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

6 months to
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 225 187 129
Rank change year-on-year -38 -58 +41
Contract jobs citing LAN 491 440 826
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.21% 1.43% 1.87%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.70% 10.85% 14.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 321 273 496
10th Percentile £200 £223 £200
25th Percentile £309 £363 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £440 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -7.37% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £538 £575 £596
90th Percentile £613 £675 £734
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £438 £450
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.78% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 12 39
10th Percentile £12.62 £18.65 £15.67
25th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £20.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £20.19 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.46% -49.53% -17.95%
75th Percentile £35.00 £34.06 £48.75
90th Percentile £70.79 £42.88 £63.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £20.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +10.00% -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 4,195 4,055 5,881
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.30% 13.16% 13.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,740 2,421 3,508
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £356 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £487
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.72% -6.39%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -3.62% -1.05% +0.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 171 127 399
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.93 £14.34
25th Percentile £18.94 £21.46 £20.00
Median hourly rate £28.88 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% -31.58% +143.59%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.06 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £26.75 £51.42
% change year-on-year +51.55% -47.98% +157.87%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -52 409 £450 -5.26% 214
UK excluding London -34 315 £425 -2.86% 186
London -37 133 £483 -3.50% 77
Work from Home -3 131 £445 -11.00% 89
South East +5 103 £448 +0.85% 65
North of England -87 58 £378 -14.20% 33
Midlands -65 45 £340 -32.00% 23
Scotland +34 43 £281 -29.69% 24
West Midlands -44 38 £450 -12.20% 19
East of England -24 35 £350 -34.88% 18
North West -43 30 £483 +7.22% 23
Yorkshire -56 28 £275 +13.51% 9
South West -39 17 £506 +21.62% 22
Wales 0 8 £335 +11.67% 5
East Midlands -39 7 £200 -42.86% 4
Northern Ireland +2 5 £475 -

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 35 (7.13%) SharePoint
2 27 (5.50%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.65%) Confluence
4 10 (2.04%) Skype for Business
5 8 (1.63%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.20%) Apache
6 1 (0.20%) IIS
Applications
1 42 (8.55%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (4.89%) MS Visio
3 17 (3.46%) Microsoft Excel
4 15 (3.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.02%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.81%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.41%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 105 (21.38%) Azure
2 69 (14.05%) Microsoft 365
3 55 (11.20%) AWS
4 34 (6.92%) Entra ID
5 20 (4.07%) GCP
6 15 (3.05%) SaaS
7 13 (2.65%) OneDrive
8 9 (1.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 7 (1.43%) PaaS
9 7 (1.43%) Power Platform
10 5 (1.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 5 (1.02%) Nutanix
10 5 (1.02%) PowerApps
11 4 (0.81%) Azure DevOps
11 4 (0.81%) Microsoft Purview
12 3 (0.61%) AWS Direct Connect
12 3 (0.61%) OpenShift
12 3 (0.61%) Serverless
12 3 (0.61%) WhatsApp
13 2 (0.41%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 402 (81.87%) WAN
2 199 (40.53%) Firewall
3 155 (31.57%) VPN
4 112 (22.81%) BGP
5 107 (21.79%) Wi-Fi
6 99 (20.16%) OSPF
7 96 (19.55%) DNS
8 94 (19.14%) SD-WAN
9 84 (17.11%) Network Security
10 76 (15.48%) DHCP
10 76 (15.48%) TCP/IP
11 73 (14.87%) Wireless
12 71 (14.46%) MPLS
13 69 (14.05%) VLAN
14 49 (9.98%) WLAN
15 42 (8.55%) IPsec
16 32 (6.52%) Cisco Nexus
17 29 (5.91%) Cisco ASA
17 29 (5.91%) Structured Cabling
18 28 (5.70%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.43%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.81%) MS Access
3 2 (0.41%) MariaDB
3 2 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (0.41%) Power BI
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%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 25 (5.09%) JIRA
2 2 (0.41%) 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
1 152 (30.96%) Social Skills
2 53 (10.79%) Analytical Skills
2 53 (10.79%) Public Sector
3 40 (8.15%) Finance
3 40 (8.15%) Telecoms
4 37 (7.54%) Documentation Skills
5 27 (5.50%) Manufacturing
6 19 (3.87%) Military
7 18 (3.67%) Legal
8 12 (2.44%) Banking
8 12 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (1.83%) Financial Institution
9 9 (1.83%) Law
9 9 (1.83%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (1.43%) Local Government
11 6 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.22%) Marketing
12 5 (1.02%) Electronics
12 5 (1.02%) Retail
13 4 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 168 (34.22%) Network Engineer
2 77 (15.68%) Architect
3 56 (11.41%) Network Architect
4 47 (9.57%) Senior
5 41 (8.35%) Analyst
6 37 (7.54%) IT Support
7 34 (6.92%) Support Engineer
8 26 (5.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 26 (5.30%) IT Engineer
