2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends

Second Line Support
UK

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the UK is £190, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 March 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 454 368 334
Rank change year-on-year -86 -34 +14
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 171 158 268
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.54% 0.61%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.59% 0.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 111 195
10th Percentile £155 £160 £140
25th Percentile £170 £188 £170
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £190 £213 £200
Median % change year-on-year -10.59% +6.25% -4.76%
75th Percentile £238 £250 £238
90th Percentile £273 £319 £298
UK excluding London median daily rate £190 £200 £200
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 28 23
10th Percentile £12.95 £20.25 £14.82
25th Percentile £15.50 £22.50 £17.25
Median hourly rate £16.50 £25.56 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -35.43% +44.22% -13.22%
75th Percentile £20.25 £29.00 £20.00
90th Percentile £24.39 £37.50 £21.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £26.08 £17.72
% change year-on-year -38.65% +47.18% -11.40%

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 40,899 26,977 41,058
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.01% 92.83% 92.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,498 17,746 26,889
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.67%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +2.11% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,538 929 2,519
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.19 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.51 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £37.54 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.51% -1.52% -23.26%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.52 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £77.25 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.63 £32.50 £33.00
% change year-on-year +18.86% -1.52% -18.70%

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 28 March 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 28 March 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 28 March 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 -93 160 £190 -13.64% 74
UK excluding London -91 123 £190 -5.00% 67
North of England -35 59 £175 -10.26% 17
London -47 45 £220 -12.00% 12
Yorkshire -33 31 £190 +5.56% 6
North West -29 23 £175 -14.63% 11
Midlands -83 21 £200 - 9
Work from Home -34 19 £190 -15.56% 17
East of England -25 13 £240 +6.67% 10
West Midlands -64 13 £225 +7.14% 6
South East -69 13 £200 -5.88% 23
South West -18 9 £275 +10.00% 8
East Midlands -34 8 £158 -21.25% 3
Scotland -1 7 £225 +18.42% 2
North East -8 5 £175 -10.26%
Wales -18 1 £250 +25.00%

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

For the 6 months to 28 March 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.

1 103 (60.23%) Windows
2 92 (53.80%) Microsoft 365
3 61 (35.67%) Active Directory
4 57 (33.33%) Microsoft
5 51 (29.82%) Customer Service
6 43 (25.15%) Windows 10
7 42 (24.56%) Microsoft Office
8 41 (23.98%) Android
9 34 (19.88%) Azure
10 31 (18.13%) Entra ID
11 30 (17.54%) Microsoft Intune
12 29 (16.96%) Problem-Solving
13 26 (15.20%) ITIL
14 24 (14.04%) Security Cleared
15 23 (13.45%) SC Cleared
16 21 (12.28%) Service Management
17 20 (11.70%) Apple
17 20 (11.70%) Apple iOS
17 20 (11.70%) Cisco
17 20 (11.70%) Windows Server
18 19 (11.11%) Mac OS
18 19 (11.11%) SharePoint
18 19 (11.11%) Wireless
19 18 (10.53%) Service Delivery
19 18 (10.53%) ServiceNow
20 17 (9.94%) ITSM
21 16 (9.36%) Business Intelligence
21 16 (9.36%) Dell
21 16 (9.36%) HP
21 16 (9.36%) LAN

