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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 243 173 128
Rank change year-on-year -70 -45 +51
Contract jobs citing LAN 434 475 816
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.50% 1.89%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.96% 11.64% 13.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 289 512
10th Percentile £213 £223 £200
25th Percentile £318 £350 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £450
75th Percentile £538 £569 £600
90th Percentile £628 £655 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £430 £445
% change year-on-year -1.16% -3.37% +2.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 12 35
10th Percentile £12.97 £18.65 £17.04
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £20.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £20.19 £33.44
Median % change year-on-year +11.46% -39.63% +25.81%
75th Percentile £35.00 £34.06 £50.00
90th Percentile £69.99 £42.88 £65.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.38 £20.00 £27.75
% change year-on-year -8.13% -27.93% +11.94%

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 3,961 4,080 5,888
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.48% 12.87% 13.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,604 2,373 3,603
10th Percentile £204 £213 £209
25th Percentile £355 £363 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.91%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £467 £475
% change year-on-year -3.54% -1.79% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 166 140 362
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.16 £17.30
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.46 £23.00
Median hourly rate £32.00 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% -36.36% +158.82%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £57.75
% change year-on-year +29.05% -43.72% +206.83%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -63 362 £450 -1.64% 242
UK excluding London -67 276 £425 -1.16% 236
London -31 123 £500 - 55
Work from Home -3 113 £450 -13.46% 93
South East -23 84 £450 +9.09% 70
North of England -86 55 £433 -3.89% 50
Scotland +26 40 £273 -31.88% 17
Midlands -67 40 £425 -10.53% 37
North West -43 38 £420 -8.50% 20
West Midlands -40 35 £450 -10.00% 25
East of England -24 33 £350 -31.71% 25
Yorkshire -65 16 £445 +91.40% 24
South West -34 12 £513 +24.24% 31
Wales 0 6 £335 +67.50% 7
Northern Ireland -2 5 £475 - 4
East Midlands -44 5 £200 -42.86% 12
North East -13 1 £550 - 6

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 (5.76%) SharePoint
2 18 (4.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (3.23%) OpenStack
4 10 (2.30%) Skype for Business
5 7 (1.61%) Confluence
6 1 (0.23%) Apache
6 1 (0.23%) CICS
6 1 (0.23%) IIS
6 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.23%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.23%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 39 (8.99%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (5.99%) MS Visio
3 17 (3.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (3.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.15%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.46%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 95 (21.89%) Azure
2 59 (13.59%) AWS
3 47 (10.83%) Microsoft 365
4 20 (4.61%) Entra ID
5 19 (4.38%) GCP
6 9 (2.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 7 (1.61%) SaaS
8 6 (1.38%) OpenShift
9 4 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.92%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (0.69%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (0.69%) Nutanix
10 3 (0.69%) Serverless
11 2 (0.46%) AWS IoT
11 2 (0.46%) GitHub
11 2 (0.46%) Google Ads
11 2 (0.46%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.46%) Slack
11 2 (0.46%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 362 (83.41%) WAN
2 169 (38.94%) Firewall
3 138 (31.80%) VPN