9 24 (4.89%) Lead
10 22 (4.48%) Senior Network Engineer
11 21 (4.28%) IT Support Engineer
11 21 (4.28%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 20 (4.07%) Cisco Engineer
12 20 (4.07%) Project Manager
13 19 (3.87%) 2nd Line Support
13 19 (3.87%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 18 (3.67%) Support Analyst
15 17 (3.46%) Field Engineer
15 17 (3.46%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (3.26%) 802.1X
2 10 (2.04%) LDAP
3 8 (1.63%) Microsoft Graph
4 7 (1.43%) Middleware
5 6 (1.22%) SAML
6 5 (1.02%) NETCONF
6 5 (1.02%) REST
6 5 (1.02%) YANG
7 2 (0.41%) ARM Templates
7 2 (0.41%) CSS
7 2 (0.41%) Django
7 2 (0.41%) HTML
7 2 (0.41%) RFC 2544
7 2 (0.41%) XMPP
7 2 (0.41%) YAML
8 1 (0.20%) .NET
8 1 (0.20%) EDI
8 1 (0.20%) Java RMI
8 1 (0.20%) Node.js
8 1 (0.20%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 98 (19.96%) Data Centre
2 21 (4.28%) Onboarding
3 20 (4.07%) Hybrid Cloud
4 19 (3.87%) Driving Licence
5 18 (3.67%) PKI
6 15 (3.05%) CMDB
7 14 (2.85%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (2.85%) NHS
8 13 (2.65%) Clustering
9 10 (2.04%) Management Information System
9 10 (2.04%) Security Posture
10 9 (1.83%) Operational Technology
10 9 (1.83%) Virtual Team
11 8 (1.63%) IoT
11 8 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.22%) Cloud Native
12 6 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (1.22%) SCADA
13 5 (1.02%) iPhone
13 5 (1.02%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 140 (28.51%) Windows
2 49 (9.98%) Windows Server
3 42 (8.55%) Windows 10
4 19 (3.87%) Linux
5 17 (3.46%) Windows Server 2019
6 12 (2.44%) Android
6 12 (2.44%) Windows Server 2016
7 11 (2.24%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.63%) Apple iOS
9 7 (1.43%) Mac OS
10 6 (1.22%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.81%) CatOS
12 3 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 3 (0.61%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.61%) VMS
12 3 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
13 2 (0.41%) AIX
14 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (16.70%) Problem-Solving
2 71 (14.46%) ITIL
3 60 (12.22%) Migration
4 52 (10.59%) Network Design
5 48 (9.78%) Stakeholder Management
6 46 (9.37%) High Availability
6 46 (9.37%) Network Architecture
7 44 (8.96%) ITSM
8 41 (8.35%) Cybersecurity
9 40 (8.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 37 (7.54%) Change Management
11 36 (7.33%) Project Delivery
12 35 (7.13%) Network Monitoring
13 31 (6.31%) Customer Service
14 29 (5.91%) Load Balancing
14 29 (5.91%) Service Management
15 28 (5.70%) Continuous Improvement
16 27 (5.50%) Zero Trust
17 25 (5.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 24 (4.89%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 46 (9.37%) PowerShell
2 37 (7.54%) Python
3 11 (2.24%) SQL
3 11 (2.24%) VBScript
4 9 (1.83%) VB
5 3 (0.61%) JavaScript
5 3 (0.61%) Perl
6 2 (0.41%) Bash
6 2 (0.41%) Bicep
7 1 (0.20%) C#
7 1 (0.20%) Ruby
7 1 (0.20%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 150 (30.55%) Security Cleared
2 141 (28.72%) Cisco Certification
3 112 (22.81%) SC Cleared
4 110 (22.40%) CCNP
5 59 (12.02%) Degree
6 46 (9.37%) DV Cleared
7 45 (9.16%) CCNA
8 42 (8.55%) CCIE
9 16 (3.26%) JNCIE
9 16 (3.26%) JNCIP
9 16 (3.26%) JNCIS
10 12 (2.44%) Network+ Certification
11 11 (2.24%) AWS Certification
11 11 (2.24%) Microsoft Certification
11 11 (2.24%) PMI Certification
11 11 (2.24%) PMP
12 10 (2.04%) Azure Certification
12 10 (2.04%) CCSE
13 8 (1.63%) JNCIA
14 7 (1.43%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (2.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (2.04%) NIST
2 10 (2.04%) SLA
3 9 (1.83%) GDPR
4 7 (1.43%) PCI DSS
4 7 (1.43%) QA
5 6 (1.22%) NCSC
6 5 (1.02%) PMO
7 4 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.61%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.41%) RMADS
10 1 (0.20%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.20%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.20%) GRC
10 1 (0.20%) MiFID
10 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 91 (18.53%) Active Directory
2 36 (7.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (3.87%) VMware NSX
4 10 (2.04%) vSphere
5 9 (1.83%) BitLocker
6 7 (1.43%) Hyper-V
7 5 (1.02%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.81%) Docker
8 4 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.41%) KVM
9 2 (0.41%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.20%) Ceph
10 1 (0.20%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.20%) Firmware
10 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.20%) NFS
10 1 (0.20%) RHEV
10 1 (0.20%) Samba
10 1 (0.20%) VMware Workstation
10 1 (0.20%) Xen
Systems Management
1 36 (7.33%) Ansible
1 36 (7.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 32 (6.52%) FortiGate
3 28 (5.70%) Terraform
4 22 (4.48%) SCCM
5 11 (2.24%) Jamf Pro
6 9 (1.83%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (1.43%) Cisco Prime
8 5 (1.02%) 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
11 2 (0.41%) Check_MK
11 2 (0.41%) Nessus
11 2 (0.41%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
12 1 (0.20%) Kubernetes
12 1 (0.20%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 226 (46.03%) Cisco
2 107 (21.79%) Microsoft
3 95 (19.35%) Palo Alto
4 64 (13.03%) Juniper
5 58 (11.81%) CheckPoint
6 56 (11.41%) Fortinet
7 54 (11.00%) Aruba
8 51 (10.39%) F5
8 51 (10.39%) VMware
9 44 (8.96%) SolarWinds
10 32 (6.52%) ServiceNow
11 31 (6.31%) Meraki
12 22 (4.48%) Zscaler
13 18 (3.67%) Extreme Networks
14 16 (3.26%) Splunk
15 14 (2.85%) Veeam
16 13 (2.65%) Citrix
17 12 (2.44%) Dell
18 11 (2.24%) Arista
19 8 (1.63%) SAP