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 18 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 213 203 126
Rank change year-on-year -10 -77 +46
Contract jobs citing LAN 536 397 823
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.24% 1.35% 1.85%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.27% 10.11% 13.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 342 260 497
10th Percentile £206 £223 £204
25th Percentile £313 £350 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £443 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.67% -5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £538 £572 £649
90th Percentile £620 £652 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +2.94% -10.53% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 8 46
10th Percentile £12.43 £14.30 £13.61
25th Percentile £15.50 £17.71 £16.23
Median hourly rate £22.50 £33.75 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year -33.33% +35.71% -50.26%
75th Percentile £44.06 £45.31 £45.63
90th Percentile £70.39 £57.13 £61.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £17.17 £24.87
% change year-on-year +28.17% -30.98% -25.20%

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 4,369 3,926 5,953
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.10% 13.39% 13.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,821 2,412 3,581
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £369 £370 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% +5.26% -9.34%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
Number of hourly rates quoted 185 142 396
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.01 £14.08
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £18.70
Median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% +71.05%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.06 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.70 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.10 £32.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year +29.52% -29.16% +148.00%

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 18 March 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 18 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for LAN in the UK

LAN
Top 16 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 18 March 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 -40 446 £447 -3.82% 171
UK excluding London -12 356 £438 +2.94% 161
Work from Home -3 135 £445 -11.00% 40
London -24 134 £475 -1.04% 35
South East +9 131 £448 +5.29% 63
North of England -68 63 £445 +2.83% 41
Midlands -36 50 £321 -31.47% 20
Scotland +41 45 £281 -29.69% 6
West Midlands -32 42 £413 -19.51% 16
East of England -9 39 £350 -30.00% 21
North West -46 36 £495 +10.00% 18
Yorkshire -50 27 £313 +27.76% 19
South West -48 16 £513 +24.24% 10
Wales -1 10 £425 +41.67% 7
East Midlands -40 6 £200 -40.30% 4
Northern Ireland - 3 £385 -

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 31 (5.78%) SharePoint
2 26 (4.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.43%) Confluence
4 10 (1.87%) Skype for Business
5 2 (0.37%) IIS
5 2 (0.37%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.19%) Apache
Applications
1 35 (6.53%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (4.29%) MS Visio
3 13 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
4 12 (2.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.93%) Acrobat
5 5 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.37%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 125 (23.32%) Azure
2 81 (15.11%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (11.01%) AWS
4 40 (7.46%) Entra ID
5 21 (3.92%) GCP
6 16 (2.99%) SaaS
7 13 (2.43%) OneDrive
8 11 (2.05%) PaaS
9 9 (1.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 7 (1.31%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.31%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 6 (1.12%) IaaS
11 6 (1.12%) Nutanix
11 6 (1.12%) Power Platform
12 5 (0.93%) PowerApps
13 4 (0.75%) AWS Direct Connect
