2nd/3rd Line Support Contract Job Trends in England

2nd/3rd Line Support
UK > England

The median 2nd/3rd Line Support daily rate in England is £281, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 December 2025.

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

6 months to
7 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 538 501 548
Rank change year-on-year -37 +47 +158
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd/3rd Line Support 6 6 23
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.019% 0.020% 0.060%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.021% 0.021% 0.064%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 5 14
10th Percentile - £229 £206
25th Percentile £263 £243 £216
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £281 £375 £275
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +36.36% -9.76%
75th Percentile £358 £430 £319
90th Percentile £473 - £401
UK median daily rate £275 £375 £275
% change year-on-year -26.67% +36.36% -11.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £31.00 -
UK median hourly rate - £31.00 -

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 28,233 28,165 35,983
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 92.89% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,092 17,437 24,751
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £405 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -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 1,705 974 1,399
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.34 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.05 £19.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.25 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.48% -17.22% +36.36%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £74.42 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
% change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%

2nd/3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '2nd/3rd Line Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancy trend in England

2nd/3rd Line Support
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancies in England

2nd/3rd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd/3rd Line Support in England over the 6 months to 7 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd/3rd Line Support in England

2nd/3rd Line Support
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancies in England

2nd/3rd 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/3rd Line Support within the England region over the 6 months to 7 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
Midlands - 3 £275 - 1
West Midlands - 3 £275 -
London -5 2 £419 -0.30% 2
South West -12 1 - -
2nd/3rd Line Support
UK

2nd/3rd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 7 December 2025, 2nd/3rd 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/3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 4 (66.67%) Active Directory
1 4 (66.67%) Microsoft
1 4 (66.67%) Windows
2 3 (50.00%) Azure
2 3 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (50.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (50.00%) Migration
2 3 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 3 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 3 (50.00%) SQL Server
2 3 (50.00%) VMware
2 3 (50.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (50.00%) Windows 10
3 2 (33.33%) CheckPoint
3 2 (33.33%) Firewall
3 2 (33.33%) Hyper-V
3 2 (33.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (33.33%) SCCM
3 2 (33.33%) SCOM
3 2 (33.33%) vSphere
3 2 (33.33%) Windows Server
4 1 (16.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (16.67%) Adobe
4 1 (16.67%) AirWatch
4 1 (16.67%) Apple
4 1 (16.67%) Break/Fix
4 1 (16.67%) Cisco
4 1 (16.67%) DNS
4 1 (16.67%) DV Cleared
4 1 (16.67%) Entra ID

2nd/3rd 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 2 (33.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (16.67%) SharePoint
2 1 (16.67%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 1 (16.67%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 3 (50.00%) Azure
1 3 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (16.67%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 2 (33.33%) Firewall
2 1 (16.67%) DNS
2 1 (16.67%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (50.00%) SQL Server
General
1 1 (16.67%) Banking
1 1 (16.67%) Finance
1 1 (16.67%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 3 (50.00%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 4 (66.67%) Windows
2 3 (50.00%) Windows 10
3 2 (33.33%) Windows Server
4 1 (16.67%) Linux
4 1 (16.67%) Mac OS
4 1 (16.67%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (50.00%) Migration
2 1 (16.67%) Break/Fix
2 1 (16.67%) Incident Management
2 1 (16.67%) Service Management
2 1 (16.67%) Workflow
2 1 (16.67%) Workflow Management
Qualifications
1 3 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 3 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (16.67%) DV Cleared
2 1 (16.67%) Microsoft Certification
System Software
1 4 (66.67%) Active Directory
2 3 (50.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (33.33%) Hyper-V
3 2 (33.33%) vSphere
4 1 (16.67%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 3 (50.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (33.33%) SCCM
2 2 (33.33%) SCOM
3 1 (16.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (16.67%) AirWatch
3 1 (16.67%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (16.67%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 4 (66.67%) Microsoft
2 3 (50.00%) VMware
3 2 (33.33%) CheckPoint
4 1 (16.67%) Adobe
4 1 (16.67%) Apple
4 1 (16.67%) Cisco
4 1 (16.67%) SolarWinds
4 1 (16.67%) Veeam