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 5 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 240 174 126
Rank change year-on-year -66 -48 +61
Contract jobs citing LAN 412 473 843
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.12% 1.47% 1.97%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.51% 11.50% 14.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 266 286 539
10th Percentile £210 £223 £205
25th Percentile £313 £350 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £444 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.39% - -
75th Percentile £538 £574 £600
90th Percentile £638 £650 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £430 £445
% change year-on-year -1.16% -3.37% +2.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 13 28
10th Percentile £12.97 £18.80 £17.59
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £21.25
Median hourly rate £16.00 £20.38 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year -21.47% -43.43% +56.61%
75th Percentile £52.58 £35.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £76.00 £65.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.00 £20.00 £33.22
% change year-on-year -20.00% -39.80% +44.43%

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 3,921 4,112 5,830
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.65% 12.77% 13.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,565 2,406 3,601
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £356 £370 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £473
% change year-on-year -5.26% +0.53% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 176 138 330
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.86 £17.75
25th Percentile £19.75 £20.81 £23.02
Median hourly rate £36.75 £32.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +13.08% -42.47% +89.88%
75th Percentile £66.31 £53.44 £65.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.38 £75.03
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £31.79 £59.03
% change year-on-year +33.69% -46.15% +81.63%

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 5 January 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 5 January 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 5 January 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 -87 339 £450 - 186
UK excluding London -68 253 £425 -1.16% 149
London -9 124 £475 -5.00% 70
Work from Home -15 109 £445 -11.00% 72
South East -21 78 £456 +10.55% 58
North of England -81 54 £330 -26.67% 27
Scotland +28 39 £265 -33.75% 6
North West -45 38 £303 -35.29% 14
Midlands -66 31 £463 +5.71% 23
East of England -22 28 £350 -36.36% 13
West Midlands -43 28 £475 -5.00% 18
Yorkshire -67 15 £445 +85.42% 12
South West -27 12 £506 +22.73% 17
Wales +3 6 £335 +67.50% 5
Northern Ireland -7 4 £475 - 3
East Midlands -50 3 £258 -19.53% 4
North East -11 1 £550 - 1

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 (6.07%) SharePoint
2 14 (3.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.91%) OpenStack
4 6 (1.46%) Skype for Business
5 5 (1.21%) Confluence
6 1 (0.24%) Apache
6 1 (0.24%) CICS
6 1 (0.24%) IIS
6 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.24%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.24%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 34 (8.25%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (4.37%) MS Visio
3 16 (3.88%) Microsoft Excel
4 15 (3.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.21%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.49%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 88 (21.36%) Azure
2 56 (13.59%) AWS
3 46 (11.17%) Microsoft 365
4 20 (4.85%) Entra ID
5 17 (4.13%) GCP
6 9 (2.18%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 7 (1.70%) SaaS
8 6 (1.46%) OpenShift
9 4 (0.97%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.97%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.97%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (0.73%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (0.73%) Nutanix
