LAN Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Local Area Network (LAN)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring LAN skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 81 85 50
Rank change year-on-year +4 -35 +24
Contract jobs citing LAN 34 36 106
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 2.08% 1.61% 3.78%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.44% 10.00% 20.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 18 68
10th Percentile £200 £166 £148
25th Percentile £275 £366 £205
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +10.46% -8.16%
75th Percentile - £606 £525
90th Percentile - £650 £611
South East median daily rate £500 £488 £438
% change year-on-year +2.56% +11.43% -11.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 6
10th Percentile - £34.47 £18.50
25th Percentile - £58.44 £30.38
Median hourly rate - £73.50 £66.00
Median % change year-on-year - +11.36% +407.69%
75th Percentile - £75.68 £72.94
90th Percentile - £76.47 £76.12
South East median hourly rate - £47.95 £66.00
% change year-on-year - -27.35% +196.63%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

LAN 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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 253 360 530
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 15.46% 16.09% 18.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 142 177 326
10th Percentile £267 £300 £205
25th Percentile £357 £406 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £478
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +4.71% -2.40%
75th Percentile £538 £608 £600
90th Percentile £600 £650 £661
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £457
% change year-on-year - +9.36% -0.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 13 18
10th Percentile - £56.25 £16.28
25th Percentile £14.20 £71.75 £19.13
Median hourly rate £55.00 £83.50 £69.42
Median % change year-on-year -34.13% +20.29% +320.71%
75th Percentile £89.63 £87.46 £75.67
90th Percentile - - £76.37
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £57.35 £60.00
% change year-on-year -4.10% -4.42% +33.33%

LAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings citing LAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for LAN in the Thames Valley

LAN
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing LAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing LAN

LAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing LAN in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 9 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for LAN in the Thames Valley

LAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing LAN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing LAN

LAN
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing LAN within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 9 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
Berkshire +27 33 £450 +16.88% 13
Oxfordshire -12 1 - - 2
LAN
South East

LAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 12 (35.29%) OpenStack
2 1 (2.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (2.94%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 13 (38.24%) AWS
2 8 (23.53%) Azure
3 6 (17.65%) OpenShift
4 2 (5.88%) Entra ID
4 2 (5.88%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 31 (91.18%) WAN
2 24 (70.59%) MPLS
3 14 (41.18%) VPN
4 12 (35.29%) BGP
4 12 (35.29%) Ethernet
4 12 (35.29%) SAN
5 11 (32.35%) ATM
5 11 (32.35%) Frame Relay
5 11 (32.35%) GPRS
5 11 (32.35%) GSM
5 11 (32.35%) LTE
5 11 (32.35%) SDH
5 11 (32.35%) UMTS
5 11 (32.35%) Wireshark
6 8 (23.53%) Wireless
7 6 (17.65%) Firewall
7 6 (17.65%) OSPF
7 6 (17.65%) SNMP
7 6 (17.65%) TACACS
8 5 (14.71%) TCP/IP
General
1 25 (73.53%) Social Skills
2 13 (38.24%) Telecoms
3 6 (17.65%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (5.88%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 11 (32.35%) Test Engineer
2 10 (29.41%) IP Engineer
3 7 (20.59%) Designer
3 7 (20.59%) Network Engineer
4 6 (17.65%) Architect
4 6 (17.65%) IP Architect
4 6 (17.65%) IP Designer
4 6 (17.65%) IP Specialist
5 5 (14.71%) IP Network Engineer
6 2 (5.88%) Analyst
6 2 (5.88%) Consultant
6 2 (5.88%) IP Consultant
6 2 (5.88%) IP Network Consultant
6 2 (5.88%) IT Support
6 2 (5.88%) Network Consultant
7 1 (2.94%) Field Service Engineer
7 1 (2.94%) Network Designer
7 1 (2.94%) Support Analyst
7 1 (2.94%) Support Engineer
7 1 (2.94%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (17.65%) NETCONF
1 6 (17.65%) REST
1 6 (17.65%) YANG
2 2 (5.88%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 12 (35.29%) Hybrid Cloud
2 11 (32.35%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (23.53%) Data Centre
4 6 (17.65%) Cloud Native
5 3 (8.82%) Fibre Optics
5 3 (8.82%) SCADA
6 1 (2.94%) CCTV
6 1 (2.94%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (2.94%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 11 (32.35%) Linux
1 11 (32.35%) Unix
2 1 (2.94%) Mac OS
2 1 (2.94%) Windows
2 1 (2.94%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (38.24%) Problem-Solving
2 12 (35.29%) Network Virtualisation
3 11 (32.35%) Fault Management
3 11 (32.35%) Project Management
3 11 (32.35%) Regression Testing
3 11 (32.35%) Test Strategy
4 10 (29.41%) Network Design
5 8 (23.53%) Network Segmentation
6 7 (20.59%) Network Architecture
7 6 (17.65%) DevOps
7 6 (17.65%) Enterprise Architecture
7 6 (17.65%) Incident Response
7 6 (17.65%) Microservices
7 6 (17.65%) Roadmaps
7 6 (17.65%) Strategic Thinking
7 6 (17.65%) TOGAF
7 6 (17.65%) Validation
8 4 (11.76%) Disaster Recovery
8 4 (11.76%) Migration
8 4 (11.76%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 12 (35.29%) Python
2 11 (32.35%) Java
3 1 (2.94%) SQL
Qualifications
1 25 (73.53%) Cisco Certification
2 13 (38.24%) CCNP
3 12 (35.29%) CCIE
3 12 (35.29%) JNCIE
4 11 (32.35%) ISEB
4 11 (32.35%) ISTQB
4 11 (32.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 6 (17.65%) AWS Certification
6 3 (8.82%) SC Cleared
6 3 (8.82%) Security Cleared
7 2 (5.88%) CCNA
8 1 (2.94%) A+ Certification
8 1 (2.94%) Degree
8 1 (2.94%) DV Cleared
8 1 (2.94%) MCP
8 1 (2.94%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.94%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 7 (20.59%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (17.65%) VMware NSX
3 1 (2.94%) Active Directory
3 1 (2.94%) Hyper-V
3 1 (2.94%) vSphere
3 1 (2.94%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 12 (35.29%) Ansible
2 6 (17.65%) Terraform
3 1 (2.94%) SCCM
Vendors
1 21 (61.76%) Cisco
2 18 (52.94%) Juniper
3 12 (35.29%) Microsoft
4 7 (20.59%) F5
4 7 (20.59%) VMware
5 6 (17.65%) Fortinet
6 2 (5.88%) ServiceNow
6 2 (5.88%) Zscaler
7 1 (2.94%) Citrix
7 1 (2.94%) Nokia