MPLS Contract Job Trends

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring MPLS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 445 368 300
Rank change year-on-year -77 -68 +127
Contract jobs citing MPLS 197 171 303
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.57% 0.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.09% 4.60% 5.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 108 155
10th Percentile £243 £318 £272
25th Percentile £400 £425 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £480 £400
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% +20.00% -17.70%
75th Percentile £550 £581 £575
90th Percentile £633 £649 £683
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £375
% change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 19
10th Percentile £22.53 £36.63 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.88 £37.19 £20.45
Median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.03% +55.00% -57.38%
75th Percentile £42.38 £39.69 £40.00
90th Percentile - £39.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 - £40.00
% change year-on-year - - -0.40%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

MPLS 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 4,820 3,719 5,374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 12.38% 12.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,962 2,279 3,175
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 £480 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.13% -3.98% +3.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 176 426
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.56 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.94 £45.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.91% +12.50% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.08 £77.50 £72.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £36.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -26.79% -23.16% +150.00%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing MPLS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

MPLS job vacancy trend in the UK

MPLS
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 24 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MPLS

MPLS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 24 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the UK over the 6 months to 24 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 -110 155 £490 - 31
UK excluding London -68 119 £500 +11.11% 45
Work from Home -49 60 £450 -10.00% 24
South East -38 55 £500 +11.11% 12
London -86 53 £425 -15.00% 10
Scotland +6 23 £425 - 17
South West -36 12 £538 -14.00% 4
North of England -94 12 £575 +21.05% 6
Midlands -56 11 £440 +35.46% 3
West Midlands -61 9 £440 +35.46% 3
North West -62 9 £575 +21.05% 4
East of England -22 6 £500 - 2
Yorkshire -52 3 £483 +37.86% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 2

