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 26 June 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 545 589 747
Rank change year-on-year +44 +158 +6
Permanent jobs requiring a 1st/2nd Line Support 200 74 154
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.21% 0.16% 0.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.18% 0.15%
Number of salaries quoted 190 74 136
10th Percentile £26,000 £25,000 £24,125
25th Percentile £28,250 £26,500 £26,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £30,000 £31,250 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +4.17% -
75th Percentile £35,000 £37,125 £34,500
90th Percentile £37,500 £40,175 £40,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +1.79%

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 89,332 40,653 100,647
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.05% 89.51% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 61,290 23,209 72,638
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,622 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,042 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.08% - -6.54%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 +52 179 £30,000 -4.76% 16
UK excluding London +52 166 £30,000 - 15
North of England +8 52 £29,500 -9.92% 5
South East +3 51 £30,000 -4.76% 6
North West +33 32 £29,500 -9.92% 5
London -14 30 £34,500 -4.17% 2
East of England +2 25 £35,000 +25.00% 1
Yorkshire -23 20 £26,000 -25.71%
Midlands -29 17 £28,500 +5.56% 2
Scotland - 17 £32,250 -
West Midlands -20 13 £28,500 +5.56% 1
Work from Home -12 9 £30,000 +11.11% 6
East Midlands -29 4 £26,000 -20.00% 1
South West - 4 £32,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 26 June 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.

1 126 (63.00%) Microsoft 365
2 118 (59.00%) Windows
3 111 (55.50%) Microsoft
4 76 (38.00%) Active Directory
5 75 (37.50%) Customer Service
6 68 (34.00%) Problem-Solving
7 43 (21.50%) Microsoft Exchange
8 39 (19.50%) Microsoft Office
9 38 (19.00%) Wi-Fi
10 37 (18.50%) SharePoint
11 33 (16.50%) Firewall
12 32 (16.00%) Service Delivery
12 32 (16.00%) Windows 10
13 30 (15.00%) VPN
13 30 (15.00%) Windows Server
14 29 (14.50%) Entra ID
14 29 (14.50%) SLA
15 26 (13.00%) DHCP
15 26 (13.00%) DNS
16 24 (12.00%) Degree
17 23 (11.50%) TCP/IP
18 22 (11.00%) ITIL
19 21 (10.50%) Mac OS
19 21 (10.50%) Microsoft Intune
20 19 (9.50%) ITSM
20 19 (9.50%) PowerShell
20 19 (9.50%) Problem Management
21 18 (9.00%) Apple iOS
21 18 (9.00%) Incident Management
21 18 (9.00%) 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 43 (21.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 37 (18.50%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.50%) WordPress
Applications
1 39 (19.50%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.00%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (2.50%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 126 (63.00%) Microsoft 365
2 29 (14.50%) Entra ID
3 14 (7.00%) Azure
4 12 (6.00%) OneDrive
5 11 (5.50%) Power Platform
6 8 (4.00%) PowerApps
7 3 (1.50%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (1.50%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (19.00%) Wi-Fi
2 33 (16.50%) Firewall
3 30 (15.00%) VPN
4 26 (13.00%) DHCP
4 26 (13.00%) DNS
5 23 (11.50%) TCP/IP
6 18 (9.00%) LAN
7 16 (8.00%) VLAN
8 12 (6.00%) WAN
9 6 (3.00%) Wireless
10 5 (2.50%) ADSL
11 3 (1.50%) Broadband
11 3 (1.50%) IP Telephony
12 2 (1.00%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.50%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.50%) Carbide.c++
General
1 74 (37.00%) Social Skills
2 17 (8.50%) Telecoms
3 12 (6.00%) Retail
4 11 (5.50%) Legal
5 8 (4.00%) Finance
6 6 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.00%) Back Office
7 4 (2.00%) Electronics
8 3 (1.50%) Advertising
8 3 (1.50%) Analytical Skills
9 2 (1.00%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.50%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.50%) Law
Miscellaneous
1 28 (14.00%) Driving Licence
2 17 (8.50%) Onboarding
3 13 (6.50%) EPoS
4 7 (3.50%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.00%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 118 (59.00%) Windows
2 32 (16.00%) Windows 10
3 30 (15.00%) Windows Server
4 21 (10.50%) Mac OS
5 18 (9.00%) Apple iOS
6 15 (7.50%) Android
7 7 (3.50%) Linux
8 3 (1.50%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (37.50%) Customer Service
2 68 (34.00%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (16.00%) Service Delivery
4 22 (11.00%) ITIL
5 19 (9.50%) ITSM
5 19 (9.50%) Problem Management
6 18 (9.00%) Incident Management
7 16 (8.00%) Computer Science
8 13 (6.50%) Asset Management
8 13 (6.50%) Change Management
9 10 (5.00%) Continuous Improvement
9 10 (5.00%) Service Management
10 9 (4.50%) Identity Management
11 8 (4.00%) Application Packaging
11 8 (4.00%) Cloud Security
11 8 (4.00%) Cybersecurity
11 8 (4.00%) ERP
11 8 (4.00%) Knowledge Management
11 8 (4.00%) Project Management
11 8 (4.00%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 19 (9.50%) PowerShell
2 7 (3.50%) SQL
3 4 (2.00%) JavaScript
3 4 (2.00%) Python
4 3 (1.50%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (12.00%) Degree
2 17 (8.50%) Microsoft Certification
3 16 (8.00%) A+ Certification
4 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Certified Professional
4 1 (0.50%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (14.50%) SLA
2 1 (0.50%) GDPR
System Software
1 76 (38.00%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.00%) Hyper-V
3 8 (4.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (3.00%) Firmware
5 3 (1.50%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.50%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 21 (10.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (6.50%) SCCM
3 9 (4.50%) Autotask
4 4 (2.00%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 111 (55.50%) Microsoft
2 8 (4.00%) Palo Alto
2 8 (4.00%) Qualys
2 8 (4.00%) ServiceNow
2 8 (4.00%) VMware
3 6 (3.00%) Apple
3 6 (3.00%) Freshdesk
4 4 (2.00%) SolarWinds
5 3 (1.50%) Acronis
5 3 (1.50%) Veeam
6 1 (0.50%) HP
6 1 (0.50%) Sage