13 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Purview
14 3 (0.56%) Azure Monitor
14 3 (0.56%) Serverless
14 3 (0.56%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 442 (82.46%) WAN
2 239 (44.59%) Firewall
3 153 (28.54%) VPN
4 130 (24.25%) BGP
5 122 (22.76%) Wi-Fi
6 121 (22.57%) OSPF
7 109 (20.34%) SD-WAN
8 103 (19.22%) DNS
9 100 (18.66%) Network Security
10 85 (15.86%) DHCP
11 80 (14.93%) TCP/IP
11 80 (14.93%) Wireless
12 74 (13.81%) VLAN
13 72 (13.43%) MPLS
14 51 (9.51%) WLAN
15 43 (8.02%) IPsec
16 37 (6.90%) BIG-IP
16 37 (6.90%) Cisco ASA
16 37 (6.90%) Cisco ISE
17 36 (6.72%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.49%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.75%) MS Access
3 2 (0.37%) MariaDB
3 2 (0.37%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.19%) DynamoDB
4 1 (0.19%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.19%) MySQL
4 1 (0.19%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.19%) Power BI
4 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 30 (5.60%) JIRA
2 2 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
2 2 (0.37%) GitLab
2 2 (0.37%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.19%) Git
3 1 (0.19%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 150 (27.99%) Social Skills
2 54 (10.07%) Analytical Skills
3 53 (9.89%) Finance
4 52 (9.70%) Public Sector
5 37 (6.90%) Telecoms
6 33 (6.16%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (5.41%) Manufacturing
8 21 (3.92%) Legal
9 19 (3.54%) Financial Institution
10 18 (3.36%) Military
11 14 (2.61%) Banking
12 13 (2.43%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (1.49%) Law
15 7 (1.31%) Local Government
15 7 (1.31%) Retail
16 6 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 5 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
17 5 (0.93%) Marketing
18 4 (0.75%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 183 (34.14%) Network Engineer
2 82 (15.30%) Architect
3 60 (11.19%) Senior
4 56 (10.45%) Network Architect
5 43 (8.02%) Analyst
5 43 (8.02%) IT Support
6 37 (6.90%) Support Engineer
7 33 (6.16%) IT Engineer
8 28 (5.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 28 (5.22%) IT Support Engineer
9 27 (5.04%) Senior Network Engineer
10 24 (4.48%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 23 (4.29%) Lead
12 22 (4.10%) Cisco Engineer
12 22 (4.10%) Technical Architect
13 21 (3.92%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 21 (3.92%) Project Manager
14 19 (3.54%) Support Analyst
15 18 (3.36%) Network Manager
16 17 (3.17%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (6.53%) 802.1X
2 11 (2.05%) LDAP
3 8 (1.49%) Microsoft Graph
3 8 (1.49%) Middleware
3 8 (1.49%) SAML
4 3 (0.56%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.37%) CSS
5 2 (0.37%) Django
5 2 (0.37%) HTML
5 2 (0.37%) NETCONF
5 2 (0.37%) REST
5 2 (0.37%) RFC 2544
5 2 (0.37%) XMPP
5 2 (0.37%) YAML
5 2 (0.37%) YANG
6 1 (0.19%) .NET
6 1 (0.19%) EDI
6 1 (0.19%) LAMP
6 1 (0.19%) Node.js
6 1 (0.19%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 104 (19.40%) Data Centre
2 25 (4.66%) PKI
3 23 (4.29%) Onboarding
4 22 (4.10%) Clustering
5 19 (3.54%) Driving Licence
6 16 (2.99%) Hybrid Cloud
7 15 (2.80%) CMDB
8 14 (2.61%) NHS
9 13 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (2.24%) Security Posture
11 10 (1.87%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.87%) Public Cloud
12 9 (1.68%) Management Information System
13 8 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (1.49%) IoT
13 8 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
14 7 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
14 7 (1.31%) iPhone
14 7 (1.31%) Virtual Team
15 5 (0.93%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 162 (30.22%) Windows
2 54 (10.07%) Windows Server
3 38 (7.09%) Windows 10
4 25 (4.66%) Linux
5 15 (2.80%) Windows Server 2019
6 11 (2.05%) Android
6 11 (2.05%) Windows 7
7 10 (1.87%) Mac OS
8 8 (1.49%) Apple iOS
9 7 (1.31%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (1.12%) VMS
