1st Line Support Contracts

First Line Support
UK

The median First Line Support daily rate in the UK is £180, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 423 412 472
Rank change year-on-year -11 +60 +39
Contract jobs requiring a 1st Line Support 97 172 250
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.33% 0.39% 0.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.36% 0.43% 0.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 41 86 176
10th Percentile £113 £110 £121
25th Percentile £133 £123 £131
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £180 £145 £150
Median % change year-on-year +24.14% -3.49% +3.62%
75th Percentile £220 £169 £194
90th Percentile £350 £180 £250
UK excluding London median daily rate £178 £150 £150
% change year-on-year +18.33% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 21 27
10th Percentile £12.50 £14.13 £14.80
25th Percentile £13.25 £14.25 £15.88
Median hourly rate £18.82 £16.50 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.06% -10.81% +19.35%
75th Percentile £20.69 £17.80 £20.00
90th Percentile £23.30 £18.75 £22.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.82 £16.50 £18.50
% change year-on-year +14.06% -10.81% +19.35%

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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

1st Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured 1st Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 1st Line Support.

Daily rate trend for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 1st Line Support over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 1st Line Support.

Hourly rate trend for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 1st Line Support over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Top 16 Contract Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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 95 £180 +25.00% 68
UK excluding London +8 84 £178 +18.33% 59
North of England +26 32 £140 +1.82% 15
Midlands +14 19 £131 -12.50% 14
Work from Home +29 14 £215 +50.88% 19
North West +23 14 £135 +1.12% 9
London +21 13 £220 +52.78% 12
South East +13 13 £435 +163.64% 22
Yorkshire +6 13 £269 +102.83% 3
East of England +34 11 £175 +36.37% 5
West Midlands +3 10 £113 -25.00% 3
East Midlands +13 9 £180 +38.46% 11
South West +37 7 £220 +41.94% 3
North East +3 5 - - 3
Wales 0 1 - -
Scotland -1 1 - - 1

1st Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, 1st 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 1st Line Support in the job title.

1 53 (54.64%) Social Skills
1 53 (54.64%) Customer Service
2 49 (50.52%) Windows
3 43 (44.33%) Microsoft 365
4 41 (42.27%) Microsoft
5 36 (37.11%) Active Directory
6 31 (31.96%) Problem-Solving
7 28 (28.87%) ITIL
7 28 (28.87%) ServiceNow
8 25 (25.77%) ITSM
9 22 (22.68%) Microsoft Office
10 21 (21.65%) Service Management
11 19 (19.59%) Windows 10
11 19 (19.59%) iPhone
12 15 (15.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 14 (14.43%) Microsoft Exchange
14 13 (13.40%) Proactive Maintenance
15 12 (12.37%) Incident Management
15 12 (12.37%) Apple iOS
15 12 (12.37%) Entra ID
16 11 (11.34%) Self-Motivation
16 11 (11.34%) Nexthink
17 10 (10.31%) MobileIron
17 10 (10.31%) iPad
17 10 (10.31%) Google Workspace
17 10 (10.31%) Google
17 10 (10.31%) Apple
18 9 (9.28%) Retail
18 9 (9.28%) Mobile Device Management
18 9 (9.28%) Mac OS

1st 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 14 (14.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (2.06%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.03%) IBM Notes
Applications
1 22 (22.68%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (1.03%) assyst
1 1 (1.03%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 43 (44.33%) Microsoft 365
2 12 (12.37%) Entra ID
3 10 (10.31%) Google Workspace
4 7 (7.22%) Azure
5 1 (1.03%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (1.03%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 7 (7.22%) VPN
2 3 (3.09%) LAN
2 3 (3.09%) Remote Desktop
2 3 (3.09%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (2.06%) TCP/IP
3 2 (2.06%) WAN
4 1 (1.03%) VLAN
Development Applications
1 3 (3.09%) Hudson
General
1 53 (54.64%) Social Skills
2 15 (15.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 9 (9.28%) Retail
4 5 (5.15%) Finance
4 5 (5.15%) Organisational Skills
4 5 (5.15%) Public Sector
4 5 (5.15%) Telecoms
5 4 (4.12%) Law
6 2 (2.06%) Back Office
6 2 (2.06%) Banking
7 1 (1.03%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (1.03%) Electronics
7 1 (1.03%) Local Government
7 1 (1.03%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.03%) Marketing
7 1 (1.03%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.03%) Spanish Language
Miscellaneous
1 19 (19.59%) iPhone
2 11 (11.34%) Self-Motivation
3 10 (10.31%) iPad
4 8 (8.25%) Smartphone
5 3 (3.09%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.03%) Driving Licence
6 1 (1.03%) EPoS
6 1 (1.03%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (1.03%) IoT
6 1 (1.03%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 49 (50.52%) Windows
2 19 (19.59%) Windows 10
3 12 (12.37%) Apple iOS
4 9 (9.28%) Mac OS
5 6 (6.19%) Android
6 3 (3.09%) Windows 7
7 1 (1.03%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (54.64%) Customer Service
2 31 (31.96%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (28.87%) ITIL
4 25 (25.77%) ITSM
5 21 (21.65%) Service Management
6 13 (13.40%) Proactive Maintenance
7 12 (12.37%) Incident Management
8 9 (9.28%) Mobile Device Management
9 6 (6.19%) Service Delivery
9 6 (6.19%) Software Licensing
10 3 (3.09%) Asset Management
10 3 (3.09%) Business Continuity
10 3 (3.09%) Customer Experience
10 3 (3.09%) Disaster Recovery
10 3 (3.09%) Project Management
10 3 (3.09%) Wealth Management
11 1 (1.03%) Digital Marketing
11 1 (1.03%) Proactive Monitoring
11 1 (1.03%) Regulatory Compliance
11 1 (1.03%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 1 (1.03%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 7 (7.22%) SC Cleared
1 7 (7.22%) Security Cleared
2 6 (6.19%) DV Cleared
3 4 (4.12%) DBS Check
3 4 (4.12%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.12%) SLA
System Software
1 36 (37.11%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 8 (8.25%) Jamf Pro
2 5 (5.15%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (1.03%) SCCM
Vendors
1 41 (42.27%) Microsoft
2 28 (28.87%) ServiceNow
3 11 (11.34%) Nexthink
4 10 (10.31%) Apple
4 10 (10.31%) Google
4 10 (10.31%) MobileIron
5 4 (4.12%) Bomgar
5 4 (4.12%) iManage
6 2 (2.06%) Dell
7 1 (1.03%) Bloomberg
7 1 (1.03%) Cisco
7 1 (1.03%) Citrix
7 1 (1.03%) Lotus
7 1 (1.03%) Oracle
7 1 (1.03%) SAP
7 1 (1.03%) ZyXEL
70 1st Line Support jobs Nationwide