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 9 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
9 Jun 2024		 Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 393 357 352
Rank change year-on-year -36 -5 +141
Contract jobs requiring a 2nd Line Support 214 374 675
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.49% 0.67% 0.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.53% 0.71% 0.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 165 258 458
10th Percentile £150 £162 £145
25th Percentile £175 £181 £159
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £200 £201 £190
Median % change year-on-year -0.25% +5.53% +10.14%
75th Percentile £238 £269 £240
90th Percentile £300 £332 £293
UK excluding London median daily rate £200 £200 £180
% change year-on-year -0.12% +11.25% +10.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 25 92
10th Percentile £14.27 £16.10 £15.25
25th Percentile £17.19 £17.50 £16.25
Median hourly rate £17.61 £20.00 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.95% -6.98% +22.86%
75th Percentile £21.05 £25.71 £23.91
90th Percentile £23.99 £29.80 £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 40,232 52,519 83,570
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.87% 94.52% 95.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,887 36,654 58,907
10th Percentile £280 £313 £315
25th Percentile £408 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £540 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% +2.86% +6.60%
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% +8.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,899 1,488 1,954
10th Percentile £12.86 £14.25 £12.60
25th Percentile £16.30 £19.39 £15.90
Median hourly rate £37.50 £45.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +80.00% +16.28%
75th Percentile £61.88 £65.75 £49.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £76.33 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £42.50 £20.00
% change year-on-year -5.88% +112.50% +7.17%

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 9 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 9 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 -18 202 £200 -1.96% 99
UK excluding London -40 151 £200 -0.12% 87
London +38 62 £200 -4.76% 15
Midlands +46 59 £200 -11.11% 9
West Midlands +38 42 £200 +14.29% 4
North of England +8 26 £190 -5.00% 24
South East -48 25 £205 -2.38% 27
Work from Home +53 24 £250 +22.25% 34
South West -6 21 £190 -16.48% 11
East Midlands +12 17 £210 -35.38% 5
Yorkshire +10 14 £190 -2.56% 11
North West -2 10 £200 - 10
East of England -18 9 £225 +20.00% 10
Scotland +33 8 £195 +4.00% 6
North East +13 2 £195 +36.84% 3
Northern Ireland +3 2 £145 -
Wales +13 1 £135 -32.50% 1

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 136 (63.55%) Windows
2 116 (54.21%) Microsoft
3 100 (46.73%) Active Directory
4 98 (45.79%) Microsoft 365
5 84 (39.25%) Social Skills
6 66 (30.84%) Windows 10
7 63 (29.44%) Microsoft Office
8 49 (22.90%) SCCM
9 43 (20.09%) Customer Service
10 39 (18.22%) Azure
11 35 (16.36%) Microsoft Intune
12 33 (15.42%) Problem-Solving
13 31 (14.49%) Microsoft Exchange
14 30 (14.02%) WAN
15 29 (13.55%) Security Cleared
16 28 (13.08%) ITIL
17 26 (12.15%) VPN
18 25 (11.68%) Degree
19 22 (10.28%) Analytical Skills
19 22 (10.28%) VMware
20 21 (9.81%) TCP/IP
21 20 (9.35%) SLA
22 19 (8.88%) Apple
22 19 (8.88%) DNS
22 19 (8.88%) SC Cleared
22 19 (8.88%) Windows Server
23 18 (8.41%) VMware Infrastructure
23 18 (8.41%) LAN
24 17 (7.94%) Firewall
24 17 (7.94%) Wi-Fi

