2 (1.32%) Retail
11 1 (0.66%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.66%) Financial Institution
Miscellaneous
1 7 (4.61%) PKI
2 5 (3.29%) Management Information System
3 4 (2.63%) Driving Licence
3 4 (2.63%) iPhone
3 4 (2.63%) NHS
3 4 (2.63%) Smartphone
4 3 (1.97%) Client/Server
4 3 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
4 3 (1.97%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (1.32%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.66%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.66%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.66%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.66%) Housing Association
6 1 (0.66%) iPad
6 1 (0.66%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.66%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 90 (59.21%) Windows
2 43 (28.29%) Windows 10
3 14 (9.21%) Apple iOS
4 11 (7.24%) Windows Server
5 7 (4.61%) Windows 8
5 7 (4.61%) Windows XP
6 6 (3.95%) Android
6 6 (3.95%) Windows Server 2008
6 6 (3.95%) Windows Server 2012
6 6 (3.95%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (3.29%) Mac OS
7 5 (3.29%) Windows Server 2003
8 3 (1.97%) Mac OS X
9 2 (1.32%) Linux
9 2 (1.32%) VMS
10 1 (0.66%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (27.63%) ITIL
1 42 (27.63%) Problem-Solving
2 35 (23.03%) Customer Service
3 27 (17.76%) ITSM
3 27 (17.76%) Service Management
4 23 (15.13%) Mobile Device Management
5 14 (9.21%) Asset Management
6 10 (6.58%) Patch Management
6 10 (6.58%) Service Delivery
7 8 (5.26%) Time Management
8 7 (4.61%) Incident Management
9 6 (3.95%) Mentoring
9 6 (3.95%) Proactive Maintenance
9 6 (3.95%) Project Delivery
10 5 (3.29%) Business Case
10 5 (3.29%) Coaching
10 5 (3.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 5 (3.29%) Infrastructure Monitoring
10 5 (3.29%) Technical Analysis
11 4 (2.63%) Break/Fix
Programming Languages
1 4 (2.63%) SQL
2 2 (1.32%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 27 (17.76%) Security Cleared
2 17 (11.18%) SC Cleared
3 14 (9.21%) Degree
4 8 (5.26%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (3.29%) DV Cleared
6 4 (2.63%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (1.97%) DBS Check
8 2 (1.32%) A+ Certification
9 1 (0.66%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.66%) CCNA
9 1 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.66%) IBM Certification
9 1 (0.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.26%) SLA
2 2 (1.32%) QA
3 1 (0.66%) Accessibility
System Software
1 81 (53.29%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.61%) vSphere
3 6 (3.95%) Virtual Desktop
3 6 (3.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.32%) XenApp
5 1 (0.66%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.66%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 26 (17.11%) SCCM
2 17 (11.18%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (3.95%) SCOM
4 2 (1.32%) AppManager
4 2 (1.32%) McAfee ePO
4 2 (1.32%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.66%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.66%) WSUS
Vendors
1 82 (53.95%) Microsoft
2 30 (19.74%) Citrix
3 26 (17.11%) ServiceNow
4 17 (11.18%) Sage
5 11 (7.24%) Apple
6 10 (6.58%) VMware
7 8 (5.26%) Juniper
7 8 (5.26%) SolarWinds
8 7 (4.61%) Canon
8 7 (4.61%) Cisco
9 4 (2.63%) Dell
9 4 (2.63%) Google
10 3 (1.97%) HP
10 3 (1.97%) Remedy
10 3 (1.97%) SAP
10 3 (1.97%) Zscaler
11 2 (1.32%) ESET
11 2 (1.32%) McAfee
11 2 (1.32%) Okta
11 2 (1.32%) Symantec
218 2nd Line Support jobs Nationwide