LAN Contract Job Trends

Local Area Network (LAN)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring LAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 7 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 219 204 165
Rank change year-on-year -15 -39 -34
Contract jobs citing LAN 604 418 627
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.31% 1.45%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.16% 10.73% 11.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 373 252 346
10th Percentile £213 £206 £205
25th Percentile £340 £325 £326
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £570 £638
90th Percentile £620 £625 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 20 47
10th Percentile £13.76 £20.21 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.52 £27.00 £15.76
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +26.05% -61.61%
75th Percentile £37.53 £40.81 £40.00
90th Percentile £72.60 £53.82 £42.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.69
% change year-on-year -25.00% +26.66% -61.80%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

LAN 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 4,967 3,894 5,417
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.54% 12.24% 12.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,020 2,379 3,191
10th Percentile £240 £231 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £671 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.77% -4.08% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 183 427
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.34 £23.37 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% - +80.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.38 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.00 £73.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £36.65 £47.50
% change year-on-year -29.05% -22.85% +58.33%

LAN
Job Vacancy Trend

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

LAN job vacancy trend in the UK

LAN
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing LAN

LAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing LAN over the 6 months to 7 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for LAN in the UK

LAN
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing LAN

LAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing LAN over the 6 months to 7 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for LAN in the UK

LAN
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing LAN within the UK over the 6 months to 7 July 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 -30 511 £450 -5.26% 240
UK excluding London +1 431 £450 +5.88% 228
South East +1 165 £480 -8.35% 65
London -101 120 £500 +4.71% 65
Work from Home -38 115 £500 - 91
North of England -36 80 £463 +42.31% 48
Midlands -35 63 £275 -31.25% 39
Scotland +13 53 £413 +3.38% 28
West Midlands -50 45 £340 -11.11% 28
East of England -5 44 £338 -21.05% 15
North West -37 41 £525 +61.54% 20
Yorkshire -16 39 £338 -15.50% 23
South West -44 19 £450 +12.50% 20
East Midlands -6 15 £200 -61.90% 11
Wales -23 7 £475 +105.41% 4
Northern Ireland - 3 £468 - 13
Channel Islands - 1 £575 -

