The first part of the table below looks at the demand for LAN skills in IT contracts advertised across the UK. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited LAN over the 3 months to 16 May 2012 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years. The second part of the table is for comparison and provides aggregates for all of the Communications & Networking category.

Note that daily contractor rates and hourly contractor rates are treated separately. When calculating average contractor rates, daily rates are not derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Local Area Network (LAN)
Location
3 months to
16 May 2012
Same period 2011Same period 2010
Rank92131127
Rank change year-on-year
Up+39Down-4
Matching contract IT job ads1130921777
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK1.909 %1.501 %1.411 %
As % of the Communications & Networking category12.20 %11.72 %12.05 %
Number of daily rates quoted519445326
Average daily rate£345£325£325
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+6.15 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£175£180£165
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£523£463£500
UK excluding London average daily rate£305£325£275
% change year-on-year
-6.15 %+18.18 %
Number of hourly rates quoted114170120
Average hourly rate£21.00£20.00£17.50
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+5.00 %+14.28 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£12.00£12.00£12.89
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£43.00£40.00£35.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate£19.88£20.50£17.50
% change year-on-year
-3.04 %+17.14 %
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryAll Communications & Networking
UK
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Communications & Networking category
926478566447
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK15.65 %12.80 %11.71 %
Number of daily rates quoted420935692640
Average daily rate£368£350£350
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+5.00 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£215£220£200
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£500£500£500
UK excluding London average daily rate£330£325£310
% change year-on-year
+1.53 %+4.83 %
Number of hourly rates quoted611777700
Average hourly rate£25.00£24.00£21.00
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+4.16 %+14.28 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£13.50£12.00£13.50
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£45.00£41.25£37.50
UK excluding London average hourly rate£25.75£27.50£22.50
% change year-on-year
-6.36 %+22.22 %

LAN
Demand Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving total of IT contractor jobs citing LAN within the UK as a proportion of the total demand within the Communications & Networking category.

LAN Demand Trend

LAN
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing LAN within the UK.

LAN Daily Rate Trend

LAN
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing LAN within the UK over the 3 months to 16 May 2012.

LAN Daily Rate Histogram

LAN
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing LAN within the UK.

LAN Hourly Rate Trend

LAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing LAN within the UK over the 3 months to 16 May 2012.

LAN Hourly Rate Histogram

LAN
Top 30 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing LAN within the UK over the 3 months to 16 May 2012. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year.

LocationRank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Average
Daily Rate
Last 3 Months
Average Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
EnglandUp+371048£350+7.69 %
LondonUp+78475£375+15.38 %
South EastUp+10240£313+4.16 %
City of LondonUp+56140£375+14.15 %
East of EnglandUp+2689£323+9.32 %
BerkshireDown-768£300-
North WestDown-1859£358+10.11 %
HampshireUp+2356£350+24.44 %
South WestDown-3050£358+2.14 %
YorkshireUp+1544£300+20.00 %
SurreyUp+1144£190-41.53 %
West MidlandsDown-1744£226-30.38 %
ScotlandDown-540£325-3.70 %
West YorkshireUp+833£350+16.66 %
East MidlandsUp+1430£200-11.11 %
ManchesterUp+327£425+30.76 %
SuffolkUp+2026£233+32.85 %
LeedsNo change025£350+16.66 %
BuckinghamshireDown-1024£359-4.33 %
Milton KeynesDown-321£368-2.00 %
EssexUp+1520£450+150.00 %
ReadingUp+320£235+6.81 %
CambridgeshireUp+519£275-16.98 %
EdinburghUp+1818£345-
SouthamptonUp+1118£300-
WalesDown-1117£288-11.53 %
CheshireDown-1617£350+7.69 %
HertfordshireDown-1116£280-3.44 %
OxfordshireDown-1514£325+94.02 %
GloucestershireDown-913£400-

LAN
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 16 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing LAN also mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited LAN.

