1st/2nd Line Support Contracts in the UK excluding London

1st/2nd Line Support
UK > UK excluding London

The median 1st/2nd Line Support daily rate in the UK excluding London is £180, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 June 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
22 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 337 354 381
Rank change year-on-year +17 +27 +18
Contract jobs requiring a 1st/2nd Line Support 18 44 57
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.13% 0.20% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.15% 0.22% 0.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 38 40
10th Percentile £130 £168 £137
25th Percentile £150 £182 £168
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £180 £200 £190
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% +11.76%
75th Percentile £227 £213 £220
90th Percentile £306 £241 £253
UK median daily rate £196 £195 £194
% change year-on-year +0.64% +0.65% +10.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 6
10th Percentile £19.12 £17.83 £15.93
25th Percentile £20.04 £18.00 £17.31
Median hourly rate £21.58 £18.27 £18.75
Median % change year-on-year +18.12% -2.56% +4.17%
75th Percentile £23.12 £22.51 £20.00
90th Percentile £24.04 £25.05 £20.75
UK median hourly rate £24.00 £21.23 £18.75
% change year-on-year +13.07% +13.20% +4.17%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 12,351 19,848 21,518
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.38% 92.45% 94.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,722 11,791 14,900
10th Percentile £220 £213 £230
25th Percentile £363 £363 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.65% -1.40% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 960 2,571 1,111
10th Percentile £13.50 £12.70 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.84 £16.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -1.23% +102.50%
75th Percentile £58.70 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.37 £75.50
UK median hourly rate £27.35 £37.50 £44.00
% change year-on-year -27.07% -14.77% +76.00%

1st/2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured 1st/2nd Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London

1st/2nd Line Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London

1st/2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London

1st/2nd Line Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London

1st/2nd Line Support
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 1st/2nd Line Support within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 22 June 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 +53 6 £203 - 2
Midlands -1 6 £165 -17.50% 1
West Midlands 0 4 £213 +6.25%
South West +37 3 £190 - 4
North of England +6 2 £155 -18.42% 6
East Midlands +4 2 £165 -17.50% 1
East of England +20 1 £180 -15.29% 1
Yorkshire +6 1 - - 1
North West +4 1 £155 -24.39% 5
1st/2nd Line Support
UK

1st/2nd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 22 June 2025, 1st/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 UK excluding London region featuring 1st/2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 8 (44.44%) Microsoft 365
1 8 (44.44%) Windows
2 7 (38.89%) Microsoft
2 7 (38.89%) Active Directory
2 7 (38.89%) Social Skills
3 6 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
3 6 (33.33%) Windows 10
3 6 (33.33%) VPN
4 5 (27.78%) ITIL
5 4 (22.22%) Security Cleared
5 4 (22.22%) WAN
6 3 (16.67%) Cisco
6 3 (16.67%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (16.67%) SC Cleared
6 3 (16.67%) Service Delivery
6 3 (16.67%) Driving Licence
6 3 (16.67%) Customer Service
7 2 (11.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (11.11%) Cisco Firepower
7 2 (11.11%) Public Sector
7 2 (11.11%) ITSM
7 2 (11.11%) Mac OS
7 2 (11.11%) PKI
7 2 (11.11%) Azure
7 2 (11.11%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (11.11%) IPsec
7 2 (11.11%) A+ Certification
7 2 (11.11%) Juniper
7 2 (11.11%) MPLS
7 2 (11.11%) BGP

1st/2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 2 (11.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (5.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (5.56%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 8 (44.44%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (11.11%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 6 (33.33%) VPN
2 4 (22.22%) WAN
3 3 (16.67%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (11.11%) BGP
4 2 (11.11%) Cisco Firepower
4 2 (11.11%) IPsec
4 2 (11.11%) LAN
4 2 (11.11%) MPLS
5 1 (5.56%) DHCP
5 1 (5.56%) DNS
General
1 7 (38.89%) Social Skills
2 2 (11.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 2 (11.11%) Public Sector
3 1 (5.56%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 3 (16.67%) Driving Licence
2 2 (11.11%) PKI
3 1 (5.56%) Cloud Native
3 1 (5.56%) iPhone
3 1 (5.56%) Smartphone
3 1 (5.56%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 8 (44.44%) Windows
2 6 (33.33%) Windows 10
3 2 (11.11%) Mac OS
4 1 (5.56%) Android
4 1 (5.56%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 5 (27.78%) ITIL
3 3 (16.67%) Customer Service
3 3 (16.67%) Service Delivery
4 2 (11.11%) ITSM
5 1 (5.56%) Biotechnology
5 1 (5.56%) Collaborative Working
5 1 (5.56%) Data Management
5 1 (5.56%) High Availability
5 1 (5.56%) Information Governance
5 1 (5.56%) Mobile Device Management
Qualifications
1 4 (22.22%) Security Cleared
2 3 (16.67%) SC Cleared
3 2 (11.11%) A+ Certification
4 1 (5.56%) DBS Check
4 1 (5.56%) IBM Certification
4 1 (5.56%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (5.56%) SLA
System Software
1 7 (38.89%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (11.11%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 7 (38.89%) Microsoft
2 3 (16.67%) Cisco
3 2 (11.11%) Citrix
3 2 (11.11%) Juniper
4 1 (5.56%) Apple
4 1 (5.56%) Google
4 1 (5.56%) IBM
4 1 (5.56%) ServiceNow
4 1 (5.56%) VMware