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 20 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 215 210 169
Rank change year-on-year -5 -41 -32
Contract jobs citing LAN 586 381 623
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.28% 1.42%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.14% 10.26% 11.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 366 225 347
10th Percentile £228 £208 £203
25th Percentile £363 £325 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £569 £631
90th Percentile £619 £625 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £450
% change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 16 45
10th Percentile £12.76 £19.54 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.36 £27.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +33.33% -65.38%
75th Percentile £34.26 £40.81 £40.00
90th Percentile £70.60 £51.00 £43.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -25.00% +33.33% -65.38%

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 4,827 3,712 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.53% 12.43% 12.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,970 2,280 3,213
10th Percentile £250 £225 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -1.48%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £471 £488
% change year-on-year +1.91% -3.38% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 296 171 425
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.69 £20.93 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.94 £45.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.91% +12.50% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.69 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.13 £80.00 £72.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £32.77 £47.50
% change year-on-year -18.46% -31.01% +150.00%

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 20 June 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 20 June 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 20 June 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 -6 502 £450 -5.26% 166
UK excluding London +3 414 £450 +5.88% 190
South East +9 169 £475 -5.00% 52
London -71 120 £500 +4.17% 36
Work from Home -28 115 £475 - 78
North of England -41 80 £450 +38.46% 30
Midlands -36 57 £285 -34.86% 28
Scotland +10 43 £450 +14.43% 19
East of England -10 42 £350 -18.60% 18
North West -38 42 £525 +61.54% 18
West Midlands -46 42 £338 -15.63% 19
Yorkshire -27 38 £438 +9.31% 8
South West -41 16 £500 +25.00% 18
East Midlands -11 12 £200 -61.90% 9
Wales -19 7 £475 +105.41% 8
Northern Ireland - 3 £468 - 24
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 (5.12%) SharePoint
2 22 (3.75%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (2.39%) Confluence
4 7 (1.19%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.85%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.34%) CMS
6 2 (0.34%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 20 (3.41%) MS Visio
2 16 (2.73%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.68%) Acrobat
6 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.34%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 133 (22.70%) Azure
2 87 (14.85%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (10.07%) AWS
4 40 (6.83%) Entra ID
5 23 (3.92%) SaaS
6 18 (3.07%) OneDrive
7 12 (2.05%) PaaS
8 10 (1.71%) GCP
9 8 (1.37%) Power Platform
9 8 (1.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 7 (1.19%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 5 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (0.85%) IaaS
13 4 (0.68%) AWS Direct Connect
13 4 (0.68%) Nutanix
14 3 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
14 3 (0.51%) Google Ads
15 2 (0.34%) IBM Watson
16 1 (0.17%) Amazon Bedrock
Communications & Networking
1 485 (82.76%) WAN
2 279 (47.61%) Firewall
3 155 (26.45%) VPN
4 144 (24.57%) BGP
5 141 (24.06%) Wi-Fi
6 137 (23.38%) SD-WAN
7 127 (21.67%) OSPF
8 125 (21.33%) Network Security
9 118 (20.14%) DNS
10 107 (18.26%) Wireless
11 91 (15.53%) DHCP
12 78 (13.31%) MPLS
13 76 (12.97%) VLAN
14 73 (12.46%) WLAN
15 68 (11.60%) TCP/IP
16 50 (8.53%) IPsec
17 47 (8.02%) Cisco ISE
18 43 (7.34%) BIG-IP
18 43 (7.34%) Cisco Nexus
19 38 (6.48%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.85%) 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 31 (5.29%) JIRA
2 4 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.34%) Git
4 2 (0.34%) GitLab
4 2 (0.34%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 158 (26.96%) Social Skills
2 50 (8.53%) Public Sector
3 42 (7.17%) Telecoms
4 40 (6.83%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (6.31%) Finance
6 29 (4.95%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.75%) Legal
7 22 (3.75%) Manufacturing
8 17 (2.90%) Financial Institution
9 14 (2.39%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (1.54%) Law
10 9 (1.54%) Military
11 8 (1.37%) Banking
12 7 (1.19%) Retail
13 6 (1.02%) Police
14 3 (0.51%) German Language
14 3 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.51%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.51%) Local Government
15 2 (0.34%) Billing
Job Titles
1 241 (41.13%) Network Engineer
2 82 (13.99%) Architect
3 64 (10.92%) Senior
4 56 (9.56%) Network Architect
5 41 (7.00%) IT Support
5 41 (7.00%) Support Engineer
6 35 (5.97%) IT Engineer
7 30 (5.12%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 29 (4.95%) Cisco Engineer
8 29 (4.95%) IT Support Engineer
8 29 (4.95%) Senior Network Engineer
