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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 295 227 235
Rank change year-on-year -68 +8 +132
Contract jobs citing MPLS 103 122 176
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.57% 0.86% 0.90%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.68% 5.35% 5.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 50 69
10th Percentile £246 £361 £258
25th Percentile £300 £431 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £411 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -17.75% +11.11% +5.26%
75th Percentile £491 £584 £544
90th Percentile £588 £632 £627
UK median daily rate £425 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -15.00% -4.76% +16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 15
10th Percentile - - £21.85
25th Percentile £19.00 £18.50 £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 £19.50 -
90th Percentile - - £66.89
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £32.50 £65.98
% change year-on-year -38.46% -50.74% +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 2,202 2,282 3,429
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 12.12% 16.07% 17.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,463 1,281 2,052
10th Percentile £200 £190 £205
25th Percentile £300 £313 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £470
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +1.06% +4.44%
75th Percentile £563 £580 £595
90th Percentile £650 £650 £683
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 110 269
10th Percentile £15.31 £15.20 £17.72
25th Percentile £16.25 £20.30 £26.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £31.79 £59.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.69% -46.12% +66.20%
75th Percentile £67.84 £61.13 £65.98
90th Percentile £83.15 £71.25 £75.05
UK median hourly rate £36.75 £32.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year +13.08% -42.47% +76.53%

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 January 2026.

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 January 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
South East -48 37 £500 -6.98% 178
Midlands -24 34 £400 -5.88% 37
West Midlands -22 33 £400 -13.51% 10
Scotland - 14 £214 - 7
North of England -62 13 £400 -20.00% 28
North West -18 12 £388 -15.53% 6
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 - 1
East of England -14 2 £350 +40.00% 43
North East -11 1 £550 - 3
South West -18 1 £513 -18.97% 40
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 12 (11.65%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.94%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.97%) Confluence
3 1 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 8 (7.77%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (5.83%) MS Visio
3 5 (4.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (4.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 18 (17.48%) AWS
2 15 (14.56%) Azure
3 6 (5.83%) OpenShift
4 5 (4.85%) GCP
5 4 (3.88%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 4 (3.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 2 (1.94%) AWS Direct Connect
6 2 (1.94%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (0.97%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 77 (74.76%) WAN
2 63 (61.17%) BGP
3 54 (52.43%) VPN
4 46 (44.66%) LAN
5 37 (35.92%) Firewall
6 32 (31.07%) IPsec
7 27 (26.21%) OSPF
8 23 (22.33%) SD-WAN
9 20 (19.42%) Wireless
10 14 (13.59%) Cisco ASA
11 13 (12.62%) SDH
12 11 (10.68%) VLAN
13 10 (9.71%) EIGRP
13 10 (9.71%) SNMP
13 10 (9.71%) TACACS
13 10 (9.71%) VXLAN
14 9 (8.74%) Junos
14 9 (8.74%) WLAN
15 7 (6.80%) IPv4
16 6 (5.83%) DNS
Development Applications
1 1 (0.97%) GitLab
1 1 (0.97%) JIRA
1 1 (0.97%) Robot Framework
General
1 40 (38.83%) Social Skills
2 16 (15.53%) Telecoms
3 15 (14.56%) Public Sector
4 8 (7.77%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (5.83%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (2.91%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.94%) Finance
7 2 (1.94%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.97%) Law
8 1 (0.97%) Legal
8 1 (0.97%) Police
8 1 (0.97%) Retail
Job Titles
