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 26 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 225 187 125
Rank change year-on-year -38 -62 +43
Contract jobs citing LAN 494 441 820
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.19% 1.44% 1.87%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.65% 10.84% 13.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 321 275 497
10th Percentile £200 £223 £200
25th Percentile £309 £363 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £440 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -7.37% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £628
90th Percentile £620 £675 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £430 £438 £450
% change year-on-year -1.71% -2.78% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 12 36
10th Percentile £12.43 £15.65 £15.18
25th Percentile £15.50 £19.63 £21.00
Median hourly rate £22.50 £20.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% -50.00% -20.00%
75th Percentile £35.00 £34.06 £50.00
90th Percentile £70.59 £42.88 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.50 £20.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +7.50% -50.00% +21.21%

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 4,239 4,068 5,872
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.23% 13.26% 13.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,761 2,442 3,513
10th Percentile £204 £209 £205
25th Percentile £360 £361 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £481
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +4.06% -7.15%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £467 £467 £475
% change year-on-year - -1.68% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 177 131 382
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.27
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £19.99
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £43.12
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% -24.62% +123.39%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £30.04 £50.00
% change year-on-year +39.61% -39.92% +163.16%

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 26 February 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 26 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for LAN in the UK

LAN
Top 16 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 26 February 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 -61 411 £450 -5.26% 189
UK excluding London -42 318 £430 -1.71% 164
Work from Home +2 131 £445 -11.00% 70
London -13 131 £475 -5.00% 68
South East +1 106 £450 - 60
North of England -76 60 £420 -4.55% 34
Scotland +39 44 £288 -28.13% 15
Midlands -53 43 £303 -40.98% 21
East of England -19 36 £350 -33.33% 13
West Midlands -38 36 £425 -19.05% 17
North West -45 31 £495 +8.91% 19
Yorkshire -60 29 £275 +14.69% 13
South West -49 16 £513 +23.12% 17
Wales 0 8 £335 +11.67% 7
East Midlands -41 7 £200 -42.86% 4
Northern Ireland +1 4 £430 -

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 34 (6.88%) SharePoint
2 26 (5.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.63%) Confluence
4 10 (2.02%) Skype for Business
5 6 (1.21%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.20%) Apache
6 1 (0.20%) IIS
Applications
1 39 (7.89%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (4.66%) MS Visio
3 15 (3.04%) Microsoft Excel
4 14 (2.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.01%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.81%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.40%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 108 (21.86%) Azure
2 70 (14.17%) Microsoft 365
3 53 (10.73%) AWS
4 36 (7.29%) Entra ID
5 21 (4.25%) GCP
6 15 (3.04%) SaaS
7 14 (2.83%) OneDrive
8 9 (1.82%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.62%) PaaS
10 6 (1.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 6 (1.21%) Power Platform
11 5 (1.01%) Nutanix
11 5 (1.01%) PowerApps
