1st Line Support Contracts

First Line Support
UK

The median First Line Support daily rate in the UK is £148, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 June 2024.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

 6 months to
12 Jun 2024		 Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 427 487 517
Rank change year-on-year +60 +30 0
Contract jobs requiring a 1st Line Support 158 215 362
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.36% 0.39% 0.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.39% 0.41% 0.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 145 229
10th Percentile £111 £123 £113
25th Percentile £126 £131 £128
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £148 £155 £150
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +3.33% +13.21%
75th Percentile £170 £188 £188
90th Percentile £179 £242 £228
UK excluding London median daily rate £150 £158 £150
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 24 62
10th Percentile £13.94 £13.30 £12.28
25th Percentile £14.19 £15.16 £14.00
Median hourly rate £16.50 £18.25 £16.25
Median % change year-on-year -9.59% +12.31% +35.42%
75th Percentile £17.25 £20.00 £18.50
90th Percentile £18.16 £21.88 £20.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.08 £16.31 £16.50
% change year-on-year -1.41% -1.15% +37.50%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 40,557 52,491 83,111
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.86% 94.51% 95.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,070 36,644 58,616
10th Percentile £280 £313 £318
25th Percentile £408 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% +2.48% +6.06%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -2.50% +5.26% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,936 1,486 1,938
10th Percentile £12.86 £14.25 £12.75
25th Percentile £16.30 £19.42 £15.90
Median hourly rate £37.50 £45.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +80.00% +16.28%
75th Percentile £61.81 £65.75 £50.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £77.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £42.08 £20.00
% change year-on-year -4.94% +110.39% +7.82%

1st Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured 1st Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing 1st Line Support.

Daily rate trend for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing 1st Line Support.

Hourly rate trend for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 1st Line Support over the 6 months to 12 June 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for 1st Line Support in the UK

1st Line Support
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 1st Line Support within the UK over the 6 months to 12 June 2024. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads		 Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months		 Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
England +31 141 £145 -3.49% 77
UK excluding London +8 126 £150 -4.76% 76
South East +25 48 £163 +16.07% 25
London +47 31 £145 -3.33% 9
Midlands +24 27 £150 +7.14% 18
Work from Home +92 22 £140 -20.00% 15
North of England -2 21 £140 -17.04% 14
West Midlands +20 20 £150 -3.23% 5
Scotland +55 15 £163 -35.00% 4
Yorkshire +5 14 £135 -10.15% 5
South West -10 8 - - 8
East Midlands +12 7 £130 +1.96% 13
North West +4 6 £148 -36.56% 7
East of England -6 5 £104 -37.81% 8
Wales +21 1 - -
Northern Ireland -3 1 - - 3
North East - 1 £180 - 2

1st Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 June 2024, 1st Line Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring 1st Line Support in the job title.

1 62 (39.24%) Microsoft
2 59 (37.34%) Windows
3 46 (29.11%) ITIL
3 46 (29.11%) Microsoft 365
4 45 (28.48%) Social Skills
4 45 (28.48%) Customer Service
4 45 (28.48%) Active Directory
5 31 (19.62%) Problem-Solving
6 30 (18.99%) SLA
7 28 (17.72%) Windows 10
8 26 (16.46%) Security Cleared
9 25 (15.82%) Service Delivery
10 23 (14.56%) Microsoft Office
11 15 (9.49%) Windows 7
12 14 (8.86%) Public Sector
12 14 (8.86%) Wi-Fi
12 14 (8.86%) Degree
13 12 (7.59%) SC Cleared
14 10 (6.33%) Proactive Monitoring
14 10 (6.33%) Organisational Skills
14 10 (6.33%) ServiceNow
14 10 (6.33%) Analytical Skills
15 9 (5.70%) Azure
15 9 (5.70%) Decision-Making
15 9 (5.70%) Apple
15 9 (5.70%) SQL
15 9 (5.70%) Retail
16 8 (5.06%) Time Management
16 8 (5.06%) CRM
16 8 (5.06%) Service Management

