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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 234 174 112
Rank change year-on-year -60 -62 +71
Contract jobs citing LAN 412 523 1,014
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.43% 2.17%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.25% 11.86% 15.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 273 299 660
10th Percentile £200 £223 £205
25th Percentile £275 £350 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.53% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £619
90th Percentile £638 £673 £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 41
10th Percentile £13.98 £19.61 £17.72
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £23.80 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.05% -40.50% +81.82%
75th Percentile £35.00 £40.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £68.90 £71.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £22.40 £40.00
% change year-on-year +33.93% -44.00% +81.82%

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 4,020 4,410 6,565
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.32% 12.04% 14.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,606 2,546 4,097
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 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -4.63% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 166 342
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.83 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.50 £24.63 £22.81
Median hourly rate £35.00 £46.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.32% -15.91% +30.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -73 343 £450 -9.09% 299
UK excluding London -72 238 £350 -22.22% 246
London -1 142 £450 -13.46% 103
Work from Home -32 95 £450 -10.00% 108
South East -32 55 £550 +15.79% 84
North of England -77 50 £225 -50.98% 36
Midlands -52 43 £450 +20.00% 38
West Midlands -23 39 £475 -5.00% 24
Scotland +17 37 £288 -28.13% 17
North West -38 37 £133 -73.23% 17
East of England -24 28 £300 -45.45% 31
South West -17 14 £431 +3.60% 33
Yorkshire -58 11 £231 -0.54% 13
Wales +6 8 £200 -9.09% 9
Northern Ireland -4 4 £475 - 5
East Midlands -42 4 £200 -46.67% 14
North East -10 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 (5.34%) SharePoint
2 15 (3.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.91%) 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 (10.19%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (3.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (3.40%) 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 77 (18.69%) Azure
2 55 (13.35%) AWS
3 42 (10.19%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (4.61%) Entra ID
5 16 (3.88%) GCP
6 8 (1.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 6 (1.46%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (1.46%) OpenShift
8 5 (1.21%) GitHub
8 5 (1.21%) Microsoft Purview
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 Functions
11 2 (0.49%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 321 (77.91%) WAN
2 173 (41.99%) Firewall
3 94 (22.82%) SD-WAN
4 93 (22.57%) VPN
4 93 (22.57%) Wi-Fi
5 81 (19.66%) DNS
6 73 (17.72%) Wireless
7 71 (17.23%) DHCP
8 66 (16.02%) TCP/IP
9 57 (13.83%) BGP
10 54 (13.11%) Network Security
11 53 (12.86%) VLAN
12 52 (12.62%) MPLS
13 47 (11.41%) Cisco Nexus
14 45 (10.92%) OSPF
15 39 (9.47%) WLAN
16 26 (6.31%) Cisco IOS
17 20 (4.85%) Cisco ASA
17 20 (4.85%) VoIP
18 17 (4.13%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.18%) 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 (2.18%) JIRA
2 5 (1.21%) Git
3 2 (0.49%) Bitbucket
3 2 (0.49%) GitLab
3 2 (0.49%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.24%) Jenkins
General
1 122 (29.61%) Social Skills
2 51 (12.38%) Telecoms
3 46 (11.17%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (10.44%) Public Sector
5 38 (9.22%) Finance
6 18 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (4.13%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.18%) Banking
9 8 (1.94%) Military
10 7 (1.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.46%) Legal
11 6 (1.46%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (1.21%) Electronics
12 5 (1.21%) Local Government
12 5 (1.21%) Marketing
13 4 (0.97%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
13 4 (0.97%) Retail
