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

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 240 177 114
Rank change year-on-year -63 -63 +65
Contract jobs citing LAN 411 517 1,012
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.43% 2.17%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.27% 11.88% 15.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 272 295 658
10th Percentile £200 £224 £205
25th Percentile £280 £350 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £431 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -9.21% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £623
90th Percentile £638 £674 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £350 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -22.22% - +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 19 42
10th Percentile £13.98 £19.61 £17.72
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £23.80 £39.02
Median % change year-on-year +26.05% -39.01% +77.36%
75th Percentile £35.00 £40.25 £61.88
90th Percentile £68.90 £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 4,003 4,351 6,571
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.31% 12.07% 14.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,592 2,513 4,092
10th Percentile £206 £225 £213
25th Percentile £358 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 161 343
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.03 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.63 £25.75 £22.88
Median hourly rate £35.00 £47.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.32% -13.64% +31.74%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £74.85 £75.00 £75.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £50.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -15.00% -11.49% +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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -78 342 £450 -9.09% 312
UK excluding London -59 236 £350 -22.22% 259
London +9 142 £450 -13.46% 105
Work from Home -31 95 £450 -10.00% 112
South East -30 55 £563 +18.42% 95
North of England -72 51 £225 -50.98% 37
Midlands -58 43 £450 +20.00% 38
West Midlands -24 39 £475 -5.00% 27
North West -39 38 £133 -73.23% 19
Scotland +23 36 £281 -29.69% 20
East of England -21 28 £300 -45.45% 32
South West -19 13 £431 +3.60% 33
Yorkshire -64 11 £231 -0.54% 12
Wales +8 7 £225 +12.50% 7
Northern Ireland -10 4 £475 - 6
East Midlands -43 4 £200 -46.67% 11
North East -6 2 £550 +29.41% 6

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 (5.35%) SharePoint
2 16 (3.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.92%) OpenStack
4 6 (1.46%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.97%) Confluence
6 2 (0.49%) 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 42 (10.22%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (3.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (3.41%) MS Visio
3 13 (3.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.24%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 1 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 76 (18.49%) Azure
2 55 (13.38%) AWS
3 42 (10.22%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (4.62%) Entra ID
5 16 (3.89%) GCP
6 8 (1.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 6 (1.46%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (1.46%) Microsoft Purview
7 6 (1.46%) OpenShift
8 5 (1.22%) GitHub
9 4 (0.97%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.97%) OneDrive
9 4 (0.97%) SaaS
10 3 (0.73%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (0.73%) Cloud Computing
10 3 (0.73%) Power Platform
10 3 (0.73%) Serverless
11 2 (0.49%) Akamai
11 2 (0.49%) Azure Service Bus
11 2 (0.49%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 319 (77.62%) WAN
2 171 (41.61%) Firewall
3 96 (23.36%) SD-WAN
4 92 (22.38%) VPN
4 92 (22.38%) Wi-Fi
5 79 (19.22%) DNS
6 72 (17.52%) Wireless
7 69 (16.79%) DHCP
8 66 (16.06%) TCP/IP
9 59 (14.36%) BGP
10 57 (13.87%) MPLS
11 54 (13.14%) Network Security
12 53 (12.90%) VLAN
13 46 (11.19%) Cisco Nexus
14 44 (10.71%) OSPF
15 40 (9.73%) WLAN
16 27 (6.57%) Cisco IOS
17 21 (5.11%) Cisco ASA
18 20 (4.87%) VoIP
19 17 (4.14%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.19%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.46%) Oracle Database
3 4 (0.97%) MS Access
4 3 (0.73%) Apache Cassandra
4 3 (0.73%) 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 9 (2.19%) JIRA
2 5 (1.22%) Git
3 2 (0.49%) Bitbucket
3 2 (0.49%) GitLab
3 2 (0.49%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.24%) Jenkins
General
1 123 (29.93%) Social Skills
2 51 (12.41%) Telecoms
3 47 (11.44%) Analytical Skills
4 44 (10.71%) Public Sector
5 38 (9.25%) Finance
6 18 (4.38%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (4.14%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.19%) Banking
9 8 (1.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.95%) Military
10 7 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.46%) Legal
11 6 (1.46%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (1.22%) Electronics
12 5 (1.22%) Local Government
12 5 (1.22%) Marketing
12 5 (1.22%) Retail
13 4 (0.97%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.73%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 112 (27.25%) Network Engineer
2 92 (22.38%) Architect
3 70 (17.03%) Network Architect
4 36 (8.76%) Support Engineer
5 35 (8.52%) Analyst
6 28 (6.81%) Senior
7 24 (5.84%) Support Analyst
8 23 (5.60%) Technical Support
9 21 (5.11%) 2nd Line Support
10 20 (4.87%) Field Engineer
11 19 (4.62%) IT Support
12 18 (4.38%) IT Engineer
