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 5 May 2026.

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

6 months to
5 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 529 586 710
Rank change year-on-year +57 +124 +100
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st/2nd Line Support 200 68 175
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.16% 0.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.24% 0.18% 0.19%
Number of salaries quoted 188 68 162
10th Percentile £26,000 £25,000 £23,550
25th Percentile £27,500 £26,500 £26,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £30,000 £31,500 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +1.69%
75th Percentile £35,000 £38,000 £34,250
90th Percentile £37,500 £40,250 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £30,000 £30,750 £28,000
% change year-on-year -2.44% +9.82% +1.82%

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 84,558 38,400 90,620
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.98% 89.39% 94.55%
Number of salaries quoted 54,560 23,425 66,674
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,425 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,375 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,000 £52,900
Median % change year-on-year -6.78% +11.53% -11.83%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%

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 5 May 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 5 May 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
England +68 175 £30,000 -4.76% 16
UK excluding London +58 167 £30,000 -2.44% 17
South East +14 57 £30,000 -4.76% 7
North of England -20 47 £29,000 +0.43% 2
London -2 29 £35,000 -2.78% 1
North West +6 28 £29,500 -9.92% 1
Scotland - 21 £32,250 - 1
Midlands -33 20 £28,000 +3.70% 1
Yorkshire -44 19 £26,000 -10.34% 1
East of England -3 16 £35,000 +16.67% 4
Work from Home -11 13 £29,000 +7.41% 1
West Midlands -22 12 £28,500 +5.56% 1
East Midlands -42 8 £26,500 -31.17%
South West - 6 £30,000 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 5 May 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.

1 109 (54.50%) Microsoft 365
2 107 (53.50%) Windows
3 100 (50.00%) Microsoft
4 66 (33.00%) Customer Service
4 66 (33.00%) Problem-Solving
5 62 (31.00%) Active Directory
6 39 (19.50%) Microsoft Office
7 34 (17.00%) Microsoft Exchange
8 32 (16.00%) Windows Server
9 30 (15.00%) VPN
10 29 (14.50%) Wi-Fi
11 27 (13.50%) Windows 10
12 26 (13.00%) ITIL
13 25 (12.50%) Firewall
14 24 (12.00%) Degree
14 24 (12.00%) SLA
15 23 (11.50%) SharePoint
16 22 (11.00%) ITSM
17 21 (10.50%) Entra ID
18 20 (10.00%) Mac OS
18 20 (10.00%) PowerShell
18 20 (10.00%) Service Delivery
19 19 (9.50%) DHCP
19 19 (9.50%) DNS
19 19 (9.50%) Microsoft Intune
20 17 (8.50%) Microsoft Certification
21 16 (8.00%) A+ Certification
21 16 (8.00%) Asset Management
21 16 (8.00%) Computer Science
21 16 (8.00%) LAN

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 34 (17.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 23 (11.50%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.50%) Confluence
3 1 (0.50%) WordPress
Applications
1 39 (19.50%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (2.50%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 109 (54.50%) Microsoft 365
2 21 (10.50%) Entra ID
3 9 (4.50%) Power Platform
4 8 (4.00%) PowerApps
5 7 (3.50%) Azure
5 7 (3.50%) SaaS
6 5 (2.50%) OneDrive
7 1 (0.50%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 30 (15.00%) VPN
2 29 (14.50%) Wi-Fi
3 25 (12.50%) Firewall
4 19 (9.50%) DHCP
4 19 (9.50%) DNS
5 16 (8.00%) LAN
6 15 (7.50%) TCP/IP
7 14 (7.00%) VLAN
8 10 (5.00%) WAN
9 6 (3.00%) Wireless
10 5 (2.50%) ADSL
11 3 (1.50%) Broadband
11 3 (1.50%) IP Telephony
11 3 (1.50%) Remote Desktop
12 2 (1.00%) WLAN
13 1 (0.50%) BGP
13 1 (0.50%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (6.00%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.50%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (0.50%) JIRA
General
1 76 (38.00%) Social Skills
2 18 (9.00%) Retail
3 13 (6.50%) Telecoms
4 9 (4.50%) Finance
5 6 (3.00%) Advertising
5 6 (3.00%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (3.00%) Manufacturing
6 5 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.50%) Legal
7 4 (2.00%) Back Office
7 4 (2.00%) Electronics
8 1 (0.50%) Banking
8 1 (0.50%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 20 (10.00%) Driving Licence
2 14 (7.00%) Onboarding
3 13 (6.50%) EPoS
4 7 (3.50%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.00%) Wiki
6 1 (0.50%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.50%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 107 (53.50%) Windows
2 32 (16.00%) Windows Server
3 27 (13.50%) Windows 10
4 20 (10.00%) Mac OS
5 14 (7.00%) Apple iOS
6 11 (5.50%) Android
7 7 (3.50%) Linux
8 3 (1.50%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (1.00%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (33.00%) Customer Service
1 66 (33.00%) Problem-Solving
2 26 (13.00%) ITIL
3 22 (11.00%) ITSM
4 20 (10.00%) Service Delivery
5 16 (8.00%) Asset Management
5 16 (8.00%) Computer Science
6 13 (6.50%) Change Management
6 13 (6.50%) Continuous Improvement
6 13 (6.50%) Problem Management
7 12 (6.00%) Mentoring
8 11 (5.50%) ERP
9 10 (5.00%) Cybersecurity
9 10 (5.00%) Service Management
10 9 (4.50%) Incident Management
11 8 (4.00%) Application Packaging
11 8 (4.00%) Knowledge Management
11 8 (4.00%) Project Management
11 8 (4.00%) Vulnerability Management
12 6 (3.00%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 20 (10.00%) PowerShell
2 11 (5.50%) SQL
3 4 (2.00%) JavaScript
3 4 (2.00%) Python
3 4 (2.00%) T-SQL
4 3 (1.50%) C#
Qualifications
1 24 (12.00%) Degree
2 17 (8.50%) Microsoft Certification
3 16 (8.00%) A+ Certification
4 1 (0.50%) CCNA
4 1 (0.50%) CCNP
4 1 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
4 1 (0.50%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (12.00%) SLA
2 3 (1.50%) QA
3 1 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (0.50%) GDPR
3 1 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 62 (31.00%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.50%) Hyper-V
3 8 (4.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 19 (9.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (6.50%) SCCM
3 5 (2.50%) Autotask
4 4 (2.00%) ZABBIX
5 1 (0.50%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 100 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 10 (5.00%) Apple
3 9 (4.50%) ServiceNow
4 8 (4.00%) Palo Alto
4 8 (4.00%) Qualys
4 8 (4.00%) VMware
5 4 (2.00%) SolarWinds
6 3 (1.50%) Acronis
6 3 (1.50%) Veeam
7 2 (1.00%) HP
8 1 (0.50%) Cisco
8 1 (0.50%) Facebook
8 1 (0.50%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.50%) Freshdesk
8 1 (0.50%) Google
8 1 (0.50%) Meraki