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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 210 176
Rank change year-on-year -22 -34 -55
Contract jobs citing LAN 586 419 546
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.10% 1.27% 1.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.74% 10.59% 11.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 260 322
10th Percentile £231 £200 £216
25th Percentile £363 £313 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -
75th Percentile £540 £575 £622
90th Percentile £625 £626 £687
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £400 £475
% change year-on-year +12.50% -15.79% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 19 30
10th Percentile £12.71 £23.15 £15.43
25th Percentile £16.25 £28.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +26.05% -52.40%
75th Percentile £56.00 £41.63 £37.38
90th Percentile £74.15 £55.63 £75.02
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.00 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -33.33% +20.63% -58.55%

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 4,992 3,957 4,742
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.36% 12.02% 12.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,963 2,418 2,878
10th Percentile £250 £235 £220
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 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 354 195 327
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.79%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.78 £83.60 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -40.76% -18.00% -4.42%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -26 488 £475 +5.56% 228
UK excluding London -4 417 £450 +12.50% 197
South East +8 154 £520 -0.95% 64
London -96 118 £513 +10.81% 76
Work from Home -42 110 £510 +2.00% 81
North of England -44 77 £483 +96.94% 53
Scotland +32 61 £350 -9.68% 21
Midlands -36 54 £275 -23.08% 33
North West -52 41 £525 +241.46% 26
East of England +3 40 £338 +14.89% 6
West Midlands -50 38 £375 -1.96% 22
Yorkshire -19 36 £450 +12.50% 24
South West -45 27 £513 +28.13% 21
East Midlands +1 13 £220 +20.55% 11
Wales -18 5 £425 +61.90% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £550 - 3
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 21 (3.58%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.54%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.68%) Confluence
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 25 (4.27%) MS Visio
2 21 (3.58%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (3.07%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 122 (20.82%) Azure
2 80 (13.65%) Microsoft 365
3 57 (9.73%) AWS
4 32 (5.46%) Entra ID
5 13 (2.22%) OneDrive
6 11 (1.88%) GCP
6 11 (1.88%) SaaS
7 10 (1.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 7 (1.19%) PaaS
9 6 (1.02%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (1.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 5 (0.85%) AWS Direct Connect
10 5 (0.85%) IaaS
11 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Copilot
11 4 (0.68%) OpenShift
12 3 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
12 3 (0.51%) Google Ads
12 3 (0.51%) Nutanix
12 3 (0.51%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.34%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 486 (82.94%) WAN
2 292 (49.83%) Firewall
3 148 (25.26%) BGP
4 142 (24.23%) VPN
5 134 (22.87%) Network Security
6 130 (22.18%) Wi-Fi
7 125 (21.33%) SD-WAN
8 119 (20.31%) OSPF
9 118 (20.14%) Wireless
10 117 (19.97%) DNS
11 107 (18.26%) MPLS
12 93 (15.87%) DHCP
13 79 (13.48%) TCP/IP
14 74 (12.63%) VLAN
15 70 (11.95%) WLAN
16 55 (9.39%) IPsec
17 52 (8.87%) Cisco ISE
18 46 (7.85%) Cisco Nexus
19 40 (6.83%) BIG-IP
20 38 (6.48%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.37%) 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 (3.07%) JIRA
2 5 (0.85%) Browser DevTools
3 4 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.34%) Git
4 2 (0.34%) 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
1 176 (30.03%) Social Skills
2 78 (13.31%) Telecoms
3 57 (9.73%) Public Sector
4 53 (9.04%) Analytical Skills
5 41 (7.00%) Finance
6 25 (4.27%) Organisational Skills
7 21 (3.58%) Documentation Skills
8 18 (3.07%) Financial Institution
9 16 (2.73%) Banking
10 13 (2.22%) Legal
10 13 (2.22%) Retail
11 11 (1.88%) Manufacturing
12 9 (1.54%) Police
13 8 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (1.19%) Local Government
15 6 (1.02%) Law
16 5 (0.85%) Military
17 3 (0.51%) Billing
17 3 (0.51%) German Language
18 2 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 243 (41.47%) Network Engineer
2 78 (13.31%) Architect
2 78 (13.31%) Senior
3 56 (9.56%) Network Architect
4 42 (7.17%) Senior Network Engineer
5 39 (6.66%) IT Support
6 34 (5.80%) Support Engineer
7 28 (4.78%) IT Engineer
8 25 (4.27%) Cisco Engineer
9 24 (4.10%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 22 (3.75%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 22 (3.75%) IT Support Engineer
11 21 (3.58%) Field Engineer
11 21 (3.58%) Telecoms Engineer
12 20 (3.41%) Consultant
13 19 (3.24%) Lead
13 19 (3.24%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 18 (3.07%) Analyst
14 18 (3.07%) Network Specialist
15 17 (2.90%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (8.87%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.22%) NETCONF
