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 23 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 241 175 122
Rank change year-on-year -66 -53 +60
Contract jobs citing LAN 426 503 898
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.49% 2.07%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.64% 11.69% 14.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 277 303 579
10th Percentile £206 £223 £205
25th Percentile £313 £350 £314
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £468 £463
Median % change year-on-year -3.74% +0.97% +2.89%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £630
90th Percentile £630 £650 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £439 £445
% change year-on-year -8.83% -1.40% +1.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 14 33
10th Percentile £12.97 £18.95 £17.73
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £25.38 £21.44 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.37% -36.95% +54.55%
75th Percentile £56.25 £34.69 £50.00
90th Percentile £85.25 £63.00 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £20.00 £33.00
% change year-on-year -20.00% -39.39% +50.00%

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 4,002 4,304 5,997
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.81% 12.75% 13.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,615 2,519 3,704
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £357 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £610
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 182 147 328
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.13 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.04 £21.46 £22.75
Median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £55.70
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -37.16% +35.75%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.75 £75.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £35.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year +21.43% -38.04% +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 23 December 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 23 December 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 23 December 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 -78 352 £450 -5.26% 325
UK excluding London -66 252 £400 -8.83% 289
London -6 138 £450 -10.00% 92
Work from Home -26 104 £450 -10.00% 87
South East -22 74 £500 +12.68% 94
North of England -83 51 £231 -48.61% 56
Scotland +32 39 £265 -33.75% 11
North West -46 38 £175 -62.57% 35
Midlands -68 36 £425 -2.86% 50
West Midlands -31 33 £450 -10.00% 33
East of England -26 30 £280 -49.09% 31
South West -23 11 £506 +22.73% 31
Yorkshire -70 11 £231 -3.65% 20
Wales +3 6 £335 +67.50% 18
Northern Ireland -4 4 £475 - 4
East Midlands -46 3 £258 -26.43% 15
North East -8 2 £550 - 2

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 25 (5.87%) SharePoint
2 15 (3.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.82%) OpenStack
4 6 (1.41%) Skype for Business
5 5 (1.17%) Confluence
6 1 (0.23%) Apache
6 1 (0.23%) CICS
6 1 (0.23%) IIS
6 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.23%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.23%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 34 (7.98%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (4.23%) MS Visio
3 15 (3.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.23%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 82 (19.25%) Azure
2 61 (14.32%) AWS
3 40 (9.39%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (4.23%) Entra ID
4 18 (4.23%) GCP
5 9 (2.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (1.41%) OpenShift
7 5 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
7 5 (1.17%) Microsoft Purview
8 4 (0.94%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 4 (0.94%) Serverless
9 3 (0.70%) AWS Direct Connect
9 3 (0.70%) Power Platform
9 3 (0.70%) SaaS
10 2 (0.47%) Akamai
