1st/2nd Line Support Job Trends

1st/2nd Line Support
UK

The median 1st/2nd Line Support salary in the UK is £30,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 31 January 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 501 628 610
Rank change year-on-year +127 -18 +209
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st/2nd Line Support 157 75 166
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.25% 0.14% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.27% 0.16% 0.25%
Number of salaries quoted 153 61 157
10th Percentile £26,000 £26,000 £23,300
25th Percentile £27,000 £29,750 £26,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £30,000 £35,000 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +16.67% -
75th Percentile £32,250 £45,000 £36,000
90th Percentile £37,150 £57,500 £45,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £30,000 £31,500 £28,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +12.50% -

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

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

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 57,953 47,926 66,478
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.86% 92.23% 95.09%
Number of salaries quoted 36,028 24,691 52,048
10th Percentile £28,750 £33,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,535 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -4.76%

1st/2nd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring '1st/2nd Line Support' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

1st/2nd Line Support job vacancy trend in the UK

1st/2nd Line Support
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for 1st/2nd Line Support job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for 1st/2nd Line Support job vacancies in the UK

1st/2nd Line Support
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing 1st/2nd Line Support over the 6 months to 31 January 2026.

Salary histogram for 1st/2nd Line Support in the UK

1st/2nd Line Support
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 1st/2nd Line Support within the UK over the 6 months to 31 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London +152 148 £30,000 -4.76% 24
England +116 142 £30,000 -14.29% 20
North of England +39 43 £29,000 -10.77% 5
Midlands +51 42 £29,000 -7.20% 5
South East +52 39 £30,000 -14.29% 7
Work from Home +78 35 £30,000 -7.69% 2
East Midlands +21 30 £30,000 -4.00% 1
North West +45 28 £29,500 -9.58% 1
Yorkshire +5 15 £26,000 +13.04% 4
Scotland +8 14 £33,625 +26.89% 4
West Midlands +35 12 £28,500 - 4
London +11 8 £40,000 -5.88% 1
East of England +25 5 £32,500 - 2
South West +6 5 £30,000 +36.36% 1

1st/2nd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 31 January 2026, 1st/2nd 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 featuring 1st/2nd Line Support in the job title.

1 77 (49.04%) Windows
2 68 (43.31%) Customer Service
3 63 (40.13%) Problem-Solving
4 62 (39.49%) Microsoft 365
5 60 (38.22%) Microsoft
6 45 (28.66%) Continuous Improvement
7 41 (26.11%) Mentoring
8 34 (21.66%) Active Directory
8 34 (21.66%) SQL
9 29 (18.47%) ERP
9 29 (18.47%) Windows 10
10 28 (17.83%) Logistics
10 28 (17.83%) SaaS
11 27 (17.20%) Analytical Thinking
11 27 (17.20%) C#
11 27 (17.20%) CRM
11 27 (17.20%) Data Privacy
11 27 (17.20%) E-Commerce
11 27 (17.20%) QA
11 27 (17.20%) Remote Desktop
11 27 (17.20%) Root Cause Analysis
12 25 (15.92%) VPN
13 16 (10.19%) TCP/IP
13 16 (10.19%) Windows Server
14 14 (8.92%) Azure
14 14 (8.92%) ITIL
14 14 (8.92%) Mac OS
14 14 (8.92%) SQL Server
15 13 (8.28%) Service Delivery
15 13 (8.28%) SLA

1st/2nd Line Support Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (3.18%) Microsoft Exchange
1 5 (3.18%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.64%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (6.37%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (3.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.27%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 62 (39.49%) Microsoft 365
2 28 (17.83%) SaaS
3 14 (8.92%) Azure
4 9 (5.73%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.27%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.64%) Mimecast
6 1 (0.64%) OneDrive
6 1 (0.64%) Power Automate
6 1 (0.64%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (17.20%) Remote Desktop
2 25 (15.92%) VPN
3 16 (10.19%) TCP/IP
4 12 (7.64%) Firewall
4 12 (7.64%) LAN
5 11 (7.01%) DHCP
5 11 (7.01%) DNS
5 11 (7.01%) VLAN
6 10 (6.37%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (5.73%) WAN
8 4 (2.55%) VoIP
9 2 (1.27%) Wireless
9 2 (1.27%) WLAN
10 1 (0.64%) BGP
10 1 (0.64%) OSPF
10 1 (0.64%) Peer-to-Peer Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (8.92%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.64%) FileMaker
2 1 (0.64%) Power BI
2 1 (0.64%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.27%) JIRA
General
1 73 (46.50%) Social Skills
2 42 (26.75%) Retail
3 29 (18.47%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (6.37%) Advertising
4 10 (6.37%) Manufacturing
5 5 (3.18%) Pharmaceutical
6 4 (2.55%) Telecoms
7 3 (1.91%) Back Office
8 2 (1.27%) Finance
8 2 (1.27%) Front Office
9 1 (0.64%) Automotive
9 1 (0.64%) Banking
9 1 (0.64%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.64%) Marketing
9 1 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.64%) Publishing
Miscellaneous
1 36 (22.93%) Driving Licence
2 29 (18.47%) Onboarding
3 8 (5.10%) EPoS
4 3 (1.91%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.27%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.64%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.64%) FMCG
6 1 (0.64%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.64%) iPhone
6 1 (0.64%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.64%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 77 (49.04%) Windows
2 29 (18.47%) Windows 10
3 16 (10.19%) Windows Server
4 14 (8.92%) Mac OS
5 12 (7.64%) Android
6 11 (7.01%) Apple iOS
7 5 (3.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (43.31%) Customer Service
2 63 (40.13%) Problem-Solving
3 45 (28.66%) Continuous Improvement
4 41 (26.11%) Mentoring
5 29 (18.47%) ERP
6 28 (17.83%) Logistics
7 27 (17.20%) Analytical Thinking
7 27 (17.20%) CRM
7 27 (17.20%) Data Privacy
7 27 (17.20%) E-Commerce
7 27 (17.20%) Root Cause Analysis
8 14 (8.92%) ITIL
9 13 (8.28%) Service Delivery
10 10 (6.37%) Mobile Device Management
11 9 (5.73%) Asset Management
12 8 (5.10%) ITSM
13 7 (4.46%) Cybersecurity
14 5 (3.18%) Cloud Security
15 3 (1.91%) Digital Innovation
15 3 (1.91%) Hardware Maintenance
Programming Languages
1 34 (21.66%) SQL
2 27 (17.20%) C#
3 8 (5.10%) PowerShell
4 6 (3.82%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.64%) Python
Qualifications
1 10 (6.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
2 1 (0.64%) CCNA
2 1 (0.64%) CCNP
2 1 (0.64%) Cisco Certification
2 1 (0.64%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (17.20%) QA
2 13 (8.28%) SLA
3 8 (5.10%) GDPR
4 6 (3.82%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 34 (21.66%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.91%) Hyper-V
2 3 (1.91%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (5.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (1.91%) SCCM
3 1 (0.64%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 60 (38.22%) Microsoft
2 10 (6.37%) Apple
3 4 (2.55%) ServiceNow
4 3 (1.91%) Freshdesk
4 3 (1.91%) VMware
5 2 (1.27%) Cisco
5 2 (1.27%) HP
6 1 (0.64%) Facebook
6 1 (0.64%) Fortinet
6 1 (0.64%) Google
6 1 (0.64%) LogicMonitor
6 1 (0.64%) Meraki
6 1 (0.64%) Okta
6 1 (0.64%) Palo Alto
6 1 (0.64%) Qualys
6 1 (0.64%) Zscaler