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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 231 221 182
Rank change year-on-year -10 -39 -59
Contract jobs citing LAN 593 417 543
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.27% 1.39%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.80% 10.58% 11.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 351 260 320
10th Percentile £235 £200 £247
25th Percentile £363 £312 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -
75th Percentile £540 £575 £625
90th Percentile £625 £626 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £400 £475
% change year-on-year +18.75% -15.79% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 19 30
10th Percentile £12.71 £23.15 £15.43
25th Percentile £16.25 £28.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £24.61 £30.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -17.97% +26.05% -52.40%
75th Percentile £57.00 £41.63 £37.38
90th Percentile £74.73 £55.63 £75.02
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.75 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -30.83% +20.63% -53.87%

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 5,024 3,940 4,737
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.41% 11.97% 12.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,970 2,411 2,875
10th Percentile £250 £241 £220
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 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.63% -5.00% +9.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 360 198 316
10th Percentile £15.24 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £19.79
Median hourly rate £26.07 £46.88 £49.50
Median % change year-on-year -44.38% -5.30% -3.24%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.30 £74.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.18% -3.36%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -34 494 £490 +8.89% 204
UK excluding London +10 424 £475 +18.75% 177
South East -2 154 £520 -0.95% 54
London -116 119 £513 +10.81% 74
Work from Home -41 108 £510 +2.00% 71
North of England -47 82 £500 +150.00% 36
Scotland +26 62 £350 -9.68% 27
Midlands -37 56 £300 -17.81% 34
North West -36 46 £519 +291.77% 16
West Midlands -48 41 £388 -3.13% 23
East of England +2 40 £338 +14.89% 7
Yorkshire -16 36 £450 +12.50% 18
South West -36 26 £513 +41.38% 18
East Midlands -3 12 £235 +28.77% 11
Wales -18 5 £425 +83.78% 2
Northern Ireland +7 2 £550 +15.79% 4
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 20 (3.37%) SharePoint
2 18 (3.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.52%) OpenStack
4 6 (1.01%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.67%) Confluence
6 2 (0.34%) CMS
6 2 (0.34%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 26 (4.38%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (4.22%) MS Visio
3 18 (3.04%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 123 (20.74%) Azure
2 80 (13.49%) Microsoft 365
3 57 (9.61%) AWS
4 33 (5.56%) Entra ID
5 13 (2.19%) SaaS
6 12 (2.02%) OneDrive
7 10 (1.69%) GCP
7 10 (1.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 7 (1.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 7 (1.18%) IaaS
8 7 (1.18%) PaaS
9 6 (1.01%) AWS Direct Connect
9 6 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (0.67%) OpenShift
11 3 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (0.51%) Google Ads
11 3 (0.51%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.34%) Google Workspace
12 2 (0.34%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 496 (83.64%) WAN
2 296 (49.92%) Firewall
3 150 (25.30%) VPN
4 147 (24.79%) BGP
5 136 (22.93%) Network Security
5 136 (22.93%) Wi-Fi
6 126 (21.25%) SD-WAN
7 124 (20.91%) DNS
8 119 (20.07%) Wireless
9 118 (19.90%) OSPF
10 108 (18.21%) MPLS
11 100 (16.86%) DHCP
12 81 (13.66%) TCP/IP
13 78 (13.15%) VLAN
14 69 (11.64%) WLAN
15 54 (9.11%) Cisco ISE
15 54 (9.11%) IPsec
16 48 (8.09%) Cisco Nexus
17 40 (6.75%) BIG-IP
18 39 (6.58%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.35%) 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 16 (2.70%) JIRA
2 5 (0.84%) Browser DevTools
3 4 (0.67%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.34%) Git
4 2 (0.34%) 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
1 176 (29.68%) Social Skills
2 78 (13.15%) Telecoms
3 57 (9.61%) Public Sector
4 56 (9.44%) Analytical Skills
5 40 (6.75%) Finance
6 24 (4.05%) Organisational Skills
7 20 (3.37%) Documentation Skills
8 17 (2.87%) Financial Institution
9 16 (2.70%) Banking
10 14 (2.36%) Legal
11 13 (2.19%) Retail
12 11 (1.85%) Manufacturing
13 9 (1.52%) Police
14 8 (1.35%) Influencing Skills
15 7 (1.18%) Local Government
16 6 (1.01%) Law
17 5 (0.84%) Military
18 3 (0.51%) Billing
18 3 (0.51%) German Language
19 2 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 246 (41.48%) Network Engineer
2 80 (13.49%) Senior
3 78 (13.15%) Architect
4 55 (9.27%) Network Architect
5 45 (7.59%) Senior Network Engineer
6 36 (6.07%) IT Support
7 33 (5.56%) Support Engineer
8 26 (4.38%) IT Engineer
9 25 (4.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 24 (4.05%) Cisco Engineer
11 22 (3.71%) Telecoms Engineer
12 21 (3.54%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 21 (3.54%) Field Engineer
13 20 (3.37%) Consultant
13 20 (3.37%) IT Support Engineer
13 20 (3.37%) Lead
