2nd Line Support Contracts

Second Line Support
UK

The median Second Line Support daily rate in the UK is £200 according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 1 June 2024.

The first table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

 6 months to
1 Jun 2024		 Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 368 346 345
Rank change year-on-year -22 -1 +154
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 215 382 677
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.50% 0.68% 0.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.54% 0.72% 0.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 166 261 461
10th Percentile £150 £160 £143
25th Percentile £176 £181 £159
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £201 £190
Median % change year-on-year -0.25% +5.53% +9.35%
75th Percentile £238 £265 £240
90th Percentile £300 £330 £300
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £200 £180
% change year-on-year - +11.11% +10.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 26 90
10th Percentile £14.27 £16.25 £15.23
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.50 £16.28
Median hourly rate £17.61 £20.21 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.86% -6.00% +22.86%
75th Percentile £21.05 £25.53 £23.91
90th Percentile £23.99 £29.50 £28.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £19.50 £18.00
% change year-on-year -10.26% +8.33% +12.50%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes 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 39,969 53,015 83,520
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.83% 94.58% 95.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,870 37,031 58,844
10th Percentile £280 £313 £315
25th Percentile £409 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £540 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% +7.69%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -2.50% +5.26% +10.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,841 1,476 1,963
10th Percentile £12.86 £14.25 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.30 £19.06 £15.90
Median hourly rate £37.50 £45.00 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +83.67% +12.28%
75th Percentile £61.60 £65.75 £49.33
90th Percentile £73.75 £76.13 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £42.50 £20.00
% change year-on-year -5.88% +112.50% +5.26%

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
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 1 June 2024.

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
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 1 June 2024. 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 -29 203 £200 -1.96% 98
UK excluding London -50 150 £200 - 89
London +48 64 £200 -4.76% 15
Midlands +47 57 £200 -25.93% 10
West Midlands +39 41 £200 +14.29% 4
North of England +5 28 £190 -5.00% 19
South East -55 25 £205 -0.04% 29
Work from Home +49 22 £225 +10.29% 37
South West -14 21 £190 -15.56% 15
East Midlands +13 16 £210 -40.00% 6
Yorkshire +16 14 £190 -2.56% 7
North West +7 11 £195 -2.50% 10
Scotland +28 8 £195 +11.43% 7
East of England -15 8 £213 +13.33% 8
North East +10 3 £195 +17.29% 2
Northern Ireland +3 2 £145 -
Wales +13 1 £135 -32.50% 2

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

For the 6 months to 1 June 2024, 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.

1 138 (64.19%) Windows
2 119 (55.35%) Microsoft
3 101 (46.98%) Active Directory
4 99 (46.05%) Microsoft 365
5 85 (39.53%) Social Skills
6 67 (31.16%) Windows 10
7 65 (30.23%) Microsoft Office
8 51 (23.72%) SCCM
9 46 (21.40%) Customer Service
10 40 (18.60%) Azure
11 37 (17.21%) Microsoft Intune
12 33 (15.35%) Microsoft Exchange
12 33 (15.35%) Problem-Solving
13 31 (14.42%) Security Cleared
13 31 (14.42%) WAN
14 30 (13.95%) ITIL
15 26 (12.09%) Degree
16 25 (11.63%) VPN
17 23 (10.70%) Analytical Skills
18 22 (10.23%) VMware
19 21 (9.77%) TCP/IP
19 21 (9.77%) Apple
19 21 (9.77%) Windows Server
20 20 (9.30%) SLA
20 20 (9.30%) SC Cleared
21 19 (8.84%) DNS
22 18 (8.37%) LAN
22 18 (8.37%) VMware Infrastructure
23 17 (7.91%) Firewall
23 17 (7.91%) Finance

