2nd Line Desktop Support Contracts

Second Line Desktop Support
UK

The median Second Line Desktop Support daily rate in the UK is £195, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 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
8 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 497 555 617
Rank change year-on-year +58 +62 +120
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Desktop Support 32 32 77
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.11% 0.074% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.080% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 18 29 50
10th Percentile £139 £150 £177
25th Percentile £156 £155 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £195 £190 £208
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -8.47% +6.46%
75th Percentile £229 £208 £250
90th Percentile £250 £211 £300
UK excluding London median daily rate £195 £195 £204
% change year-on-year - -4.41% +7.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £22.50 - £22.75
Median hourly rate £23.00 - £23.50
75th Percentile £23.50 - £24.25
90th Percentile £24.20 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 26,930 40,005 55,472
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.50% 92.75% 94.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,553 26,036 38,744
10th Percentile £300 £280 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,045 2,664 1,555
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.86 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.25
Median hourly rate £28.75 £36.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.23% -18.89% +90.68%
75th Percentile £62.50 £61.30 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £76.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £40.00 £42.26
% change year-on-year -31.25% -5.35% +116.50%

2nd Line Desktop Support
Job Vacancy Trend

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

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

2nd Line Desktop Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

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

2nd Line Desktop Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Desktop Support over the 6 months to 8 May 2025.

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

2nd Line Desktop Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

2nd Line Desktop Support
Top 14 Contract Locations

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 over the 6 months to 8 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
England +69 28 £195 +2.63% 2
UK excluding London +56 25 £195 - 2
North of England +24 13 £195 -
London +48 7 £222 +38.44% 1
North West +16 6 £240 +96.72%
South East +41 5 £195 -4.88%
Yorkshire +5 4 £126 -36.20%
Work from Home +43 3 £261 +41.22%
North East -2 3 £195 -
Northern Ireland -9 2 - -
East Midlands - 2 £165 -
Midlands - 2 £165 - 1
Scotland - 2 - -
East of England - 1 £250 -

2nd Line Desktop Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 8 May 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 featuring 2nd Line Desktop Support in the job title.

1 29 (90.63%) Windows
2 20 (62.50%) Microsoft 365
2 20 (62.50%) Microsoft
3 19 (59.38%) Active Directory
4 13 (40.63%) ITIL
5 12 (37.50%) Windows 10
5 12 (37.50%) Social Skills
6 11 (34.38%) Microsoft Office
6 11 (34.38%) Manufacturing
7 9 (28.13%) Finance
7 9 (28.13%) Microsoft Exchange
7 9 (28.13%) Problem-Solving
8 8 (25.00%) VPN
8 8 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
8 8 (25.00%) SCCM
8 8 (25.00%) Time Management
9 7 (21.88%) Asset Management
9 7 (21.88%) Azure
9 7 (21.88%) Windows 8
9 7 (21.88%) Patch Management
9 7 (21.88%) Canon
9 7 (21.88%) Windows XP
9 7 (21.88%) Telecoms
9 7 (21.88%) Service Management
9 7 (21.88%) Degree
9 7 (21.88%) Customer Service
10 6 (18.75%) Public Sector
10 6 (18.75%) Programme Management
10 6 (18.75%) Electronics
10 6 (18.75%) SAP

2nd Line Desktop Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 9 (28.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (6.25%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (34.38%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (15.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (15.63%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 20 (62.50%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (21.88%) Azure
3 2 (6.25%) Google Workspace
4 1 (3.13%) AWS
4 1 (3.13%) Entra ID
4 1 (3.13%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 8 (25.00%) VPN
2 5 (15.63%) LAN
3 4 (12.50%) Firewall
4 2 (6.25%) DHCP
4 2 (6.25%) DNS
5 1 (3.13%) Network Security
5 1 (3.13%) Remote Desktop
5 1 (3.13%) VoIP
Development Applications
1 1 (3.13%) JIRA
General
1 12 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 11 (34.38%) Manufacturing
3 9 (28.13%) Finance
4 8 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (21.88%) Telecoms
6 6 (18.75%) Electronics
6 6 (18.75%) Marketing
6 6 (18.75%) Public Sector
7 5 (15.63%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (15.63%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (6.25%) Banking
9 1 (3.13%) Back Office
9 1 (3.13%) Organisational Skills
Miscellaneous
1 6 (18.75%) iPhone
2 5 (15.63%) Management Information System
3 2 (6.25%) BYOD
3 2 (6.25%) Driving Licence
4 1 (3.13%) Client/Server
4 1 (3.13%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (3.13%) Smartphone
4 1 (3.13%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 29 (90.63%) Windows
2 12 (37.50%) Windows 10
3 7 (21.88%) Windows 8
3 7 (21.88%) Windows XP
4 5 (15.63%) Windows Server
4 5 (15.63%) Windows Server 2003
4 5 (15.63%) Windows Server 2008
4 5 (15.63%) Windows Server 2012
4 5 (15.63%) Windows Server 2016
5 3 (9.38%) Apple iOS
6 2 (6.25%) Android
6 2 (6.25%) Mac OS X
6 2 (6.25%) Windows 7
7 1 (3.13%) Linux
7 1 (3.13%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (40.63%) ITIL
2 9 (28.13%) Problem-Solving
3 8 (25.00%) Time Management
4 7 (21.88%) Asset Management
4 7 (21.88%) Customer Service
4 7 (21.88%) Patch Management
4 7 (21.88%) Service Management
5 6 (18.75%) Business Intelligence
5 6 (18.75%) Digital Marketing
5 6 (18.75%) Programme Management
6 5 (15.63%) Business Case
6 5 (15.63%) Infrastructure Monitoring
6 5 (15.63%) Mentoring
6 5 (15.63%) Proactive Maintenance
6 5 (15.63%) Project Delivery
6 5 (15.63%) Technical Analysis
7 2 (6.25%) Coaching
7 2 (6.25%) Network Monitoring
7 2 (6.25%) Server Management
8 1 (3.13%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 2 (6.25%) SQL
2 1 (3.13%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 7 (21.88%) Degree
2 6 (18.75%) Microsoft Certification
3 4 (12.50%) DBS Check
4 1 (3.13%) A+ Certification
4 1 (3.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
4 1 (3.13%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (6.25%) QA
1 2 (6.25%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (59.38%) Active Directory
2 2 (6.25%) vSphere
2 2 (6.25%) XenApp
3 1 (3.13%) Hyper-V
3 1 (3.13%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (25.00%) SCCM
2 6 (18.75%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (6.25%) McAfee ePO
3 2 (6.25%) Norton AntiVirus
Vendors
1 20 (62.50%) Microsoft
2 7 (21.88%) Canon
3 6 (18.75%) SAP
4 5 (15.63%) Citrix
4 5 (15.63%) ServiceNow
5 3 (9.38%) Apple
5 3 (9.38%) Cisco
5 3 (9.38%) Dell
5 3 (9.38%) Google
5 3 (9.38%) HP
5 3 (9.38%) VMware
6 2 (6.25%) Adobe
6 2 (6.25%) Draytek
6 2 (6.25%) McAfee
6 2 (6.25%) Sage
6 2 (6.25%) Symantec
6 2 (6.25%) Toshiba
6 2 (6.25%) WatchGuard
6 2 (6.25%) Webroot
6 2 (6.25%) Wyse