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 6 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 273 236 180
Rank change year-on-year -37 -56 -68
Contract jobs citing LAN 529 388 516
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.97% 1.18% 1.37%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.47% 10.30% 11.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 314 247 290
10th Percentile £213 £196 £223
25th Percentile £325 £307 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £575
90th Percentile £623 £630 £673
UK excluding London median daily rate £467 £400 £450
% change year-on-year +16.81% -11.11% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 27 23
10th Percentile £12.71 £14.49 £18.80
25th Percentile £16.25 £22.25 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -10.93% +26.05% -37.43%
75th Percentile £73.00 £36.88 £37.63
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.35 £73.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £22.45
% change year-on-year -25.00% +33.63% -43.88%

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 5,051 3,768 4,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.24% 11.48% 11.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,910 2,381 2,585
10th Percentile £231 £219 £225
25th Percentile £389 £361 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £606
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £453 £485
% change year-on-year +4.86% -6.60% +6.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 435 200 199
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £21.15 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £41.48 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.64% -17.05% -11.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.94 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.29 £42.50 £57.30
% change year-on-year -38.15% -25.83% -0.35%

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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 October 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 -59 428 £500 +11.11% 519
UK excluding London -10 375 £467 +16.81% 354
London -116 113 £500 - 168
South East -27 101 £500 - 121
Work from Home -60 96 £500 +5.26% 187
North of England -39 77 £500 +203.03% 68
Scotland +23 69 £265 -31.61% 8
Midlands -32 49 £375 -6.25% 67
East of England 0 46 £435 +117.50% 43
North West -40 43 £519 +291.77% 36
West Midlands -45 37 £450 -2.70% 42
Yorkshire -8 34 £450 +89.47% 26
South West -26 28 £425 +37.10% 34
East Midlands 0 12 £275 +37.50% 25
Wales -21 3 £200 -13.51% 8
Channel Islands - 3 £600 -
Northern Ireland +4 1 - - 9

