3rd Line Support Contracts

Third Line Support
UK

The median Third Line Support daily rate in the UK is £363, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 January 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Jan 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 506 501 629
Rank change year-on-year -5 +128 +30
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 22 111 132
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.070% 0.26% 0.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.075% 0.27% 0.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 63 86
10th Percentile £245 £213 £228
25th Percentile £253 £275 £289
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £363 £300 £375
Median % change year-on-year +20.83% -20.00% +23.97%
75th Percentile £451 £397 £475
90th Percentile £558 £475 £500
UK excluding London median daily rate £260 £300 £375
% change year-on-year -13.33% -20.00% +27.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 2
10th Percentile £22.19 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £23.59 - £34.00
75th Percentile £23.75 - -
90th Percentile £45.50 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 - -

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 29,221 40,401 65,994
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.80% 93.08% 94.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,859 26,810 45,996
10th Percentile £290 £275 £313
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +5.77%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.00% - +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 877 1,934 1,625
10th Percentile £15.92 £13.50 £13.41
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.72 £17.56
Median hourly rate £32.50 £40.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.75% +17.65% +61.29%
75th Percentile £62.50 £63.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £74.81 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £40.50 £29.75
% change year-on-year -19.75% +36.13% +64.23%

3rd Line Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured 3rd Line Support in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3rd Line Support over the 6 months to 21 January 2025.

Daily rate histogram for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing 3rd Line Support over the 6 months to 21 January 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for 3rd Line Support in the UK

3rd Line Support
Top 11 Contract 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 21 January 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 -19 19 £363 +20.83% 29
London +30 11 £420 +40.00% 7
UK excluding London -17 8 £260 -13.33% 23
Work from Home +51 5 £475 +20.63% 10
South East +12 2 £295 -1.67% 5
South West +7 2 £338 +12.50% 2
Midlands +7 2 £260 +18.86% 1
West Midlands -2 2 £260 - 1
Yorkshire +17 1 £245 -18.33% 2
North of England +11 1 £245 -18.33% 9
Wales - 1 - -

3rd Line Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 January 2025, 3rd 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 3rd Line Support in the job title.

1 16 (72.73%) Windows
2 14 (63.64%) Microsoft
3 10 (45.45%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (40.91%) Azure
4 9 (40.91%) Active Directory
5 8 (36.36%) Microsoft Office
5 8 (36.36%) Windows 10
6 7 (31.82%) SCCM
6 7 (31.82%) Social Skills
7 6 (27.27%) Entra ID
7 6 (27.27%) SAN
8 5 (22.73%) WAN
8 5 (22.73%) DHCP
8 5 (22.73%) DNS
8 5 (22.73%) LAN
8 5 (22.73%) Finance
8 5 (22.73%) VMware
8 5 (22.73%) Windows Server
8 5 (22.73%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (22.73%) Change Control
8 5 (22.73%) Security Cleared
9 4 (18.18%) Android
9 4 (18.18%) ServiceNow
9 4 (18.18%) Meraki
9 4 (18.18%) Disaster Recovery
9 4 (18.18%) SharePoint
9 4 (18.18%) Microsoft Exchange
9 4 (18.18%) ITIL
9 4 (18.18%) Business Intelligence
9 4 (18.18%) Team-Oriented Environment

3rd 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 4 (18.18%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (18.18%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (36.36%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (9.09%) Global One
Cloud Services
1 10 (45.45%) Microsoft 365
2 9 (40.91%) Azure
3 6 (27.27%) Entra ID
4 2 (9.09%) AWS
4 2 (9.09%) OneDrive
5 1 (4.55%) Cloud Computing
5 1 (4.55%) Google Workspace
5 1 (4.55%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (27.27%) SAN
2 5 (22.73%) DHCP
2 5 (22.73%) DNS
2 5 (22.73%) LAN
2 5 (22.73%) WAN
3 3 (13.64%) Firewall
3 3 (13.64%) NAS
3 3 (13.64%) VLAN
3 3 (13.64%) VPN
4 2 (9.09%) Remote Desktop
4 2 (9.09%) Softphone
4 2 (9.09%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (4.55%) Internet
5 1 (4.55%) NetScaler
5 1 (4.55%) Skype
5 1 (4.55%) TCP/IP
5 1 (4.55%) VoIP
5 1 (4.55%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (4.55%) MS Access
1 1 (4.55%) MySQL
1 1 (4.55%) NoSQL
General
1 7 (31.82%) Social Skills
2 5 (22.73%) Finance
3 3 (13.64%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (13.64%) Public Sector
3 3 (13.64%) Telecoms
4 2 (9.09%) Banking
4 2 (9.09%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (9.09%) Electronics
4 2 (9.09%) Manufacturing
4 2 (9.09%) Marketing
5 1 (4.55%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.55%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 4 (18.18%) Team-Oriented Environment
2 3 (13.64%) Replication
3 1 (4.55%) CMDB
3 1 (4.55%) Data Centre
3 1 (4.55%) Onboarding
3 1 (4.55%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 16 (72.73%) Windows
2 8 (36.36%) Windows 10
3 5 (22.73%) Windows Server
4 4 (18.18%) Android
5 3 (13.64%) Linux
5 3 (13.64%) Mac OS X
5 3 (13.64%) Unix
6 2 (9.09%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (22.73%) Change Control
2 4 (18.18%) Business Intelligence
2 4 (18.18%) Disaster Recovery
2 4 (18.18%) ITIL
3 3 (13.64%) Cybersecurity
3 3 (13.64%) High Availability
3 3 (13.64%) Incident Management
3 3 (13.64%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (13.64%) Project Management
3 3 (13.64%) Server Management
4 2 (9.09%) Business Continuity Planning
4 2 (9.09%) Digital Marketing
4 2 (9.09%) Knowledge Management
4 2 (9.09%) Project Delivery
4 2 (9.09%) Software Deployment
4 2 (9.09%) Software Testing
4 2 (9.09%) Storage Management
4 2 (9.09%) Supplier Management
4 2 (9.09%) System Testing
4 2 (9.09%) Task Automation
Programming Languages
1 3 (13.64%) PowerShell
1 3 (13.64%) Python
1 3 (13.64%) SQL
2 2 (9.09%) Bash
3 1 (4.55%) C#
3 1 (4.55%) Java
Qualifications
1 5 (22.73%) Security Cleared
2 3 (13.64%) DV Cleared
2 3 (13.64%) MCSE
2 3 (13.64%) Microsoft Certification
3 2 (9.09%) ACSP
3 2 (9.09%) SC Cleared
4 1 (4.55%) Azure Certification
4 1 (4.55%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (9.09%) Accessibility
2 1 (4.55%) SLA
System Software
1 9 (40.91%) Active Directory
2 3 (13.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (9.09%) Hyper-V
4 1 (4.55%) vSphere
4 1 (4.55%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 7 (31.82%) SCCM
2 5 (22.73%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (9.09%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (4.55%) AppManager
4 1 (4.55%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 14 (63.64%) Microsoft
2 5 (22.73%) VMware
3 4 (18.18%) Meraki
3 4 (18.18%) ServiceNow
4 3 (13.64%) Apple
5 2 (9.09%) Adobe
5 2 (9.09%) SAP
6 1 (4.55%) Cisco
6 1 (4.55%) Citrix
6 1 (4.55%) F5
6 1 (4.55%) Fortinet
6 1 (4.55%) Google
6 1 (4.55%) Ivanti
6 1 (4.55%) Veeam