11722 (79.80 %)WAN
21057 (48.98 %)Cisco
3823 (38.14 %)Windows
4699 (32.39 %)Firewall
5623 (28.87 %)Cisco Certification
6500 (23.17 %)TCP/IP
7489 (22.66 %)Microsoft
8467 (21.64 %)Active Directory
9417 (19.32 %)VPN
10369 (17.10 %)VoIP
11354 (16.40 %)VMware
12353 (16.36 %)Finance
13344 (15.94 %)CCNP
14342 (15.85 %)CCNA
15330 (15.29 %)CheckPoint
16310 (14.37 %)ITIL
17298 (13.81 %)MPLS
18288 (13.35 %)Windows Server 2003
19277 (12.84 %)Telecoms
20276 (12.79 %)Wireless
21273 (12.65 %)Windows Server 2008
22270 (12.51 %)DNS
23262 (12.14 %)Windows XP
24254 (11.77 %)Juniper
25248 (11.49 %)Citrix
25248 (11.49 %)MS Office
26240 (11.12 %)SAN
27238 (11.03 %)OSPF
28236 (10.94 %)MS Exchange
29231 (10.70 %)BGP

LAN
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 16 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing LAN also mentioned the following IT skills grouped by category. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited LAN. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

IT Contractor Job Market, Application Development CategoryApplication Development
134 (1.576 %)Middleware
229 (1.344 %).NET
229 (1.344 %)J2EE
320 (0.927 %)Application Packaging
419 (0.880 %)XML
517 (0.788 %)CSS
616 (0.741 %)DCOM
715 (0.695 %)ASP
715 (0.695 %)HTML
810 (0.463 %)WebSphere
99 (0.417 %)Web Services
107 (0.324 %)COM+
116 (0.278 %)LAMP
125 (0.232 %)MFC
134 (0.185 %)Software Packaging
134 (0.185 %)SAML
134 (0.185 %)SOAP
143 (0.139 %)Forefront TMG
143 (0.139 %)WAP
143 (0.139 %)COM
IT Contractor Job Market, Application Platforms CategoryApplication Platforms
1236 (10.94 %)MS Exchange
296 (4.449 %)Exchange Server 2003
388 (4.078 %)Exchange Server 2007
477 (3.568 %)IIS
570 (3.244 %)Exchange Server 2010
666 (3.058 %)SharePoint
741 (1.900 %)Lotus Notes
839 (1.807 %)Blackberry Enterprise Server
922 (1.019 %)Apache
1016 (0.741 %)WebLogic
1114 (0.649 %)Tomcat
1212 (0.556 %)TIBCO EMS
1212 (0.556 %)Rendezvous
139 (0.417 %)SharePoint 2010
148 (0.371 %)Office Communications Server
157 (0.324 %)Exchange Server 2000
166 (0.278 %)SharePoint Server
166 (0.278 %)Oracle Application Server
166 (0.278 %)Lync
175 (0.232 %)WebSphere MQ
IT Contractor Job Market, Applications CategoryApplications
1248 (11.49 %)MS Office
2196 (9.082 %)MS Excel
391 (4.217 %)MS Visio
426 (1.205 %)MS PowerPoint
514 (0.649 %)Acrobat
613 (0.602 %)MS Project
79 (0.417 %)AutoCAD
79 (0.417 %)Spreadsheet
87 (0.324 %)Office 365
91 (0.046 %)CATIA
91 (0.046 %)Solid Edge
IT Contractor Job Market, Business Applications CategoryBusiness Applications
19 (0.417 %)Dynamics NAV
27 (0.324 %)Oracle EBS
36 (0.278 %)Oracle Retail
44 (0.185 %)Dynamics CRM
44 (0.185 %)Retail-J
