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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 108 127
Rank change year-on-year -31 +19 +4
Contract jobs citing MPLS 16 9 14
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.43% 0.46% 0.54%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.19% 3.53% 3.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 9 5
10th Percentile £500 - -
25th Percentile £513 £613 £616
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £625 £633
Median % change year-on-year -16.00% -1.19% +40.56%
75th Percentile £688 £649 £675
90th Percentile £694 - -
England median daily rate £500 £463 £500
% change year-on-year +8.11% -7.50% -4.76%

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 308 255 384
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 8.21% 13.02% 14.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 171 174 225
10th Percentile £205 £213 £343
25th Percentile £422 £278 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £473 £525
Median % change year-on-year +13.23% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £668 £588 £600
90th Percentile £725 £649 £672
England median daily rate £500 £490 £505
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.97% +1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 5 26
10th Percentile £12.71 £29.67 £11.75
25th Percentile £18.50 £47.50 £64.06
Median hourly rate £39.82 £63.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.79% -3.08% +15.06%
75th Percentile £86.25 £65.00 £74.69
90th Percentile £99.17 - £80.00
England median hourly rate £43.50 £39.66 £57.35
% change year-on-year +9.68% -30.85% +1.52%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 15 £525 -16.00% 1
Bristol - 1 £700 -
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 (12.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (6.25%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 1 (6.25%) AWS
1 1 (6.25%) Azure
1 1 (6.25%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 13 (81.25%) WAN
2 10 (62.50%) BGP
3 7 (43.75%) IPsec
3 7 (43.75%) SD-WAN
4 6 (37.50%) LAN
4 6 (37.50%) Network Security
5 3 (18.75%) Firewall
6 2 (12.50%) DNS
6 2 (12.50%) OSPF
7 1 (6.25%) DMVPN
7 1 (6.25%) DWDM
7 1 (6.25%) SDH
7 1 (6.25%) VLAN
7 1 (6.25%) VPLS
7 1 (6.25%) Wireless
7 1 (6.25%) Wireshark
Development Applications
1 1 (6.25%) Bitbucket
1 1 (6.25%) JIRA
General
1 9 (56.25%) Social Skills
2 6 (37.50%) Telecoms
3 3 (18.75%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (18.75%) Military
4 1 (6.25%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 7 (43.75%) Architect
2 5 (31.25%) Developer
3 2 (12.50%) Administrator
3 2 (12.50%) Cisco Administrator
3 2 (12.50%) Network Architect
3 2 (12.50%) Network Engineer
3 2 (12.50%) Systems Administrator
4 1 (6.25%) Cisco Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Field Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Juniper Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Network Field Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Network Security Architect
4 1 (6.25%) Security Architect
Miscellaneous
1 5 (31.25%) Onboarding
2 2 (12.50%) PKI
3 1 (6.25%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 2 (12.50%) Windows
1 2 (12.50%) Windows Server
1 2 (12.50%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (43.75%) Problem-Solving
2 6 (37.50%) Network Monitoring
3 5 (31.25%) Impact Assessments
3 5 (31.25%) ITIL
3 5 (31.25%) Operational Stability
3 5 (31.25%) Technical Leadership
3 5 (31.25%) TOGAF
4 4 (25.00%) Architecture Governance
4 4 (25.00%) Security Architecture
5 2 (12.50%) Customer Service
5 2 (12.50%) Network Architecture
5 2 (12.50%) Service Management
5 2 (12.50%) Zero Trust
6 1 (6.25%) Cybersecurity
6 1 (6.25%) Infrastructure as Code
6 1 (6.25%) Preventative Maintenance
6 1 (6.25%) Proactive Maintenance
6 1 (6.25%) Roadmaps
6 1 (6.25%) Stakeholder Management
6 1 (6.25%) Strategic Roadmap
Qualifications
1 16 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 13 (81.25%) DV Cleared
3 7 (43.75%) CCNP
3 7 (43.75%) Cisco Certification
4 6 (37.50%) CCIE
5 5 (31.25%) CISSP
5 5 (31.25%) JNCIE
5 5 (31.25%) JNCIP
6 3 (18.75%) SC Cleared
7 1 (6.25%) CCDP
7 1 (6.25%) CCNA
7 1 (6.25%) VCDX
7 1 (6.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (6.25%) NIST
1 1 (6.25%) NIST 800
System Software
1 2 (12.50%) Active Directory
2 1 (6.25%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (6.25%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 1 (6.25%) OPNET
1 1 (6.25%) QRadar
1 1 (6.25%) Suricata
Vendors
1 5 (31.25%) Cisco
2 3 (18.75%) Juniper
2 3 (18.75%) VMware
3 1 (6.25%) Google
3 1 (6.25%) Splunk