3 9 (1.54%) YANG
4 8 (1.37%) SAML
5 6 (1.02%) REST
6 5 (0.85%) LDAP
7 4 (0.68%) Middleware
7 4 (0.68%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.68%) RESTCONF
8 3 (0.51%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.51%) Software Packaging
9 2 (0.34%) .NET
9 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.34%) ODBC
10 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
10 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
10 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
10 1 (0.17%) RFC 2544
10 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
10 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 111 (18.94%) Data Centre
2 35 (5.97%) PKI
3 31 (5.29%) Driving Licence
4 30 (5.12%) Hybrid Cloud
5 26 (4.44%) Clustering
6 21 (3.58%) Onboarding
7 16 (2.73%) Security Posture
7 16 (2.73%) Self-Motivation
8 13 (2.22%) Cloud Native
8 13 (2.22%) Video Conferencing
9 12 (2.05%) Private Cloud
9 12 (2.05%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
10 10 (1.71%) NHS
10 10 (1.71%) Operational Technology
11 9 (1.54%) Virtual Team
12 8 (1.37%) CCTV
13 7 (1.19%) IoT
13 7 (1.19%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 162 (27.65%) Windows
2 46 (7.85%) Windows Server
3 37 (6.31%) Linux
4 23 (3.92%) Windows 10
5 14 (2.39%) Mac OS
6 10 (1.71%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (1.19%) Unix
8 6 (1.02%) Android
8 6 (1.02%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.68%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.68%) VMS
9 4 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (0.51%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.17%) AIX
12 1 (0.17%) CatOS
12 1 (0.17%) CentOS
12 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (17.75%) Problem-Solving
2 97 (16.55%) ITIL
3 88 (15.02%) High Availability
4 72 (12.29%) Load Balancing
5 68 (11.60%) Project Delivery
6 56 (9.56%) Continuous Improvement
7 51 (8.70%) Roadmaps
8 48 (8.19%) Stakeholder Management
9 47 (8.02%) Migration
10 46 (7.85%) Network Architecture
11 41 (7.00%) Change Management
11 41 (7.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 41 (7.00%) Technical Leadership
12 38 (6.48%) Network Monitoring
13 34 (5.80%) Service Management
14 33 (5.63%) Customer Service
15 31 (5.29%) Network Design
15 31 (5.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 30 (5.12%) Mentoring
16 30 (5.12%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 28 (4.78%) Python
2 21 (3.58%) PowerShell
3 8 (1.37%) SQL
4 2 (0.34%) C++
4 2 (0.34%) T-SQL
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
1 193 (32.94%) Security Cleared
2 170 (29.01%) Cisco Certification
3 104 (17.75%) SC Cleared
4 101 (17.24%) CCNP
5 73 (12.46%) DV Cleared
6 69 (11.77%) CCNA
7 41 (7.00%) CCIE
8 40 (6.83%) Degree
9 14 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
10 13 (2.22%) Azure Certification
10 13 (2.22%) JNCIP
10 13 (2.22%) JNCIS
11 12 (2.05%) PMP
12 10 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
12 10 (1.71%) JNCIE
13 9 (1.54%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.54%) JNCIA
13 9 (1.54%) PMI Certification
14 6 (1.02%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.02%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.61%) SLA
2 14 (2.39%) QA
3 12 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.88%) NIST
5 8 (1.37%) NCSC
6 7 (1.19%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.68%) GDPR
8 3 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.51%) PMO
9 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.34%) GRC
9 2 (0.34%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.17%) DICOM
10 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 90 (15.36%) Active Directory
2 47 (8.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (3.92%) VMware NSX
4 12 (2.05%) Firmware
4 12 (2.05%) vSphere
5 8 (1.37%) Hyper-V
6 7 (1.19%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (1.02%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.17%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.17%) FreeRADIUS
9 1 (0.17%) NFS
9 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 54 (9.22%) FortiGate
2 26 (4.44%) Ansible
3 24 (4.10%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (2.56%) Terraform
5 11 (1.88%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (1.54%) SCCM
7 6 (1.02%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.68%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.68%) Nagios
8 4 (0.68%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.68%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 3 (0.51%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.51%) WSUS
10 2 (0.34%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.34%) CASB
10 2 (0.34%) Endace
10 2 (0.34%) VxRail
11 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.17%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 289 (49.32%) Cisco
2 137 (23.38%) Microsoft
3 96 (16.38%) Palo Alto
4 89 (15.19%) F5
5 78 (13.31%) Juniper
6 69 (11.77%) VMware
7 65 (11.09%) SolarWinds
8 63 (10.75%) Fortinet
9 54 (9.22%) Aruba
10 43 (7.34%) CheckPoint
11 30 (5.12%) Extreme Networks
11 30 (5.12%) Splunk
12 23 (3.92%) Meraki
12 23 (3.92%) Zscaler
13 21 (3.58%) ServiceNow
14 17 (2.90%) Nokia
15 16 (2.73%) Ekahau
16 11 (1.88%) HP
17 10 (1.71%) Citrix
18 8 (1.37%) Google