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 29 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 234 215 178
Rank change year-on-year -19 -37 -56
Contract jobs citing LAN 584 418 568
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.27% 1.43%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.83% 10.59% 11.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 350 259 328
10th Percentile £226 £200 £210
25th Percentile £363 £318 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £575 £628
90th Percentile £625 £625 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £401 £475
% change year-on-year +12.36% -15.68% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 19 33
10th Percentile £12.60 £23.15 £15.75
25th Percentile £16.25 £28.00 £15.76
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +26.05% -56.73%
75th Percentile £54.00 £41.63 £40.00
90th Percentile £75.30 £55.63 £74.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.00 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -33.33% +20.63% -58.55%

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 4,935 3,947 4,876
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.39% 12.03% 12.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,949 2,411 2,952
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 338 196 342
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.01
Median hourly rate £26.22 £48.75 £45.44
Median % change year-on-year -46.22% +7.28% -9.12%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.50 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £44.00 £51.50
% change year-on-year -39.41% -14.56% -10.30%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 29 July 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 -26 487 £475 +5.56% 179
UK excluding London +4 419 £450 +12.36% 159
South East +4 156 £513 -6.82% 47
London -95 116 £513 +12.33% 57
Work from Home -47 110 £505 +1.00% 61
North of England -47 75 £475 +54.47% 36
Scotland +19 60 £350 -11.00% 15
Midlands -43 55 £275 -23.08% 34
East of England +5 41 £325 -7.14% 9
North West -50 39 £525 +180.00% 14
West Midlands -54 39 £375 -1.96% 22
Yorkshire -15 36 £450 +12.50% 20
South West -39 26 £500 +25.00% 20
East Midlands -4 13 £220 +20.55% 12
Wales -21 7 £475 +80.95% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £550 - 2
Channel Islands - 1 £575 -

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 24 (4.11%) SharePoint
2 15 (2.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.54%) OpenStack
4 5 (0.86%) Confluence
5 2 (0.34%) CMS
5 2 (0.34%) IIS
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 23 (3.94%) MS Visio
2 18 (3.08%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (2.74%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 127 (21.75%) Azure
2 82 (14.04%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (10.10%) AWS
4 34 (5.82%) Entra ID
5 15 (2.57%) OneDrive
6 13 (2.23%) SaaS
7 12 (2.05%) GCP
8 10 (1.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.37%) PaaS
10 6 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (1.03%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 5 (0.86%) AWS Direct Connect
11 5 (0.86%) IaaS
12 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Copilot
12 4 (0.68%) OpenShift
12 4 (0.68%) Power Platform
13 3 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
13 3 (0.51%) Google Ads
13 3 (0.51%) Nutanix
13 3 (0.51%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 482 (82.53%) WAN
2 294 (50.34%) Firewall
3 149 (25.51%) BGP
4 143 (24.49%) VPN
5 135 (23.12%) Wi-Fi
6 133 (22.77%) Network Security
7 124 (21.23%) SD-WAN
8 121 (20.72%) OSPF
9 120 (20.55%) Wireless
10 116 (19.86%) DNS
11 105 (17.98%) MPLS
12 93 (15.92%) DHCP
13 76 (13.01%) TCP/IP
13 76 (13.01%) VLAN
14 72 (12.33%) WLAN
15 55 (9.42%) Cisco ISE
16 54 (9.25%) IPsec
17 45 (7.71%) Cisco Nexus
18 40 (6.85%) BIG-IP
19 36 (6.16%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.37%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) DTS
2 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.17%) Power BI
2 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 19 (3.25%) JIRA
2 5 (0.86%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.34%) Git
5 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.17%) GitLab
5 1 (0.17%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.17%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 174 (29.79%) Social Skills
2 80 (13.70%) Telecoms
3 56 (9.59%) Public Sector
4 52 (8.90%) Analytical Skills
5 36 (6.16%) Finance
6 24 (4.11%) Organisational Skills
7 23 (3.94%) Documentation Skills
8 17 (2.91%) Financial Institution
9 13 (2.23%) Banking
9 13 (2.23%) Legal
10 12 (2.05%) Manufacturing
11 11 (1.88%) Retail
12 9 (1.54%) Police
13 8 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
13 8 (1.37%) Local Government
14 6 (1.03%) Law
15 5 (0.86%) Military
16 3 (0.51%) Billing
16 3 (0.51%) German Language
16 3 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 242 (41.44%) Network Engineer
2 80 (13.70%) Architect
3 79 (13.53%) Senior
4 57 (9.76%) Network Architect
5 41 (7.02%) Senior Network Engineer
6 38 (6.51%) IT Support
7 34 (5.82%) Support Engineer
8 29 (4.97%) IT Engineer
9 26 (4.45%) Cisco Engineer
10 25 (4.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 23 (3.94%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 23 (3.94%) IT Support Engineer
12 21 (3.60%) Field Engineer
12 21 (3.60%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 20 (3.42%) Analyst
