3rd Line Support Contract Job Trends

Third Line Support
UK

The median Third Line Support daily rate in the UK is £300, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 August 2026.

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

 6 months to
13 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 620 506 475
Rank change year-on-year -114 -31 +48
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 40 49 93
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.075% 0.15% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.081% 0.16% 0.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 34 42 69
10th Percentile £222 £192 £263
25th Percentile £225 £306 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £300 £500 £375
Median % change year-on-year -40.00% +33.33% -
75th Percentile £488 £588 £423
90th Percentile £557 £600 £455
UK excluding London median daily rate £295 £550 £375
% change year-on-year -46.36% +46.67% +15.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 2
10th Percentile £16.13 - £24.71
25th Percentile £18.05 £29.00 £25.51
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £27.59
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +8.74% -
75th Percentile £45.63 £31.00 £30.42
90th Percentile £58.75 - £31.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.93 - £27.59

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 49,387 30,089 36,178
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.36% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,655 19,063 23,293
10th Percentile £328 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,474 1,522 2,032
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.18
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.26 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.31 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.21% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £25.11 £45.00
% change year-on-year +73.66% -44.20% +25.00%

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 -97 40 £300 -45.45% 18
UK excluding London -107 33 £295 -46.36% 18
South East -68 13 £250 -57.45% 6
Midlands -52 8 £275 -33.33% 5
London -83 7 £625 +51.52% 2
Work from Home -57 6 £290 +0.87% 3
East of England - 5 £223 - 3
North of England - 5 £345 - 4
East Midlands - 5 £300 - 2
South West -36 3 £425 +21.43%
West Midlands -47 3 £250 -39.39% 3
North West - 3 £448 - 2
Yorkshire - 2 £305 -
North East - 1 £290 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 13 August 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 28 (70.00%) Active Directory
2 26 (65.00%) Windows
3 24 (60.00%) Microsoft
4 19 (47.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 19 (47.50%) Windows Server
5 14 (35.00%) Entra ID
6 13 (32.50%) PowerShell
7 12 (30.00%) Microsoft Exchange
8 11 (27.50%) Microsoft 365
8 11 (27.50%) Microsoft Intune
8 11 (27.50%) Security Cleared
9 10 (25.00%) Azure
9 10 (25.00%) Hyper-V
9 10 (25.00%) VMware
10 9 (22.50%) DNS
10 9 (22.50%) SharePoint
11 8 (20.00%) DHCP
12 7 (17.50%) DV Cleared
12 7 (17.50%) Privileged Access Management
12 7 (17.50%) VMware Infrastructure
13 6 (15.00%) Citrix
13 6 (15.00%) Firewall
14 5 (12.50%) AI
14 5 (12.50%) Degree
14 5 (12.50%) ITSM
14 5 (12.50%) ServiceNow
14 5 (12.50%) SQL
14 5 (12.50%) VPN
14 5 (12.50%) Vulnerability Remediation
14 5 (12.50%) Windows 10

