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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 239 207 178
Rank change year-on-year -32 -29 -56
Contract jobs citing LAN 579 414 544
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.08% 1.25% 1.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.51% 10.58% 11.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 254 324
10th Percentile £236 £193 £250
25th Percentile £363 £305 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £444 £475
Median % change year-on-year +7.04% -6.58% -
75th Percentile £538 £575 £613
90th Percentile £625 £634 £686
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £399 £475
% change year-on-year +19.05% -16.00% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 22 30
10th Percentile £12.71 £15.87 £15.43
25th Percentile £16.25 £27.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £23.36 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -22.13% +26.05% -52.40%
75th Percentile £57.00 £42.44 £37.38
90th Percentile £77.03 £65.73 £75.02
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.42 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -35.27% +20.63% -43.37%

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 5,031 3,913 4,729
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.40% 11.82% 12.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,979 2,378 2,892
10th Percentile £250 £242 £222
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £486 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.83% -2.75% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 203 315
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.14 £46.25 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.48% -5.61% -10.91%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.95 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -2.86%

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 17 August 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 17 August 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 17 August 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 -32 479 £500 +11.11% 268
UK excluding London -3 412 £475 +19.05% 212
South East -6 141 £520 +4.00% 66
London -99 120 £510 +10.27% 107
Work from Home -46 101 £520 +10.93% 99
North of England -38 85 £500 +104.08% 45
Scotland +30 63 £310 -20.00% 29
Midlands -29 55 £355 +1.43% 45
North West -35 48 £519 +291.74% 18
West Midlands -43 41 £406 +6.21% 31
East of England -2 38 £338 +14.89% 10
Yorkshire -3 37 £450 +20.00% 20
South West -41 25 £525 +69.35% 18
East Midlands -11 11 £255 +27.50% 14
Wales -19 7 £425 +83.78% 3
Northern Ireland +5 1 £550 +15.79% 1
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 22 (3.80%) SharePoint
2 18 (3.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.55%) OpenStack
4 7 (1.21%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.86%) Confluence
6 3 (0.52%) IIS
7 2 (0.35%) CMS
8 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 28 (4.84%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (4.49%) MS Visio
3 22 (3.80%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (1.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.69%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 121 (20.90%) Azure
2 78 (13.47%) Microsoft 365
3 57 (9.84%) AWS
4 33 (5.70%) Entra ID
5 13 (2.25%) SaaS
6 11 (1.90%) OneDrive
7 10 (1.73%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 9 (1.55%) GCP
9 7 (1.21%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (1.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 6 (1.04%) AWS Direct Connect
10 6 (1.04%) IaaS
10 6 (1.04%) PaaS
11 4 (0.69%) Microsoft Copilot
11 4 (0.69%) OpenShift
12 3 (0.52%) Azure Sentinel
12 3 (0.52%) Google Ads
12 3 (0.52%) Power Platform
13 2 (0.35%) PowerApps
13 2 (0.35%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 489 (84.46%) WAN
2 282 (48.70%) Firewall
3 148 (25.56%) VPN
4 139 (24.01%) Wi-Fi
5 133 (22.97%) Network Security
6 131 (22.63%) BGP
7 128 (22.11%) SD-WAN
8 122 (21.07%) Wireless
9 107 (18.48%) DNS
10 104 (17.96%) MPLS
11 102 (17.62%) OSPF
12 85 (14.68%) DHCP
13 81 (13.99%) TCP/IP
14 74 (12.78%) VLAN
15 70 (12.09%) WLAN
16 54 (9.33%) IPsec
17 49 (8.46%) Cisco Nexus
18 45 (7.77%) Cisco ISE
19 40 (6.91%) Cisco ASA
20 31 (5.35%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.21%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) DTS
2 1 (0.17%) Oracle Reports
2 1 (0.17%) Power BI
2 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 18 (3.11%) JIRA
2 5 (0.86%) Browser DevTools
3 4 (0.69%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.35%) Git
4 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.17%) Fiddler
5 1 (0.17%) GitLab
5 1 (0.17%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio
General
1 183 (31.61%) Social Skills
2 86 (14.85%) Telecoms
3 59 (10.19%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (10.02%) Public Sector
5 43 (7.43%) Finance
6 23 (3.97%) Organisational Skills
7 22 (3.80%) Documentation Skills
8 16 (2.76%) Financial Institution
9 15 (2.59%) Banking
10 13 (2.25%) Retail
11 11 (1.90%) Legal
12 10 (1.73%) Manufacturing
12 10 (1.73%) Police
13 8 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (1.21%) Local Government
15 5 (0.86%) Law
16 3 (0.52%) Billing
16 3 (0.52%) German Language
17 2 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 1 (0.17%) Fire and Rescue
Job Titles
1 242 (41.80%) Network Engineer
2 77 (13.30%) Architect
3 74 (12.78%) Senior
4 53 (9.15%) Network Architect
5 41 (7.08%) Senior Network Engineer
6 37 (6.39%) IT Support
7 33 (5.70%) Support Engineer
8 27 (4.66%) IT Engineer
9 25 (4.32%) Cisco Engineer
9 25 (4.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 23 (3.97%) Field Engineer
11 22 (3.80%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 22 (3.80%) Telecoms Engineer
12 21 (3.63%) IT Support Engineer
13 20 (3.45%) Consultant
