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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 207 221 161
Rank change year-on-year +14 -60 -9
Contract jobs citing LAN 565 368 637
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.18% 1.25% 1.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.34% 9.88% 11.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 356 219 375
10th Percentile £225 £243 £200
25th Percentile £339 £350 £309
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.70%
75th Percentile £537 £563 £631
90th Percentile £616 £625 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £445 £430 £425
% change year-on-year +3.49% +1.18% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 10 41
10th Percentile £12.43 £14.99 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.50 £19.81 £15.75
Median hourly rate £22.50 £27.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +20.00% -65.38%
75th Percentile £52.58 £39.69 £40.00
90th Percentile £77.43 £50.20 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £15.33 £22.50
% change year-on-year +46.77% -31.87% -65.65%

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 4,578 3,725 5,393
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.55% 12.68% 12.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,829 2,299 3,215
10th Percentile £262 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £362 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -0.51% -5.50%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £694
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 247 165 417
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.04 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.38% -18.75% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.88 £58.69 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £24.71 £45.88
% change year-on-year +70.98% -46.14% +158.48%

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 18 May 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 18 May 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 18 May 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 +5 490 £450 -5.26% 199
UK excluding London +5 396 £445 +3.49% 180
South East +11 174 £456 -8.80% 76
Work from Home +5 124 £450 -10.10% 84
London -46 121 £500 - 51
North of England -62 64 £450 +12.50% 30
Midlands -32 55 £295 -41.00% 22
West Midlands -29 46 £318 -32.27% 17
East of England -5 44 £338 -21.05% 17
Scotland +13 33 £413 +4.90% 13
North West -42 33 £494 +9.72% 14
Yorkshire -38 31 £338 +16.55% 13
South West -38 15 £500 - 18
Wales -12 9 £475 +46.15% 14
East Midlands -27 6 £200 -61.90% 5
Northern Ireland - 3 £468 -

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 31 (5.49%) SharePoint
2 22 (3.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (2.65%) Confluence
4 5 (0.88%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.71%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.35%) IIS
7 1 (0.18%) Apache
7 1 (0.18%) CMS
7 1 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 20 (3.54%) MS Visio
2 16 (2.83%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.71%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.35%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 133 (23.54%) Azure
2 80 (14.16%) Microsoft 365
3 59 (10.44%) AWS
4 35 (6.19%) Entra ID
5 18 (3.19%) SaaS
6 15 (2.65%) OneDrive
7 12 (2.12%) GCP
7 12 (2.12%) PaaS
8 7 (1.24%) Power Platform
8 7 (1.24%) PowerApps
8 7 (1.24%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 6 (1.06%) Azure DevOps
10 5 (0.88%) IaaS
10 5 (0.88%) Nutanix
11 4 (0.71%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 4 (0.71%) Google Ads
12 2 (0.35%) AWS Direct Connect
12 2 (0.35%) IBM Watson
13 1 (0.18%) Azure Monitor
13 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 466 (82.48%) WAN
2 272 (48.14%) Firewall
