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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 219 202 163
Rank change year-on-year -17 -39 -34
Contract jobs citing LAN 601 427 621
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.14% 1.31% 1.46%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.01% 10.78% 11.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 371 263 339
10th Percentile £213 £203 £205
25th Percentile £325 £325 £348
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £566 £638
90th Percentile £620 £625 £700
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 48
10th Percentile £13.76 £23.15 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.52 £28.00 £15.76
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +26.05% -61.61%
75th Percentile £48.32 £41.63 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.00 £55.63 £53.58
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 5,003 3,960 5,336
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.51% 12.19% 12.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,036 2,406 3,154
10th Percentile £245 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £365 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +2.89% -4.04% +7.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 325 194 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £50.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.12% +25.00% +18.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.70 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £43.25 £47.50
% change year-on-year -39.38% -8.95% -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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -28 505 £450 -2.70% 173
UK excluding London +1 435 £450 +5.88% 177
South East +6 165 £480 -8.57% 50
London -99 115 £500 +5.26% 37
Work from Home -49 112 £500 +2.56% 51
North of England -48 82 £463 +42.31% 47
Midlands -43 60 £285 -28.75% 28
Scotland +18 56 £375 -4.64% 24
East of England +1 43 £325 -23.53% 13
West Midlands -49 43 £375 -6.25% 23
Yorkshire -18 41 £425 +6.25% 23
North West -48 41 £525 +61.54% 23
South West -36 22 £400 +10.34% 17
East Midlands -4 14 £200 -44.83% 5
Wales -14 7 £475 +105.41% 2
Northern Ireland - 3 £468 - 5
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 (4.99%) SharePoint
2 20 (3.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.16%) Confluence
4 11 (1.83%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.50%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.33%) CMS
6 2 (0.33%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 27 (4.49%) MS Visio
2 19 (3.16%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (2.66%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 132 (21.96%) Azure
2 87 (14.48%) Microsoft 365
3 63 (10.48%) AWS
4 40 (6.66%) Entra ID
5 19 (3.16%) OneDrive
5 19 (3.16%) SaaS
6 14 (2.33%) GCP
7 12 (2.00%) PaaS
8 10 (1.66%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.33%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.16%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.00%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 5 (0.83%) AWS Direct Connect
12 5 (0.83%) IaaS
13 4 (0.67%) OpenShift
14 3 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
14 3 (0.50%) Google Ads
14 3 (0.50%) Microsoft Copilot
14 3 (0.50%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 493 (82.03%) WAN
2 295 (49.08%) Firewall
3 157 (26.12%) BGP
4 155 (25.79%) VPN
5 141 (23.46%) Wi-Fi
6 132 (21.96%) Network Security
6 132 (21.96%) SD-WAN
7 131 (21.80%) OSPF
8 119 (19.80%) DNS
8 119 (19.80%) Wireless
9 106 (17.64%) MPLS
10 91 (15.14%) DHCP
11 79 (13.14%) TCP/IP
11 79 (13.14%) VLAN
12 76 (12.65%) WLAN
13 53 (8.82%) Cisco ISE
13 53 (8.82%) IPsec
14 46 (7.65%) Cisco Nexus
15 41 (6.82%) BIG-IP
16 37 (6.16%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.67%) 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 (4.99%) 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
1 179 (29.78%) Social Skills
2 74 (12.31%) Telecoms
3 56 (9.32%) Public Sector
4 52 (8.65%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (6.49%) Finance
6 27 (4.49%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.66%) Organisational Skills
8 19 (3.16%) Financial Institution
9 17 (2.83%) Manufacturing
10 13 (2.16%) Banking
10 13 (2.16%) Legal
11 8 (1.33%) Police
11 8 (1.33%) Retail
12 6 (1.00%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.00%) Law
13 5 (0.83%) Military
14 3 (0.50%) Billing
14 3 (0.50%) German Language
14 3 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.50%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 245 (40.77%) Network Engineer