4 90 (20.74%) BGP
5 88 (20.28%) SD-WAN
6 84 (19.35%) Wi-Fi
7 73 (16.82%) Wireless
8 71 (16.36%) DNS
8 71 (16.36%) TCP/IP
9 70 (16.13%) OSPF
10 69 (15.90%) Network Security
11 66 (15.21%) MPLS
12 55 (12.67%) DHCP
12 55 (12.67%) VLAN
13 47 (10.83%) WLAN
14 38 (8.76%) IPsec
15 31 (7.14%) Cisco Nexus
16 25 (5.76%) Cisco ASA
16 25 (5.76%) Structured Cabling
17 20 (4.61%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.84%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.92%) MS Access
3 3 (0.69%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.46%) MariaDB
4 2 (0.46%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.46%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.46%) Power BI
5 1 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.23%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.23%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.23%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.23%) MySQL
5 1 (0.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 11 (2.53%) JIRA
2 2 (0.46%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.23%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.23%) Git
3 1 (0.23%) GitLab
3 1 (0.23%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 136 (31.34%) Social Skills
2 52 (11.98%) Public Sector
3 50 (11.52%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (8.76%) Telecoms
5 36 (8.29%) Finance
6 34 (7.83%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (4.84%) Manufacturing
8 16 (3.69%) Military
9 13 (3.00%) Legal
10 10 (2.30%) Banking
11 9 (2.07%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.38%) Law
12 6 (1.38%) Local Government
12 6 (1.38%) Marketing
13 5 (1.15%) Electronics
13 5 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.92%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
15 3 (0.69%) Police
Job Titles
1 141 (32.49%) Network Engineer
2 86 (19.82%) Architect
3 60 (13.82%) Network Architect
4 36 (8.29%) Analyst
5 34 (7.83%) Senior
6 22 (5.07%) IT Support
6 22 (5.07%) Lead
6 22 (5.07%) Support Analyst
7 21 (4.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 21 (4.84%) Support Engineer
8 18 (4.15%) Project Manager
8 18 (4.15%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 18 (4.15%) Senior Network Engineer
8 18 (4.15%) Technical Architect
9 17 (3.92%) Field Engineer
9 17 (3.92%) Technical Support
10 16 (3.69%) 2nd Line Support
10 16 (3.69%) Cisco Engineer
10 16 (3.69%) Technical Analyst
11 15 (3.46%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.53%) LDAP
2 8 (1.84%) Middleware
2 8 (1.84%) NETCONF
2 8 (1.84%) REST
2 8 (1.84%) YANG
3 6 (1.38%) SAML
4 3 (0.69%) 802.1X
5 2 (0.46%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.46%) CSS
5 2 (0.46%) Django
5 2 (0.46%) HTML
5 2 (0.46%) XMPP
5 2 (0.46%) YAML
6 1 (0.23%) .NET
6 1 (0.23%) EDI
6 1 (0.23%) Java RMI
6 1 (0.23%) LAMP
6 1 (0.23%) LAPP Stack
6 1 (0.23%) Node.js
6 1 (0.23%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 80 (18.43%) Data Centre
2 24 (5.53%) Hybrid Cloud
3 20 (4.61%) Driving Licence
4 18 (4.15%) Onboarding
5 14 (3.23%) CMDB
6 13 (3.00%) NHS
7 12 (2.76%) Data Protection Act
8 10 (2.30%) Management Information System
9 9 (2.07%) Cloud Native
10 8 (1.84%) Operational Technology
11 7 (1.61%) PKI
11 7 (1.61%) Security Posture
11 7 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.38%) SCADA
12 6 (1.38%) Virtual Team
13 5 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
13 5 (1.15%) Enterprise Software
13 5 (1.15%) iPhone
13 5 (1.15%) Public Cloud
13 5 (1.15%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 105 (24.19%) Windows
2 42 (9.68%) Windows Server
3 33 (7.60%) Windows 10
4 21 (4.84%) Linux
5 13 (3.00%) Windows Server 2016
5 13 (3.00%) Windows Server 2019
6 10 (2.30%) Windows 7
7 7 (1.61%) Android
8 5 (1.15%) Windows Server 2012
9 4 (0.92%) Apple iOS
9 4 (0.92%) CatOS
9 4 (0.92%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.69%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.46%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.23%) AIX
