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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 257 224 188
Rank change year-on-year -33 -36 -72
Contract jobs citing LAN 538 400 503
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.22% 1.31%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.67% 10.58% 11.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 328 247 268
10th Percentile £213 £190 £220
25th Percentile £324 £304 £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 £673
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £384 £425
% change year-on-year +17.26% -9.71% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 22 25
10th Percentile £12.71 £21.05 £16.51
25th Percentile £16.25 £27.50 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -10.93% +26.05% -37.43%
75th Percentile £73.00 £39.69 £40.25
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.73 £75.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.00 £30.00 £22.45
% change year-on-year -36.67% +33.63% -43.88%

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 5,044 3,781 4,544
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.32% 11.57% 11.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,936 2,333 2,657
10th Percentile £231 £230 £231
25th Percentile £385 £363 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £505
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.95% +1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £610
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £455 £500
% change year-on-year +4.40% -9.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 402 198 261
10th Percentile £14.35 £15.45 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £26.72 £42.50 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -17.48% -8.83%
75th Percentile £65.88 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.88 £73.60 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -38.49% -25.89% -0.11%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -55 433 £494 +9.72% 396
UK excluding London -6 380 £450 +17.26% 249
London -104 117 £505 +1.00% 164
South East -25 107 £525 +5.00% 81
Work from Home -53 96 £500 +8.11% 146
North of England -43 83 £500 +185.71% 48
Scotland +25 72 £273 -29.68% 8
Midlands -35 49 £375 -1.96% 54
North West -48 45 £519 +291.74% 32
Yorkshire -2 38 £450 +123.60% 11
West Midlands -42 36 £413 -8.33% 30
East of England -11 35 £338 +14.89% 33
South West -40 27 £400 +23.08% 27
East Midlands -10 11 £255 +27.50% 24
Wales -17 5 £425 +83.78% 4
Channel Islands - 3 £600 -
Northern Ireland +3 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 (4.09%) SharePoint
2 20 (3.72%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.67%) OpenStack
4 7 (1.30%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.93%) Confluence
6 2 (0.37%) CMS
6 2 (0.37%) IIS
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 29 (5.39%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (4.83%) MS Visio
3 25 (4.65%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 107 (19.89%) Azure
2 76 (14.13%) Microsoft 365
3 50 (9.29%) AWS
4 31 (5.76%) Entra ID
5 12 (2.23%) SaaS
6 10 (1.86%) OneDrive
6 10 (1.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 8 (1.49%) GCP
8 5 (0.93%) AWS Direct Connect
8 5 (0.93%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.74%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (0.74%) OpenShift
10 3 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (0.56%) Power Platform
10 3 (0.56%) Smartsheet
11 2 (0.37%) Google Ads
11 2 (0.37%) IaaS
11 2 (0.37%) PaaS
11 2 (0.37%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 460 (85.50%) WAN
2 250 (46.47%) Firewall
3 142 (26.39%) VPN
4 124 (23.05%) Network Security
4 124 (23.05%) Wi-Fi
5 117 (21.75%) Wireless
6 111 (20.63%) BGP
6 111 (20.63%) SD-WAN
7 97 (18.03%) MPLS
8 87 (16.17%) DNS
9 82 (15.24%) OSPF
10 73 (13.57%) TCP/IP
11 71 (13.20%) WLAN
12 69 (12.83%) DHCP
13 67 (12.45%) VLAN
14 51 (9.48%) Cisco Nexus
15 50 (9.29%) IPsec
16 36 (6.69%) Cisco ISE
17 35 (6.51%) Cisco ASA
18 25 (4.65%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.12%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.19%) DTS
2 1 (0.19%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.19%) Power BI
2 1 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 14 (2.60%) JIRA
2 4 (0.74%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (0.56%) Browser DevTools
4 2 (0.37%) Git
4 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.19%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.19%) MSI
5 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio
General
1 181 (33.64%) Social Skills
2 92 (17.10%) Telecoms
3 55 (10.22%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (9.29%) Public Sector
5 31 (5.76%) Finance
6 25 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (4.46%) Organisational Skills
8 15 (2.79%) Banking
9 13 (2.42%) Legal
9 13 (2.42%) Retail
10 10 (1.86%) Police
11 8 (1.49%) Manufacturing
12 7 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (1.12%) Financial Institution
13 6 (1.12%) Local Government
14 3 (0.56%) Law
15 2 (0.37%) Billing
15 2 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 1 (0.19%) Fire and Rescue
16 1 (0.19%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 233 (43.31%) Network Engineer
2 69 (12.83%) Architect
3 68 (12.64%) Senior
4 53 (9.85%) Network Architect
5 42 (7.81%) Senior Network Engineer
6 35 (6.51%) IT Support
6 35 (6.51%) Support Engineer
7 26 (4.83%) IT Engineer
8 25 (4.65%) Cisco Engineer
8 25 (4.65%) Field Engineer
8 25 (4.65%) Telecoms Engineer
9 22 (4.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 22 (4.09%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 21 (3.90%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 21 (3.90%) IT Support Engineer