LAN
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 31 (5.13%) SharePoint
2 22 (3.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (2.32%) Confluence
4 9 (1.49%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.83%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.33%) CMS
6 2 (0.33%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 25 (4.14%) MS Visio
2 18 (2.98%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (2.32%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 137 (22.68%) Azure
2 87 (14.40%) Microsoft 365
3 63 (10.43%) AWS
4 40 (6.62%) Entra ID
5 19 (3.15%) OneDrive
5 19 (3.15%) SaaS
6 14 (2.32%) GCP
7 12 (1.99%) PaaS
8 10 (1.66%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.32%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.16%) PowerApps
11 6 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (0.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 5 (0.83%) AWS Direct Connect
12 5 (0.83%) IaaS
13 3 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
13 3 (0.50%) Google Ads
13 3 (0.50%) Nutanix
14 2 (0.33%) IBM Watson
14 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 496 (82.12%) WAN
2 292 (48.34%) Firewall
3 160 (26.49%) VPN
4 150 (24.83%) BGP
5 139 (23.01%) Wi-Fi
6 137 (22.68%) SD-WAN
7 131 (21.69%) Network Security
8 128 (21.19%) OSPF
9 126 (20.86%) DNS
10 120 (19.87%) Wireless
11 97 (16.06%) MPLS
12 95 (15.73%) DHCP
13 79 (13.08%) WLAN
14 78 (12.91%) VLAN
15 74 (12.25%) TCP/IP
16 51 (8.44%) Cisco ISE
16 51 (8.44%) IPsec
17 47 (7.78%) Cisco Nexus
18 46 (7.62%) BIG-IP
19 38 (6.29%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.83%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) DTS
2 1 (0.17%) NoSQL
2 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.17%) Power BI
2 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 32 (5.30%) JIRA
2 5 (0.83%) Browser DevTools
2 5 (0.83%) Sonatype Nexus
3 2 (0.33%) Git
3 2 (0.33%) GitLab
3 2 (0.33%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
4 1 (0.17%) MSI
4 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 174 (28.81%) Social Skills
2 63 (10.43%) Telecoms
3 54 (8.94%) Public Sector
4 47 (7.78%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (6.46%) Finance
6 27 (4.47%) Documentation Skills
7 20 (3.31%) Legal
8 19 (3.15%) Financial Institution
8 19 (3.15%) Organisational Skills
9 17 (2.81%) Manufacturing
10 11 (1.82%) Banking
11 8 (1.32%) Retail
12 7 (1.16%) Law
12 7 (1.16%) Military
12 7 (1.16%) Police
13 6 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.66%) Billing
15 3 (0.50%) German Language
15 3 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 3 (0.50%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 245 (40.56%) Network Engineer
2 84 (13.91%) Architect
3 69 (11.42%) Senior
4 57 (9.44%) Network Architect
5 42 (6.95%) IT Support
5 42 (6.95%) Support Engineer
6 36 (5.96%) IT Engineer
7 31 (5.13%) Senior Network Engineer
8 30 (4.97%) IT Support Engineer
9 27 (4.47%) Cisco Engineer
10 25 (4.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 24 (3.97%) Analyst
11 24 (3.97%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 24 (3.97%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 22 (3.64%) Lead
13 19 (3.15%) Field Engineer
14 18 (2.98%) Technical Architect
15 17 (2.81%) Network Manager
16 16 (2.65%) Consultant
16 16 (2.65%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (8.28%) 802.1X
2 11 (1.82%) SAML
3 10 (1.66%) Microsoft Graph
3 10 (1.66%) NETCONF
4 9 (1.49%) LDAP
4 9 (1.49%) YANG
5 8 (1.32%) REST
6 4 (0.66%) Middleware
7 3 (0.50%) Software Packaging
8 2 (0.33%) .NET
8 2 (0.33%) Django
8 2 (0.33%) Java RMI
8 2 (0.33%) OpenConfig
8 2 (0.33%) RESTCONF
8 2 (0.33%) RFC 2544
9 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
9 1 (0.17%) CSS
9 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
9 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
9 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 118 (19.54%) Data Centre
2 33 (5.46%) PKI
3 30 (4.97%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (4.30%) Clustering
5 23 (3.81%) Onboarding
6 19 (3.15%) Driving Licence
7 16 (2.65%) Security Posture
7 16 (2.65%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (2.32%) Virtual Team
9 13 (2.15%) Cloud Native
10 12 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.99%) NHS
11 11 (1.82%) Public Cloud
12 10 (1.66%) IoT
12 10 (1.66%) Operational Technology
12 10 (1.66%) Private Cloud
13 8 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
13 8 (1.32%) Video Conferencing
14 7 (1.16%) CCTV
14 7 (1.16%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 183 (30.30%) Windows
2 51 (8.44%) Windows Server
3 36 (5.96%) Linux
4 30 (4.97%) Windows 10
5 19 (3.15%) Windows Server 2019
6 16 (2.65%) Mac OS
7 10 (1.66%) Android
8 9 (1.49%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.16%) Apple iOS
10 6 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.83%) Unix
11 5 (0.83%) VMS
12 3 (0.50%) CatOS
12 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.50%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.33%) AIX
14 1 (0.17%) CentOS
14 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (16.06%) ITIL
2 87 (14.40%) Problem-Solving
3 86 (14.24%) High Availability
4 72 (11.92%) Load Balancing
5 59 (9.77%) Project Delivery
6 56 (9.27%) Stakeholder Management
7 52 (8.61%) Migration
8 49 (8.11%) Network Architecture
9 48 (7.95%) Continuous Improvement
10 47 (7.78%) Roadmaps
11 45 (7.45%) Change Management
12 42 (6.95%) Technical Leadership
13 38 (6.29%) Agile
13 38 (6.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 38 (6.29%) ITSM
13 38 (6.29%) Network Monitoring
13 38 (6.29%) Service Management
14 35 (5.79%) Network Design
15 33 (5.46%) Disaster Recovery
16 31 (5.13%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 44 (7.28%) Python
2 42 (6.95%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.16%) SQL
4 5 (0.83%) VBScript
5 4 (0.66%) VB
6 2 (0.33%) C++
6 2 (0.33%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.17%) Bicep
7 1 (0.17%) C
7 1 (0.17%) Java
7 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 202 (33.44%) Security Cleared
2 182 (30.13%) Cisco Certification
3 126 (20.86%) SC Cleared
4 114 (18.87%) CCNP
5 70 (11.59%) CCNA
6 67 (11.09%) DV Cleared
7 49 (8.11%) CCIE
7 49 (8.11%) Degree
8 16 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
9 15 (2.48%) JNCIP
10 14 (2.32%) JNCIS
10 14 (2.32%) PMP
11 13 (2.15%) Azure Certification
12 12 (1.99%) JNCIE
13 11 (1.82%) JNCIA
13 11 (1.82%) PMI Certification
14 9 (1.49%) AWS Certification
14 9 (1.49%) Computer Science Degree
15 6 (0.99%) BPSS Clearance
15 6 (0.99%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (2.98%) SLA
2 16 (2.65%) QA
3 10 (1.66%) NCSC
4 9 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (1.49%) NIST
5 7 (1.16%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.66%) GDPR
7 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.50%) PMO
8 2 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.33%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.17%) DICOM
9 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.17%) RMADS
System Software
1 107 (17.72%) Active Directory
2 60 (9.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (4.47%) VMware NSX
4 20 (3.31%) vSphere
5 10 (1.66%) Firmware
6 8 (1.32%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.66%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
10 3 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
11 1 (0.17%) Docker
11 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.17%) NFS
11 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 52 (8.61%) FortiGate
2 37 (6.13%) Ansible
3 30 (4.97%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (3.31%) Terraform
5 16 (2.65%) SCCM
6 14 (2.32%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (1.82%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (0.99%) Cisco Prime
9 4 (0.66%) Nagios
9 4 (0.66%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.66%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 3 (0.50%) Endace
10 3 (0.50%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.33%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.33%) CASB
11 2 (0.33%) Cisco CUCM
11 2 (0.33%) Grafana
11 2 (0.33%) VxRail
11 2 (0.33%) WSUS
12 1 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 297 (49.17%) Cisco
2 135 (22.35%) Microsoft
3 102 (16.89%) Palo Alto
4 95 (15.73%) F5
5 80 (13.25%) Juniper
6 78 (12.91%) VMware
7 66 (10.93%) SolarWinds
8 62 (10.26%) Fortinet
9 56 (9.27%) Aruba
10 52 (8.61%) CheckPoint
11 35 (5.79%) ServiceNow
12 32 (5.30%) Extreme Networks
13 29 (4.80%) Splunk
14 25 (4.14%) Meraki
15 21 (3.48%) Zscaler
16 16 (2.65%) Dell
16 16 (2.65%) Ekahau
17 12 (1.99%) Citrix
18 9 (1.49%) Arista
19 8 (1.32%) Nokia