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 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 230 213 174
Rank change year-on-year -17 -39 -48
Contract jobs citing LAN 595 416 596
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.13% 1.28% 1.44%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.89% 10.54% 11.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 368 256 331
10th Percentile £213 £200 £205
25th Percentile £325 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £555 £638
90th Percentile £620 £625 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £413 £475
% change year-on-year +9.02% -13.11% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 19 41
10th Percentile £13.43 £23.15 £12.86
25th Percentile £16.47 £28.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +26.05% -61.61%
75th Percentile £50.45 £41.63 £40.00
90th Percentile £73.00 £55.63 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.50 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -28.33% +20.63% -59.89%

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 5,003 3,948 5,144
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.11% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,016 2,403 3,070
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £592 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 326 195 384
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.91
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.08 £17.67
Median hourly rate £26.22 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.31% +15.63% -16.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -17.27%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -20 499 £450 - 177
UK excluding London +7 429 £450 +9.02% 160
South East +2 164 £480 -8.13% 49
London -95 117 £500 +8.11% 55
Work from Home -39 112 £500 +2.56% 56
North of England -43 80 £450 +38.46% 38
Scotland +16 58 £375 -6.02% 21
Midlands -28 58 £275 -23.08% 26
East of England +2 41 £325 -7.14% 12
Yorkshire -19 41 £438 +9.38% 20
West Midlands -47 40 £318 -16.99% 20
North West -47 39 £525 +100.00% 17
South West -43 22 £450 +24.14% 17
East Midlands -2 15 £202 +10.96% 6
Wales -21 7 £475 +105.41% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £550 - 2
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 (5.04%) SharePoint
2 19 (3.19%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (1.85%) Confluence
4 9 (1.51%) OpenStack
5 2 (0.34%) CMS
5 2 (0.34%) IIS
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 24 (4.03%) MS Visio
2 17 (2.86%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (2.52%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 130 (21.85%) Azure
2 90 (15.13%) Microsoft 365
3 58 (9.75%) AWS
4 42 (7.06%) Entra ID
5 21 (3.53%) OneDrive
6 19 (3.19%) SaaS
7 12 (2.02%) GCP
7 12 (2.02%) PaaS
8 10 (1.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.34%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.18%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.01%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 5 (0.84%) AWS Direct Connect
12 5 (0.84%) IaaS
13 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Copilot
13 4 (0.67%) OpenShift
14 3 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
14 3 (0.50%) Google Ads
14 3 (0.50%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 489 (82.18%) WAN
2 293 (49.24%) Firewall
3 154 (25.88%) BGP
4 150 (25.21%) VPN
5 145 (24.37%) Wi-Fi
6 134 (22.52%) Network Security
7 129 (21.68%) OSPF
8 127 (21.34%) SD-WAN
9 119 (20.00%) Wireless
10 117 (19.66%) DNS
11 107 (17.98%) MPLS
12 92 (15.46%) DHCP
13 79 (13.28%) TCP/IP
14 76 (12.77%) VLAN
15 74 (12.44%) WLAN
16 56 (9.41%) IPsec
17 54 (9.08%) Cisco ISE
18 46 (7.73%) Cisco Nexus
19 39 (6.55%) BIG-IP
20 38 (6.39%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.84%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) DTS
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 30 (5.04%) JIRA
2 5 (0.84%) Browser DevTools
3 4 (0.67%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.34%) Git
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
1 178 (29.92%) Social Skills
2 77 (12.94%) Telecoms
3 55 (9.24%) Public Sector
4 50 (8.40%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (6.55%) Finance
6 27 (4.54%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (3.87%) Organisational Skills
8 19 (3.19%) Financial Institution
9 17 (2.86%) Manufacturing
10 13 (2.18%) Banking
11 12 (2.02%) Legal
12 9 (1.51%) Police
13 8 (1.34%) Retail
14 6 (1.01%) Law
15 5 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.84%) Military
16 4 (0.67%) Local Government
17 3 (0.50%) Billing
17 3 (0.50%) German Language
17 3 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 245 (41.18%) Network Engineer
2 77 (12.94%) Senior
3 76 (12.77%) Architect
4 54 (9.08%) Network Architect
5 42 (7.06%) IT Support
6 41 (6.89%) Support Engineer
7 37 (6.22%) Senior Network Engineer
8 36 (6.05%) IT Engineer
9 30 (5.04%) IT Support Engineer
10 26 (4.37%) Cisco Engineer
11 24 (4.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 23 (3.87%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 23 (3.87%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 22 (3.70%) Analyst
14 21 (3.53%) Field Engineer