13 17 (4.14%) Project Manager
14 16 (3.89%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 16 (3.89%) Technical Analyst
14 16 (3.89%) Technical Support Analyst
15 15 (3.65%) IT Technician
15 15 (3.65%) Senior Network Engineer
16 13 (3.16%) Solutions Architect
17 12 (2.92%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.95%) Middleware
2 7 (1.70%) NETCONF
2 7 (1.70%) YANG
3 6 (1.46%) REST
4 3 (0.73%) 802.1X
4 3 (0.73%) EDI
5 2 (0.49%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.49%) JSON
5 2 (0.49%) Node.js
5 2 (0.49%) XML
6 1 (0.24%) HTML
6 1 (0.24%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.24%) Jinja
6 1 (0.24%) LAMP
6 1 (0.24%) LDAP
6 1 (0.24%) RESTCONF
6 1 (0.24%) RFC 2544
6 1 (0.24%) SOAP
6 1 (0.24%) Spring
6 1 (0.24%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 57 (13.87%) Data Centre
2 22 (5.35%) Driving Licence
3 18 (4.38%) Virtual Team
4 16 (3.89%) Hybrid Cloud
5 15 (3.65%) NHS
6 12 (2.92%) CMDB
7 11 (2.68%) Onboarding
8 10 (2.43%) Cloud Native
8 10 (2.43%) Management Information System
9 7 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.46%) Data Protection Act
10 6 (1.46%) SCADA
11 5 (1.22%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.22%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.22%) Replication
11 5 (1.22%) Video Conferencing
12 4 (0.97%) CCTV
12 4 (0.97%) Fibre Optics
13 3 (0.73%) iPhone
13 3 (0.73%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 95 (23.11%) Windows
2 31 (7.54%) Windows Server
3 26 (6.33%) Windows 10
4 19 (4.62%) Linux
5 9 (2.19%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (1.95%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (1.70%) Android
7 7 (1.70%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.70%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.97%) Windows Server 2012
9 3 (0.73%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.49%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.24%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.24%) MVS
11 1 (0.24%) SUSE
11 1 (0.24%) VMS
11 1 (0.24%) Windows 8
11 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.24%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (16.55%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (16.06%) Network Design
3 43 (10.46%) Migration
3 43 (10.46%) Network Architecture
4 42 (10.22%) ITIL
5 34 (8.27%) Customer Service
6 31 (7.54%) Cybersecurity
6 31 (7.54%) Stakeholder Management
7 30 (7.30%) Service Management
8 29 (7.06%) Network Monitoring
9 27 (6.57%) Change Management
9 27 (6.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 26 (6.33%) Load Balancing
10 26 (6.33%) Project Delivery
11 25 (6.08%) Agile
11 25 (6.08%) Continuous Improvement
12 21 (5.11%) Roadmaps
13 20 (4.87%) Project Management
13 20 (4.87%) Service Delivery
14 19 (4.62%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 41 (9.98%) Python
2 19 (4.62%) PowerShell
3 9 (2.19%) VB
4 6 (1.46%) SQL
4 6 (1.46%) VBScript
5 4 (0.97%) Perl
6 2 (0.49%) Bicep
6 2 (0.49%) Java
6 2 (0.49%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.24%) Bash
7 1 (0.24%) C
7 1 (0.24%) C++
7 1 (0.24%) Go
Qualifications
1 103 (25.06%) Cisco Certification
2 95 (23.11%) Security Cleared
3 72 (17.52%) CCNP
4 57 (13.87%) SC Cleared
5 44 (10.71%) DV Cleared
6 42 (10.22%) CCNA
7 35 (8.52%) Degree
8 34 (8.27%) CCIE
9 18 (4.38%) JNCIE
10 13 (3.16%) AWS Certification
11 11 (2.68%) Microsoft Certification
12 9 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (1.95%) Computer Science Degree
13 8 (1.95%) JNCIP
13 8 (1.95%) MCSE
13 8 (1.95%) Network+ Certification
14 7 (1.70%) CCSA
14 7 (1.70%) CISSP
14 7 (1.70%) HNC
14 7 (1.70%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (4.87%) SLA
2 11 (2.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.95%) NIST
4 7 (1.70%) GDPR
4 7 (1.70%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.97%) PMO
6 2 (0.49%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.24%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.24%) COBIT
7 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.24%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.24%) MiFID
7 1 (0.24%) NCSC
7 1 (0.24%) QA
System Software
1 60 (14.60%) Active Directory
2 26 (6.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (3.65%) VMware NSX
4 10 (2.43%) Hyper-V
5 8 (1.95%) Firmware
6 7 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (1.22%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.49%) Docker
8 2 (0.49%) ProxySG
8 2 (0.49%) 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 (9.25%) Ansible
2 26 (6.33%) Terraform
3 23 (5.60%) FortiGate
4 18 (4.38%) SCCM
5 14 (3.41%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (0.97%) Cisco CUCM
6 4 (0.97%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (0.97%) HP ALM
6 4 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.73%) CA Spectrum
7 3 (0.73%) Kubernetes
7 3 (0.73%) SCOM
8 2 (0.49%) AppManager
8 2 (0.49%) HAProxy
8 2 (0.49%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.49%) OpenView
9 1 (0.24%) Grafana
9 1 (0.24%) Icinga
9 1 (0.24%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.24%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 195 (47.45%) Cisco
2 83 (20.19%) Microsoft
3 61 (14.84%) Fortinet
4 49 (11.92%) Juniper
5 44 (10.71%) Palo Alto
6 40 (9.73%) F5
7 39 (9.49%) VMware
8 27 (6.57%) Meraki
9 24 (5.84%) Citrix
10 20 (4.87%) ServiceNow
10 20 (4.87%) SolarWinds
11 19 (4.62%) CheckPoint
12 14 (3.41%) Aruba
13 13 (3.16%) Zscaler
14 12 (2.92%) Oracle
15 11 (2.68%) HP
15 11 (2.68%) Remedy
16 8 (1.95%) SAP
17 7 (1.70%) Peregrine
18 6 (1.46%) Nokia