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 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 238 172 128
Rank change year-on-year -66 -44 +54
Contract jobs citing LAN 418 463 818
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.13% 1.46% 1.92%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.71% 11.42% 14.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 282 521
10th Percentile £211 £223 £203
25th Percentile £311 £350 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.11% - -
75th Percentile £545 £569 £600
90th Percentile £638 £650 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £430 £445
% change year-on-year -1.16% -3.37% +2.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 11 28
10th Percentile £12.97 - £17.13
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £21.00
Median hourly rate £16.00 £20.38 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year -21.47% -43.43% +60.09%
75th Percentile £52.58 £34.38 £52.50
90th Percentile £76.00 £43.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £20.00 £33.44
% change year-on-year -20.00% -40.19% +52.00%

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 3,903 4,056 5,800
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.56% 12.83% 13.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,557 2,375 3,580
10th Percentile £205 £213 £210
25th Percentile £356 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% +3.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 135 328
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.74
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.36 £23.07
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% -42.47% +125.96%
75th Percentile £65.00 £53.13 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.08
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.22 £31.08 £60.00
% change year-on-year +35.84% -48.20% +172.73%

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 14 January 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 14 January 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 14 January 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 -83 342 £450 - 236
UK excluding London -52 259 £425 -1.16% 224
London -36 123 £500 - 56
Work from Home -2 114 £450 -10.00% 122
South East -16 80 £455 +13.75% 71
North of England -80 54 £378 -16.11% 45
Scotland +29 42 £275 -31.25% 14
North West -42 38 £330 -28.76% 20
Midlands -62 32 £425 -4.23% 31
East of England -22 29 £350 -34.88% 32
West Midlands -37 28 £463 -7.50% 23
Yorkshire -63 15 £445 +91.40% 20
South West -39 11 £513 +24.24% 25
Wales +1 6 £335 +67.50% 7
Northern Ireland -2 4 £475 - 5
East Midlands -45 4 £200 -29.82% 8
North East -11 1 £550 - 5

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 26 (6.22%) SharePoint
2 16 (3.83%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.87%) OpenStack
4 8 (1.91%) Skype for Business
5 6 (1.44%) Confluence
6 1 (0.24%) Apache
6 1 (0.24%) CICS
6 1 (0.24%) IIS
6 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.24%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 36 (8.61%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (4.78%) MS Visio
3 16 (3.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (3.59%) Microsoft Excel
5 5 (1.20%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.48%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 91 (21.77%) Azure
2 56 (13.40%) AWS
3 47 (11.24%) Microsoft 365
4 20 (4.78%) Entra ID
5 17 (4.07%) GCP
6 9 (2.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 7 (1.67%) SaaS
8 6 (1.44%) OpenShift
9 4 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.96%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (0.72%) Nutanix
10 3 (0.72%) Serverless
11 2 (0.48%) AWS IoT
11 2 (0.48%) Google Ads
11 2 (0.48%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.48%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.48%) Slack