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 31 (14.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 16 (7.48%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 63 (29.44%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.21%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.93%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) assyst
Cloud Services
1 98 (45.79%) Microsoft 365
2 39 (18.22%) Azure
3 12 (5.61%) OneDrive
4 4 (1.87%) Asana
4 4 (1.87%) Entra ID
4 4 (1.87%) Slack
4 4 (1.87%) 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 30 (14.02%) WAN
2 26 (12.15%) VPN
3 21 (9.81%) TCP/IP
4 19 (8.88%) DNS
5 18 (8.41%) LAN
6 17 (7.94%) Firewall
6 17 (7.94%) Wi-Fi
7 15 (7.01%) VLAN
8 13 (6.07%) BGP
8 13 (6.07%) IPsec
8 13 (6.07%) MPLS
9 12 (5.61%) VoIP
10 9 (4.21%) Wireless
11 8 (3.74%) DHCP
11 8 (3.74%) SD-WAN
12 7 (3.27%) Remote Desktop
13 4 (1.87%) Internet
14 3 (1.40%) Ethernet
14 3 (1.40%) Junos
14 3 (1.40%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.93%) Power BI
2 1 (0.47%) DTS
Development Applications
1 10 (4.67%) JIRA
General
1 84 (39.25%) Social Skills
2 22 (10.28%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (7.94%) Finance
3 17 (7.94%) Public Sector
4 10 (4.67%) Documentation Skills
5 8 (3.74%) Banking
5 8 (3.74%) Manufacturing
5 8 (3.74%) Marketing
5 8 (3.74%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (3.74%) Telecoms
6 6 (2.80%) Law
7 5 (2.34%) Pharmaceutical
8 4 (1.87%) French Language
8 4 (1.87%) Legal
9 3 (1.40%) Advertising
10 2 (0.93%) Automotive
10 2 (0.93%) Billing
10 2 (0.93%) Electronics
10 2 (0.93%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.93%) Local Government
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 13 (6.07%) PKI
2 12 (5.61%) Driving Licence
3 9 (4.21%) iPad
3 9 (4.21%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (3.74%) Clustering
5 7 (3.27%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.34%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.34%) Video Conferencing
7 4 (1.87%) iPhone
7 4 (1.87%) Smartphone
8 3 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.40%) NHS
9 2 (0.93%) Chip and PIN
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%) Digital Signage
10 1 (0.47%) Photography
10 1 (0.47%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 136 (63.55%) Windows
2 66 (30.84%) Windows 10
3 19 (8.88%) Windows Server
4 14 (6.54%) Mac OS
5 13 (6.07%) Windows Server 2012
5 13 (6.07%) Windows Server 2019
6 9 (4.21%) Android
6 9 (4.21%) Apple iOS
6 9 (4.21%) Linux
6 9 (4.21%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (2.34%) Windows 7
8 3 (1.40%) Windows Server 2008
9 2 (0.93%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.47%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.47%) Unix
10 1 (0.47%) VMS
10 1 (0.47%) Windows Vista
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (20.09%) Customer Service
2 33 (15.42%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (13.08%) ITIL
4 16 (7.48%) Mobile Device Management
5 14 (6.54%) Asset Management
6 13 (6.07%) Service Delivery
7 11 (5.14%) Incident Management
8 10 (4.67%) Cybersecurity
9 9 (4.21%) Proactive Monitoring
9 9 (4.21%) Service Management
10 8 (3.74%) Decision-Making
11 7 (3.27%) PRINCE2
11 7 (3.27%) Ticket Management
12 6 (2.80%) Collaborative Working
12 6 (2.80%) ITSM
12 6 (2.80%) Migration
12 6 (2.80%) Quality Management
13 5 (2.34%) Investment Management
13 5 (2.34%) Network Monitoring
13 5 (2.34%) Security Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 13 (6.07%) PowerShell
2 4 (1.87%) JavaScript
2 4 (1.87%) Python
3 2 (0.93%) SQL
Qualifications
1 29 (13.55%) Security Cleared
2 25 (11.68%) Degree
3 19 (8.88%) SC Cleared
4 10 (4.67%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (2.80%) A+ Certification
6 5 (2.34%) CCNA
6 5 (2.34%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (2.34%) DV Cleared
6 5 (2.34%) MCSA
7 4 (1.87%) DBS Check
7 4 (1.87%) MCSE
8 3 (1.40%) MCP
9 2 (0.93%) ITIL Certification
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 (9.35%) SLA
2 5 (2.34%) ISO 9000
3 2 (0.93%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 100 (46.73%) Active Directory
2 18 (8.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (4.21%) Hyper-V
4 4 (1.87%) vSphere
5 2 (0.93%) Terminal Services
5 2 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.47%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 49 (22.90%) SCCM
2 35 (16.36%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (4.67%) Jamf Pro
4 9 (4.21%) Autotask
5 8 (3.74%) Failover Clustering
6 4 (1.87%) Nessus
6 4 (1.87%) WSUS
7 3 (1.40%) AppManager
8 1 (0.47%) ITRS Geneos
8 1 (0.47%) PaperCut
8 1 (0.47%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 116 (54.21%) Microsoft
2 22 (10.28%) VMware
3 19 (8.88%) Apple
4 16 (7.48%) Cisco
5 13 (6.07%) Juniper
6 12 (5.61%) ServiceNow
7 6 (2.80%) Datto
8 5 (2.34%) Citrix
8 5 (2.34%) Dell
9 4 (1.87%) Avaya
9 4 (1.87%) Fujitsu
9 4 (1.87%) Palo Alto
9 4 (1.87%) Qualys
9 4 (1.87%) Zscaler
10 3 (1.40%) Ivanti
10 3 (1.40%) NetApp
10 3 (1.40%) Remedy
10 3 (1.40%) SAP
11 2 (0.93%) BT
11 2 (0.93%) HP
107 2nd Line Support jobs Nationwide