MPLS Contracts in the UK excluding London

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring MPLS skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited MPLS over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 246 203 348
Rank change year-on-year -43 +145 +17
Contract jobs citing MPLS 90 212 115
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.70% 1.02% 0.48%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.58% 6.14% 3.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 94 63
10th Percentile £250 £263 £300
25th Percentile £363 £313 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £375 £425
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -11.76% -
75th Percentile £538 £400 £500
90th Percentile £625 £684 £685
UK median daily rate £500 £400 £475
% change year-on-year +25.00% -15.79% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 16 10
10th Percentile - £13.63 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.38 £22.06
Median hourly rate £19.00 £40.00 £58.66
Median % change year-on-year -52.50% -31.81% +166.64%
75th Percentile £19.50 - £62.92
90th Percentile - £53.75 £64.51
UK median hourly rate £19.00 £37.50 £62.00
% change year-on-year -49.33% -39.52% +138.46%

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 1,965 3,454 3,605
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 15.39% 16.63% 14.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,202 1,982 2,287
10th Percentile £200 £204 £207
25th Percentile £301 £350 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £481 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% +1.32% +8.57%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £586
90th Percentile £638 £675 £690
UK median daily rate £488 £495 £519
% change year-on-year -1.52% -4.53% +3.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 358 328
10th Percentile £13.81 £13.50 -
25th Percentile £15.44 £16.48 £9.80
Median hourly rate £24.18 £45.88 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.30% +148.00% -13.95%
75th Percentile £62.38 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.20 £70.66 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £40.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year -27.50% +110.53% -32.74%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing MPLS in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for MPLS in the UK excluding London

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 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK excluding London

MPLS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing MPLS in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for MPLS in the UK excluding London

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 1 May 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
South East +23 47 £450 +20.00% 25
North of England +32 20 £475 +37.68% 9
North West +29 17 £475 +1.12% 6
Midlands -60 13 £313 -10.71% 12
West Midlands -62 13 £313 -10.71% 8
South West +42 10 £525 -23.64% 9
Scotland +12 3 £425 -10.53% 11
East of England +31 2 £250 - 5
Yorkshire - 2 £200 - 3
North East -1 1 £550 +59.42%
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -
MPLS
UK