11 17 (3.16%) Developer
11 17 (3.16%) Project Engineer
12 16 (2.97%) Consultant
12 16 (2.97%) Lead
12 16 (2.97%) Network Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (4.28%) 802.1X
2 14 (2.60%) Terraform
3 13 (2.42%) NETCONF
4 9 (1.67%) YANG
5 7 (1.30%) REST
6 6 (1.12%) SAML
7 4 (0.74%) LDAP
7 4 (0.74%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.74%) RESTCONF
8 3 (0.56%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.56%) Middleware
8 3 (0.56%) RFC 2544
9 2 (0.37%) .NET
9 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.37%) ODBC
9 2 (0.37%) Software Packaging
10 1 (0.19%) ModSecurity
10 1 (0.19%) SailPoint
10 1 (0.19%) XMPP
10 1 (0.19%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 106 (19.70%) Data Centre
2 37 (6.88%) Driving Licence
3 29 (5.39%) Hybrid Cloud
4 25 (4.65%) Onboarding
5 19 (3.53%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (3.35%) PKI
7 17 (3.16%) Operational Technology
8 15 (2.79%) Video Conferencing
9 14 (2.60%) Private Cloud
10 12 (2.23%) Cloud Native
10 12 (2.23%) Data Protection Act
10 12 (2.23%) Security Posture
11 10 (1.86%) IoT
11 10 (1.86%) Public Cloud
12 9 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
13 8 (1.49%) NHS
13 8 (1.49%) Virtual Team
14 7 (1.30%) SCADA
14 7 (1.30%) Smartphone
15 6 (1.12%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 137 (25.46%) Windows
2 41 (7.62%) Windows Server
3 33 (6.13%) Linux
3 33 (6.13%) Windows 10
4 15 (2.79%) Mac OS
5 12 (2.23%) Windows 7
6 8 (1.49%) Unix
7 6 (1.12%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.74%) Android
9 3 (0.56%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.37%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.19%) CatOS
11 1 (0.19%) CentOS
11 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.19%) Solaris
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (18.77%) Problem-Solving
2 88 (16.36%) ITIL
3 71 (13.20%) Project Delivery
4 63 (11.71%) High Availability
5 57 (10.59%) Continuous Improvement
6 53 (9.85%) Stakeholder Management
7 49 (9.11%) Load Balancing
8 48 (8.92%) Network Architecture
9 47 (8.74%) Roadmaps
10 42 (7.81%) Customer Service
10 42 (7.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 38 (7.06%) Migration
11 38 (7.06%) Technical Leadership
12 34 (6.32%) Mentoring
12 34 (6.32%) Network Monitoring
13 32 (5.95%) Change Management
13 32 (5.95%) Network Design
13 32 (5.95%) Service Management
13 32 (5.95%) Zero Trust
14 31 (5.76%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 29 (5.39%) Python
2 20 (3.72%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.12%) VB
3 6 (1.12%) VBScript
4 4 (0.74%) SQL
5 2 (0.37%) Bicep
5 2 (0.37%) C++
5 2 (0.37%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.19%) C
6 1 (0.19%) Java
6 1 (0.19%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 162 (30.11%) Security Cleared
2 154 (28.62%) Cisco Certification
3 100 (18.59%) SC Cleared
4 98 (18.22%) CCNP
5 65 (12.08%) CCNA
6 44 (8.18%) DV Cleared
7 41 (7.62%) CCIE
8 34 (6.32%) Degree
9 14 (2.60%) Azure Certification
10 10 (1.86%) Microsoft Certification
11 9 (1.67%) AWS Certification
11 9 (1.67%) JNCIE
11 9 (1.67%) PMP
12 8 (1.49%) A+ Certification
12 8 (1.49%) PMI Certification
13 7 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (1.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (1.12%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.12%) JNCIS
14 6 (1.12%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (3.90%) SLA
2 12 (2.23%) QA
3 10 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.49%) NIST
5 7 (1.30%) NCSC
6 6 (1.12%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.74%) JSP 440
7 4 (0.74%) PMO
8 3 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.56%) GRC
9 2 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.37%) GDPR
9 2 (0.37%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.19%) DICOM
10 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.19%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 78 (14.50%) Active Directory
2 41 (7.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.72%) VMware NSX
4 13 (2.42%) Firmware
5 9 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
5 9 (1.67%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (1.67%) vSphere
6 7 (1.30%) BitLocker
6 7 (1.30%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.93%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (0.74%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.56%) FreeRADIUS
10 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.19%) NFS
11 1 (0.19%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 30 (5.58%) FortiGate
2 27 (5.02%) Ansible
3 24 (4.46%) Microsoft Intune
4 13 (2.42%) SCCM
5 8 (1.49%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.93%) Cisco Prime
6 5 (0.93%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.56%) Cisco CUCM
9 2 (0.37%) CASB
9 2 (0.37%) Nagios
9 2 (0.37%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.37%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 2 (0.37%) VxRail
9 2 (0.37%) WSUS
10 1 (0.19%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.19%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.19%) Iperf
10 1 (0.19%) Nessus
10 1 (0.19%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 271 (50.37%) Cisco
2 144 (26.77%) Microsoft
3 86 (15.99%) Palo Alto
4 68 (12.64%) Fortinet
4 68 (12.64%) VMware
5 55 (10.22%) F5
6 52 (9.67%) Juniper
7 45 (8.36%) SolarWinds
8 41 (7.62%) Aruba
9 34 (6.32%) CheckPoint
10 32 (5.95%) Meraki
11 28 (5.20%) ServiceNow
12 21 (3.90%) Nokia
13 19 (3.53%) Zscaler
14 11 (2.04%) Splunk
15 10 (1.86%) Extreme Networks
16 9 (1.67%) Ekahau
16 9 (1.67%) Google
16 9 (1.67%) HP
17 7 (1.30%) Citrix