Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for MPLS skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited MPLS over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 295 504 486
Rank change year-on-year +209 -18 -21
Contract jobs citing MPLS 345 219 415
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.80% 0.37% 0.47%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.14% 2.97% 4.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 176 127 260
10th Percentile £263 £313 £313
25th Percentile £330 £378 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -15.79% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £582 £600 £563
90th Percentile £681 £693 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £425 £425
% change year-on-year -11.76% - -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 12 7
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.10 £21.00
25th Percentile £23.72 £29.19 £23.25
Median hourly rate £37.50 £62.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -39.52% +138.46% +33.33%
75th Percentile £40.00 £64.92 £28.75
90th Percentile £62.00 £70.00 £29.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £58.66 £22.00
% change year-on-year -31.81% +166.64% +12.82%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

MPLS is in the Communications and Computer Networking category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,616 7,369 9,710
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.97% 12.32% 10.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,363 4,796 6,383
10th Percentile £205 £231 £230
25th Percentile £350 £400 £384
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £519 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.59% +3.80% +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £606
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £438
% change year-on-year - +8.57% +9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 420 481 362
10th Percentile £13.50 £9.80 £14.82
25th Percentile £17.00 £10.63 £17.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £19.00 £28.33
Median % change year-on-year +100.00% -32.93% -0.60%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.50 £50.77
90th Percentile £67.75 £75.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.88 £18.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year +148.00% -13.95% -14.00%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MPLS.

Daily rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MPLS.

Hourly rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 14 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the UK over the 6 months to 27 April 2024. 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 +214 327 £400 -15.79% 82
UK excluding London +149 208 £375 -11.76% 57
London +149 119 £525 -4.55% 25
Midlands +94 114 £350 -6.67% 16
West Midlands +91 114 £350 -6.67% 12
South East +50 68 £375 -16.67% 17
Work from Home +97 57 £363 -22.87% 32
South West +16 14 £688 +5.77% 6
North of England +17 7 £345 -4.89% 13
North West +4 5 £470 +25.27% 4
Scotland +36 4 £475 -5.00% 2
North East - 2 £345 - 1
Wales +16 1 - - 3
East of England +13 1 - - 2

