The first part of the table below looks at the demand for WAN skills in IT contracts advertised across the UK. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited WAN over the 3 months to 21 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.

Wide Area Network (WAN)
Location
3 months to
21 May 2012
Same period 2011Same period 2010
Rank102134136
Rank change year-on-year
Up+32Up+2
Matching contract IT job ads1060860746
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK1.813 %1.430 %1.352 %
As % of the Communications & Networking category11.56 %11.08 %11.56 %
Number of daily rates quoted493426323
Average daily rate£350£325£325
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+7.69 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£186£200£190
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£550£475£500
UK excluding London average daily rate£310£325£320
% change year-on-year
-4.61 %+1.56 %
Number of hourly rates quoted100145101
Average hourly rate£21.50£20.00£17.50
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+7.50 %+14.28 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£12.00£11.50£13.50
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£40.00£40.00£35.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate£21.25£21.00£17.50
% change year-on-year
+1.19 %+20.00 %
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryAll Communications & Networking
UK
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Communications & Networking category
917177596451
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK15.69 %12.90 %11.69 %
Number of daily rates quoted416035392637
Average daily rate£365£350£350
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+4.28 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£215£225£200
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£500£500£500
UK excluding London average daily rate£335£325£308
% change year-on-year
+3.07 %+5.69 %
Number of hourly rates quoted614779699
Average hourly rate£25.00£25.00£21.00
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
-+19.04 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£13.00£12.00£13.50
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£45.00£41.50£37.50
UK excluding London average hourly rate£25.75£27.50£22.50
% change year-on-year
-6.36 %+22.22 %

WAN
Demand Trend

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

WAN Demand Trend

WAN
Daily Rate Trend

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

WAN Daily Rate Trend

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing WAN within the UK over the 3 months to 21 May 2012.

WAN Daily Rate Histogram

WAN
Hourly Rate Trend

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

WAN Hourly Rate Trend

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of hourly rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing WAN within the UK over the 3 months to 21 May 2012.

WAN Hourly Rate Histogram

WAN
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 WAN within the UK over the 3 months to 21 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+32998£350+7.69 %
LondonUp+65468£400+9.58 %
South EastUp+13226£300-
City of LondonUp+33123£388+3.33 %
BerkshireUp+1287£300-
East of EnglandUp+3277£350+12.00 %
North WestDown-1664£370+13.95 %
HampshireUp+2248£350+24.44 %
South WestDown-3045£331-8.62 %
West MidlandsDown-1842£175-
YorkshireUp+539£300+9.09 %
SurreyUp+2138£213-34.61 %
ManchesterUp+932£425+30.76 %
ReadingUp+932£235-2.59 %
ScotlandUp+1230£345-9.50 %
West YorkshireUp+130£325+8.33 %
East MidlandsUp+625£375+15.38 %
LeedsUp+822£350+16.66 %
CambridgeshireUp+522£320-3.39 %
SuffolkUp+1321£225+28.57 %
WalesDown-1018£293-10.00 %
CheshireDown-917£363+11.53 %
EssexUp+1016£450-
BuckinghamshireDown-916£340-9.33 %
SouthamptonUp+715£300-
HertfordshireDown-814£325+5.69 %
Milton KeynesDown-1214£340-9.33 %
WiltshireDown-1414£425+10.03 %
CambridgeDown-713£298-10.18 %
CamberleyNew entry-13£200-

WAN
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 21 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing WAN 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 WAN.

11707 (81.52 %)LAN
21005 (47.99 %)Cisco
3781 (37.30 %)Firewall
4705 (33.67 %)Windows
5579 (27.65 %)Cisco Certification
6539 (25.74 %)TCP/IP
7430 (20.53 %)Active Directory
8413 (19.72 %)Microsoft
9406 (19.39 %)VPN
10396 (18.91 %)VoIP
11384 (18.34 %)CheckPoint
12342 (16.33 %)Finance
13339 (16.19 %)CCNA
14333 (15.90 %)Telecoms
15329 (15.71 %)MPLS
16327 (15.62 %)VMware
17306 (14.61 %)ITIL
18288 (13.75 %)CCNP
19282 (13.47 %)DNS
20280 (13.37 %)Citrix
21268 (12.80 %)Windows Server 2008
22266 (12.70 %)Windows Server 2003
23262 (12.51 %)Juniper
24242 (11.56 %)OSPF
25239 (11.41 %)MS Exchange
26238 (11.37 %)Internet
27231 (11.03 %)SAN
28222 (10.60 %)BGP
29220 (10.51 %)Wireless
30218 (10.41 %)HP

WAN
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 21 May 2012, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing WAN 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 WAN. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

