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 7 November 2025.

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

6 months to
7 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 521 505 494
Rank change year-on-year -16 -11 +150
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 66 50 140
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.14% 0.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.15% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 35 76
10th Percentile £263 £249 £219
25th Percentile £381 £280 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £420 £350
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +20.00% -
75th Percentile £500 £463 £400
90th Percentile £550 £538 £475
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £375 £325
% change year-on-year +20.00% +15.38% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 5 0
10th Percentile - £22.19 -
25th Percentile £29.00 £23.59 -
Median hourly rate £30.00 £24.18 -
Median % change year-on-year +24.07% - -
75th Percentile £31.00 £32.50 -
90th Percentile - £49.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £24.18 -

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 31,779 34,114 43,832
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.90% 92.88% 93.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,168 20,586 29,825
10th Percentile £278 £300 £298
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,814 1,278 1,528
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.09 £14.98
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.20 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.00 £44.75
Median % change year-on-year -32.03% -17.32% +54.84%
75th Percentile £51.19 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +85.42%

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 7 November 2025.

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 13 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 7 November 2025. 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 -1 59 £450 +22.03% 62
UK excluding London -10 51 £450 +20.00% 67
South East +22 21 £500 +42.86% 25
Midlands -11 17 £400 +53.85% 8
West Midlands -19 17 £400 +53.85% 3
Work from Home +18 16 £281 -33.82% 29
London -8 12 £450 +7.14% 16
Wales +10 5 £200 - 9
South West +7 4 £388 +3.33% 5
North West -24 2 £388 - 4
North of England -33 2 £388 +29.17% 8
Scotland +4 1 - - 6
East of England -14 1 £350 -17.65% 8

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

For the 6 months to 7 November 2025, 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 43 (65.15%) Security Cleared
2 34 (51.52%) Active Directory
3 30 (45.45%) Windows
4 28 (42.42%) Juniper
5 24 (36.36%) Cisco
6 22 (33.33%) SC Cleared
6 22 (33.33%) WAN
7 21 (31.82%) DV Cleared
8 20 (30.30%) Junos
8 20 (30.30%) Microsoft
8 20 (30.30%) Windows Server
9 17 (25.76%) Azure
9 17 (25.76%) Microsoft 365
9 17 (25.76%) SolarWinds
10 16 (24.24%) Service Management
10 16 (24.24%) vCenter Server
10 16 (24.24%) VMware NSX
10 16 (24.24%) VPN
11 15 (22.73%) Cisco Firepower
11 15 (22.73%) Cisco IOS
11 15 (22.73%) Cisco ISE
11 15 (22.73%) ITSM
12 14 (21.21%) Load Balancing
12 14 (21.21%) Microsoft Intune
13 13 (19.70%) BGP
13 13 (19.70%) IPsec
13 13 (19.70%) MPLS
14 12 (18.18%) Entra ID
15 10 (15.15%) Cybersecurity
15 10 (15.15%) Firewall

