MPLS Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring MPLS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 301 230 250
Rank change year-on-year -71 +20 +108
Contract jobs citing MPLS 101 132 165
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.56% 0.83% 0.83%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.52% 5.39% 4.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 70 55 70
10th Percentile £257 £355 £258
25th Percentile £306 £391 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £424 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -15.25% +11.11% +5.88%
75th Percentile £488 £550 £552
90th Percentile £588 £639 £627
UK median daily rate £447 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -10.60% -4.76% +16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 15
10th Percentile - £17.80 £24.35
25th Percentile £19.00 £18.06 £39.50
Median hourly rate £20.00 £19.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -71.20% +180.77%
75th Percentile £21.00 £20.95 -
90th Percentile - £21.82 £66.89
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £22.40 £65.98
% change year-on-year -10.71% -66.05% +151.35%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 2,235 2,447 3,566
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 12.44% 15.32% 17.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,477 1,342 2,136
10th Percentile £191 £200 £205
25th Percentile £293 £330 £340
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £563 £575 £600
90th Percentile £644 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 139 282
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.95 £17.72
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.45 £24.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £47.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% -15.91% +25.53%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.67
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -17.07% -25.45% +26.44%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing MPLS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

MPLS job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 4 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing MPLS

MPLS
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 4 December 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
West Midlands -7 36 £400 -5.88% 2
Midlands -14 36 £400 +6.67% 2
South East -33 35 £538 +6.44% 19
Scotland +14 13 £213 -
North of England -64 11 £435 -13.00% 9
North West -24 10 £430 -14.85% 1
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 -
East of England -14 2 £350 - 4
South West -15 2 £569 -10.08% 3
North East -8 1 £550 - 1
MPLS
UK