9 28 (4.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 26 (4.44%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 25 (4.27%) Analyst
11 25 (4.27%) Lead
12 19 (3.24%) Technical Architect
13 16 (2.73%) LAN Engineer
13 16 (2.73%) Network Manager
14 15 (2.56%) Network Specialist
14 15 (2.56%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (8.36%) 802.1X
2 10 (1.71%) Microsoft Graph
2 10 (1.71%) SAML
3 9 (1.54%) LDAP
4 8 (1.37%) REST
5 7 (1.19%) NETCONF
5 7 (1.19%) YANG
6 5 (0.85%) Middleware
7 3 (0.51%) Software Packaging
7 3 (0.51%) XMPP
8 2 (0.34%) .NET
8 2 (0.34%) Django
8 2 (0.34%) RFC 2544
9 1 (0.17%) Apache NiFi
9 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
9 1 (0.17%) CSS
9 1 (0.17%) HTML
9 1 (0.17%) Java RMI
9 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
9 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 115 (19.62%) Data Centre
2 31 (5.29%) PKI
3 26 (4.44%) Clustering
4 25 (4.27%) Hybrid Cloud
4 25 (4.27%) Onboarding
5 17 (2.90%) Security Posture
6 13 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
7 12 (2.05%) Driving Licence
8 11 (1.88%) Cloud Native
9 10 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (1.71%) NHS
9 10 (1.71%) Operational Technology
9 10 (1.71%) Public Cloud
9 10 (1.71%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.54%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.37%) IoT
12 7 (1.19%) CMDB
13 6 (1.02%) CCTV
13 6 (1.02%) Private Cloud
13 6 (1.02%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 179 (30.55%) Windows
2 49 (8.36%) Windows Server
3 37 (6.31%) Linux
4 29 (4.95%) Windows 10
5 18 (3.07%) Windows Server 2019
6 15 (2.56%) Mac OS
7 10 (1.71%) Android
8 8 (1.37%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.19%) Apple iOS
10 5 (0.85%) VMS
10 5 (0.85%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.51%) CatOS
11 3 (0.51%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.51%) Unix
11 3 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.34%) AIX
12 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.17%) CentOS
13 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (16.55%) ITIL
2 85 (14.51%) High Availability
3 82 (13.99%) Problem-Solving
4 69 (11.77%) Load Balancing
5 55 (9.39%) Migration
6 53 (9.04%) Stakeholder Management
7 51 (8.70%) Continuous Improvement
8 48 (8.19%) Change Management
8 48 (8.19%) Project Delivery
9 46 (7.85%) ITSM
10 44 (7.51%) Network Architecture
11 43 (7.34%) Roadmaps
12 40 (6.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 40 (6.83%) Technical Leadership
13 38 (6.48%) Network Monitoring
14 37 (6.31%) Agile
15 36 (6.14%) Network Design
16 34 (5.80%) Service Management
17 32 (5.46%) Disaster Recovery
18 31 (5.29%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 41 (7.00%) PowerShell
2 38 (6.48%) Python
3 10 (1.71%) SQL
4 5 (0.85%) VBScript
5 4 (0.68%) VB
6 2 (0.34%) C++
6 2 (0.34%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.17%) Bicep
7 1 (0.17%) C
7 1 (0.17%) Java
7 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 198 (33.79%) Security Cleared
2 174 (29.69%) Cisco Certification
3 128 (21.84%) SC Cleared
4 110 (18.77%) CCNP
5 65 (11.09%) DV Cleared
6 63 (10.75%) CCNA
7 45 (7.68%) CCIE
8 44 (7.51%) Degree
9 17 (2.90%) PMP
10 14 (2.39%) Azure Certification
10 14 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
10 14 (2.39%) PMI Certification
11 13 (2.22%) JNCIP
12 12 (2.05%) JNCIS
13 11 (1.88%) JNCIA
14 10 (1.71%) JNCIE
15 9 (1.54%) AWS Certification
16 7 (1.19%) Computer Science Degree
17 6 (1.02%) CCSE
18 4 (0.68%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (2.90%) QA
2 12 (2.05%) SLA
3 11 (1.88%) NIST
4 8 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.37%) NCSC
5 7 (1.19%) Disclosure Scotland
6 5 (0.85%) GDPR
7 3 (0.51%) PMO
8 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.34%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.17%) DICOM
9 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.17%) RMADS
9 1 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 100 (17.06%) Active Directory
2 57 (9.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (4.27%) VMware NSX
4 20 (3.41%) vSphere
5 9 (1.54%) Firmware
6 8 (1.37%) Hyper-V
7 6 (1.02%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.68%) BitLocker
8 4 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
11 1 (0.17%) Docker
11 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 49 (8.36%) FortiGate
2 34 (5.80%) Microsoft Intune
3 32 (5.46%) Ansible
4 16 (2.73%) Terraform
5 15 (2.56%) SCCM
6 13 (2.22%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (1.88%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (1.02%) Cisco Prime
9 4 (0.68%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (0.68%) Endace
9 4 (0.68%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.68%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 3 (0.51%) Nagios
11 2 (0.34%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.34%) CASB
11 2 (0.34%) Grafana
11 2 (0.34%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.34%) WSUS
12 1 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
12 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 291 (49.66%) Cisco
2 129 (22.01%) Microsoft
3 101 (17.24%) Palo Alto
4 90 (15.36%) F5
5 74 (12.63%) Juniper
6 73 (12.46%) VMware
7 66 (11.26%) SolarWinds
8 63 (10.75%) Aruba
9 58 (9.90%) Fortinet
10 57 (9.73%) CheckPoint
11 33 (5.63%) ServiceNow
12 32 (5.46%) Extreme Networks
13 29 (4.95%) Meraki
14 27 (4.61%) Splunk
15 20 (3.41%) Zscaler
16 16 (2.73%) Dell
16 16 (2.73%) Ekahau
17 13 (2.22%) Veeam
18 10 (1.71%) Arista
19 9 (1.54%) Citrix