MPLS Contract Job Trends in the North West

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring MPLS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 132 108 128
Rank change year-on-year -24 +20 +30
Contract jobs citing MPLS 9 13 9
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 0.37% 0.60% 0.34%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.56% 3.98% 2.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 8 8
10th Percentile £316 £380 £358
25th Percentile £349 £392 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £505 £557
Median % change year-on-year -20.79% -9.25% +48.40%
75th Percentile £513 £564 £627
90th Percentile £603 £586 £628
England median daily rate £450 £505 £525
% change year-on-year -10.89% -3.81% +16.67%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North West

MPLS 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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 351 327 439
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.29% 15.08% 16.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 174 318
10th Percentile £170 £203 £300
25th Percentile £332 £366 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £474 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.43% -5.25% +2.56%
75th Percentile £550 £565 £625
90th Percentile £673 £675 £672
England median daily rate £484 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.20% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 7 13
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.76 -
25th Percentile £17.00 £22.01 £15.75
Median hourly rate £20.00 £48.56 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -58.81% +174.04% -10.87%
75th Percentile £70.76 £51.91 £46.88
90th Percentile £74.26 £52.14 £49.38
England median hourly rate £34.00 £42.50 £56.40
% change year-on-year -20.00% -24.65% +27.03%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

MPLS job vacancy trend in the North West

MPLS
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing MPLS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing MPLS

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS in the North West over the 6 months to 14 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the North West

MPLS
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing MPLS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing MPLS

MPLS
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the North West region over the 6 months to 14 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
Cheshire -23 4 £388 -3.13% 1
Merseyside -1 2 - -
Manchester -13 2 £588 +16.34% 1
Lancashire - 1 £335 -
MPLS
England

MPLS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 1 (11.11%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (11.11%) MS Visio
Communications & Networking
1 6 (66.67%) Firewall
1 6 (66.67%) WAN
2 4 (44.44%) LAN
2 4 (44.44%) SD-WAN
2 4 (44.44%) VPN
3 3 (33.33%) Cisco ASA
3 3 (33.33%) Cisco Nexus
4 2 (22.22%) BGP
4 2 (22.22%) Internet
4 2 (22.22%) Network Security
4 2 (22.22%) SNMP
4 2 (22.22%) TACACS
5 1 (11.11%) DHCP
5 1 (11.11%) EIGRP
5 1 (11.11%) Ethernet
5 1 (11.11%) IPsec
5 1 (11.11%) OSPF
5 1 (11.11%) TCP/IP
5 1 (11.11%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (11.11%) Wireless
General
1 4 (44.44%) Public Sector
2 1 (11.11%) Documentation Skills
2 1 (11.11%) Finance
2 1 (11.11%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 5 (55.56%) Network Engineer
2 4 (44.44%) Senior
3 3 (33.33%) Senior Network Engineer
4 2 (22.22%) Architect
4 2 (22.22%) Network Architect
5 1 (11.11%) Network Security Architect
5 1 (11.11%) Security Architect
5 1 (11.11%) Senior Architect
5 1 (11.11%) Senior Network Architect
Miscellaneous
1 2 (22.22%) Data Centre
2 1 (11.11%) Operational Technology
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (44.44%) Migration
1 4 (44.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 3 (33.33%) Change Management
2 3 (33.33%) Network Design
3 2 (22.22%) Configuration Management
3 2 (22.22%) High Availability
3 2 (22.22%) Tech Ops
3 2 (22.22%) Technical Leadership
4 1 (11.11%) Collaborative Working
4 1 (11.11%) Containerisation
4 1 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
4 1 (11.11%) Kalman Filter
4 1 (11.11%) Network Segmentation
4 1 (11.11%) Performance Optimisation
4 1 (11.11%) Project Delivery
4 1 (11.11%) RBAC
4 1 (11.11%) Technical Debt
4 1 (11.11%) Threat Modelling
4 1 (11.11%) Web Filtering
4 1 (11.11%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 1 (11.11%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 4 (44.44%) Security Cleared
2 3 (33.33%) CCNP
2 3 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (22.22%) SC Cleared
4 1 (11.11%) CCIE
4 1 (11.11%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (11.11%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 3 (33.33%) FortiGate
2 1 (11.11%) Cisco CUCM
2 1 (11.11%) Cisco Prime
2 1 (11.11%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 6 (66.67%) Cisco
2 3 (33.33%) Fortinet
2 3 (33.33%) Palo Alto
3 2 (22.22%) Meraki
3 2 (22.22%) Microsoft
4 1 (11.11%) CheckPoint
4 1 (11.11%) Ekahau
4 1 (11.11%) Forcepoint
4 1 (11.11%) LogicMonitor
4 1 (11.11%) McAfee
4 1 (11.11%) Nokia
4 1 (11.11%) SolarWinds