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 5 October 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 500 375 374
Rank change year-on-year -125 -1 -35
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 167 180 176
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.31% 0.55% 0.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.33% 0.60% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 103 125 133
10th Percentile £160 £153 £149
25th Percentile £185 £163 £180
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £210 £200 £210
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £246 £269 £272
90th Percentile £317 £291 £360
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £200 £195
% change year-on-year - +2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 26 9
10th Percentile £12.74 £15.93 £19.32
25th Percentile £13.51 £16.84 £21.05
Median hourly rate £15.24 £21.04 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -27.57% -11.60% +16.10%
75th Percentile £18.22 £25.05 £24.18
90th Percentile £18.75 £30.33 £27.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.51 £18.00 £23.14
% change year-on-year -24.94% -22.20% +21.00%

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 50,097 29,975 35,353
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.11% 90.82% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,425 18,913 21,413
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £737 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,996 1,630 1,535
10th Percentile £14.42 £13.75 £14.85
25th Percentile £19.61 £17.26 £20.63
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -40.82% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.00 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.74 £25.04 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.69% -41.77% -2.05%

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 5 October 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
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 5 October 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 -129 154 £220 +10.00% 89
UK excluding London -110 117 £200 - 75
London -85 46 £240 +20.00% 27
South East -51 43 £273 +3.81% 24
North of England -65 38 £200 +5.26% 11
Work from Home -52 31 £200 +5.26% 36
Yorkshire -20 23 £200 +2.56% 4
Midlands -55 14 £210 +10.53% 11
North West -52 12 £300 +71.43% 6
Wales -8 8 £138 -32.93% 3
East Midlands -13 7 - - 5
East of England -21 7 £240 +20.00% 12
West Midlands -58 7 £210 -1.18% 6
South West -42 5 - - 9
North East -39 3 £188 - 1
Scotland -19 2 £150 -37.17% 3

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

For the 6 months to 5 October 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.

1 124 (74.25%) Windows
2 102 (61.08%) Microsoft 365
3 82 (49.10%) Microsoft
4 81 (48.50%) Active Directory
5 45 (26.95%) Problem-Solving
6 44 (26.35%) Customer Service
7 43 (25.75%) Entra ID
8 38 (22.75%) Azure
8 38 (22.75%) Windows 10
9 35 (20.96%) Microsoft Intune
10 33 (19.76%) ITIL
11 30 (17.96%) SharePoint
12 28 (16.77%) Service Management
13 24 (14.37%) Continuous Improvement
13 24 (14.37%) Microsoft Office
14 22 (13.17%) ITSM
14 22 (13.17%) User Experience
15 20 (11.98%) OneDrive
16 19 (11.38%) Mac OS
17 18 (10.78%) Android
17 18 (10.78%) DNS
18 17 (10.18%) Security Cleared
19 16 (9.58%) SQL
19 16 (9.58%) Windows Server
20 14 (8.38%) Customer Experience
21 13 (7.78%) Apple iOS
21 13 (7.78%) Microsoft Exchange
21 13 (7.78%) Service Delivery
21 13 (7.78%) TCP/IP
22 12 (7.19%) DHCP

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 30 (17.96%) SharePoint
2 13 (7.78%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.20%) Confluence
4 1 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2010
4 1 (0.60%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (0.60%) IIS
4 1 (0.60%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 24 (14.37%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 102 (61.08%) Microsoft 365
2 43 (25.75%) Entra ID
3 38 (22.75%) Azure
4 20 (11.98%) OneDrive
5 7 (4.19%) AWS
6 6 (3.59%) GCP
7 2 (1.20%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 18 (10.78%) DNS
2 13 (7.78%) TCP/IP
3 12 (7.19%) DHCP
3 12 (7.19%) VPN
4 8 (4.79%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (1.80%) Firewall
5 3 (1.80%) Internet
6 2 (1.20%) LAN
6 2 (1.20%) VLAN
6 2 (1.20%) WAN
6 2 (1.20%) Wireless
7 1 (0.60%) Remote Desktop
7 1 (0.60%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.19%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.59%) MySQL
3 1 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 8 (4.79%) JIRA
General
1 79 (47.31%) Social Skills
2 26 (15.57%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (14.37%) Retail
4 15 (8.98%) Finance
5 14 (8.38%) French Language
5 14 (8.38%) Spanish Language
6 4 (2.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.80%) Banking
8 2 (1.20%) Legal
8 2 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.60%) Legal Technology
9 1 (0.60%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.60%) Software Packaging
1 1 (0.60%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 30 (17.96%) Onboarding
2 7 (4.19%) Driving Licence
3 6 (3.59%) Mobile Payment
3 6 (3.59%) Video Conferencing
4 5 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (2.40%) CCTV
5 4 (2.40%) iPhone
5 4 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.20%) CMDB
7 1 (0.60%) Clustering
7 1 (0.60%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.60%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.60%) iPad
7 1 (0.60%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.60%) Smartphone
7 1 (0.60%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 124 (74.25%) Windows
2 38 (22.75%) Windows 10
3 19 (11.38%) Mac OS
4 18 (10.78%) Android
5 16 (9.58%) Windows Server
6 13 (7.78%) Apple iOS
7 11 (6.59%) Linux
8 9 (5.39%) Ubuntu
9 5 (2.99%) CentOS
10 3 (1.80%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (1.20%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.60%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.60%) VMS
12 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (26.95%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (26.35%) Customer Service
3 33 (19.76%) ITIL
4 28 (16.77%) Service Management
5 24 (14.37%) Continuous Improvement
6 22 (13.17%) ITSM
6 22 (13.17%) User Experience
7 14 (8.38%) Customer Experience
8 13 (7.78%) Service Delivery
9 10 (5.99%) Mobile Device Management
10 8 (4.79%) Asset Management
10 8 (4.79%) Migration
10 8 (4.79%) Ticket Management
11 7 (4.19%) Data Protection
11 7 (4.19%) Stakeholder Management
12 5 (2.99%) Decision-Making
13 4 (2.40%) Configuration Management
13 4 (2.40%) Operational Stability
13 4 (2.40%) Patch Management
13 4 (2.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 16 (9.58%) SQL
2 8 (4.79%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 17 (10.18%) Security Cleared
2 11 (6.59%) Degree
2 11 (6.59%) DV Cleared
2 11 (6.59%) SC Cleared
3 8 (4.79%) DBS Check
4 3 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.20%) A+ Certification
5 2 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (1.20%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.19%) SLA
2 1 (0.60%) ITGC
2 1 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 81 (48.50%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.60%) BitLocker
3 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 35 (20.96%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (6.59%) SCCM
3 6 (3.59%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.20%) WSUS
5 1 (0.60%) AirWatch
5 1 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.60%) MobiControl
5 1 (0.60%) NetBackup
5 1 (0.60%) PaperCut
5 1 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 82 (49.10%) Microsoft
2 12 (7.19%) ServiceNow
3 10 (5.99%) Google
4 8 (4.79%) Apple
5 6 (3.59%) Atlassian
5 6 (3.59%) HP
6 4 (2.40%) Cisco
6 4 (2.40%) VMware
7 3 (1.80%) Citrix
7 3 (1.80%) Dell
7 3 (1.80%) Freshdesk
7 3 (1.80%) Samsung
7 3 (1.80%) Zscaler
8 2 (1.20%) CrowdStrike
8 2 (1.20%) Xerox
9 1 (0.60%) Juniper
9 1 (0.60%) Okta
9 1 (0.60%) Snow
9 1 (0.60%) Tanium
9 1 (0.60%) Veritas