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 19 (3.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (3.40%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.70%) OpenStack
4 8 (1.51%) CMS
5 7 (1.32%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.57%) Confluence
7 2 (0.38%) IIS
Applications
1 32 (6.05%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (4.91%) MS Visio
3 25 (4.73%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 104 (19.66%) Azure
2 74 (13.99%) Microsoft 365
3 53 (10.02%) AWS
4 30 (5.67%) Entra ID
5 13 (2.46%) GCP
6 10 (1.89%) AWS Direct Connect
6 10 (1.89%) OneDrive
6 10 (1.89%) SaaS
7 8 (1.51%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 7 (1.32%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.76%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (0.76%) OpenShift
10 3 (0.57%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (0.57%) Smartsheet
11 2 (0.38%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (0.38%) GitHub
11 2 (0.38%) IaaS
12 1 (0.19%) AWS CloudFormation
12 1 (0.19%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 443 (83.74%) WAN
2 246 (46.50%) Firewall
3 144 (27.22%) VPN
4 134 (25.33%) Network Security
5 125 (23.63%) Wireless
6 120 (22.68%) Wi-Fi
7 112 (21.17%) SD-WAN
8 111 (20.98%) BGP
9 100 (18.90%) MPLS
10 85 (16.07%) DNS
11 80 (15.12%) OSPF
11 80 (15.12%) TCP/IP
12 71 (13.42%) WLAN
13 69 (13.04%) DHCP
14 66 (12.48%) VLAN
15 52 (9.83%) Cisco Nexus
16 51 (9.64%) IPsec
17 35 (6.62%) Cisco ASA
18 34 (6.43%) Cisco ISE
19 24 (4.54%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.13%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.19%) DTS
2 1 (0.19%) Metadata
2 1 (0.19%) Power BI
2 1 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (1.89%) JIRA
2 5 (0.95%) Git
3 4 (0.76%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.19%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.19%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.19%) MSI
5 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio
General
1 177 (33.46%) Social Skills
2 91 (17.20%) Telecoms
3 50 (9.45%) Analytical Skills
4 46 (8.70%) Public Sector
5 33 (6.24%) Finance
6 25 (4.73%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (4.54%) Documentation Skills
8 19 (3.59%) Banking
9 13 (2.46%) Legal
9 13 (2.46%) Retail
10 9 (1.70%) Manufacturing
11 7 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.32%) Police
12 5 (0.95%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.95%) Local Government
13 2 (0.38%) Billing
13 2 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.38%) Law
13 2 (0.38%) Military
14 1 (0.19%) German Language
Job Titles
1 235 (44.42%) Network Engineer
2 65 (12.29%) Senior
3 62 (11.72%) Architect
4 46 (8.70%) Network Architect
5 42 (7.94%) Senior Network Engineer
6 40 (7.56%) Support Engineer
7 38 (7.18%) IT Support
8 29 (5.48%) Cisco Engineer
8 29 (5.48%) IT Engineer
9 25 (4.73%) Field Engineer
9 25 (4.73%) Telecoms Engineer
10 24 (4.54%) IT Support Engineer
10 24 (4.54%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 23 (4.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 20 (3.78%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 17 (3.21%) Developer
13 17 (3.21%) Project Engineer
14 16 (3.02%) Network Field Engineer
14 16 (3.02%) Project Manager
15 15 (2.84%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (4.54%) 802.1X
2 17 (3.21%) Terraform
3 13 (2.46%) NETCONF
4 10 (1.89%) REST
5 9 (1.70%) YANG
6 7 (1.32%) XMPP
7 4 (0.76%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.76%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.76%) SAML
8 3 (0.57%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.57%) LDAP
8 3 (0.57%) RFC 2544
8 3 (0.57%) YAML
9 2 (0.38%) JSON
9 2 (0.38%) Middleware
9 2 (0.38%) ODBC
9 2 (0.38%) Software Packaging
10 1 (0.19%) .NET
10 1 (0.19%) .NET Framework
10 1 (0.19%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 112 (21.17%) Data Centre
2 41 (7.75%) Driving Licence
3 28 (5.29%) Hybrid Cloud
4 25 (4.73%) Video Conferencing
5 24 (4.54%) Self-Motivation
6 23 (4.35%) Onboarding
7 17 (3.21%) Operational Technology
8 16 (3.02%) PKI
9 13 (2.46%) Private Cloud
10 12 (2.27%) Cloud Native
10 12 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
11 11 (2.08%) Security Posture
12 10 (1.89%) Management Information System
13 8 (1.51%) Analytical Mindset
13 8 (1.51%) IoT
13 8 (1.51%) NHS
13 8 (1.51%) SCADA
13 8 (1.51%) Smartphone
14 7 (1.32%) Fibre Optics
14 7 (1.32%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 130 (24.57%) Windows
2 46 (8.70%) Windows Server
3 32 (6.05%) Windows 10
4 31 (5.86%) Linux
5 13 (2.46%) Mac OS
6 12 (2.27%) Windows 7
7 8 (1.51%) Unix
8 5 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.95%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.76%) Android
10 3 (0.57%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.38%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.19%) CatOS
12 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (19.09%) Problem-Solving
2 83 (15.69%) ITIL
3 80 (15.12%) Project Delivery
4 59 (11.15%) Continuous Improvement
5 58 (10.96%) Stakeholder Management
6 54 (10.21%) High Availability
7 46 (8.70%) Load Balancing
7 46 (8.70%) Roadmaps
8 44 (8.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 42 (7.94%) Customer Service
10 41 (7.75%) Network Architecture
11 40 (7.56%) Network Design
12 37 (6.99%) Migration
12 37 (6.99%) Zero Trust
13 36 (6.81%) Technical Leadership
14 35 (6.62%) Mentoring
14 35 (6.62%) Network Monitoring
15 34 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
15 34 (6.43%) Service Management
16 32 (6.05%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 32 (6.05%) Python
2 21 (3.97%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.13%) VB
3 6 (1.13%) VBScript
4 3 (0.57%) Bicep
4 3 (0.57%) SQL
5 2 (0.38%) Bash
5 2 (0.38%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.19%) C++
Qualifications
1 157 (29.68%) Security Cleared
2 147 (27.79%) Cisco Certification
3 95 (17.96%) SC Cleared
4 94 (17.77%) CCNP
5 67 (12.67%) CCNA
6 49 (9.26%) DV Cleared
7 36 (6.81%) CCIE
8 31 (5.86%) Degree
9 13 (2.46%) Azure Certification
10 12 (2.27%) Microsoft Certification
11 10 (1.89%) A+ Certification
12 9 (1.70%) AWS Certification
12 9 (1.70%) JNCIE
12 9 (1.70%) PMI Certification
12 9 (1.70%) PMP
13 8 (1.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (1.13%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
14 6 (1.13%) JNCIS
14 6 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.91%) SLA
2 11 (2.08%) QA
3 10 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.51%) NIST
5 7 (1.32%) NCSC
6 4 (0.76%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.76%) PMO
7 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.57%) GRC
7 3 (0.57%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.38%) GDPR
8 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.19%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.19%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 81 (15.31%) Active Directory
2 52 (9.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.78%) VMware NSX
4 18 (3.40%) vSphere
5 12 (2.27%) Firmware
6 11 (2.08%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (1.89%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (1.32%) BitLocker
9 6 (1.13%) Hyper-V
9 6 (1.13%) VMware ESXi
10 5 (0.95%) Virtual Servers
11 4 (0.76%) FreeRADIUS
12 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 1 (0.19%) NFS
13 1 (0.19%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 34 (6.43%) Ansible
2 31 (5.86%) FortiGate
3 23 (4.35%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (2.84%) SCCM
5 9 (1.70%) Cisco CUCM
6 6 (1.13%) Nagios
6 6 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.13%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.95%) Cisco Prime
7 5 (0.95%) Grafana
8 3 (0.57%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.38%) CASB
9 2 (0.38%) VxRail
10 1 (0.19%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.19%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.19%) Nessus
10 1 (0.19%) TrustSec
10 1 (0.19%) WSUS
Vendors
1 278 (52.55%) Cisco
2 146 (27.60%) Microsoft
3 90 (17.01%) Palo Alto
4 79 (14.93%) VMware
5 76 (14.37%) Fortinet
6 50 (9.45%) Juniper
6 50 (9.45%) SolarWinds
7 48 (9.07%) F5
8 44 (8.32%) Aruba
9 38 (7.18%) Meraki
10 34 (6.43%) CheckPoint
11 28 (5.29%) ServiceNow
12 21 (3.97%) Nokia
13 17 (3.21%) Zscaler
14 9 (1.70%) Arista
14 9 (1.70%) Ekahau
14 9 (1.70%) Google
14 9 (1.70%) HP
14 9 (1.70%) Splunk
15 8 (1.51%) Veeam