10 2 (0.47%) AWS IoT
10 2 (0.47%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.47%) Azure Service Bus
10 2 (0.47%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (0.47%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 331 (77.70%) WAN
2 186 (43.66%) Firewall
3 122 (28.64%) VPN
4 107 (25.12%) SD-WAN
5 97 (22.77%) Wi-Fi
6 79 (18.54%) BGP
7 71 (16.67%) Wireless
8 70 (16.43%) Network Security
9 66 (15.49%) DNS
9 66 (15.49%) TCP/IP
10 63 (14.79%) MPLS
11 62 (14.55%) OSPF
12 54 (12.68%) DHCP
13 51 (11.97%) VLAN
14 49 (11.50%) Cisco Nexus
15 43 (10.09%) WLAN
16 30 (7.04%) IPsec
17 25 (5.87%) Cisco ASA
18 20 (4.69%) VoIP
19 18 (4.23%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.58%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.41%) Oracle Database
3 4 (0.94%) MS Access
4 3 (0.70%) Apache Cassandra
4 3 (0.70%) Power BI
5 2 (0.47%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.47%) MariaDB
5 2 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.23%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.23%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.23%) MySQL
6 1 (0.23%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 10 (2.35%) JIRA
2 2 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.23%) Git
3 1 (0.23%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.23%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 127 (29.81%) Social Skills
2 55 (12.91%) Analytical Skills
3 52 (12.21%) Public Sector
4 47 (11.03%) Telecoms
5 32 (7.51%) Finance
6 27 (6.34%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (3.99%) Manufacturing
8 13 (3.05%) Military
9 10 (2.35%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (1.88%) Banking
10 8 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (1.41%) Legal
12 6 (1.41%) Local Government
12 6 (1.41%) Marketing
13 5 (1.17%) Electronics
13 5 (1.17%) Retail
14 4 (0.94%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
16 2 (0.47%) Police
Job Titles
1 127 (29.81%) Network Engineer
2 99 (23.24%) Architect
3 76 (17.84%) Network Architect
4 35 (8.22%) Analyst
5 32 (7.51%) Senior
6 25 (5.87%) Support Analyst
7 22 (5.16%) Support Engineer
8 21 (4.93%) IT Support
9 19 (4.46%) Project Manager
9 19 (4.46%) Technical Support
10 18 (4.23%) Field Engineer
10 18 (4.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 18 (4.23%) Senior Network Engineer
11 17 (3.99%) 2nd Line Support
12 16 (3.76%) Technical Analyst
12 16 (3.76%) Technical Support Analyst
13 15 (3.52%) Lead
14 14 (3.29%) IT Engineer
15 13 (3.05%) Solutions Architect
16 12 (2.82%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (1.64%) LDAP
1 7 (1.64%) Middleware
2 6 (1.41%) NETCONF
2 6 (1.41%) REST
2 6 (1.41%) YANG
3 3 (0.70%) 802.1X
3 3 (0.70%) EDI
3 3 (0.70%) SAML
4 2 (0.47%) ARM Templates
4 2 (0.47%) Node.js
4 2 (0.47%) YAML
5 1 (0.23%) .NET
5 1 (0.23%) CSS
5 1 (0.23%) HTML
5 1 (0.23%) Java RMI
5 1 (0.23%) LAMP
5 1 (0.23%) LAPP Stack
5 1 (0.23%) libvirt
5 1 (0.23%) React
5 1 (0.23%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 70 (16.43%) Data Centre
2 20 (4.69%) Driving Licence
2 20 (4.69%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (3.52%) NHS
4 12 (2.82%) Onboarding
5 10 (2.35%) CMDB
5 10 (2.35%) Data Protection Act
5 10 (2.35%) Management Information System
6 8 (1.88%) Operational Technology
6 8 (1.88%) SCADA
7 6 (1.41%) Cloud Native
7 6 (1.41%) PKI
7 6 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
7 6 (1.41%) Video Conferencing
8 5 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (1.17%) Replication
8 5 (1.17%) Virtual Team
9 4 (0.94%) iPhone
10 3 (0.70%) 3D Printing
10 3 (0.70%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 95 (22.30%) Windows
2 36 (8.45%) Windows Server
3 26 (6.10%) Windows 10
4 22 (5.16%) Linux
5 13 (3.05%) Windows Server 2016
6 9 (2.11%) Windows Server 2019
7 8 (1.88%) Android
8 6 (1.41%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.41%) Windows 7
