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 8 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 243 172 107
Rank change year-on-year -71 -65 +82
Contract jobs citing LAN 416 525 1,041
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.19% 1.43% 2.21%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.53% 11.90% 15.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 298 676
10th Percentile £194 £223 £205
25th Percentile £278 £350 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £475 £471
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% +0.96% +4.56%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £596
90th Percentile £660 £673 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £350 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -22.22% - +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 19 42
10th Percentile £14.24 £19.61 £17.72
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £20.31
Median hourly rate £30.00 £23.80 £39.02
Median % change year-on-year +26.05% -39.01% +71.52%
75th Percentile £35.00 £40.25 £61.88
90th Percentile £68.62 £71.75 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £22.40 £36.72
% change year-on-year +33.93% -39.00% +66.91%

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 3,949 4,410 6,576
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.29% 12.05% 13.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,561 2,547 4,090
10th Percentile £213 £223 £213
25th Percentile £360 £372 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £683 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £454 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -4.42% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 195 159 346
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.95 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.00 £26.25 £22.56
Median hourly rate £34.00 £47.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.42% -13.64% +33.28%
75th Percentile £65.00 £67.26 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £75.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £51.25 £56.49
% change year-on-year -17.07% -9.28% +25.53%

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 8 November 2025.

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 8 November 2025.

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 8 November 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
England -65 348 £450 -9.55% 536
UK excluding London -62 241 £350 -22.22% 478
London +2 143 £463 -7.50% 193
Work from Home -32 94 £450 -10.00% 208
South East -32 56 £525 +10.53% 222
North of England -66 50 £225 -51.35% 68
Midlands -49 44 £450 +20.00% 68
West Midlands -25 40 £475 -5.00% 37
North West -36 37 £133 -73.50% 33
Scotland +28 36 £294 -26.56% 26
East of England -14 28 £300 -45.45% 39
South West -15 16 £350 -15.15% 40
Yorkshire -59 11 £231 +4.59% 19
Wales +7 10 £200 -9.09% 18
East Midlands -43 4 £200 -46.67% 28
Northern Ireland -8 3 £475 - 9
North East -9 2 £550 +29.41% 16

