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 14 April 2026.

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

 6 months to
14 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 585 484 492
Rank change year-on-year -101 +8 +113
Contract jobs requiring a 3rd Line Support 37 35 99
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.081% 0.12% 0.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.088% 0.13% 0.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 27 82
10th Percentile £235 £242 £250
25th Percentile £406 £300 £276
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £575 £373
Median % change year-on-year -21.74% +54.36% -0.67%
75th Percentile £500 £600 £400
90th Percentile £500 £617 £473
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £575 £375
% change year-on-year -17.39% +53.33% -
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 42,188 27,123 40,371
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.27% 92.63% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,193 17,821 26,390
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £407 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.80% -1.00% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £628 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,670 980 2,573
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.83 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.09 £19.91 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.53 £31.42 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.16% -10.22% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.25 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.03 £75.58 £72.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £30.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +41.67% -14.29% -17.38%

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 14 April 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 14 April 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 36 £450 -21.74% 21
UK excluding London -90 25 £475 -17.39% 29
Work from Home -36 10 £450 -25.00% 9
London -69 10 £413 -24.31% 1
East of England - 9 £475 -
South East -57 7 £500 -13.04% 3
South West -28 4 £450 +50.00% 4
Midlands - 4 £248 - 3
East Midlands - 2 £248 - 3
West Midlands - 2 £305 -
North of England -74 1 £388 +58.16% 10
North West - 1 £388 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 14 April 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 (75.68%) Windows
2 19 (51.35%) Security Cleared
2 19 (51.35%) Windows Server
3 15 (40.54%) Active Directory
4 12 (32.43%) Degree
4 12 (32.43%) SC Cleared
5 11 (29.73%) VMware
5 11 (29.73%) VMware Infrastructure
6 10 (27.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 10 (27.03%) SCCM
7 9 (24.32%) Linux
8 8 (21.62%) DNS
8 8 (21.62%) Microsoft
8 8 (21.62%) WAN
8 8 (21.62%) Windows 10
9 7 (18.92%) Citrix
9 7 (18.92%) Hyper-V
9 7 (18.92%) ITSM
9 7 (18.92%) LAN
9 7 (18.92%) Microsoft 365
9 7 (18.92%) TCP/IP
10 6 (16.22%) Azure
10 6 (16.22%) Cisco
10 6 (16.22%) DV Cleared
10 6 (16.22%) Entra ID
10 6 (16.22%) Microsoft Office
10 6 (16.22%) NetScaler
10 6 (16.22%) Problem-Solving
10 6 (16.22%) Service Management
10 6 (16.22%) 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 4 (10.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (5.41%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (16.22%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (13.51%) MS Visio
3 1 (2.70%) AutoCAD
Cloud Services
1 7 (18.92%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (16.22%) Azure
2 6 (16.22%) Entra ID
3 1 (2.70%) Cloud Computing
3 1 (2.70%) GCP
3 1 (2.70%) Mimecast
3 1 (2.70%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 8 (21.62%) DNS
1 8 (21.62%) WAN
2 7 (18.92%) LAN
2 7 (18.92%) TCP/IP
3 6 (16.22%) NetScaler
3 6 (16.22%) VPN
4 4 (10.81%) Firewall
4 4 (10.81%) Network Security
5 3 (8.11%) DHCP
5 3 (8.11%) VLAN
6 2 (5.41%) Cisco Firepower
6 2 (5.41%) Cisco IOS
6 2 (5.41%) Cisco ISE
6 2 (5.41%) Junos
7 1 (2.70%) BGP
7 1 (2.70%) IPsec
7 1 (2.70%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (13.51%) SQL Server
General
1 9 (24.32%) Analytical Skills
1 9 (24.32%) Public Sector
2 5 (13.51%) Documentation Skills
3 3 (8.11%) Social Skills
4 1 (2.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (2.70%) Law
4 1 (2.70%) Telecoms
Miscellaneous
1 7 (18.92%) PKI
2 5 (13.51%) Client/Server
2 5 (13.51%) NHS
3 1 (2.70%) Driving Licence
3 1 (2.70%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 28 (75.68%) Windows
2 19 (51.35%) Windows Server
3 9 (24.32%) Linux
4 8 (21.62%) Windows 10
5 5 (13.51%) Windows Server 2016
5 5 (13.51%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (2.70%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (27.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 7 (18.92%) ITSM
3 6 (16.22%) Problem-Solving
3 6 (16.22%) Service Management
4 5 (13.51%) Agile
4 5 (13.51%) Change Management
4 5 (13.51%) Platform Engineering
4 5 (13.51%) Zero Trust
5 4 (10.81%) Network Segmentation
6 3 (8.11%) Application Packaging
7 2 (5.41%) Continuous Improvement
7 2 (5.41%) ITIL
7 2 (5.41%) Mentoring
8 1 (2.70%) Coaching
8 1 (2.70%) Identity Access Management
8 1 (2.70%) Kalman Filter
8 1 (2.70%) Security Patching
8 1 (2.70%) User Experience
8 1 (2.70%) Vulnerability Management
8 1 (2.70%) Web Filtering
Programming Languages
1 5 (13.51%) SQL
2 4 (10.81%) PowerShell
3 2 (5.41%) VBScript
4 1 (2.70%) Bash
Qualifications
1 19 (51.35%) Security Cleared
2 12 (32.43%) Degree
2 12 (32.43%) SC Cleared
3 6 (16.22%) DV Cleared
4 5 (13.51%) CCA
4 5 (13.51%) Citrix Certification
5 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (13.51%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (2.70%) GDPR
2 1 (2.70%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 15 (40.54%) Active Directory
2 11 (29.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (18.92%) Hyper-V
4 6 (16.22%) XenApp
4 6 (16.22%) XenDesktop
5 2 (5.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 10 (27.03%) SCCM
2 5 (13.51%) SCVMM
3 4 (10.81%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (5.41%) vCenter Server
5 1 (2.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (2.70%) Backup Exec
5 1 (2.70%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (2.70%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 11 (29.73%) VMware
2 8 (21.62%) Microsoft
3 7 (18.92%) Citrix
4 6 (16.22%) Cisco
5 5 (13.51%) ServiceNow
6 4 (10.81%) Barracuda Networks
6 4 (10.81%) Palo Alto
7 3 (8.11%) Juniper
7 3 (8.11%) SolarWinds
8 1 (2.70%) Apple
8 1 (2.70%) Google
8 1 (2.70%) HP
8 1 (2.70%) McAfee
8 1 (2.70%) Netskope
8 1 (2.70%) Proofpoint
30 3rd Line Support jobs Nationwide