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

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 217 203 168
Rank change year-on-year -14 -35 -36
Contract jobs citing LAN 592 411 631
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.31% 1.45%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.05% 10.70% 11.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 363 247 348
10th Percentile £213 £207 £205
25th Percentile £350 £325 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £572 £638
90th Percentile £620 £625 £716
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 20 47
10th Percentile £13.09 £20.21 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.92 £27.00 £15.76
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +26.05% -61.61%
75th Percentile £31.00 £40.81 £40.00
90th Percentile £69.20 £53.82 £42.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.69
% change year-on-year -25.00% +26.66% -61.80%

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 4,914 3,841 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.54% 12.28% 12.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,989 2,342 3,208
10th Percentile £240 £230 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -1.19%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.77% -4.08% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 182 428
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.50 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £44.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.58% -1.11% +114.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £73.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £35.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -25.09% -26.32% +115.91%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -20 501 £450 -5.26% 222
UK excluding London -4 421 £450 +5.88% 204
South East +11 164 £480 -8.13% 53
London -88 118 £500 +4.71% 55
Work from Home -27 115 £500 - 86
North of England -39 79 £475 +46.15% 46
Midlands -40 61 £285 -28.75% 44
Scotland +19 51 £413 +3.38% 18
West Midlands -52 44 £340 -15.00% 31
East of England +1 42 £338 -21.05% 16
North West -36 41 £525 +61.54% 23
Yorkshire -21 38 £382 -4.63% 18
South West -39 17 £363 -9.38% 19
East Midlands -6 14 £200 -61.90% 13
Wales -24 7 £475 +105.41% 4
Northern Ireland - 3 £468 - 10
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 31 (5.24%) SharePoint
2 22 (3.72%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (2.36%) Confluence
4 9 (1.52%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.84%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.34%) CMS
6 2 (0.34%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 25 (4.22%) MS Visio
2 18 (3.04%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 135 (22.80%) Azure
2 85 (14.36%) Microsoft 365
3 63 (10.64%) AWS
4 38 (6.42%) Entra ID
5 19 (3.21%) OneDrive
5 19 (3.21%) SaaS
6 14 (2.36%) GCP
7 12 (2.03%) PaaS
8 10 (1.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.35%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.18%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.01%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 5 (0.84%) AWS Direct Connect
12 5 (0.84%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (0.84%) IaaS
13 3 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
13 3 (0.51%) Google Ads
13 3 (0.51%) Nutanix
14 2 (0.34%) IBM Watson
14 2 (0.34%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 487 (82.26%) WAN
2 287 (48.48%) Firewall
3 159 (26.86%) VPN
4 149 (25.17%) BGP
5 138 (23.31%) Wi-Fi
6 137 (23.14%) SD-WAN
7 129 (21.79%) Network Security
7 129 (21.79%) OSPF
8 125 (21.11%) DNS
9 116 (19.59%) Wireless
10 94 (15.88%) DHCP
11 93 (15.71%) MPLS
12 78 (13.18%) WLAN
13 77 (13.01%) VLAN
14 73 (12.33%) TCP/IP
15 49 (8.28%) Cisco ISE
15 49 (8.28%) IPsec
16 47 (7.94%) Cisco Nexus
17 46 (7.77%) BIG-IP
18 38 (6.42%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.84%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) DTS
2 1 (0.17%) NoSQL
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 31 (5.24%) JIRA
2 5 (0.84%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
4 2 (0.34%) Git
4 2 (0.34%) GitLab
4 2 (0.34%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 168 (28.38%) Social Skills
2 60 (10.14%) Telecoms
3 50 (8.45%) Public Sector
4 46 (7.77%) Analytical Skills
5 38 (6.42%) Finance
6 26 (4.39%) Documentation Skills
7 20 (3.38%) Legal
8 19 (3.21%) Financial Institution
9 18 (3.04%) Organisational Skills
10 17 (2.87%) Manufacturing
11 10 (1.69%) Banking
12 8 (1.35%) Military
12 8 (1.35%) Police
12 8 (1.35%) Retail
13 7 (1.18%) Law
14 6 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.68%) Billing
16 3 (0.51%) German Language
16 3 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 3 (0.51%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 239 (40.37%) Network Engineer
2 85 (14.36%) Architect
3 68 (11.49%) Senior
4 58 (9.80%) Network Architect
5 42 (7.09%) IT Support
5 42 (7.09%) Support Engineer
6 36 (6.08%) IT Engineer
7 31 (5.24%) Senior Network Engineer
8 30 (5.07%) IT Support Engineer
9 27 (4.56%) Cisco Engineer
10 25 (4.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 24 (4.05%) Analyst
11 24 (4.05%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 24 (4.05%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 23 (3.89%) Lead
13 18 (3.04%) Technical Architect
