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 17 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 263 224 192
Rank change year-on-year -39 -32 -74
Contract jobs citing LAN 544 404 503
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.23% 1.32%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.64% 10.61% 11.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 327 250 264
10th Percentile £213 £190 £221
25th Percentile £322 £305 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £575
90th Percentile £625 £638 £665
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £384 £425
% change year-on-year +17.26% -9.71% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 22 26
10th Percentile £12.71 £21.05 £16.69
25th Percentile £16.25 £27.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.00 £23.15
Median % change year-on-year -10.93% +29.59% -40.67%
75th Percentile £73.00 £39.69 £40.25
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.73 £75.12
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.92 £30.00 £22.40
% change year-on-year -33.60% +33.93% -44.00%

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 5,111 3,807 4,537
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.35% 11.56% 11.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,962 2,354 2,642
10th Percentile £232 £225 £225
25th Percentile £390 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £476 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.04% -4.80% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £677 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £452 £500
% change year-on-year +5.20% -9.70% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 419 198 255
10th Percentile £14.74 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £32.50 £43.00 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -24.42% -14.85% -10.60%
75th Percentile £68.75 £64.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.55 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.69 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -37.20% -25.89% -0.26%

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 17 September 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 -64 438 £490 +8.89% 497
UK excluding London -16 384 £450 +17.26% 320
London -114 118 £505 +1.00% 187
South East -36 108 £525 +5.00% 103
Work from Home -48 97 £500 +8.11% 196
North of England -45 83 £500 +185.71% 62
Scotland +23 73 £273 -30.71% 14
Midlands -40 48 £355 -7.19% 70
North West -36 45 £519 +291.77% 44
East of England -7 38 £338 +14.89% 44
Yorkshire -14 38 £450 +123.60% 12
West Midlands -51 36 £413 -8.33% 42
South West -37 27 £400 +23.08% 30
East Midlands -1 11 £255 +27.50% 28
Wales -18 5 £425 +83.78% 2
Channel Islands - 3 £600 -
Northern Ireland +2 1 £550 +15.79% 1

