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 17 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 220 205 167
Rank change year-on-year -15 -38 -40
Contract jobs citing LAN 604 423 614
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.30% 1.46%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.05% 10.70% 11.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 373 260 337
10th Percentile £213 £202 £205
25th Percentile £325 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £570 £638
90th Percentile £620 £625 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 19 44
10th Percentile £14.42 £23.15 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.12 £28.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +26.05% -61.61%
75th Percentile £44.06 £41.63 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.00 £55.63 £63.68
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -25.00% +20.63% -59.89%

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 5,011 3,952 5,259
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.52% 12.15% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,028 2,401 3,103
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £370 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +2.58% -4.04% +7.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 329 192 405
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.11 £17.63
Median hourly rate £26.44 £48.75 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.76% +21.88% +23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.90 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -38.31% -10.53% -0.48%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -30 509 £450 -2.70% 155
UK excluding London +12 437 £450 +5.88% 152
South East +8 166 £480 -8.57% 45
London -111 117 £500 +6.67% 37
Work from Home -38 112 £500 +2.56% 44
North of England -42 80 £450 +38.46% 43
Midlands -37 61 £275 -28.10% 24
Scotland +20 56 £375 -4.64% 19
East of England +6 44 £325 -7.14% 9
West Midlands -50 43 £375 -1.96% 19
Yorkshire -10 40 £425 +6.25% 22
North West -46 40 £525 +61.54% 20
South West -48 23 £450 +12.50% 16
East Midlands -6 15 £202 -44.14% 5
Wales -18 7 £475 +105.41% 2
Northern Ireland - 3 £468 - 2
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 30 (4.97%) SharePoint
2 19 (3.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.15%) Confluence
4 11 (1.82%) OpenStack
5 2 (0.33%) CMS
5 2 (0.33%) IIS
5 2 (0.33%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 26 (4.30%) MS Visio
2 17 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (2.65%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 132 (21.85%) 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 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Copilot
13 4 (0.66%) OpenShift
14 3 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
14 3 (0.50%) Google Ads
14 3 (0.50%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 496 (82.12%) WAN
2 294 (48.68%) Firewall
3 157 (25.99%) BGP
4 153 (25.33%) VPN
5 142 (23.51%) Wi-Fi
6 133 (22.02%) Network Security
7 132 (21.85%) SD-WAN
8 131 (21.69%) OSPF
9 120 (19.87%) Wireless
10 117 (19.37%) DNS
11 107 (17.72%) MPLS
12 90 (14.90%) DHCP
13 78 (12.91%) TCP/IP
14 77 (12.75%) VLAN
15 76 (12.58%) WLAN
16 54 (8.94%) IPsec
17 53 (8.77%) Cisco ISE
18 45 (7.45%) Cisco Nexus
19 41 (6.79%) BIG-IP
20 37 (6.13%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.66%) 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 30 (4.97%) JIRA
2 5 (0.83%) Browser DevTools
3 4 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.33%) Git
4 2 (0.33%) GitLab
4 2 (0.33%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 180 (29.80%) Social Skills
2 75 (12.42%) Telecoms
3 57 (9.44%) Public Sector
4 52 (8.61%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (6.46%) Finance
6 27 (4.47%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (3.81%) Organisational Skills
8 19 (3.15%) Financial Institution
9 17 (2.81%) Manufacturing
10 13 (2.15%) Banking
11 12 (1.99%) Legal
12 8 (1.32%) Police
12 8 (1.32%) Retail
13 6 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (0.99%) Law
14 5 (0.83%) Military
15 3 (0.50%) Billing
15 3 (0.50%) German Language
15 3 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 3 (0.50%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 243 (40.23%) Network Engineer
2 80 (13.25%) Architect
3 75 (12.42%) Senior
4 56 (9.27%) Network Architect
5 41 (6.79%) IT Support
5 41 (6.79%) Support Engineer
6 36 (5.96%) Senior Network Engineer
7 35 (5.79%) IT Engineer
8 29 (4.80%) IT Support Engineer
9 26 (4.30%) Cisco Engineer
10 25 (4.14%) Analyst
11 24 (3.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 23 (3.81%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 23 (3.81%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 21 (3.48%) Lead
14 20 (3.31%) Field Engineer
15 19 (3.15%) Consultant
16 17 (2.81%) Network Manager
16 17 (2.81%) Telecoms Engineer
17 16 (2.65%) Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (8.44%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.15%) NETCONF
3 11 (1.82%) YANG
4 10 (1.66%) Microsoft Graph
5 8 (1.32%) REST
5 8 (1.32%) SAML
6 6 (0.99%) LDAP
7 4 (0.66%) Middleware
