MPLS Contract Job Trends in the South West

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring MPLS skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 106 124 133
Rank change year-on-year +18 +9 +13
Contract jobs citing MPLS 9 14 21
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 0.46% 0.53% 0.65%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.66% 3.52% 4.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 5 6
10th Percentile - - £325
25th Percentile £613 £616 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £633 £425
Median % change year-on-year -1.19% +48.82% -3.41%
75th Percentile £649 £675 £550
90th Percentile - - £625
England median daily rate £469 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -6.25% -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 8
10th Percentile - - £62.38
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - - £65.98
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £68.98
England median hourly rate £38.75 £22.40 £65.98
% change year-on-year +72.99% -66.05% +47.89%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South 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 South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 246 398 459
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 12.47% 15.02% 14.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 161 236 270
10th Percentile £213 £321 £219
25th Percentile £321 £455 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.22% -0.48% +10.53%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £629
90th Percentile £649 £672 £700
England median daily rate £490 £508 £500
% change year-on-year -3.45% +1.50% -1.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 28 59
10th Percentile £26.70 £11.75 £40.85
25th Percentile £40.07 £15.00 £48.32
Median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -11.54% +15.06% -5.85%
75th Percentile £65.00 £74.06 £65.98
90th Percentile - £78.00 £72.13
England median hourly rate £41.50 £57.35 £56.49
% change year-on-year -27.64% +1.52% +34.50%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the South West

MPLS
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

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

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

MPLS
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

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

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

MPLS
Contract Job Locations in the South 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 South West region over the 6 months to 17 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
Somerset 0 5 £633 -
Wiltshire +13 4 £625 -1.19%
MPLS
England

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South 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 7 (77.78%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (77.78%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 1 (11.11%) AWS
1 1 (11.11%) Azure
1 1 (11.11%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 9 (100.00%) BGP
2 8 (88.89%) VPN
3 7 (77.78%) DNS
3 7 (77.78%) IPsec
3 7 (77.78%) Unified Communications
4 1 (11.11%) Firewall
4 1 (11.11%) OSPF
4 1 (11.11%) SD-WAN
4 1 (11.11%) VLAN
4 1 (11.11%) WAN
Development Applications
1 7 (77.78%) JIRA
General
1 9 (100.00%) Social Skills
2 7 (77.78%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (11.11%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 8 (88.89%) Network Engineer
2 2 (22.22%) Switch Engineer
2 2 (22.22%) Telephony Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Network Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (77.78%) NETCONF
1 7 (77.78%) RESTCONF
Miscellaneous
1 7 (77.78%) PKI
2 1 (11.11%) Cloud Native
2 1 (11.11%) Data Centre
2 1 (11.11%) Management Information System
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (88.89%) Network Virtualisation
1 8 (88.89%) NsoIT
1 8 (88.89%) Service Management
1 8 (88.89%) System Testing
1 8 (88.89%) Validation
2 7 (77.78%) Critical Thinking
3 2 (22.22%) ArchiMate
4 1 (11.11%) Customer Requirements
4 1 (11.11%) Decision-Making
4 1 (11.11%) IT Governance
4 1 (11.11%) Mentoring
4 1 (11.11%) Network Architecture
4 1 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
4 1 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 1 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
4 1 (11.11%) Strategic Roadmap
4 1 (11.11%) Strategic Thinking
4 1 (11.11%) Supplier Management
4 1 (11.11%) Time Management
4 1 (11.11%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 7 (77.78%) Python
Qualifications
1 9 (100.00%) CCNP
1 9 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
1 9 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 9 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 7 (77.78%) Degree
3 1 (11.11%) AWS Certification
3 1 (11.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Azure Certification
3 1 (11.11%) CCIE
3 1 (11.11%) DV Cleared
3 1 (11.11%) JNCIE
3 1 (11.11%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (11.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 7 (77.78%) VMware ESXi
1 7 (77.78%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 7 (77.78%) Ansible
Vendors
1 8 (88.89%) Cisco
2 7 (77.78%) Atlassian
2 7 (77.78%) VMware
3 1 (11.11%) Fortinet
3 1 (11.11%) Google
3 1 (11.11%) Juniper
3 1 (11.11%) Palo Alto