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

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 226 207 170
Rank change year-on-year -19 -37 -43
Contract jobs citing LAN 598 425 605
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.13% 1.30% 1.45%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.96% 10.68% 11.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 368 261 333
10th Percentile £213 £203 £205
25th Percentile £325 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £550 £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 35 19 44
10th Percentile £13.76 £23.15 £12.86
25th Percentile £16.69 £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 £48.32 £41.63 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.00 £55.63 £63.68
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -26.67% +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 4,999 3,981 5,202
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 12.14% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,017 2,427 3,100
10th Percentile £238 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £594 £600
90th Percentile £669 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.84% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 327 193 395
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.00 £16.58
Median hourly rate £26.00 £47.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.26% +18.75% -11.11%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.80 £72.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.44 £42.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -37.79% -7.37% -19.74%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -29 504 £450 -2.70% 160
UK excluding London -3 432 £450 +5.88% 156
South East +3 166 £480 -8.57% 49
London -100 117 £500 +8.11% 40
Work from Home -32 110 £500 +2.56% 46
North of England -44 80 £450 +38.46% 39
Midlands -26 58 £275 -28.10% 27
Scotland +13 56 £375 -6.02% 19
East of England +10 43 £325 -7.14% 9
Yorkshire -19 41 £438 +9.38% 20
West Midlands -55 40 £318 -16.99% 20
North West -48 39 £525 +61.54% 18
South West -41 23 £450 +24.14% 17
East Midlands -5 15 £202 -44.14% 7
Wales -21 7 £475 +105.41% 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £550 - 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 28 (4.68%) SharePoint
2 18 (3.01%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.84%) Confluence
3 11 (1.84%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.33%) CMS
4 2 (0.33%) IIS
5 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 23 (3.85%) MS Visio
2 16 (2.68%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 132 (22.07%) Azure
2 89 (14.88%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (10.37%) AWS
4 40 (6.69%) Entra ID
5 19 (3.18%) OneDrive
5 19 (3.18%) SaaS
6 13 (2.17%) GCP
7 12 (2.01%) PaaS
8 10 (1.67%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.34%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.17%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.00%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 5 (0.84%) AWS Direct Connect
12 5 (0.84%) IaaS
13 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Copilot
13 4 (0.67%) OpenShift
14 3 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
14 3 (0.50%) Google Ads
14 3 (0.50%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 491 (82.11%) WAN
2 292 (48.83%) Firewall
3 157 (26.25%) BGP
4 151 (25.25%) VPN
5 143 (23.91%) Wi-Fi
6 131 (21.91%) Network Security
7 130 (21.74%) OSPF
8 127 (21.24%) SD-WAN
9 119 (19.90%) Wireless
10 116 (19.40%) DNS
11 107 (17.89%) MPLS
12 90 (15.05%) DHCP
13 78 (13.04%) TCP/IP
14 77 (12.88%) VLAN
15 75 (12.54%) WLAN
16 56 (9.36%) IPsec
17 54 (9.03%) Cisco ISE
18 46 (7.69%) Cisco Nexus
19 39 (6.52%) BIG-IP
20 38 (6.35%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.50%) 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 (5.02%) JIRA
2 5 (0.84%) Browser DevTools
3 4 (0.67%) 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 (30.10%) Social Skills
2 74 (12.37%) Telecoms
3 56 (9.36%) Public Sector
4 51 (8.53%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (6.52%) Finance
6 27 (4.52%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (3.85%) Organisational Skills
8 19 (3.18%) Financial Institution
9 17 (2.84%) Manufacturing
10 13 (2.17%) Banking
11 12 (2.01%) Legal
12 9 (1.51%) Police
13 8 (1.34%) Retail
14 6 (1.00%) Law
15 5 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.84%) Military
16 4 (0.67%) Local Government
17 3 (0.50%) Billing
17 3 (0.50%) German Language
17 3 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 244 (40.80%) Network Engineer
2 77 (12.88%) Architect
3 75 (12.54%) Senior
4 55 (9.20%) Network Architect
5 42 (7.02%) IT Support
5 42 (7.02%) Support Engineer
6 36 (6.02%) IT Engineer
6 36 (6.02%) Senior Network Engineer
7 30 (5.02%) IT Support Engineer
8 26 (4.35%) Cisco Engineer
