1st Line Support Contract Job Trends in England

First Line Support
UK > England

The median First Line Support daily rate in England is £138, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 March 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 412 408 390
Rank change year-on-year -4 -18 +30
Contract jobs requiring a 1st Line Support 159 80 166
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.44% 0.32% 0.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.48% 0.34% 0.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 47 94
10th Percentile £117 £133 £111
25th Percentile £133 £150 £125
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £138 £180 £150
Median % change year-on-year -23.61% +20.00% -6.25%
75th Percentile £174 £220 £165
90th Percentile £200 £250 £188
UK median daily rate £138 £175 £150
% change year-on-year -21.43% +16.67% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 17 16
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.30 £14.17
25th Percentile £15.18 £12.50 £14.25
Median hourly rate £20.00 £18.19 £16.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.95% +10.24% -10.81%
75th Percentile £20.71 £20.69 £17.63
90th Percentile £21.00 £21.91 £18.88
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £18.16 £16.50
% change year-on-year +10.13% +10.06% -10.81%

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. 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 England with a recognized job title 33,262 23,431 35,260
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.04% 93.02% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,022 15,153 23,567
10th Percentile £306 £300 £270
25th Percentile £412 £409 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £747
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,172 769 2,276
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.44 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.14 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.71 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +2.03% +7.69% -21.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.61
90th Percentile £75.71 £77.25 £71.81
UK median hourly rate £34.50 £33.40 £32.50
% change year-on-year +3.29% +2.77% -19.93%

1st Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring '1st Line Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

1st Line Support job vacancy trend in England

1st Line Support
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 1st Line Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 1st Line Support job vacancies in England

1st Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 1st Line Support in England over the 6 months to 8 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 1st Line Support in England

1st Line Support
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 1st Line Support job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 1st Line Support job vacancies in England

1st Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 1st Line Support in England over the 6 months to 8 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for 1st Line Support in England

1st Line Support
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 1st Line Support within the England region over the 6 months to 8 March 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
North of England -20 62 £135 -13.60% 17
North West -5 41 £135 -3.57% 14
South East -26 31 £165 -62.07% 20
Midlands -52 23 £167 -7.50% 6
Yorkshire -45 21 £135 -37.84%
London -44 17 £200 +33.33% 10
South West -14 16 £175 -18.60% 3
West Midlands -48 12 £167 -16.75% 3
East Midlands -22 11 £158 -4.55% 3
East of England -22 10 - - 3
1st Line Support
UK

1st Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 8 March 2026, 1st 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 across the England region featuring 1st Line Support in the job title.

1 97 (61.01%) Customer Service
2 70 (44.03%) Windows
3 60 (37.74%) Microsoft 365
4 58 (36.48%) Microsoft
5 43 (27.04%) Windows 10
6 37 (23.27%) Problem-Solving
7 33 (20.75%) Active Directory
8 27 (16.98%) ServiceNow
9 26 (16.35%) Azure
10 20 (12.58%) VPN
11 19 (11.95%) Degree
11 19 (11.95%) Microsoft Exchange
12 16 (10.06%) ITSM
13 15 (9.43%) Bomgar
13 15 (9.43%) iManage
13 15 (9.43%) Microsoft Office
13 15 (9.43%) Security Cleared
14 14 (8.81%) Cisco
14 14 (8.81%) Service Delivery
15 12 (7.55%) Microsoft Intune
15 12 (7.55%) SC Cleared
15 12 (7.55%) SharePoint
16 11 (6.92%) Citrix
16 11 (6.92%) Data Protection
16 11 (6.92%) Information Security
17 10 (6.29%) AI
17 10 (6.29%) Generative AI
17 10 (6.29%) ITIL
17 10 (6.29%) Performance Metrics
17 10 (6.29%) Remedy

1st Line Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 19 (11.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (7.55%) SharePoint
Applications
1 15 (9.43%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.26%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 10 (6.29%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 60 (37.74%) Microsoft 365
2 26 (16.35%) Azure
3 6 (3.77%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.52%) OneDrive
5 2 (1.26%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.63%) AWS
6 1 (0.63%) GCP
6 1 (0.63%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 20 (12.58%) VPN
2 10 (6.29%) Skype
3 7 (4.40%) TCP/IP
3 7 (4.40%) Wi-Fi
4 5 (3.14%) Internet
5 4 (2.52%) DNS
6 2 (1.26%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.63%) Firewall
7 1 (0.63%) Network Security
7 1 (0.63%) VoIP
Development Applications
1 3 (1.89%) JIRA
General
1 76 (47.80%) Social Skills
2 23 (14.47%) Legal
3 22 (13.84%) Organisational Skills
4 21 (13.21%) Public Sector
5 10 (6.29%) Banking
5 10 (6.29%) Finance
5 10 (6.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (5.66%) Analytical Skills
7 2 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.63%) Law
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.66%) Data Centre
2 5 (3.14%) NHS
3 4 (2.52%) Onboarding
4 3 (1.89%) Video Conferencing
5 1 (0.63%) iPhone
5 1 (0.63%) Security Posture
5 1 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 70 (44.03%) Windows
2 43 (27.04%) Windows 10
3 2 (1.26%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.63%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (61.01%) Customer Service
2 37 (23.27%) Problem-Solving
3 16 (10.06%) ITSM
4 14 (8.81%) Service Delivery
5 11 (6.92%) Data Protection
5 11 (6.92%) Information Security
6 10 (6.29%) AI
6 10 (6.29%) Generative AI
6 10 (6.29%) ITIL
6 10 (6.29%) Performance Metrics
7 7 (4.40%) Computer Science
8 6 (3.77%) High Availability
9 5 (3.14%) Agile
9 5 (3.14%) Collaborative Working
9 5 (3.14%) Server Management
10 4 (2.52%) Asset Management
10 4 (2.52%) Mobile Device Management
10 4 (2.52%) Proactive Monitoring
10 4 (2.52%) Remote Monitoring and Management
11 3 (1.89%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.63%) Bash
1 1 (0.63%) PowerShell
1 1 (0.63%) Python
Qualifications
1 19 (11.95%) Degree
2 15 (9.43%) Security Cleared
3 12 (7.55%) SC Cleared
4 7 (4.40%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (1.26%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.63%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (0.63%) CEH
6 1 (0.63%) CISM
6 1 (0.63%) CISSP
6 1 (0.63%) CompTIA Security+
6 1 (0.63%) DBS Check
6 1 (0.63%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (0.63%) Accessibility
1 1 (0.63%) GDPR
1 1 (0.63%) HIPAA
1 1 (0.63%) NIST
1 1 (0.63%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 33 (20.75%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 12 (7.55%) Microsoft Intune
2 5 (3.14%) SCCM
3 2 (1.26%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 58 (36.48%) Microsoft
2 27 (16.98%) ServiceNow
3 15 (9.43%) Bomgar
3 15 (9.43%) iManage
4 14 (8.81%) Cisco
5 11 (6.92%) Citrix
6 10 (6.29%) Remedy
7 4 (2.52%) Datto
7 4 (2.52%) Netskope
8 1 (0.63%) Apple
8 1 (0.63%) Computacenter
8 1 (0.63%) Dell
8 1 (0.63%) F5
8 1 (0.63%) Google
8 1 (0.63%) Logitech