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 March 2026.

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

 6 months to
16 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 587 501 482
Rank change year-on-year -86 -19 +151
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 49 25 110
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.085% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.091% 0.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 18 79
10th Percentile £324 £231 £245
25th Percentile £400 £258 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £338 £340
Median % change year-on-year +33.33% -0.74% -9.93%
75th Percentile £500 £579 £388
90th Percentile - £616 £478
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £375 £350
% change year-on-year +26.67% +7.14% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £21.25 - -
Median hourly rate £22.50 £23.59 -
Median % change year-on-year -4.62% - -
75th Percentile £23.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £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 39,618 27,480 41,303
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.95% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,739 17,860 27,103
10th Percentile £313 £297 £272
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.37%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,468 883 2,495
10th Percentile £14.99 £15.25 £12.95
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.03 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.71 £32.81 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +8.84% -0.26% -22.60%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.94
90th Percentile £75.85 £77.44 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -20.36%

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 March 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 March 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 -66 48 £450 +50.00% 34
UK excluding London -65 34 £475 +26.67% 31
South East -38 13 £500 +1.01% 13
London -49 13 £413 +2.48% 7
Work from Home -20 9 £450 -25.00% 14
East of England - 9 £475 -
Midlands - 6 £400 - 3
South West -24 4 £450 +50.00% 1
West Midlands - 4 £400 - 2
North of England -57 2 £388 +58.16% 13
North West - 2 £388 - 2
East Midlands - 2 £248 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 16 March 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 32 (65.31%) Windows
2 30 (61.22%) Security Cleared
3 22 (44.90%) Windows Server
4 20 (40.82%) Active Directory
5 16 (32.65%) SC Cleared
6 12 (24.49%) Degree
6 12 (24.49%) DV Cleared
6 12 (24.49%) ITSM
6 12 (24.49%) VMware
7 11 (22.45%) Cisco
7 11 (22.45%) Juniper
7 11 (22.45%) Service Management
7 11 (22.45%) VMware Infrastructure
7 11 (22.45%) WAN
8 10 (20.41%) Microsoft
8 10 (20.41%) Microsoft 365
8 10 (20.41%) SCCM
9 9 (18.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 9 (18.37%) Linux
9 9 (18.37%) VPN
9 9 (18.37%) Windows 10
10 8 (16.33%) DNS
10 8 (16.33%) SolarWinds
11 7 (14.29%) Azure
11 7 (14.29%) Cisco Firepower
11 7 (14.29%) Cisco IOS
11 7 (14.29%) Cisco ISE
11 7 (14.29%) Citrix
11 7 (14.29%) Entra ID
11 7 (14.29%) 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 6 (12.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (6.12%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (12.24%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (10.20%) MS Visio
3 1 (2.04%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 10 (20.41%) Microsoft 365
2 7 (14.29%) Azure
2 7 (14.29%) Entra ID
3 1 (2.04%) GCP
3 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Purview
3 1 (2.04%) Mimecast
3 1 (2.04%) Nutanix
3 1 (2.04%) OneDrive
3 1 (2.04%) Power Platform
3 1 (2.04%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 11 (22.45%) WAN
2 9 (18.37%) VPN
3 8 (16.33%) DNS
4 7 (14.29%) Cisco Firepower
4 7 (14.29%) Cisco IOS
4 7 (14.29%) Cisco ISE
4 7 (14.29%) Junos
4 7 (14.29%) LAN
4 7 (14.29%) TCP/IP
5 6 (12.24%) NetScaler
6 4 (8.16%) BGP
6 4 (8.16%) Firewall
6 4 (8.16%) IPsec
6 4 (8.16%) MPLS
6 4 (8.16%) Network Security
7 3 (6.12%) DHCP
7 3 (6.12%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (12.24%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.04%) Power BI
General
1 11 (22.45%) Public Sector
2 9 (18.37%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (10.20%) Documentation Skills
4 4 (8.16%) Social Skills
5 1 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (2.04%) Law
5 1 (2.04%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 10 (20.41%) PKI
2 5 (10.20%) Client/Server
2 5 (10.20%) NHS
3 1 (2.04%) Driving Licence
3 1 (2.04%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.04%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 32 (65.31%) Windows
2 22 (44.90%) Windows Server
3 9 (18.37%) Linux
3 9 (18.37%) Windows 10
4 6 (12.24%) Windows Server 2016
4 6 (12.24%) Windows Server 2019
5 2 (4.08%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (24.49%) ITSM
2 11 (22.45%) Service Management
3 9 (18.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 7 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (14.29%) Zero Trust
5 5 (10.20%) Agile
5 5 (10.20%) Change Management
5 5 (10.20%) Load Balancing
5 5 (10.20%) Platform Engineering
6 4 (8.16%) Mentoring
6 4 (8.16%) Network Design
6 4 (8.16%) Network Segmentation
7 2 (4.08%) Application Packaging
7 2 (4.08%) Coaching
7 2 (4.08%) Continuous Improvement
7 2 (4.08%) ITIL
7 2 (4.08%) Knowledge Transfer
7 2 (4.08%) Project Delivery
7 2 (4.08%) User Experience
7 2 (4.08%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 7 (14.29%) PowerShell
2 6 (12.24%) SQL
3 2 (4.08%) Bash
3 2 (4.08%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 30 (61.22%) Security Cleared
2 16 (32.65%) SC Cleared
3 12 (24.49%) Degree
3 12 (24.49%) DV Cleared
4 5 (10.20%) CCA
4 5 (10.20%) Citrix Certification
5 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (10.20%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (2.04%) GDPR
2 1 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (2.04%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 20 (40.82%) Active Directory
2 11 (22.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (14.29%) Hyper-V
3 7 (14.29%) VMware NSX
4 6 (12.24%) XenApp
4 6 (12.24%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 10 (20.41%) SCCM
2 7 (14.29%) vCenter Server
3 5 (10.20%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (10.20%) SCVMM
4 2 (4.08%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (2.04%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (2.04%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 12 (24.49%) VMware
2 11 (22.45%) Cisco
2 11 (22.45%) Juniper
3 10 (20.41%) Microsoft
4 8 (16.33%) SolarWinds
5 7 (14.29%) Citrix
6 5 (10.20%) ServiceNow
7 4 (8.16%) Barracuda Networks
7 4 (8.16%) Palo Alto
8 2 (4.08%) Apple
9 1 (2.04%) Google
9 1 (2.04%) Netskope
9 1 (2.04%) Proofpoint
9 1 (2.04%) QNAP
36 3rd Line Support jobs Nationwide