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 contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 103 128
Rank change year-on-year -32 +25 +28
Contract jobs citing MPLS 9 16 22
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.32% 0.89% 0.71%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.61% 5.59% 4.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 8 8
10th Percentile £489 £363 £235
25th Percentile £516 £475 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year +1.19% +2.44% -12.77%
75th Percentile £557 £559 £741
90th Percentile £565 £625 £754
England median daily rate £449 £513 £444
% change year-on-year -12.49% +15.49% -1.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 13
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - - £40.00
75th Percentile - - £65.98
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £20.00 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -38.46% -18.75% +19.40%

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 249 286 475
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 8.82% 15.94% 15.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 172 197 295
10th Percentile £263 £300 £278
25th Percentile £413 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £539 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.70% -2.73% +10.00%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £669
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 5 46
10th Percentile £12.43 £12.15 £40.00
25th Percentile £25.94 £12.50 £47.27
Median hourly rate £60.00 £75.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +32.77% +476.43%
75th Percentile £64.13 - £70.66
90th Percentile £67.27 - £76.25
England median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -2.86% -22.22% +133.16%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

MPLS job vacancy trend 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 26 February 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
Wiltshire - 6 £538 -
Bristol -14 2 £450 - 2
Somerset -19 1 £513 -2.38% 1
MPLS
England

MPLS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South 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:

Applications
1 1 (11.11%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (11.11%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1 (11.11%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 6 (66.67%) BGP
1 6 (66.67%) Cisco ASA
1 6 (66.67%) Cisco IOS
1 6 (66.67%) Network Security
1 6 (66.67%) TACACS
1 6 (66.67%) VPN
2 1 (11.11%) 3GPP
2 1 (11.11%) 4G
2 1 (11.11%) 5G
2 1 (11.11%) 5G NR
2 1 (11.11%) DWDM
2 1 (11.11%) Ethernet
2 1 (11.11%) Firewall
2 1 (11.11%) LTE
2 1 (11.11%) Microwave Backhaul
2 1 (11.11%) Radio Access Network
2 1 (11.11%) SDH
2 1 (11.11%) VoLTE
2 1 (11.11%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (11.11%) Power BI
1 1 (11.11%) Tableau
General
1 4 (44.44%) Public Sector
1 4 (44.44%) Social Skills
2 1 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
2 1 (11.11%) Finance
2 1 (11.11%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 6 (66.67%) Security Engineer
2 4 (44.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 4 (44.44%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
3 2 (22.22%) Network Engineer
4 1 (11.11%) Delivery Manager
4 1 (11.11%) Network Security Engineer
4 1 (11.11%) RAN Engineer
4 1 (11.11%) Transmission Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (66.67%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 6 (66.67%) PKI
2 1 (11.11%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 6 (66.67%) Linux
1 6 (66.67%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
2 4 (44.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 4 (44.44%) Penetration Testing
3 3 (33.33%) Agile
3 3 (33.33%) Project Management
3 3 (33.33%) Waterfall
4 1 (11.11%) Analytics
4 1 (11.11%) Business Intelligence
4 1 (11.11%) Capacity Planning
4 1 (11.11%) Collaborative Working
4 1 (11.11%) Network Architecture
4 1 (11.11%) Network Management
4 1 (11.11%) PRINCE2
4 1 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
4 1 (11.11%) Project Delivery
4 1 (11.11%) Project Governance
4 1 (11.11%) Root Cause Analysis
4 1 (11.11%) Scaled Agile Framework
4 1 (11.11%) Scrum
4 1 (11.11%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (55.56%) Python
2 4 (44.44%) PHP
3 1 (11.11%) C
3 1 (11.11%) SQL
Qualifications
1 8 (88.89%) SC Cleared
1 8 (88.89%) Security Cleared
2 4 (44.44%) APMG
2 4 (44.44%) CompTIA Security+
2 4 (44.44%) DV Cleared
2 4 (44.44%) GIAC
2 4 (44.44%) SSCP
3 3 (33.33%) GSEC
4 1 (11.11%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (66.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 6 (66.67%) NIST
2 4 (44.44%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (44.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (11.11%) Government Security Classifications
3 1 (11.11%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 6 (66.67%) VMware ESXi
1 6 (66.67%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 6 (66.67%) vCenter Server
2 3 (33.33%) SCOM
Vendors
1 7 (77.78%) Cisco
2 6 (66.67%) VMware
3 1 (11.11%) Fortinet
3 1 (11.11%) Nokia
3 1 (11.11%) SolarWinds