2nd Line Support Contracts in the North of England

Second Line Support
England > North of England

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the North of England is £195, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 140 152 178
Rank change year-on-year +12 +26 -57
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 26 33 42
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North of England 0.79% 0.69% 0.72%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.84% 0.74% 0.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 29 26
10th Percentile £137 £122 £146
25th Percentile £169 £181 £178
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £190 £200
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% +19.40%
75th Percentile £219 £203 £241
90th Percentile £250 £234 £288
England median daily rate £225 £200 £223
% change year-on-year +12.50% -10.11% +17.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 6
10th Percentile - - £15.88
25th Percentile £18.10 - £18.13
Median hourly rate £18.35 £17.72 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% -11.40% +17.65%
75th Percentile £21.13 - £25.13
90th Percentile £25.85 - £29.88
England median hourly rate £28.00 £17.72 £20.42
% change year-on-year +58.01% -13.22% +2.10%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
North of England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the North of 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 the North of England with a recognized job title 3,078 4,441 5,553
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.41% 93.14% 95.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,038 2,789 3,920
10th Percentile £230 £263 £285
25th Percentile £364 £385 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.29% -4.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £580 £600
90th Percentile £646 £673 £680
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 394 162
10th Percentile £12.86 £11.02 £13.96
25th Percentile £16.16 £12.53 £18.82
Median hourly rate £24.50 £19.34 £30.54
Median % change year-on-year +26.68% -36.67% +65.08%
75th Percentile £49.38 £45.97 £49.40
90th Percentile £80.22 £60.00 £65.68
England median hourly rate £30.62 £36.31 £45.00
% change year-on-year -15.67% -19.32% +100.00%

2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Support in the North of England

2nd Line Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

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

Daily rate trend for 2nd Line Support in the North of England

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Support in the North of England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the North of England

2nd Line Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

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

Hourly rate trend for 2nd Line Support in the North of England

2nd Line Support
Contract Job Locations in the North of 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 North of England region over the 6 months to 1 May 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 West +14 13 £210 +11.26% 7
Yorkshire +3 10 £161 -15.53% 5
North East +1 3 £195 - 2
2nd Line Support
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 May 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 North of England region featuring 2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 23 (88.46%) Windows
2 19 (73.08%) Active Directory
3 16 (61.54%) Microsoft
4 14 (53.85%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (53.85%) Social Skills
5 13 (50.00%) ITIL
6 11 (42.31%) Microsoft Office
7 10 (38.46%) Windows 10
8 9 (34.62%) Analytical Skills
9 8 (30.77%) Problem-Solving
9 8 (30.77%) Microsoft Certification
10 7 (26.92%) Service Management
10 7 (26.92%) SCCM
10 7 (26.92%) Time Management
10 7 (26.92%) Azure
11 6 (23.08%) Mentoring
11 6 (23.08%) Banking
11 6 (23.08%) Microsoft Exchange
11 6 (23.08%) VPN
11 6 (23.08%) Entra ID
12 5 (19.23%) Infrastructure Monitoring
12 5 (19.23%) Canon
12 5 (19.23%) Proactive Maintenance
12 5 (19.23%) Apple iOS
12 5 (19.23%) Windows Server
12 5 (19.23%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (19.23%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (19.23%) Project Delivery
12 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (19.23%) Business Case

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North of 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 6 (23.08%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 11 (42.31%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (19.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (19.23%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 14 (53.85%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (26.92%) Azure
3 6 (23.08%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 6 (23.08%) VPN
2 5 (19.23%) LAN
3 4 (15.38%) Firewall
4 2 (7.69%) TCP/IP
4 2 (7.69%) VoIP
5 1 (3.85%) DHCP
5 1 (3.85%) DNS
5 1 (3.85%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (7.69%) SQL Server
General
1 14 (53.85%) Social Skills
2 9 (34.62%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (23.08%) Banking
4 5 (19.23%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (19.23%) Manufacturing
4 5 (19.23%) Presentation Skills
5 2 (7.69%) Finance
6 1 (3.85%) Legal
6 1 (3.85%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 5 (19.23%) Management Information System
2 2 (7.69%) Driving Licence
3 1 (3.85%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (3.85%) iPhone
3 1 (3.85%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 23 (88.46%) Windows
2 10 (38.46%) Windows 10
3 5 (19.23%) Apple iOS
3 5 (19.23%) Windows 8
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2003
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2008
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2012
3 5 (19.23%) Windows Server 2016
3 5 (19.23%) Windows XP
4 2 (7.69%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (50.00%) ITIL
2 8 (30.77%) Problem-Solving
3 7 (26.92%) Service Management
3 7 (26.92%) Time Management
4 6 (23.08%) Mentoring
5 5 (19.23%) Asset Management
5 5 (19.23%) Business Case
5 5 (19.23%) Coaching
5 5 (19.23%) Infrastructure Monitoring
5 5 (19.23%) Proactive Maintenance
5 5 (19.23%) Project Delivery
5 5 (19.23%) Technical Analysis
6 4 (15.38%) Patch Management
7 3 (11.54%) Customer Service
7 3 (11.54%) ITSM
8 1 (3.85%) Data Protection
8 1 (3.85%) Identity Management
8 1 (3.85%) Incident Response
8 1 (3.85%) Multi-Factor Authentication
8 1 (3.85%) Service Delivery
Qualifications
1 8 (30.77%) Microsoft Certification
2 5 (19.23%) Degree
3 2 (7.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
3 2 (7.69%) Security Cleared
4 1 (3.85%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (7.69%) QA
2 1 (3.85%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (73.08%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (26.92%) SCCM
2 4 (15.38%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 16 (61.54%) Microsoft
2 5 (19.23%) Canon
3 4 (15.38%) Apple
3 4 (15.38%) Citrix
4 1 (3.85%) Dell
4 1 (3.85%) HP
4 1 (3.85%) SAP