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 12 (30.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (22.50%) SharePoint
3 2 (5.00%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 1 (2.50%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 14 (35.00%) Entra ID
2 11 (27.50%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (25.00%) Azure
4 4 (10.00%) AWS
5 3 (7.50%) GCP
5 3 (7.50%) IaaS
5 3 (7.50%) OpenShift
5 3 (7.50%) PaaS
6 2 (5.00%) Azure Data Factory
6 2 (5.00%) OneDrive
7 1 (2.50%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (2.50%) Mimecast
7 1 (2.50%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 9 (22.50%) DNS
2 8 (20.00%) DHCP
3 6 (15.00%) Firewall
4 5 (12.50%) VPN
5 4 (10.00%) SMTP
6 3 (7.50%) TCP/IP
6 3 (7.50%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (5.00%) Skype
8 1 (2.50%) LAN
8 1 (2.50%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (10.00%) Amazon RDS
2 3 (7.50%) Big Data
2 3 (7.50%) Elasticsearch
2 3 (7.50%) SQL Server
3 2 (5.00%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 2 (5.00%) Git
1 2 (5.00%) JIRA
General
1 7 (17.50%) Marketing
1 7 (17.50%) Social Skills
2 3 (7.50%) Manufacturing
3 2 (5.00%) Documentation Skills
3 2 (5.00%) Military
3 2 (5.00%) Public Sector
4 1 (2.50%) Advertising
4 1 (2.50%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (2.50%) Finance
4 1 (2.50%) Pharmaceutical
Miscellaneous
1 4 (10.00%) Clustering
2 3 (7.50%) Data Centre
2 3 (7.50%) NHS
2 3 (7.50%) Onboarding
2 3 (7.50%) PKI
3 2 (5.00%) Operational Technology
4 1 (2.50%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (2.50%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 26 (65.00%) Windows
2 19 (47.50%) Windows Server
3 5 (12.50%) Windows 10
4 4 (10.00%) Linux
5 2 (5.00%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (2.50%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (47.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 7 (17.50%) Privileged Access Management
3 5 (12.50%) AI
3 5 (12.50%) ITSM
3 5 (12.50%) Vulnerability Remediation
4 4 (10.00%) Customer Service
4 4 (10.00%) ITIL
4 4 (10.00%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (7.50%) Application Packaging
5 3 (7.50%) Asset Management
5 3 (7.50%) Cybersecurity
5 3 (7.50%) DevOps
5 3 (7.50%) Identity Access Management
5 3 (7.50%) Information Security
5 3 (7.50%) Machine Learning
5 3 (7.50%) Security Hardening
5 3 (7.50%) Server Management
5 3 (7.50%) Software Deployment
6 2 (5.00%) ETL
6 2 (5.00%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 13 (32.50%) PowerShell
2 5 (12.50%) SQL
Qualifications
1 11 (27.50%) Security Cleared
2 7 (17.50%) DV Cleared
3 5 (12.50%) Degree
4 4 (10.00%) SC Cleared
5 1 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (2.50%) CCNA
5 1 (2.50%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (2.50%) MCSE
5 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.50%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (2.50%) GxP
1 1 (2.50%) NCSC
1 1 (2.50%) SLA
System Software
1 28 (70.00%) Active Directory
2 10 (25.00%) Hyper-V
3 7 (17.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (10.00%) BitLocker
4 4 (10.00%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (7.50%) Docker
5 3 (7.50%) Microsoft App-V
5 3 (7.50%) Terminal Services
6 2 (5.00%) vSphere
7 1 (2.50%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 1 (2.50%) vCloud
7 1 (2.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (2.50%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 11 (27.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (10.00%) vCenter Server
3 3 (7.50%) Ansible
3 3 (7.50%) Kubernetes
3 3 (7.50%) Nagios
3 3 (7.50%) Puppet
3 3 (7.50%) vMotion
4 2 (5.00%) SCCM
5 1 (2.50%) Backup Exec
5 1 (2.50%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Clustering
5 1 (2.50%) SCOM
5 1 (2.50%) WSUS
Vendors
1 24 (60.00%) Microsoft
2 10 (25.00%) VMware
3 6 (15.00%) Citrix
4 5 (12.50%) ServiceNow
5 4 (10.00%) HP
6 3 (7.50%) Google
6 3 (7.50%) Symantec
7 2 (5.00%) Cisco
8 1 (2.50%) Adobe
8 1 (2.50%) Barracuda Networks
8 1 (2.50%) BMC
8 1 (2.50%) Clearswift
8 1 (2.50%) Dell
8 1 (2.50%) McAfee
8 1 (2.50%) Meraki
8 1 (2.50%) Palo Alto
8 1 (2.50%) Proofpoint
8 1 (2.50%) Remedy
8 1 (2.50%) Samsung
21 3rd Line Support jobs Nationwide