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 33 (15.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 16 (7.44%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 65 (30.23%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.93%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 99 (46.05%) Microsoft 365
2 40 (18.60%) Azure
3 13 (6.05%) OneDrive
4 4 (1.86%) Asana
4 4 (1.86%) Entra ID
4 4 (1.86%) Slack
4 4 (1.86%) WhatsApp
5 3 (1.40%) AWS
6 2 (0.93%) Google Workspace
6 2 (0.93%) Power Platform
7 1 (0.47%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.47%) Yammer
Communications & Networking
1 31 (14.42%) WAN
2 25 (11.63%) VPN
3 21 (9.77%) TCP/IP
4 19 (8.84%) DNS
5 18 (8.37%) LAN
6 17 (7.91%) Firewall
7 16 (7.44%) Wi-Fi
8 15 (6.98%) VLAN
9 14 (6.51%) BGP
9 14 (6.51%) IPsec
9 14 (6.51%) MPLS
10 11 (5.12%) VoIP
11 9 (4.19%) Wireless
12 8 (3.72%) DHCP
12 8 (3.72%) SD-WAN
13 6 (2.79%) Remote Desktop
14 4 (1.86%) Internet
15 3 (1.40%) Ethernet
15 3 (1.40%) Junos
15 3 (1.40%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.93%) Power BI
2 1 (0.47%) DTS
Development Applications
1 10 (4.65%) JIRA
General
1 85 (39.53%) Social Skills
2 23 (10.70%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (7.91%) Finance
4 16 (7.44%) Public Sector
5 10 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.72%) Banking
6 8 (3.72%) Marketing
6 8 (3.72%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (3.26%) Manufacturing
7 7 (3.26%) Telecoms
8 6 (2.79%) Law
9 5 (2.33%) Legal
9 5 (2.33%) Pharmaceutical
10 4 (1.86%) French Language
11 3 (1.40%) Advertising
12 2 (0.93%) Automotive
12 2 (0.93%) Billing
12 2 (0.93%) Electronics
12 2 (0.93%) Financial Institution
12 2 (0.93%) Multimedia
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.40%) Middleware
1 3 (1.40%) XMPP
2 1 (0.47%) .NET
2 1 (0.47%) CSS
2 1 (0.47%) Rendezvous
2 1 (0.47%) TIBCO EMS
2 1 (0.47%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (6.51%) PKI
2 12 (5.58%) Driving Licence
3 9 (4.19%) iPad
3 9 (4.19%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (3.72%) Clustering
5 7 (3.26%) Management Information System
6 6 (2.79%) Smartphone
6 6 (2.79%) Video Conferencing
7 5 (2.33%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.40%) iPhone
8 3 (1.40%) NHS
9 2 (0.93%) Data Centre
9 2 (0.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (0.93%) PDA
9 2 (0.93%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.47%) BYOD
10 1 (0.47%) Digital Signage
10 1 (0.47%) Photography
10 1 (0.47%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 138 (64.19%) Windows
2 67 (31.16%) Windows 10
3 21 (9.77%) Windows Server
4 15 (6.98%) Mac OS
5 13 (6.05%) Windows Server 2012
5 13 (6.05%) Windows Server 2019
6 10 (4.65%) Apple iOS
7 9 (4.19%) Windows Server 2016
8 8 (3.72%) Android
8 8 (3.72%) Linux
9 5 (2.33%) Windows 7
10 3 (1.40%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.93%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.47%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.47%) Unix
12 1 (0.47%) VMS
12 1 (0.47%) Windows Vista
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (21.40%) Customer Service
2 33 (15.35%) Problem-Solving
3 30 (13.95%) ITIL
4 15 (6.98%) Asset Management
4 15 (6.98%) Mobile Device Management
5 12 (5.58%) Service Delivery
6 11 (5.12%) Incident Management
7 10 (4.65%) Service Management
8 9 (4.19%) Cybersecurity
8 9 (4.19%) Proactive Monitoring
9 8 (3.72%) Decision-Making
10 7 (3.26%) ITSM
10 7 (3.26%) PRINCE2
11 6 (2.79%) Collaborative Working
11 6 (2.79%) Migration
11 6 (2.79%) Quality Management
11 6 (2.79%) Ticket Management
12 5 (2.33%) Network Monitoring
12 5 (2.33%) Patch Management
12 5 (2.33%) Security Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 13 (6.05%) PowerShell
2 4 (1.86%) JavaScript
2 4 (1.86%) Python
3 1 (0.47%) SQL
Qualifications
1 31 (14.42%) Security Cleared
2 26 (12.09%) Degree
3 20 (9.30%) SC Cleared
4 10 (4.65%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (2.79%) A+ Certification
6 5 (2.33%) CCNA
6 5 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (2.33%) DV Cleared
6 5 (2.33%) MCSA
7 4 (1.86%) DBS Check
7 4 (1.86%) MCSE
8 3 (1.40%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (1.40%) MCP
9 2 (0.93%) MCITP
10 1 (0.47%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 1 (0.47%) CISA
10 1 (0.47%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (9.30%) SLA
2 5 (2.33%) ISO 9000
3 2 (0.93%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 101 (46.98%) Active Directory
2 18 (8.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (4.19%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.86%) vSphere
5 2 (0.93%) Terminal Services
5 2 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.47%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 51 (23.72%) SCCM
2 37 (17.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (4.65%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (4.19%) Autotask
5 8 (3.72%) Failover Clustering
6 4 (1.86%) Nessus
6 4 (1.86%) WSUS
7 3 (1.40%) AppManager
8 2 (0.93%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 1 (0.47%) ITRS Geneos
9 1 (0.47%) PaperCut
Vendors
1 119 (55.35%) Microsoft
2 22 (10.23%) VMware
3 21 (9.77%) Apple
4 16 (7.44%) Cisco
5 14 (6.51%) Juniper
6 10 (4.65%) ServiceNow
7 6 (2.79%) Datto
8 5 (2.33%) Dell
9 4 (1.86%) Citrix
9 4 (1.86%) Fujitsu
9 4 (1.86%) Palo Alto
9 4 (1.86%) Qualys
9 4 (1.86%) Zscaler
10 3 (1.40%) Avaya
10 3 (1.40%) Ivanti
10 3 (1.40%) NetApp
10 3 (1.40%) Remedy
10 3 (1.40%) SAP
11 2 (0.93%) Google
11 2 (0.93%) HP
109 2nd Line Support jobs Nationwide