44 (0.185 %)RMDS
44 (0.185 %)BusinessWorks
53 (0.139 %)Sage 200
53 (0.139 %)Teamcenter
53 (0.139 %)Oracle Financials
53 (0.139 %)Sage 1000
62 (0.093 %)assyst
62 (0.093 %)Oracle Applications
71 (0.046 %)EMB Igloo
71 (0.046 %)Summit
71 (0.046 %)SoftGrid
71 (0.046 %)Misys Midas
71 (0.046 %)Visualfiles
71 (0.046 %)Oracle EBS R12
71 (0.046 %)SAP CCM
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryCommunications & Networking
11722 (79.80 %)WAN
2699 (32.39 %)Firewall
3500 (23.17 %)TCP/IP
4417 (19.32 %)VPN
5369 (17.10 %)VoIP
6298 (13.81 %)MPLS
7276 (12.79 %)Wireless
8270 (12.51 %)DNS
9240 (11.12 %)SAN
10238 (11.03 %)OSPF
11231 (10.70 %)BGP
12208 (9.639 %)Internet
13192 (8.897 %)Network Security
14182 (8.434 %)Cisco ASA
15179 (8.295 %)DHCP
16142 (6.580 %)VLAN
17126 (5.839 %)WLAN
18123 (5.700 %)Cisco IOS
19115 (5.329 %)EIGRP
20102 (4.727 %)Ethernet
IT Contractor Job Market, Database & Business Intelligence CategoryDatabase & Business Intelligence
1124 (5.746 %)SQL Server
226 (1.205 %)MS Access
325 (1.158 %)SQL Server 2008
414 (0.649 %)Oracle 8/8i
414 (0.649 %)DB2
513 (0.602 %)SQL Server 2005
612 (0.556 %)MySQL
612 (0.556 %)RDBMS
711 (0.510 %)Data Warehouse
86 (0.278 %)Oracle 10g
86 (0.278 %)ETL
95 (0.232 %)Oracle 11g
95 (0.232 %)Oracle BI EE
103 (0.139 %)Oracle Reports
103 (0.139 %)UniData
111 (0.046 %)Crystal Reports
111 (0.046 %)SQL Server 2000
111 (0.046 %)SQL Server Reporting Services
IT Contractor Job Market, Development Applications CategoryDevelopment Applications
111 (0.510 %)ClearCase
29 (0.417 %)Ant
37 (0.324 %)VSS/SourceSafe
37 (0.324 %)Team Foundation Server
46 (0.278 %)TestDirector
46 (0.278 %)InstallShield
55 (0.232 %)ClearQuest
64 (0.185 %)LoadRunner
73 (0.139 %)LabVIEW
73 (0.139 %)JIRA
82 (0.093 %)Git (software)
82 (0.093 %)StarTeam
82 (0.093 %)QuickTest Pro
82 (0.093 %)MSI
91 (0.046 %)Redmine
91 (0.046 %)Bugzilla
91 (0.046 %)Visual Studio
91 (0.046 %)Subversion
91 (0.046 %)Selenium
91 (0.046 %)FitNesse
IT Contractor Job Market, General CategoryGeneral
1353 (16.36 %)Finance
2277 (12.84 %)Telecoms
3138 (6.395 %)Banking
467 (3.105 %)Investment Banking
551 (2.363 %)Financial Institution
640 (1.854 %)Back Office
732 (1.483 %)Retail
829 (1.344 %)French Language
920 (0.927 %)Manufacturing
1017 (0.788 %)German Language
1114 (0.649 %)Pharmaceutical
1211 (0.510 %)Legal
1211 (0.510 %)Local Government
1310 (0.463 %)Law
149 (0.417 %)Spanish Language
158 (0.371 %)Italian Language
158 (0.371 %)Aerospace
166 (0.278 %)Multimedia
174 (0.185 %)Front Office
183 (0.139 %)Electronics
IT Contractor Job Market, Job Titles CategoryJob Titles
1498 (23.08 %)Network Engineer
2337 (15.62 %)Analyst