1 36 (34.95%) Network Engineer
2 20 (19.42%) Architect
3 17 (16.50%) Support Engineer
4 15 (14.56%) Senior
5 13 (12.62%) Network Architect
6 12 (11.65%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 12 (11.65%) 3rd Line Support
6 12 (11.65%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
7 11 (10.68%) WAN Engineer
8 10 (9.71%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 10 (9.71%) Senior Network Engineer
9 9 (8.74%) Field Engineer
10 8 (7.77%) IP Specialist
11 7 (6.80%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 6 (5.83%) Designer
12 6 (5.83%) IP Architect
12 6 (5.83%) IP Designer
13 5 (4.85%) Network Support
13 5 (4.85%) Network Support Engineer
13 5 (4.85%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (8.74%) YANG
2 8 (7.77%) NETCONF
3 6 (5.83%) REST
4 4 (3.88%) 802.1X
5 2 (1.94%) OpenConfig
5 2 (1.94%) RESTCONF
6 1 (0.97%) gRPC
6 1 (0.97%) Jinja
6 1 (0.97%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 22 (21.36%) PKI
2 19 (18.45%) Data Centre
3 14 (13.59%) Hybrid Cloud
4 9 (8.74%) Cloud Native
5 7 (6.80%) Driving Licence
6 6 (5.83%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (3.88%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (3.88%) Onboarding
8 3 (2.91%) Virtual Team
9 2 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (1.94%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.94%) SCADA
10 1 (0.97%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.97%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.97%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.97%) Management Information System
10 1 (0.97%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.97%) Thin Client
10 1 (0.97%) TM Forum
10 1 (0.97%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.97%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (30.10%) Network Design
2 22 (21.36%) Load Balancing
3 17 (16.50%) Problem-Solving
4 15 (14.56%) Network Virtualisation
5 13 (12.62%) Roadmaps
6 11 (10.68%) Network Management
6 11 (10.68%) Project Delivery
6 11 (10.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 11 (10.68%) Stakeholder Management
6 11 (10.68%) Validation
7 10 (9.71%) Enterprise Architecture
7 10 (9.71%) Network Architecture
7 10 (9.71%) Strategic Thinking
7 10 (9.71%) TOGAF
8 9 (8.74%) Cybersecurity
8 9 (8.74%) Incident Response
8 9 (8.74%) Knowledge Transfer
8 9 (8.74%) Zero Trust
9 8 (7.77%) Technical Leadership
10 7 (6.80%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 25 (24.27%) Python
2 3 (2.91%) Bash
3 1 (0.97%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 51 (49.51%) Security Cleared
2 36 (34.95%) Cisco Certification
3 34 (33.01%) SC Cleared
4 23 (22.33%) CCIE
5 21 (20.39%) CCNP
6 16 (15.53%) JNCIE
7 11 (10.68%) CCNA
8 10 (9.71%) AWS Certification
9 9 (8.74%) DV Cleared
10 6 (5.83%) BPSS Clearance
11 5 (4.85%) Degree
12 4 (3.88%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (3.88%) CCSP
12 4 (3.88%) CISSP
12 4 (3.88%) JNCIS
13 3 (2.91%) Azure Certification
13 3 (2.91%) CCIE Security
14 2 (1.94%) CCDP
14 2 (1.94%) JNCIP
15 1 (0.97%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (10.68%) SLA
2 6 (5.83%) PCI DSS
3 5 (4.85%) GDPR
3 5 (4.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (4.85%) NIST
System Software
1 11 (10.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (9.71%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.97%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 25 (24.27%) Ansible
2 11 (10.68%) Terraform
3 3 (2.91%) FortiGate
3 3 (2.91%) Iperf
3 3 (2.91%) Nmap
4 2 (1.94%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.97%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (0.97%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.97%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.97%) SCCM
Vendors
1 68 (66.02%) Cisco
2 42 (40.78%) Juniper
3 28 (27.18%) Fortinet
4 19 (18.45%) Palo Alto
5 17 (16.50%) F5
6 16 (15.53%) Microsoft
7 11 (10.68%) SolarWinds
7 11 (10.68%) VMware
8 10 (9.71%) Meraki
9 7 (6.80%) CheckPoint
9 7 (6.80%) Nokia
10 6 (5.83%) Aruba
11 3 (2.91%) Forcepoint
12 2 (1.94%) BT
12 2 (1.94%) CenturyLink
12 2 (1.94%) LogicMonitor
12 2 (1.94%) Zscaler
13 1 (0.97%) Ciena
13 1 (0.97%) McAfee
13 1 (0.97%) ServiceNow