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 28 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 247 217 170
Rank change year-on-year -30 -47 -45
Contract jobs citing LAN 575 411 544
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 1.26% 1.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.30% 10.60% 11.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 255 309
10th Percentile £225 £190 £250
25th Percentile £345 £307 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £575 £575
90th Percentile £625 £633 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £399 £463
% change year-on-year +12.78% -13.73% +8.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 21 32
10th Percentile £12.71 £20.75 £15.75
25th Percentile £16.25 £27.00 £15.76
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -10.93% +26.05% -40.50%
75th Percentile £73.00 £43.25 £31.63
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.25 £74.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.42 £30.00 £22.40
% change year-on-year -35.27% +33.93% -48.99%

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 5,090 3,878 4,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 11.85% 12.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,997 2,363 2,784
10th Percentile £250 £243 £220
25th Percentile £400 £365 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +0.21% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 374 204 302
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% -10.00% -11.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.71 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.81 £42.50 £54.88
% change year-on-year -39.28% -22.55% -4.57%

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 28 August 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 28 August 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 28 August 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 -44 467 £490 +8.89% 309
UK excluding London -5 406 £450 +12.78% 207
South East -15 129 £523 +2.20% 75
London -111 122 £510 +10.27% 135
Work from Home -44 100 £500 +8.11% 103
North of England -33 86 £500 +150.00% 49
Scotland +34 70 £288 -26.89% 15
Midlands -32 55 £335 -8.22% 33
North West -42 48 £517 +236.26% 29
West Midlands -46 41 £400 -5.88% 21
Yorkshire -11 38 £450 +28.57% 15
East of England 0 36 £350 +47.37% 18
South West -28 25 £525 +61.54% 18
East Midlands -12 11 £255 +27.50% 12
Wales -23 7 £425 +83.78% 3
Northern Ireland +3 1 £550 +15.79%
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 22 (3.83%) SharePoint
2 19 (3.30%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.57%) OpenStack
4 7 (1.22%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.87%) Confluence
6 3 (0.52%) IIS
7 2 (0.35%) CMS
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 30 (5.22%) Microsoft Office
2 27 (4.70%) MS Visio
3 24 (4.17%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 118 (20.52%) Azure
2 80 (13.91%) Microsoft 365
3 56 (9.74%) AWS
4 32 (5.57%) Entra ID
5 13 (2.26%) SaaS
6 10 (1.74%) OneDrive
6 10 (1.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 8 (1.39%) GCP
8 7 (1.22%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (0.87%) AWS Direct Connect
9 5 (0.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 5 (0.87%) PaaS
10 4 (0.70%) IaaS
10 4 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (0.70%) OpenShift
11 3 (0.52%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (0.52%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.35%) Google Ads
12 2 (0.35%) PowerApps
12 2 (0.35%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 487 (84.70%) WAN
2 272 (47.30%) Firewall
3 147 (25.57%) VPN
4 136 (23.65%) Wi-Fi
5 133 (23.13%) Network Security
6 127 (22.09%) BGP
7 125 (21.74%) SD-WAN
8 123 (21.39%) Wireless
9 104 (18.09%) MPLS
10 101 (17.57%) DNS
11 98 (17.04%) OSPF
12 80 (13.91%) DHCP
12 80 (13.91%) TCP/IP
13 71 (12.35%) VLAN
13 71 (12.35%) WLAN
14 54 (9.39%) IPsec
15 51 (8.87%) Cisco Nexus
16 45 (7.83%) Cisco ISE
17 43 (7.48%) Cisco ASA
18 30 (5.22%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.22%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) DTS
2 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.17%) Power BI
2 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 18 (3.13%) JIRA
2 5 (0.87%) Browser DevTools
3 4 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.35%) Git
4 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.17%) GitLab
5 1 (0.17%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 185 (32.17%) Social Skills
2 92 (16.00%) Telecoms
3 61 (10.61%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (9.57%) Public Sector
5 40 (6.96%) Finance
6 23 (4.00%) Documentation Skills
6 23 (4.00%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (2.78%) Banking
8 15 (2.61%) Retail
9 13 (2.26%) Legal
10 12 (2.09%) Financial Institution
11 10 (1.74%) Manufacturing
11 10 (1.74%) Police
12 8 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
13 7 (1.22%) Local Government
14 3 (0.52%) Billing
14 3 (0.52%) German Language
14 3 (0.52%) Law
15 2 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 1 (0.17%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 243 (42.26%) Network Engineer
2 74 (12.87%) Architect
2 74 (12.87%) Senior
3 52 (9.04%) Network Architect
4 44 (7.65%) Senior Network Engineer
5 35 (6.09%) IT Support
5 35 (6.09%) Support Engineer
6 27 (4.70%) IT Engineer
7 26 (4.52%) Cisco Engineer
8 25 (4.35%) Field Engineer
8 25 (4.35%) Telecoms Engineer
9 24 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 22 (3.83%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 22 (3.83%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 21 (3.65%) IT Support Engineer
