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 25 December 2025.

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

 6 months to
25 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 377 363 274
Rank change year-on-year -14 -89 +63
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 180 152 301
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.57% 0.53% 0.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.62% 0.57% 0.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 116 203
10th Percentile £154 £150 £133
25th Percentile £163 £182 £166
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £190 £220 £200
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +10.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £222 £288 £238
90th Percentile £288 £430 £290
UK median daily rate £190 £214 £200
% change year-on-year -11.11% +6.88% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 11 25
10th Percentile - £21.00 £15.60
25th Percentile £15.50 £21.05 £17.72
Median hourly rate £18.87 £24.18 £19.12
Median % change year-on-year -21.96% +26.46% -13.09%
75th Percentile £24.58 £29.00 £21.50
90th Percentile £29.86 £31.12 £24.68
UK median hourly rate £19.85 £23.80 £19.12
% change year-on-year -16.60% +24.48% -13.09%

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 28,956 26,703 34,238
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.32% 92.91% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,454 16,603 23,422
10th Percentile £295 £300 £283
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £528
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% -0.47% -4.09%
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 1,777 840 1,400
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.75 £15.16
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.25 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.30 £35.50 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -25.92% -22.62% +41.17%
75th Percentile £60.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.20 £74.47 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.20 £33.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -23.64% -26.67% +45.77%

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 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 25 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 25 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 -14 65 £175 -10.26% 14
London -15 47 £193 -23.00% 8
North West -16 33 £175 -6.67% 6
Midlands -33 29 £180 -10.00% 6
Yorkshire -22 25 £205 +5.13% 8
West Midlands -30 19 £200 - 4
South East -35 19 £185 -20.81% 42
East of England -13 11 - - 13
East Midlands -15 10 £158 -21.25% 2
South West -19 9 £275 +28.21% 8
North East -1 7 £175 +7.69% 1
2nd Line Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 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.

1 114 (63.33%) Windows
2 99 (55.00%) Microsoft 365
3 71 (39.44%) Microsoft
4 64 (35.56%) Active Directory
5 60 (33.33%) Microsoft Office
6 45 (25.00%) Customer Service
7 44 (24.44%) Windows 10
8 43 (23.89%) ITIL
8 43 (23.89%) Security Cleared
9 42 (23.33%) Android
10 38 (21.11%) SC Cleared
11 36 (20.00%) Entra ID
12 34 (18.89%) Azure
13 33 (18.33%) Service Management
14 30 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
15 29 (16.11%) Business Intelligence
15 29 (16.11%) SAP
15 29 (16.11%) Service Delivery
15 29 (16.11%) Wireless
16 28 (15.56%) Apple
16 28 (15.56%) Digital Marketing
16 28 (15.56%) Programme Management
17 27 (15.00%) Mac OS
17 27 (15.00%) SharePoint
18 26 (14.44%) Cisco
18 26 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
19 25 (13.89%) DHCP
19 25 (13.89%) DNS
19 25 (13.89%) VPN
19 25 (13.89%) Windows Server

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 27 (15.00%) SharePoint
2 19 (10.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (2.78%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 60 (33.33%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (1.67%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.56%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 99 (55.00%) Microsoft 365
2 36 (20.00%) Entra ID
3 34 (18.89%) 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 25 (13.89%) DHCP
2 25 (13.89%) DNS
2 25 (13.89%) VPN
3 21 (11.67%) TCP/IP
4 20 (11.11%) WAN
5 16 (8.89%) LAN
6 9 (5.00%) Firewall
7 6 (3.33%) Network Security
7 6 (3.33%) PABX
7 6 (3.33%) Structured Cabling
7 6 (3.33%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (2.22%) BGP
8 4 (2.22%) IPsec
8 4 (2.22%) MPLS
9 3 (1.67%) VoIP
10 2 (1.11%) VLAN
11 1 (0.56%) Broadband
11 1 (0.56%) Remote Desktop
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 68 (37.78%) Social Skills
2 37 (20.56%) Public Sector
3 35 (19.44%) Finance
4 33 (18.33%) Manufacturing
5 29 (16.11%) Telecoms
6 28 (15.56%) Electronics
6 28 (15.56%) Marketing
7 9 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (5.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (2.78%) Organisational Skills
9 3 (1.67%) Banking
10 2 (1.11%) Law
10 2 (1.11%) Legal
10 2 (1.11%) Retail
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 13 (7.22%) Driving Licence
3 9 (5.00%) Onboarding
3 9 (5.00%) Smartphone
4 8 (4.44%) Management Information System
5 7 (3.89%) NHS
6 6 (3.33%) CMDB
6 6 (3.33%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (3.33%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 4 (2.22%) PKI
8 3 (1.67%) iPhone
8 3 (1.67%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.56%) CCTV
10 1 (0.56%) Hedge funds
10 1 (0.56%) Replication
10 1 (0.56%) Smartcard
10 1 (0.56%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 114 (63.33%) Windows
2 44 (24.44%) Windows 10
3 42 (23.33%) Android
4 27 (15.00%) Mac OS
5 25 (13.89%) Windows Server
6 16 (8.89%) Apple iOS
7 8 (4.44%) Linux
8 7 (3.89%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (3.33%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (25.00%) Customer Service
2 43 (23.89%) ITIL
3 33 (18.33%) Service Management
4 29 (16.11%) Business Intelligence
4 29 (16.11%) Service Delivery
5 28 (15.56%) Digital Marketing
5 28 (15.56%) Programme Management
6 26 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
7 14 (7.78%) ITSM
8 9 (5.00%) Asset Management
8 9 (5.00%) Customer Experience
8 9 (5.00%) Migration
9 8 (4.44%) Network Management
10 7 (3.89%) Workflow
11 6 (3.33%) Change Management
11 6 (3.33%) Continuous Improvement
11 6 (3.33%) Incident Management
11 6 (3.33%) Mobile Device Management
11 6 (3.33%) Network Monitoring
11 6 (3.33%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (4.44%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.56%) SQL
Qualifications
1 43 (23.89%) Security Cleared
2 38 (21.11%) SC Cleared
3 12 (6.67%) Degree
4 9 (5.00%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (3.33%) ECDL
5 6 (3.33%) MCP
6 5 (2.78%) MCDST
7 2 (1.11%) DBS Check
7 2 (1.11%) MCSE
8 1 (0.56%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.56%) CCNA
8 1 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.56%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.56%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.56%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (0.56%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.56%) SLA
2 2 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 64 (35.56%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
3 1 (0.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.56%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 30 (16.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (10.00%) SCCM
3 2 (1.11%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.56%) SCOM
Vendors
1 71 (39.44%) Microsoft
2 29 (16.11%) SAP
3 28 (15.56%) Apple
4 26 (14.44%) Cisco
5 23 (12.78%) Dell
5 23 (12.78%) HP
6 13 (7.22%) ServiceNow
7 7 (3.89%) Google
8 5 (2.78%) Citrix
8 5 (2.78%) iManage
8 5 (2.78%) Mitel
9 4 (2.22%) Juniper
10 3 (1.67%) Logitech
10 3 (1.67%) Meraki
10 3 (1.67%) Remedy
11 2 (1.11%) VMware
12 1 (0.56%) Ariba
12 1 (0.56%) SolarWinds
12 1 (0.56%) Sophos
12 1 (0.56%) WatchGuard
86 2nd Line Support jobs in England