2nd Line Support Contracts in the UK excluding London

Second Line Support
UK > UK excluding London

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the UK excluding London is £210, 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 220 236 221
Rank change year-on-year +16 -15 -49
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 116 166 271
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.91% 0.80% 1.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.99% 0.86% 1.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 117 186
10th Percentile £160 £147 £160
25th Percentile £188 £180 £181
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £200 £204
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% +13.33%
75th Percentile £250 £230 £265
90th Percentile £298 £289 £350
UK median daily rate £221 £200 £210
% change year-on-year +10.38% -4.76% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 17 17
10th Percentile £18.46 £14.27 £17.00
25th Percentile £22.50 £17.25 £17.25
Median hourly rate £27.75 £17.72 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +56.60% -11.40% +11.11%
75th Percentile £29.00 £17.75 £26.00
90th Percentile £41.25 £20.37 £32.10
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £17.72 £20.21
% change year-on-year +55.19% -12.32% +2.69%

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 11,767 19,240 22,667
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.63% 94.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,552 11,748 15,893
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £595
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 829 2,243 1,165
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £13.45
25th Percentile £17.61 £15.75 £18.09
Median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%
75th Percentile £64.50 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Support in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

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

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 2nd Line Support within the UK excluding London 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
South East +52 36 £216 +8.13% 35
Midlands -10 29 £200 - 14
North of England +12 26 £195 +2.63% 12
West Midlands -12 20 £210 +5.00% 8
North West +14 13 £210 +11.26% 6
Yorkshire +3 10 £161 -15.53% 5
East Midlands +4 9 £200 -4.76% 6
East of England +30 7 £225 -3.23% 5
Scotland +9 6 £190 - 2
Wales +6 6 £200 +48.15%
South West +28 4 £225 +18.42% 19
North East +1 3 £195 - 2
Northern Ireland -8 2 - -
2nd Line Support
UK

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

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 UK excluding London region featuring 2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 71 (61.21%) Windows
2 62 (53.45%) Active Directory
3 56 (48.28%) Microsoft 365
4 53 (45.69%) Microsoft
5 39 (33.62%) Social Skills
6 35 (30.17%) Problem-Solving
6 35 (30.17%) Windows 10
7 31 (26.72%) ITIL
8 24 (20.69%) Customer Service
8 24 (20.69%) VPN
9 23 (19.83%) Microsoft Office
10 22 (18.97%) Security Cleared
11 21 (18.10%) Azure
12 19 (16.38%) Citrix
13 17 (14.66%) SC Cleared
13 17 (14.66%) ServiceNow
14 16 (13.79%) Analytical Skills
14 16 (13.79%) Microsoft Intune
14 16 (13.79%) Microsoft Exchange
15 15 (12.93%) Finance
15 15 (12.93%) Degree
15 15 (12.93%) Public Sector
16 14 (12.07%) SCCM
17 12 (10.34%) Mobile Device Management
17 12 (10.34%) Service Management
17 12 (10.34%) Service Delivery
17 12 (10.34%) WAN
17 12 (10.34%) SharePoint
18 11 (9.48%) Firewall
18 11 (9.48%) Incident Management

