2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends

Second Line Support
UK

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the UK is £208, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 August 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 506 396 407
Rank change year-on-year -110 +11 -56
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 171 171 170
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.32% 0.52% 0.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.34% 0.57% 0.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 110 137
10th Percentile £160 £154 £141
25th Percentile £185 £185 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £208 £218 £200
Median % change year-on-year -4.93% +9.13% -
75th Percentile £240 £269 £269
90th Percentile £302 £310 £338
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £210 £195
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -1.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 32 10
10th Percentile £13.36 £16.84 £17.66
25th Percentile £13.51 £18.08 £18.61
Median hourly rate £16.50 £24.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -31.25% +0.84% +19.00%
75th Percentile £18.75 £28.00 £24.18
90th Percentile £20.25 £30.59 £27.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.24 £18.87 £20.29
% change year-on-year -19.24% -6.98% +4.03%

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 49,691 30,076 35,928
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.26% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,638 19,002 22,670
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,580 1,568 1,839
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.73 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.96%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.78 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.41 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.04
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.89% +13.95%

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 31 August 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 31 August 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 31 August 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 -103 159 £210 -3.78% 52
UK excluding London -82 118 £200 -4.76% 48
London -69 49 £226 -7.96% 11
South East -62 45 £243 -7.62% 14
North of England -61 37 £200 +2.56% 11
Work from Home -27 31 £200 -15.79% 13
Yorkshire -30 23 £200 - 5
Midlands -59 13 £210 -23.64% 11
North West -51 11 £245 +22.50% 4
East of England -11 9 £240 +12.94% 9
Wales -8 8 £138 -44.16%
East Midlands -13 7 - - 2
West Midlands -54 6 £210 -23.64% 9
South West -43 5 - - 1
North East -39 3 £188 -3.85% 2
Scotland -25 1 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 31 August 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.

1 128 (74.85%) Windows
2 102 (59.65%) Microsoft 365
3 81 (47.37%) Microsoft
4 77 (45.03%) Active Directory
5 50 (29.24%) Customer Service
6 48 (28.07%) Problem-Solving
7 43 (25.15%) Entra ID
8 39 (22.81%) Azure
8 39 (22.81%) Windows 10
9 35 (20.47%) Microsoft Intune
10 34 (19.88%) ITIL
11 32 (18.71%) SharePoint
12 28 (16.37%) Continuous Improvement
12 28 (16.37%) Service Management
13 23 (13.45%) ITSM
13 23 (13.45%) Microsoft Office
14 22 (12.87%) User Experience
15 21 (12.28%) SQL
16 20 (11.70%) OneDrive
17 19 (11.11%) Android
17 19 (11.11%) Mac OS
17 19 (11.11%) Security Cleared
18 16 (9.36%) Customer Experience
18 16 (9.36%) DNS
18 16 (9.36%) Windows Server
19 14 (8.19%) Apple iOS
19 14 (8.19%) SC Cleared
19 14 (8.19%) TCP/IP
20 13 (7.60%) Service Delivery
20 13 (7.60%) ServiceNow

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 32 (18.71%) SharePoint
2 9 (5.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.17%) Confluence
3 2 (1.17%) IIS
4 1 (0.58%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 23 (13.45%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.17%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 102 (59.65%) Microsoft 365
2 43 (25.15%) Entra ID
3 39 (22.81%) Azure
4 20 (11.70%) OneDrive
5 9 (5.26%) AWS
6 6 (3.51%) GCP
7 2 (1.17%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 2 (1.17%) Amazon S3
7 2 (1.17%) AWS Lambda
7 2 (1.17%) Serverless
8 1 (0.58%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 16 (9.36%) DNS
2 14 (8.19%) TCP/IP
3 12 (7.02%) Wi-Fi
4 10 (5.85%) DHCP
4 10 (5.85%) VPN
5 6 (3.51%) LAN
6 5 (2.92%) Internet
7 4 (2.34%) WAN
8 3 (1.75%) Firewall
9 2 (1.17%) Skype
9 2 (1.17%) VLAN
9 2 (1.17%) Wireless
10 1 (0.58%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.58%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.09%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.51%) MySQL
3 2 (1.17%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 10 (5.85%) JIRA
General
1 80 (46.78%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
3 26 (15.20%) Retail
4 18 (10.53%) Finance
5 16 (9.36%) French Language
5 16 (9.36%) Spanish Language
6 5 (2.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (2.92%) Manufacturing
7 4 (2.34%) Banking
7 4 (2.34%) Legal
8 2 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
8 2 (1.17%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.58%) Military
9 1 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.17%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 27 (15.79%) Onboarding
2 6 (3.51%) Driving Licence
2 6 (3.51%) Mobile Payment
3 5 (2.92%) Analytical Mindset
3 5 (2.92%) Video Conferencing
4 4 (2.34%) CCTV
4 4 (2.34%) iPhone
4 4 (2.34%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.75%) Smartphone
6 2 (1.17%) CMDB
7 1 (0.58%) iPad
7 1 (0.58%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 128 (74.85%) Windows
2 39 (22.81%) Windows 10
3 19 (11.11%) Android
3 19 (11.11%) Mac OS
4 16 (9.36%) Windows Server
5 14 (8.19%) Apple iOS
6 10 (5.85%) Linux
7 9 (5.26%) Ubuntu
8 5 (2.92%) CentOS
9 3 (1.75%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (1.17%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.58%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.58%) VMS
11 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (29.24%) Customer Service
2 48 (28.07%) Problem-Solving
3 34 (19.88%) ITIL
4 28 (16.37%) Continuous Improvement
4 28 (16.37%) Service Management
5 23 (13.45%) ITSM
6 22 (12.87%) User Experience
7 16 (9.36%) Customer Experience
8 13 (7.60%) Service Delivery
9 10 (5.85%) Asset Management
9 10 (5.85%) Mobile Device Management
10 8 (4.68%) Migration
11 7 (4.09%) Stakeholder Management
11 7 (4.09%) Ticket Management
12 6 (3.51%) Data Protection
13 5 (2.92%) Decision-Making
13 5 (2.92%) Kalman Filter
13 5 (2.92%) Problem Management
14 4 (2.34%) Operational Stability
14 4 (2.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 21 (12.28%) SQL
2 7 (4.09%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 19 (11.11%) Security Cleared
2 14 (8.19%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.85%) Degree
3 10 (5.85%) DV Cleared
4 9 (5.26%) DBS Check
5 3 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (1.75%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (1.17%) A+ Certification
6 2 (1.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.58%) CCNA
7 1 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.68%) SLA
System Software
1 77 (45.03%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.58%) BitLocker
3 1 (0.58%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 35 (20.47%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.43%) SCCM
3 7 (4.09%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.17%) AirWatch
4 2 (1.17%) WSUS
5 1 (0.58%) MobiControl
5 1 (0.58%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 81 (47.37%) Microsoft
2 13 (7.60%) ServiceNow
3 9 (5.26%) Google
4 8 (4.68%) Apple
5 6 (3.51%) Atlassian
5 6 (3.51%) HP
6 5 (2.92%) Cisco
7 4 (2.34%) VMware
8 3 (1.75%) Citrix
8 3 (1.75%) Freshdesk
8 3 (1.75%) Meraki
8 3 (1.75%) Samsung
9 2 (1.17%) Bloomberg
9 2 (1.17%) CrowdStrike
9 2 (1.17%) Dell
9 2 (1.17%) Remedy
9 2 (1.17%) Zscaler
10 1 (0.58%) Oracle
10 1 (0.58%) Sophos
10 1 (0.58%) Veritas