11 2 (0.48%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 348 (83.25%) WAN
2 168 (40.19%) Firewall
3 131 (31.34%) VPN
4 86 (20.57%) SD-WAN
5 83 (19.86%) Wi-Fi
6 81 (19.38%) BGP
7 68 (16.27%) Network Security
7 68 (16.27%) TCP/IP
8 67 (16.03%) Wireless
9 64 (15.31%) DNS
9 64 (15.31%) OSPF
10 62 (14.83%) MPLS
11 53 (12.68%) DHCP
12 49 (11.72%) VLAN
13 41 (9.81%) WLAN
14 36 (8.61%) IPsec
15 32 (7.66%) Cisco Nexus
16 24 (5.74%) Structured Cabling
17 23 (5.50%) Cisco ASA
18 17 (4.07%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.67%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.96%) MS Access
2 4 (0.96%) Oracle Database
3 2 (0.48%) MariaDB
3 2 (0.48%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (0.48%) Power BI
4 1 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
4 1 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.24%) DynamoDB
4 1 (0.24%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.24%) MySQL
4 1 (0.24%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 10 (2.39%) JIRA
2 1 (0.24%) Git
2 1 (0.24%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.24%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 128 (30.62%) Social Skills
2 48 (11.48%) Public Sector
3 46 (11.00%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (9.09%) Telecoms
5 33 (7.89%) Finance
6 32 (7.66%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (5.02%) Manufacturing
8 16 (3.83%) Military
9 11 (2.63%) Legal
10 10 (2.39%) Banking
11 9 (2.15%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (2.15%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.44%) Law
12 6 (1.44%) Local Government
12 6 (1.44%) Marketing
13 5 (1.20%) Electronics
13 5 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
15 3 (0.72%) Retail
Job Titles
1 136 (32.54%) Network Engineer
2 86 (20.57%) Architect
3 63 (15.07%) Network Architect
4 32 (7.66%) Analyst
4 32 (7.66%) Senior
5 22 (5.26%) Support Analyst
6 21 (5.02%) IT Support
7 19 (4.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 19 (4.55%) Support Engineer
8 18 (4.31%) Field Engineer
8 18 (4.31%) Lead
8 18 (4.31%) Project Manager
8 18 (4.31%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 17 (4.07%) Senior Network Engineer
10 16 (3.83%) 2nd Line Support
10 16 (3.83%) Cisco Engineer
10 16 (3.83%) Technical Support
11 15 (3.59%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 14 (3.35%) IT Engineer
12 14 (3.35%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.91%) LDAP
1 8 (1.91%) Middleware
2 6 (1.44%) NETCONF
2 6 (1.44%) REST
2 6 (1.44%) YANG
3 4 (0.96%) SAML
4 3 (0.72%) 802.1X
5 2 (0.48%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.48%) CSS
5 2 (0.48%) HTML
5 2 (0.48%) XMPP
5 2 (0.48%) YAML
6 1 (0.24%) .NET
6 1 (0.24%) EDI
6 1 (0.24%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.24%) LAMP
6 1 (0.24%) libvirt
6 1 (0.24%) Node.js
6 1 (0.24%) React
6 1 (0.24%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 79 (18.90%) Data Centre
2 22 (5.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 20 (4.78%) Driving Licence
4 17 (4.07%) Onboarding
5 14 (3.35%) CMDB
6 12 (2.87%) Data Protection Act
6 12 (2.87%) NHS
7 10 (2.39%) Management Information System
8 8 (1.91%) Operational Technology
9 7 (1.67%) PKI
9 7 (1.67%) Security Posture
10 6 (1.44%) Cloud Native
10 6 (1.44%) SCADA
10 6 (1.44%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.44%) Video Conferencing
11 5 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (1.20%) Virtual Team
12 4 (0.96%) iPhone
12 4 (0.96%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 99 (23.68%) Windows
2 38 (9.09%) Windows Server
3 30 (7.18%) Windows 10
4 20 (4.78%) Linux
5 12 (2.87%) Windows Server 2016
6 11 (2.63%) Windows Server 2019
7 8 (1.91%) Windows 7
8 7 (1.67%) Android
9 4 (0.96%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.96%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.72%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.48%) CatOS