12 18 (3.13%) Consultant
12 18 (3.13%) Lead
13 17 (2.96%) Developer
13 17 (2.96%) Network Field Engineer
13 17 (2.96%) Project Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.39%) 802.1X
2 15 (2.61%) Terraform
3 13 (2.26%) NETCONF
4 9 (1.57%) YANG
5 8 (1.39%) SAML
6 7 (1.22%) REST
7 6 (1.04%) Middleware
8 5 (0.87%) LDAP
9 4 (0.70%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.70%) RESTCONF
10 3 (0.52%) Java RMI
10 3 (0.52%) RFC 2544
10 3 (0.52%) Software Packaging
11 2 (0.35%) .NET
11 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
11 2 (0.35%) ODBC
12 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
12 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
12 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
12 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 107 (18.61%) Data Centre
2 36 (6.26%) Driving Licence
3 29 (5.04%) Hybrid Cloud
4 25 (4.35%) Onboarding
5 22 (3.83%) PKI
6 17 (2.96%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (2.43%) Private Cloud
7 14 (2.43%) Video Conferencing
8 13 (2.26%) Cloud Native
8 13 (2.26%) Public Cloud
9 12 (2.09%) Operational Technology
9 12 (2.09%) Security Posture
10 11 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
10 11 (1.91%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (1.74%) IoT
12 9 (1.57%) NHS
13 8 (1.39%) Clustering
13 8 (1.39%) Smartphone
14 7 (1.22%) Virtual Team
15 6 (1.04%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 153 (26.61%) Windows
2 43 (7.48%) Windows Server
3 39 (6.78%) Linux
4 31 (5.39%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.78%) Mac OS
6 12 (2.09%) Windows 7
7 7 (1.22%) Unix
8 6 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.70%) Android
10 3 (0.52%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.35%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.35%) VMS
11 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.17%) CatOS
12 1 (0.17%) CentOS
12 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.17%) Solaris
12 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (18.26%) Problem-Solving
2 97 (16.87%) ITIL
3 76 (13.22%) High Availability
3 76 (13.22%) Project Delivery
4 58 (10.09%) Continuous Improvement
4 58 (10.09%) Load Balancing
5 56 (9.74%) Stakeholder Management
6 52 (9.04%) Roadmaps
7 47 (8.17%) Migration
7 47 (8.17%) Network Architecture
8 44 (7.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 43 (7.48%) Technical Leadership
10 40 (6.96%) Change Management
11 38 (6.61%) Customer Service
12 36 (6.26%) Network Monitoring
13 35 (6.09%) Service Management
14 34 (5.91%) Incident Management
14 34 (5.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 33 (5.74%) Mentoring
16 32 (5.57%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 31 (5.39%) Python
2 20 (3.48%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.22%) SQL
4 6 (1.04%) VB
4 6 (1.04%) VBScript
5 2 (0.35%) Bicep
5 2 (0.35%) C++
5 2 (0.35%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.17%) C
6 1 (0.17%) Java
6 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 184 (32.00%) Security Cleared
2 159 (27.65%) Cisco Certification
3 112 (19.48%) SC Cleared
4 100 (17.39%) CCNP
5 68 (11.83%) CCNA
6 57 (9.91%) DV Cleared
7 41 (7.13%) CCIE
8 35 (6.09%) Degree
9 15 (2.61%) Azure Certification
10 12 (2.09%) PMP
11 10 (1.74%) Microsoft Certification
12 9 (1.57%) AWS Certification
12 9 (1.57%) JNCIE
12 9 (1.57%) PMI Certification
13 7 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (1.22%) JNCIS
14 6 (1.04%) A+ Certification
14 6 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.04%) JNCIP
14 6 (1.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.52%) SLA
2 13 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (2.26%) QA
3 10 (1.74%) NIST
4 7 (1.22%) NCSC
5 6 (1.04%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.70%) GDPR
6 4 (0.70%) JSP 440
6 4 (0.70%) PMO
7 3 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.52%) GRC
8 2 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.35%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.17%) DICOM
9 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 79 (13.74%) Active Directory
2 48 (8.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (4.00%) VMware NSX
4 13 (2.26%) Firmware
5 9 (1.57%) Hyper-V
5 9 (1.57%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (1.39%) vSphere
7 7 (1.22%) BitLocker
7 7 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.35%) FreeRADIUS
10 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.17%) NFS
11 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 36 (6.26%) FortiGate
2 28 (4.87%) Ansible
3 25 (4.35%) Microsoft Intune
4 13 (2.26%) SCCM
5 11 (1.91%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.87%) Cisco Prime
7 4 (0.70%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (0.70%) Progress Chef
7 4 (0.70%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.70%) vRealize Orchestrator
8 3 (0.52%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.35%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.35%) CASB
9 2 (0.35%) Endace
9 2 (0.35%) Nagios
9 2 (0.35%) VxRail
9 2 (0.35%) WSUS
10 1 (0.17%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.17%) Grafana
10 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 283 (49.22%) Cisco
2 152 (26.43%) Microsoft
3 92 (16.00%) Palo Alto
4 76 (13.22%) VMware
5 67 (11.65%) F5
6 66 (11.48%) Fortinet
7 58 (10.09%) Juniper
8 51 (8.87%) SolarWinds
9 46 (8.00%) Aruba
10 38 (6.61%) CheckPoint
11 30 (5.22%) Meraki
11 30 (5.22%) ServiceNow
12 21 (3.65%) Nokia
12 21 (3.65%) Zscaler
13 14 (2.43%) Ekahau
13 14 (2.43%) Extreme Networks
13 14 (2.43%) Splunk
14 10 (1.74%) Google
14 10 (1.74%) HP
15 8 (1.39%) Citrix