SDH Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring SDH skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 155 124 -
Rank change year-on-year -31 - -
Contract jobs citing SDH 2 3 0
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 0.063% 0.13% -
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.50% 0.93% -
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 0
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 - -
England median daily rate £450 £525 £700
% change year-on-year -14.29% -25.00% +40.00%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Midlands

SDH falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 403 322 506
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands 12.79% 13.95% 19.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 173 286
10th Percentile £163 £166 £213
25th Percentile £290 £255 £329
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% - -3.95%
75th Percentile £513 £583 £561
90th Percentile £582 £707 £675
England median daily rate £487 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.55% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 15 28
10th Percentile £16.20 £13.40 £13.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.28 £20.74
Median hourly rate £25.15 £24.18 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.01% +5.13% -5.15%
75th Percentile £31.00 £34.38 £67.50
90th Percentile £34.20 £35.00 -
England median hourly rate £35.00 £41.00 £56.45
% change year-on-year -14.63% -27.36% +25.43%

SDH
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SDH relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands.

SDH job vacancy trend in the Midlands

SDH
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing SDH.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing SDH

SDH
Hourly Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing SDH.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing SDH

SDH
Contract Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SDH within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 17 December 2025. 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
West Midlands -34 2 £450 -
SDH
England

SDH
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands 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:

Communications & Networking
1 2 (100.00%) Ethernet
1 2 (100.00%) MPLS
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Network Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 2 (100.00%) SCADA
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Disaster Recovery
1 2 (100.00%) ITIL
1 2 (100.00%) Network Monitoring
1 2 (100.00%) Root Cause Analysis
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) CCNA
1 2 (100.00%) CCNP
1 2 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
1 2 (100.00%) Degree
1 2 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) Security Cleared