2nd Line Support Contract Job Trends

Second Line Support
UK

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the UK is £209, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 June 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 490 348 382
Rank change year-on-year -142 +34 -25
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 148 175 214
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.60% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.32% 0.65% 0.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 118 165
10th Percentile £170 £159 £150
25th Percentile £185 £189 £175
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £209 £222 £200
Median % change year-on-year -5.76% +10.75% -0.25%
75th Percentile £240 £269 £238
90th Percentile £310 £311 £300
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £213 £200
% change year-on-year -5.88% +6.25% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 28 16
10th Percentile £12.93 £16.84 £14.27
25th Percentile £13.51 £18.40 £17.19
Median hourly rate £15.87 £25.56 £17.61
Median % change year-on-year -37.90% +45.12% -11.95%
75th Percentile £19.88 £28.83 £21.05
90th Percentile £20.64 £37.50 £23.99
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.51 £27.50 £17.50
% change year-on-year -50.87% +57.14% -10.26%

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 45,699 27,029 40,373
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.35% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,837 17,405 26,000
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,047 1,117 2,898
10th Percentile £15.11 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.50 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.93% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.69 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.39% -36.94% -5.88%

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 8 June 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 8 June 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 8 June 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 -139 136 £204 -9.44% 53
UK excluding London -117 105 £200 -5.88% 55
London -70 41 £220 -12.00% 5
North of England -66 32 £200 +2.56% 15
South East -81 29 £209 -12.57% 16
Work from Home -42 28 £200 -20.00% 12
Yorkshire -41 22 £200 +58.73% 4
Midlands -55 22 £230 -8.00% 3
East Midlands -23 11 - - 2
West Midlands -62 11 £230 -16.36% 1
North West -42 9 £190 -5.00% 10
South West -26 7 - - 3
Scotland -10 6 - - 4
Wales -15 5 £250 +1.52% 2
East of England -27 4 £240 +6.67% 13
North East -32 1 £290 +48.72% 1

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

For the 6 months to 8 June 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 96 (64.86%) Windows
2 75 (50.68%) Microsoft 365
3 56 (37.84%) Microsoft
4 53 (35.81%) Active Directory
5 49 (33.11%) Customer Service
6 34 (22.97%) Windows 10
7 32 (21.62%) Azure
7 32 (21.62%) Microsoft Intune
7 32 (21.62%) Problem-Solving
8 26 (17.57%) ITIL
9 25 (16.89%) Android
10 23 (15.54%) Microsoft Office
11 20 (13.51%) Service Management
12 19 (12.84%) Entra ID
12 19 (12.84%) ITSM
13 18 (12.16%) Apple iOS
13 18 (12.16%) Service Delivery
13 18 (12.16%) SharePoint
14 16 (10.81%) SCCM
14 16 (10.81%) SQL
15 15 (10.14%) Continuous Improvement
15 15 (10.14%) JIRA
15 15 (10.14%) ServiceNow
16 13 (8.78%) Customer Experience
16 13 (8.78%) Microsoft Exchange
16 13 (8.78%) Wi-Fi
17 12 (8.11%) AWS
17 12 (8.11%) OneDrive
18 11 (7.43%) Mobile Device Management
19 10 (6.76%) DNS

