5G NR Contract Job Trends

5G NR (5G New Radio)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring 5G NR skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 598 494 586
Rank change year-on-year -104 +92 +179
Contract jobs citing 5G NR 3 43 8
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.007% 0.14% 0.018%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.071% 1.06% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 36 0
10th Percentile £456 £463 -
25th Percentile £466 £519 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £538 -
Median % change year-on-year -9.30% - -
75th Percentile £516 £618 -
90th Percentile £529 £670 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £538 -
% change year-on-year -9.30% - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

5G NR 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 4,234 4,045 5,906
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.25% 13.28% 13.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,764 2,425 3,532
10th Percentile £204 £209 £205
25th Percentile £358 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £500 £483
Median % change year-on-year -4.45% +3.63% -6.67%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -1.06% -1.05% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 175 131 383
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.27
25th Percentile £18.69 £21.46 £19.99
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% -27.78% +131.96%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.24 £30.04 £50.00
% change year-on-year +37.28% -39.92% +163.16%

5G NR
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing 5G NR relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

5G NR job vacancy trend in the UK

5G NR
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing 5G NR.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing 5G NR

5G NR
Top 5 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing 5G NR within the UK over the 6 months to 25 February 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 -116 3 £488 -9.30% 2
UK excluding London -99 2 £488 -9.30% 2
East of England -35 1 £525 -2.33%
London -63 1 - -
South West - 1 £450 - 2

5G NR
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:

Communications & Networking
1 3 (100.00%) 5G
2 2 (66.67%) 3GPP
2 2 (66.67%) LTE
3 1 (33.33%) 4G
3 1 (33.33%) MIMO
3 1 (33.33%) Radio Access Network
3 1 (33.33%) SD-WAN
3 1 (33.33%) WAN
3 1 (33.33%) Wireless
General
1 2 (66.67%) Social Skills
2 1 (33.33%) Aviation
2 1 (33.33%) Documentation Skills
2 1 (33.33%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Architect
1 1 (33.33%) Design Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Ericsson Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Principal Architect
1 1 (33.33%) RAN Design Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) RAN Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Software Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Wireless Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 2 (66.67%) IoT
1 2 (66.67%) NB-IoT
2 1 (33.33%) Distributed Systems
2 1 (33.33%) Hybrid Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Software Engineering
2 1 (33.33%) Agile
2 1 (33.33%) Business Case
2 1 (33.33%) Domain Models
2 1 (33.33%) Domain-Driven Design
2 1 (33.33%) Event-Driven
2 1 (33.33%) Event-Driven Architecture
2 1 (33.33%) Mentoring
2 1 (33.33%) Microservices
2 1 (33.33%) Multithreading
2 1 (33.33%) Network Design
2 1 (33.33%) Product Requirements
2 1 (33.33%) Project Governance
2 1 (33.33%) Roadmaps
2 1 (33.33%) SDLC
2 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (33.33%) Technical Leadership
2 1 (33.33%) Technology Roadmap
Programming Languages
1 1 (33.33%) C
1 1 (33.33%) C++
1 1 (33.33%) Embedded C
1 1 (33.33%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) Degree
Vendors
1 1 (33.33%) Ericsson
1 1 (33.33%) Mapinfo
1 1 (33.33%) Nokia