2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends

Second Line Support
UK

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the UK is £210, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 July 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 490 382 383
Rank change year-on-year -108 +1 -34
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 174 170 212
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.52% 0.51%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.57% 0.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 118 168
10th Percentile £165 £154 £141
25th Percentile £185 £185 £164
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £215 £198
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% +8.86% -1.25%
75th Percentile £240 £269 £255
90th Percentile £314 £303 £338
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £205 £195
% change year-on-year -2.44% +5.13% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 26 16
10th Percentile £12.95 £16.84 £14.27
25th Percentile £13.51 £18.10 £17.25
Median hourly rate £16.50 £24.00 £18.17
Median % change year-on-year -31.25% +32.10% -9.16%
75th Percentile £18.75 £27.61 £23.90
90th Percentile £20.25 £28.54 £25.47
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.24 £18.87 £17.72
% change year-on-year -19.24% +6.49% -6.74%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 48,848 30,065 38,836
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 91.66% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,490 19,139 25,111
10th Percentile £325 £285 £291
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £737 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,297 1,430 2,509
10th Percentile £15.79 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £17.80
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.94
% change year-on-year +78.93% -38.57% +3.51%

2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '2nd Line Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

2nd Line Support job vacancy trend in the UK

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Support over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the UK

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Support over the 6 months to 20 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the UK

2nd Line Support
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 20 July 2026. 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 -97 158 £210 -2.33% 59
UK excluding London -108 126 £200 -2.44% 52
London -64 47 £230 -7.90% 12
South East -75 41 £210 -2.33% 20
North of England -60 38 £200 +2.56% 8
Work from Home -21 36 £200 -11.11% 13
Yorkshire -32 26 £200 +58.73% 7
Midlands -50 18 £230 +15.00% 8
North West -48 11 £245 +22.50% 1
West Midlands -64 10 £230 -16.36% 4
Wales -8 9 £138 -44.16%
East Midlands -17 8 - - 4
South West -34 8 - - 8
Scotland -17 7 - -
East of England -19 5 £240 +20.00% 11
North East -41 1 £290 +48.72%

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 20 July 2026, 2nd Line Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring 2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 119 (68.39%) Windows
2 88 (50.57%) Microsoft 365
3 66 (37.93%) Active Directory
4 62 (35.63%) Microsoft
5 57 (32.76%) Customer Service
6 42 (24.14%) Problem-Solving
7 37 (21.26%) Windows 10
8 36 (20.69%) Azure
9 34 (19.54%) Microsoft Intune
10 31 (17.82%) Entra ID
10 31 (17.82%) ITIL
11 27 (15.52%) SharePoint
12 23 (13.22%) Continuous Improvement
12 23 (13.22%) Service Management
13 22 (12.64%) Microsoft Office
14 20 (11.49%) JIRA
14 20 (11.49%) SQL
15 19 (10.92%) Android
16 18 (10.34%) OneDrive
17 17 (9.77%) ITSM
17 17 (9.77%) ServiceNow
17 17 (9.77%) User Experience
18 16 (9.20%) Customer Experience
19 15 (8.62%) Mac OS
19 15 (8.62%) SCCM
20 14 (8.05%) Apple iOS
20 14 (8.05%) DNS
20 14 (8.05%) Wi-Fi
21 13 (7.47%) Microsoft Exchange
21 13 (7.47%) Service Delivery

