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

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 332 286 205
Rank change year-on-year -46 -81 +81
Contract jobs citing MPLS 138 85 175
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.51% 0.56% 0.95%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.75% 3.94% 6.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 89 60 99
10th Percentile £300 £298 £263
25th Percentile £400 £409 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £375
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -11.76%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £525
90th Percentile £626 £638 £677
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £405
% change year-on-year - +23.46% -19.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 6
10th Percentile £22.53 - £13.63
25th Percentile £29.88 - £14.00
Median hourly rate £42.25 - £15.88
75th Percentile £42.38 - £19.09
90th Percentile - - £20.95
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £20.70
% change year-on-year +9.03% +87.20% -63.46%

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 2,908 2,159 2,790
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.67% 14.16% 15.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,641 1,301 1,640
10th Percentile £225 £200 £205
25th Percentile £373 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.70%
75th Percentile £586 £575 £607
90th Percentile £650 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 294 136 284
10th Percentile £15.83 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £19.45 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.69 £45.00 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -40.69% -18.00% -4.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.17 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £87.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.00%

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 2 August 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MPLS in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 2 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram 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 2 August 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 -44 56 £525 +16.67% 14
Scotland +32 42 £310 -39.51% 7
South West -34 16 £525 -16.00% 5
Midlands -62 9 £440 +0.63% 4
North of England -82 9 £575 +21.05% 6
West Midlands -72 7 £440 +0.63% 4
East of England - 7 £500 -
North West -67 6 £575 +21.05% 3
Yorkshire -43 3 £483 +37.86% 3
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 9 (6.52%) OpenStack
2 4 (2.90%) Confluence
3 2 (1.45%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 24 (17.39%) MS Visio
2 12 (8.70%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (5.80%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (4.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.45%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 22 (15.94%) Azure
2 17 (12.32%) AWS
3 5 (3.62%) GCP
3 5 (3.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 4 (2.90%) AWS Direct Connect
4 4 (2.90%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.90%) OpenShift
5 2 (1.45%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (1.45%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 2 (1.45%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.72%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.72%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.72%) GitHub
6 1 (0.72%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.72%) IaaS
6 1 (0.72%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.72%) OCI
6 1 (0.72%) PaaS
6 1 (0.72%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 109 (78.99%) WAN
2 88 (63.77%) LAN
3 70 (50.72%) BGP
4 58 (42.03%) Firewall
5 36 (26.09%) VPN
6 35 (25.36%) IPsec
7 32 (23.19%) OSPF
8 29 (21.01%) SD-WAN
9 25 (18.12%) Network Security
10 21 (15.22%) Cisco Nexus
11 20 (14.49%) SDH
12 17 (12.32%) TCP/IP
13 16 (11.59%) VLAN
13 16 (11.59%) Wi-Fi
14 15 (10.87%) Wireshark
15 12 (8.70%) DNS
16 11 (7.97%) Internet
17 10 (7.25%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 10 (7.25%) Wireless
18 7 (5.07%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.45%) Power BI
1 2 (1.45%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (4.35%) JIRA
2 5 (3.62%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.72%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.72%) Git
3 1 (0.72%) GitLab
3 1 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 57 (41.30%) Telecoms
2 50 (36.23%) Social Skills
3 24 (17.39%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (6.52%) Documentation Skills
5 8 (5.80%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (4.35%) Finance
6 6 (4.35%) Legal
7 4 (2.90%) Military
8 3 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.45%) Billing
9 2 (1.45%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.45%) Public Sector
9 2 (1.45%) Retail
10 1 (0.72%) Aviation
10 1 (0.72%) Law
10 1 (0.72%) Police
10 1 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 49 (35.51%) Network Engineer
