2nd Line Support Contracts

Second Line Support
UK

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the UK is £218, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 July 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
2 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 360 379 357
Rank change year-on-year +19 -22 -6
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 172 213 363
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.55% 0.49% 0.65%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.60% 0.53% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 164 254
10th Percentile £158 £144 £163
25th Percentile £188 £175 £181
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £218 £200 £200
Median % change year-on-year +8.75% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £269 £248 £260
90th Percentile £296 £300 £315
UK excluding London median daily rate £210 £198 £200
% change year-on-year +6.33% -1.25% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 17 23
10th Percentile £16.84 £14.27 £15.50
25th Percentile £18.10 £17.25 £17.13
Median hourly rate £24.00 £17.72 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.44% -11.40% -6.98%
75th Percentile £28.00 £23.09 £24.25
90th Percentile £28.64 £24.18 £25.57
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.69 £17.50 £18.50
% change year-on-year +6.77% -5.41% +2.78%

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 28,543 40,362 52,705
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.01% 93.00% 94.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,235 25,935 36,627
10th Percentile £288 £285 £313
25th Percentile £402 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +1.42%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -3.65% -1.40% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,277 2,865 1,533
10th Percentile £13.78 £12.86 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.33 £16.58 £19.00
Median hourly rate £26.50 £37.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.33% -12.79% +68.63%
75th Percentile £56.25 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £74.00 £76.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -37.13% - +95.12%

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
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Support.

Daily rate trend for 2nd Line Support in the UK

2nd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 2nd Line Support over the 6 months to 2 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the UK

2nd Line Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 2nd Line Support.

Hourly rate trend for 2nd Line Support in the UK

2nd Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 2nd Line Support over the 6 months to 2 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 2nd Line Support in the UK

2nd Line Support
Top 17 Contract 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 2 July 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 +15 153 £220 +10.00% 195
UK excluding London +17 121 £210 +6.33% 140
South East +72 47 £215 +4.88% 47
London +21 44 £250 +25.00% 65
Midlands -26 24 £200 - 20
North of England +1 22 £195 +2.63% 27
Work from Home +26 14 £250 +13.64% 44
West Midlands -17 14 £263 +31.25% 10
East Midlands -2 10 £200 -20.00% 10
East of England +23 9 £200 -11.11% 12
North West +9 9 £178 -11.25% 18
Scotland +6 9 £181 -4.61% 3
South West +25 7 £200 +5.26% 28
Yorkshire -11 7 £126 -33.68% 6
North East +1 6 £195 +9.09% 3
Wales +7 2 £246 +82.41% 6
Northern Ireland -9 1 £165 +13.79%

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

For the 6 months to 2 July 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 95 (55.23%) Windows
2 87 (50.58%) Microsoft
3 85 (49.42%) Active Directory
4 72 (41.86%) Microsoft 365
5 51 (29.65%) Social Skills
6 49 (28.49%) ITIL
7 46 (26.74%) Windows 10
8 43 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
9 37 (21.51%) Finance
9 37 (21.51%) Security Cleared
10 36 (20.93%) Microsoft Office
10 36 (20.93%) Customer Service
11 32 (18.60%) ServiceNow
12 30 (17.44%) Citrix
12 30 (17.44%) VPN
12 30 (17.44%) Service Management
13 29 (16.86%) ITSM
14 27 (15.70%) SCCM
14 27 (15.70%) SC Cleared
15 26 (15.12%) Azure
16 23 (13.37%) Mobile Device Management
16 23 (13.37%) Microsoft Exchange
17 20 (11.63%) Public Sector
18 19 (11.05%) Microsoft Intune
19 18 (10.47%) WebEx
20 17 (9.88%) Sage
21 16 (9.30%) WAN
21 16 (9.30%) Apple iOS
22 15 (8.72%) Asset Management
22 15 (8.72%) Degree

