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 4 April 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 507 570 681
Rank change year-on-year +63 +111 +132
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st/2nd Line Support 193 57 183
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.24% 0.14% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.26% 0.16% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 182 56 171
10th Percentile £26,000 £25,000 £23,000
25th Percentile £27,000 £26,875 £26,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £30,000 £32,250 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +7.50% -
75th Percentile £34,250 £38,000 £34,250
90th Percentile £39,750 £44,375 £42,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £30,000 £30,000 £28,000
% change year-on-year - +7.14% -

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 74,250 36,762 86,050
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 89.83% 94.57%
Number of salaries quoted 47,841 23,292 64,576
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £54,650
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.79% -8.92%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £72,375
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -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 4 April 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 4 April 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 +72 173 £30,000 -8.75% 25
UK excluding London +65 168 £30,000 - 23
North of England -17 50 £29,000 +16.00% 4
South East +10 49 £30,000 -4.76% 9
Midlands -22 32 £28,000 +3.70% 4
North West +2 30 £29,500 -9.58% 4
Work from Home +16 25 £27,000 - 3
London -15 23 £35,000 -2.78% 3
East Midlands -27 21 £27,000 -14.29% 1
Yorkshire -35 20 £26,000 +13.04%
Scotland -9 18 £32,250 +11.21%
East of England -13 14 £35,000 +16.67% 5
West Midlands -9 11 £28,000 +3.70% 3
South West - 5 £30,000 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 4 April 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 96 (49.74%) Windows
2 89 (46.11%) Microsoft
2 89 (46.11%) Microsoft 365
3 69 (35.75%) Customer Service
3 69 (35.75%) Problem-Solving
4 54 (27.98%) Active Directory
5 32 (16.58%) Continuous Improvement
6 31 (16.06%) Microsoft Office
6 31 (16.06%) Windows 10
7 28 (14.51%) ITIL
7 28 (14.51%) Mentoring
7 28 (14.51%) SQL
7 28 (14.51%) VPN
8 27 (13.99%) Windows Server
9 25 (12.95%) SLA
10 23 (11.92%) ERP
10 23 (11.92%) ITSM
10 23 (11.92%) Wi-Fi
11 20 (10.36%) Microsoft Exchange
12 19 (9.84%) Firewall
12 19 (9.84%) Microsoft Intune
13 17 (8.81%) PowerShell
13 17 (8.81%) SaaS
13 17 (8.81%) Service Delivery
14 16 (8.29%) Analytical Thinking
14 16 (8.29%) C#
14 16 (8.29%) CRM
14 16 (8.29%) Data Privacy
14 16 (8.29%) E-Commerce
14 16 (8.29%) 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 20 (10.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 13 (6.74%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.52%) Confluence
3 1 (0.52%) WordPress
Applications
1 31 (16.06%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (2.59%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 89 (46.11%) Microsoft 365
2 17 (8.81%) SaaS
3 15 (7.77%) Entra ID
4 9 (4.66%) Azure
5 8 (4.15%) Power Platform
6 7 (3.63%) PowerApps
7 5 (2.59%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.52%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 28 (14.51%) VPN
2 23 (11.92%) Wi-Fi
3 19 (9.84%) Firewall
4 16 (8.29%) LAN
4 16 (8.29%) Remote Desktop
4 16 (8.29%) TCP/IP
5 14 (7.25%) DHCP
5 14 (7.25%) DNS
5 14 (7.25%) VLAN
6 10 (5.18%) WAN
7 5 (2.59%) ADSL
8 3 (1.55%) Broadband
8 3 (1.55%) Wireless
9 2 (1.04%) IP Telephony
9 2 (1.04%) WLAN
10 1 (0.52%) BGP
10 1 (0.52%) OSPF
10 1 (0.52%) Peer-to-Peer Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (7.77%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.52%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (0.52%) JIRA
General
1 80 (41.45%) Social Skills
2 32 (16.58%) Retail
3 18 (9.33%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (5.18%) Telecoms
5 8 (4.15%) Finance
6 6 (3.11%) Advertising
6 6 (3.11%) Manufacturing
7 5 (2.59%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.07%) Back Office
9 3 (1.55%) Legal
9 3 (1.55%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (1.04%) Electronics
11 1 (0.52%) Banking
11 1 (0.52%) Front Office
Miscellaneous
1 26 (13.47%) Driving Licence
2 23 (11.92%) Onboarding
3 10 (5.18%) EPoS
4 7 (3.63%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.07%) Wiki
6 1 (0.52%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.52%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.52%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 96 (49.74%) Windows
2 31 (16.06%) Windows 10
3 27 (13.99%) Windows Server
4 13 (6.74%) Mac OS
5 12 (6.22%) Apple iOS
6 10 (5.18%) Android
7 7 (3.63%) Linux
8 3 (1.55%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (35.75%) Customer Service
1 69 (35.75%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (16.58%) Continuous Improvement
3 28 (14.51%) ITIL
3 28 (14.51%) Mentoring
4 23 (11.92%) ERP
4 23 (11.92%) ITSM
5 17 (8.81%) Service Delivery
6 16 (8.29%) Analytical Thinking
6 16 (8.29%) CRM
6 16 (8.29%) Data Privacy
6 16 (8.29%) E-Commerce
6 16 (8.29%) Logistics
6 16 (8.29%) Root Cause Analysis
7 15 (7.77%) Asset Management
8 12 (6.22%) Change Management
8 12 (6.22%) Problem Management
9 10 (5.18%) Cybersecurity
9 10 (5.18%) Service Management
10 8 (4.15%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 28 (14.51%) SQL
2 17 (8.81%) PowerShell
3 16 (8.29%) C#
4 7 (3.63%) T-SQL
5 4 (2.07%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.07%) Python
Qualifications
1 13 (6.74%) Degree
2 7 (3.63%) Microsoft Certification
2 7 (3.63%) Microsoft Certified Professional
3 6 (3.11%) A+ Certification
4 1 (0.52%) CCNA
4 1 (0.52%) CCNP
4 1 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (0.52%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (12.95%) SLA
2 16 (8.29%) QA
3 4 (2.07%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (2.07%) GDPR
4 1 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 54 (27.98%) Active Directory
2 9 (4.66%) Hyper-V
3 4 (2.07%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 19 (9.84%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (6.22%) SCCM
3 4 (2.07%) ZABBIX
4 1 (0.52%) Autotask
4 1 (0.52%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 89 (46.11%) Microsoft
2 10 (5.18%) Apple
2 10 (5.18%) ServiceNow
3 7 (3.63%) Palo Alto
3 7 (3.63%) Qualys
4 4 (2.07%) SolarWinds
4 4 (2.07%) VMware
5 3 (1.55%) Acronis
5 3 (1.55%) Freshdesk
5 3 (1.55%) Veeam
6 2 (1.04%) HP
7 1 (0.52%) Cisco
7 1 (0.52%) Facebook
7 1 (0.52%) Fortinet
7 1 (0.52%) Google
7 1 (0.52%) Meraki