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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 228 215 171
Rank change year-on-year -13 -44 -38
Contract jobs citing LAN 583 383 624
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.27% 1.44%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.08% 10.28% 11.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 364 225 345
10th Percentile £225 £206 £205
25th Percentile £358 £325 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% +1.60%
75th Percentile £538 £569 £638
90th Percentile £620 £625 £720
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £475
% change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 18 46
10th Percentile £12.76 £21.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.36 £27.50 £15.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £23.15
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% +29.59% -64.38%
75th Percentile £34.26 £39.69 £40.00
90th Percentile £70.60 £50.60 £43.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year -25.00% +33.33% -64.57%

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 4,826 3,725 5,407
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.48% 12.32% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,956 2,268 3,192
10th Percentile £250 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £470 £493
% change year-on-year +2.77% -4.57% +3.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 297 177 430
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.87
25th Percentile £20.50 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.88 £44.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.64% -2.22% +136.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.10 £77.00 £73.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £33.89 £47.50
% change year-on-year -21.32% -28.66% +150.00%

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 June 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 June 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 26 June 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 -21 495 £450 -5.26% 153
UK excluding London 0 414 £450 +5.88% 163
South East +12 165 £478 -4.50% 46
London -66 118 £500 +4.17% 32
Work from Home -30 116 £500 - 66
North of England -34 77 £450 +38.46% 24
Midlands -42 58 £295 -32.57% 33
Scotland +13 48 £450 +14.43% 17
West Midlands -46 43 £340 -15.00% 22
East of England -6 42 £350 -18.60% 16
North West -38 40 £525 +61.54% 12
Yorkshire -17 37 £382 -4.63% 9
South West -45 17 £400 - 18
East Midlands -3 12 £200 -61.90% 11
Wales -19 7 £475 +105.41% 2
Northern Ireland - 3 £468 - 12
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 30 (5.15%) SharePoint
2 22 (3.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (2.40%) Confluence
4 8 (1.37%) OpenStack
5 5 (0.86%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.34%) CMS
6 2 (0.34%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 23 (3.95%) MS Visio
2 16 (2.74%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.89%) Microsoft Excel
4 7 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.34%) Acrobat
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.17%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 133 (22.81%) Azure
2 83 (14.24%) Microsoft 365
3 62 (10.63%) AWS
4 39 (6.69%) Entra ID
5 21 (3.60%) SaaS
6 18 (3.09%) OneDrive
7 12 (2.06%) GCP
7 12 (2.06%) PaaS
8 10 (1.72%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (1.37%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.20%) PowerApps
11 6 (1.03%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 5 (0.86%) AWS Direct Connect
12 5 (0.86%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (0.86%) IaaS
13 4 (0.69%) Nutanix
14 3 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
14 3 (0.51%) Google Ads
15 2 (0.34%) IBM Watson
16 1 (0.17%) Amazon Bedrock
Communications & Networking
1 481 (82.50%) WAN
2 283 (48.54%) Firewall
3 157 (26.93%) VPN
4 146 (25.04%) BGP
5 140 (24.01%) SD-WAN
6 138 (23.67%) Wi-Fi
7 128 (21.96%) OSPF
8 124 (21.27%) Network Security
9 123 (21.10%) DNS
10 109 (18.70%) Wireless
11 92 (15.78%) DHCP
12 89 (15.27%) MPLS
13 76 (13.04%) VLAN
14 74 (12.69%) WLAN
15 70 (12.01%) TCP/IP
16 49 (8.40%) IPsec
17 48 (8.23%) Cisco ISE
18 45 (7.72%) BIG-IP
18 45 (7.72%) Cisco Nexus
19 38 (6.52%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.86%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) DTS
2 1 (0.17%) NoSQL
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 31 (5.32%) JIRA
2 5 (0.86%) Sonatype Nexus
3 4 (0.69%) Browser DevTools
4 2 (0.34%) Git
4 2 (0.34%) GitLab
4 2 (0.34%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 160 (27.44%) Social Skills
2 52 (8.92%) Telecoms
3 47 (8.06%) Public Sector
4 42 (7.20%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (6.35%) Finance
6 28 (4.80%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.77%) Legal
8 19 (3.26%) Manufacturing
9 18 (3.09%) Financial Institution
10 17 (2.92%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.54%) Banking
11 9 (1.54%) Law
12 8 (1.37%) Military
13 7 (1.20%) Retail
14 6 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
14 6 (1.03%) Police
15 3 (0.51%) Billing
15 3 (0.51%) German Language
15 3 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 3 (0.51%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 240 (41.17%) Network Engineer
2 81 (13.89%) Architect
3 64 (10.98%) Senior
4 55 (9.43%) Network Architect
5 41 (7.03%) IT Support
5 41 (7.03%) Support Engineer
6 35 (6.00%) IT Engineer
7 29 (4.97%) IT Support Engineer
7 29 (4.97%) Senior Network Engineer
8 28 (4.80%) Cisco Engineer