2 24 (17.39%) Telecoms Engineer
3 23 (16.67%) Architect
4 21 (15.22%) Network Architect
5 17 (12.32%) Developer
6 16 (11.59%) Field Engineer
7 13 (9.42%) Field Telecoms Engineer
8 12 (8.70%) Project Engineer
9 11 (7.97%) Network Field Engineer
10 10 (7.25%) Senior
11 8 (5.80%) Lead
12 7 (5.07%) Test Engineer
13 6 (4.35%) Cisco Engineer
13 6 (4.35%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 6 (4.35%) IP Architect
14 5 (3.62%) IP Engineer
14 5 (3.62%) Network Manager
14 5 (3.62%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 5 (3.62%) Senior Network Engineer
15 4 (2.90%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (7.97%) NETCONF
1 11 (7.97%) YANG
2 6 (4.35%) OpenConfig
2 6 (4.35%) REST
2 6 (4.35%) RESTCONF
3 4 (2.90%) 802.1X
4 3 (2.17%) Java RMI
5 2 (1.45%) RFC 2544
6 1 (0.72%) JSON
6 1 (0.72%) LDAP
6 1 (0.72%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (13.77%) Data Centre
2 18 (13.04%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (8.70%) Driving Licence
4 11 (7.97%) Cloud Native
5 9 (6.52%) Analytical Mindset
6 8 (5.80%) Private Cloud
7 6 (4.35%) PKI
8 5 (3.62%) Public Cloud
9 4 (2.90%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (2.17%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 3 (2.17%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (2.17%) Management Information System
10 3 (2.17%) Operational Technology
10 3 (2.17%) SCADA
11 2 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (1.45%) Wiki
12 1 (0.72%) CCTV
12 1 (0.72%) Cyber Kill Chain
12 1 (0.72%) Greenfield Project
12 1 (0.72%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 5 (3.62%) Windows
2 3 (2.17%) Linux
2 3 (2.17%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.45%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (0.72%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.72%) Unix
4 1 (0.72%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (26.09%) Project Delivery
2 26 (18.84%) Problem-Solving
3 22 (15.94%) Network Design
4 21 (15.22%) Network Architecture
5 18 (13.04%) ITIL
5 18 (13.04%) Roadmaps
6 17 (12.32%) Change Management
7 16 (11.59%) Stakeholder Management
8 13 (9.42%) Zero Trust
9 12 (8.70%) Technical Leadership
9 12 (8.70%) Vulnerability Management
10 11 (7.97%) Project Management
10 11 (7.97%) TOGAF
11 10 (7.25%) Agile
12 9 (6.52%) DevOps
12 9 (6.52%) Network Segmentation
13 8 (5.80%) Cybersecurity
13 8 (5.80%) Enterprise Architecture
13 8 (5.80%) Service Delivery
14 7 (5.07%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 23 (16.67%) Python
2 3 (2.17%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.17%) SQL
3 2 (1.45%) Bash
3 2 (1.45%) C
3 2 (1.45%) Perl
4 1 (0.72%) PHP
Qualifications
1 57 (41.30%) Security Cleared
2 50 (36.23%) Cisco Certification
3 29 (21.01%) DV Cleared
4 27 (19.57%) CCNP
5 23 (16.67%) CCIE
5 23 (16.67%) SC Cleared
6 20 (14.49%) CCNA
7 12 (8.70%) JNCIE
8 9 (6.52%) Degree
9 6 (4.35%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (2.90%) AWS Certification
10 4 (2.90%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (2.17%) CCDP
11 3 (2.17%) ISTQB
11 3 (2.17%) PMP
12 2 (1.45%) CCDA
12 2 (1.45%) CCIP
12 2 (1.45%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (1.45%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.45%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.25%) SLA
2 8 (5.80%) NCSC
3 2 (1.45%) GDPR
3 2 (1.45%) Government Security Classifications
3 2 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.45%) NIST
3 2 (1.45%) QA
4 1 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (0.72%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 1 (0.72%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.72%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.72%) PMO
System Software
1 7 (5.07%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (4.35%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.35%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.45%) Firmware
3 2 (1.45%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.72%) Docker
4 1 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 22 (15.94%) Ansible
2 7 (5.07%) Terraform
3 6 (4.35%) Cisco Prime
4 2 (1.45%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.72%) Avamar
5 1 (0.72%) CASB
5 1 (0.72%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.72%) Iperf
5 1 (0.72%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.72%) Nmap
5 1 (0.72%) OPNET
5 1 (0.72%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.72%) Puppet
5 1 (0.72%) QRadar
5 1 (0.72%) SolarWinds Orion
5 1 (0.72%) Suricata
5 1 (0.72%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 87 (63.04%) Cisco
2 37 (26.81%) Microsoft
3 26 (18.84%) Fortinet
4 25 (18.12%) Juniper
5 23 (16.67%) F5
6 21 (15.22%) Palo Alto
7 19 (13.77%) Nokia
8 16 (11.59%) SolarWinds
9 14 (10.14%) VMware
10 13 (9.42%) Aruba
11 6 (4.35%) Arista
12 5 (3.62%) Meraki
13 4 (2.90%) CheckPoint
13 4 (2.90%) HP
14 3 (2.17%) BT
14 3 (2.17%) Google
14 3 (2.17%) Qualys
14 3 (2.17%) Splunk
15 2 (1.45%) Forcepoint
15 2 (1.45%) McAfee