MPLS
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 19 (5.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 13 (3.77%) Apache
2 13 (3.77%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.58%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.29%) WebSphere
Applications
1 6 (1.74%) MS Visio
2 5 (1.45%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.29%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 48 (13.91%) Azure
2 30 (8.70%) AWS
3 15 (4.35%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (3.48%) GCP
5 10 (2.90%) Entra ID
5 10 (2.90%) IaaS
6 6 (1.74%) Mimecast
7 5 (1.45%) Cloudflare
7 5 (1.45%) OCI
8 4 (1.16%) SaaS
9 2 (0.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 1 (0.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (0.29%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 240 (69.57%) BGP
2 201 (58.26%) WAN
3 131 (37.97%) IPsec
4 125 (36.23%) VPN
5 103 (29.86%) Firewall
6 66 (19.13%) LAN
7 64 (18.55%) OSPF
8 55 (15.94%) Junos
9 50 (14.49%) DNS
10 44 (12.75%) SD-WAN
11 37 (10.72%) Cisco Nexus
11 37 (10.72%) Ethernet VPN
12 35 (10.14%) SNMP
13 34 (9.86%) SSL
14 33 (9.57%) HSRP
14 33 (9.57%) Internet
15 32 (9.28%) Cisco ASA
16 31 (8.99%) DHCP
17 30 (8.70%) Cisco IOS
18 29 (8.41%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (3.48%) MongoDB
1 12 (3.48%) NoSQL
1 12 (3.48%) PostgreSQL
2 8 (2.32%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 21 (6.09%) Git
2 16 (4.64%) JIRA
3 13 (3.77%) GitLab
3 13 (3.77%) Robot Framework
3 13 (3.77%) TestRail
4 6 (1.74%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.29%) Hudson
General
1 59 (17.10%) Finance
2 58 (16.81%) Social Skills
3 35 (10.14%) Telecoms
4 24 (6.96%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.67%) Public Sector
6 10 (2.90%) Aerospace
7 9 (2.61%) Financial Institution
8 5 (1.45%) Aviation
8 5 (1.45%) Banking
9 4 (1.16%) French Language
9 4 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.58%) Advertising
11 1 (0.29%) Billing
11 1 (0.29%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Legal
11 1 (0.29%) Local Government
11 1 (0.29%) Publishing
11 1 (0.29%) Retail
Job Titles
1 159 (46.09%) Network Engineer
2 56 (16.23%) Architect
3 47 (13.62%) Network Architect
4 46 (13.33%) WAN Engineer
5 38 (11.01%) Network Support
6 30 (8.70%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 28 (8.12%) Senior
8 24 (6.96%) 3rd Line Support
9 19 (5.51%) 2nd Line Support
10 18 (5.22%) Design Engineer
10 18 (5.22%) Network Design Engineer
10 18 (5.22%) Support Engineer
11 17 (4.93%) IP Expert
12 15 (4.35%) Cisco Engineer
12 15 (4.35%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 15 (4.35%) Senior Network Engineer
13 14 (4.06%) 2nd Line Engineer
14 13 (3.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 13 (3.77%) Test Engineer
15 12 (3.48%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (14.20%) NETCONF
2 48 (13.91%) YANG
3 36 (10.43%) JSON
3 36 (10.43%) XML
4 20 (5.80%) Jinja
5 13 (3.77%) REST
5 13 (3.77%) RESTCONF
5 13 (3.77%) SOAP
6 9 (2.61%) Web Services
7 5 (1.45%) 802.1X
8 3 (0.87%) RESTful
8 3 (0.87%) SAML
9 2 (0.58%) LDAP
10 1 (0.29%) .NET
10 1 (0.29%) IBM Integration Bus
10 1 (0.29%) WebSphere MQ
Miscellaneous
1 77 (22.32%) PKI
2 58 (16.81%) Data Centre
3 24 (6.96%) Distributed Architecture
4 11 (3.19%) Clustering
4 11 (3.19%) Self-Motivation
5 8 (2.32%) Client/Server
5 8 (2.32%) Public Cloud
6 6 (1.74%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (0.87%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (0.87%) Management Information System
8 3 (0.87%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (0.58%) CMDB
9 2 (0.58%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (0.58%) IoT
9 2 (0.58%) IPTV
9 2 (0.58%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.29%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.29%) IVR
10 1 (0.29%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 28 (8.12%) Windows
2 15 (4.35%) Windows Server
3 14 (4.06%) Unix
4 8 (2.32%) Linux
5 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (21.45%) Network Design
2 64 (18.55%) Load Balancing
3 36 (10.43%) Migration
4 35 (10.14%) DevOps
4 35 (10.14%) Network Management
5 30 (8.70%) Network Architecture
6 29 (8.41%) Customer Requirements
7 28 (8.12%) Technical Leadership
8 21 (6.09%) Agile
8 21 (6.09%) Project Delivery
9 19 (5.51%) Problem-Solving
9 19 (5.51%) Roadmaps
10 17 (4.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 17 (4.93%) Integration Testing
10 17 (4.93%) Test Planning
10 17 (4.93%) Workflow
11 16 (4.64%) Network Monitoring
11 16 (4.64%) Scrum
12 15 (4.35%) Incident Management
12 15 (4.35%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 47 (13.62%) Python
2 16 (4.64%) SQL
3 8 (2.32%) PowerShell
4 5 (1.45%) Perl
5 1 (0.29%) C
5 1 (0.29%) C++
5 1 (0.29%) Java
Qualifications
1 129 (37.39%) Security Cleared
2 94 (27.25%) Cisco Certification
3 67 (19.42%) CCNP
4 59 (17.10%) SC Cleared
5 39 (11.30%) CCIE
6 30 (8.70%) CCNA
7 20 (5.80%) Degree
8 12 (3.48%) DV Cleared
9 11 (3.19%) JNCIS
10 10 (2.90%) CCIE Service Provider
11 9 (2.61%) CCIE Data Center
12 8 (2.32%) BC Cleared
12 8 (2.32%) BPSS Clearance
12 8 (2.32%) JNCIA
13 6 (1.74%) AWS Certification
13 6 (1.74%) CCDP
14 5 (1.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (1.45%) Azure Certification
14 5 (1.45%) JNCIP
15 4 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.77%) SLA
2 9 (2.61%) QA
3 3 (0.87%) NCSC
System Software
1 26 (7.54%) Active Directory
2 20 (5.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.48%) Docker
4 9 (2.61%) Firmware
5 8 (2.32%) Virtual Servers
5 8 (2.32%) VMware Workstation
6 7 (2.03%) VMware NSX
7 5 (1.45%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.29%) Terminal Server
9 1 (0.29%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 24 (6.96%) Endace
2 18 (5.22%) Ansible
3 13 (3.77%) SCCM
4 10 (2.90%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (2.61%) Terraform
6 8 (2.32%) FortiGate
6 8 (2.32%) Microsoft Clustering
6 8 (2.32%) Nagios
6 8 (2.32%) NetBackup
7 7 (2.03%) SolarWinds Orion
8 3 (0.87%) Kibana
8 3 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.58%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.58%) Kubernetes
10 1 (0.29%) Amdocs OSS
Vendors
1 163 (47.25%) Cisco
2 152 (44.06%) Juniper
3 67 (19.42%) F5
4 43 (12.46%) Nokia
5 37 (10.72%) Palo Alto
6 32 (9.28%) Fortinet
7 29 (8.41%) Microsoft
7 29 (8.41%) VMware
8 25 (7.25%) CheckPoint
9 20 (5.80%) Infoblox
10 16 (4.64%) Zscaler
11 11 (3.19%) Citrix
11 11 (3.19%) SolarWinds
12 10 (2.90%) Meraki
13 8 (2.32%) Arista
13 8 (2.32%) Aruba
13 8 (2.32%) Hitachi
13 8 (2.32%) NetApp
14 7 (2.03%) Google
14 7 (2.03%) Okta