14 19 (3.20%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 18 (3.04%) Analyst
15 18 (3.04%) Network Specialist
16 17 (2.87%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (8.77%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.19%) NETCONF
3 9 (1.52%) YANG
4 8 (1.35%) SAML
5 6 (1.01%) Middleware
5 6 (1.01%) REST
6 5 (0.84%) LDAP
7 4 (0.67%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.67%) RESTCONF
8 3 (0.51%) Java RMI
8 3 (0.51%) Software Packaging
9 2 (0.34%) .NET
9 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.34%) ODBC
10 1 (0.17%) .NET Framework
10 1 (0.17%) ARM Templates
10 1 (0.17%) ModSecurity
10 1 (0.17%) RFC 2544
10 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
10 1 (0.17%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 108 (18.21%) Data Centre
2 35 (5.90%) PKI
3 31 (5.23%) Driving Licence
4 30 (5.06%) Hybrid Cloud
5 26 (4.38%) Clustering
6 22 (3.71%) Onboarding
7 16 (2.70%) Security Posture
7 16 (2.70%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (2.36%) Private Cloud
9 13 (2.19%) Cloud Native
9 13 (2.19%) Video Conferencing
10 12 (2.02%) Operational Technology
10 12 (2.02%) Public Cloud
11 11 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
12 10 (1.69%) Analytical Mindset
12 10 (1.69%) NHS
13 8 (1.35%) CCTV
13 8 (1.35%) Virtual Team
14 7 (1.18%) IoT
14 7 (1.18%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 168 (28.33%) Windows
2 48 (8.09%) Windows Server
3 39 (6.58%) Linux
4 27 (4.55%) Windows 10
5 14 (2.36%) Mac OS
6 11 (1.85%) Windows 7
7 10 (1.69%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (1.18%) Unix
9 6 (1.01%) Android
10 4 (0.67%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.67%) VMS
10 4 (0.67%) 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
1 106 (17.88%) Problem-Solving
2 100 (16.86%) ITIL
3 94 (15.85%) High Availability
4 73 (12.31%) Load Balancing
5 67 (11.30%) Project Delivery
6 57 (9.61%) Continuous Improvement
7 54 (9.11%) Roadmaps
8 49 (8.26%) Stakeholder Management
9 48 (8.09%) Network Architecture
10 45 (7.59%) Migration
11 44 (7.42%) Technical Leadership
12 42 (7.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 41 (6.91%) Change Management
14 40 (6.75%) Service Management
15 39 (6.58%) Network Monitoring
16 34 (5.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 33 (5.56%) Network Design
18 32 (5.40%) Customer Service
18 32 (5.40%) Mentoring
18 32 (5.40%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 29 (4.89%) Python
2 25 (4.22%) PowerShell
3 8 (1.35%) SQL
4 6 (1.01%) VBScript
5 5 (0.84%) VB
6 2 (0.34%) C++
6 2 (0.34%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.17%) Bicep
7 1 (0.17%) C
7 1 (0.17%) Java
7 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 197 (33.22%) Security Cleared
2 170 (28.67%) Cisco Certification
3 107 (18.04%) SC Cleared
4 101 (17.03%) CCNP
5 72 (12.14%) DV Cleared
6 69 (11.64%) CCNA
7 42 (7.08%) CCIE
8 39 (6.58%) Degree
9 14 (2.36%) Azure Certification
9 14 (2.36%) Microsoft Certification
10 13 (2.19%) JNCIP
10 13 (2.19%) JNCIS
11 12 (2.02%) PMP
12 10 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
12 10 (1.69%) JNCIE
13 9 (1.52%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.52%) JNCIA
13 9 (1.52%) PMI Certification
14 6 (1.01%) BPSS Clearance
14 6 (1.01%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.55%) SLA
2 14 (2.36%) QA
3 12 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.85%) NIST
5 10 (1.69%) NCSC
6 7 (1.18%) Disclosure Scotland
7 4 (0.67%) GDPR
7 4 (0.67%) JSP 440
8 3 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.51%) PMO
9 2 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.34%) GRC
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 87 (14.67%) Active Directory
2 51 (8.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (3.88%) VMware NSX
4 12 (2.02%) Firmware
4 12 (2.02%) vSphere
5 10 (1.69%) Hyper-V
6 8 (1.35%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (1.01%) BitLocker
9 4 (0.67%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.34%) FreeRADIUS
10 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 2 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.17%) Citrix Presentation Server
11 1 (0.17%) NFS
11 1 (0.17%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 56 (9.44%) FortiGate
2 27 (4.55%) Ansible
3 24 (4.05%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (2.70%) Terraform
5 13 (2.19%) SCCM
6 11 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.01%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (0.67%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.67%) Nagios
8 4 (0.67%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.67%) vRealize Orchestrator
9 3 (0.51%) Cisco CUCM
9 3 (0.51%) vCenter Server
9 3 (0.51%) WSUS
10 2 (0.34%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.34%) CASB
10 2 (0.34%) Endace
10 2 (0.34%) VxRail
11 1 (0.17%) Grafana
11 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 291 (49.07%) Cisco
2 145 (24.45%) Microsoft
3 97 (16.36%) Palo Alto
4 88 (14.84%) F5
5 76 (12.82%) Juniper
5 76 (12.82%) VMware
6 68 (11.47%) SolarWinds
7 65 (10.96%) Fortinet
8 53 (8.94%) Aruba
9 40 (6.75%) CheckPoint
10 30 (5.06%) Splunk
11 29 (4.89%) Extreme Networks
12 24 (4.05%) Meraki
12 24 (4.05%) ServiceNow
13 23 (3.88%) Zscaler
14 18 (3.04%) Nokia
15 16 (2.70%) Ekahau
16 11 (1.85%) HP
17 10 (1.69%) Citrix
18 9 (1.52%) Google