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 16 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 375 393 337
Rank change year-on-year +18 -56 +1
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 175 177 346
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.54% 0.47% 0.69%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.59% 0.50% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 112 141 235
10th Percentile £153 £141 £140
25th Percentile £184 £175 £171
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £209 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +4.38% - -1.23%
75th Percentile £269 £268 £239
90th Percentile £300 £360 £300
UK excluding London median daily rate £205 £195 £198
% change year-on-year +5.13% -1.27% +3.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 10 23
10th Percentile £16.84 £17.66 £16.15
25th Percentile £17.71 £18.61 £18.50
Median hourly rate £22.63 £23.80 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.94% +19.00% -16.35%
75th Percentile £26.65 £24.18 £24.25
90th Percentile £30.20 £27.19 £25.94
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.50 £20.29 £19.75
% change year-on-year -8.80% +2.71% -1.25%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 29,740 35,350 47,152
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.05% 92.95% 94.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,772 21,777 32,303
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,564 1,687 1,507
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.77
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -1.96% +68.69%
75th Percentile £52.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £42.08
% change year-on-year -44.11% +6.95% +91.26%

2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured 2nd Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for 2nd Line Support 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 16 September 2025.

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 16 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the UK

2nd Line Support
Top 17 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 16 September 2025. 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 0 154 £213 +6.25% 101
UK excluding London +5 118 £205 +5.13% 101
London +20 49 £222 -1.56% 9
South East +35 39 £263 -1.77% 41
North of England -5 32 £200 +11.11% 20
Midlands -18 25 £263 +34.62% 19
West Midlands -11 19 £263 +38.16% 6
North West -5 17 £200 +33.78% 10
Yorkshire -13 11 £200 +8.11% 7
Work from Home +20 8 £200 -13.04% 21
South West +6 7 £181 -4.61% 11
Scotland -5 7 £239 +25.66% 3
East Midlands -11 6 £248 -4.81% 13
North East -3 4 £195 +20.00% 3
Wales - 3 £205 - 1
Northern Ireland - 3 £165 -
East of England +3 2 £200 -11.11% 7

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 September 2025, 2nd Line Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring 2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 90 (51.43%) Windows
2 88 (50.29%) Microsoft
3 73 (41.71%) Active Directory
4 64 (36.57%) Social Skills
5 60 (34.29%) Microsoft 365
6 50 (28.57%) ITIL
7 44 (25.14%) Windows 10
8 43 (24.57%) Finance
9 36 (20.57%) ServiceNow
9 36 (20.57%) Security Cleared
10 35 (20.00%) Microsoft Office
11 33 (18.86%) SCCM
11 33 (18.86%) Customer Service
12 32 (18.29%) VPN
13 31 (17.71%) Problem-Solving
14 30 (17.14%) Service Management
15 28 (16.00%) Microsoft Exchange
16 27 (15.43%) Citrix
17 25 (14.29%) ITSM
18 24 (13.71%) SC Cleared
18 24 (13.71%) Mobile Device Management
19 23 (13.14%) Manufacturing
19 23 (13.14%) Public Sector
20 22 (12.57%) Degree
21 21 (12.00%) WAN
22 20 (11.43%) Azure
23 18 (10.29%) WebEx
23 18 (10.29%) LAN
24 17 (9.71%) DNS
24 17 (9.71%) DHCP

