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 21 January 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 493 637 598
Rank change year-on-year +144 -39 +211
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st/2nd Line Support 142 72 154
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.23% 0.14% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.25% 0.15% 0.26%
Number of salaries quoted 139 58 145
10th Percentile £26,000 £26,000 £23,500
25th Percentile £27,000 £29,938 £26,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £30,000 £35,000 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +16.67% -
75th Percentile £32,000 £45,000 £38,000
90th Percentile £36,750 £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 55,891 49,062 59,885
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.82% 92.63% 95.21%
Number of salaries quoted 34,637 25,329 46,560
10th Percentile £28,697 £33,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,097
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +8.90% -8.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -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 21 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 21 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 +150 133 £30,000 -4.76% 23
England +122 129 £30,000 -14.29% 18
North of England +53 40 £29,000 -10.77% 4
Midlands +56 38 £29,000 -7.20% 4
South East +45 36 £30,000 -14.29% 6
Work from Home +89 35 £30,000 -7.69% 3
East Midlands +19 30 £30,000 -4.00% 1
North West +46 26 £29,500 -9.58% 2
Yorkshire 0 14 £26,000 +13.04% 2
Scotland +9 12 £33,625 +26.89% 5
West Midlands +31 8 £28,500 - 3
London +23 8 £40,000 -11.11% 2
South West +13 4 £30,000 +36.36% 3
East of England +13 3 £32,500 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 21 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 70 (49.30%) Windows
2 65 (45.77%) Customer Service
3 58 (40.85%) Problem-Solving
4 53 (37.32%) Microsoft 365
5 51 (35.92%) Microsoft
6 44 (30.99%) Continuous Improvement
7 40 (28.17%) Mentoring
8 32 (22.54%) SQL
9 28 (19.72%) Logistics
9 28 (19.72%) SaaS
10 27 (19.01%) Analytical Thinking
10 27 (19.01%) C#
10 27 (19.01%) CRM
10 27 (19.01%) Data Privacy
10 27 (19.01%) E-Commerce
10 27 (19.01%) ERP
10 27 (19.01%) QA
10 27 (19.01%) Remote Desktop
10 27 (19.01%) Root Cause Analysis
11 26 (18.31%) Active Directory
12 25 (17.61%) Windows 10
13 22 (15.49%) VPN
14 15 (10.56%) Azure
14 15 (10.56%) TCP/IP
15 14 (9.86%) Mac OS
16 13 (9.15%) Windows Server
17 12 (8.45%) ITIL
17 12 (8.45%) SLA
17 12 (8.45%) SQL Server
18 10 (7.04%) Apple

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 3 (2.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (2.11%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.70%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (5.63%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (3.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 53 (37.32%) Microsoft 365
2 28 (19.72%) SaaS
3 15 (10.56%) Azure
4 7 (4.93%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.70%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (0.70%) Mimecast
5 1 (0.70%) OneDrive
5 1 (0.70%) Power Automate
5 1 (0.70%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 27 (19.01%) Remote Desktop
2 22 (15.49%) VPN
3 15 (10.56%) TCP/IP
4 10 (7.04%) LAN
5 9 (6.34%) VLAN
5 9 (6.34%) WAN
6 8 (5.63%) DHCP
6 8 (5.63%) DNS
6 8 (5.63%) Firewall
7 5 (3.52%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (2.82%) VoIP
9 2 (1.41%) Wireless
9 2 (1.41%) WLAN
10 1 (0.70%) BGP
10 1 (0.70%) NAS
10 1 (0.70%) OSPF
10 1 (0.70%) Peer-to-Peer Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (8.45%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.70%) FileMaker
2 1 (0.70%) Power BI
2 1 (0.70%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.41%) JIRA
General
1 69 (48.59%) Social Skills
2 40 (28.17%) Retail
3 29 (20.42%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (7.04%) Advertising
4 10 (7.04%) Manufacturing
5 5 (3.52%) Pharmaceutical
6 3 (2.11%) Back Office
7 2 (1.41%) Front Office
7 2 (1.41%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.70%) Automotive
8 1 (0.70%) Banking
8 1 (0.70%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.70%) Finance
8 1 (0.70%) Marketing
8 1 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.70%) Publishing
Miscellaneous
1 34 (23.94%) Driving Licence
2 29 (20.42%) Onboarding
3 8 (5.63%) EPoS
4 3 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.41%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (0.70%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.70%) FMCG
6 1 (0.70%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.70%) iPhone
6 1 (0.70%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.70%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 70 (49.30%) Windows
2 25 (17.61%) Windows 10
3 14 (9.86%) Mac OS
4 13 (9.15%) Windows Server
5 9 (6.34%) Android
6 8 (5.63%) Apple iOS
7 6 (4.23%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (45.77%) Customer Service
2 58 (40.85%) Problem-Solving
3 44 (30.99%) Continuous Improvement
4 40 (28.17%) Mentoring
5 28 (19.72%) Logistics
6 27 (19.01%) Analytical Thinking
6 27 (19.01%) CRM
6 27 (19.01%) Data Privacy
6 27 (19.01%) E-Commerce
6 27 (19.01%) ERP
6 27 (19.01%) Root Cause Analysis
7 12 (8.45%) ITIL
8 10 (7.04%) Mobile Device Management
9 8 (5.63%) Service Delivery
10 6 (4.23%) Asset Management
10 6 (4.23%) Cybersecurity
10 6 (4.23%) ITSM
11 3 (2.11%) Business Continuity
11 3 (2.11%) Data Protection
11 3 (2.11%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 32 (22.54%) SQL
2 27 (19.01%) C#
3 5 (3.52%) PowerShell
4 4 (2.82%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.70%) Python
Qualifications
1 10 (7.04%) MCP
2 1 (0.70%) CCNA
2 1 (0.70%) CCNP
2 1 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (19.01%) QA
2 12 (8.45%) SLA
3 8 (5.63%) GDPR
4 6 (4.23%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 26 (18.31%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.70%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (0.70%) FortiGate
2 1 (0.70%) PaperCut
2 1 (0.70%) SCCM
Vendors
1 51 (35.92%) Microsoft
2 10 (7.04%) Apple
3 3 (2.11%) Cisco
3 3 (2.11%) Freshdesk
3 3 (2.11%) ServiceNow
4 2 (1.41%) HP
4 2 (1.41%) VMware
5 1 (0.70%) Datto
5 1 (0.70%) Facebook
5 1 (0.70%) Fortinet
5 1 (0.70%) Google
5 1 (0.70%) LogicMonitor
5 1 (0.70%) Meraki
5 1 (0.70%) Okta
5 1 (0.70%) Zscaler