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 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 277 232 183
Rank change year-on-year -45 -49 -68
Contract jobs citing LAN 525 395 519
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 1.19% 1.37%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.42% 10.44% 11.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 310 254 293
10th Percentile £213 £200 £223
25th Percentile £325 £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 £619 £621 £672
UK excluding London median daily rate £455 £388 £450
% change year-on-year +17.42% -13.89% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 27 23
10th Percentile £12.71 £14.49 £18.80
25th Percentile £16.25 £22.25 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.72 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -10.93% +26.05% -29.42%
75th Percentile £73.00 £36.88 £37.63
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.35 £73.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £22.45
% change year-on-year -25.00% +33.63% -32.86%

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 5,039 3,784 4,518
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.24% 11.45% 11.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,916 2,391 2,600
10th Percentile £236 £219 £225
25th Percentile £390 £360 £364
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £606
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £485
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.22% +5.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 434 196 193
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.24
25th Percentile £19.50 £20.81 £24.18
Median hourly rate £32.50 £40.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.75% -19.00% -11.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £64.63 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £42.50 £56.13
% change year-on-year -38.49% -24.28% -2.39%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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 -44 423 £500 +11.11% 512
UK excluding London -5 372 £455 +17.42% 349
London -107 113 £500 - 169
South East -33 99 £500 - 125
Work from Home -64 96 £500 +6.67% 189
North of England -26 77 £500 +203.03% 68
Scotland +27 69 £265 -29.10% 9
Midlands -41 49 £375 -9.09% 60
East of England -10 44 £450 +125.00% 41
North West -35 44 £519 +291.74% 35
West Midlands -44 37 £450 - 41
Yorkshire -7 33 £463 +94.74% 25
South West -28 29 £425 +37.10% 31
East Midlands -4 12 £275 +37.50% 19
Wales -14 3 £200 -13.51% 9
Channel Islands - 3 £600 -
Northern Ireland +8 2 - - 9

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 20 (3.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (3.62%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.71%) OpenStack
4 8 (1.52%) CMS
5 7 (1.33%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.57%) Confluence
7 2 (0.38%) IIS
Applications
1 33 (6.29%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (4.95%) MS Visio
3 25 (4.76%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 102 (19.43%) Azure
2 75 (14.29%) Microsoft 365
3 52 (9.90%) AWS
4 30 (5.71%) Entra ID
5 13 (2.48%) GCP
6 10 (1.90%) AWS Direct Connect
6 10 (1.90%) OneDrive
6 10 (1.90%) SaaS
7 8 (1.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 7 (1.33%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 4 (0.76%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Copilot
9 4 (0.76%) OpenShift
10 3 (0.57%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (0.57%) Smartsheet
11 2 (0.38%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (0.38%) GitHub
11 2 (0.38%) IaaS
11 2 (0.38%) WhatsApp
12 1 (0.19%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 439 (83.62%) WAN
2 244 (46.48%) Firewall
3 143 (27.24%) VPN
4 132 (25.14%) Network Security
5 122 (23.24%) Wireless
6 116 (22.10%) Wi-Fi
7 111 (21.14%) BGP
8 107 (20.38%) SD-WAN
9 100 (19.05%) MPLS
10 86 (16.38%) DNS
11 82 (15.62%) TCP/IP
12 80 (15.24%) OSPF
13 70 (13.33%) DHCP
14 68 (12.95%) WLAN
15 67 (12.76%) VLAN
16 53 (10.10%) Cisco Nexus
17 51 (9.71%) IPsec
18 35 (6.67%) Cisco ASA
19 33 (6.29%) Cisco ISE
20 24 (4.57%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.14%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.19%) DTS
2 1 (0.19%) Metadata
2 1 (0.19%) Power BI
2 1 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 10 (1.90%) JIRA
2 5 (0.95%) Git
3 4 (0.76%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.19%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.19%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.19%) MSI
5 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio
General
1 174 (33.14%) Social Skills
2 91 (17.33%) Telecoms
3 50 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
4 46 (8.76%) Public Sector
5 33 (6.29%) Finance
6 25 (4.76%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (4.57%) Documentation Skills
8 19 (3.62%) Banking
9 13 (2.48%) Legal
9 13 (2.48%) Retail
10 10 (1.90%) Manufacturing
11 7 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (1.33%) Police
12 5 (0.95%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.95%) Local Government
13 2 (0.38%) Billing
13 2 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.38%) Law
13 2 (0.38%) Military
14 1 (0.19%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 231 (44.00%) Network Engineer
2 65 (12.38%) Senior
3 61 (11.62%) Architect
4 45 (8.57%) Network Architect
5 42 (8.00%) Senior Network Engineer
5 42 (8.00%) Support Engineer
6 39 (7.43%) IT Support
7 30 (5.71%) IT Engineer
8 29 (5.52%) Cisco Engineer
9 25 (4.76%) Field Engineer