9 27 (4.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 27 (4.63%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 25 (4.29%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 25 (4.29%) Lead
11 24 (4.12%) Analyst
12 19 (3.26%) Technical Architect
13 16 (2.74%) LAN Engineer
13 16 (2.74%) Network Manager
14 15 (2.57%) Field Engineer
14 15 (2.57%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (8.58%) 802.1X
2 10 (1.72%) Microsoft Graph
2 10 (1.72%) SAML
3 9 (1.54%) LDAP
4 8 (1.37%) NETCONF
4 8 (1.37%) REST
4 8 (1.37%) YANG
5 4 (0.69%) Middleware
6 3 (0.51%) Software Packaging
7 2 (0.34%) .NET
7 2 (0.34%) Django
7 2 (0.34%) RFC 2544
7 2 (0.34%) XMPP
8 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
8 1 (0.17%) CSS
8 1 (0.17%) HTML
8 1 (0.17%) Java RMI
8 1 (0.17%) OpenConfig
8 1 (0.17%) RESTCONF
8 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 117 (20.07%) Data Centre
2 31 (5.32%) PKI
3 28 (4.80%) Hybrid Cloud
4 26 (4.46%) Clustering
5 23 (3.95%) Onboarding
6 17 (2.92%) Security Posture
7 14 (2.40%) Driving Licence
8 13 (2.23%) Cloud Native
8 13 (2.23%) Self-Motivation
9 10 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (1.72%) NHS
9 10 (1.72%) Operational Technology
9 10 (1.72%) Public Cloud
9 10 (1.72%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.54%) Private Cloud
11 8 (1.37%) IoT
12 7 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
12 7 (1.20%) CCTV
12 7 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
13 6 (1.03%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 179 (30.70%) Windows
2 50 (8.58%) Windows Server
3 36 (6.17%) Linux
4 29 (4.97%) Windows 10
5 19 (3.26%) Windows Server 2019
6 15 (2.57%) Mac OS
7 10 (1.72%) Android
8 8 (1.37%) Windows 7
9 7 (1.20%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.03%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.86%) Unix
11 5 (0.86%) VMS
12 3 (0.51%) CatOS
12 3 (0.51%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.51%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.34%) AIX
14 1 (0.17%) CentOS
14 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.17%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (16.47%) ITIL
2 84 (14.41%) High Availability
3 80 (13.72%) Problem-Solving
4 72 (12.35%) Load Balancing
5 54 (9.26%) Project Delivery
5 54 (9.26%) Stakeholder Management
6 53 (9.09%) Migration
7 49 (8.40%) Continuous Improvement
8 48 (8.23%) Change Management
8 48 (8.23%) Network Architecture
9 46 (7.89%) Roadmaps
10 42 (7.20%) ITSM
11 40 (6.86%) Technical Leadership
12 39 (6.69%) Agile
12 39 (6.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 38 (6.52%) Network Monitoring
14 36 (6.17%) Network Design
15 35 (6.00%) Service Management
16 33 (5.66%) Disaster Recovery
17 31 (5.32%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 42 (7.20%) Python
2 41 (7.03%) PowerShell
3 9 (1.54%) SQL
4 5 (0.86%) VBScript
5 4 (0.69%) VB
6 2 (0.34%) C++
6 2 (0.34%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.17%) Bicep
7 1 (0.17%) C
7 1 (0.17%) Java
7 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 195 (33.45%) Security Cleared
2 176 (30.19%) Cisco Certification
3 124 (21.27%) SC Cleared
4 110 (18.87%) CCNP
5 65 (11.15%) CCNA
6 64 (10.98%) DV Cleared
7 47 (8.06%) CCIE
8 46 (7.89%) Degree
9 16 (2.74%) PMP
10 14 (2.40%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (2.23%) Azure Certification
11 13 (2.23%) JNCIP
11 13 (2.23%) PMI Certification
12 12 (2.06%) JNCIS
13 11 (1.89%) JNCIA
13 11 (1.89%) JNCIE
14 9 (1.54%) AWS Certification
15 7 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (1.03%) CCSE
16 6 (1.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (2.74%) QA
2 15 (2.57%) SLA
3 10 (1.72%) NCSC
3 10 (1.72%) NIST
4 8 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.20%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (0.69%) GDPR
7 3 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.51%) PMO
8 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.34%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.17%) DICOM
9 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.17%) RMADS
9 1 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 101 (17.32%) Active Directory
2 58 (9.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (4.63%) VMware NSX
4 20 (3.43%) vSphere
5 9 (1.54%) Firmware
6 8 (1.37%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (0.69%) BitLocker
8 4 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
9 3 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.17%) Docker
10 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 52 (8.92%) FortiGate
2 35 (6.00%) Ansible
3 31 (5.32%) Microsoft Intune
4 19 (3.26%) Terraform
5 16 (2.74%) SCCM
6 13 (2.23%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (1.89%) Jamf Pro
8 6 (1.03%) Cisco Prime
9 4 (0.69%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.69%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 3 (0.51%) Cisco CUCM
10 3 (0.51%) Endace
10 3 (0.51%) Nagios
10 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.34%) AirWatch
11 2 (0.34%) CASB
11 2 (0.34%) Grafana
11 2 (0.34%) WSUS
12 1 (0.17%) EMC VPLEX
12 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 291 (49.91%) Cisco
2 130 (22.30%) Microsoft
3 102 (17.50%) Palo Alto
4 93 (15.95%) F5
5 77 (13.21%) VMware
6 75 (12.86%) Juniper
7 67 (11.49%) SolarWinds
8 60 (10.29%) Fortinet
9 59 (10.12%) Aruba
10 53 (9.09%) CheckPoint
11 34 (5.83%) ServiceNow
12 32 (5.49%) Extreme Networks
13 29 (4.97%) Splunk
14 27 (4.63%) Meraki
15 20 (3.43%) Zscaler
16 16 (2.74%) Dell
16 16 (2.74%) Ekahau
17 11 (1.89%) Citrix
18 10 (1.72%) Veeam
19 9 (1.54%) Arista