2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 28 (16.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 13 (7.43%) SharePoint
3 5 (2.86%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 35 (20.00%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (3.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.86%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 5 (2.86%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.14%) Alphatax
Cloud Services
1 60 (34.29%) Microsoft 365
2 20 (11.43%) Azure
3 16 (9.14%) Entra ID
4 5 (2.86%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.14%) Google Workspace
6 1 (0.57%) AWS
6 1 (0.57%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 32 (18.29%) VPN
2 21 (12.00%) WAN
3 18 (10.29%) LAN
3 18 (10.29%) WebEx
4 17 (9.71%) DHCP
4 17 (9.71%) DNS
5 12 (6.86%) TCP/IP
6 8 (4.57%) BGP
6 8 (4.57%) IPsec
6 8 (4.57%) MPLS
6 8 (4.57%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (3.43%) Firewall
8 3 (1.71%) VoIP
9 2 (1.14%) Cisco Firepower
9 2 (1.14%) VLAN
10 1 (0.57%) Broadband
10 1 (0.57%) Internet
10 1 (0.57%) Remote Desktop
10 1 (0.57%) Softphone
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.14%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (4.00%) JIRA
General
1 64 (36.57%) Social Skills
2 43 (24.57%) Finance
3 23 (13.14%) Manufacturing
3 23 (13.14%) Public Sector
4 17 (9.71%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (6.29%) Electronics
5 11 (6.29%) Marketing
5 11 (6.29%) Telecoms
6 8 (4.57%) Banking
7 6 (3.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 5 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.86%) Local Government
8 5 (2.86%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.86%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.14%) Law
9 2 (1.14%) Retail
10 1 (0.57%) Advertising
10 1 (0.57%) Legal
10 1 (0.57%) Multimedia
10 1 (0.57%) Publishing
Miscellaneous
1 8 (4.57%) PKI
2 6 (3.43%) Management Information System
3 5 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (1.71%) Driving Licence
4 3 (1.71%) NHS
4 3 (1.71%) Team-Oriented Environment
4 3 (1.71%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (1.14%) Client/Server
5 2 (1.14%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (1.14%) Life Science
5 2 (1.14%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (0.57%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.57%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.57%) iPad
6 1 (0.57%) iPhone
6 1 (0.57%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.57%) Replication
6 1 (0.57%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 90 (51.43%) Windows
2 44 (25.14%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.86%) Windows Server
4 11 (6.29%) Apple iOS
4 11 (6.29%) Windows Server 2016
5 7 (4.00%) Mac OS
5 7 (4.00%) Windows 8
5 7 (4.00%) Windows Server 2019
5 7 (4.00%) Windows XP
6 5 (2.86%) Windows Server 2003
6 5 (2.86%) Windows Server 2008
6 5 (2.86%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (2.29%) Android
8 3 (1.71%) Linux
8 3 (1.71%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (28.57%) ITIL
2 33 (18.86%) Customer Service
3 31 (17.71%) Problem-Solving
4 30 (17.14%) Service Management
5 25 (14.29%) ITSM
6 24 (13.71%) Mobile Device Management
7 13 (7.43%) Service Delivery
8 12 (6.86%) Problem Management
9 11 (6.29%) Asset Management
9 11 (6.29%) Business Intelligence
9 11 (6.29%) Digital Marketing
9 11 (6.29%) Programme Management
9 11 (6.29%) Workflow
10 10 (5.71%) Migration
11 9 (5.14%) Patch Management
11 9 (5.14%) Workflow Management
12 8 (4.57%) Time Management
13 7 (4.00%) Incident Management
13 7 (4.00%) Mentoring
14 6 (3.43%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 3 (1.71%) PowerShell
1 3 (1.71%) SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (20.57%) Security Cleared
2 24 (13.71%) SC Cleared
3 22 (12.57%) Degree
4 15 (8.57%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (3.43%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.43%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 4 (2.29%) MCP
7 3 (1.71%) MCDST
8 2 (1.14%) CCNA
8 2 (1.14%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (1.14%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.57%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.57%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.57%) HND
9 1 (0.57%) IBM Certification
9 1 (0.57%) MCSA
9 1 (0.57%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.14%) SLA
2 2 (1.14%) QA
3 1 (0.57%) Accessibility
System Software
1 73 (41.71%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.29%) Virtual Desktop
2 4 (2.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.71%) vSphere
3 3 (1.71%) XenApp
4 1 (0.57%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 33 (18.86%) SCCM
2 16 (9.14%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (4.00%) SCOM
4 2 (1.14%) AppManager
4 2 (1.14%) McAfee ePO
4 2 (1.14%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.57%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 88 (50.29%) Microsoft
2 36 (20.57%) ServiceNow
3 27 (15.43%) Citrix
4 17 (9.71%) Sage
5 11 (6.29%) SAP
6 10 (5.71%) Apple
7 9 (5.14%) Juniper
7 9 (5.14%) SolarWinds
8 7 (4.00%) Canon
9 6 (3.43%) VMware
10 5 (2.86%) Cisco
10 5 (2.86%) Remedy
11 4 (2.29%) Dell
12 3 (1.71%) Google
12 3 (1.71%) iManage
12 3 (1.71%) Logitech
12 3 (1.71%) Mitel
12 3 (1.71%) Sophos
12 3 (1.71%) WatchGuard
13 2 (1.14%) Okta