2nd/3rd Line Support Job Trends

2nd/3rd Line Support
UK

The median 2nd/3rd Line Support salary in the UK is £40,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 21 April 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 663 611 779
Rank change year-on-year -52 +168 +134
Permanent jobs requiring a 2nd/3rd Line Support 40 29 97
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.046% 0.069% 0.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.049% 0.078% 0.11%
Number of salaries quoted 34 28 87
10th Percentile £31,250 £36,600 £30,000
25th Percentile £32,000 £45,938 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £40,000 £50,000 £33,000
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +51.52% -12.00%
75th Percentile £44,750 £52,500 £42,500
90th Percentile £56,375 £80,375 £64,418
UK excluding London median annual salary £34,500 £50,000 £33,000
% change year-on-year -31.00% +51.52% -5.71%

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 81,353 37,364 89,331
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.75% 89.32% 94.55%
Number of salaries quoted 51,978 23,468 66,062
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,261
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £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% -4.76%

2nd/3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring '2nd/3rd Line Support' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancy trend in the UK

2nd/3rd Line Support
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for 2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for 2nd/3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK

2nd/3rd Line Support
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing 2nd/3rd Line Support over the 6 months to 21 April 2026.

Salary histogram for 2nd/3rd Line Support in the UK

2nd/3rd Line Support
Top 10 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing 2nd/3rd Line Support within the UK over the 6 months to 21 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 -56 37 £40,000 -20.00% 5
UK excluding London -62 30 £34,500 -31.00% 7
Midlands -35 13 £32,500 -35.00%
East Midlands -46 13 £32,500 -15.58%
South East -35 11 £40,000 -20.00% 2
London -8 10 £45,000 -37.93%
Yorkshire -57 3 - -
North of England -60 3 - - 1
Scotland - 3 - -
Work from Home -13 2 £42,000 -16.00%

2nd/3rd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 April 2026, 2nd/3rd 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 2nd/3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 30 (75.00%) Microsoft
1 30 (75.00%) Microsoft 365
2 27 (67.50%) Windows
3 23 (57.50%) Azure
4 22 (55.00%) Active Directory
5 20 (50.00%) Entra ID
6 19 (47.50%) Firewall
7 18 (45.00%) VLAN
8 14 (35.00%) Customer Service
8 14 (35.00%) Windows Server
9 13 (32.50%) Microsoft Exchange
9 13 (32.50%) Microsoft Intune
9 13 (32.50%) SharePoint
9 13 (32.50%) VPN
10 12 (30.00%) Jamf Pro
10 12 (30.00%) Mac OS
10 12 (30.00%) PowerShell
11 10 (25.00%) DHCP
11 10 (25.00%) DNS
11 10 (25.00%) Hyper-V
12 9 (22.50%) Linux
12 9 (22.50%) TCP/IP
12 9 (22.50%) VMware
12 9 (22.50%) VoIP
13 8 (20.00%) Apple
13 8 (20.00%) Application Packaging
13 8 (20.00%) CRM
13 8 (20.00%) Cyber Essentials
13 8 (20.00%) Degree
13 8 (20.00%) E-Commerce

2nd/3rd 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 13 (32.50%) Microsoft Exchange
1 13 (32.50%) SharePoint
2 1 (2.50%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 1 (2.50%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 30 (75.00%) Microsoft 365
2 23 (57.50%) Azure
3 20 (50.00%) Entra ID
4 8 (20.00%) SaaS
5 5 (12.50%) Google Workspace
6 3 (7.50%) AWS
7 1 (2.50%) Amazon S3
7 1 (2.50%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (2.50%) GCP
7 1 (2.50%) Mimecast
7 1 (2.50%) n8n
7 1 (2.50%) Power Automate
7 1 (2.50%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 19 (47.50%) Firewall
2 18 (45.00%) VLAN
3 13 (32.50%) VPN
4 10 (25.00%) DHCP
4 10 (25.00%) DNS
5 9 (22.50%) TCP/IP
5 9 (22.50%) VoIP
6 1 (2.50%) FIX Connectivity
6 1 (2.50%) Internet
6 1 (2.50%) Network Security
6 1 (2.50%) Remote Desktop
6 1 (2.50%) SAN
6 1 (2.50%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (10.00%) SQL Server
2 3 (7.50%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (2.50%) JIRA
General
1 21 (52.50%) Social Skills
2 8 (20.00%) Legal
3 3 (7.50%) Advertising
3 3 (7.50%) Manufacturing
3 3 (7.50%) Retail
4 1 (2.50%) Banking
4 1 (2.50%) Finance
4 1 (2.50%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.50%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 4 (10.00%) Driving Licence
1 4 (10.00%) Self-Motivation
1 4 (10.00%) Video Conferencing
2 3 (7.50%) Web Conferencing
3 1 (2.50%) Blockchain
3 1 (2.50%) Clustering
3 1 (2.50%) Eurex
3 1 (2.50%) IoT
3 1 (2.50%) Low-Code
3 1 (2.50%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.50%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 27 (67.50%) Windows
2 14 (35.00%) Windows Server
3 12 (30.00%) Mac OS
4 9 (22.50%) Linux
5 8 (20.00%) Windows 10
6 1 (2.50%) Solaris
6 1 (2.50%) Ubuntu
6 1 (2.50%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (35.00%) Customer Service
2 8 (20.00%) Application Packaging
2 8 (20.00%) CRM
2 8 (20.00%) E-Commerce
2 8 (20.00%) Identity Management
2 8 (20.00%) ITSM
2 8 (20.00%) Service Delivery
2 8 (20.00%) Task Automation
3 5 (12.50%) Project Delivery
3 5 (12.50%) Server Management
4 4 (10.00%) Continuous Improvement
4 4 (10.00%) Email Migration
4 4 (10.00%) Infrastructure as Code
4 4 (10.00%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (10.00%) Remote Monitoring and Management
5 3 (7.50%) Case Management
5 3 (7.50%) Change Management
5 3 (7.50%) ITIL
5 3 (7.50%) Software Testing
6 2 (5.00%) Client Onboarding
Programming Languages
1 12 (30.00%) PowerShell
2 3 (7.50%) C
2 3 (7.50%) Java
2 3 (7.50%) PHP
3 1 (2.50%) Bash
3 1 (2.50%) Python
3 1 (2.50%) SQL
Qualifications
1 8 (20.00%) Degree
1 8 (20.00%) Microsoft Certification
2 1 (2.50%) AWS Certification
2 1 (2.50%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (20.00%) Cyber Essentials
1 8 (20.00%) GDPR
System Software
1 22 (55.00%) Active Directory
2 10 (25.00%) Hyper-V
3 8 (20.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (2.50%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (32.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (30.00%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (10.00%) Autotask
Vendors
1 30 (75.00%) Microsoft
2 9 (22.50%) VMware
3 8 (20.00%) Apple
3 8 (20.00%) Logitech
3 8 (20.00%) Yealink
4 5 (12.50%) Cisco
4 5 (12.50%) Google
4 5 (12.50%) SonicWALL
5 4 (10.00%) Aruba
5 4 (10.00%) Datto
5 4 (10.00%) HP
5 4 (10.00%) Meraki
5 4 (10.00%) Ubiquiti
6 3 (7.50%) Veeam
7 1 (2.50%) Atlassian
7 1 (2.50%) Citrix
7 1 (2.50%) ION Trading
7 1 (2.50%) Oracle
7 1 (2.50%) Patsystems
7 1 (2.50%) Trayport