10 3 (0.73%) Power Platform
10 3 (0.73%) Serverless
11 2 (0.49%) Azure Functions
11 2 (0.49%) Google Ads
11 2 (0.49%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.49%) Slack
11 2 (0.49%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 337 (81.80%) WAN
2 168 (40.78%) Firewall
3 123 (29.85%) VPN
4 92 (22.33%) SD-WAN
4 92 (22.33%) Wi-Fi
5 77 (18.69%) BGP
6 68 (16.50%) TCP/IP
7 65 (15.78%) Wireless
8 64 (15.53%) Network Security
9 61 (14.81%) MPLS
10 60 (14.56%) OSPF
11 59 (14.32%) DNS
12 48 (11.65%) DHCP
13 47 (11.41%) VLAN
14 38 (9.22%) WLAN
15 37 (8.98%) Cisco Nexus
16 35 (8.50%) IPsec
17 24 (5.83%) Structured Cabling
18 22 (5.34%) Cisco ASA
19 17 (4.13%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.94%) SQL Server
2 5 (1.21%) Oracle Database
3 4 (0.97%) MS Access
4 3 (0.73%) Power BI
5 2 (0.49%) MariaDB
5 2 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.24%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.24%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.24%) MySQL
6 1 (0.24%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 10 (2.43%) JIRA
2 1 (0.24%) Git
2 1 (0.24%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.24%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 128 (31.07%) Social Skills
2 48 (11.65%) Public Sector
3 47 (11.41%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (9.95%) Telecoms
5 33 (8.01%) Documentation Skills
6 32 (7.77%) Finance
7 21 (5.10%) Manufacturing
8 14 (3.40%) Military
9 10 (2.43%) Banking
10 9 (2.18%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.46%) Legal
12 6 (1.46%) Local Government
12 6 (1.46%) Marketing
13 5 (1.21%) Electronics
13 5 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.97%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.97%) Law
15 3 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
15 3 (0.73%) Retail
Job Titles
1 130 (31.55%) Network Engineer
2 89 (21.60%) Architect
3 67 (16.26%) Network Architect
4 34 (8.25%) Analyst
5 32 (7.77%) Senior
6 23 (5.58%) Support Analyst
7 20 (4.85%) IT Support
8 19 (4.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 19 (4.61%) Lead
8 19 (4.61%) Support Engineer
9 18 (4.37%) Field Engineer
9 18 (4.37%) Project Manager
9 18 (4.37%) Senior Network Engineer
10 17 (4.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 17 (4.13%) Technical Support
11 16 (3.88%) 2nd Line Support
12 15 (3.64%) Cisco Engineer
13 14 (3.40%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 14 (3.40%) Technical Analyst
13 14 (3.40%) Technical Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.94%) Middleware
2 7 (1.70%) LDAP
3 6 (1.46%) NETCONF
3 6 (1.46%) REST
3 6 (1.46%) YANG
4 3 (0.73%) 802.1X
4 3 (0.73%) SAML
5 2 (0.49%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.49%) Node.js
5 2 (0.49%) XMPP
5 2 (0.49%) YAML
6 1 (0.24%) .NET
6 1 (0.24%) CSS
6 1 (0.24%) EDI
6 1 (0.24%) HTML
6 1 (0.24%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.24%) LAMP
6 1 (0.24%) LAPP Stack
6 1 (0.24%) libvirt
6 1 (0.24%) React
Miscellaneous
1 74 (17.96%) Data Centre
2 21 (5.10%) Hybrid Cloud
3 20 (4.85%) Driving Licence
4 16 (3.88%) Onboarding
5 14 (3.40%) CMDB
6 12 (2.91%) NHS
7 11 (2.67%) Data Protection Act
8 10 (2.43%) Management Information System
9 8 (1.94%) Operational Technology
10 6 (1.46%) Cloud Native
10 6 (1.46%) SCADA
10 6 (1.46%) Video Conferencing
11 5 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
11 5 (1.21%) PKI
11 5 (1.21%) Security Posture
11 5 (1.21%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (0.97%) iPhone
12 4 (0.97%) Public Cloud
12 4 (0.97%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 94 (22.82%) Windows
2 36 (8.74%) Windows Server
3 27 (6.55%) Windows 10
4 20 (4.85%) Linux
5 12 (2.91%) Windows Server 2016
6 8 (1.94%) Android
6 8 (1.94%) Windows Server 2019
7 6 (1.46%) Windows 7
8 5 (1.21%) Apple iOS