IT Contractor Job Market, Application Development CategoryApplication Development
132 (1.528 %)HTML
226 (1.242 %)J2EE
324 (1.146 %)Middleware
420 (0.955 %).NET
518 (0.860 %)ActiveX
616 (0.764 %)DCOM
715 (0.716 %)XML
814 (0.669 %)CSS
814 (0.669 %)ASP
910 (0.478 %)Application Packaging
910 (0.478 %)WebSphere
108 (0.382 %)COM+
108 (0.382 %)Web Services
116 (0.287 %)LAMP
125 (0.239 %)MFC
134 (0.191 %)SOAP
134 (0.191 %)SAML
134 (0.191 %)Software Packaging
134 (0.191 %)Forefront TMG
143 (0.143 %)Django
IT Contractor Job Market, Application Platforms CategoryApplication Platforms
1239 (11.41 %)MS Exchange
297 (4.632 %)Exchange Server 2003
390 (4.298 %)Exchange Server 2007
485 (4.059 %)SharePoint
485 (4.059 %)Exchange Server 2010
573 (3.486 %)IIS
649 (2.340 %)Lotus Notes
739 (1.862 %)Blackberry Enterprise Server
830 (1.433 %)SharePoint 2010
920 (0.955 %)Apache
1016 (0.764 %)WebLogic
1114 (0.669 %)Tomcat
1212 (0.573 %)Rendezvous
1212 (0.573 %)TIBCO EMS
136 (0.287 %)Exchange Server 2000
145 (0.239 %)NetWeaver
145 (0.239 %)WebSphere MQ
154 (0.191 %)Oracle Application Server
154 (0.191 %)Office Communications Server
163 (0.143 %)Moodle
IT Contractor Job Market, Applications CategoryApplications
1202 (9.647 %)MS Office
2177 (8.453 %)MS Excel
395 (4.537 %)MS Visio
422 (1.051 %)MS PowerPoint
514 (0.669 %)MS Project
69 (0.430 %)Acrobat
78 (0.382 %)Office 365
86 (0.287 %)AutoCAD
93 (0.143 %)Spreadsheet
IT Contractor Job Market, Business Applications CategoryBusiness Applications
19 (0.430 %)Dynamics NAV
27 (0.334 %)Oracle EBS
36 (0.287 %)Oracle Retail
44 (0.191 %)BusinessWorks
44 (0.191 %)RMDS
44 (0.191 %)Retail-J
53 (0.143 %)Sage 1000
53 (0.143 %)Oracle Financials
53 (0.143 %)Teamcenter
53 (0.143 %)Sage 200
62 (0.096 %)Oracle Applications
62 (0.096 %)assyst
71 (0.048 %)Dynamics CRM
71 (0.048 %)Misys Midas
71 (0.048 %)Visualfiles
71 (0.048 %)SAP CCM
71 (0.048 %)SoftGrid
71 (0.048 %)Summit
71 (0.048 %)EMB Igloo
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryCommunications & Networking
11707 (81.52 %)LAN
2781 (37.30 %)Firewall
3539 (25.74 %)TCP/IP
4406 (19.39 %)VPN
5396 (18.91 %)VoIP
6329 (15.71 %)MPLS
7282 (13.47 %)DNS
8242 (11.56 %)OSPF
9238 (11.37 %)Internet
10231 (11.03 %)SAN
11222 (10.60 %)BGP
12220 (10.51 %)Wireless
13168 (8.023 %)Network Security
14164 (7.832 %)DHCP
15157 (7.498 %)Cisco ASA
16141 (6.734 %)Ethernet
17127 (6.065 %)Cisco IOS
18115 (5.492 %)EIGRP
19105 (5.014 %)VLAN
2089 (4.250 %)Cisco PIX
IT Contractor Job Market, Database & Business Intelligence CategoryDatabase & Business Intelligence
1112 (5.349 %)SQL Server
225 (1.194 %)MS Access
322 (1.051 %)SQL Server 2008
416 (0.764 %)Oracle 8/8i
513 (0.621 %)MySQL
69 (0.430 %)SQL Server 2005
69 (0.430 %)Data Warehouse
76 (0.287 %)DB2
85 (0.239 %)Oracle 11g
94 (0.191 %)Oracle 10g
94 (0.191 %)RDBMS
94 (0.191 %)ETL
103 (0.143 %)Oracle BI EE
103 (0.143 %)UniData
112 (0.096 %)Oracle Reports
112 (0.096 %)SQL Server 2000
112 (0.096 %)SAP BW
112 (0.096 %)SQL Server Reporting Services
121 (0.048 %)OLTP
121 (0.048 %)GIS
IT Contractor Job Market, Development Applications CategoryDevelopment Applications
17 (0.334 %)Team Foundation Server
26 (0.287 %)InstallShield