3 160 (28.32%) VPN
4 151 (26.73%) BGP
5 139 (24.60%) OSPF
6 135 (23.89%) Wi-Fi
7 127 (22.48%) SD-WAN
8 111 (19.65%) Network Security
9 110 (19.47%) DNS
10 97 (17.17%) Wireless
11 86 (15.22%) DHCP
12 73 (12.92%) VLAN
12 73 (12.92%) WLAN
13 69 (12.21%) TCP/IP
14 59 (10.44%) MPLS
15 54 (9.56%) IPsec
16 46 (8.14%) BIG-IP
17 45 (7.96%) Cisco ISE
18 44 (7.79%) Cisco Nexus
19 39 (6.90%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.24%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.35%) MariaDB
2 2 (0.35%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.18%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.18%) MySQL
3 1 (0.18%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.18%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 32 (5.66%) JIRA
2 4 (0.71%) Browser DevTools
3 3 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.35%) GitLab
4 2 (0.35%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.18%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 140 (24.78%) Social Skills
2 48 (8.50%) Public Sector
3 39 (6.90%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (6.37%) Finance
5 34 (6.02%) Documentation Skills
6 26 (4.60%) Manufacturing
7 25 (4.42%) Telecoms
8 21 (3.72%) Legal
9 16 (2.83%) Financial Institution
10 13 (2.30%) Military
11 11 (1.95%) Organisational Skills
12 10 (1.77%) Law
13 9 (1.59%) Banking
14 7 (1.24%) Retail
15 6 (1.06%) Local Government
16 5 (0.88%) Police
17 2 (0.35%) Billing
17 2 (0.35%) German Language
17 2 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
17 2 (0.35%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 225 (39.82%) Network Engineer
2 85 (15.04%) Architect
3 61 (10.80%) Senior
4 58 (10.27%) Network Architect
5 42 (7.43%) IT Support
6 36 (6.37%) Support Engineer
7 33 (5.84%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 30 (5.31%) IT Engineer
8 30 (5.31%) Lead
9 29 (5.13%) Analyst
9 29 (5.13%) Cisco Engineer
9 29 (5.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 28 (4.96%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 27 (4.78%) Senior Network Engineer
12 26 (4.60%) IT Support Engineer
13 23 (4.07%) Technical Architect
14 16 (2.83%) Network Manager
14 16 (2.83%) Project Manager
15 14 (2.48%) Firewall Specialist
15 14 (2.48%) Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (7.61%) 802.1X
2 15 (2.65%) LDAP
3 13 (2.30%) SAML
4 10 (1.77%) Microsoft Graph
5 8 (1.42%) Middleware
6 4 (0.71%) NETCONF
6 4 (0.71%) REST
6 4 (0.71%) YANG
7 3 (0.53%) XMPP
8 2 (0.35%) .NET
8 2 (0.35%) CSS
8 2 (0.35%) Django
8 2 (0.35%) HTML
8 2 (0.35%) RFC 2544
8 2 (0.35%) Software Packaging
9 1 (0.18%) Apache NiFi
9 1 (0.18%) ARM Templates
9 1 (0.18%) LAPP Stack
9 1 (0.18%) libvirt
9 1 (0.18%) React
Miscellaneous
1 117 (20.71%) Data Centre
2 29 (5.13%) PKI
3 26 (4.60%) Clustering
4 21 (3.72%) Onboarding
5 20 (3.54%) Hybrid Cloud
6 15 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (2.48%) Security Posture
8 13 (2.30%) Public Cloud
9 12 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
10 10 (1.77%) Operational Technology
11 9 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
12 8 (1.42%) Driving Licence
12 8 (1.42%) NHS
12 8 (1.42%) Virtual Team
13 7 (1.24%) CMDB
13 7 (1.24%) IoT
13 7 (1.24%) Video Conferencing
14 6 (1.06%) Cloud Native
14 6 (1.06%) Smartphone
15 5 (0.88%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 172 (30.44%) Windows
2 50 (8.85%) Windows Server
3 41 (7.26%) Linux
4 31 (5.49%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.83%) Windows Server 2019
6 12 (2.12%) Mac OS
7 9 (1.59%) Android
8 8 (1.42%) Apple iOS
8 8 (1.42%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.88%) CatOS
9 5 (0.88%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.88%) VMS
9 5 (0.88%) Windows Server 2012
9 5 (0.88%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.71%) Unix