14 17 (2.87%) Field Engineer
15 16 (2.70%) Consultant
15 16 (2.70%) Network Manager
15 16 (2.70%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (8.45%) 802.1X
2 10 (1.69%) Microsoft Graph
2 10 (1.69%) SAML
3 9 (1.52%) LDAP
3 9 (1.52%) NETCONF
3 9 (1.52%) YANG
4 8 (1.35%) REST
5 4 (0.68%) Middleware
6 3 (0.51%) Software Packaging
7 2 (0.34%) .NET
7 2 (0.34%) Django
7 2 (0.34%) Java RMI
7 2 (0.34%) OpenConfig
7 2 (0.34%) RESTCONF
7 2 (0.34%) RFC 2544
8 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
8 1 (0.17%) CSS
8 1 (0.17%) HTML
8 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
8 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 118 (19.93%) Data Centre
2 33 (5.57%) PKI
3 30 (5.07%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (4.39%) Clustering
5 22 (3.72%) Onboarding
6 15 (2.53%) Driving Licence
6 15 (2.53%) Security Posture
6 15 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (2.36%) Virtual Team
8 13 (2.20%) Cloud Native
9 12 (2.03%) Data Protection Act
10 11 (1.86%) Public Cloud
11 10 (1.69%) NHS
11 10 (1.69%) Operational Technology
11 10 (1.69%) Private Cloud
12 8 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.35%) IoT
12 8 (1.35%) Video Conferencing
13 7 (1.18%) CCTV
13 7 (1.18%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 180 (30.41%) Windows
2 50 (8.45%) Windows Server
3 36 (6.08%) Linux
4 30 (5.07%) Windows 10
5 19 (3.21%) Windows Server 2019
6 15 (2.53%) Mac OS
7 10 (1.69%) Android
8 9 (1.52%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.18%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.01%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.84%) Unix
11 5 (0.84%) VMS
12 3 (0.51%) CatOS
12 3 (0.51%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.34%) AIX
14 1 (0.17%) CentOS
14 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (16.05%) ITIL
2 85 (14.36%) High Availability
3 79 (13.34%) Problem-Solving
4 72 (12.16%) Load Balancing
5 58 (9.80%) Project Delivery
6 55 (9.29%) Stakeholder Management
7 52 (8.78%) Migration
8 48 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
8 48 (8.11%) Network Architecture
9 47 (7.94%) Roadmaps
10 45 (7.60%) Change Management
11 42 (7.09%) Technical Leadership
12 39 (6.59%) ITSM
13 38 (6.42%) Agile
13 38 (6.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 38 (6.42%) Network Monitoring
13 38 (6.42%) Service Management
14 36 (6.08%) Network Design
15 33 (5.57%) Disaster Recovery
16 31 (5.24%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 44 (7.43%) Python
2 42 (7.09%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.18%) SQL
4 5 (0.84%) VBScript
5 4 (0.68%) VB
6 2 (0.34%) C++
6 2 (0.34%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.17%) Bicep
7 1 (0.17%) C
7 1 (0.17%) Java
7 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 200 (33.78%) Security Cleared
2 181 (30.57%) Cisco Certification
3 126 (21.28%) SC Cleared
4 114 (19.26%) CCNP
5 69 (11.66%) CCNA
6 65 (10.98%) DV Cleared
7 49 (8.28%) CCIE
8 48 (8.11%) Degree
9 16 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
10 14 (2.36%) PMP
11 13 (2.20%) JNCIP
12 12 (2.03%) Azure Certification
12 12 (2.03%) JNCIE
12 12 (2.03%) JNCIS
13 11 (1.86%) JNCIA
13 11 (1.86%) PMI Certification
14 9 (1.52%) AWS Certification
15 8 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (1.01%) CCSE
16 6 (1.01%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (2.87%) SLA
2 16 (2.70%) QA
3 10 (1.69%) NCSC
4 9 (1.52%) NIST
5 7 (1.18%) Disclosure Scotland
5 7 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.68%) GDPR
7 3 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.51%) PMO
8 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.34%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.17%) DICOM
9 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.17%) RMADS
System Software
1 105 (17.74%) Active Directory
2 60 (10.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (4.56%) VMware NSX
4 20 (3.38%) vSphere
5 10 (1.69%) Firmware
6 8 (1.35%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.68%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
10 3 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
11 1 (0.17%) Docker
11 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.17%) NFS
11 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 52 (8.78%) FortiGate
2 37 (6.25%) Ansible
3 29 (4.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (3.38%) Terraform
5 16 (2.70%) SCCM
6 13 (2.20%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (1.86%) Jamf Pro
8 5 (0.84%) Cisco Prime
9 4 (0.68%) Nagios
9 4 (0.68%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.68%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 3 (0.51%) Endace
10 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.34%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.34%) CASB
11 2 (0.34%) Cisco CUCM
11 2 (0.34%) Grafana
11 2 (0.34%) VxRail
11 2 (0.34%) WSUS
12 1 (0.17%) logstash
Vendors
1 293 (49.49%) Cisco
2 133 (22.47%) Microsoft
3 99 (16.72%) Palo Alto
4 95 (16.05%) F5
5 78 (13.18%) Juniper
5 78 (13.18%) VMware
6 65 (10.98%) SolarWinds
7 62 (10.47%) Fortinet
8 56 (9.46%) Aruba
9 52 (8.78%) CheckPoint
10 35 (5.91%) ServiceNow
11 32 (5.41%) Extreme Networks
12 29 (4.90%) Splunk
13 24 (4.05%) Meraki
14 20 (3.38%) Zscaler
15 16 (2.70%) Dell
15 16 (2.70%) Ekahau
16 11 (1.86%) Citrix
17 9 (1.52%) Arista
18 8 (1.35%) Nokia