13 20 (3.42%) Telecoms Engineer
14 19 (3.25%) Consultant
14 19 (3.25%) Lead
15 16 (2.74%) Developer
15 16 (2.74%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (8.90%) 802.1X
2 12 (2.05%) NETCONF
3 9 (1.54%) YANG
4 8 (1.37%) SAML
5 6 (1.03%) REST
6 5 (0.86%) LDAP
7 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Graph
7 4 (0.68%) Middleware
7 4 (0.68%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.68%) RESTCONF
8 3 (0.51%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.51%) Software Packaging
9 2 (0.34%) .NET
9 2 (0.34%) RFC 2544
10 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
10 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
10 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
10 1 (0.17%) ODBC
10 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
10 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 114 (19.52%) Data Centre
2 35 (5.99%) PKI
3 30 (5.14%) Driving Licence
3 30 (5.14%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (4.45%) Clustering
5 20 (3.42%) Onboarding
6 17 (2.91%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (2.40%) Security Posture
8 13 (2.23%) Cloud Native
8 13 (2.23%) Video Conferencing
9 12 (2.05%) Private Cloud
9 12 (2.05%) Public Cloud
10 11 (1.88%) NHS
11 10 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
11 10 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (1.71%) Operational Technology
12 9 (1.54%) CCTV
12 9 (1.54%) Virtual Team
13 8 (1.37%) IoT
14 7 (1.20%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 165 (28.25%) Windows
2 47 (8.05%) Windows Server
3 37 (6.34%) Linux
4 24 (4.11%) Windows 10
5 14 (2.40%) Mac OS
6 11 (1.88%) Windows Server 2019
7 8 (1.37%) Android
8 6 (1.03%) Unix
8 6 (1.03%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.86%) Apple iOS
9 5 (0.86%) VMS
10 4 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.51%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.17%) AIX
13 1 (0.17%) CatOS
13 1 (0.17%) CentOS
13 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (16.95%) Problem-Solving
2 96 (16.44%) ITIL
3 88 (15.07%) High Availability
4 72 (12.33%) Load Balancing
5 67 (11.47%) Project Delivery
6 54 (9.25%) Continuous Improvement
7 50 (8.56%) Stakeholder Management
8 49 (8.39%) Roadmaps
9 47 (8.05%) Migration
10 46 (7.88%) Network Architecture
11 42 (7.19%) Change Management
12 41 (7.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 40 (6.85%) Technical Leadership
14 39 (6.68%) Network Monitoring
15 36 (6.16%) Service Management
16 32 (5.48%) Network Design
16 32 (5.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 31 (5.31%) Agile
18 30 (5.14%) Customer Service
18 30 (5.14%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 30 (5.14%) Python
2 24 (4.11%) PowerShell
3 7 (1.20%) SQL
4 2 (0.34%) C++
5 1 (0.17%) Bicep
5 1 (0.17%) C
5 1 (0.17%) Java
5 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
5 1 (0.17%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 195 (33.39%) Security Cleared
2 172 (29.45%) Cisco Certification
3 108 (18.49%) SC Cleared
4 103 (17.64%) CCNP
5 72 (12.33%) DV Cleared
6 69 (11.82%) CCNA
7 42 (7.19%) CCIE
8 38 (6.51%) Degree
9 14 (2.40%) JNCIP
9 14 (2.40%) Microsoft Certification
9 14 (2.40%) PMP
10 13 (2.23%) Azure Certification
10 13 (2.23%) JNCIS
11 11 (1.88%) PMI Certification
12 10 (1.71%) JNCIE
13 9 (1.54%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.54%) Computer Science Degree
14 8 (1.37%) JNCIA
15 6 (1.03%) BPSS Clearance
15 6 (1.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.62%) SLA
2 14 (2.40%) QA
3 12 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.88%) NIST
5 9 (1.54%) NCSC
6 7 (1.20%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.68%) GDPR
8 3 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.51%) PMO
9 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.17%) DICOM
10 1 (0.17%) GRC
10 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.17%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 92 (15.75%) Active Directory
2 49 (8.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (4.11%) VMware NSX
4 13 (2.23%) vSphere
5 12 (2.05%) Firmware
6 8 (1.37%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (1.03%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.17%) FreeRADIUS
10 1 (0.17%) NFS
10 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 52 (8.90%) FortiGate
2 27 (4.62%) Ansible
2 27 (4.62%) Microsoft Intune
3 15 (2.57%) Terraform
4 11 (1.88%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (1.71%) SCCM
6 6 (1.03%) Cisco Prime
7 5 (0.86%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.68%) Nagios
8 4 (0.68%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.68%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 3 (0.51%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.34%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.34%) CASB
10 2 (0.34%) Endace
10 2 (0.34%) VxRail
10 2 (0.34%) WSUS
11 1 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
11 1 (0.17%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 291 (49.83%) Cisco
2 135 (23.12%) Microsoft
3 98 (16.78%) Palo Alto
4 87 (14.90%) F5
5 80 (13.70%) Juniper
6 70 (11.99%) VMware
7 65 (11.13%) SolarWinds
8 63 (10.79%) Fortinet
9 53 (9.08%) Aruba
10 42 (7.19%) CheckPoint
11 30 (5.14%) Extreme Networks
12 28 (4.79%) Splunk
13 23 (3.94%) Meraki
14 22 (3.77%) ServiceNow
14 22 (3.77%) Zscaler
15 16 (2.74%) Ekahau
15 16 (2.74%) Nokia
16 11 (1.88%) Citrix
16 11 (1.88%) HP
17 8 (1.37%) Dell