8 5 (1.21%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.73%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.73%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.49%) CatOS
11 1 (0.24%) MVS
11 1 (0.24%) Solaris
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 69 (16.75%) Problem-Solving
2 65 (15.78%) Network Design
3 53 (12.86%) ITIL
4 50 (12.14%) Migration
5 45 (10.92%) Network Architecture
6 40 (9.71%) Cybersecurity
6 40 (9.71%) Stakeholder Management
7 33 (8.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 33 (8.01%) Project Delivery
8 30 (7.28%) Customer Service
9 28 (6.80%) High Availability
10 27 (6.55%) ITSM
10 27 (6.55%) Network Monitoring
11 25 (6.07%) Change Management
12 24 (5.83%) Zero Trust
13 23 (5.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 22 (5.34%) Roadmaps
15 21 (5.10%) Continuous Improvement
16 20 (4.85%) Network Management
16 20 (4.85%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 33 (8.01%) Python
2 20 (4.85%) PowerShell
3 11 (2.67%) SQL
4 6 (1.46%) Perl
4 6 (1.46%) VBScript
5 5 (1.21%) VB
6 2 (0.49%) Bash
6 2 (0.49%) Bicep
7 1 (0.24%) C#
7 1 (0.24%) Java
7 1 (0.24%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.24%) Ruby
7 1 (0.24%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.24%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 121 (29.37%) Security Cleared
2 117 (28.40%) Cisco Certification
3 92 (22.33%) CCNP
4 87 (21.12%) SC Cleared
5 43 (10.44%) Degree
6 41 (9.95%) DV Cleared
7 38 (9.22%) CCIE
8 37 (8.98%) CCNA
9 20 (4.85%) JNCIE
10 14 (3.40%) AWS Certification
11 11 (2.67%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (2.43%) Azure Certification
12 10 (2.43%) BPSS Clearance
12 10 (2.43%) JNCIP
13 9 (2.18%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (1.94%) CCSE
14 8 (1.94%) JNCIS
15 7 (1.70%) CISSP
15 7 (1.70%) PMI Certification
16 6 (1.46%) CCDP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 14 (3.40%) SLA
2 10 (2.43%) NIST
3 9 (2.18%) GDPR
4 7 (1.70%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.21%) PMO
5 5 (1.21%) QA
6 4 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.49%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.49%) JSP 440
7 2 (0.49%) NCSC
8 1 (0.24%) COBIT
8 1 (0.24%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.24%) GRC
8 1 (0.24%) MiFID
8 1 (0.24%) RMADS
8 1 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 58 (14.08%) Active Directory
2 24 (5.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.13%) VMware NSX
4 8 (1.94%) Hyper-V
5 5 (1.21%) BitLocker
5 5 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.73%) Docker
6 3 (0.73%) KVM
7 2 (0.49%) Firmware
7 2 (0.49%) NFS
7 2 (0.49%) ProxySG
7 2 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.49%) Xen
8 1 (0.24%) Ceph
8 1 (0.24%) iptables
8 1 (0.24%) RHEV
8 1 (0.24%) Samba
8 1 (0.24%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.24%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 35 (8.50%) Ansible
2 29 (7.04%) Terraform
3 22 (5.34%) Microsoft Intune
4 19 (4.61%) FortiGate
5 13 (3.16%) SCCM
6 7 (1.70%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.97%) Nagios
7 4 (0.97%) SCOM
8 3 (0.73%) Cisco CUCM
8 3 (0.73%) Cisco Prime
8 3 (0.73%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.73%) WSUS
9 2 (0.49%) Check_MK
9 2 (0.49%) Endace
9 2 (0.49%) Grafana
9 2 (0.49%) Nessus
9 2 (0.49%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.24%) HAProxy
10 1 (0.24%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.24%) SELinux
Vendors
1 195 (47.33%) Cisco
2 82 (19.90%) Microsoft
3 75 (18.20%) Palo Alto
4 63 (15.29%) Fortinet
5 50 (12.14%) Juniper
6 40 (9.71%) CheckPoint
7 38 (9.22%) VMware
8 37 (8.98%) Aruba
9 36 (8.74%) F5
10 34 (8.25%) Meraki
11 25 (6.07%) SolarWinds
12 20 (4.85%) ServiceNow
13 19 (4.61%) Zscaler
14 15 (3.64%) Citrix
15 13 (3.16%) Veeam
16 10 (2.43%) SAP
17 8 (1.94%) Oracle
18 7 (1.70%) Arista
19 6 (1.46%) CrowdStrike
19 6 (1.46%) LogicMonitor