9 5 (1.17%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.94%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.94%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.47%) CatOS
12 1 (0.23%) MVS
12 1 (0.23%) SUSE
12 1 (0.23%) VMS
12 1 (0.23%) Windows 8
12 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.23%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (16.90%) Problem-Solving
2 68 (15.96%) Network Design
3 47 (11.03%) Migration
4 45 (10.56%) ITIL
4 45 (10.56%) Network Architecture
5 37 (8.69%) Cybersecurity
5 37 (8.69%) Stakeholder Management
6 32 (7.51%) Project Delivery
7 31 (7.28%) Network Monitoring
8 30 (7.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 29 (6.81%) Customer Service
10 26 (6.10%) High Availability
11 25 (5.87%) Service Management
12 24 (5.63%) Zero Trust
13 23 (5.40%) Roadmaps
13 23 (5.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 22 (5.16%) Load Balancing
15 21 (4.93%) Change Management
15 21 (4.93%) ITSM
16 20 (4.69%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (8.45%) Python
2 21 (4.93%) PowerShell
3 11 (2.58%) SQL
4 6 (1.41%) Perl
4 6 (1.41%) VB
4 6 (1.41%) VBScript
5 2 (0.47%) Bash
5 2 (0.47%) Bicep
6 1 (0.23%) C#
6 1 (0.23%) Java
6 1 (0.23%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.23%) Ruby
6 1 (0.23%) Shell Script
6 1 (0.23%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 125 (29.34%) Security Cleared
2 120 (28.17%) Cisco Certification
3 96 (22.54%) CCNP
4 83 (19.48%) SC Cleared
5 46 (10.80%) DV Cleared
6 44 (10.33%) Degree
7 41 (9.62%) CCIE
8 36 (8.45%) CCNA
9 20 (4.69%) JNCIE
10 13 (3.05%) AWS Certification
11 11 (2.58%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (2.35%) BPSS Clearance
12 10 (2.35%) JNCIP
12 10 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
13 8 (1.88%) Azure Certification
13 8 (1.88%) CCSE
13 8 (1.88%) CISSP
13 8 (1.88%) JNCIS
14 7 (1.64%) HNC
14 7 (1.64%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (3.99%) SLA
2 14 (3.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (2.11%) NIST
4 8 (1.88%) GDPR
5 7 (1.64%) PCI DSS
6 5 (1.17%) PMO
7 4 (0.94%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.94%) QA
8 2 (0.47%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.47%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.47%) NCSC
9 1 (0.23%) COBIT
9 1 (0.23%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.23%) GRC
9 1 (0.23%) MiFID
9 1 (0.23%) RMADS
System Software
1 64 (15.02%) Active Directory
2 27 (6.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.23%) VMware NSX
4 9 (2.11%) Hyper-V
5 6 (1.41%) Firmware
6 5 (1.17%) BitLocker
6 5 (1.17%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.70%) Docker
7 3 (0.70%) KVM
8 2 (0.47%) NFS
8 2 (0.47%) ProxySG
8 2 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.47%) VMware Workstation
8 2 (0.47%) Xen
9 1 (0.23%) Ceph
9 1 (0.23%) iptables
9 1 (0.23%) Lustre
9 1 (0.23%) RHEV
9 1 (0.23%) Samba
Systems Management
1 37 (8.69%) Ansible
2 30 (7.04%) Terraform
3 20 (4.69%) FortiGate
4 15 (3.52%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (3.29%) SCCM
6 7 (1.64%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.94%) Cisco CUCM
7 4 (0.94%) Nagios
7 4 (0.94%) SCOM
8 3 (0.70%) CA Spectrum
8 3 (0.70%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.70%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.70%) WSUS
9 2 (0.47%) Check_MK
9 2 (0.47%) Endace
9 2 (0.47%) Grafana
9 2 (0.47%) Nessus
10 1 (0.23%) Norton AntiVirus
10 1 (0.23%) Puppet
10 1 (0.23%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 213 (50.00%) Cisco
2 76 (17.84%) Microsoft
3 73 (17.14%) Fortinet
4 69 (16.20%) Palo Alto
5 61 (14.32%) Juniper
6 42 (9.86%) F5
6 42 (9.86%) VMware
7 38 (8.92%) CheckPoint
8 33 (7.75%) Meraki
9 28 (6.57%) Aruba
10 24 (5.63%) SolarWinds
11 21 (4.93%) ServiceNow
12 20 (4.69%) Zscaler
13 18 (4.23%) Citrix
14 11 (2.58%) Oracle
15 10 (2.35%) SAP
16 7 (1.64%) LogicMonitor
16 7 (1.64%) Veeam
17 6 (1.41%) Arista
17 6 (1.41%) Nokia