LAN Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Local Area Network (LAN)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring LAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 29 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 153 73 65
Rank change year-on-year -80 -8 +47
Contract jobs citing LAN 53 91 133
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 1.11% 2.59% 2.87%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.28% 16.25% 19.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 43 107
10th Percentile £129 £209 £313
25th Percentile £130 £239 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £289 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year -35.83% -10.00% +25.00%
75th Percentile £475 £531 £638
90th Percentile £561 £570 £651
England median daily rate £450 £450 £450
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 7
10th Percentile - - £15.42
25th Percentile £65.75 £18.03 £17.07
Median hourly rate £66.50 £18.07 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +268.12% -17.89% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £18.10 -
90th Percentile - - £33.20
England median hourly rate £16.00 £20.00 £39.50
% change year-on-year -20.00% -49.37% +79.55%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North of England

LAN 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 North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 571 560 678
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 11.99% 15.95% 14.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 317 506
10th Percentile £170 £162 £258
25th Percentile £306 £250 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £450 £483
Median % change year-on-year +2.22% -6.74% +4.32%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £593
90th Percentile £667 £655 £672
England median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 10 20
10th Percentile £15.50 £12.25 £15.73
25th Percentile £16.25 £15.92 £16.16
Median hourly rate £24.75 £22.13 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year +11.84% +24.89% +15.95%
75th Percentile £63.56 £41.50 £31.10
90th Percentile £74.26 £51.15 £47.19
England median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +48.66%

LAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing LAN relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

LAN job vacancy trend in the North of England

LAN
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing LAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing LAN

LAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing LAN in the North of England over the 6 months to 29 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for LAN in the North of England

LAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing LAN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing LAN

LAN
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing LAN within the North of England region over the 6 months to 29 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
North West -40 38 £275 -40.64% 41
Yorkshire -70 13 £339 +41.15% 31
North East -5 2 £550 - 4
LAN
England

LAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 6 (11.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (9.43%) Skype for Business
3 2 (3.77%) SharePoint
4 1 (1.89%) CICS
4 1 (1.89%) Confluence
4 1 (1.89%) Tomcat
4 1 (1.89%) WebSphere
4 1 (1.89%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 9 (16.98%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (9.43%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (7.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (7.55%) MS Visio
4 3 (5.66%) Acrobat
Cloud Services
1 14 (26.42%) Microsoft 365
2 13 (24.53%) Azure
3 4 (7.55%) Entra ID
4 3 (5.66%) SaaS
5 2 (3.77%) AWS
6 1 (1.89%) GCP
6 1 (1.89%) GitHub
6 1 (1.89%) OneDrive
6 1 (1.89%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 50 (94.34%) WAN
2 18 (33.96%) Firewall
3 13 (24.53%) TCP/IP
4 12 (22.64%) DHCP
4 12 (22.64%) DNS
4 12 (22.64%) VPN
5 11 (20.75%) VLAN
5 11 (20.75%) Wireless
6 10 (18.87%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (15.09%) Network Security
8 7 (13.21%) BGP
9 5 (9.43%) Cisco IOS
9 5 (9.43%) MPLS
9 5 (9.43%) Skype
10 4 (7.55%) Cisco ASA
10 4 (7.55%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (7.55%) OSPF
10 4 (7.55%) SD-WAN
10 4 (7.55%) VoIP
10 4 (7.55%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (7.55%) MS Access
2 1 (1.89%) NoSQL
2 1 (1.89%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (1.89%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.89%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.89%) JIRA
1 1 (1.89%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 16 (30.19%) Social Skills
2 8 (15.09%) Public Sector
3 7 (13.21%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (13.21%) Finance
4 6 (11.32%) Banking
5 4 (7.55%) Presentation Skills
6 3 (5.66%) Telecoms
7 1 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.89%) Legal
7 1 (1.89%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.89%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 11 (20.75%) Network Engineer
2 9 (16.98%) IT Technician
3 8 (15.09%) Support Engineer
4 7 (13.21%) Architect
5 6 (11.32%) Analyst
6 5 (9.43%) IT Engineer
6 5 (9.43%) IT Support
7 4 (7.55%) IT Support Engineer
7 4 (7.55%) Senior
7 4 (7.55%) Support Analyst
8 3 (5.66%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 3 (5.66%) 2nd Line Support
8 3 (5.66%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
8 3 (5.66%) Coordinator
8 3 (5.66%) Network Architect
8 3 (5.66%) Risk Management Specialist
8 3 (5.66%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 3 (5.66%) Technical Architect
9 2 (3.77%) Field Service Engineer
9 2 (3.77%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.89%) LDAP
1 1 (1.89%) Middleware
1 1 (1.89%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 6 (11.32%) Onboarding
2 5 (9.43%) Data Centre
3 3 (5.66%) CMDB
3 3 (5.66%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (5.66%) iPhone
4 1 (1.89%) Clustering
4 1 (1.89%) Digital Signage
4 1 (1.89%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (1.89%) IBM Mainframe
4 1 (1.89%) Mainframe
4 1 (1.89%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.89%) PKI
4 1 (1.89%) Replication
4 1 (1.89%) Security Posture
4 1 (1.89%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 20 (37.74%) Windows
2 14 (26.42%) Windows 10
3 9 (16.98%) Windows Server
4 6 (11.32%) Windows 7
5 4 (7.55%) Android
6 2 (3.77%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (1.89%) Apple iOS
7 1 (1.89%) Linux
7 1 (1.89%) MVS
7 1 (1.89%) Solaris
7 1 (1.89%) Windows 8
7 1 (1.89%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (1.89%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (26.42%) Service Management
2 13 (24.53%) Customer Service
3 12 (22.64%) Problem-Solving
4 8 (15.09%) ITIL
4 8 (15.09%) ITSM
5 7 (13.21%) Change Management
6 5 (9.43%) Compliance Audit
6 5 (9.43%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (9.43%) Disk Encryption
6 5 (9.43%) Migration
6 5 (9.43%) Network Design
7 4 (7.55%) Analytical Thinking
7 4 (7.55%) Analytics
7 4 (7.55%) Continuous Improvement
7 4 (7.55%) Data Analytics
7 4 (7.55%) Network Architecture
7 4 (7.55%) Risk Assessment
7 4 (7.55%) Risk Management
7 4 (7.55%) Task Automation
8 3 (5.66%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 9 (16.98%) PowerShell
2 5 (9.43%) Python
2 5 (9.43%) VB
2 5 (9.43%) VBScript
3 3 (5.66%) Perl
4 1 (1.89%) Java
4 1 (1.89%) SQL
Qualifications
1 12 (22.64%) Security Cleared
2 10 (18.87%) Cisco Certification
3 9 (16.98%) CCNP
4 7 (13.21%) SC Cleared
5 5 (9.43%) CCNA
5 5 (9.43%) DV Cleared
6 3 (5.66%) CCDP
7 2 (3.77%) CCIE
7 2 (3.77%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 1 (1.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.89%) CISSP
8 1 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (1.89%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (1.89%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (22.64%) Active Directory
2 5 (9.43%) BitLocker
3 2 (3.77%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (1.89%) Hyper-V
4 1 (1.89%) KVM
4 1 (1.89%) NFS
4 1 (1.89%) SRDF
4 1 (1.89%) Veritas Cluster Server
4 1 (1.89%) VMware NSX
4 1 (1.89%) VMware Workstation
4 1 (1.89%) Xen
Systems Management
1 5 (9.43%) SCCM
2 4 (7.55%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (3.77%) Ansible
3 2 (3.77%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.89%) Failover Clustering
4 1 (1.89%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.89%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.89%) Puppet
4 1 (1.89%) Terraform
Vendors
1 20 (37.74%) Microsoft
2 19 (35.85%) Cisco
3 9 (16.98%) Meraki
3 9 (16.98%) Palo Alto
4 6 (11.32%) F5
5 5 (9.43%) ServiceNow
5 5 (9.43%) SolarWinds
6 4 (7.55%) VMware
7 3 (5.66%) Adobe
7 3 (5.66%) Veeam
8 2 (3.77%) Aruba
8 2 (3.77%) CheckPoint
9 1 (1.89%) Broadcom
9 1 (1.89%) CrowdStrike
9 1 (1.89%) ForeScout
9 1 (1.89%) Fortinet
9 1 (1.89%) Google
9 1 (1.89%) LogicMonitor
9 1 (1.89%) Netskope
9 1 (1.89%) Pure Storage