2nd Line Desktop Support Contracts in the UK excluding London

Second Line Desktop Support
UK > UK excluding London

The median Second Line Desktop Support daily rate in the UK excluding London is £195, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 July 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
15 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 338 375 399
Rank change year-on-year +37 +24 +43
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Desktop Support 28 16 39
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.19% 0.077% 0.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.084% 0.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 15 27
10th Percentile £150 £172 £173
25th Percentile £159 £185 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £195 £205
Median % change year-on-year - -4.96% +2.59%
75th Percentile £223 £229 £230
90th Percentile - £280 £250
UK median daily rate £195 £190 £205
% change year-on-year +2.63% -7.36% -3.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £18.50
Median hourly rate - - £19.00
75th Percentile - - £19.50
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £24.66 - £21.25
% change year-on-year - - +18.06%

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 13,456 19,132 22,070
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.83% 92.32% 94.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,291 11,526 15,163
10th Percentile £220 £213 £232
25th Percentile £363 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £575 £596 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +0.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,123 2,331 1,195
10th Percentile £13.50 £12.86 £13.53
25th Percentile £16.95 £16.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% +6.67% +78.57%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.44 £75.94
UK median hourly rate £26.45 £40.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -33.88% -5.88% +65.50%

2nd Line Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Desktop Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Daily rate trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Desktop Support in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 15 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Desktop Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Hourly rate trend for 2nd Line Desktop Support in the UK excluding London

2nd Line Desktop 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 2nd Line Desktop Support within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 15 July 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 +2 11 £195 -2.50% 1
South East +48 8 £215 -38.57% 3
North West +9 5 - -
North East - 4 £195 -
South West +34 2 £181 -4.61% 3
Yorkshire +1 2 £126 -36.20% 1
East Midlands - 2 £165 -
Midlands - 2 £165 -
Wales - 2 £246 -
Northern Ireland -9 1 £165 -
Scotland - 1 £168 -
East of England - 1 £250 -
2nd Line Desktop Support
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 July 2025, 2nd Line Desktop 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 2nd Line Desktop Support in the job title.

1 22 (78.57%) Windows
2 18 (64.29%) Microsoft
3 16 (57.14%) Active Directory
4 15 (53.57%) ITIL
5 14 (50.00%) Microsoft Office
5 14 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (50.00%) Social Skills
6 11 (39.29%) Microsoft Exchange
6 11 (39.29%) Service Management
7 10 (35.71%) Manufacturing
7 10 (35.71%) Degree
7 10 (35.71%) Patch Management
8 7 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
8 7 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
8 7 (25.00%) Windows 10
8 7 (25.00%) Time Management
9 6 (21.43%) SC Cleared
9 6 (21.43%) Security Cleared
9 6 (21.43%) Asset Management
9 6 (21.43%) Migration
9 6 (21.43%) Telecoms
9 6 (21.43%) LAN
9 6 (21.43%) VPN
9 6 (21.43%) SCCM
9 6 (21.43%) Public Sector
10 5 (17.86%) Project Delivery
10 5 (17.86%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (17.86%) Business Case
10 5 (17.86%) Presentation Skills
10 5 (17.86%) Documentation Skills

2nd Line Desktop 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 11 (39.29%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (50.00%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (17.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (17.86%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (3.57%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 14 (50.00%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (3.57%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 6 (21.43%) LAN
1 6 (21.43%) VPN
2 1 (3.57%) VoIP
2 1 (3.57%) WAN
2 1 (3.57%) Wi-Fi
General
1 14 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 10 (35.71%) Manufacturing
3 7 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (21.43%) Public Sector
4 6 (21.43%) Telecoms
5 5 (17.86%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (17.86%) Electronics
5 5 (17.86%) Finance
5 5 (17.86%) Marketing
5 5 (17.86%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (7.14%) Banking
Miscellaneous
1 5 (17.86%) Management Information System
2 2 (7.14%) iPhone
3 1 (3.57%) Client/Server
3 1 (3.57%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (3.57%) Driving Licence
3 1 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (3.57%) Smartphone
3 1 (3.57%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 22 (78.57%) Windows
2 7 (25.00%) Windows 10
3 5 (17.86%) Apple iOS
3 5 (17.86%) Windows 8
3 5 (17.86%) Windows Server
3 5 (17.86%) Windows Server 2003
3 5 (17.86%) Windows Server 2008
3 5 (17.86%) Windows Server 2012
3 5 (17.86%) Windows Server 2016
3 5 (17.86%) Windows XP
4 2 (7.14%) Android
5 1 (3.57%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (53.57%) ITIL
2 11 (39.29%) Service Management
3 10 (35.71%) Patch Management
4 7 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (25.00%) Time Management
5 6 (21.43%) Asset Management
5 6 (21.43%) Migration
6 5 (17.86%) Business Case
6 5 (17.86%) Business Intelligence
6 5 (17.86%) Digital Marketing
6 5 (17.86%) Infrastructure Monitoring
6 5 (17.86%) Mentoring
6 5 (17.86%) Proactive Maintenance
6 5 (17.86%) Programme Management
6 5 (17.86%) Project Delivery
6 5 (17.86%) Technical Analysis
6 5 (17.86%) Workflow
6 5 (17.86%) Workflow Management
7 4 (14.29%) Customer Service
8 2 (7.14%) Coaching
Qualifications
1 10 (35.71%) Degree
2 6 (21.43%) SC Cleared
2 6 (21.43%) Security Cleared
3 5 (17.86%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (7.14%) QA
2 1 (3.57%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (57.14%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 6 (21.43%) SCCM
2 1 (3.57%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 18 (64.29%) Microsoft
2 5 (17.86%) Canon
2 5 (17.86%) SAP
3 4 (14.29%) Apple
4 3 (10.71%) Citrix
5 1 (3.57%) Cisco
5 1 (3.57%) Remedy
5 1 (3.57%) ServiceNow