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 27 (15.52%) SharePoint
2 13 (7.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.15%) Confluence
3 2 (1.15%) IIS
Applications
1 22 (12.64%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 7 (4.02%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 88 (50.57%) Microsoft 365
2 36 (20.69%) Azure
3 31 (17.82%) Entra ID
4 18 (10.34%) OneDrive
5 10 (5.75%) AWS
6 7 (4.02%) GCP
7 2 (1.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 2 (1.15%) Amazon S3
7 2 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
7 2 (1.15%) Google Workspace
7 2 (1.15%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (8.05%) DNS
1 14 (8.05%) Wi-Fi
2 13 (7.47%) TCP/IP
3 10 (5.75%) LAN
3 10 (5.75%) VPN
3 10 (5.75%) WAN
4 9 (5.17%) DHCP
5 5 (2.87%) Internet
6 4 (2.30%) Firewall
7 2 (1.15%) BGP
7 2 (1.15%) IPsec
7 2 (1.15%) MPLS
7 2 (1.15%) Skype
8 1 (0.57%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.57%) SAN
8 1 (0.57%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.60%) SQL Server
2 7 (4.02%) MySQL
3 2 (1.15%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 20 (11.49%) JIRA
General
1 79 (45.40%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.52%) Retail
3 24 (13.79%) Finance
4 23 (13.22%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (9.20%) French Language
5 16 (9.20%) Spanish Language
6 11 (6.32%) Public Sector
7 10 (5.75%) Manufacturing
8 9 (5.17%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (4.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (3.45%) Law
11 4 (2.30%) Banking
11 4 (2.30%) Legal
12 1 (0.57%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.57%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.57%) Military
12 1 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.15%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 22 (12.64%) Onboarding
2 8 (4.60%) Driving Licence
3 7 (4.02%) Mobile Payment
4 6 (3.45%) NHS
5 5 (2.87%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (2.30%) CCTV
6 4 (2.30%) iPhone
6 4 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.15%) PKI
7 2 (1.15%) Smartphone
8 1 (0.57%) iPad
8 1 (0.57%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 119 (68.39%) Windows
2 37 (21.26%) Windows 10
3 19 (10.92%) Android
4 15 (8.62%) Mac OS
5 14 (8.05%) Apple iOS
6 10 (5.75%) Windows Server
7 6 (3.45%) Linux
8 5 (2.87%) Ubuntu
9 2 (1.15%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.57%) CentOS
10 1 (0.57%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (32.76%) Customer Service
2 42 (24.14%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (17.82%) ITIL
4 23 (13.22%) Continuous Improvement
4 23 (13.22%) Service Management
5 17 (9.77%) ITSM
5 17 (9.77%) User Experience
6 16 (9.20%) Customer Experience
7 13 (7.47%) Service Delivery
8 10 (5.75%) Migration
9 8 (4.60%) Asset Management
9 8 (4.60%) Mobile Device Management
9 8 (4.60%) Problem Management
10 5 (2.87%) Ticket Management
11 4 (2.30%) AI
11 4 (2.30%) Generative AI
11 4 (2.30%) Identity Access Management
11 4 (2.30%) Incident Management
11 4 (2.30%) Operational Stability
11 4 (2.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 20 (11.49%) SQL
2 3 (1.72%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 11 (6.32%) Security Cleared
2 9 (5.17%) SC Cleared
3 8 (4.60%) Degree
4 5 (2.87%) DBS Check
5 3 (1.72%) DV Cleared
6 2 (1.15%) CCNA
6 2 (1.15%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.15%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.57%) A+ Certification
7 1 (0.57%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.45%) SLA
2 1 (0.57%) GDPR
System Software
1 66 (37.93%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 34 (19.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (8.62%) SCCM
3 4 (2.30%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.15%) AirWatch
5 1 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.57%) WSUS
Vendors
1 62 (35.63%) Microsoft
2 17 (9.77%) ServiceNow
3 10 (5.75%) Google
4 7 (4.02%) Remedy
5 5 (2.87%) Apple
5 5 (2.87%) Cisco
5 5 (2.87%) HP
6 3 (1.72%) Bloomberg
6 3 (1.72%) Freshdesk
6 3 (1.72%) Meraki
6 3 (1.72%) Samsung
7 2 (1.15%) Atlassian
7 2 (1.15%) Citrix
7 2 (1.15%) CrowdStrike
7 2 (1.15%) Dell
7 2 (1.15%) Juniper
7 2 (1.15%) Zscaler
8 1 (0.57%) Charles River
8 1 (0.57%) VMware
8 1 (0.57%) Yealink