12 1 (0.24%) MVS
12 1 (0.24%) Solaris
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 66 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
2 60 (14.35%) Network Design
3 58 (13.88%) ITIL
4 53 (12.68%) Migration
5 47 (11.24%) Network Architecture
6 41 (9.81%) Cybersecurity
7 40 (9.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 34 (8.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 34 (8.13%) Project Delivery
9 31 (7.42%) High Availability
9 31 (7.42%) ITSM
10 30 (7.18%) Customer Service
11 29 (6.94%) Change Management
11 29 (6.94%) Network Monitoring
12 25 (5.98%) Zero Trust
13 22 (5.26%) Roadmaps
13 22 (5.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 21 (5.02%) Continuous Improvement
14 21 (5.02%) Network Management
14 21 (5.02%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 32 (7.66%) Python
2 26 (6.22%) PowerShell
3 11 (2.63%) SQL
4 8 (1.91%) VBScript
5 7 (1.67%) VB
6 6 (1.44%) Perl
7 2 (0.48%) Bash
7 2 (0.48%) Bicep
7 2 (0.48%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.24%) C#
8 1 (0.24%) Java
8 1 (0.24%) Ruby
8 1 (0.24%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.24%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 125 (29.90%) Security Cleared
2 121 (28.95%) Cisco Certification
3 94 (22.49%) CCNP
4 92 (22.01%) SC Cleared
5 44 (10.53%) Degree
6 43 (10.29%) DV Cleared
7 41 (9.81%) CCIE
8 37 (8.85%) CCNA
9 21 (5.02%) JNCIE
10 14 (3.35%) AWS Certification
11 12 (2.87%) JNCIP
12 11 (2.63%) CCSE
12 11 (2.63%) Network+ Certification
13 10 (2.39%) Azure Certification
14 9 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
14 9 (2.15%) JNCIS
15 8 (1.91%) Microsoft Certification
16 7 (1.67%) CCDP
16 7 (1.67%) CISSP
16 7 (1.67%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (2.87%) SLA
3 10 (2.39%) NIST
4 9 (2.15%) GDPR
5 7 (1.67%) PCI DSS
6 6 (1.44%) QA
7 5 (1.20%) PMO
8 4 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.72%) JSP 440
9 3 (0.72%) NCSC
10 2 (0.48%) RMADS
11 1 (0.24%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.24%) COBIT
11 1 (0.24%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.24%) GRC
11 1 (0.24%) MiFID
11 1 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 63 (15.07%) Active Directory
2 29 (6.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.31%) VMware NSX
4 8 (1.91%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.67%) BitLocker
6 6 (1.44%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.72%) Docker
7 3 (0.72%) KVM
7 3 (0.72%) vSphere
8 2 (0.48%) Firmware
8 2 (0.48%) NFS
8 2 (0.48%) ProxySG
8 2 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.48%) Xen
9 1 (0.24%) Ceph
9 1 (0.24%) RHEV
9 1 (0.24%) Samba
9 1 (0.24%) SRDF
9 1 (0.24%) Veritas Cluster Server
9 1 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 34 (8.13%) Ansible
2 30 (7.18%) Terraform
3 23 (5.50%) Microsoft Intune
4 19 (4.55%) FortiGate
5 16 (3.83%) SCCM
6 8 (1.91%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.20%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.96%) Nagios
8 4 (0.96%) SCOM
9 3 (0.72%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.72%) Endace
9 3 (0.72%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.72%) WSUS
10 2 (0.48%) Check_MK
10 2 (0.48%) Grafana
10 2 (0.48%) Nessus
10 2 (0.48%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.24%) HAProxy
11 1 (0.24%) Puppet
11 1 (0.24%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 192 (45.93%) Cisco
2 84 (20.10%) Microsoft
3 80 (19.14%) Palo Alto
4 58 (13.88%) Fortinet
5 52 (12.44%) Juniper
6 45 (10.77%) CheckPoint
7 43 (10.29%) VMware
8 41 (9.81%) Aruba
9 40 (9.57%) F5
10 33 (7.89%) Meraki
11 29 (6.94%) SolarWinds
12 24 (5.74%) ServiceNow
13 21 (5.02%) Zscaler
14 14 (3.35%) Citrix
14 14 (3.35%) Veeam
15 10 (2.39%) SAP
16 7 (1.67%) Arista
16 7 (1.67%) Oracle
17 6 (1.44%) CrowdStrike
17 6 (1.44%) LogicMonitor