3rd Line Support Contract Job Trends

Third Line Support
UK

The median Third Line Support daily rate in the UK is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 February 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

 6 months to
16 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 545 501 487
Rank change year-on-year -44 -14 +169
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 64 27 106
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.088% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.095% 0.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 20 67
10th Percentile £350 £242 £213
25th Percentile £400 £253 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £363 £325
Median % change year-on-year +24.14% +11.54% -13.33%
75th Percentile £500 £536 £391
90th Percentile - £615 £480
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £325 £325
% change year-on-year +46.15% - -13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 0
10th Percentile - £21.95 -
25th Percentile £21.25 £23.01 -
Median hourly rate £22.50 £23.59 -
Median % change year-on-year -4.62% - -
75th Percentile £23.75 £23.63 -
90th Percentile - £23.70 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £22.50 -

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 36,541 28,512 41,697
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.61% 92.94% 93.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,964 17,617 27,442
10th Percentile £304 £288 £275
25th Percentile £406 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +0.53% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,238 809 2,311
10th Percentile £14.61 £16.20 £13.13
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.30
Median hourly rate £30.00 £33.54 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.55% -4.17% -5.74%
75th Percentile £61.55 £63.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £72.51 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -8.92% -7.14% -

3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

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

3rd Line Support job vacancy trend in the UK

3rd Line Support
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK

3rd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Support over the 6 months to 16 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for 3rd Line Support job vacancies in the UK

3rd Line Support
Top 12 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 3rd Line Support within the UK over the 6 months to 16 February 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
Contract
IT Job Ads		 Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months		 Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
England -18 63 £450 +28.57% 40
UK excluding London -36 48 £475 +46.15% 39
South East -17 19 £500 +33.33% 12
London -35 14 £413 -16.67% 10
Work from Home -6 12 £438 -18.60% 10
Midlands -42 11 £400 +53.85% 2
West Midlands -38 10 £400 +53.85%
East of England - 10 £475 - 5
South West -19 6 £450 +50.00% 5
North of England -59 2 £388 +58.16% 11
North West - 2 £388 - 3
East Midlands - 1 £275 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 16 February 2026, 3rd Line Support contract 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 contract job ads featuring 3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 42 (65.63%) Security Cleared
1 42 (65.63%) Windows
2 30 (46.88%) Active Directory
2 30 (46.88%) Windows Server
3 22 (34.38%) SC Cleared
4 21 (32.81%) Juniper
5 20 (31.25%) Cisco
5 20 (31.25%) DV Cleared
6 18 (28.13%) Service Management
7 17 (26.56%) ITSM
8 16 (25.00%) VMware
9 15 (23.44%) Junos
9 15 (23.44%) SolarWinds
9 15 (23.44%) WAN
10 14 (21.88%) Microsoft 365
10 14 (21.88%) vCenter Server
10 14 (21.88%) VMware Infrastructure
10 14 (21.88%) VMware NSX
11 13 (20.31%) Cisco Firepower
11 13 (20.31%) Cisco IOS
11 13 (20.31%) Cisco ISE
11 13 (20.31%) Microsoft
11 13 (20.31%) VPN
12 12 (18.75%) Degree
12 12 (18.75%) SCCM
12 12 (18.75%) Windows 10
13 11 (17.19%) Azure
13 11 (17.19%) Linux
13 11 (17.19%) Problem-Solving
14 10 (15.63%) Hyper-V