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 19 (11.11%) SharePoint
2 13 (7.60%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.58%) IIS
Applications
1 42 (24.56%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 8 (4.68%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.58%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 92 (53.80%) Microsoft 365
2 34 (19.88%) Azure
3 31 (18.13%) Entra ID
4 10 (5.85%) OneDrive
5 7 (4.09%) Google Workspace
6 5 (2.92%) AWS
7 3 (1.75%) GCP
8 1 (0.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (0.58%) Amazon S3
8 1 (0.58%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.58%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.58%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 19 (11.11%) Wireless
2 16 (9.36%) LAN
2 16 (9.36%) WAN
3 14 (8.19%) DHCP
3 14 (8.19%) DNS
3 14 (8.19%) Wi-Fi
4 10 (5.85%) TCP/IP
5 8 (4.68%) Firewall
5 8 (4.68%) VPN
6 6 (3.51%) Network Security
7 4 (2.34%) Structured Cabling
8 3 (1.75%) PABX
8 3 (1.75%) VoIP
9 2 (1.17%) BGP
9 2 (1.17%) Internet
9 2 (1.17%) IPsec
9 2 (1.17%) MPLS
9 2 (1.17%) Skype
9 2 (1.17%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.75%) MySQL
1 3 (1.75%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
2 1 (0.58%) Electronic Patient Records
2 1 (0.58%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 12 (7.02%) JIRA
2 1 (0.58%) Hudson
General
1 61 (35.67%) Social Skills
2 30 (17.54%) Finance
2 30 (17.54%) Public Sector
3 24 (14.04%) Manufacturing
4 16 (9.36%) Telecoms
5 15 (8.77%) Electronics
5 15 (8.77%) Marketing
6 10 (5.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 10 (5.85%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (4.68%) Law
8 6 (3.51%) Analytical Skills
8 6 (3.51%) Legal
8 6 (3.51%) Retail
9 4 (2.34%) Banking
10 2 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.17%) French Language
10 2 (1.17%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.58%) Military
11 1 (0.58%) Spanish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.58%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.77%) Data Centre
1 15 (8.77%) Driving Licence
2 13 (7.60%) Onboarding
3 11 (6.43%) NHS
4 9 (5.26%) Smartphone
5 5 (2.92%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.34%) CMDB
6 4 (2.34%) iPhone
7 3 (1.75%) Mobile Payment
8 2 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.17%) PKI
9 1 (0.58%) CCTV
9 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.58%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.58%) Smartcard
9 1 (0.58%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 1 (0.58%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 103 (60.23%) Windows
2 43 (25.15%) Windows 10
3 41 (23.98%) Android
4 20 (11.70%) Apple iOS
4 20 (11.70%) Windows Server
5 19 (11.11%) Mac OS
6 7 (4.09%) Linux
7 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (29.82%) Customer Service
2 29 (16.96%) Problem-Solving
3 26 (15.20%) ITIL
4 21 (12.28%) Service Management
5 18 (10.53%) Service Delivery
6 17 (9.94%) ITSM
7 16 (9.36%) Business Intelligence
8 15 (8.77%) Digital Marketing
8 15 (8.77%) Programme Management
9 10 (5.85%) Asset Management
9 10 (5.85%) Customer Experience
10 8 (4.68%) Continuous Improvement
11 7 (4.09%) Migration
11 7 (4.09%) Problem Management
12 6 (3.51%) User Experience
13 5 (2.92%) AI
13 5 (2.92%) Break/Fix
13 5 (2.92%) Incident Management
13 5 (2.92%) Kalman Filter
13 5 (2.92%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 6 (3.51%) PowerShell
2 3 (1.75%) SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (14.04%) Security Cleared
2 23 (13.45%) SC Cleared
3 4 (2.34%) ECDL
4 3 (1.75%) DBS Check
5 2 (1.17%) CCNA
5 2 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
5 2 (1.17%) Degree
5 2 (1.17%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (2.92%) SLA
2 2 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.58%) GDPR
System Software
1 61 (35.67%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.58%) BitLocker
2 1 (0.58%) Firmware
2 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 30 (17.54%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (7.60%) SCCM
3 4 (2.34%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (0.58%) AirWatch
4 1 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 57 (33.33%) Microsoft
2 20 (11.70%) Apple
2 20 (11.70%) Cisco
3 18 (10.53%) ServiceNow
4 16 (9.36%) Dell
4 16 (9.36%) HP
4 16 (9.36%) SAP
5 10 (5.85%) Google
6 8 (4.68%) Remedy
7 5 (2.92%) Meraki
8 3 (1.75%) Citrix
9 2 (1.17%) Bloomberg
9 2 (1.17%) Juniper
10 1 (0.58%) Ariba
10 1 (0.58%) Charles River
10 1 (0.58%) VMware