12 4 (0.81%) AWS Direct Connect
12 4 (0.81%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (0.81%) IaaS
12 4 (0.81%) Microsoft Purview
13 3 (0.61%) Google Ads
13 3 (0.61%) Serverless
14 2 (0.40%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 408 (82.59%) WAN
2 206 (41.70%) Firewall
3 149 (30.16%) VPN
4 116 (23.48%) BGP
5 113 (22.87%) Wi-Fi
6 104 (21.05%) OSPF
7 95 (19.23%) SD-WAN
8 90 (18.22%) DNS
9 84 (17.00%) Network Security
10 75 (15.18%) DHCP
11 73 (14.78%) TCP/IP
11 73 (14.78%) VLAN
11 73 (14.78%) Wireless
12 70 (14.17%) MPLS
13 49 (9.92%) WLAN
14 42 (8.50%) IPsec
15 32 (6.48%) Cisco ASA
15 32 (6.48%) Cisco Nexus
16 30 (6.07%) VXLAN
17 29 (5.87%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.42%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.81%) MS Access
3 2 (0.40%) MariaDB
3 2 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.20%) Apache Cassandra
4 1 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.20%) DynamoDB
4 1 (0.20%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.20%) MySQL
4 1 (0.20%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.20%) Power BI
4 1 (0.20%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 24 (4.86%) JIRA
2 2 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.20%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.20%) Git
3 1 (0.20%) GitLab
3 1 (0.20%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.20%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 148 (29.96%) Social Skills
2 49 (9.92%) Analytical Skills
2 49 (9.92%) Public Sector
3 42 (8.50%) Finance
4 38 (7.69%) Telecoms
5 34 (6.88%) Documentation Skills
6 27 (5.47%) Manufacturing
7 19 (3.85%) Legal
7 19 (3.85%) Military
8 12 (2.43%) Banking
8 12 (2.43%) Financial Institution
8 12 (2.43%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (1.82%) Law
9 9 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (1.42%) Local Government
11 6 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.01%) Marketing
12 5 (1.01%) Retail
13 4 (0.81%) Electronics
13 4 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 172 (34.82%) Network Engineer
2 77 (15.59%) Architect
3 55 (11.13%) Network Architect
4 49 (9.92%) Senior
5 40 (8.10%) Analyst
6 39 (7.89%) IT Support
7 35 (7.09%) Support Engineer
8 28 (5.67%) IT Engineer
9 25 (5.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 24 (4.86%) IT Support Engineer
11 23 (4.66%) Lead
12 22 (4.45%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 22 (4.45%) Senior Network Engineer
13 20 (4.05%) Cisco Engineer
13 20 (4.05%) Project Manager
14 19 (3.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 19 (3.85%) Technical Architect
15 18 (3.64%) 2nd Line Support
15 18 (3.64%) Support Analyst
16 17 (3.44%) Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (4.45%) 802.1X
2 10 (2.02%) LDAP
3 8 (1.62%) Microsoft Graph
4 7 (1.42%) Middleware
5 6 (1.21%) SAML
6 4 (0.81%) NETCONF
6 4 (0.81%) REST
6 4 (0.81%) YANG
7 2 (0.40%) ARM Templates
7 2 (0.40%) CSS
7 2 (0.40%) Django
7 2 (0.40%) HTML
7 2 (0.40%) RFC 2544
7 2 (0.40%) XMPP
7 2 (0.40%) YAML
8 1 (0.20%) .NET
8 1 (0.20%) EDI
8 1 (0.20%) Java RMI
8 1 (0.20%) LAMP
8 1 (0.20%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 98 (19.84%) Data Centre
2 20 (4.05%) Onboarding
2 20 (4.05%) PKI
3 19 (3.85%) Hybrid Cloud
4 18 (3.64%) Driving Licence
5 16 (3.24%) Clustering
6 15 (3.04%) CMDB
7 14 (2.83%) Data Protection Act
8 13 (2.63%) NHS
9 12 (2.43%) Security Posture
10 9 (1.82%) Management Information System
10 9 (1.82%) Operational Technology
11 8 (1.62%) IoT
11 8 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.62%) Virtual Team
12 6 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (1.21%) Public Cloud
12 6 (1.21%) Video Conferencing
13 5 (1.01%) CCTV
13 5 (1.01%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 140 (28.34%) Windows
2 48 (9.72%) Windows Server
3 40 (8.10%) Windows 10
4 19 (3.85%) Linux
5 17 (3.44%) Windows Server 2019
6 11 (2.23%) Android