11 5 (0.93%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.75%) CatOS
13 3 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 3 (0.56%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.56%) Windows Server 2003
14 2 (0.37%) AIX
15 1 (0.19%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (17.16%) Problem-Solving
2 83 (15.49%) ITIL
3 63 (11.75%) High Availability
3 63 (11.75%) Migration
4 52 (9.70%) Stakeholder Management
5 50 (9.33%) Change Management
6 49 (9.14%) ITSM
7 45 (8.40%) Network Design
8 42 (7.84%) Network Architecture
9 41 (7.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 41 (7.65%) Load Balancing
10 39 (7.28%) Cybersecurity
11 38 (7.09%) Project Delivery
12 37 (6.90%) Service Management
13 32 (5.97%) Network Monitoring
14 30 (5.60%) Disaster Recovery
15 29 (5.41%) Customer Service
15 29 (5.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 29 (5.41%) Technical Leadership
16 27 (5.04%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 51 (9.51%) PowerShell
2 34 (6.34%) Python
3 14 (2.61%) SQL
4 11 (2.05%) VBScript
5 9 (1.68%) VB
6 3 (0.56%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.56%) Perl
7 2 (0.37%) Bash
7 2 (0.37%) Bicep
8 1 (0.19%) C#
8 1 (0.19%) Ruby
8 1 (0.19%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 182 (33.96%) Security Cleared
2 147 (27.43%) Cisco Certification
3 132 (24.63%) SC Cleared
4 115 (21.46%) CCNP
5 61 (11.38%) DV Cleared
6 58 (10.82%) Degree
7 48 (8.96%) CCNA
8 37 (6.90%) CCIE
9 20 (3.73%) JNCIS
10 19 (3.54%) JNCIP
11 15 (2.80%) PMP
12 13 (2.43%) Network+ Certification
13 12 (2.24%) JNCIA
13 12 (2.24%) Microsoft Certification
13 12 (2.24%) PMI Certification
14 11 (2.05%) Azure Certification
15 10 (1.87%) CCSE
16 9 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
16 9 (1.68%) JNCIE
17 8 (1.49%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (3.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 17 (3.17%) SLA
2 13 (2.43%) NIST
3 11 (2.05%) GDPR
4 10 (1.87%) QA
5 7 (1.31%) NCSC
6 5 (0.93%) PCI DSS
6 5 (0.93%) PMO
7 4 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.56%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.37%) RMADS
10 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.19%) GRC
10 1 (0.19%) MiFID
10 1 (0.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 102 (19.03%) Active Directory
2 46 (8.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (3.54%) VMware NSX
4 13 (2.43%) vSphere
5 9 (1.68%) BitLocker
6 7 (1.31%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.93%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.75%) Docker
8 4 (0.75%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.56%) Firmware
10 2 (0.37%) KVM
10 2 (0.37%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.19%) Ceph
11 1 (0.19%) iptables
11 1 (0.19%) Lustre
11 1 (0.19%) RHEV
11 1 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.19%) Virtual Machines
11 1 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.19%) Xen
Systems Management
1 42 (7.84%) FortiGate
2 38 (7.09%) Microsoft Intune
3 33 (6.16%) Ansible
4 28 (5.22%) Terraform
5 22 (4.10%) SCCM
6 11 (2.05%) Jamf Pro
6 11 (2.05%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.12%) Cisco Prime
7 6 (1.12%) Nagios
8 4 (0.75%) Endace
8 4 (0.75%) WSUS
9 3 (0.56%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.56%) Grafana
9 3 (0.56%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.56%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.56%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 2 (0.37%) Check_MK
10 2 (0.37%) Nessus
10 2 (0.37%) SCOM
11 1 (0.19%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 244 (45.52%) Cisco
2 121 (22.57%) Microsoft
3 104 (19.40%) Palo Alto
4 75 (13.99%) Juniper
5 70 (13.06%) F5
6 65 (12.13%) Aruba
6 65 (12.13%) CheckPoint
7 60 (11.19%) VMware
8 49 (9.14%) Fortinet
8 49 (9.14%) SolarWinds
9 37 (6.90%) ServiceNow
10 30 (5.60%) Meraki
11 26 (4.85%) Extreme Networks
12 24 (4.48%) Splunk
13 23 (4.29%) Zscaler
14 15 (2.80%) Dell
15 14 (2.61%) Veeam
16 12 (2.24%) Citrix
17 11 (2.05%) Arista
17 11 (2.05%) Ekahau