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 22 (4.04%) SharePoint
2 20 (3.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.65%) OpenStack
4 7 (1.29%) Skype for Business
5 6 (1.10%) Confluence
6 2 (0.37%) CMS
6 2 (0.37%) IIS
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 29 (5.33%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (4.78%) MS Visio
3 25 (4.60%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 111 (20.40%) Azure
2 76 (13.97%) Microsoft 365
3 54 (9.93%) AWS
4 30 (5.51%) Entra ID
5 12 (2.21%) SaaS
6 10 (1.84%) GCP
6 10 (1.84%) OneDrive
6 10 (1.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 6 (1.10%) AWS Direct Connect
8 5 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (0.92%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (0.74%) OpenShift
10 3 (0.55%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (0.55%) Power Platform
10 3 (0.55%) Smartsheet
11 2 (0.37%) Google Ads
11 2 (0.37%) IaaS
11 2 (0.37%) PaaS
11 2 (0.37%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 464 (85.29%) WAN
2 256 (47.06%) Firewall
3 144 (26.47%) VPN
4 128 (23.53%) Network Security
5 125 (22.98%) Wi-Fi
6 118 (21.69%) Wireless
7 115 (21.14%) BGP
8 113 (20.77%) SD-WAN
9 99 (18.20%) MPLS
10 89 (16.36%) DNS
11 86 (15.81%) OSPF
12 79 (14.52%) TCP/IP
13 72 (13.24%) DHCP
13 72 (13.24%) WLAN
14 69 (12.68%) VLAN
15 51 (9.38%) Cisco Nexus
15 51 (9.38%) IPsec
16 36 (6.62%) Cisco ISE
17 35 (6.43%) Cisco ASA
18 25 (4.60%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.10%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.18%) DTS
2 1 (0.18%) Metadata
2 1 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.18%) Power BI
2 1 (0.18%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 16 (2.94%) JIRA
2 4 (0.74%) Git
2 4 (0.74%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (0.55%) Browser DevTools
4 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.18%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.18%) MSI
5 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio
General
1 182 (33.46%) Social Skills
2 92 (16.91%) Telecoms
3 56 (10.29%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (9.19%) Public Sector
5 32 (5.88%) Finance
6 25 (4.60%) Documentation Skills
6 25 (4.60%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (2.94%) Banking
8 13 (2.39%) Legal
8 13 (2.39%) Retail
9 10 (1.84%) Police
10 8 (1.47%) Manufacturing
11 7 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.10%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.92%) Local Government
14 3 (0.55%) Law
15 2 (0.37%) Billing
15 2 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 2 (0.37%) Military
16 1 (0.18%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 237 (43.57%) Network Engineer
2 70 (12.87%) Senior
3 68 (12.50%) Architect
4 52 (9.56%) Network Architect
5 44 (8.09%) Senior Network Engineer
6 37 (6.80%) Support Engineer
7 36 (6.62%) IT Support
8 27 (4.96%) IT Engineer
9 26 (4.78%) Cisco Engineer
9 26 (4.78%) Field Engineer
10 25 (4.60%) Telecoms Engineer
11 23 (4.23%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 22 (4.04%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 22 (4.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 22 (4.04%) IT Support Engineer
13 17 (3.13%) Developer
13 17 (3.13%) Network Field Engineer
13 17 (3.13%) Project Engineer
14 16 (2.94%) Consultant
14 16 (2.94%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (4.23%) 802.1X
2 14 (2.57%) Terraform
3 13 (2.39%) NETCONF
4 9 (1.65%) REST
4 9 (1.65%) YANG
5 6 (1.10%) SAML
6 4 (0.74%) LDAP
6 4 (0.74%) OpenConfig
6 4 (0.74%) RESTCONF
7 3 (0.55%) Java RMI
7 3 (0.55%) Middleware
7 3 (0.55%) RFC 2544
8 2 (0.37%) .NET
8 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Graph
8 2 (0.37%) ODBC
8 2 (0.37%) Software Packaging
8 2 (0.37%) YAML
9 1 (0.18%) .NET Framework
9 1 (0.18%) ModSecurity
9 1 (0.18%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 107 (19.67%) Data Centre
2 38 (6.99%) Driving Licence
3 30 (5.51%) Hybrid Cloud
4 25 (4.60%) Onboarding
5 21 (3.86%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (3.31%) PKI
7 17 (3.13%) Operational Technology
7 17 (3.13%) Video Conferencing
8 14 (2.57%) Private Cloud
9 12 (2.21%) Cloud Native
9 12 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
9 12 (2.21%) Security Posture
10 10 (1.84%) IoT
11 9 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
11 9 (1.65%) NHS
11 9 (1.65%) Public Cloud
12 8 (1.47%) Virtual Team
13 7 (1.29%) SCADA
13 7 (1.29%) Smartphone
14 6 (1.10%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 141 (25.92%) Windows
2 45 (8.27%) Windows Server
3 35 (6.43%) Linux
4 33 (6.07%) Windows 10
5 15 (2.76%) Mac OS
6 12 (2.21%) Windows 7
7 8 (1.47%) Unix
8 6 (1.10%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.74%) Android
10 3 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.55%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.37%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.18%) CatOS
12 1 (0.18%) CentOS
12 1 (0.18%) Solaris
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (18.93%) Problem-Solving
2 89 (16.36%) ITIL
3 73 (13.42%) Project Delivery
4 63 (11.58%) High Availability
5 58 (10.66%) Continuous Improvement
6 56 (10.29%) Stakeholder Management
7 51 (9.38%) Load Balancing
8 48 (8.82%) Network Architecture
8 48 (8.82%) Roadmaps
9 42 (7.72%) Customer Service
9 42 (7.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 39 (7.17%) Migration
11 38 (6.99%) Technical Leadership
12 35 (6.43%) Network Monitoring
13 34 (6.25%) Change Management
13 34 (6.25%) Mentoring
14 33 (6.07%) Network Design
14 33 (6.07%) Service Management
14 33 (6.07%) Zero Trust
15 31 (5.70%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 31 (5.70%) Python
2 23 (4.23%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.10%) VB
3 6 (1.10%) VBScript
4 4 (0.74%) SQL
5 2 (0.37%) Bicep
5 2 (0.37%) C++
5 2 (0.37%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.18%) Bash
6 1 (0.18%) C
6 1 (0.18%) Java
6 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 167 (30.70%) Security Cleared
2 156 (28.68%) Cisco Certification
3 103 (18.93%) SC Cleared
4 100 (18.38%) CCNP
5 66 (12.13%) CCNA
6 47 (8.64%) DV Cleared
7 42 (7.72%) CCIE
8 35 (6.43%) Degree
9 15 (2.76%) Azure Certification
10 10 (1.84%) AWS Certification
10 10 (1.84%) Microsoft Certification
10 10 (1.84%) PMP
11 9 (1.65%) JNCIE
11 9 (1.65%) PMI Certification
12 8 (1.47%) A+ Certification
13 7 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (1.29%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 7 (1.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (1.10%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.10%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (4.04%) SLA
2 12 (2.21%) QA
3 10 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.47%) NIST
5 7 (1.29%) NCSC
6 6 (1.10%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.74%) JSP 440
7 4 (0.74%) PMO
8 3 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.55%) GRC
9 2 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.37%) GDPR
9 2 (0.37%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.18%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.18%) DICOM
10 1 (0.18%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.18%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 81 (14.89%) Active Directory
2 46 (8.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (3.86%) VMware NSX
4 14 (2.57%) vSphere
5 12 (2.21%) Firmware
6 9 (1.65%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (1.65%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (1.47%) Hyper-V
8 7 (1.29%) BitLocker
9 6 (1.10%) VMware ESXi
10 5 (0.92%) Virtual Servers
11 3 (0.55%) FreeRADIUS
12 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 1 (0.18%) NFS
13 1 (0.18%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 31 (5.70%) FortiGate
2 29 (5.33%) Ansible
3 24 (4.41%) Microsoft Intune
4 13 (2.39%) SCCM
5 8 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.10%) vCenter Server
7 5 (0.92%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.74%) Nagios
9 3 (0.55%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.37%) CASB
10 2 (0.37%) Grafana
10 2 (0.37%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.37%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 2 (0.37%) VxRail
10 2 (0.37%) WSUS
11 1 (0.18%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.18%) Iperf
11 1 (0.18%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.18%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 275 (50.55%) Cisco
2 144 (26.47%) Microsoft
3 87 (15.99%) Palo Alto
4 73 (13.42%) VMware
5 70 (12.87%) Fortinet
6 55 (10.11%) F5
7 52 (9.56%) Juniper
8 48 (8.82%) SolarWinds
9 41 (7.54%) Aruba
10 34 (6.25%) CheckPoint
11 32 (5.88%) Meraki
12 29 (5.33%) ServiceNow
13 21 (3.86%) Nokia
14 19 (3.49%) Zscaler
15 11 (2.02%) Splunk
16 10 (1.84%) Extreme Networks
17 9 (1.65%) Ekahau
17 9 (1.65%) Google
17 9 (1.65%) HP
18 7 (1.29%) Citrix