3rd Line Support Job Trends in the North West

Third Line Support
England > North West

The median Third Line Support salary in the North West is £40,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 October 2025.

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

6 months to
17 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 213 210 191
Rank change year-on-year -3 -19 +103
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 11 18 21
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.23% 0.25% 0.50%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.26% 0.27% 0.52%
Number of salaries quoted 11 14 21
10th Percentile £29,500 £29,500 -
25th Percentile £33,500 - £31,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £35,000 £39,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -10.26% -16.58%
75th Percentile £42,250 £41,563 £45,000
90th Percentile £42,500 £43,750 £47,500
England median annual salary £42,500 £40,000 £41,000
% change year-on-year +6.25% -2.44% -8.89%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 4,268 6,776 4,072
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 88.97% 95.25% 96.26%
Number of salaries quoted 2,291 3,825 3,125
10th Percentile £26,500 £31,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £34,000 £40,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £82,500
England median annual salary £54,793 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -4.71% -4.17% -

3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring '3rd Line Support' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North West.

3rd Line Support job vacancy trend in the North West

3rd Line Support
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the North West.

Salary distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the North West

3rd 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 3rd Line Support within the North West region over the 6 months to 17 October 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
Manchester +35 8 £40,500 +1.25%
Cumbria +3 3 £32,000 -8.57%
3rd Line Support
England

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 17 October 2025, 3rd 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 3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 10 (90.91%) Windows
2 9 (81.82%) Microsoft
2 9 (81.82%) Microsoft 365
3 8 (72.73%) Active Directory
3 8 (72.73%) Firewall
3 8 (72.73%) Windows Server
4 6 (54.55%) Azure
4 6 (54.55%) Degree
4 6 (54.55%) Security Management
4 6 (54.55%) Service Delivery
5 5 (45.45%) Autotask
5 5 (45.45%) CCNA
5 5 (45.45%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (45.45%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (45.45%) Customer Service
5 5 (45.45%) Data Loss Prevention
5 5 (45.45%) Data Protection
5 5 (45.45%) DBS Check
5 5 (45.45%) Entra ID
5 5 (45.45%) IaaS
5 5 (45.45%) Information Security
5 5 (45.45%) Information Security Management
5 5 (45.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 5 (45.45%) ISMS
5 5 (45.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 5 (45.45%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (45.45%) Mobile Device Management
5 5 (45.45%) Remote Monitoring and Management
5 5 (45.45%) SSL
5 5 (45.45%) TCP/IP

3rd 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 5 (45.45%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 9 (81.82%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (54.55%) Azure
3 5 (45.45%) Entra ID
3 5 (45.45%) IaaS
4 2 (18.18%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (72.73%) Firewall
2 5 (45.45%) SSL
2 5 (45.45%) TCP/IP
2 5 (45.45%) VLAN
2 5 (45.45%) VPN
3 3 (27.27%) VoIP
3 3 (27.27%) Wireless
4 2 (18.18%) DNS
4 2 (18.18%) HTTP
General
1 11 (100.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (18.18%) Games
3 1 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (9.09%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 5 (45.45%) Management Information System
2 3 (27.27%) Driving Licence
3 1 (9.09%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 10 (90.91%) Windows
2 8 (72.73%) Windows Server
3 2 (18.18%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (54.55%) Security Management
1 6 (54.55%) Service Delivery
2 5 (45.45%) Continuous Improvement
2 5 (45.45%) Customer Service
2 5 (45.45%) Data Loss Prevention
2 5 (45.45%) Data Protection
2 5 (45.45%) Information Security
2 5 (45.45%) Information Security Management
2 5 (45.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 5 (45.45%) ISMS
2 5 (45.45%) Mobile Device Management
2 5 (45.45%) Remote Monitoring and Management
3 3 (27.27%) Cybersecurity
3 3 (27.27%) Data Privacy
3 3 (27.27%) Disaster Recovery
3 3 (27.27%) ITIL
3 3 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (18.18%) Game Development
5 1 (9.09%) Infrastructure Management
5 1 (9.09%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 1 (9.09%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (54.55%) Degree
2 5 (45.45%) CCNA
2 5 (45.45%) Cisco Certification
2 5 (45.45%) DBS Check
3 1 (9.09%) ITIL Certification
System Software
1 8 (72.73%) Active Directory
2 3 (27.27%) Hyper-V
3 1 (9.09%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 5 (45.45%) Autotask
1 5 (45.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (18.18%) Grafana
2 2 (18.18%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 9 (81.82%) Microsoft
2 3 (27.27%) Cisco
2 3 (27.27%) ConnectWise
2 3 (27.27%) Datto
2 3 (27.27%) ESET
2 3 (27.27%) Sophos
2 3 (27.27%) Ubiquiti
2 3 (27.27%) Veeam
3 2 (18.18%) SolarWinds
3 2 (18.18%) Splunk
4 1 (9.09%) Oracle
4 1 (9.09%) VMware