14 3 (0.73%) Law
Job Titles
1 112 (27.18%) Network Engineer
2 92 (22.33%) Architect
3 70 (16.99%) Network Architect
4 37 (8.98%) Support Engineer
5 36 (8.74%) Analyst
6 25 (6.07%) Senior
7 24 (5.83%) Support Analyst
7 24 (5.83%) Technical Support
8 21 (5.10%) 2nd Line Support
8 21 (5.10%) Field Engineer
9 19 (4.61%) IT Support
10 18 (4.37%) IT Engineer
11 17 (4.13%) Project Manager
12 16 (3.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 16 (3.88%) Technical Analyst
12 16 (3.88%) Technical Support Analyst
13 15 (3.64%) IT Technician
14 13 (3.16%) Senior Network Engineer
14 13 (3.16%) Solutions Architect
15 12 (2.91%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.94%) Middleware
2 7 (1.70%) NETCONF
2 7 (1.70%) YANG
3 6 (1.46%) REST
4 3 (0.73%) 802.1X
5 2 (0.49%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.49%) EDI
5 2 (0.49%) JSON
5 2 (0.49%) Node.js
5 2 (0.49%) RFC 2544
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%) React
6 1 (0.24%) SOAP
6 1 (0.24%) Spring
6 1 (0.24%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 60 (14.56%) Data Centre
2 22 (5.34%) Driving Licence
3 18 (4.37%) Virtual Team
4 16 (3.88%) Hybrid Cloud
5 15 (3.64%) NHS
6 12 (2.91%) CMDB
7 11 (2.67%) 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 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.21%) Fibre Optics
11 5 (1.21%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.21%) Replication
11 5 (1.21%) Video Conferencing
12 4 (0.97%) CCTV
13 3 (0.73%) iPhone
13 3 (0.73%) IVR
Operating Systems
1 96 (23.30%) Windows
2 31 (7.52%) Windows Server
3 26 (6.31%) Windows 10
4 20 (4.85%) Linux
5 9 (2.18%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (1.94%) 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 67 (16.26%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (16.02%) Network Design
3 44 (10.68%) Network Architecture
4 42 (10.19%) ITIL
5 40 (9.71%) Migration
6 34 (8.25%) Customer Service
7 32 (7.77%) Cybersecurity
8 31 (7.52%) Network Monitoring
8 31 (7.52%) Stakeholder Management
9 30 (7.28%) Service Management
10 28 (6.80%) Load Balancing
11 27 (6.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 26 (6.31%) Change Management
12 26 (6.31%) Project Delivery
13 25 (6.07%) Agile
13 25 (6.07%) Continuous Improvement
14 22 (5.34%) Roadmaps
15 20 (4.85%) Project Management
15 20 (4.85%) Service Delivery
16 19 (4.61%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 41 (9.95%) Python
2 19 (4.61%) PowerShell
3 9 (2.18%) 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
1 104 (25.24%) Cisco Certification
2 94 (22.82%) Security Cleared
3 72 (17.48%) CCNP
4 57 (13.83%) SC Cleared
5 44 (10.68%) CCNA
6 43 (10.44%) DV Cleared
7 35 (8.50%) Degree
8 33 (8.01%) CCIE
9 18 (4.37%) JNCIE
10 13 (3.16%) AWS Certification
11 11 (2.67%) Microsoft Certification
12 9 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
13 8 (1.94%) JNCIP
13 8 (1.94%) MCSE
13 8 (1.94%) 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 (4.85%) SLA
2 11 (2.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.94%) NIST
4 7 (1.70%) GDPR
4 7 (1.70%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.97%) PMO
6 2 (0.49%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.49%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.49%) QA
7 1 (0.24%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (0.24%) COBIT
7 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.24%) MiFID
7 1 (0.24%) NCSC
System Software
1 60 (14.56%) Active Directory
2 25 (6.07%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (3.64%) VMware NSX
4 10 (2.43%) Hyper-V
5 8 (1.94%) Firmware
6 7 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (1.21%) 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 (9.22%) Ansible
2 26 (6.31%) Terraform
3 23 (5.58%) FortiGate
4 18 (4.37%) SCCM
5 14 (3.40%) 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%) Nagios
9 1 (0.24%) Puppet
Vendors
1 197 (47.82%) Cisco
2 82 (19.90%) Microsoft
3 61 (14.81%) Fortinet
4 48 (11.65%) Juniper
5 43 (10.44%) Palo Alto
6 41 (9.95%) F5
7 38 (9.22%) VMware
8 26 (6.31%) Meraki
9 24 (5.83%) Citrix
10 20 (4.85%) ServiceNow
10 20 (4.85%) SolarWinds
11 17 (4.13%) CheckPoint
12 14 (3.40%) Aruba
13 13 (3.16%) Zscaler
14 12 (2.91%) Oracle
15 11 (2.67%) HP
15 11 (2.67%) Remedy
16 8 (1.94%) SAP
17 7 (1.70%) Peregrine
18 6 (1.46%) Nokia