2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends in the South East

Second Line Support
England > South East

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the South East is £263, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 September 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
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 123 156 141
Rank change year-on-year +33 -15 +27
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 39 25 75
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 1.12% 0.54% 1.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.24% 0.59% 1.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 22 54
10th Percentile £155 £181 £170
25th Percentile £188 £218 £185
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £263 £267 £200
Median % change year-on-year -1.77% +33.62% +3.23%
75th Percentile £269 £338 £250
90th Percentile £338 £428 £315
England median daily rate £210 £203 £200
% change year-on-year +3.70% +1.25% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 2
10th Percentile £21.61 - £19.40
25th Percentile £25.72 £22.25 £20.75
Median hourly rate £28.00 £24.50 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% - +22.50%
75th Percentile £28.50 £26.75 £29.25
90th Percentile £29.40 - £31.20
England median hourly rate £24.00 £23.99 £20.00
% change year-on-year +0.04% +19.95% -16.35%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 South East with a recognized job title 3,146 4,253 5,305
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.14% 92.30% 94.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,032 2,533 3,589
10th Percentile £204 £245 £212
25th Percentile £363 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -
75th Percentile £598 £625 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £508 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 278 312 250
10th Percentile £13.43 £16.03 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £30.41 £21.05
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.43 £50.71
Median % change year-on-year -56.20% +13.24% +111.29%
75th Percentile £57.50 £75.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £71.95 £80.00 £75.67
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £45.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% +2.62% +73.08%

2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Support in the South East

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Support job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Support job vacancies in the South East

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Support in the South East over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the South East

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Support job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 2nd Line Support job vacancies in the South East

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Support in the South East over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the South East

2nd Line Support
Contract Job Locations in the South East

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 South East region over the 6 months to 19 September 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
Hampshire +21 17 £263 -12.50% 9
Surrey +4 9 £215 -16.83% 6
Kent - 7 £263 - 6
Thames Valley +10 5 £148 -63.53% 8
Berkshire +18 4 £129 -31.30% 2
West Sussex -3 1 £213 +41.67% 6
Oxfordshire - 1 £190 - 3
2nd Line Support
England

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 19 September 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 South East region featuring 2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 22 (56.41%) Microsoft
2 18 (46.15%) Active Directory
3 17 (43.59%) Windows
4 16 (41.03%) Finance
5 13 (33.33%) ServiceNow
5 13 (33.33%) Social Skills
5 13 (33.33%) Security Cleared
6 12 (30.77%) SCCM
6 12 (30.77%) Sage
6 12 (30.77%) Citrix
6 12 (30.77%) Microsoft 365
6 12 (30.77%) WebEx
6 12 (30.77%) Mobile Device Management
7 11 (28.21%) ITIL
8 8 (20.51%) Public Sector
8 8 (20.51%) Service Management
9 7 (17.95%) SCOM
9 7 (17.95%) SolarWinds
9 7 (17.95%) ITSM
9 7 (17.95%) Problem-Solving
10 6 (15.38%) Customer Service
10 6 (15.38%) Windows 10
10 6 (15.38%) DV Cleared
11 5 (12.82%) SC Cleared
11 5 (12.82%) Degree
11 5 (12.82%) Microsoft Office
11 5 (12.82%) Microsoft Exchange
11 5 (12.82%) Patch Management
12 4 (10.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 4 (10.26%) SAP

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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 5 (12.82%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (12.82%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 12 (30.77%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 12 (30.77%) WebEx
2 1 (2.56%) DHCP
2 1 (2.56%) DNS
2 1 (2.56%) Softphone
2 1 (2.56%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 1 (2.56%) JIRA
General
1 16 (41.03%) Finance
2 13 (33.33%) Social Skills
3 8 (20.51%) Public Sector
4 4 (10.26%) Electronics
4 4 (10.26%) Manufacturing
4 4 (10.26%) Marketing
4 4 (10.26%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 1 (2.56%) Driving Licence
1 1 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
1 1 (2.56%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 17 (43.59%) Windows
2 6 (15.38%) Windows 10
3 2 (5.13%) Apple iOS
4 1 (2.56%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (30.77%) Mobile Device Management
2 11 (28.21%) ITIL
3 8 (20.51%) Service Management
4 7 (17.95%) ITSM
4 7 (17.95%) Problem-Solving
5 6 (15.38%) Customer Service
6 5 (12.82%) Patch Management
7 4 (10.26%) Business Intelligence
7 4 (10.26%) Digital Marketing
7 4 (10.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 4 (10.26%) Migration
7 4 (10.26%) Programme Management
7 4 (10.26%) Workflow
7 4 (10.26%) Workflow Management
8 3 (7.69%) Incident Management
9 2 (5.13%) Service Delivery
10 1 (2.56%) Data Management
10 1 (2.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 1 (2.56%) Time Management
10 1 (2.56%) Trend Analysis
Programming Languages
1 1 (2.56%) PowerShell
1 1 (2.56%) SQL
Qualifications
1 13 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 6 (15.38%) DV Cleared
3 5 (12.82%) Degree
3 5 (12.82%) SC Cleared
4 2 (5.13%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (2.56%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (5.13%) SLA
2 1 (2.56%) Accessibility
System Software
1 18 (46.15%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 12 (30.77%) SCCM
2 7 (17.95%) SCOM
3 3 (7.69%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 22 (56.41%) Microsoft
2 13 (33.33%) ServiceNow
3 12 (30.77%) Citrix
3 12 (30.77%) Sage
4 7 (17.95%) SolarWinds
5 4 (10.26%) SAP
6 2 (5.13%) Apple
7 1 (2.56%) IBM