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 1 (1.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (1.11%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (1.11%) MS Visio
2 1 (1.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (4.44%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (2.22%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 24 (26.67%) AWS
2 23 (25.56%) Azure
3 10 (11.11%) GCP
4 5 (5.56%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (4.44%) Cloudflare
6 1 (1.11%) Akamai
6 1 (1.11%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 60 (66.67%) WAN
2 56 (62.22%) VPN
3 44 (48.89%) BGP
4 29 (32.22%) LAN
5 26 (28.89%) Ethernet
5 26 (28.89%) Firewall
6 25 (27.78%) OSPF
7 22 (24.44%) SD-WAN
8 19 (21.11%) SDH
9 18 (20.00%) IPsec
10 17 (18.89%) Network Security
10 17 (18.89%) SAN
11 16 (17.78%) ATM
11 16 (17.78%) Frame Relay
11 16 (17.78%) GPRS
11 16 (17.78%) GSM
11 16 (17.78%) LTE
11 16 (17.78%) UMTS
11 16 (17.78%) Wireshark
12 15 (16.67%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.11%) MongoDB
1 1 (1.11%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 5 (5.56%) Robot Framework
2 2 (2.22%) JIRA
3 1 (1.11%) GitLab
General
1 36 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 35 (38.89%) Telecoms
3 16 (17.78%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (10.00%) Public Sector
5 4 (4.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (3.33%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.33%) Law
6 3 (3.33%) Legal
7 2 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (2.22%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.11%) Banking
8 1 (1.11%) Billing
8 1 (1.11%) Electronics
8 1 (1.11%) Finance
8 1 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.11%) Retail
8 1 (1.11%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 45 (50.00%) Network Engineer
2 20 (22.22%) IP Engineer
3 15 (16.67%) Test Engineer
4 10 (11.11%) Architect
5 9 (10.00%) 2nd Line Engineer
5 9 (10.00%) 2nd Line Support
5 9 (10.00%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
5 9 (10.00%) Support Engineer
6 8 (8.89%) Senior
7 7 (7.78%) 2nd Line Network Engineer
7 7 (7.78%) IP Network Engineer
7 7 (7.78%) Network Support
7 7 (7.78%) Network Support Engineer
8 6 (6.67%) Network Architect
9 5 (5.56%) Automation Tester
9 5 (5.56%) Cisco Engineer
9 5 (5.56%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 5 (5.56%) Designer
9 5 (5.56%) Telecoms Tester
9 5 (5.56%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.33%) 802.1X
2 2 (2.22%) XML
3 1 (1.11%) HTML
3 1 (1.11%) Java RMI
3 1 (1.11%) JSON
3 1 (1.11%) NETCONF
3 1 (1.11%) REST
3 1 (1.11%) RESTCONF
3 1 (1.11%) SOAP
3 1 (1.11%) YAML
3 1 (1.11%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 21 (23.33%) Self-Motivation
2 14 (15.56%) PKI
3 10 (11.11%) Hybrid Cloud
4 9 (10.00%) Public Cloud
5 8 (8.89%) Cloud Native
6 4 (4.44%) SCADA
7 3 (3.33%) Data Centre
8 2 (2.22%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 2 (2.22%) Management Information System
8 2 (2.22%) Security Operations Centre
8 2 (2.22%) Security Posture
9 1 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (1.11%) Driving Licence
9 1 (1.11%) Fibre Optics
9 1 (1.11%) FMCG
9 1 (1.11%) IoT
9 1 (1.11%) NHS
9 1 (1.11%) Operational Technology
9 1 (1.11%) Private Cloud
9 1 (1.11%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (18.89%) Linux
1 17 (18.89%) Unix
2 2 (2.22%) Windows
3 1 (1.11%) CentOS
3 1 (1.11%) Mac OS
3 1 (1.11%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (36.67%) Problem-Solving
2 21 (23.33%) Test Strategy
3 20 (22.22%) Project Management
4 18 (20.00%) Network Architecture
5 17 (18.89%) Regression Testing
6 16 (17.78%) Fault Management
7 15 (16.67%) Network Design
8 13 (14.44%) ITIL
9 12 (13.33%) Network Monitoring
10 10 (11.11%) Change Management
10 10 (11.11%) Roadmaps
11 9 (10.00%) Migration
11 9 (10.00%) TOGAF
12 8 (8.89%) Containerisation
12 8 (8.89%) Load Balancing
13 7 (7.78%) Project Delivery
13 7 (7.78%) Service Design
14 6 (6.67%) Collaborative Working
14 6 (6.67%) Mentoring
14 6 (6.67%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 16 (17.78%) Java
2 11 (12.22%) Python
3 2 (2.22%) SQL
4 1 (1.11%) Perl
4 1 (1.11%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 45 (50.00%) Cisco Certification
2 36 (40.00%) CCNP
3 27 (30.00%) Security Cleared
4 20 (22.22%) SC Cleared
5 16 (17.78%) ISEB
5 16 (17.78%) ISTQB
5 16 (17.78%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 14 (15.56%) CCIE
7 10 (11.11%) Degree
8 7 (7.78%) CCNA
9 5 (5.56%) DV Cleared
9 5 (5.56%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (4.44%) JNCIE
11 3 (3.33%) AWS Certification
11 3 (3.33%) Azure Certification
11 3 (3.33%) MCSE
11 3 (3.33%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (2.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (2.22%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.44%) Cyber Essentials
1 4 (4.44%) NCSC
1 4 (4.44%) NIST
2 2 (2.22%) Government Security Classifications
2 2 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (2.22%) QA
2 2 (2.22%) SLA
3 1 (1.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 6 (6.67%) Docker
1 6 (6.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (5.56%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.11%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.11%) Hyper-V
3 1 (1.11%) vSphere
3 1 (1.11%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 10 (11.11%) Ansible
2 6 (6.67%) Kubernetes
3 2 (2.22%) Cisco Prime
3 2 (2.22%) Nagios
3 2 (2.22%) ZABBIX
4 1 (1.11%) SCCM
Vendors
1 66 (73.33%) Cisco
2 31 (34.44%) Juniper
3 22 (24.44%) Microsoft
4 14 (15.56%) Palo Alto
5 12 (13.33%) Fortinet
6 9 (10.00%) F5
7 8 (8.89%) Aruba
8 7 (7.78%) SolarWinds
9 6 (6.67%) Citrix
9 6 (6.67%) VMware
10 5 (5.56%) Zscaler
11 4 (4.44%) BMC
11 4 (4.44%) CheckPoint
11 4 (4.44%) Huawei
11 4 (4.44%) Meraki
11 4 (4.44%) Remedy
12 3 (3.33%) Google
12 3 (3.33%) Nokia
13 2 (2.22%) Arista
13 2 (2.22%) HP