13 20 (3.45%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 18 (3.11%) Lead
15 17 (2.94%) Developer
15 17 (2.94%) Network Field Engineer
16 16 (2.76%) LAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (7.08%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.25%) NETCONF
3 9 (1.55%) YANG
4 8 (1.38%) SAML
5 7 (1.21%) REST
6 6 (1.04%) Middleware
7 5 (0.86%) LDAP
8 4 (0.69%) OpenConfig
8 4 (0.69%) RESTCONF
9 3 (0.52%) Java RMI
9 3 (0.52%) Software Packaging
10 2 (0.35%) .NET
10 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.35%) ODBC
10 2 (0.35%) RFC 2544
11 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
11 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
11 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
11 1 (0.17%) XMPP
11 1 (0.17%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 105 (18.13%) Data Centre
2 33 (5.70%) Driving Licence
3 30 (5.18%) Hybrid Cloud
4 25 (4.32%) PKI
5 24 (4.15%) Onboarding
6 17 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
7 16 (2.76%) Security Posture
8 14 (2.42%) Private Cloud
9 13 (2.25%) Cloud Native
9 13 (2.25%) Clustering
9 13 (2.25%) Public Cloud
9 13 (2.25%) Video Conferencing
10 11 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
10 11 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
10 11 (1.90%) Operational Technology
11 9 (1.55%) IoT
11 9 (1.55%) NHS
12 7 (1.21%) Virtual Team
13 6 (1.04%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 6 (1.04%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 155 (26.77%) Windows
2 45 (7.77%) Windows Server
3 40 (6.91%) Linux
4 28 (4.84%) Windows 10
5 14 (2.42%) Mac OS
6 11 (1.90%) Windows 7
7 8 (1.38%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (1.21%) Unix
9 5 (0.86%) Android
10 3 (0.52%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.52%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.52%) VMS
10 3 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.17%) CatOS
12 1 (0.17%) CentOS
12 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.17%) Solaris
12 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (18.13%) Problem-Solving
2 97 (16.75%) ITIL
3 82 (14.16%) High Availability
4 70 (12.09%) Project Delivery
5 60 (10.36%) Load Balancing
6 58 (10.02%) Continuous Improvement
7 55 (9.50%) Stakeholder Management
8 54 (9.33%) Roadmaps
9 48 (8.29%) Network Architecture
10 45 (7.77%) Migration
11 44 (7.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 44 (7.60%) Technical Leadership
12 41 (7.08%) Change Management
13 38 (6.56%) Network Monitoring
14 36 (6.22%) Service Management
15 34 (5.87%) Network Design
16 33 (5.70%) Customer Service
16 33 (5.70%) Mentoring
16 33 (5.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 32 (5.53%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 30 (5.18%) Python
2 23 (3.97%) PowerShell
3 8 (1.38%) SQL
4 6 (1.04%) VB
4 6 (1.04%) VBScript
5 2 (0.35%) Bicep
5 2 (0.35%) C++
5 2 (0.35%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.17%) C
6 1 (0.17%) Java
6 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 188 (32.47%) Security Cleared
2 162 (27.98%) Cisco Certification
3 111 (19.17%) SC Cleared
4 99 (17.10%) CCNP
5 71 (12.26%) CCNA
6 61 (10.54%) DV Cleared
7 40 (6.91%) CCIE
8 37 (6.39%) Degree
9 15 (2.59%) Azure Certification
10 11 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
10 11 (1.90%) PMP
11 10 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
12 9 (1.55%) AWS Certification
12 9 (1.55%) JNCIE
12 9 (1.55%) JNCIS
13 8 (1.38%) JNCIP
13 8 (1.38%) PMI Certification
14 7 (1.21%) JNCIA
15 6 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
15 6 (1.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.66%) SLA
2 14 (2.42%) QA
3 13 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.90%) NIST
5 8 (1.38%) NCSC
6 7 (1.21%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.69%) GDPR
7 4 (0.69%) JSP 440
7 4 (0.69%) PMO
8 3 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.52%) GRC
9 2 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.17%) DICOM
10 1 (0.17%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.17%) NEBOSH
10 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 81 (13.99%) Active Directory
2 48 (8.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (3.97%) VMware NSX
4 12 (2.07%) Firmware
5 10 (1.73%) vSphere
6 9 (1.55%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.38%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (1.21%) BitLocker
8 7 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.35%) FreeRADIUS
10 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 2 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.17%) NFS
11 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 44 (7.60%) FortiGate
2 28 (4.84%) Ansible
3 24 (4.15%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (2.76%) Terraform
5 13 (2.25%) SCCM
6 11 (1.90%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.04%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.69%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.69%) Nagios
8 4 (0.69%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.69%) vCenter Server
8 4 (0.69%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 3 (0.52%) Cisco CUCM
10 2 (0.35%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.35%) CASB
10 2 (0.35%) Endace
10 2 (0.35%) VxRail
10 2 (0.35%) WSUS
11 1 (0.17%) Iperf
11 1 (0.17%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 282 (48.70%) Cisco
2 149 (25.73%) Microsoft
3 96 (16.58%) Palo Alto
4 75 (12.95%) F5
4 75 (12.95%) VMware
5 65 (11.23%) Juniper
6 64 (11.05%) Fortinet
7 55 (9.50%) SolarWinds
8 53 (9.15%) Aruba
9 40 (6.91%) CheckPoint
10 27 (4.66%) ServiceNow
11 24 (4.15%) Meraki
12 23 (3.97%) Zscaler
13 18 (3.11%) Extreme Networks
13 18 (3.11%) Nokia
13 18 (3.11%) Splunk
14 16 (2.76%) Ekahau
15 11 (1.90%) HP
16 9 (1.55%) Google
17 7 (1.21%) Citrix