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 16 (13.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (10.34%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.86%) Exchange Server 2003
3 1 (0.86%) Exchange Server 2007
3 1 (0.86%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 23 (19.83%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (4.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (4.31%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.86%) Adobe Creative Suite
Cloud Services
1 56 (48.28%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (18.10%) Azure
3 8 (6.90%) Entra ID
3 8 (6.90%) OneDrive
4 1 (0.86%) WhatsApp
4 1 (0.86%) Yammer
Communications & Networking
1 24 (20.69%) VPN
2 12 (10.34%) WAN
3 11 (9.48%) Firewall
4 9 (7.76%) BGP
4 9 (7.76%) IPsec
4 9 (7.76%) MPLS
5 8 (6.90%) LAN
5 8 (6.90%) WebEx
6 6 (5.17%) Remote Desktop
7 5 (4.31%) TCP/IP
8 4 (3.45%) DHCP
8 4 (3.45%) DNS
8 4 (3.45%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (2.59%) Softphone
9 3 (2.59%) VoIP
10 2 (1.72%) Cisco Firepower
10 2 (1.72%) NetScaler
10 2 (1.72%) VLAN
11 1 (0.86%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.72%) SQL Server
General
1 39 (33.62%) Social Skills
2 16 (13.79%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (12.93%) Finance
3 15 (12.93%) Public Sector
4 9 (7.76%) Manufacturing
5 6 (5.17%) Banking
6 5 (4.31%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (4.31%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (4.31%) Telecoms
7 4 (3.45%) Electronics
7 4 (3.45%) Legal
7 4 (3.45%) Marketing
8 2 (1.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.86%) Aerospace
Miscellaneous
1 9 (7.76%) PKI
2 8 (6.90%) Driving Licence
3 6 (5.17%) Management Information System
4 5 (4.31%) iPhone
4 5 (4.31%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (3.45%) Data Centre
6 3 (2.59%) BYOD
6 3 (2.59%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.72%) iPad
7 2 (1.72%) Smartphone
8 1 (0.86%) Client/Server
8 1 (0.86%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.86%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 71 (61.21%) Windows
2 35 (30.17%) Windows 10
3 8 (6.90%) Apple iOS
3 8 (6.90%) Windows Server
4 6 (5.17%) Windows Server 2003
4 6 (5.17%) Windows Server 2008
4 6 (5.17%) Windows Server 2012
4 6 (5.17%) Windows XP
5 5 (4.31%) Windows 8
5 5 (4.31%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (3.45%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.72%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.72%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.86%) Android
8 1 (0.86%) Windows Vista
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (30.17%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (26.72%) ITIL
3 24 (20.69%) Customer Service
4 12 (10.34%) Mobile Device Management
4 12 (10.34%) Service Delivery
4 12 (10.34%) Service Management
5 11 (9.48%) Incident Management
6 9 (7.76%) Asset Management
7 8 (6.90%) ITSM
7 8 (6.90%) Patch Management
8 7 (6.03%) Time Management
9 6 (5.17%) Coaching
9 6 (5.17%) Mentoring
10 5 (4.31%) Break/Fix
10 5 (4.31%) Business Case
10 5 (4.31%) Infrastructure Monitoring
10 5 (4.31%) Load Balancing
10 5 (4.31%) Proactive Maintenance
10 5 (4.31%) Project Delivery
10 5 (4.31%) Technical Analysis
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.86%) SQL
Qualifications
1 22 (18.97%) Security Cleared
2 17 (14.66%) SC Cleared
3 15 (12.93%) Degree
4 9 (7.76%) Microsoft Certification
5 8 (6.90%) A+ Certification
5 8 (6.90%) DBS Check
6 4 (3.45%) ITIL Certification
6 4 (3.45%) Network+ Certification
7 2 (1.72%) DV Cleared
7 2 (1.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (1.72%) MCP
8 1 (0.86%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (6.90%) SLA
2 2 (1.72%) QA
3 1 (0.86%) Accessibility
System Software
1 62 (53.45%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.86%) Terminal Services
3 1 (0.86%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.86%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 16 (13.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (12.07%) SCCM
3 4 (3.45%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.86%) AppManager
4 1 (0.86%) Sysprep
Vendors
1 53 (45.69%) Microsoft
2 19 (16.38%) Citrix
3 17 (14.66%) ServiceNow
4 9 (7.76%) Juniper
5 8 (6.90%) Sage
6 6 (5.17%) Apple
6 6 (5.17%) VMware
7 5 (4.31%) Canon
7 5 (4.31%) SAP
8 4 (3.45%) Cisco
9 2 (1.72%) Dell
9 2 (1.72%) Google
10 1 (0.86%) Adobe
10 1 (0.86%) HP
10 1 (0.86%) IBM
10 1 (0.86%) Ivanti
10 1 (0.86%) ZyXEL