6 11 (2.23%) Windows 7
7 10 (2.02%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (1.42%) Apple iOS
9 6 (1.21%) Mac OS
10 5 (1.01%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.81%) CatOS
11 4 (0.81%) VMS
12 3 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 3 (0.61%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
13 2 (0.40%) AIX
14 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (16.60%) Problem-Solving
2 69 (13.97%) ITIL
3 56 (11.34%) Migration
4 50 (10.12%) Network Design
5 48 (9.72%) High Availability
6 46 (9.31%) Stakeholder Management
7 45 (9.11%) ITSM
8 44 (8.91%) Network Architecture
9 40 (8.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 39 (7.89%) Change Management
11 37 (7.49%) Cybersecurity
12 36 (7.29%) Network Monitoring
13 34 (6.88%) Project Delivery
14 31 (6.28%) Service Management
15 30 (6.07%) Customer Service
15 30 (6.07%) Load Balancing
16 27 (5.47%) Continuous Improvement
16 27 (5.47%) Zero Trust
17 26 (5.26%) Mentoring
18 25 (5.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 49 (9.92%) PowerShell
2 35 (7.09%) Python
3 12 (2.43%) SQL
4 11 (2.23%) VBScript
5 9 (1.82%) VB
6 3 (0.61%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.61%) Perl
7 2 (0.40%) Bash
7 2 (0.40%) Bicep
8 1 (0.20%) C#
8 1 (0.20%) Ruby
8 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 156 (31.58%) Security Cleared
2 143 (28.95%) Cisco Certification
3 117 (23.68%) SC Cleared
4 111 (22.47%) CCNP
5 61 (12.35%) Degree
6 49 (9.92%) DV Cleared
7 46 (9.31%) CCNA
8 40 (8.10%) CCIE
9 17 (3.44%) JNCIP
9 17 (3.44%) JNCIS
10 14 (2.83%) JNCIE
11 13 (2.63%) Network+ Certification
12 12 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (2.23%) PMI Certification
13 11 (2.23%) PMP
14 10 (2.02%) AWS Certification
14 10 (2.02%) Azure Certification
14 10 (2.02%) CCSE
15 9 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
15 9 (1.82%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (2.43%) SLA
3 11 (2.23%) NIST
4 9 (1.82%) GDPR
5 8 (1.62%) QA
6 7 (1.42%) NCSC
6 7 (1.42%) PCI DSS
7 5 (1.01%) PMO
8 4 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.61%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.40%) RMADS
11 1 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.20%) GRC
11 1 (0.20%) MiFID
11 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 93 (18.83%) Active Directory
2 37 (7.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (3.64%) VMware NSX
4 12 (2.43%) vSphere
5 9 (1.82%) BitLocker
6 6 (1.21%) Hyper-V
7 5 (1.01%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.81%) Docker
8 4 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.40%) KVM
9 2 (0.40%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.20%) Ceph
10 1 (0.20%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.20%) iptables
10 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.20%) RHEV
10 1 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.20%) Xen
Systems Management
1 37 (7.49%) FortiGate
1 37 (7.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 35 (7.09%) Ansible
3 28 (5.67%) Terraform
4 22 (4.45%) SCCM
5 11 (2.23%) Jamf Pro
6 9 (1.82%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (1.42%) Cisco Prime
8 6 (1.21%) Nagios
9 4 (0.81%) WSUS
10 3 (0.61%) Cisco CUCM
10 3 (0.61%) Endace
10 3 (0.61%) Grafana
10 3 (0.61%) SCOM
10 3 (0.61%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.40%) Check_MK
11 2 (0.40%) Nessus
12 1 (0.20%) logstash
12 1 (0.20%) SELinux
12 1 (0.20%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 230 (46.56%) Cisco
2 108 (21.86%) Microsoft
3 101 (20.45%) Palo Alto
4 66 (13.36%) Juniper
5 60 (12.15%) CheckPoint
6 57 (11.54%) Aruba
6 57 (11.54%) F5
7 52 (10.53%) Fortinet
8 51 (10.32%) VMware
9 45 (9.11%) SolarWinds
10 32 (6.48%) ServiceNow
11 29 (5.87%) Meraki
12 23 (4.66%) Zscaler
13 20 (4.05%) Extreme Networks
14 18 (3.64%) Splunk
15 14 (2.83%) Veeam
16 13 (2.63%) Citrix
16 13 (2.63%) Dell
17 11 (2.23%) Arista
18 7 (1.42%) SAP