35 (0.239 %)LoadRunner
35 (0.239 %)ClearQuest
35 (0.239 %)ClearCase
44 (0.191 %)Ant
53 (0.143 %)JIRA
53 (0.143 %)TestDirector
53 (0.143 %)MSI
62 (0.096 %)QuickTest Pro
62 (0.096 %)StarTeam
62 (0.096 %)Git (software)
71 (0.048 %)Selenium
71 (0.048 %)FitNesse
71 (0.048 %)ProC
71 (0.048 %)VSS/SourceSafe
IT Contractor Job Market, General CategoryGeneral
1342 (16.33 %)Finance
2333 (15.90 %)Telecoms
3139 (6.638 %)Banking
465 (3.104 %)Investment Banking
555 (2.627 %)French Language
639 (1.862 %)Financial Institution
731 (1.480 %)Retail
826 (1.242 %)Back Office
913 (0.621 %)German Language
1010 (0.478 %)Law
1010 (0.478 %)Legal
119 (0.430 %)Spanish Language
119 (0.430 %)Local Government
119 (0.430 %)Publishing
128 (0.382 %)Italian Language
137 (0.334 %)Aerospace
146 (0.287 %)Front Office
146 (0.287 %)Pharmaceutical
154 (0.191 %)Multimedia
163 (0.143 %)Music
IT Contractor Job Market, Job Titles CategoryJob Titles
1467 (22.30 %)Network Engineer
2346 (16.52 %)Analyst
3222 (10.60 %)Architect
4152 (7.259 %)Project Manager
5110 (5.253 %)Support Analyst
5110 (5.253 %)Support Engineer
698 (4.680 %)Network Analyst
792 (4.394 %)Consultant
889 (4.250 %)Network Support
984 (4.011 %)Network Architect
1083 (3.964 %)Administrator
1175 (3.582 %)Desktop Support
1272 (3.438 %)Infrastructure Engineer
1364 (3.056 %)3rd Line Support
1462 (2.961 %)Cisco Engineer
1558 (2.770 %)2nd Line Support
1656 (2.674 %)Senior Network Engineer
1755 (2.627 %)Technical Manager
1853 (2.531 %)Implementation Engineer
1952 (2.483 %)Technical Architect
IT Contractor Job Market, Miscellaneous CategoryMiscellaneous
196 (4.585 %)Clustering
292 (4.394 %)Blackberry
349 (2.340 %)Replication
446 (2.197 %)Video Conferencing
537 (1.767 %)SecurID
630 (1.433 %)Management Information System
729 (1.385 %)Fat Client
729 (1.385 %)Thin Client
827 (1.289 %)AS400
920 (0.955 %)iPhone
1018 (0.860 %)IVR
1018 (0.860 %)Foreign Exchange (FX)
1018 (0.860 %)NHS
1018 (0.860 %)Wiki
1018 (0.860 %)Hedge funds
1117 (0.812 %)Client/Server
1216 (0.764 %)PKI
1315 (0.716 %)Open Source
1315 (0.716 %)Handset
1410 (0.478 %)Mainframe
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryOperating Systems
1705 (33.67 %)Windows
2268 (12.80 %)Windows Server 2008
3266 (12.70 %)Windows Server 2003
4204 (9.742 %)Linux
5202 (9.647 %)Windows XP
6177 (8.453 %)UNIX
7159 (7.593 %)Windows 7
868 (3.247 %)Solaris
966 (3.152 %)Windows 2000
1035 (1.671 %)Windows Vista
1131 (1.480 %)Windows NT
1230 (1.433 %)Windows 2000 Server
1326 (1.242 %)Red Hat Enterprise Linux
1417 (0.812 %)AIX
1512 (0.573 %)Mac OS X
1611 (0.525 %)Android
179 (0.430 %)CentOS
179 (0.430 %)Ubuntu
186 (0.287 %)Windows Mobile
194 (0.191 %)HPUX
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryProcesses & Methodologies
1306 (14.61 %)ITIL
2189 (9.026 %)Project Management
3178 (8.500 %)Migration
4151 (7.211 %)Load Balancing
5148 (7.068 %)Network Design
6106 (5.062 %)Disaster Recovery
6106 (5.062 %)PRINCE2
796 (4.585 %)Change Management
895 (4.537 %)Network Management
969 (3.295 %)Service Management
1067 (3.200 %)Service Delivery
1162 (2.961 %)Change Control
1252 (2.483 %)Business Continuity
1346 (2.197 %)WAN Optimisation
