VLAN Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Virtual LAN (VLAN)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring VLAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 272 218 262
Rank change year-on-year -54 +44 +83
Contract jobs citing VLAN 129 126 141
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.71% 0.88% 0.72%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.82% 5.50% 4.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 78 87
10th Percentile £219 £223 £208
25th Percentile £306 £300 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £413 £450
Median % change year-on-year +12.73% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £563 £586 £644
90th Percentile £665 £632 £700
UK median daily rate £474 £434 £475
% change year-on-year +9.28% -8.68% +2.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 8
10th Percentile £67.45 - £32.86
25th Percentile £70.01 £21.25 £34.61
Median hourly rate £74.26 £22.50 £71.90
Median % change year-on-year +230.04% -68.71% +151.17%
75th Percentile - £23.75 £76.53
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £66.50 £30.25 £38.04
% change year-on-year +119.83% -20.48% +26.80%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

VLAN 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 2,218 2,290 3,440
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 12.13% 16.02% 17.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,475 1,289 2,061
10th Percentile £200 £190 £205
25th Percentile £300 £313 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £473 £471
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +0.32% +4.67%
75th Percentile £563 £580 £595
90th Percentile £650 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 110 269
10th Percentile £15.32 £15.20 £17.72
25th Percentile £16.59 £20.30 £26.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £32.50 £59.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.77% -44.92% +78.79%
75th Percentile £67.75 £62.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £83.08 £71.25 £75.05
UK median hourly rate £36.75 £35.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year +5.00% -38.04% +88.30%

VLAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

VLAN job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

VLAN
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

VLAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VLAN in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 3 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for VLAN in the UK excluding London

VLAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

VLAN
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 VLAN within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 3 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
North of England -40 46 £476 +43.77% 26
South East -14 43 £460 -5.15% 39
North West -6 37 £491 +3.29% 13
Midlands -55 13 £525 -7.33% 23
West Midlands -46 11 £531 -9.56% 14
East of England -11 9 £588 +139.80% 14
Yorkshire -50 9 £300 +22.45% 9
Scotland +3 8 £325 -18.75% 4
South West -24 7 £425 +3.03% 14
Wales +2 3 £293 - 4
North East - 3 £550 - 5
East Midlands -26 2 £275 -26.67% 8
VLAN
UK