1st Line Support Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 6 (3.80%) SharePoint
2 4 (2.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.63%) Site Server
Applications
1 23 (14.56%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.63%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 46 (29.11%) Microsoft 365
2 9 (5.70%) Azure
3 8 (5.06%) Entra ID
3 8 (5.06%) WhatsApp
4 5 (3.16%) OneDrive
5 1 (0.63%) AWS
5 1 (0.63%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 14 (8.86%) Wi-Fi
2 7 (4.43%) LAN
3 5 (3.16%) Remote Desktop
4 3 (1.90%) DHCP
4 3 (1.90%) DNS
4 3 (1.90%) VPN
5 2 (1.27%) WAN
6 1 (0.63%) Firewall
6 1 (0.63%) NAS
6 1 (0.63%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.63%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 2 (1.27%) JIRA
2 1 (0.63%) Hudson
General
1 45 (28.48%) Social Skills
2 14 (8.86%) Public Sector
3 10 (6.33%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (6.33%) Organisational Skills
4 9 (5.70%) Retail
5 8 (5.06%) Presentation Skills
6 7 (4.43%) Finance
7 4 (2.53%) Telecoms
8 2 (1.27%) Advertising
8 2 (1.27%) Banking
8 2 (1.27%) Electronics
8 2 (1.27%) Front Office
8 2 (1.27%) German Language
8 2 (1.27%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.27%) Marketing
8 2 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.63%) Dutch Language
9 1 (0.63%) French Language
9 1 (0.63%) Spanish Language
9 1 (0.63%) Swedish Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.27%) FIX Protocol
2 1 (0.63%) .NET
2 1 (0.63%) Middleware
2 1 (0.63%) XML
2 1 (0.63%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 6 (3.80%) Digital Signage
2 4 (2.53%) Data Centre
2 4 (2.53%) Onboarding
3 3 (1.90%) NHS
4 2 (1.27%) iPhone
4 2 (1.27%) Smartphone
5 1 (0.63%) Blackberry
5 1 (0.63%) BYOD
5 1 (0.63%) Client/Server
5 1 (0.63%) Driving Licence
5 1 (0.63%) EPoS
5 1 (0.63%) iPad
5 1 (0.63%) Photography
5 1 (0.63%) PKI
5 1 (0.63%) SCADA
5 1 (0.63%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 59 (37.34%) Windows
2 28 (17.72%) Windows 10
3 15 (9.49%) Windows 7
4 7 (4.43%) Apple iOS
5 6 (3.80%) Mac OS
6 3 (1.90%) Mac OS X
6 3 (1.90%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.90%) Windows Server 2008
7 2 (1.27%) Android
7 2 (1.27%) Linux
8 1 (0.63%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (29.11%) ITIL
2 45 (28.48%) Customer Service
3 31 (19.62%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (15.82%) Service Delivery
5 10 (6.33%) Proactive Monitoring
6 9 (5.70%) Decision-Making
7 8 (5.06%) CRM
7 8 (5.06%) Service Management
7 8 (5.06%) Time Management
8 4 (2.53%) Mobile Device Management
8 4 (2.53%) Multi-Factor Authentication
8 4 (2.53%) Proactive Maintenance
8 4 (2.53%) User Experience
9 3 (1.90%) Customer Requirements
9 3 (1.90%) ITSM
9 3 (1.90%) Problem Management
9 3 (1.90%) Stakeholder Management
10 2 (1.27%) Incident Management
10 2 (1.27%) Information Security
10 2 (1.27%) Programme Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.70%) SQL
2 1 (0.63%) C#
2 1 (0.63%) Java
2 1 (0.63%) VB
Qualifications
1 26 (16.46%) Security Cleared
2 14 (8.86%) Degree
3 12 (7.59%) SC Cleared
4 4 (2.53%) Cisco Certification
4 4 (2.53%) HNC
5 3 (1.90%) CCNA
6 2 (1.27%) DBS Check
6 2 (1.27%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.63%) A+ Certification
7 1 (0.63%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.63%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.63%) MCP
7 1 (0.63%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (18.99%) SLA
2 1 (0.63%) Data Quality
2 1 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (0.63%) QA
System Software
1 45 (28.48%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.63%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.63%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (3.16%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (0.63%) WSUS
Vendors
1 62 (39.24%) Microsoft
2 10 (6.33%) ServiceNow
3 9 (5.70%) Apple
4 4 (2.53%) Cisco
4 4 (2.53%) Dell
5 3 (1.90%) Citrix
5 3 (1.90%) Juniper
5 3 (1.90%) SAP
6 2 (1.27%) Bomgar
6 2 (1.27%) iManage
7 1 (0.63%) BMC
7 1 (0.63%) CA
7 1 (0.63%) Remedy
7 1 (0.63%) VMware
84 1st Line Support jobs Nationwide