11 3 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 3 (0.53%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.35%) AIX
13 1 (0.18%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.18%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (15.58%) ITIL
2 78 (13.81%) Problem-Solving
3 77 (13.63%) High Availability
4 59 (10.44%) Load Balancing
5 57 (10.09%) Migration
6 47 (8.32%) ITSM
7 45 (7.96%) Change Management
7 45 (7.96%) Stakeholder Management
8 41 (7.26%) Network Architecture
9 39 (6.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 37 (6.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 37 (6.55%) Network Design
11 36 (6.37%) Network Monitoring
11 36 (6.37%) Project Delivery
11 36 (6.37%) Technical Leadership
12 35 (6.19%) Roadmaps
13 34 (6.02%) Disaster Recovery
14 33 (5.84%) Service Management
15 30 (5.31%) Cybersecurity
16 29 (5.13%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 38 (6.73%) PowerShell
2 33 (5.84%) Python
3 15 (2.65%) SQL
4 5 (0.88%) VBScript
5 4 (0.71%) VB
6 3 (0.53%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.35%) Bash
7 2 (0.35%) Perl
8 1 (0.18%) C
8 1 (0.18%) C#
8 1 (0.18%) C++
8 1 (0.18%) Java
8 1 (0.18%) Ruby
8 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.18%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 208 (36.81%) Security Cleared
2 168 (29.73%) Cisco Certification
3 146 (25.84%) SC Cleared
4 121 (21.42%) CCNP
5 58 (10.27%) DV Cleared
6 53 (9.38%) Degree
7 51 (9.03%) CCNA
8 45 (7.96%) CCIE
9 15 (2.65%) JNCIS
10 14 (2.48%) JNCIP
10 14 (2.48%) PMP
11 12 (2.12%) JNCIA
12 11 (1.95%) Microsoft Certification
13 10 (1.77%) Azure Certification
13 10 (1.77%) CCSE
13 10 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
13 10 (1.77%) PMI Certification
14 9 (1.59%) JNCIE
15 6 (1.06%) AWS Certification
15 6 (1.06%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (3.19%) QA
2 11 (1.95%) SLA
3 7 (1.24%) Disclosure Scotland
3 7 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (1.24%) NIST
4 6 (1.06%) NCSC
5 5 (0.88%) GDPR
6 4 (0.71%) JSP 440
7 3 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.35%) PMO
8 2 (0.35%) RMADS
9 1 (0.18%) DICOM
9 1 (0.18%) GRC
9 1 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 102 (18.05%) Active Directory
2 52 (9.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (3.72%) VMware NSX
4 17 (3.01%) vSphere
5 8 (1.42%) Hyper-V
6 7 (1.24%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.88%) Firmware
8 4 (0.71%) BitLocker
8 4 (0.71%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (0.53%) Docker
9 3 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.35%) KVM
11 1 (0.18%) Ceph
11 1 (0.18%) iptables
11 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.18%) RHEV
11 1 (0.18%) Samba
11 1 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.18%) Xen
Systems Management
1 46 (8.14%) FortiGate
2 33 (5.84%) Microsoft Intune
3 31 (5.49%) Ansible
4 20 (3.54%) Terraform
5 16 (2.83%) SCCM
6 14 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (2.12%) Jamf Pro
8 7 (1.24%) Nagios
9 6 (1.06%) Cisco Prime
10 5 (0.88%) Endace
10 5 (0.88%) WSUS
11 4 (0.71%) Progress Chef
11 4 (0.71%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.71%) vRealize Orchestrator
12 3 (0.53%) Cisco CUCM
13 2 (0.35%) AirWatch
13 2 (0.35%) Backup Exec
13 2 (0.35%) Check_MK
13 2 (0.35%) Grafana
13 2 (0.35%) Nessus
Vendors
1 280 (49.56%) Cisco
2 114 (20.18%) Palo Alto
3 111 (19.65%) Microsoft
4 87 (15.40%) F5
5 82 (14.51%) Juniper
6 72 (12.74%) CheckPoint
7 71 (12.57%) Aruba
8 68 (12.04%) VMware
9 60 (10.62%) SolarWinds
10 56 (9.91%) Fortinet
11 31 (5.49%) Extreme Networks
12 30 (5.31%) ServiceNow
13 29 (5.13%) Splunk
14 28 (4.96%) Meraki
15 22 (3.89%) Zscaler
16 16 (2.83%) Dell
16 16 (2.83%) Veeam
17 15 (2.65%) Ekahau
18 9 (1.59%) Arista
18 9 (1.59%) Citrix