RFC 2544 Contract Job Trends in the South East

Request for Comments: 2544 - Benchmarking Methodology for Network Interconnect Devices
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring RFC 2544 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 182 163 -
Rank change year-on-year -19 - -
Contract jobs citing RFC 2544 7 7 0
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.16% 0.19% -
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 1.01% 1.17% -
Number of daily rates quoted 7 7 0
10th Percentile £237 £155 -
25th Percentile £282 £163 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £295 £350 -
Median % change year-on-year -15.71% - -
75th Percentile £298 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £295 £350 -
% change year-on-year -15.71% - -

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
South East

RFC 2544 falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 696 596 814
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 15.92% 16.01% 16.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 498 386 466
10th Percentile £275 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £406 £414
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.95% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £622
90th Percentile £649 £675 £680
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -4.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 11 35
10th Percentile £40.00 £54.63 £46.76
25th Percentile £46.25 £60.38 £55.00
Median hourly rate £47.50 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year -24.00% - -3.85%
75th Percentile £77.50 £66.88 £76.53
90th Percentile £81.00 £70.00 £78.00
England median hourly rate £61.00 £65.00 £52.20
% change year-on-year -6.15% +24.53% -19.70%

RFC 2544
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing RFC 2544 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

RFC 2544 job vacancy trend in the South East

RFC 2544
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing RFC 2544.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing RFC 2544

RFC 2544
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 RFC 2544 within the South East region over the 6 months to 20 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
Berkshire -5 6 £295 -15.71%
Thames Valley -12 6 £295 -15.71%
Hampshire - 1 £273 -
RFC 2544
England

RFC 2544
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:

Communications & Networking
1 7 (100.00%) Firewall
General
1 6 (85.71%) Telecoms
2 1 (14.29%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 7 (100.00%) Test Engineer
2 4 (57.14%) Network Engineer
3 1 (14.29%) Cisco Engineer
3 1 (14.29%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 1 (14.29%) Firewall Engineer
3 1 (14.29%) Quality Engineer
3 1 (14.29%) Switch Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 7 (100.00%) Data Centre
1 7 (100.00%) Fibre Optics
2 1 (14.29%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (100.00%) Case Management
1 7 (100.00%) Test Scripting
2 6 (85.71%) Defect Management
2 6 (85.71%) Disaster Recovery
2 6 (85.71%) Service Management
3 4 (57.14%) Operational Acceptance Testing
4 1 (14.29%) Performance Testing
4 1 (14.29%) Validation
Qualifications
1 2 (28.57%) SC Cleared
1 2 (28.57%) Security Cleared
2 1 (14.29%) CCNA
2 1 (14.29%) CCNP
2 1 (14.29%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (28.57%) QA
Vendors
1 7 (100.00%) Cisco