9 24 (4.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 23 (3.85%) Analyst
10 23 (3.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 23 (3.85%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 20 (3.34%) Field Engineer
12 19 (3.18%) Consultant
13 18 (3.01%) Lead
14 17 (2.84%) Network Manager
14 17 (2.84%) Telecoms Engineer
15 16 (2.68%) Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (8.53%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.17%) NETCONF
3 11 (1.84%) YANG
4 10 (1.67%) Microsoft Graph
5 8 (1.34%) REST
5 8 (1.34%) SAML
6 6 (1.00%) LDAP
7 4 (0.67%) Middleware
7 4 (0.67%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.67%) 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
1 120 (20.07%) Data Centre
2 35 (5.85%) PKI
3 31 (5.18%) Hybrid Cloud
4 27 (4.52%) Driving Licence
5 26 (4.35%) Clustering
6 22 (3.68%) Onboarding
7 17 (2.84%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (2.34%) Security Posture
9 13 (2.17%) Cloud Native
10 12 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (2.01%) IoT
10 12 (2.01%) NHS
10 12 (2.01%) Private Cloud
10 12 (2.01%) Public Cloud
10 12 (2.01%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.84%) Video Conferencing
12 10 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
12 10 (1.67%) Operational Technology
13 8 (1.34%) CCTV
14 7 (1.17%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 175 (29.26%) Windows
2 46 (7.69%) Windows Server
3 37 (6.19%) Linux
4 27 (4.52%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.68%) Mac OS
6 14 (2.34%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (1.67%) Android
8 7 (1.17%) Apple iOS
9 6 (1.00%) Unix
10 5 (0.84%) VMS
10 5 (0.84%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.67%) Windows 7
12 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.33%) Windows Server 2003
14 1 (0.17%) AIX
14 1 (0.17%) CatOS
14 1 (0.17%) CentOS
14 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (16.05%) ITIL
2 95 (15.89%) Problem-Solving
3 89 (14.88%) High Availability
4 72 (12.04%) Load Balancing
5 60 (10.03%) Project Delivery
6 56 (9.36%) Stakeholder Management
7 49 (8.19%) Network Architecture
8 47 (7.86%) Continuous Improvement
8 47 (7.86%) Roadmaps
9 46 (7.69%) Migration
10 42 (7.02%) Change Management
11 40 (6.69%) Network Monitoring
11 40 (6.69%) Technical Leadership
12 38 (6.35%) Agile
13 37 (6.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 36 (6.02%) Network Design
14 36 (6.02%) Service Management
15 31 (5.18%) Disaster Recovery
15 31 (5.18%) Observability
16 30 (5.02%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 43 (7.19%) Python
2 33 (5.52%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.17%) SQL
4 2 (0.33%) C++
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%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 199 (33.28%) Security Cleared
2 179 (29.93%) Cisco Certification
3 114 (19.06%) SC Cleared
4 108 (18.06%) CCNP
5 72 (12.04%) CCNA
6 71 (11.87%) DV Cleared
7 44 (7.36%) CCIE
7 44 (7.36%) Degree
8 16 (2.68%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (2.34%) JNCIP
9 14 (2.34%) JNCIS
9 14 (2.34%) PMP
10 13 (2.17%) Azure Certification
11 12 (2.01%) JNCIE
12 10 (1.67%) Computer Science Degree
12 10 (1.67%) PMI Certification
13 9 (1.51%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.51%) JNCIA
14 7 (1.17%) BPSS Clearance
15 6 (1.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.18%) SLA
2 14 (2.34%) QA
3 12 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.84%) NIST
5 9 (1.51%) NCSC
6 7 (1.17%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.67%) 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 (16.39%) Active Directory
2 52 (8.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (4.35%) VMware NSX
4 15 (2.51%) vSphere
5 10 (1.67%) Firmware
6 8 (1.34%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
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 52 (8.70%) FortiGate
2 34 (5.69%) Ansible
3 29 (4.85%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (2.68%) Terraform
5 11 (1.84%) Jamf Pro
5 11 (1.84%) SCCM
5 11 (1.84%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.84%) Cisco Prime
7 4 (0.67%) Nagios
7 4 (0.67%) Progress Chef
7 4 (0.67%) vRealize Orchestrator
8 3 (0.50%) Cisco CUCM
8 3 (0.50%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.33%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.33%) CASB
9 2 (0.33%) Endace
9 2 (0.33%) Grafana
9 2 (0.33%) VxRail
9 2 (0.33%) WSUS
10 1 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 293 (49.00%) Cisco
2 136 (22.74%) Microsoft
3 102 (17.06%) Palo Alto
4 89 (14.88%) F5
5 79 (13.21%) Juniper
6 71 (11.87%) VMware
7 66 (11.04%) SolarWinds
8 62 (10.37%) Fortinet
9 54 (9.03%) Aruba
10 47 (7.86%) CheckPoint
11 31 (5.18%) Extreme Networks
12 30 (5.02%) Splunk
13 26 (4.35%) ServiceNow
14 24 (4.01%) Meraki
15 18 (3.01%) Zscaler
16 16 (2.68%) Ekahau
17 13 (2.17%) Nokia
18 11 (1.84%) Citrix
18 11 (1.84%) Dell
19 8 (1.34%) Arista