3rd Line Support Contract Job Trends

Third Line Support
UK

The median Third Line Support daily rate in the UK is £413, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 July 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 620 489 481
Rank change year-on-year -131 -8 +73
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 35 47 106
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.068% 0.15% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.074% 0.16% 0.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 42 81
10th Percentile £223 £191 £263
25th Percentile £225 £290 £298
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £425 £375
Median % change year-on-year -2.94% +13.33% -
75th Percentile £494 £588 £400
90th Percentile £600 £612 £475
UK excluding London median daily rate £256 £563 £375
% change year-on-year -54.44% +50.00% +15.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £21.25 - £29.50
Median hourly rate £22.50 - £31.00
75th Percentile £23.75 - £32.50
90th Percentile £45.63 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 - £31.00

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 47,563 28,496 40,366
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.42% 92.02% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,794 18,232 25,937
10th Percentile £325 £288 £285
25th Percentile £415 £402 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,217 1,276 2,865
10th Percentile £15.72 £13.82 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.41 £16.58
Median hourly rate £43.00 £26.75 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.75% -28.67% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £56.30 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 2 July 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 3rd Line Support over the 6 months to 2 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Top 14 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 2 July 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 -118 35 £413 -26.67% 22
UK excluding London -124 26 £256 -54.44% 28
South East -64 12 £250 -57.45% 6
London -76 9 £500 +33.20% 1
Work from Home -59 7 £475 +97.92% 10
East of England - 6 £475 - 1
South West -32 4 £438 +45.83% 3
North of England - 3 £250 - 4
Midlands -49 2 £215 -37.30% 7
West Midlands -59 1 £210 -38.73% 2
North East - 1 £290 -
North West - 1 - - 2
Yorkshire - 1 £210 - 2
East Midlands - 1 £220 - 5

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

For the 6 months to 2 July 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 27 (77.14%) Windows
2 23 (65.71%) Active Directory
3 17 (48.57%) Microsoft
4 16 (45.71%) Windows Server
5 14 (40.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 13 (37.14%) Security Cleared
7 11 (31.43%) DNS
7 11 (31.43%) PowerShell
8 10 (28.57%) Degree
9 9 (25.71%) Hyper-V
9 9 (25.71%) VMware
9 9 (25.71%) VMware Infrastructure
10 8 (22.86%) Microsoft Exchange
10 8 (22.86%) Windows 10
11 7 (20.00%) Privileged Access Management
11 7 (20.00%) TCP/IP
12 6 (17.14%) Azure
12 6 (17.14%) DHCP
12 6 (17.14%) DV Cleared
12 6 (17.14%) LAN
12 6 (17.14%) SC Cleared
12 6 (17.14%) WAN
13 5 (14.29%) AI
13 5 (14.29%) Citrix
13 5 (14.29%) Firewall
13 5 (14.29%) ITSM
13 5 (14.29%) Linux
13 5 (14.29%) SCCM
13 5 (14.29%) SharePoint
13 5 (14.29%) VPN