15 19 (3.19%) Consultant
15 19 (3.19%) Telecoms Engineer
16 18 (3.03%) Lead
16 18 (3.03%) Network Manager
17 16 (2.69%) Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (8.57%) 802.1X
2 11 (1.85%) NETCONF
3 10 (1.68%) Microsoft Graph
4 9 (1.51%) YANG
5 8 (1.34%) SAML
6 6 (1.01%) REST
7 5 (0.84%) LDAP
8 4 (0.67%) Middleware
8 4 (0.67%) OpenConfig
8 4 (0.67%) RESTCONF
9 3 (0.50%) Java RMI
9 3 (0.50%) Software Packaging
10 2 (0.34%) .NET
10 2 (0.34%) Django
10 2 (0.34%) RFC 2544
11 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
11 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
11 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
11 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
11 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 120 (20.17%) Data Centre
2 35 (5.88%) PKI
3 29 (4.87%) Driving Licence
3 29 (4.87%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (4.37%) Clustering
5 22 (3.70%) Onboarding
6 17 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (2.35%) Security Posture
8 12 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
8 12 (2.02%) IoT
8 12 (2.02%) Private Cloud
8 12 (2.02%) Public Cloud
8 12 (2.02%) Virtual Team
9 11 (1.85%) NHS
9 11 (1.85%) Video Conferencing
10 10 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.68%) Cloud Native
10 10 (1.68%) Operational Technology
11 8 (1.34%) CCTV
12 7 (1.18%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 174 (29.24%) Windows
2 46 (7.73%) Windows Server
3 36 (6.05%) Linux
4 26 (4.37%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.69%) Mac OS
6 13 (2.18%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (1.68%) Android
8 7 (1.18%) Apple iOS
9 6 (1.01%) Unix
10 5 (0.84%) VMS
11 4 (0.67%) Windows 7
11 4 (0.67%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.50%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2003
13 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.17%) AIX
14 1 (0.17%) CentOS
14 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (16.47%) ITIL
2 96 (16.13%) Problem-Solving
3 89 (14.96%) High Availability
4 72 (12.10%) Load Balancing
5 64 (10.76%) Project Delivery
6 56 (9.41%) Stakeholder Management
7 49 (8.24%) Continuous Improvement
8 48 (8.07%) Migration
9 47 (7.90%) Network Architecture
10 45 (7.56%) Roadmaps
11 43 (7.23%) Change Management
12 40 (6.72%) Network Monitoring
12 40 (6.72%) Technical Leadership
13 39 (6.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 38 (6.39%) Agile
15 37 (6.22%) Service Management
16 34 (5.71%) Network Design
17 31 (5.21%) Disaster Recovery
17 31 (5.21%) Observability
18 30 (5.04%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 41 (6.89%) Python
2 32 (5.38%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.01%) SQL
4 2 (0.34%) C++
5 1 (0.17%) Bicep
5 1 (0.17%) C
5 1 (0.17%) Java
5 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
5 1 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 198 (33.28%) Security Cleared
2 177 (29.75%) Cisco Certification
3 113 (18.99%) SC Cleared
4 108 (18.15%) CCNP
5 72 (12.10%) CCNA
6 70 (11.76%) DV Cleared
7 42 (7.06%) CCIE
7 42 (7.06%) Degree
8 16 (2.69%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (2.35%) JNCIP
9 14 (2.35%) JNCIS
9 14 (2.35%) PMP
10 13 (2.18%) Azure Certification
11 10 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.68%) JNCIE
11 10 (1.68%) PMI Certification
12 9 (1.51%) AWS Certification
12 9 (1.51%) JNCIA
13 7 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.01%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (3.70%) SLA
2 14 (2.35%) QA
3 12 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.85%) NIST
5 9 (1.51%) NCSC
6 7 (1.18%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.67%) GDPR
8 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.50%) PMO
9 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.17%) DICOM
10 1 (0.17%) GRC
10 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 97 (16.30%) Active Directory
2 51 (8.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (4.37%) VMware NSX
4 15 (2.52%) vSphere
5 10 (1.68%) Firmware
6 8 (1.34%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.17%) NFS
10 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 52 (8.74%) FortiGate
2 32 (5.38%) Ansible
3 31 (5.21%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (2.69%) Terraform
5 11 (1.85%) Jamf Pro
5 11 (1.85%) SCCM
5 11 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.84%) Cisco Prime
7 4 (0.67%) Nagios
7 4 (0.67%) Progress Chef
7 4 (0.67%) vRealize Orchestrator
8 3 (0.50%) Cisco CUCM
8 3 (0.50%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.34%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.34%) CASB
9 2 (0.34%) Endace
9 2 (0.34%) VxRail
9 2 (0.34%) WSUS
10 1 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
10 1 (0.17%) Iperf
Vendors
1 295 (49.58%) Cisco
2 137 (23.03%) Microsoft
3 101 (16.97%) Palo Alto
4 89 (14.96%) F5
5 78 (13.11%) Juniper
6 72 (12.10%) VMware
7 66 (11.09%) SolarWinds
8 62 (10.42%) Fortinet
9 54 (9.08%) Aruba
10 47 (7.90%) CheckPoint
11 31 (5.21%) Extreme Networks
12 30 (5.04%) Splunk
13 25 (4.20%) ServiceNow
14 24 (4.03%) Meraki
15 20 (3.36%) Zscaler
16 16 (2.69%) Ekahau
17 15 (2.52%) Nokia
18 11 (1.85%) Citrix
18 11 (1.85%) Dell
19 9 (1.51%) HP