3179 (8.295 %)Architect
4148 (6.858 %)Support Analyst
5141 (6.534 %)Project Manager
6140 (6.487 %)Support Engineer
7101 (4.680 %)Desktop Support
893 (4.310 %)Consultant
986 (3.985 %)Infrastructure Engineer
1083 (3.846 %)Administrator
1179 (3.661 %)Network Support
1278 (3.614 %)2nd Line Support
1375 (3.475 %)3rd Line Support
1375 (3.475 %)Network Analyst
1472 (3.336 %)Cisco Engineer
1569 (3.197 %)Network Architect
1660 (2.780 %)Cisco Network Engineer
1756 (2.595 %)Network Manager
1756 (2.595 %)Desktop Engineer
1756 (2.595 %)Security Engineer
IT Contractor Job Market, Miscellaneous CategoryMiscellaneous
1107 (4.958 %)Blackberry
248 (2.224 %)Video Conferencing
346 (2.132 %)Clustering
435 (1.622 %)Fat Client
435 (1.622 %)Thin Client
532 (1.483 %)Management Information System
630 (1.390 %)Hedge funds
728 (1.297 %)Replication
825 (1.158 %)NHS
825 (1.158 %)SecurID
924 (1.112 %)Handset
1020 (0.927 %)Computer Science
1020 (0.927 %)iPhone
1119 (0.880 %)Client/Server
1218 (0.834 %)Foreign Exchange (FX)
1218 (0.834 %)IVR
1315 (0.695 %)PDA
1413 (0.602 %)PKI
1511 (0.510 %)Firmware
1511 (0.510 %)Open Source
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryOperating Systems
1823 (38.14 %)Windows
2288 (13.35 %)Windows Server 2003
3273 (12.65 %)Windows Server 2008
4262 (12.14 %)Windows XP
5208 (9.639 %)Windows 7
6206 (9.546 %)Linux
7168 (7.785 %)UNIX
888 (4.078 %)Windows 2000
971 (3.290 %)Solaris
1045 (2.085 %)Windows Vista
1141 (1.900 %)Windows NT
1227 (1.251 %)Red Hat Enterprise Linux
1325 (1.158 %)Windows 2000 Server
1415 (0.695 %)Mac OS X
1415 (0.695 %)AIX
1512 (0.556 %)Android
168 (0.371 %)CentOS
177 (0.324 %)Ubuntu
186 (0.278 %)Windows Mobile
194 (0.185 %)HPUX
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryProcesses & Methodologies
1310 (14.37 %)ITIL
2184 (8.526 %)Project Management
3165 (7.646 %)Migration
4145 (6.719 %)Network Design
5121 (5.607 %)Load Balancing
694 (4.356 %)Network Management
789 (4.124 %)PRINCE2
888 (4.078 %)Disaster Recovery
979 (3.661 %)Service Delivery
1076 (3.522 %)Service Management
1169 (3.197 %)Change Management
1245 (2.085 %)Change Control
1340 (1.854 %)Problem Management
1438 (1.761 %)Stakeholder Management
1537 (1.715 %)Network Architecture
1634 (1.576 %)ITIL V3
1634 (1.576 %)Continuous Improvement
1733 (1.529 %)Configuration Management
1832 (1.483 %)E-Commerce
1832 (1.483 %)Business Continuity
IT Contractor Job Market, Programming Languages CategoryProgramming Languages
1124 (5.746 %)SQL
241 (1.900 %)VB
335 (1.622 %)Java
430 (1.390 %)Shell Script
528 (1.297 %)PowerShell
622 (1.019 %)Perl
721 (0.973 %)VBA
819 (0.880 %)C++
918 (0.834 %)C#
1016 (0.741 %)C
1112 (0.556 %)PHP