7 4 (0.66%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.66%) RESTCONF
8 3 (0.50%) Software Packaging
9 2 (0.33%) .NET
9 2 (0.33%) Django
9 2 (0.33%) Java RMI
9 2 (0.33%) RFC 2544
10 1 (0.17%) Apache NiFi
10 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
10 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
10 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
10 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 119 (19.70%) Data Centre
2 34 (5.63%) PKI
3 31 (5.13%) Hybrid Cloud
4 27 (4.47%) Driving Licence
5 26 (4.30%) Clustering
6 22 (3.64%) Onboarding
7 16 (2.65%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (2.32%) Security Posture
9 13 (2.15%) Cloud Native
9 13 (2.15%) NHS
9 13 (2.15%) Public Cloud
10 12 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (1.99%) IoT
10 12 (1.99%) Private Cloud
10 12 (1.99%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.66%) Analytical Mindset
11 10 (1.66%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.66%) Video Conferencing
12 8 (1.32%) CCTV
13 7 (1.16%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 177 (29.30%) Windows
2 48 (7.95%) Windows Server
3 37 (6.13%) Linux
4 28 (4.64%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.65%) Mac OS
6 14 (2.32%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (1.66%) Android
8 7 (1.16%) Apple iOS
9 6 (0.99%) Unix
9 6 (0.99%) Windows 7
9 6 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.83%) VMS
11 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.50%) Windows Server 2003
11 3 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.33%) AIX
13 1 (0.17%) CentOS
13 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (16.23%) ITIL
2 94 (15.56%) Problem-Solving
3 89 (14.74%) High Availability
4 72 (11.92%) Load Balancing
5 61 (10.10%) Project Delivery
6 57 (9.44%) Stakeholder Management
7 50 (8.28%) Network Architecture
8 48 (7.95%) Continuous Improvement
8 48 (7.95%) Migration
9 47 (7.78%) Roadmaps
10 42 (6.95%) Change Management
11 41 (6.79%) Technical Leadership
12 40 (6.62%) Network Monitoring
13 38 (6.29%) Agile
14 37 (6.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 37 (6.13%) Service Management
15 36 (5.96%) Network Design
16 32 (5.30%) ITSM
17 31 (5.13%) Disaster Recovery
17 31 (5.13%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 45 (7.45%) Python
2 33 (5.46%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.16%) SQL
4 2 (0.33%) C++
4 2 (0.33%) VBScript
5 1 (0.17%) Bicep
5 1 (0.17%) C
5 1 (0.17%) Java
5 1 (0.17%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
5 1 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 201 (33.28%) Security Cleared
2 182 (30.13%) Cisco Certification
3 117 (19.37%) SC Cleared
4 111 (18.38%) CCNP
5 72 (11.92%) CCNA
6 70 (11.59%) DV Cleared
7 47 (7.78%) CCIE
7 47 (7.78%) Degree
8 16 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
9 15 (2.48%) JNCIP
9 15 (2.48%) PMP
10 14 (2.32%) JNCIS
11 13 (2.15%) Azure Certification
11 13 (2.15%) JNCIE
12 11 (1.82%) PMI Certification
13 10 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
14 9 (1.49%) AWS Certification
14 9 (1.49%) JNCIA
15 7 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
16 6 (0.99%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (2.98%) SLA
2 14 (2.32%) QA
3 12 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.82%) NIST
5 9 (1.49%) NCSC
6 7 (1.16%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.66%) GDPR
8 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.50%) PMO
9 2 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.17%) DICOM
10 1 (0.17%) GRC
10 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 98 (16.23%) Active Directory
2 52 (8.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (4.30%) VMware NSX
4 15 (2.48%) vSphere
5 10 (1.66%) Firmware
6 8 (1.32%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.17%) Docker
10 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.17%) NFS
10 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 53 (8.77%) FortiGate
2 37 (6.13%) Ansible
3 29 (4.80%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (2.98%) Terraform
5 12 (1.99%) SCCM
6 11 (1.82%) Jamf Pro
6 11 (1.82%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.83%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.66%) Nagios
8 4 (0.66%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.66%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 3 (0.50%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.50%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.33%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.33%) CASB
10 2 (0.33%) Endace
10 2 (0.33%) Grafana
10 2 (0.33%) VxRail
10 2 (0.33%) WSUS
11 1 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 296 (49.01%) Cisco
2 137 (22.68%) Microsoft
3 102 (16.89%) Palo Alto
4 91 (15.07%) F5
5 81 (13.41%) Juniper
6 71 (11.75%) VMware
7 66 (10.93%) SolarWinds
8 63 (10.43%) Fortinet
9 54 (8.94%) Aruba
10 48 (7.95%) CheckPoint
11 31 (5.13%) Extreme Networks
12 30 (4.97%) Splunk
13 29 (4.80%) ServiceNow
14 24 (3.97%) Meraki
15 20 (3.31%) Zscaler
16 16 (2.65%) Ekahau
17 13 (2.15%) Nokia
18 12 (1.99%) Citrix
19 11 (1.82%) Dell
20 8 (1.32%) Arista