9 25 (4.76%) IT Support Engineer
9 25 (4.76%) Telecoms Engineer
10 24 (4.57%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 22 (4.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 20 (3.81%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 17 (3.24%) Developer
13 17 (3.24%) Project Engineer
14 16 (3.05%) Network Field Engineer
14 16 (3.05%) Project Manager
15 15 (2.86%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (4.38%) 802.1X
2 17 (3.24%) Terraform
3 13 (2.48%) NETCONF
4 10 (1.90%) REST
5 9 (1.71%) YANG
6 7 (1.33%) XMPP
7 4 (0.76%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.76%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.76%) SAML
8 3 (0.57%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.57%) LDAP
8 3 (0.57%) RFC 2544
8 3 (0.57%) YAML
9 2 (0.38%) JSON
9 2 (0.38%) Middleware
9 2 (0.38%) ODBC
9 2 (0.38%) Software Packaging
10 1 (0.19%) .NET Framework
10 1 (0.19%) ModSecurity
10 1 (0.19%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 110 (20.95%) Data Centre
2 40 (7.62%) Driving Licence
3 27 (5.14%) Hybrid Cloud
4 25 (4.76%) Self-Motivation
4 25 (4.76%) Video Conferencing
5 23 (4.38%) Onboarding
6 17 (3.24%) Operational Technology
7 16 (3.05%) PKI
8 12 (2.29%) Cloud Native
8 12 (2.29%) Data Protection Act
8 12 (2.29%) Private Cloud
9 11 (2.10%) Security Posture
10 10 (1.90%) Management Information System
11 8 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
11 8 (1.52%) IoT
11 8 (1.52%) NHS
11 8 (1.52%) SCADA
11 8 (1.52%) Smartphone
12 7 (1.33%) Fibre Optics
12 7 (1.33%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 131 (24.95%) Windows
2 46 (8.76%) Windows Server
3 32 (6.10%) Windows 10
4 31 (5.90%) Linux
5 13 (2.48%) Mac OS
6 12 (2.29%) Windows 7
7 8 (1.52%) Unix
8 5 (0.95%) Android
8 5 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.95%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.76%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.38%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.19%) CatOS
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (19.24%) Problem-Solving
2 81 (15.43%) ITIL
3 80 (15.24%) Project Delivery
4 57 (10.86%) Continuous Improvement
4 57 (10.86%) Stakeholder Management
5 53 (10.10%) High Availability
6 46 (8.76%) Load Balancing
7 45 (8.57%) Roadmaps
8 43 (8.19%) Customer Service
8 43 (8.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 41 (7.81%) Network Architecture
10 39 (7.43%) Network Design
11 37 (7.05%) Zero Trust
12 36 (6.86%) Migration
12 36 (6.86%) Technical Leadership
13 35 (6.67%) Mentoring
13 35 (6.67%) Service Management
14 34 (6.48%) Cybersecurity
14 34 (6.48%) Network Monitoring
15 32 (6.10%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 32 (6.10%) Python
2 22 (4.19%) PowerShell
3 6 (1.14%) VB
3 6 (1.14%) VBScript
4 3 (0.57%) Bicep
4 3 (0.57%) SQL
5 2 (0.38%) Bash
5 2 (0.38%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.19%) C++
Qualifications
1 155 (29.52%) Security Cleared
2 144 (27.43%) Cisco Certification
3 94 (17.90%) SC Cleared
4 91 (17.33%) CCNP
5 66 (12.57%) CCNA
6 48 (9.14%) DV Cleared
7 35 (6.67%) CCIE
8 30 (5.71%) Degree
9 13 (2.48%) Azure Certification
10 12 (2.29%) Microsoft Certification
11 10 (1.90%) A+ Certification
12 9 (1.71%) AWS Certification
12 9 (1.71%) JNCIE
13 8 (1.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 8 (1.52%) PMI Certification
13 8 (1.52%) PMP
14 6 (1.14%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
14 6 (1.14%) JNCIP
14 6 (1.14%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.95%) SLA
2 11 (2.10%) QA
3 10 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (1.52%) NIST
5 7 (1.33%) NCSC
6 4 (0.76%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.76%) PMO
7 3 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.57%) GRC
7 3 (0.57%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.38%) GDPR
8 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.19%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.19%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.19%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 83 (15.81%) Active Directory
2 52 (9.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.81%) VMware NSX
4 18 (3.43%) vSphere
5 12 (2.29%) Firmware
6 10 (1.90%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (1.90%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (1.33%) BitLocker
7 7 (1.33%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (1.14%) Hyper-V
9 5 (0.95%) Virtual Servers
10 4 (0.76%) FreeRADIUS
11 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.19%) NFS
12 1 (0.19%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 34 (6.48%) Ansible
2 30 (5.71%) FortiGate
3 23 (4.38%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (2.86%) SCCM
5 9 (1.71%) Cisco CUCM
6 7 (1.33%) vCenter Server
7 6 (1.14%) Nagios
7 6 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.95%) Cisco Prime
8 5 (0.95%) Grafana
9 3 (0.57%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.38%) CASB
10 2 (0.38%) VxRail
11 1 (0.19%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.19%) Backup Exec
11 1 (0.19%) Jamf Pro
11 1 (0.19%) Nessus
11 1 (0.19%) TrustSec
11 1 (0.19%) WSUS
Vendors
1 274 (52.19%) Cisco
2 145 (27.62%) Microsoft
3 90 (17.14%) Palo Alto
4 78 (14.86%) VMware
5 75 (14.29%) Fortinet
6 49 (9.33%) Juniper
7 48 (9.14%) F5
7 48 (9.14%) SolarWinds
8 41 (7.81%) Aruba
9 37 (7.05%) Meraki
10 33 (6.29%) CheckPoint
11 28 (5.33%) ServiceNow
12 21 (4.00%) Nokia
13 17 (3.24%) Zscaler
14 9 (1.71%) Arista
14 9 (1.71%) Google
14 9 (1.71%) HP
14 9 (1.71%) Splunk
15 8 (1.52%) Ekahau
15 8 (1.52%) Extreme Networks