1st Line Support Job Trends in the North West

First Line Support
England > North West

The median First Line Support salary in the North West is £25,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 29 December 2025.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 161 194 181
Rank change year-on-year +33 -13 +92
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st Line Support 23 14 10
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.37% 0.27% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.29% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 23 12 10
10th Percentile £22,625 £22,750 £20,050
25th Percentile £23,563 £22,938 £21,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £25,000 £26,125 £22,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.31% +18.75% -12.00%
75th Percentile £27,063 £30,063 £24,250
90th Percentile £27,500 £35,200 £24,700
England median annual salary £26,250 £26,000 £25,000
% change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -

All Permanent IT Job Roles
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the North West with a recognized job title 5,290 4,836 3,714
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 85.82% 92.95% 95.45%
Number of salaries quoted 2,845 2,568 2,882
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £51,238 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% -2.40% -
75th Percentile £65,640 £66,067 £68,684
90th Percentile £80,000 £79,720 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.64%

1st Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

1st Line Support job vacancy trend in the North West

1st Line Support
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for 1st Line Support job vacancies in the North West.

Salary distribution trend for 1st Line Support job vacancies in the North West

1st Line Support
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 1st Line Support within the North West region over the 6 months to 29 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Lancashire - 14 £24,750 - 3
Manchester +28 8 £27,000 -3.57% 2
Merseyside -2 1 £26,000 -13.33% 6
1st Line Support
England

1st Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 29 December 2025, 1st Line Support 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 permanent job ads across the North West region featuring 1st Line Support in the job title.

1 14 (60.87%) Problem-Solving
2 11 (47.83%) Customer Service
3 9 (39.13%) Firewall
3 9 (39.13%) Microsoft
3 9 (39.13%) Microsoft 365
3 9 (39.13%) WAN
3 9 (39.13%) Windows
4 7 (30.43%) Business Intelligence
4 7 (30.43%) ITSM
5 6 (26.09%) Coaching
5 6 (26.09%) DHCP
5 6 (26.09%) Disaster Recovery
5 6 (26.09%) DNS
5 6 (26.09%) LAN
5 6 (26.09%) Mac OS
5 6 (26.09%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (26.09%) Power BI
5 6 (26.09%) Power Platform
5 6 (26.09%) PowerShell
5 6 (26.09%) Service Delivery
5 6 (26.09%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (21.74%) CRM
6 5 (21.74%) Customer-Centricity
6 5 (21.74%) Time Management
7 3 (13.04%) Active Directory
7 3 (13.04%) Autotask
7 3 (13.04%) Azure
7 3 (13.04%) ESET
7 3 (13.04%) Google
7 3 (13.04%) Google Workspace

1st Line Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 3 (13.04%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (13.04%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 9 (39.13%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (26.09%) Power Platform
3 3 (13.04%) Azure
3 3 (13.04%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 9 (39.13%) Firewall
1 9 (39.13%) WAN
2 6 (26.09%) DHCP
2 6 (26.09%) DNS
2 6 (26.09%) LAN
3 3 (13.04%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (26.09%) Power BI
General
1 12 (52.17%) Social Skills
2 5 (21.74%) Pharmaceutical
3 4 (17.39%) Organisational Skills
4 1 (4.35%) Electronics
4 1 (4.35%) Finance
4 1 (4.35%) Fire and Rescue
4 1 (4.35%) Manufacturing
4 1 (4.35%) Marketing
4 1 (4.35%) Police
4 1 (4.35%) Public Sector
4 1 (4.35%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 5 (21.74%) EPoS
2 1 (4.35%) Driving Licence
2 1 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 9 (39.13%) Windows
2 6 (26.09%) Mac OS
3 3 (13.04%) Windows 10
3 3 (13.04%) Windows 7
3 3 (13.04%) Windows 8
3 3 (13.04%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (60.87%) Problem-Solving
2 11 (47.83%) Customer Service
3 7 (30.43%) Business Intelligence
3 7 (30.43%) ITSM
4 6 (26.09%) Coaching
4 6 (26.09%) Disaster Recovery
4 6 (26.09%) Service Delivery
4 6 (26.09%) Stakeholder Management
5 5 (21.74%) CRM
5 5 (21.74%) Customer-Centricity
5 5 (21.74%) Time Management
6 3 (13.04%) ITIL
6 3 (13.04%) Proactive Maintenance
6 3 (13.04%) Remote Monitoring and Management
6 3 (13.04%) Service Management
7 1 (4.35%) Digital Marketing
7 1 (4.35%) Mentoring
7 1 (4.35%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (26.09%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 1 (4.35%) A+ Certification
1 1 (4.35%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.35%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (13.04%) Active Directory
1 3 (13.04%) Hyper-V
1 3 (13.04%) VMware Infrastructure
1 3 (13.04%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 6 (26.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (13.04%) Autotask
2 3 (13.04%) SCCM
Vendors
1 9 (39.13%) Microsoft
2 3 (13.04%) ESET
2 3 (13.04%) Google
2 3 (13.04%) VMware
3 1 (4.35%) SAP