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 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 99 141
Rank change year-on-year -34 +42 +6
Contract jobs citing MPLS 17 15 5
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.48% 0.79% 0.17%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.86% 5.84% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 13 2
10th Percentile £450 - -
25th Percentile £500 £513 £625
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -16.00% -3.85% +62.50%
75th Percentile £558 £649 £675
90th Percentile £650 - -
England median daily rate £510 £500 £400
% change year-on-year +2.00% +25.00% -20.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
Median hourly rate - - £40.00
England median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £22.40
% change year-on-year +9.03% +72.99% -59.51%

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 290 257 495
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 8.19% 13.52% 16.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 166 168 324
10th Percentile £209 £225 £282
25th Percentile £352 £352 £462
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.71% -2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £627
90th Percentile £691 £655 £675
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 2 38
10th Percentile £12.71 £22.51 £12.46
25th Percentile £18.25 £29.59 £15.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £41.40 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +57.02% -36.32% +4.00%
75th Percentile £77.50 £53.20 £71.25
90th Percentile £100.00 £60.28 £75.90
England median hourly rate £26.72 £45.00 £48.56
% change year-on-year -40.62% -7.33% -2.88%

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
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS in the South West over the 6 months to 26 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the South West

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 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
Wiltshire -1 12 £525 -16.00% 1
Bristol -13 5 £450 -
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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (11.76%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (5.88%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (5.88%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (11.76%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 2 (11.76%) Power Platform
2 1 (5.88%) AWS
2 1 (5.88%) Azure
2 1 (5.88%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 12 (70.59%) BGP
2 7 (41.18%) WAN
3 6 (35.29%) IPsec
4 5 (29.41%) LAN
5 4 (23.53%) Network Security
6 3 (17.65%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (17.65%) Cisco IOS
6 3 (17.65%) Firewall
6 3 (17.65%) TACACS
6 3 (17.65%) VPN
6 3 (17.65%) Wireshark
7 2 (11.76%) 3GPP
7 2 (11.76%) 4G
7 2 (11.76%) 5G
7 2 (11.76%) DNS
7 2 (11.76%) Ethernet
7 2 (11.76%) LTE
7 2 (11.76%) OSPF
7 2 (11.76%) Radio Access Network
7 2 (11.76%) VoLTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (11.76%) Power BI
1 2 (11.76%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 1 (5.88%) Bitbucket
1 1 (5.88%) JIRA
General
1 8 (47.06%) Social Skills
2 4 (23.53%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (17.65%) Military
3 3 (17.65%) Public Sector
4 2 (11.76%) Finance
4 2 (11.76%) Manufacturing
5 1 (5.88%) Presentation Skills
5 1 (5.88%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 4 (23.53%) Developer
2 3 (17.65%) Network Engineer
2 3 (17.65%) Security Engineer
3 2 (11.76%) Administrator
3 2 (11.76%) Architect
3 2 (11.76%) Cisco Administrator
3 2 (11.76%) Delivery Manager
3 2 (11.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 2 (11.76%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
3 2 (11.76%) Network Architect
3 2 (11.76%) RAN Engineer
3 2 (11.76%) Systems Administrator
3 2 (11.76%) Transmission Engineer
4 1 (5.88%) Cisco Engineer
4 1 (5.88%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 1 (5.88%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
4 1 (5.88%) Juniper Engineer
4 1 (5.88%) Network Field Engineer
4 1 (5.88%) Network Security Architect
4 1 (5.88%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (17.65%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 5 (29.41%) PKI
2 2 (11.76%) Cloud Native
3 1 (5.88%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 3 (17.65%) Linux
1 3 (17.65%) Ubuntu
2 2 (11.76%) Windows
2 2 (11.76%) Windows Server
2 2 (11.76%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (35.29%) Problem-Solving
2 4 (23.53%) Cybersecurity
2 4 (23.53%) Operational Stability
3 3 (17.65%) Agile
3 3 (17.65%) Network Architecture
3 3 (17.65%) Penetration Testing
4 2 (11.76%) Analytics
4 2 (11.76%) Business Intelligence
4 2 (11.76%) Capacity Planning
4 2 (11.76%) Collaborative Working
4 2 (11.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 2 (11.76%) PRINCE2
4 2 (11.76%) Project Governance
4 2 (11.76%) Project Management
4 2 (11.76%) Root Cause Analysis
4 2 (11.76%) Scaled Agile Framework
4 2 (11.76%) Scrum
4 2 (11.76%) Service Management
4 2 (11.76%) Supplier Management
4 2 (11.76%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 5 (29.41%) Python
2 3 (17.65%) PHP
3 2 (11.76%) C
3 2 (11.76%) SQL
Qualifications
1 15 (88.24%) Security Cleared
2 10 (58.82%) DV Cleared
3 8 (47.06%) SC Cleared
4 3 (17.65%) APMG
4 3 (17.65%) CompTIA Security+
4 3 (17.65%) GIAC
4 3 (17.65%) SSCP
5 2 (11.76%) CCNP
5 2 (11.76%) Cisco Certification
5 2 (11.76%) GSEC
6 1 (5.88%) CCDP
6 1 (5.88%) CCIE
6 1 (5.88%) CCNA
6 1 (5.88%) Degree
6 1 (5.88%) VCDX
6 1 (5.88%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (23.53%) NIST
2 3 (17.65%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (17.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 3 (17.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (11.76%) Government Security Classifications
4 1 (5.88%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 1 (5.88%) NIST 800
System Software
1 4 (23.53%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (17.65%) VMware ESXi
3 2 (11.76%) Active Directory
4 1 (5.88%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 3 (17.65%) vCenter Server
2 2 (11.76%) SCOM
3 1 (5.88%) OPNET
3 1 (5.88%) QRadar
3 1 (5.88%) Suricata
Vendors
1 8 (47.06%) Cisco
2 6 (35.29%) VMware
3 3 (17.65%) Juniper
4 1 (5.88%) Google
4 1 (5.88%) Splunk