2 80 (13.31%) Architect
3 73 (12.15%) Senior
4 55 (9.15%) Network Architect
5 40 (6.66%) IT Support
5 40 (6.66%) Support Engineer
6 36 (5.99%) Senior Network Engineer
7 34 (5.66%) IT Engineer
8 28 (4.66%) IT Support Engineer
9 26 (4.33%) Cisco Engineer
10 25 (4.16%) Analyst
11 24 (3.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 23 (3.83%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 23 (3.83%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 21 (3.49%) Lead
14 20 (3.33%) Field Engineer
15 19 (3.16%) Consultant
16 17 (2.83%) Network Manager
16 17 (2.83%) Telecoms Engineer
17 16 (2.66%) Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (8.49%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.16%) NETCONF
3 11 (1.83%) YANG
4 10 (1.66%) Microsoft Graph
5 8 (1.33%) REST
5 8 (1.33%) 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
1 118 (19.63%) Data Centre
2 34 (5.66%) PKI
3 31 (5.16%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (4.33%) Clustering
4 26 (4.33%) Driving Licence
5 22 (3.66%) Onboarding
6 16 (2.66%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (2.33%) Security Posture
8 13 (2.16%) Cloud Native
8 13 (2.16%) Data Protection Act
8 13 (2.16%) NHS
8 13 (2.16%) Public Cloud
9 12 (2.00%) IoT
9 12 (2.00%) Private Cloud
9 12 (2.00%) Virtual Team
10 10 (1.66%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.66%) Operational Technology
10 10 (1.66%) Video Conferencing
11 7 (1.16%) CCTV
11 7 (1.16%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 176 (29.28%) Windows
2 47 (7.82%) Windows Server
3 37 (6.16%) Linux
4 29 (4.83%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.66%) Mac OS
6 14 (2.33%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (1.66%) Android
8 7 (1.16%) Apple iOS
8 7 (1.16%) Windows 7
9 6 (1.00%) Unix
9 6 (1.00%) 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 97 (16.14%) ITIL
2 93 (15.47%) Problem-Solving
3 88 (14.64%) High Availability
4 72 (11.98%) Load Balancing
5 61 (10.15%) Project Delivery
6 56 (9.32%) Stakeholder Management
7 50 (8.32%) Migration
7 50 (8.32%) Network Architecture
8 48 (7.99%) Continuous Improvement
9 47 (7.82%) Roadmaps
10 42 (6.99%) Change Management
11 41 (6.82%) Technical Leadership
12 40 (6.66%) Network Monitoring
13 38 (6.32%) Service Management
14 37 (6.16%) Agile
14 37 (6.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 37 (6.16%) Network Design
15 33 (5.49%) ITSM
16 31 (5.16%) Disaster Recovery
16 31 (5.16%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 46 (7.65%) Python
2 34 (5.66%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.16%) SQL
4 3 (0.50%) VBScript
5 2 (0.33%) C++
5 2 (0.33%) VB
6 1 (0.17%) Bicep
6 1 (0.17%) C
6 1 (0.17%) Java
6 1 (0.17%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 199 (33.11%) Security Cleared
2 184 (30.62%) Cisco Certification
3 117 (19.47%) SC Cleared
4 113 (18.80%) CCNP
5 73 (12.15%) CCNA
6 68 (11.31%) DV Cleared
7 48 (7.99%) CCIE
8 47 (7.82%) Degree
9 16 (2.66%) Microsoft Certification
10 15 (2.50%) JNCIP
10 15 (2.50%) JNCIS
11 14 (2.33%) PMP
12 13 (2.16%) Azure Certification
12 13 (2.16%) JNCIE
13 11 (1.83%) PMI Certification
14 10 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (1.66%) JNCIA
15 9 (1.50%) AWS Certification
16 7 (1.16%) BPSS Clearance
17 6 (1.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (3.00%) SLA
2 14 (2.33%) QA
3 12 (2.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.83%) NIST
5 9 (1.50%) NCSC
6 7 (1.16%) 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 (16.31%) Active Directory
2 52 (8.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (4.33%) VMware NSX
4 15 (2.50%) vSphere
5 10 (1.66%) Firmware
6 8 (1.33%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.33%) BitLocker
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 53 (8.82%) FortiGate
2 38 (6.32%) Ansible
3 29 (4.83%) Microsoft Intune
4 19 (3.16%) Terraform
5 13 (2.16%) SCCM
6 11 (1.83%) Jamf Pro
6 11 (1.83%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.83%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.67%) Nagios
8 4 (0.67%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.67%) 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
1 298 (49.58%) Cisco
2 138 (22.96%) Microsoft
3 101 (16.81%) Palo Alto
4 91 (15.14%) F5
5 80 (13.31%) Juniper
6 71 (11.81%) VMware
7 66 (10.98%) SolarWinds
8 63 (10.48%) Fortinet
9 54 (8.99%) Aruba
10 48 (7.99%) CheckPoint
11 31 (5.16%) Extreme Networks
12 30 (4.99%) ServiceNow
12 30 (4.99%) Splunk
13 24 (3.99%) Meraki
14 20 (3.33%) Zscaler
15 16 (2.66%) Ekahau
16 13 (2.16%) Nokia
17 12 (2.00%) Citrix
18 11 (1.83%) Dell
19 9 (1.50%) Arista