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 31 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 276 231 267
Rank change year-on-year -45 +36 +86
Contract jobs citing VLAN 124 127 142
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.68% 0.87% 0.73%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.57% 5.43% 4.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 79 87
10th Percentile £219 £223 £208
25th Percentile £300 £300 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £413 £450
Median % change year-on-year +12.73% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £553 £585 £644
90th Percentile £675 £632 £700
UK median daily rate £470 £434 £463
% change year-on-year +8.24% -6.22% -0.54%
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 2,228 2,341 3,413
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 12.18% 16.01% 17.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,485 1,326 2,040
10th Percentile £200 £191 £205
25th Percentile £300 £313 £337
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £474 £472
Median % change year-on-year -5.01% +0.42% +4.83%
75th Percentile £563 £575 £596
90th Percentile £650 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 110 266
10th Percentile £15.32 £15.20 £17.72
25th Percentile £16.59 £20.30 £25.25
Median hourly rate £42.50 £32.50 £57.99
Median % change year-on-year +30.77% -43.96% +46.67%
75th Percentile £67.75 £62.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £83.08 £71.25 £75.13
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +61.40%

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 31 December 2025.

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 31 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
North of England -36 43 £476 +43.77% 32
South East -18 41 £456 -5.98% 42
North West -1 34 £500 +5.26% 19
Midlands -48 13 £525 -6.79% 24
West Midlands -40 11 £531 -9.56% 14
East of England -10 10 £588 +139.80% 20
Scotland +13 8 £325 -18.75% 5
Yorkshire -52 8 £300 +22.45% 9
South West -17 6 £425 +3.03% 18
North East - 4 £550 - 5
Wales -1 3 £293 - 5
East Midlands -19 2 £275 -26.67% 10
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 (5.65%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (4.03%) Skype for Business
3 3 (2.42%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.61%) WordPress
5 1 (0.81%) Confluence
5 1 (0.81%) IIS
5 1 (0.81%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (4.84%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.42%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 41 (33.06%) Azure
2 28 (22.58%) AWS
3 11 (8.87%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (5.65%) GCP
5 5 (4.03%) Entra ID
5 5 (4.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 4 (3.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (3.23%) SaaS
7 2 (1.61%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (1.61%) AWS IoT
7 2 (1.61%) IaaS
7 2 (1.61%) PaaS
8 1 (0.81%) Akamai
8 1 (0.81%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 79 (63.71%) Firewall
2 45 (36.29%) DNS
3 44 (35.48%) TCP/IP
4 41 (33.06%) VPN
5 40 (32.26%) BGP
5 40 (32.26%) DHCP
6 32 (25.81%) WAN
7 31 (25.00%) LAN
7 31 (25.00%) Network Security
7 31 (25.00%) OSPF
8 19 (15.32%) Wireless
9 16 (12.90%) Wi-Fi
10 15 (12.10%) SD-WAN
11 12 (9.68%) Cisco ASA
12 11 (8.87%) MPLS
13 10 (8.06%) Software-Defined Networking
13 10 (8.06%) WLAN
14 9 (7.26%) EIGRP
14 9 (7.26%) VXLAN
15 8 (6.45%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.61%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.81%) Bitbucket
1 1 (0.81%) JIRA
1 1 (0.81%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 32 (25.81%) Social Skills
2 29 (23.39%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (9.68%) Public Sector
4 6 (4.84%) Legal
4 6 (4.84%) Telecoms
5 5 (4.03%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (4.03%) Manufacturing
6 3 (2.42%) Finance
6 3 (2.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (2.42%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.61%) Advertising
8 1 (0.81%) Electronics
8 1 (0.81%) Law
8 1 (0.81%) Marketing
8 1 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 43 (34.68%) Network Engineer
2 23 (18.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 17 (13.71%) Support Engineer
4 16 (12.90%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 12 (9.68%) Infrastructure Support
5 12 (9.68%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
6 9 (7.26%) IT Engineer
6 9 (7.26%) Senior
7 8 (6.45%) Architect
8 7 (5.65%) Analyst
8 7 (5.65%) Platform Engineer
9 5 (4.03%) Administrator