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 23 (13.37%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (4.65%) SharePoint
Applications
1 36 (20.93%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (2.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (2.91%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.58%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (2.33%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.16%) Alphatax
Cloud Services
1 72 (41.86%) Microsoft 365
2 26 (15.12%) Azure
3 10 (5.81%) Entra ID
4 6 (3.49%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.16%) Asana
5 2 (1.16%) Google Workspace
5 2 (1.16%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 30 (17.44%) VPN
2 18 (10.47%) WebEx
3 16 (9.30%) WAN
4 14 (8.14%) LAN
5 9 (5.23%) DHCP
5 9 (5.23%) DNS
6 8 (4.65%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (4.07%) BGP
7 7 (4.07%) Firewall
7 7 (4.07%) IPsec
7 7 (4.07%) MPLS
7 7 (4.07%) Remote Desktop
8 4 (2.33%) TCP/IP
8 4 (2.33%) VLAN
8 4 (2.33%) Wireless
9 3 (1.74%) VoIP
10 2 (1.16%) Cisco Firepower
10 2 (1.16%) NetScaler
10 2 (1.16%) Softphone
11 1 (0.58%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.74%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.58%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 8 (4.65%) JIRA
General
1 51 (29.65%) Social Skills
2 37 (21.51%) Finance
3 20 (11.63%) Public Sector
4 14 (8.14%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (6.40%) Manufacturing
6 7 (4.07%) Banking
6 7 (4.07%) Telecoms
7 6 (3.49%) Electronics
7 6 (3.49%) Local Government
7 6 (3.49%) Marketing
8 5 (2.91%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.91%) Legal
8 5 (2.91%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.16%) Law
10 2 (1.16%) Retail
11 1 (0.58%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.58%) Financial Institution
Miscellaneous
1 7 (4.07%) PKI
2 5 (2.91%) Driving Licence
2 5 (2.91%) Management Information System
3 4 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
3 4 (2.33%) iPhone
3 4 (2.33%) NHS
3 4 (2.33%) Smartphone
4 3 (1.74%) Client/Server
4 3 (1.74%) Video Conferencing
5 2 (1.16%) iPad
5 2 (1.16%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.58%) Cloud Native
6 1 (0.58%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (0.58%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.58%) Housing Association
6 1 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.58%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 95 (55.23%) Windows
2 46 (26.74%) Windows 10
3 16 (9.30%) Apple iOS
4 11 (6.40%) Windows Server
5 8 (4.65%) Android
6 7 (4.07%) Windows 8
6 7 (4.07%) Windows XP
7 6 (3.49%) Mac OS
7 6 (3.49%) Windows Server 2008
7 6 (3.49%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (3.49%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (2.91%) Windows Server 2003
9 3 (1.74%) Mac OS X
9 3 (1.74%) VMS
10 2 (1.16%) Linux
11 1 (0.58%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (28.49%) ITIL
2 43 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
3 36 (20.93%) Customer Service
4 30 (17.44%) Service Management
5 29 (16.86%) ITSM
6 23 (13.37%) Mobile Device Management
7 15 (8.72%) Asset Management
8 11 (6.40%) Patch Management
9 10 (5.81%) Service Delivery
10 8 (4.65%) Incident Management
10 8 (4.65%) Time Management
11 6 (3.49%) Business Intelligence
11 6 (3.49%) Digital Marketing
11 6 (3.49%) Mentoring
11 6 (3.49%) Proactive Maintenance
11 6 (3.49%) Problem Management
11 6 (3.49%) Programme Management
11 6 (3.49%) Project Delivery
12 5 (2.91%) Business Case
12 5 (2.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 4 (2.33%) SQL
2 2 (1.16%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 37 (21.51%) Security Cleared
2 27 (15.70%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.72%) Degree
4 9 (5.23%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (3.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 5 (2.91%) DV Cleared
7 4 (2.33%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.74%) DBS Check
9 2 (1.16%) A+ Certification
10 1 (0.58%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.58%) CCNA
10 1 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.58%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.81%) SLA
2 2 (1.16%) QA
3 1 (0.58%) Accessibility
System Software
1 85 (49.42%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.65%) vSphere
3 7 (4.07%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (3.49%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (1.16%) XenApp
6 1 (0.58%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 27 (15.70%) SCCM
2 19 (11.05%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (3.49%) SCOM
4 2 (1.16%) AppManager
4 2 (1.16%) McAfee ePO
4 2 (1.16%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.58%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.58%) WSUS
Vendors
1 87 (50.58%) Microsoft
2 32 (18.60%) ServiceNow
3 30 (17.44%) Citrix
4 17 (9.88%) Sage
5 11 (6.40%) Apple
6 10 (5.81%) VMware
7 8 (4.65%) Juniper
7 8 (4.65%) SolarWinds
8 7 (4.07%) Canon
8 7 (4.07%) Cisco
9 6 (3.49%) SAP
10 4 (2.33%) Dell
10 4 (2.33%) Google
10 4 (2.33%) Remedy
11 3 (1.74%) Adobe
11 3 (1.74%) HP
11 3 (1.74%) Zscaler
12 2 (1.16%) ConnectWise
12 2 (1.16%) ESET
12 2 (1.16%) Okta