5G Contract Job Trends in the South East

5G
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring 5G skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 139 143
Rank change year-on-year -61 +4 +14
Contract jobs citing 5G 19 21 58
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.29% 0.63% 1.03%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.43% 3.57% 4.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 14 21
10th Percentile £393 £193 £70
25th Percentile £405 £199 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £338 £400
Median % change year-on-year +31.85% -15.63% +9.59%
75th Percentile £456 £433 £500
90th Percentile £481 £510 £538
England median daily rate £500 £447 £475
% change year-on-year +11.86% -5.89% +5.56%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South East

5G 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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 782 589 1,171
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.07% 17.56% 20.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 479 394 572
10th Percentile £273 £215 £217
25th Percentile £406 £341 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £494 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.28% -1.20% +5.26%
75th Percentile £598 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £625 £650
England median daily rate £500 £494 £500
% change year-on-year +1.21% -1.20% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 28 138
10th Percentile £17.50 £14.20 £17.21
25th Percentile £22.50 £23.71 £29.44
Median hourly rate £40.49 £52.44 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -22.79% -8.57% -0.26%
75th Percentile £56.21 £58.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £60.09 £71.61 £85.65
England median hourly rate £26.72 £41.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year -34.83% -6.82% +60.00%

5G
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing 5G relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

5G job vacancy trend in the South East

5G
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing 5G.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing 5G

5G
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing 5G.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing 5G

5G
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 5G within the South East region over the 6 months to 10 July 2026. 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
Berkshire -22 19 £445 +5.33% 20
Thames Valley -41 19 £445 +5.33% 21
5G
England

5G
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 (31.58%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 1 (5.26%) Azure
1 1 (5.26%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 13 (68.42%) Diameter Protocol
2 10 (52.63%) 4G
2 10 (52.63%) Radio Access Network
3 9 (47.37%) 2G
4 8 (42.11%) VoLTE
4 8 (42.11%) Wireshark
5 7 (36.84%) 3G
5 7 (36.84%) LTE
5 7 (36.84%) SIGTRAN
5 7 (36.84%) VoWiFi
6 6 (31.58%) SS7
7 2 (10.53%) BGP
7 2 (10.53%) Firewall
7 2 (10.53%) Internet
7 2 (10.53%) MPLS
7 2 (10.53%) OSPF
7 2 (10.53%) SD-WAN
7 2 (10.53%) tcpdump
7 2 (10.53%) WAN
7 2 (10.53%) Wi-Fi
Development Applications
1 1 (5.26%) JIRA
General
1 11 (57.89%) Telecoms
2 4 (21.05%) Social Skills
3 3 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (5.26%) Billing
4 1 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (5.26%) Finance
4 1 (5.26%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (21.05%) Design Engineer
1 4 (21.05%) Designer
2 2 (10.53%) Mobile Designer
2 2 (10.53%) Mobile Engineer
2 2 (10.53%) Network Engineer
2 2 (10.53%) Technical Manager
3 1 (5.26%) Analyst
3 1 (5.26%) Architect
3 1 (5.26%) Core Network Engineer
3 1 (5.26%) IP Design Engineer
3 1 (5.26%) IP Engineer
3 1 (5.26%) IP Network Engineer
3 1 (5.26%) Lead
3 1 (5.26%) Network Architect
3 1 (5.26%) Network Design Engineer
3 1 (5.26%) Network Designer
3 1 (5.26%) Solutions Architect
3 1 (5.26%) Solutions Designer
3 1 (5.26%) Test Analyst
3 1 (5.26%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (5.26%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 3 (15.79%) Self-Motivation
2 1 (5.26%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (5.26%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 6 (31.58%) Linux
1 6 (31.58%) Unix
2 2 (10.53%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (36.84%) Service Delivery
1 7 (36.84%) Technical Leadership
2 6 (31.58%) High Availability
2 6 (31.58%) Test Automation
3 5 (26.32%) Capacity Planning
3 5 (26.32%) Network Design
3 5 (26.32%) Roadmaps
4 4 (21.05%) Technology Roadmap
5 3 (15.79%) Project Delivery
6 2 (10.53%) Project Planning
6 2 (10.53%) Risk Management
6 2 (10.53%) Service Design
6 2 (10.53%) Stakeholder Management
6 2 (10.53%) Test Strategy
6 2 (10.53%) Validation
7 1 (5.26%) Data Protection
7 1 (5.26%) Incident Management
7 1 (5.26%) Manual Testing
7 1 (5.26%) Risk Analysis
7 1 (5.26%) Test Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (31.58%) Python
2 1 (5.26%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (10.53%) SC Cleared
1 2 (10.53%) Security Cleared
2 1 (5.26%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (31.58%) SLA
Systems Management
1 6 (31.58%) Kubernetes
2 2 (10.53%) NSN NetAct
Vendors
1 10 (52.63%) Nokia
2 7 (36.84%) BT
2 7 (36.84%) Ericsson
3 6 (31.58%) Huawei
4 2 (10.53%) Cisco
4 2 (10.53%) Fortinet
5 1 (5.26%) Aruba
5 1 (5.26%) CheckPoint
5 1 (5.26%) Empirix
5 1 (5.26%) F5
5 1 (5.26%) HP
5 1 (5.26%) Juniper
5 1 (5.26%) NetScout
5 1 (5.26%) Palo Alto