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 10 (15.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (9.09%) SharePoint
3 4 (6.06%) SharePoint Server
4 3 (4.55%) Exchange Server 2003
4 3 (4.55%) Exchange Server 2007
4 3 (4.55%) Exchange Server 2010
4 3 (4.55%) Exchange Server 2013
4 3 (4.55%) Office Communications Server
4 3 (4.55%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (7.58%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.52%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 17 (25.76%) Azure
1 17 (25.76%) Microsoft 365
2 12 (18.18%) Entra ID
3 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Purview
3 2 (3.03%) OneDrive
3 2 (3.03%) Power Platform
4 1 (1.52%) AWS
4 1 (1.52%) GCP
4 1 (1.52%) Google Workspace
4 1 (1.52%) IaaS
4 1 (1.52%) Nutanix
4 1 (1.52%) PaaS
4 1 (1.52%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 22 (33.33%) WAN
2 20 (30.30%) Junos
3 16 (24.24%) VPN
4 15 (22.73%) Cisco Firepower
4 15 (22.73%) Cisco IOS
4 15 (22.73%) Cisco ISE
5 13 (19.70%) BGP
5 13 (19.70%) IPsec
5 13 (19.70%) MPLS
6 10 (15.15%) Firewall
7 7 (10.61%) DNS
7 7 (10.61%) LAN
8 6 (9.09%) DHCP
8 6 (9.09%) SAN
9 3 (4.55%) DDNS
9 3 (4.55%) TCP/IP
10 2 (3.03%) Wi-Fi
11 1 (1.52%) Fibre Channel
11 1 (1.52%) NetScaler
11 1 (1.52%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (6.06%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.52%) Power BI
2 1 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
General
1 7 (10.61%) Social Skills
2 6 (9.09%) Public Sector
3 2 (3.03%) Banking
3 2 (3.03%) Finance
3 2 (3.03%) Local Government
4 1 (1.52%) Analytical Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.03%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 17 (25.76%) PKI
2 4 (6.06%) Self-Motivation
3 3 (4.55%) Replication
4 2 (3.03%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.52%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 30 (45.45%) Windows
2 20 (30.30%) Windows Server
3 5 (7.58%) Mac OS
3 5 (7.58%) Windows 10
4 3 (4.55%) Windows Server 2003
5 2 (3.03%) Linux
5 2 (3.03%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (1.52%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (24.24%) Service Management
2 15 (22.73%) ITSM
3 14 (21.21%) Load Balancing
4 10 (15.15%) Cybersecurity
4 10 (15.15%) Network Design
5 7 (10.61%) Problem-Solving
6 6 (9.09%) ITIL
6 6 (9.09%) Migration
6 6 (9.09%) Project Delivery
7 5 (7.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 4 (6.06%) Business Intelligence
8 4 (6.06%) Mentoring
9 3 (4.55%) Architectural Design
9 3 (4.55%) Content Management
9 3 (4.55%) Enterprise Content Management
9 3 (4.55%) Enterprise Search
9 3 (4.55%) High Availability
9 3 (4.55%) User Experience
9 3 (4.55%) Zero Trust
10 2 (3.03%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 7 (10.61%) PowerShell
2 4 (6.06%) Bash
3 2 (3.03%) SQL
4 1 (1.52%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 43 (65.15%) Security Cleared
2 22 (33.33%) SC Cleared
3 21 (31.82%) DV Cleared
4 2 (3.03%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (1.52%) Degree
5 1 (1.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.55%) SLA
2 1 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 34 (51.52%) Active Directory
2 16 (24.24%) VMware NSX
3 5 (7.58%) Hyper-V
3 5 (7.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (4.55%) Brightmail
4 3 (4.55%) ISA Server
4 3 (4.55%) vSphere
5 1 (1.52%) DFS Replication
5 1 (1.52%) XenApp
5 1 (1.52%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 16 (24.24%) vCenter Server
2 14 (21.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (7.58%) Jamf Pro
3 5 (7.58%) SCCM
4 3 (4.55%) AirWatch
4 3 (4.55%) Microsoft Clustering
5 2 (3.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (3.03%) FortiGate
5 2 (3.03%) SCOM
6 1 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.52%) Terraform
Vendors
1 28 (42.42%) Juniper
2 24 (36.36%) Cisco
3 20 (30.30%) Microsoft
4 17 (25.76%) SolarWinds
5 9 (13.64%) VMware
6 5 (7.58%) Apple
6 5 (7.58%) Sophos
7 3 (4.55%) HP
8 2 (3.03%) Adobe
8 2 (3.03%) CheckPoint
8 2 (3.03%) Palo Alto
9 1 (1.52%) Citrix
9 1 (1.52%) Google
9 1 (1.52%) Proofpoint
9 1 (1.52%) QNAP
9 1 (1.52%) Red Hat
9 1 (1.52%) ServiceNow
9 1 (1.52%) Veeam
9 1 (1.52%) Veritas