VLAN
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 7 (5.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (3.88%) Skype for Business
3 3 (2.33%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.55%) WordPress
5 1 (0.78%) Confluence
5 1 (0.78%) IIS
5 1 (0.78%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (4.65%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.33%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 41 (31.78%) Azure
2 28 (21.71%) AWS
3 12 (9.30%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (5.43%) GCP
5 5 (3.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 4 (3.10%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (3.10%) Entra ID
6 4 (3.10%) SaaS
7 2 (1.55%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (1.55%) AWS IoT
8 1 (0.78%) Akamai
8 1 (0.78%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.78%) IaaS
8 1 (0.78%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 82 (63.57%) Firewall
2 45 (34.88%) DNS
3 43 (33.33%) TCP/IP
4 42 (32.56%) VPN
5 40 (31.01%) BGP
5 40 (31.01%) DHCP
6 33 (25.58%) Network Security
7 32 (24.81%) WAN
8 31 (24.03%) LAN
8 31 (24.03%) OSPF
9 18 (13.95%) Wireless
10 17 (13.18%) Wi-Fi
11 15 (11.63%) SD-WAN
12 12 (9.30%) Cisco ASA
13 11 (8.53%) MPLS
14 10 (7.75%) Software-Defined Networking
14 10 (7.75%) WLAN
15 9 (6.98%) EIGRP
15 9 (6.98%) VXLAN
16 8 (6.20%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.55%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.78%) Bitbucket
1 1 (0.78%) JIRA
1 1 (0.78%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 32 (24.81%) Social Skills
2 29 (22.48%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (9.30%) Public Sector
4 6 (4.65%) Legal
4 6 (4.65%) Telecoms
5 5 (3.88%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (3.10%) Manufacturing
7 3 (2.33%) Finance
7 3 (2.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.55%) Advertising
9 1 (0.78%) Electronics
9 1 (0.78%) Law
9 1 (0.78%) Marketing
9 1 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 46 (35.66%) Network Engineer
2 22 (17.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 18 (13.95%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 16 (12.40%) Support Engineer
5 11 (8.53%) Infrastructure Support
5 11 (8.53%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
6 8 (6.20%) Analyst
6 8 (6.20%) Architect
6 8 (6.20%) IT Engineer
6 8 (6.20%) Senior
7 7 (5.43%) Platform Engineer
8 5 (3.88%) Administrator
8 5 (3.88%) Cisco Engineer
8 5 (3.88%) IT Analyst
9 4 (3.10%) IT Support
9 4 (3.10%) IT Support Analyst
9 4 (3.10%) Network Architect
9 4 (3.10%) Server Engineer
9 4 (3.10%) Storage Engineer
9 4 (3.10%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.33%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.55%) XMPP
3 1 (0.78%) JFC
3 1 (0.78%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 28 (21.71%) Data Centre
2 14 (10.85%) Analytical Mindset
3 9 (6.98%) Onboarding
4 8 (6.20%) Product Ownership
5 6 (4.65%) Replication
6 4 (3.10%) Operational Technology
7 3 (2.33%) 3D Printing
7 3 (2.33%) CCTV
7 3 (2.33%) Clustering
7 3 (2.33%) IoT
7 3 (2.33%) NHS
8 2 (1.55%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.55%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (1.55%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.55%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.55%) Video Conferencing
9 1 (0.78%) IBM XIV
9 1 (0.78%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (0.78%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.78%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 45 (34.88%) Windows
2 23 (17.83%) Linux
3 19 (14.73%) Windows Server
4 10 (7.75%) Windows 10
5 8 (6.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (3.88%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.55%) VMS
7 2 (1.55%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.78%) CentOS
8 1 (0.78%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (26.36%) Problem-Solving
2 26 (20.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 22 (17.05%) Service Management
4 20 (15.50%) ITIL
5 17 (13.18%) High Availability
6 16 (12.40%) Cybersecurity
6 16 (12.40%) Virtual Infrastructure
7 15 (11.63%) Disaster Recovery
8 14 (10.85%) Network Design
9 13 (10.08%) ITSM
10 12 (9.30%) Network Monitoring
11 11 (8.53%) Change Control
11 11 (8.53%) Preventative Maintenance
11 11 (8.53%) Project Delivery
12 10 (7.75%) Continuous Improvement
12 10 (7.75%) Network Segmentation
13 9 (6.98%) Incident Response
13 9 (6.98%) Migration
14 8 (6.20%) Containerisation
15 7 (5.43%) Knowledge Transfer
Programming Languages
1 22 (17.05%) PowerShell
2 15 (11.63%) Python
3 13 (10.08%) Bash
4 6 (4.65%) Perl
5 5 (3.88%) VB
5 5 (3.88%) VBScript
6 2 (1.55%) SQL
7 1 (0.78%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 61 (47.29%) Security Cleared
2 48 (37.21%) SC Cleared
3 46 (35.66%) Cisco Certification
4 41 (31.78%) CCNP
5 24 (18.60%) CCNA
6 18 (13.95%) Network+ Certification
7 14 (10.85%) Azure Certification
7 14 (10.85%) Microsoft Certification
8 13 (10.08%) Degree
9 11 (8.53%) Server+ Certification
10 9 (6.98%) DV Cleared
11 6 (4.65%) CCIE
12 3 (2.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (2.33%) AWS Certification
12 3 (2.33%) CCDP
12 3 (2.33%) CCIE Security
12 3 (2.33%) CCSP
12 3 (2.33%) CISSP
12 3 (2.33%) DBS Check
12 3 (2.33%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 6 (4.65%) PCI DSS
2 5 (3.88%) NIST
2 5 (3.88%) SLA
3 4 (3.10%) GDPR
4 3 (2.33%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.78%) COBIT
System Software
1 39 (30.23%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (18.60%) Active Directory
3 16 (12.40%) Hyper-V
4 7 (5.43%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (4.65%) vSphere
6 5 (3.88%) BitLocker
6 5 (3.88%) VMware NSX
7 4 (3.10%) Docker
8 3 (2.33%) KVM
8 3 (2.33%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (1.55%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.78%) Ceph
10 1 (0.78%) Firmware
10 1 (0.78%) QEMU
10 1 (0.78%) RHEV
10 1 (0.78%) Xen
Systems Management
1 16 (12.40%) FortiGate
2 10 (7.75%) Ansible
2 10 (7.75%) vCenter Server
3 8 (6.20%) Terraform
4 7 (5.43%) SCCM
5 6 (4.65%) Nagios
6 5 (3.88%) Kubernetes
6 5 (3.88%) VxRail
7 3 (2.33%) Iperf
7 3 (2.33%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (2.33%) Nmap
8 2 (1.55%) Cisco CUCM
8 2 (1.55%) Dell DRAC
9 1 (0.78%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.78%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.78%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.78%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 67 (51.94%) Cisco
2 41 (31.78%) VMware
3 38 (29.46%) Microsoft
4 35 (27.13%) Palo Alto
5 24 (18.60%) Fortinet
6 18 (13.95%) SolarWinds
7 16 (12.40%) Dell
8 10 (7.75%) Juniper
8 10 (7.75%) Veeam
9 9 (6.98%) F5
10 8 (6.20%) CheckPoint
11 7 (5.43%) Red Hat
12 6 (4.65%) Aruba
12 6 (4.65%) Citrix
13 5 (3.88%) NetApp
13 5 (3.88%) ServiceNow
14 4 (3.10%) Meraki
15 3 (2.33%) Arista
16 2 (1.55%) HP
16 2 (1.55%) Zscaler