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 8 (12.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (7.81%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.56%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 6 (9.38%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (7.81%) MS Visio
3 1 (1.56%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (1.56%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 14 (21.88%) Microsoft 365
2 11 (17.19%) Azure
3 7 (10.94%) Entra ID
4 2 (3.13%) Microsoft Purview
4 2 (3.13%) OneDrive
4 2 (3.13%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.56%) AWS
5 1 (1.56%) GCP
5 1 (1.56%) Mimecast
5 1 (1.56%) Nutanix
5 1 (1.56%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 15 (23.44%) Junos
1 15 (23.44%) WAN
2 13 (20.31%) Cisco Firepower
2 13 (20.31%) Cisco IOS
2 13 (20.31%) Cisco ISE
2 13 (20.31%) VPN
3 9 (14.06%) DNS
4 8 (12.50%) BGP
4 8 (12.50%) IPsec
4 8 (12.50%) MPLS
5 7 (10.94%) LAN
5 7 (10.94%) TCP/IP
6 6 (9.38%) Firewall
6 6 (9.38%) NetScaler
7 4 (6.25%) Network Security
8 3 (4.69%) DHCP
8 3 (4.69%) VLAN
9 1 (1.56%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (14.06%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.56%) Power BI
General
1 12 (18.75%) Public Sector
2 9 (14.06%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (10.94%) Social Skills
4 5 (7.81%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (1.56%) Law
5 1 (1.56%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 17 (26.56%) PKI
2 5 (7.81%) Client/Server
2 5 (7.81%) NHS
3 2 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (1.56%) Driving Licence
4 1 (1.56%) Onboarding
4 1 (1.56%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 42 (65.63%) Windows
2 30 (46.88%) Windows Server
3 12 (18.75%) Windows 10
4 11 (17.19%) Linux
5 7 (10.94%) Windows Server 2016
6 6 (9.38%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (3.13%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (28.13%) Service Management
2 17 (26.56%) ITSM
3 11 (17.19%) Problem-Solving
4 9 (14.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 9 (14.06%) Load Balancing
5 7 (10.94%) Zero Trust
6 6 (9.38%) Network Design
7 5 (7.81%) Agile
7 5 (7.81%) Change Management
7 5 (7.81%) Mentoring
7 5 (7.81%) Platform Engineering
8 4 (6.25%) Network Segmentation
8 4 (6.25%) Project Delivery
9 3 (4.69%) Migration
10 2 (3.13%) Application Packaging
10 2 (3.13%) Coaching
10 2 (3.13%) Continuous Improvement
10 2 (3.13%) ITIL
10 2 (3.13%) Root Cause Analysis
10 2 (3.13%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (12.50%) PowerShell
2 6 (9.38%) SQL
3 2 (3.13%) Bash
3 2 (3.13%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 42 (65.63%) Security Cleared
2 22 (34.38%) SC Cleared
3 20 (31.25%) DV Cleared
4 12 (18.75%) Degree
5 5 (7.81%) CCA
5 5 (7.81%) Citrix Certification
6 1 (1.56%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (7.81%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (1.56%) GDPR
2 1 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.56%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 30 (46.88%) Active Directory
2 14 (21.88%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (21.88%) VMware NSX
3 10 (15.63%) Hyper-V
4 6 (9.38%) XenApp
4 6 (9.38%) XenDesktop
5 2 (3.13%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (21.88%) vCenter Server
2 12 (18.75%) SCCM
3 7 (10.94%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (7.81%) SCVMM
5 2 (3.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (3.13%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (3.13%) SCOM
6 1 (1.56%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 21 (32.81%) Juniper
2 20 (31.25%) Cisco
3 16 (25.00%) VMware
4 15 (23.44%) SolarWinds
5 13 (20.31%) Microsoft
6 7 (10.94%) Citrix
7 5 (7.81%) ServiceNow
8 4 (6.25%) Barracuda Networks
8 4 (6.25%) Palo Alto
9 2 (3.13%) Apple
9 2 (3.13%) CheckPoint
10 1 (1.56%) Google
10 1 (1.56%) HP
10 1 (1.56%) Netskope
10 1 (1.56%) Proofpoint
10 1 (1.56%) QNAP
10 1 (1.56%) Red Hat
10 1 (1.56%) Veeam
10 1 (1.56%) Veritas
44 3rd Line Support jobs Nationwide