1441 (1.958 %)Stakeholder Management
1540 (1.910 %)Problem Management
1638 (1.815 %)Network Architecture
1735 (1.671 %)E-Commerce
1834 (1.624 %)Information Security
1834 (1.624 %)ITIL V3
IT Contractor Job Market, Programming Languages CategoryProgramming Languages
1116 (5.540 %)SQL
252 (2.483 %)Java
338 (1.815 %)Perl
432 (1.528 %)PowerShell
528 (1.337 %)VB
622 (1.051 %)Shell Script
714 (0.669 %)C++
89 (0.430 %)C
97 (0.334 %)VBScript
106 (0.287 %)C#
115 (0.239 %)JavaScript
115 (0.239 %)VBA
124 (0.191 %)PHP
124 (0.191 %)Tcl
124 (0.191 %)Korn
132 (0.096 %)PL/SQL
132 (0.096 %)T-SQL
141 (0.048 %)Winbatch
141 (0.048 %)Bourne shell
141 (0.048 %)Assembly Language
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryQualifications
1579 (27.65 %)Cisco Certification
2339 (16.19 %)CCNA
3288 (13.75 %)CCNP
4186 (8.883 %)Security Cleared
5174 (8.309 %)Microsoft Certification
6131 (6.256 %)SC Cleared
7128 (6.113 %)MCSE
8120 (5.731 %)CCIE
981 (3.868 %)Degree
1051 (2.436 %)CCSA
1051 (2.436 %)MCP
1150 (2.388 %)CISSP
1243 (2.053 %)CCDP
1342 (2.006 %)MCITP
1439 (1.862 %)CCIP
1536 (1.719 %)CCSE
1632 (1.528 %)DV Cleared
1725 (1.194 %)MCSA
1725 (1.194 %)ITIL Certification
1824 (1.146 %)CCVP
IT Contractor Job Market, Quality Assurance & Compliance CategoryQuality Assurance & Compliance
1103 (4.919 %)SLA
230 (1.433 %)QA
36 (0.287 %)PCI DSS
45 (0.239 %)ISO/IEC 27001
52 (0.096 %)Sarbanes-Oxley
52 (0.096 %)GMP
52 (0.096 %)ISO 9000
52 (0.096 %)BS7799
61 (0.048 %)ISO/IEC 20000
61 (0.048 %)DICOM
61 (0.048 %)COBIT
61 (0.048 %)ISO 9001
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategorySystem Software
1430 (20.53 %)Active Directory
2193 (9.217 %)VMware Infrastructure
351 (2.436 %)vSphere
448 (2.292 %)VMware ESX
543 (2.053 %)Hyper-V
628 (1.337 %)XenApp
724 (1.146 %)VMware ESXi
817 (0.812 %)Citrix Presentation Server
914 (0.669 %)Terminal Services
1012 (0.573 %)ISA Server
1012 (0.573 %)XenDesktop
119 (0.430 %)MailMarshal
127 (0.334 %)Xen
136 (0.287 %)Terminal Server
136 (0.287 %)EMC RecoverPoint
145 (0.239 %)Oracle RAC
145 (0.239 %)VMware Server
154 (0.191 %)VMware Workstation
154 (0.191 %)NFS
154 (0.191 %)Microsoft Virtual Server
IT Contractor Job Market, Systems Management CategorySystems Management
147 (2.245 %)SCCM
240 (1.910 %)Backup Exec
337 (1.767 %)CiscoWorks
432 (1.528 %)Cacti
531 (1.480 %)SCOM
531 (1.480 %)Cisco CUCM
629 (1.385 %)NetBackup
728 (1.337 %)OpenView
822 (1.051 %)Norton AntiVirus
918 (0.860 %)Cisco IPCC
1017 (0.812 %)WSUS
1017 (0.812 %)Tivoli
1116 (0.764 %)Nagios
1214 (0.669 %)Netcool
1313 (0.621 %)Systems Management Server (SMS)
1313 (0.621 %)DameWare
1412 (0.573 %)McAfee ePO
1510 (0.478 %)HP NNM
169 (0.430 %)Zenoss
178 (0.382 %)EMC NetWorker
IT Contractor Job Market, Vendors CategoryVendors
11005 (47.99 %)Cisco
2413 (19.72 %)Microsoft
3384 (18.34 %)CheckPoint
4327 (15.62 %)VMware
5280 (13.37 %)Citrix
6262 (12.51 %)Juniper
7218 (10.41 %)HP
8144 (6.877 %)Nokia
9143 (6.829 %)F5
10121 (5.778 %)Blue Coat
1184 (4.011 %)Avaya
1280 (3.820 %)Riverbed
1374 (3.534 %)EMC
1467 (3.200 %)Oracle
1467 (3.200 %)Remedy
1563 (3.009 %)Nortel
1662 (2.961 %)Symantec
1754 (2.579 %)NetApp
1754 (2.579 %)IBM
1852 (2.483 %)Dell