WAN Contract Job Trends in the North West

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring WAN skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 94 81 62
Rank change year-on-year -13 -19 +35
Contract jobs citing WAN 36 41 86
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 1.65% 1.71% 3.04%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.63% 13.99% 19.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 19 54
10th Percentile - £350 £325
25th Percentile £129 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £250 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year -44.44% -18.18% +29.41%
75th Percentile £456 £570 £588
90th Percentile £531 £675 £648
England median daily rate £450 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 1
10th Percentile £33.95 - -
25th Percentile £45.88 £18.03 -
Median hourly rate £66.50 £18.07 £47.83
Median % change year-on-year +268.12% -62.23% +17.88%
75th Percentile £68.71 £18.10 -
90th Percentile £69.58 - -
England median hourly rate £30.00 £72.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -58.62% +81.25% +76.80%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North West

WAN 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 285 293 443
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.05% 12.20% 15.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 171 167 295
10th Percentile £147 £269 £317
25th Percentile £333 £409 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £486
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +8.02% +2.32%
75th Percentile £541 £675 £588
90th Percentile £680 £825 £639
England median daily rate £488 £508 £500
% change year-on-year -3.94% +1.50% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 10 10
10th Percentile £15.50 £25.43 £15.72
25th Percentile £17.75 £37.55 £15.75
Median hourly rate £20.00 £48.56 £16.68
Median % change year-on-year -58.81% +191.13% -44.93%
75th Percentile £48.27 £51.91 £46.88
90th Percentile £67.25 £57.65 £49.35
England median hourly rate £41.50 £57.35 £56.49
% change year-on-year -27.64% +1.52% +34.50%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the North West

WAN
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN in the North West over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the North West

WAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN in the North West over the 6 months to 19 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the North West

WAN
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 WAN within the North West region over the 6 months to 19 September 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
Merseyside +8 14 £133 -41.11% 2
Cumbria +9 7 £523 -22.59% 1
Cheshire -23 7 £325 -18.75% 4
Manchester -18 4 £450 - 10
Lancashire +3 3 £255 -51.43% 10
WAN
England

WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West 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 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (2.78%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 4 (11.11%) Azure
2 1 (2.78%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (2.78%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 27 (75.00%) LAN
2 15 (41.67%) Firewall
3 13 (36.11%) Wi-Fi
4 7 (19.44%) WLAN
5 6 (16.67%) Cisco ISE
5 6 (16.67%) NetScaler
5 6 (16.67%) Network Security
6 5 (13.89%) SD-WAN
6 5 (13.89%) TCP/IP
7 4 (11.11%) BGP
7 4 (11.11%) Wireless
8 3 (8.33%) Cisco IOS
8 3 (8.33%) MPLS
8 3 (8.33%) NX-OS
9 2 (5.56%) Cisco Nexus
9 2 (5.56%) VPN
10 1 (2.78%) DNS
10 1 (2.78%) DWDM
10 1 (2.78%) Internet
10 1 (2.78%) SAN
Development Applications
1 1 (2.78%) JIRA
General
1 4 (11.11%) Public Sector
2 2 (5.56%) Social Skills
3 1 (2.78%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (2.78%) Law
3 1 (2.78%) Legal
Job Titles
1 19 (52.78%) Network Engineer
2 14 (38.89%) IT Technician
3 6 (16.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 2 (5.56%) Senior
4 2 (5.56%) Senior Network Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Cisco Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Head of Digital
5 1 (2.78%) ICT Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) ICT Infrastructure Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) IT Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Network Support
5 1 (2.78%) Network Support Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Senior Cisco Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Senior Cisco Network Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Server Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Server Support
5 1 (2.78%) Server Support Engineer
5 1 (2.78%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (16.67%) 802.1X
2 1 (2.78%) Middleware
2 1 (2.78%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 9 (25.00%) Data Centre
2 3 (8.33%) CMDB
2 3 (8.33%) Management Information System
2 3 (8.33%) Video Conferencing
3 1 (2.78%) Security Posture
3 1 (2.78%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.78%) Windows
1 1 (2.78%) Windows 10
1 1 (2.78%) Windows 7
1 1 (2.78%) Windows 8
1 1 (2.78%) Windows Server
1 1 (2.78%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (41.67%) Service Management
2 14 (38.89%) Customer Service
3 9 (25.00%) Network Design
4 8 (22.22%) Load Balancing
4 8 (22.22%) Network Architecture
4 8 (22.22%) Network Management
5 7 (19.44%) Impact Assessments
6 5 (13.89%) ITIL
7 4 (11.11%) Performance Metrics
7 4 (11.11%) Problem Management
7 4 (11.11%) Task Automation
8 3 (8.33%) Asset Management
8 3 (8.33%) Disaster Recovery
8 3 (8.33%) Project Delivery
9 2 (5.56%) Change Management
9 2 (5.56%) Network Monitoring
9 2 (5.56%) Problem-Solving
9 2 (5.56%) Security Management
10 1 (2.78%) Employee Productivity
10 1 (2.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 5 (13.89%) Python
2 3 (8.33%) Perl
3 1 (2.78%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 9 (25.00%) Cisco Certification
1 9 (25.00%) SC Cleared
1 9 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 6 (16.67%) CCNA
2 6 (16.67%) CCNP
3 4 (11.11%) Degree
4 3 (8.33%) CCDP
5 1 (2.78%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (2.78%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.78%) California Consumer Privacy Act
1 1 (2.78%) GDPR
1 1 (2.78%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 2 (5.56%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (2.78%) Ansible
1 1 (2.78%) Cisco Prime
1 1 (2.78%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 19 (52.78%) Cisco
2 14 (38.89%) Palo Alto
3 10 (27.78%) Meraki
4 5 (13.89%) SolarWinds
5 4 (11.11%) F5
6 2 (5.56%) Aruba
6 2 (5.56%) Microsoft
7 1 (2.78%) CheckPoint
7 1 (2.78%) Fortinet
7 1 (2.78%) HP
7 1 (2.78%) LogicMonitor
7 1 (2.78%) ServiceNow
7 1 (2.78%) VMware