3G Contract Job Trends

3G
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring 3G skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 650 541 519
Rank change year-on-year -109 -22 +74
Contract jobs citing 3G 30 18 50
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.055% 0.055% 0.13%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.59% 0.47% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 13 21
10th Percentile £396 £405 £306
25th Percentile £413 £425 £343
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £470
Median % change year-on-year - -4.26% +10.59%
75th Percentile £475 £500 £588
90th Percentile £508 - £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £440 £570 £460
% change year-on-year -22.81% +23.91% +8.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 0
Median hourly rate - £27.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

3G 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,121 3,802 4,542
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.33% 11.53% 11.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,964 2,363 2,621
10th Percentile £232 £225 £225
25th Percentile £393 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £478 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.71% -4.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £495
% change year-on-year +5.56% -9.09% +7.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 423 204 228
10th Percentile £14.24 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.11 £23.63
Median hourly rate £33.00 £42.50 £51.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.35% -16.67% -9.72%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £72.15 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -30.59% -25.89% -0.26%

3G
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing 3G relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

3G job vacancy trend in the UK

3G
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing 3G.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing 3G

3G
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing 3G over the 6 months to 24 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for 3G in the UK

3G
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing 3G.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing 3G

3G
Top 7 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 3G within the UK over the 6 months to 24 September 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
England -105 29 £450 -8.16% 25
UK excluding London -83 19 £440 -22.81% 17
South East -51 14 £425 -25.44% 7
Work from Home -62 5 £505 - 10
London -86 5 £460 -4.77% 4
South West - 4 £450 - 2
East of England - 1 - -

3G
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 2 (6.67%) ArcGIS
2 1 (3.33%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 3 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (3.33%) Microsoft Office
Communications & Networking
1 30 (100.00%) 4G
2 22 (73.33%) 2G
2 22 (73.33%) 5G
3 17 (56.67%) Diameter Protocol
3 17 (56.67%) SS7
4 15 (50.00%) SIGTRAN
5 4 (13.33%) LTE
6 3 (10.00%) Firewall
6 3 (10.00%) LAN
6 3 (10.00%) WAN
7 2 (6.67%) Radio Access Network
7 2 (6.67%) SCCP
7 2 (6.67%) TCAP
7 2 (6.67%) tcpdump
7 2 (6.67%) Wireshark
8 1 (3.33%) DAB
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (6.67%) GIS
1 2 (6.67%) QGIS
General
1 22 (73.33%) Telecoms
2 14 (46.67%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (40.00%) Social Skills
4 1 (3.33%) Finance
4 1 (3.33%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 13 (43.33%) Designer
2 11 (36.67%) Mobile Designer
3 4 (13.33%) Project Manager
3 4 (13.33%) Telecoms Manager
3 4 (13.33%) Telecoms Project Manager
4 3 (10.00%) Design Engineer
4 3 (10.00%) Telecoms Engineer
5 2 (6.67%) Architect
5 2 (6.67%) Mobile Engineer
5 2 (6.67%) Solutions Architect
5 2 (6.67%) Telecoms Test Engineer
5 2 (6.67%) Test Engineer
6 1 (3.33%) Field Engineer
6 1 (3.33%) Network Architect
6 1 (3.33%) Network Engineer
6 1 (3.33%) RAN Engineer
6 1 (3.33%) Senior
6 1 (3.33%) Senior Architect
6 1 (3.33%) Senior Network Architect
6 1 (3.33%) Senior Solutions Architect
Miscellaneous
1 7 (23.33%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (10.00%) Virtual Team
3 1 (3.33%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.33%) Linux
1 1 (3.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (50.00%) Test Automation
2 13 (43.33%) Stakeholder Management
3 12 (40.00%) Roadmaps
4 11 (36.67%) Customer Requirements
4 11 (36.67%) Technical Leadership
5 9 (30.00%) Technology Roadmap
6 8 (26.67%) Capacity Planning
7 7 (23.33%) Network Architecture
8 6 (20.00%) Impact Assessments
8 6 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
8 6 (20.00%) Service Delivery
9 4 (13.33%) Agile
9 4 (13.33%) Budget Management
9 4 (13.33%) Change Control
9 4 (13.33%) PRINCE2
9 4 (13.33%) Risk Management
9 4 (13.33%) Service Design
10 3 (10.00%) Customer-Centricity
10 3 (10.00%) Project Delivery
10 3 (10.00%) Risk Register
Programming Languages
1 2 (6.67%) Python
2 1 (3.33%) C
Qualifications
1 4 (13.33%) PMP
2 3 (10.00%) CCNA
2 3 (10.00%) CCNP
2 3 (10.00%) Cisco Certification
2 3 (10.00%) SC Cleared
2 3 (10.00%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 2 (6.67%) KVM
1 2 (6.67%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 3 (10.00%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 4 (13.33%) Ericsson
2 3 (10.00%) Microsoft
3 2 (6.67%) Nokia
3 2 (6.67%) VMware
4 1 (3.33%) Oracle