MPLS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 16 (15.84%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.99%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.99%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (7.92%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (5.94%) MS Visio
3 5 (4.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (4.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 23 (22.77%) AWS
2 15 (14.85%) Azure
3 6 (5.94%) GCP
3 6 (5.94%) OpenShift
4 4 (3.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 4 (3.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 2 (1.98%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (0.99%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.99%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 72 (71.29%) WAN
2 66 (65.35%) BGP
3 51 (50.50%) VPN
4 44 (43.56%) LAN
5 34 (33.66%) IPsec
6 33 (32.67%) Firewall
7 26 (25.74%) OSPF
8 17 (16.83%) SD-WAN
8 17 (16.83%) Wireless
9 12 (11.88%) SDH
9 12 (11.88%) VLAN
10 11 (10.89%) Cisco ASA
11 10 (9.90%) Junos
12 9 (8.91%) DNS
13 8 (7.92%) DHCP
13 8 (7.92%) SNMP
13 8 (7.92%) TACACS
13 8 (7.92%) WLAN
14 7 (6.93%) IPv4
14 7 (6.93%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.99%) MongoDB
1 1 (0.99%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (1.98%) GitLab
2 1 (0.99%) JIRA
2 1 (0.99%) Robot Framework
General
1 41 (40.59%) Social Skills
2 15 (14.85%) Public Sector
2 15 (14.85%) Telecoms
3 8 (7.92%) Documentation Skills
4 6 (5.94%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (3.96%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.99%) Finance
7 1 (0.99%) Police
Job Titles
1 34 (33.66%) Network Engineer
2 18 (17.82%) Architect
2 18 (17.82%) Support Engineer
3 16 (15.84%) Senior
4 14 (13.86%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 13 (12.87%) 3rd Line Support
5 13 (12.87%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 12 (11.88%) WAN Engineer
7 11 (10.89%) Network Architect
8 10 (9.90%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 10 (9.90%) Designer
8 10 (9.90%) Senior Network Engineer
9 9 (8.91%) Field Engineer
10 8 (7.92%) IP Specialist
11 7 (6.93%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 6 (5.94%) IP Architect
12 6 (5.94%) IP Designer
12 6 (5.94%) Solutions Architect
13 5 (4.95%) Network Support
13 5 (4.95%) Network Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (9.90%) YANG
2 9 (8.91%) NETCONF
3 7 (6.93%) REST
4 3 (2.97%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.98%) JSON
5 2 (1.98%) OpenConfig
6 1 (0.99%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.99%) gRPC
6 1 (0.99%) Jinja
6 1 (0.99%) SOAP
6 1 (0.99%) XML
6 1 (0.99%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (23.76%) PKI
2 17 (16.83%) Data Centre
3 14 (13.86%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (9.90%) Cloud Native
5 7 (6.93%) Driving Licence
6 6 (5.94%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (4.95%) Operational Technology
8 4 (3.96%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (2.97%) Virtual Team
10 2 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (1.98%) Onboarding
10 2 (1.98%) SCADA
11 1 (0.99%) Enterprise Cloud
11 1 (0.99%) Management Information System
11 1 (0.99%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.99%) CentOS
1 1 (0.99%) Linux
1 1 (0.99%) Unix
1 1 (0.99%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (31.68%) Network Design
2 24 (23.76%) Load Balancing
3 17 (16.83%) Problem-Solving
4 15 (14.85%) Network Virtualisation
5 14 (13.86%) Roadmaps
6 12 (11.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 12 (11.88%) Stakeholder Management
7 11 (10.89%) Network Architecture
7 11 (10.89%) Project Delivery
7 11 (10.89%) Strategic Thinking
7 11 (10.89%) TOGAF
7 11 (10.89%) Validation
8 10 (9.90%) Enterprise Architecture
8 10 (9.90%) Network Management
9 9 (8.91%) Incident Response
9 9 (8.91%) Knowledge Transfer
10 8 (7.92%) Cybersecurity
11 7 (6.93%) Data Protection
11 7 (6.93%) Zero Trust
12 6 (5.94%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 26 (25.74%) Python
2 3 (2.97%) Bash
3 1 (0.99%) Lisp
3 1 (0.99%) SQL
Qualifications
1 51 (50.50%) Security Cleared
2 37 (36.63%) Cisco Certification
3 36 (35.64%) SC Cleared
4 24 (23.76%) CCIE
5 22 (21.78%) CCNP
6 17 (16.83%) JNCIE
7 11 (10.89%) AWS Certification
7 11 (10.89%) CCNA
8 8 (7.92%) DV Cleared
9 6 (5.94%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (4.95%) Degree
11 4 (3.96%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (3.96%) Azure Certification
11 4 (3.96%) CCSP
11 4 (3.96%) CISSP
11 4 (3.96%) JNCIS
12 3 (2.97%) CCIE Security
12 3 (2.97%) JNCIP
13 2 (1.98%) CCDP
14 1 (0.99%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (7.92%) SLA
2 6 (5.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (5.94%) PCI DSS
3 5 (4.95%) GDPR
3 5 (4.95%) NIST
System Software
1 11 (10.89%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (9.90%) VMware NSX
3 5 (4.95%) Docker
4 1 (0.99%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 25 (24.75%) Ansible
2 11 (10.89%) Terraform
3 3 (2.97%) Iperf
3 3 (2.97%) Nmap
4 2 (1.98%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.99%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (0.99%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.99%) SCCM
Vendors
1 62 (61.39%) Cisco
2 45 (44.55%) Juniper
3 27 (26.73%) Fortinet
4 19 (18.81%) Palo Alto
5 17 (16.83%) F5
6 15 (14.85%) Microsoft
7 11 (10.89%) VMware
8 10 (9.90%) SolarWinds
9 9 (8.91%) Meraki
10 7 (6.93%) CheckPoint
11 6 (5.94%) Nokia
12 4 (3.96%) Aruba
12 4 (3.96%) Dell
13 3 (2.97%) Forcepoint
14 2 (1.98%) BT
14 2 (1.98%) CenturyLink
14 2 (1.98%) LogicMonitor
15 1 (0.99%) Ciena
15 1 (0.99%) Cramer
15 1 (0.99%) Google