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 18 (12.16%) SharePoint
2 13 (8.78%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.35%) Confluence
3 2 (1.35%) IIS
Applications
1 23 (15.54%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 8 (5.41%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 75 (50.68%) Microsoft 365
2 32 (21.62%) Azure
3 19 (12.84%) Entra ID
4 12 (8.11%) AWS
4 12 (8.11%) OneDrive
5 9 (6.08%) GCP
6 2 (1.35%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 2 (1.35%) Amazon S3
6 2 (1.35%) AWS Lambda
6 2 (1.35%) Serverless
7 1 (0.68%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 13 (8.78%) Wi-Fi
2 10 (6.76%) DNS
2 10 (6.76%) LAN
2 10 (6.76%) WAN
3 9 (6.08%) DHCP
4 8 (5.41%) VPN
5 4 (2.70%) TCP/IP
6 2 (1.35%) BGP
6 2 (1.35%) Internet
6 2 (1.35%) IPsec
6 2 (1.35%) MPLS
6 2 (1.35%) Skype
7 1 (0.68%) Firewall
7 1 (0.68%) Remote Desktop
7 1 (0.68%) SAN
7 1 (0.68%) VLAN
7 1 (0.68%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.76%) SQL Server
2 9 (6.08%) MySQL
3 2 (1.35%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 15 (10.14%) JIRA
General
1 69 (46.62%) Social Skills
2 26 (17.57%) Finance
3 25 (16.89%) Retail
4 22 (14.86%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (8.78%) French Language
6 12 (8.11%) Spanish Language
7 11 (7.43%) Public Sector
8 10 (6.76%) Manufacturing
8 10 (6.76%) Organisational Skills
9 6 (4.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (4.05%) Law
10 5 (3.38%) Banking
11 4 (2.70%) Legal
12 2 (1.35%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.68%) Documentation Skills
13 1 (0.68%) Military
13 1 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.68%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.35%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 17 (11.49%) Onboarding
2 9 (6.08%) Mobile Payment
3 6 (4.05%) NHS
4 5 (3.38%) Driving Licence
4 5 (3.38%) Smartphone
5 4 (2.70%) CCTV
5 4 (2.70%) iPhone
6 3 (2.03%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (2.03%) Video Conferencing
7 2 (1.35%) PKI
8 1 (0.68%) iPad
8 1 (0.68%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.68%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 96 (64.86%) Windows
2 34 (22.97%) Windows 10
3 25 (16.89%) Android
4 18 (12.16%) Apple iOS
5 9 (6.08%) Mac OS
6 6 (4.05%) Windows Server
7 2 (1.35%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.68%) Linux
8 1 (0.68%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (33.11%) Customer Service
2 32 (21.62%) Problem-Solving
3 26 (17.57%) ITIL
4 20 (13.51%) Service Management
5 19 (12.84%) ITSM
6 18 (12.16%) Service Delivery
7 15 (10.14%) Continuous Improvement
8 13 (8.78%) Customer Experience
9 11 (7.43%) Mobile Device Management
10 9 (6.08%) User Experience
11 8 (5.41%) Problem Management
12 7 (4.73%) Asset Management
12 7 (4.73%) Migration
13 6 (4.05%) Process Improvement
14 5 (3.38%) AI
15 4 (2.70%) Generative AI
15 4 (2.70%) Incident Management
16 3 (2.03%) Computer Science
16 3 (2.03%) Platform Engineering
16 3 (2.03%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 16 (10.81%) SQL
2 1 (0.68%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 6 (4.05%) Degree
2 5 (3.38%) SC Cleared
2 5 (3.38%) Security Cleared
3 3 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
4 2 (1.35%) CCNA
4 2 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (1.35%) DBS Check
4 2 (1.35%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (0.68%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.05%) SLA
2 1 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (0.68%) GDPR
System Software
1 53 (35.81%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
2 1 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 32 (21.62%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (10.81%) SCCM
3 4 (2.70%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.35%) AirWatch
5 1 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.68%) WSUS
Vendors
1 56 (37.84%) Microsoft
2 15 (10.14%) ServiceNow
3 10 (6.76%) Google
4 8 (5.41%) Remedy
5 5 (3.38%) Apple
5 5 (3.38%) HP
6 4 (2.70%) Cisco
7 3 (2.03%) Bloomberg
7 3 (2.03%) Dell
7 3 (2.03%) Freshdesk
8 2 (1.35%) Citrix
8 2 (1.35%) CrowdStrike
8 2 (1.35%) Juniper
8 2 (1.35%) Meraki
8 2 (1.35%) Zscaler
9 1 (0.68%) Charles River
9 1 (0.68%) Snow
9 1 (0.68%) Tanium
9 1 (0.68%) VMware