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 22 (5.29%) SharePoint
2 15 (3.61%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.88%) OpenStack
4 6 (1.44%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.96%) Confluence
6 2 (0.48%) nginx
7 1 (0.24%) Apache
7 1 (0.24%) CICS
7 1 (0.24%) IIS
7 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.24%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 44 (10.58%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (3.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (3.37%) MS Visio
3 13 (3.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.24%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 3 (0.72%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 78 (18.75%) Azure
2 54 (12.98%) AWS
3 44 (10.58%) Microsoft 365
4 20 (4.81%) Entra ID
5 16 (3.85%) GCP
6 8 (1.92%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 6 (1.44%) OpenShift
8 5 (1.20%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (1.20%) GitHub
9 4 (0.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Purview
9 4 (0.96%) OneDrive
10 3 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (0.72%) Power Platform
10 3 (0.72%) SaaS
11 2 (0.48%) Akamai
11 2 (0.48%) AWS IoT
11 2 (0.48%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (0.48%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (0.48%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 327 (78.61%) WAN
2 171 (41.11%) Firewall
3 96 (23.08%) Wi-Fi
4 92 (22.12%) SD-WAN
4 92 (22.12%) VPN
5 87 (20.91%) DNS
6 75 (18.03%) Wireless
7 72 (17.31%) DHCP
8 68 (16.35%) TCP/IP
9 54 (12.98%) BGP
10 51 (12.26%) Network Security
10 51 (12.26%) VLAN
11 49 (11.78%) MPLS
12 47 (11.30%) Cisco Nexus
13 43 (10.34%) OSPF
14 39 (9.38%) WLAN
15 24 (5.77%) VoIP
16 23 (5.53%) Cisco IOS
17 18 (4.33%) Cisco ASA
18 16 (3.85%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.16%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.44%) Oracle Database
3 4 (0.96%) Apache Cassandra
3 4 (0.96%) MS Access
4 3 (0.72%) Power BI
5 1 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.24%) DB2
5 1 (0.24%) MySQL
5 1 (0.24%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.24%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 10 (2.40%) JIRA
2 5 (1.20%) Git
3 2 (0.48%) Bitbucket
3 2 (0.48%) GitLab
3 2 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.24%) Jenkins
General
1 123 (29.57%) Social Skills
2 50 (12.02%) Telecoms
3 46 (11.06%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (10.34%) Public Sector
5 39 (9.38%) Finance
6 20 (4.81%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (3.85%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.16%) Banking
9 8 (1.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.92%) Military
10 7 (1.68%) Legal
10 7 (1.68%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.44%) Local Government
12 5 (1.20%) Electronics
12 5 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (1.20%) Marketing
12 5 (1.20%) Retail
13 3 (0.72%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.72%) Law
Job Titles
1 112 (26.92%) Network Engineer
2 93 (22.36%) Architect
3 69 (16.59%) Network Architect
4 41 (9.86%) Support Engineer
5 37 (8.89%) Analyst
6 27 (6.49%) Technical Support
7 24 (5.77%) Senior
7 24 (5.77%) Support Analyst
8 22 (5.29%) 2nd Line Support
8 22 (5.29%) IT Engineer
9 21 (5.05%) Field Engineer
10 20 (4.81%) IT Support
11 17 (4.09%) Technical Analyst
12 16 (3.85%) Project Manager
12 16 (3.85%) Technical Support Analyst
13 15 (3.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 15 (3.61%) IT Technician
14 13 (3.13%) Technical Architect
15 12 (2.88%) Senior Network Engineer
15 12 (2.88%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.40%) Middleware
2 7 (1.68%) NETCONF
2 7 (1.68%) YANG
3 6 (1.44%) REST
4 3 (0.72%) 802.1X
4 3 (0.72%) EDI
5 2 (0.48%) JSON
5 2 (0.48%) Node.js
5 2 (0.48%) RFC 2544
5 2 (0.48%) XML
6 1 (0.24%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.24%) HTML
6 1 (0.24%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.24%) Jinja
6 1 (0.24%) LDAP
6 1 (0.24%) React
6 1 (0.24%) RESTCONF
6 1 (0.24%) SOAP
6 1 (0.24%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.24%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (14.66%) Data Centre
2 22 (5.29%) Driving Licence
3 18 (4.33%) Virtual Team
4 16 (3.85%) Hybrid Cloud
5 15 (3.61%) NHS
6 12 (2.88%) CMDB
7 11 (2.64%) Cloud Native
8 10 (2.40%) Management Information System
9 9 (2.16%) Onboarding
10 7 (1.68%) SCADA