10 4 (3.23%) Cisco Engineer
10 4 (3.23%) IT Analyst
10 4 (3.23%) IT Support
10 4 (3.23%) Network Architect
10 4 (3.23%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
10 4 (3.23%) Server Engineer
10 4 (3.23%) Storage Engineer
11 3 (2.42%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.42%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.81%) JFC
2 1 (0.81%) Middleware
2 1 (0.81%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 27 (21.77%) Data Centre
2 14 (11.29%) Analytical Mindset
3 8 (6.45%) Onboarding
3 8 (6.45%) Product Ownership
4 7 (5.65%) Replication
5 4 (3.23%) Operational Technology
6 3 (2.42%) 3D Printing
6 3 (2.42%) CCTV
6 3 (2.42%) Clustering
6 3 (2.42%) IoT
6 3 (2.42%) NHS
7 2 (1.61%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.61%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.61%) Video Conferencing
8 1 (0.81%) Digital Signage
8 1 (0.81%) IBM XIV
8 1 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.81%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 45 (36.29%) Windows
2 24 (19.35%) Linux
3 19 (15.32%) Windows Server
4 10 (8.06%) Windows 10
5 8 (6.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (4.03%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.61%) VMS
7 2 (1.61%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.81%) CentOS
8 1 (0.81%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (27.42%) Problem-Solving
2 27 (21.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 22 (17.74%) Service Management
4 20 (16.13%) ITIL
5 16 (12.90%) Cybersecurity
5 16 (12.90%) Disaster Recovery
5 16 (12.90%) High Availability
5 16 (12.90%) Virtual Infrastructure
6 14 (11.29%) Network Design
7 13 (10.48%) ITSM
8 12 (9.68%) Preventative Maintenance
9 11 (8.87%) Network Monitoring
10 10 (8.06%) Change Control
10 10 (8.06%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (8.06%) Project Delivery
11 9 (7.26%) Incident Response
11 9 (7.26%) Network Segmentation
12 8 (6.45%) Containerisation
13 7 (5.65%) Migration
13 7 (5.65%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (18.55%) PowerShell
2 16 (12.90%) Python
3 14 (11.29%) Bash
4 6 (4.84%) Perl
5 5 (4.03%) VB
5 5 (4.03%) VBScript
6 3 (2.42%) SQL
7 1 (0.81%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 57 (45.97%) Security Cleared
2 44 (35.48%) Cisco Certification
2 44 (35.48%) SC Cleared
3 39 (31.45%) CCNP
4 22 (17.74%) CCNA
5 18 (14.52%) Network+ Certification
6 14 (11.29%) Azure Certification
6 14 (11.29%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (10.48%) Degree
8 11 (8.87%) Server+ Certification
9 9 (7.26%) DV Cleared
10 6 (4.84%) CCIE
11 3 (2.42%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 3 (2.42%) AWS Certification
11 3 (2.42%) CCDP
11 3 (2.42%) CCIE Security
11 3 (2.42%) CCSP
11 3 (2.42%) CISSP
11 3 (2.42%) DBS Check
11 3 (2.42%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 6 (4.84%) PCI DSS
2 5 (4.03%) NIST
2 5 (4.03%) SLA
3 4 (3.23%) GDPR
4 3 (2.42%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.81%) COBIT
System Software
1 41 (33.06%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (19.35%) Active Directory
3 17 (13.71%) Hyper-V
4 5 (4.03%) BitLocker
4 5 (4.03%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (4.03%) VMware NSX
5 4 (3.23%) Docker
5 4 (3.23%) vSphere
6 3 (2.42%) KVM
6 3 (2.42%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.61%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.81%) Ceph
8 1 (0.81%) Firmware
8 1 (0.81%) QEMU
8 1 (0.81%) RHEV
8 1 (0.81%) VMware Workstation
8 1 (0.81%) Xen
Systems Management
1 15 (12.10%) FortiGate
2 10 (8.06%) Ansible
3 8 (6.45%) Terraform
3 8 (6.45%) vCenter Server
4 7 (5.65%) SCCM
5 6 (4.84%) Nagios
6 5 (4.03%) Kubernetes
7 3 (2.42%) Iperf
7 3 (2.42%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (2.42%) Nmap
7 3 (2.42%) VxRail
8 2 (1.61%) Dell DRAC
9 1 (0.81%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.81%) Cisco CUCM
9 1 (0.81%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.81%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.81%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.81%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 65 (52.42%) Cisco
2 43 (34.68%) VMware
3 36 (29.03%) Microsoft
4 33 (26.61%) Palo Alto
5 23 (18.55%) Fortinet
6 18 (14.52%) SolarWinds
7 14 (11.29%) Dell
8 10 (8.06%) Juniper
9 9 (7.26%) F5
9 9 (7.26%) Veeam
10 8 (6.45%) CheckPoint
11 7 (5.65%) Aruba
11 7 (5.65%) Citrix
11 7 (5.65%) Red Hat
12 5 (4.03%) NetApp
12 5 (4.03%) ServiceNow
13 4 (3.23%) Meraki
14 3 (2.42%) Arista
14 3 (2.42%) HP
15 2 (1.61%) Zscaler