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 (22.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (14.29%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (8.57%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (5.71%) MS Visio
3 1 (2.86%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (2.86%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 6 (17.14%) Azure
2 4 (11.43%) Entra ID
3 3 (8.57%) AWS
3 3 (8.57%) GCP
3 3 (8.57%) IaaS
3 3 (8.57%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (8.57%) OpenShift
3 3 (8.57%) PaaS
4 1 (2.86%) Azure Data Factory
4 1 (2.86%) Cloud Computing
4 1 (2.86%) Mimecast
4 1 (2.86%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 11 (31.43%) DNS
2 7 (20.00%) TCP/IP
3 6 (17.14%) DHCP
3 6 (17.14%) LAN
3 6 (17.14%) WAN
4 5 (14.29%) Firewall
4 5 (14.29%) VPN
5 3 (8.57%) SMTP
6 2 (5.71%) NetScaler
6 2 (5.71%) Skype
7 1 (2.86%) Network Security
7 1 (2.86%) VLAN
7 1 (2.86%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (11.43%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (11.43%) SQL Server
2 3 (8.57%) Big Data
2 3 (8.57%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (2.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 1 (2.86%) Git
General
1 7 (20.00%) Marketing
2 6 (17.14%) Public Sector
3 5 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (8.57%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (8.57%) Social Skills
5 2 (5.71%) Military
6 1 (2.86%) Finance
6 1 (2.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (2.86%) Pharmaceutical
Miscellaneous
1 5 (14.29%) NHS
2 4 (11.43%) PKI
3 3 (8.57%) Clustering
3 3 (8.57%) Data Centre
4 2 (5.71%) Client/Server
4 2 (5.71%) Onboarding
5 1 (2.86%) Driving Licence
5 1 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (2.86%) Operational Technology
5 1 (2.86%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 27 (77.14%) Windows
2 16 (45.71%) Windows Server
3 8 (22.86%) Windows 10
4 5 (14.29%) Linux
5 4 (11.43%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (5.71%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (2.86%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (40.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 7 (20.00%) Privileged Access Management
3 5 (14.29%) AI
3 5 (14.29%) ITSM
4 4 (11.43%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (8.57%) Change Management
5 3 (8.57%) DevOps
5 3 (8.57%) Information Security
5 3 (8.57%) Machine Learning
5 3 (8.57%) Software Deployment
5 3 (8.57%) Vulnerability Remediation
6 2 (5.71%) Application Packaging
6 2 (5.71%) Customer Service
6 2 (5.71%) ITIL
6 2 (5.71%) Kalman Filter
6 2 (5.71%) Server Management
6 2 (5.71%) Service Management
6 2 (5.71%) Web Filtering
7 1 (2.86%) Operational Stability
7 1 (2.86%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 11 (31.43%) PowerShell
2 4 (11.43%) SQL
3 1 (2.86%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 13 (37.14%) Security Cleared
2 10 (28.57%) Degree
3 6 (17.14%) DV Cleared
3 6 (17.14%) SC Cleared
4 2 (5.71%) CCA
4 2 (5.71%) Citrix Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (5.71%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (2.86%) GDPR
2 1 (2.86%) PCI DSS
2 1 (2.86%) SLA
System Software
1 23 (65.71%) Active Directory
2 9 (25.71%) Hyper-V
2 9 (25.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (11.43%) BitLocker
3 4 (11.43%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (8.57%) Docker
4 3 (8.57%) Microsoft App-V
4 3 (8.57%) Terminal Services
5 2 (5.71%) vSphere
5 2 (5.71%) XenApp
5 2 (5.71%) XenDesktop
6 1 (2.86%) vCloud
6 1 (2.86%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (2.86%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 5 (14.29%) SCCM
2 4 (11.43%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (11.43%) vCenter Server
3 3 (8.57%) Ansible
3 3 (8.57%) Kubernetes
3 3 (8.57%) Nagios
3 3 (8.57%) Puppet
3 3 (8.57%) vMotion
4 2 (5.71%) SCVMM
5 1 (2.86%) Backup Exec
5 1 (2.86%) SCOM
5 1 (2.86%) WSUS
Vendors
1 17 (48.57%) Microsoft
2 9 (25.71%) VMware
3 5 (14.29%) Citrix
4 4 (11.43%) HP
5 3 (8.57%) Google
5 3 (8.57%) ServiceNow
5 3 (8.57%) Symantec
6 2 (5.71%) Cisco
7 1 (2.86%) Adobe
7 1 (2.86%) Barracuda Networks
7 1 (2.86%) BMC
7 1 (2.86%) McAfee
7 1 (2.86%) Meraki
7 1 (2.86%) Netskope
7 1 (2.86%) Palo Alto
7 1 (2.86%) Remedy
7 1 (2.86%) Samsung