10 7 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
12 5 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
12 5 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (1.20%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.20%) Replication
12 5 (1.20%) Video Conferencing
13 4 (0.96%) CCTV
13 4 (0.96%) Fibre Optics
13 4 (0.96%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 104 (25.00%) Windows
2 31 (7.45%) Windows 10
2 31 (7.45%) Windows Server
3 23 (5.53%) Linux
4 12 (2.88%) Mac OS
5 11 (2.64%) Android
6 9 (2.16%) Windows Server 2016
7 8 (1.92%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (1.68%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.96%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.72%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.48%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.24%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.24%) MVS
12 1 (0.24%) SUSE
12 1 (0.24%) VMS
12 1 (0.24%) Windows 8
12 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.24%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (16.35%) Problem-Solving
2 67 (16.11%) Network Design
3 45 (10.82%) Migration
4 44 (10.58%) ITIL
4 44 (10.58%) Network Architecture
5 35 (8.41%) Customer Service
6 32 (7.69%) Cybersecurity
6 32 (7.69%) Service Management
7 31 (7.45%) Network Monitoring
8 29 (6.97%) Stakeholder Management
9 28 (6.73%) Project Delivery
10 27 (6.49%) Load Balancing
11 26 (6.25%) Agile
11 26 (6.25%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 24 (5.77%) Change Management
12 24 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
13 22 (5.29%) Project Management
13 22 (5.29%) Roadmaps
14 20 (4.81%) Service Delivery
15 19 (4.57%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 41 (9.86%) Python
2 19 (4.57%) PowerShell
3 9 (2.16%) VB
4 7 (1.68%) SQL
5 6 (1.44%) VBScript
6 4 (0.96%) Perl
7 2 (0.48%) Java
7 2 (0.48%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.24%) Bash
8 1 (0.24%) Bicep
8 1 (0.24%) C
8 1 (0.24%) C++
8 1 (0.24%) Go
Qualifications
1 103 (24.76%) Cisco Certification
2 92 (22.12%) Security Cleared
3 70 (16.83%) CCNP
4 56 (13.46%) SC Cleared
5 42 (10.10%) CCNA
6 41 (9.86%) DV Cleared
7 35 (8.41%) Degree
8 33 (7.93%) CCIE
9 18 (4.33%) JNCIE
10 13 (3.13%) AWS Certification
11 11 (2.64%) Microsoft Certification
12 9 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
13 8 (1.92%) JNCIP
13 8 (1.92%) MCSE
14 7 (1.68%) CCSA
14 7 (1.68%) CISSP
14 7 (1.68%) HNC
14 7 (1.68%) MCP
15 6 (1.44%) ECDL
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (5.53%) SLA
2 11 (2.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.92%) NIST
4 7 (1.68%) GDPR
4 7 (1.68%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.96%) PMO
6 3 (0.72%) QA
7 2 (0.48%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.24%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.24%) COBIT
8 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.24%) MiFID
8 1 (0.24%) NCSC
System Software
1 65 (15.63%) Active Directory
2 25 (6.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (3.61%) VMware NSX
4 10 (2.40%) Hyper-V
5 8 (1.92%) Firmware
6 7 (1.68%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (1.20%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.48%) Docker
8 2 (0.48%) ProxySG
8 2 (0.48%) VMware Workstation
9 1 (0.24%) KVM
9 1 (0.24%) NFS
9 1 (0.24%) SRDF
9 1 (0.24%) Veritas Cluster Server
9 1 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.24%) Xen
Systems Management
1 38 (9.13%) Ansible
2 26 (6.25%) Terraform
3 21 (5.05%) FortiGate
4 19 (4.57%) SCCM
5 15 (3.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (1.20%) Cisco CUCM
6 5 (1.20%) HP ALM
7 4 (0.96%) Cisco Prime
7 4 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.72%) CA Spectrum
8 3 (0.72%) Kubernetes
8 3 (0.72%) SCOM
9 2 (0.48%) AppManager
9 2 (0.48%) HAProxy
9 2 (0.48%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.48%) OpenView
10 1 (0.24%) Grafana
10 1 (0.24%) Nagios
10 1 (0.24%) PowerCLI
10 1 (0.24%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 198 (47.60%) Cisco
2 79 (18.99%) Microsoft
3 60 (14.42%) Fortinet
4 48 (11.54%) Juniper
5 43 (10.34%) Palo Alto
6 39 (9.38%) F5
7 38 (9.13%) VMware
8 30 (7.21%) Meraki
9 25 (6.01%) ServiceNow
10 24 (5.77%) Citrix
11 20 (4.81%) SolarWinds
12 16 (3.85%) CheckPoint
13 14 (3.37%) Aruba
14 13 (3.13%) Oracle
14 13 (3.13%) Remedy
15 12 (2.88%) HP
15 12 (2.88%) Zscaler
16 8 (1.92%) SAP
17 7 (1.68%) Peregrine
18 6 (1.44%) Nokia