1211 (0.510 %)VB6
137 (0.324 %)VBScript
145 (0.232 %)VB.NET
154 (0.185 %)Korn
154 (0.185 %)Embedded C
154 (0.185 %)JavaScript
163 (0.139 %)Python
171 (0.046 %)PL/SQL
171 (0.046 %)Ruby
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryQualifications
1623 (28.87 %)Cisco Certification
2344 (15.94 %)CCNP
3342 (15.85 %)CCNA
4197 (9.129 %)Security Cleared
5177 (8.202 %)Microsoft Certification
6157 (7.275 %)CCIE
7125 (5.792 %)SC Cleared
8123 (5.700 %)MCSE
986 (3.985 %)Degree
1058 (2.688 %)MCP
1155 (2.549 %)CCDP
1252 (2.410 %)CISSP
1351 (2.363 %)CCSA
1447 (2.178 %)DV Cleared
1538 (1.761 %)CCIP
1637 (1.715 %)MCITP
1736 (1.668 %)CCSE
1828 (1.297 %)CCVP
1923 (1.066 %)PMI Certification
1923 (1.066 %)ISEB
IT Contractor Job Market, Quality Assurance & Compliance CategoryQuality Assurance & Compliance
1107 (4.958 %)SLA
221 (0.973 %)QA
39 (0.417 %)GMP
46 (0.278 %)PCI DSS
46 (0.278 %)ISO/IEC 27001
55 (0.232 %)ISO 9001
64 (0.185 %)Sarbanes-Oxley
72 (0.093 %)BS7799
72 (0.093 %)ISO 9000
81 (0.046 %)TickIT
81 (0.046 %)COBIT
81 (0.046 %)ISO/IEC 20000
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategorySystem Software
1467 (21.64 %)Active Directory
2200 (9.268 %)VMware Infrastructure
368 (3.151 %)VMware ESX
451 (2.363 %)vSphere
547 (2.178 %)XenApp
644 (2.039 %)Hyper-V
727 (1.251 %)VMware ESXi
821 (0.973 %)Terminal Services
915 (0.695 %)Citrix Presentation Server
1014 (0.649 %)Xen
1014 (0.649 %)MailMarshal
1111 (0.510 %)XenDesktop
129 (0.417 %)VMware Workstation
129 (0.417 %)Terminal Server
137 (0.324 %)ISA Server
137 (0.324 %)Oracle RAC
144 (0.185 %)VMware Server
144 (0.185 %)Squid
144 (0.185 %)Snort
144 (0.185 %)IAG
IT Contractor Job Market, Systems Management CategorySystems Management
158 (2.688 %)SCCM
239 (1.807 %)NetBackup
337 (1.715 %)Backup Exec
337 (1.715 %)CiscoWorks
430 (1.390 %)Cisco CUCM
523 (1.066 %)Norton AntiVirus
622 (1.019 %)WSUS
622 (1.019 %)Systems Management Server (SMS)
720 (0.927 %)OpenView
818 (0.834 %)Cisco IPCC
917 (0.788 %)Netcool
1016 (0.741 %)Tivoli
1114 (0.649 %)McAfee ePO
1213 (0.602 %)DameWare
1213 (0.602 %)vCenter
1312 (0.556 %)Nagios
1411 (0.510 %)Cacti
1411 (0.510 %)SCOM
158 (0.371 %)SolarWinds Orion
167 (0.324 %)Cisco UCCX
IT Contractor Job Market, Vendors CategoryVendors
11057 (48.98 %)Cisco
2489 (22.66 %)Microsoft
3354 (16.40 %)VMware
4330 (15.29 %)CheckPoint
5254 (11.77 %)Juniper
6248 (11.49 %)Citrix
7217 (10.06 %)HP
8130 (6.024 %)F5
994 (4.356 %)Nokia
1091 (4.217 %)Avaya
1174 (3.429 %)Oracle
1174 (3.429 %)Symantec
1269 (3.197 %)Blue Coat
1357 (2.641 %)Remedy
1450 (2.317 %)IBM
1547 (2.178 %)EMC
1645 (2.085 %)McAfee
1743 (1.993 %)Dell
1743 (1.993 %)Nortel
1743 (1.993 %)Lotus