WAN Contract Job Trends in the South West

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring WAN skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 85 111 69
Rank change year-on-year +26 -42 +28
Contract jobs citing WAN 23 24 97
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 1.18% 0.91% 2.96%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.39% 6.02% 20.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 12 65
10th Percentile £203 £401 £255
25th Percentile £246 £410 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £550 £450
Median % change year-on-year -27.27% +22.22% -7.22%
75th Percentile £556 £675 £638
90th Percentile £713 £743 £723
England median daily rate £450 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 6 3
10th Percentile - £67.50 -
25th Percentile - £72.19 -
Median hourly rate - £75.00 £69.62
Median % change year-on-year - +7.73% +32.90%
75th Percentile - - £70.14
90th Percentile - - £70.44
England median hourly rate £30.00 £72.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year -58.62% +190.00% +9.29%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South West

WAN 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 245 399 465
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 12.60% 15.09% 14.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 159 240 273
10th Percentile £213 £337 £221
25th Percentile £317 £456 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% - +10.53%
75th Percentile £594 £600 £630
90th Percentile £649 £672 £700
England median daily rate £490 £511 £500
% change year-on-year -4.03% +2.12% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 28 58
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 £72.62
England median hourly rate £41.50 £57.35 £56.49
% change year-on-year -27.64% +1.52% +34.26%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the South West

WAN
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

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

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

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN in the South West over the 6 months to 15 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the South West

WAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

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

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

WAN
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 WAN within the South West region over the 6 months to 15 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
Bristol +6 10 £563 +2.27% 1
Wiltshire +17 4 £431 -21.59%
Dorset 0 4 £205 -70.71% 1
Somerset - 3 £625 - 2
Gloucestershire +18 2 £295 -26.25% 4
WAN
England

WAN
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 4 (17.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (13.04%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (17.39%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (4.35%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 7 (30.43%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (26.09%) Azure
3 4 (17.39%) AWS
4 3 (13.04%) GCP
4 3 (13.04%) OneDrive
5 1 (4.35%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (4.35%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (4.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 18 (78.26%) LAN
2 13 (56.52%) Firewall
3 9 (39.13%) VPN
4 8 (34.78%) DNS
5 6 (26.09%) VoIP
5 6 (26.09%) Wi-Fi
6 5 (21.74%) DHCP
6 5 (21.74%) Network Security
6 5 (21.74%) SD-WAN
6 5 (21.74%) VLAN
7 4 (17.39%) BGP
7 4 (17.39%) OSPF
8 3 (13.04%) WLAN
9 2 (8.70%) Cisco Nexus
9 2 (8.70%) EIGRP
9 2 (8.70%) HSRP
9 2 (8.70%) VRRP
9 2 (8.70%) Wireless
10 1 (4.35%) MPLS
10 1 (4.35%) SAN
General
1 9 (39.13%) Social Skills
2 5 (21.74%) Finance
3 2 (8.70%) Documentation Skills
3 2 (8.70%) Manufacturing
3 2 (8.70%) Telecoms
4 1 (4.35%) Electronics
4 1 (4.35%) Influencing Skills
4 1 (4.35%) Marketing
4 1 (4.35%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 8 (34.78%) Architect
1 8 (34.78%) Network Architect
2 5 (21.74%) Network Engineer
2 5 (21.74%) Support Engineer
3 3 (13.04%) IT Engineer
3 3 (13.04%) Network Technical Architect
3 3 (13.04%) Technical Architect
4 2 (8.70%) 2nd Line Engineer
4 2 (8.70%) 2nd Line Support
4 2 (8.70%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
4 2 (8.70%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
4 2 (8.70%) Enterprise Architect
4 2 (8.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (8.70%) IT Support
4 2 (8.70%) IT Support Engineer
5 1 (4.35%) Integration Engineer
5 1 (4.35%) IT Architect
5 1 (4.35%) PC Support
5 1 (4.35%) System Verification Engineer
5 1 (4.35%) Systems Integration Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 7 (30.43%) Data Centre
2 4 (17.39%) Cloud Native
3 3 (13.04%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (13.04%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (8.70%) Virtual Team
5 1 (4.35%) Management Information System
5 1 (4.35%) NHS
5 1 (4.35%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 10 (43.48%) Windows
2 6 (26.09%) Windows 10
3 4 (17.39%) Windows Server
4 3 (13.04%) Android
4 3 (13.04%) Mac OS
5 1 (4.35%) Linux
5 1 (4.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (30.43%) Network Architecture
2 4 (17.39%) Customer Service
2 4 (17.39%) High Availability
2 4 (17.39%) Network Design
2 4 (17.39%) Stakeholder Management
2 4 (17.39%) Technical Leadership
3 3 (13.04%) ITIL
3 3 (13.04%) ITSM
3 3 (13.04%) Network Monitoring
3 3 (13.04%) Presales
4 2 (8.70%) Business Continuity
4 2 (8.70%) Customer Requirements
4 2 (8.70%) Cybersecurity
4 2 (8.70%) Digital Transformation Strategy
4 2 (8.70%) Disaster Recovery
4 2 (8.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 2 (8.70%) Mentoring
4 2 (8.70%) Patch Management
4 2 (8.70%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (8.70%) Virtual Team Management
Qualifications
1 9 (39.13%) Security Cleared
2 4 (17.39%) Cisco Certification
2 4 (17.39%) DV Cleared
3 3 (13.04%) CCNP
3 3 (13.04%) SC Cleared
4 2 (8.70%) CCIE
4 2 (8.70%) CCNA
5 1 (4.35%) AWS Certification
5 1 (4.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 1 (4.35%) Azure Certification
5 1 (4.35%) JNCIE
5 1 (4.35%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (13.04%) SLA
2 1 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 7 (30.43%) Active Directory
2 4 (17.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (4.35%) Hyper-V
3 1 (4.35%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 3 (13.04%) AppManager
1 3 (13.04%) SCCM
2 2 (8.70%) Cisco Prime
Vendors
1 6 (26.09%) Cisco
1 6 (26.09%) VMware
2 4 (17.39%) Microsoft
3 3 (13.04%) Ivanti
3 3 (13.04%) ServiceNow
4 2 (8.70%) Juniper
4 2 (8.70%) SolarWinds
5 1 (4.35%) Brocade
5 1 (4.35%) Extreme Networks
5 1 (4.35%) Fortinet
5 1 (4.35%) Google
5 1 (4.35%) Palo Alto
5 1 (4.35%) Remedy
5 1 (4.35%) SAP