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 10 May 2026.

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

6 months to
10 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 516 573 716
Rank change year-on-year +57 +143 +76
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st/2nd Line Support 200 73 168
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.17% 0.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.24% 0.19% 0.18%
Number of salaries quoted 188 73 155
10th Percentile £26,000 £25,000 £24,100
25th Percentile £27,688 £26,500 £26,375
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 £30,000 £28,000
% change year-on-year - +7.14% +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 84,643 39,171 91,241
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.16% 89.53% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 55,266 23,359 67,069
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £58,000 £52,550
Median % change year-on-year -5.17% +10.37% -12.42%
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 10 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 10 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 +73 175 £30,000 -4.76% 16
UK excluding London +63 168 £30,000 - 16
South East +20 58 £30,000 -4.76% 7
North of England -9 48 £29,000 -11.45% 1
North West +28 28 £29,500 -9.92%
London +4 28 £35,000 -2.78% 1
Scotland - 21 £32,250 -
Yorkshire -42 20 £26,000 -10.34% 1
East of England +6 18 £35,000 +20.69% 5
Midlands -18 18 £28,500 +5.56% 2
West Midlands -25 13 £28,500 +5.56% 2
Work from Home 0 11 £29,000 +7.41%
East Midlands -32 5 £26,000 -32.47%
South West - 5 £32,000 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 112 (56.00%) Microsoft 365
2 111 (55.50%) Windows
3 103 (51.50%) Microsoft
4 66 (33.00%) Customer Service
4 66 (33.00%) Problem-Solving
5 65 (32.50%) Active Directory
6 38 (19.00%) Microsoft Office
7 36 (18.00%) Microsoft Exchange
8 32 (16.00%) Windows Server
9 30 (15.00%) VPN
9 30 (15.00%) Wi-Fi
10 28 (14.00%) Windows 10
11 26 (13.00%) SharePoint
12 25 (12.50%) Firewall
12 25 (12.50%) ITIL
13 24 (12.00%) Degree
13 24 (12.00%) SLA
14 23 (11.50%) Entra ID
15 21 (10.50%) ITSM
15 21 (10.50%) Service Delivery
16 20 (10.00%) DHCP
16 20 (10.00%) DNS
16 20 (10.00%) Mac OS
16 20 (10.00%) Microsoft Intune
16 20 (10.00%) PowerShell
17 17 (8.50%) LAN
17 17 (8.50%) Microsoft Certification
18 16 (8.00%) A+ Certification
18 16 (8.00%) Asset Management
18 16 (8.00%) Computer Science

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 36 (18.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 26 (13.00%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.50%) WordPress
Applications
1 38 (19.00%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (2.50%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 112 (56.00%) Microsoft 365
2 23 (11.50%) Entra ID
3 10 (5.00%) Azure
3 10 (5.00%) Power Platform
4 8 (4.00%) PowerApps
5 7 (3.50%) OneDrive
6 3 (1.50%) SaaS
7 1 (0.50%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.50%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 30 (15.00%) VPN
1 30 (15.00%) Wi-Fi
2 25 (12.50%) Firewall
3 20 (10.00%) DHCP
3 20 (10.00%) DNS
4 17 (8.50%) LAN
5 16 (8.00%) TCP/IP
6 15 (7.50%) VLAN
7 11 (5.50%) WAN
8 6 (3.00%) Wireless
9 5 (2.50%) ADSL
10 3 (1.50%) Broadband
10 3 (1.50%) IP Telephony
10 3 (1.50%) WLAN
11 1 (0.50%) BGP
11 1 (0.50%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (6.00%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.50%) Power BI
General
1 75 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 15 (7.50%) Retail
2 15 (7.50%) Telecoms
3 9 (4.50%) Finance
4 6 (3.00%) Advertising
4 6 (3.00%) Legal
4 6 (3.00%) Manufacturing
5 5 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (2.00%) Back Office
6 4 (2.00%) Electronics
7 3 (1.50%) Analytical Skills
8 1 (0.50%) Banking
8 1 (0.50%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 21 (10.50%) Driving Licence
2 13 (6.50%) EPoS
3 11 (5.50%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.00%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.00%) Wiki
6 1 (0.50%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 111 (55.50%) Windows
2 32 (16.00%) Windows Server
3 28 (14.00%) 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 25 (12.50%) ITIL
3 21 (10.50%) ITSM
3 21 (10.50%) Service Delivery
4 16 (8.00%) Asset Management
4 16 (8.00%) Computer Science
5 13 (6.50%) Change Management
5 13 (6.50%) Problem Management
6 11 (5.50%) Continuous Improvement
7 10 (5.00%) Cybersecurity
7 10 (5.00%) Incident Management
7 10 (5.00%) Service Management
8 9 (4.50%) Mentoring
9 8 (4.00%) Application Packaging
9 8 (4.00%) ERP
9 8 (4.00%) Knowledge Management
9 8 (4.00%) Project Management
9 8 (4.00%) Vulnerability Management
10 7 (3.50%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 20 (10.00%) PowerShell
2 8 (4.00%) SQL
3 4 (2.00%) JavaScript
3 4 (2.00%) Python
3 4 (2.00%) T-SQL
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 1 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (0.50%) GDPR
2 1 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 65 (32.50%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.50%) Hyper-V
3 8 (4.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 20 (10.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (6.50%) SCCM
3 5 (2.50%) Autotask
4 4 (2.00%) ZABBIX
5 1 (0.50%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 103 (51.50%) 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%) Meraki