12 1 (0.23%) MVS
12 1 (0.23%) Solaris
12 1 (0.23%) VMS
12 1 (0.23%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (15.21%) Problem-Solving
2 60 (13.82%) ITIL
2 60 (13.82%) Network Design
3 55 (12.67%) Migration
4 48 (11.06%) Network Architecture
5 45 (10.37%) Cybersecurity
6 40 (9.22%) Stakeholder Management
7 37 (8.53%) ITSM
8 36 (8.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 36 (8.29%) Project Delivery
9 31 (7.14%) High Availability
10 30 (6.91%) Change Management
10 30 (6.91%) Network Monitoring
11 28 (6.45%) Customer Service
12 26 (5.99%) Zero Trust
13 24 (5.53%) Roadmaps
13 24 (5.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 23 (5.30%) Continuous Improvement
15 22 (5.07%) Network Management
15 22 (5.07%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 37 (8.53%) Python
2 31 (7.14%) PowerShell
3 12 (2.76%) SQL
4 10 (2.30%) VBScript
5 9 (2.07%) VB
6 6 (1.38%) Perl
7 3 (0.69%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.46%) Bash
8 2 (0.46%) Bicep
9 1 (0.23%) C#
9 1 (0.23%) Java
9 1 (0.23%) Ruby
9 1 (0.23%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.23%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 128 (29.49%) Security Cleared
2 127 (29.26%) Cisco Certification
3 99 (22.81%) CCNP
3 99 (22.81%) SC Cleared
4 52 (11.98%) Degree
5 47 (10.83%) CCIE
6 40 (9.22%) DV Cleared
7 39 (8.99%) CCNA
8 23 (5.30%) JNCIE
9 14 (3.23%) AWS Certification
10 12 (2.76%) JNCIP
11 11 (2.53%) CCSE
11 11 (2.53%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (2.30%) Azure Certification
12 10 (2.30%) JNCIS
13 8 (1.84%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (1.84%) PMI Certification
14 7 (1.61%) CCDP
14 7 (1.61%) Microsoft Certification
14 7 (1.61%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (2.30%) NIST
2 10 (2.30%) SLA
3 9 (2.07%) GDPR
4 7 (1.61%) PCI DSS
4 7 (1.61%) QA
5 5 (1.15%) PMO
6 4 (0.92%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.69%) JSP 440
7 3 (0.69%) NCSC
8 2 (0.46%) RMADS
9 1 (0.23%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.23%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.23%) GRC
9 1 (0.23%) MiFID
9 1 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 69 (15.90%) Active Directory
2 34 (7.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (5.07%) VMware NSX
4 9 (2.07%) BitLocker
5 8 (1.84%) Hyper-V
6 6 (1.38%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (1.15%) vSphere
8 4 (0.92%) Docker
9 3 (0.69%) KVM
9 3 (0.69%) VMware ESXi
10 2 (0.46%) Firmware
10 2 (0.46%) NFS
10 2 (0.46%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.46%) Xen
11 1 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.23%) RHEV
11 1 (0.23%) Samba
11 1 (0.23%) SRDF
11 1 (0.23%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 1 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 40 (9.22%) Ansible
2 32 (7.37%) Terraform
3 23 (5.30%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (4.61%) FortiGate
5 18 (4.15%) SCCM
6 10 (2.30%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.15%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.92%) Nagios
8 4 (0.92%) SCOM
9 3 (0.69%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.69%) Endace
9 3 (0.69%) Grafana
9 3 (0.69%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.69%) WSUS
10 2 (0.46%) Check_MK
10 2 (0.46%) Kubernetes
10 2 (0.46%) Nessus
10 2 (0.46%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.23%) Puppet
11 1 (0.23%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 199 (45.85%) Cisco
2 90 (20.74%) Microsoft
3 84 (19.35%) Palo Alto
4 56 (12.90%) Fortinet
5 52 (11.98%) Juniper
6 49 (11.29%) CheckPoint
6 49 (11.29%) VMware
7 44 (10.14%) Aruba
7 44 (10.14%) F5
8 34 (7.83%) Meraki
9 29 (6.68%) ServiceNow
9 29 (6.68%) SolarWinds
10 22 (5.07%) Zscaler
11 14 (3.23%) Citrix
11 14 (3.23%) Veeam
12 10 (2.30%) Arista
13 8 (1.84%) SAP
14 7 (1.61%) Remedy
15 6 (1.38%) Nokia
15 6 (1.38%) Oracle