3rd Line Support Job Trends in the South West

Third Line Support
England > South West

The median Third Line Support salary in the South West is £48,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 September 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 148 211 203
Rank change year-on-year +63 -8 +88
Permanent jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 21 29 22
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 0.60% 0.39% 0.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.65% 0.41% 0.49%
Number of salaries quoted 21 22 17
10th Percentile £36,250 - -
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,500 £42,500 £35,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.12% +21.43% -0.71%
75th Percentile £50,250 £51,750 £38,750
90th Percentile £58,750 - £41,350
England median annual salary £42,500 £40,000 £40,750
% change year-on-year +6.25% -1.84% -9.44%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
South West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South 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 South West with a recognized job title 3,236 7,130 4,462
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 94.88% 93.35%
Number of salaries quoted 2,122 4,624 3,489
10th Percentile £27,250 £30,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £31,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,250 £52,000 £54,590
Median % change year-on-year -11.06% -4.74% +9.18%
75th Percentile £63,750 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - -8.33% -

3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Job postings that featured 3rd Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Job vacancy trend for 3rd Line Support in the South West

3rd Line Support
Salary Trend in the South West

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

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

3rd Line Support
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Support in the South West over the 6 months to 17 September 2025.

Salary histogram for 3rd Line Support in the South West

3rd Line Support
Job Locations in the South 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 South West region over the 6 months to 17 September 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
Bristol +60 16 £48,500 -
Somerset +8 4 £40,000 -5.88%
Dorset +28 1 £39,000 -2.50%
3rd Line Support
England

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South West

For the 6 months to 17 September 2025, 3rd Line Support 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 permanent job ads across the South West region featuring 3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 21 (100.00%) Windows
1 21 (100.00%) Microsoft
1 21 (100.00%) PowerShell
1 21 (100.00%) Windows Server
2 20 (95.24%) DNS
2 20 (95.24%) Firewall
2 20 (95.24%) IIS
2 20 (95.24%) DHCP
3 16 (76.19%) Active Directory
3 16 (76.19%) Social Skills
4 11 (52.38%) WSUS
4 11 (52.38%) Law
4 11 (52.38%) Internet
4 11 (52.38%) PKI
4 11 (52.38%) WAN
4 11 (52.38%) SLA
4 11 (52.38%) Kerberos
4 11 (52.38%) LAN
4 11 (52.38%) LDAP
4 11 (52.38%) VB
4 11 (52.38%) Data Loss Prevention
4 11 (52.38%) Windows Server 2016
4 11 (52.38%) Windows Server 2019
4 11 (52.38%) Windows 10
4 11 (52.38%) Continuous Improvement
5 10 (47.62%) Microsoft 365
5 10 (47.62%) Azure
6 9 (42.86%) VLAN
6 9 (42.86%) Linux
6 9 (42.86%) ITIL

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South West 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 20 (95.24%) IIS
2 1 (4.76%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 10 (47.62%) Azure
1 10 (47.62%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 20 (95.24%) DHCP
1 20 (95.24%) DNS
1 20 (95.24%) Firewall
2 11 (52.38%) Internet
2 11 (52.38%) Kerberos
2 11 (52.38%) LAN
2 11 (52.38%) WAN
3 9 (42.86%) VLAN
3 9 (42.86%) VoIP
3 9 (42.86%) VPN
4 5 (23.81%) Cisco IOS
4 5 (23.81%) IPsec
4 5 (23.81%) Wireless
5 4 (19.05%) ADSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (42.86%) Amazon RDS
2 6 (28.57%) SQL Server
General
1 16 (76.19%) Social Skills
2 11 (52.38%) Law
3 5 (23.81%) Electronics
3 5 (23.81%) Finance
3 5 (23.81%) Manufacturing
3 5 (23.81%) Marketing
3 5 (23.81%) Public Sector
3 5 (23.81%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (52.38%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (52.38%) PKI
2 5 (23.81%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 21 (100.00%) Windows
1 21 (100.00%) Windows Server
2 11 (52.38%) Windows 10
2 11 (52.38%) Windows Server 2016
2 11 (52.38%) Windows Server 2019
3 9 (42.86%) Linux
4 5 (23.81%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (52.38%) Continuous Improvement
1 11 (52.38%) Data Loss Prevention
2 9 (42.86%) Disaster Recovery
2 9 (42.86%) ITIL
3 5 (23.81%) Business Intelligence
3 5 (23.81%) Coaching
3 5 (23.81%) Collaborative Culture
3 5 (23.81%) Containerisation
3 5 (23.81%) Cybersecurity
3 5 (23.81%) Digital Marketing
3 5 (23.81%) IT Strategy
3 5 (23.81%) Mentoring
3 5 (23.81%) Migration
3 5 (23.81%) Programme Management
3 5 (23.81%) Remote Monitoring and Management
3 5 (23.81%) Server Building
3 5 (23.81%) Server Management
4 3 (14.29%) Collaborative Working
4 3 (14.29%) Project Planning
5 1 (4.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 21 (100.00%) PowerShell
2 11 (52.38%) VB
3 4 (19.05%) SQL
Qualifications
1 5 (23.81%) ACMT
1 5 (23.81%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
2 1 (4.76%) A+ Certification
2 1 (4.76%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (52.38%) SLA
2 5 (23.81%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 16 (76.19%) Active Directory
2 6 (28.57%) Hyper-V
3 5 (23.81%) Docker
3 5 (23.81%) VMware ESXi
3 5 (23.81%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (4.76%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 11 (52.38%) WSUS
2 9 (42.86%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (23.81%) Autotask
3 5 (23.81%) Kubernetes
3 5 (23.81%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 21 (100.00%) Microsoft
2 5 (23.81%) Apple
2 5 (23.81%) Cisco
2 5 (23.81%) Datto
2 5 (23.81%) Oracle
2 5 (23.81%) SAP
2 5 (23.81%) Sophos
2 5 (23.81%) Veeam
2 5 (23.81%) VMware