MPLS
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 8 (4.06%) OpenStack
2 4 (2.03%) Confluence
3 3 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 14 (7.11%) MS Visio
2 8 (4.06%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (3.05%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.52%) AutoCAD
4 3 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.02%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 36 (18.27%) Azure
2 24 (12.18%) AWS
3 11 (5.58%) GCP
4 10 (5.08%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.54%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (2.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 4 (2.03%) IaaS
7 3 (1.52%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (1.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.02%) IBM Watson
8 2 (1.02%) Mimecast
8 2 (1.02%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.51%) Amazon ELB
9 1 (0.51%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 1 (0.51%) Amazon Macie
9 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudTrail
9 1 (0.51%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.51%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 124 (62.94%) WAN
2 102 (51.78%) BGP
3 91 (46.19%) Firewall
4 84 (42.64%) LAN
5 66 (33.50%) OSPF
6 62 (31.47%) VPN
7 58 (29.44%) SD-WAN
8 54 (27.41%) Network Security
9 32 (16.24%) IPsec
10 31 (15.74%) VLAN
11 26 (13.20%) Cisco Nexus
12 25 (12.69%) Cisco ASA
13 23 (11.68%) Wireshark
14 22 (11.17%) Ethernet VPN
15 20 (10.15%) VXLAN
16 19 (9.64%) Multicast
17 17 (8.63%) Cisco IOS
17 17 (8.63%) Internet
17 17 (8.63%) Wireless
18 16 (8.12%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.02%) Power BI
1 2 (1.02%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (3.05%) JIRA
2 4 (2.03%) Git
3 3 (1.52%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.51%) AppScan
4 1 (0.51%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.51%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.51%) Metasploit
General
1 56 (28.43%) Telecoms
2 52 (26.40%) Social Skills
3 26 (13.20%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (12.18%) Finance
5 12 (6.09%) Legal
6 11 (5.58%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (4.57%) Financial Institution
7 9 (4.57%) Law
8 7 (3.55%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (3.55%) Public Sector
9 4 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.52%) Billing
10 3 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.52%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.52%) Retail
11 2 (1.02%) Aviation
11 2 (1.02%) Banking
11 2 (1.02%) Investment Banking
11 2 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.51%) Police
Job Titles
1 72 (36.55%) Network Engineer
2 34 (17.26%) Architect
3 23 (11.68%) Network Architect
3 23 (11.68%) Senior
4 10 (5.08%) Network Manager
4 10 (5.08%) Security Engineer
4 10 (5.08%) Telecoms Engineer
5 9 (4.57%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 8 (4.06%) Field Engineer
6 8 (4.06%) Lead
7 7 (3.55%) Developer
7 7 (3.55%) Field Telecoms Engineer
7 7 (3.55%) IP Architect
7 7 (3.55%) IP Engineer
7 7 (3.55%) Senior Network Engineer
7 7 (3.55%) Test Engineer
8 6 (3.05%) Network Field Engineer
8 6 (3.05%) Project Manager
8 6 (3.05%) Solutions Architect
9 5 (2.54%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.60%) REST
2 10 (5.08%) NETCONF
2 10 (5.08%) YANG
3 9 (4.57%) 802.1X
4 6 (3.05%) LDAP
5 4 (2.03%) Jinja
6 3 (1.52%) OpenConfig
6 3 (1.52%) RESTCONF
7 2 (1.02%) Django
7 2 (1.02%) RFC 2544
8 1 (0.51%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 36 (18.27%) Data Centre
2 18 (9.14%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (7.61%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (6.09%) Cloud Native
5 11 (5.58%) PKI
6 7 (3.55%) Security Posture
7 6 (3.05%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (3.05%) Management Information System
7 6 (3.05%) Operational Technology
8 5 (2.54%) Driving Licence
8 5 (2.54%) Private Cloud
9 4 (2.03%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 4 (2.03%) Public Cloud
9 4 (2.03%) SCADA
9 4 (2.03%) Virtual Team
10 3 (1.52%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (1.52%) Onboarding
10 3 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (1.02%) CESG
11 2 (1.02%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.61%) Linux
2 7 (3.55%) Windows
3 6 (3.05%) Ubuntu
4 4 (2.03%) Unix
5 3 (1.52%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.51%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.51%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (16.75%) Project Delivery
2 31 (15.74%) Change Management
3 28 (14.21%) Network Design
4 27 (13.71%) Problem-Solving
5 25 (12.69%) Network Architecture
6 24 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
7 23 (11.68%) ITIL
7 23 (11.68%) Migration
7 23 (11.68%) Roadmaps
8 21 (10.66%) Network Segmentation
8 21 (10.66%) Technical Leadership
8 21 (10.66%) Zero Trust
9 19 (9.64%) Agile
10 17 (8.63%) Data Protection
10 17 (8.63%) DevOps
11 16 (8.12%) Cybersecurity
12 15 (7.61%) Network Monitoring
12 15 (7.61%) Project Management
12 15 (7.61%) TOGAF
13 14 (7.11%) AI
Programming Languages
1 39 (19.80%) Python
2 4 (2.03%) PHP
3 3 (1.52%) SQL
4 2 (1.02%) Bash
4 2 (1.02%) C
4 2 (1.02%) Perl
4 2 (1.02%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.51%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 67 (34.01%) Security Cleared
2 54 (27.41%) Cisco Certification
3 49 (24.87%) SC Cleared
4 35 (17.77%) CCNP
5 30 (15.23%) CCIE
6 20 (10.15%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.09%) CCNA
7 12 (6.09%) JNCIE
8 11 (5.58%) Degree
9 5 (2.54%) GIAC
10 4 (2.03%) APMG
10 4 (2.03%) AWS Certification
10 4 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (2.03%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (2.03%) ISTQB
10 4 (2.03%) JNCIP
10 4 (2.03%) PMP
10 4 (2.03%) SSCP
11 3 (1.52%) BC Cleared
11 3 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.08%) NCSC
2 9 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (4.57%) NIST
3 7 (3.55%) SLA
4 4 (2.03%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (2.03%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (2.03%) QA
5 3 (1.52%) GDPR
5 3 (1.52%) PCI DSS
6 2 (1.02%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (1.02%) RMADS
7 1 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.51%) COBIT
7 1 (0.51%) GRC
7 1 (0.51%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.51%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.51%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.51%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (6.09%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (4.06%) Active Directory
3 7 (3.55%) VMware ESXi
3 7 (3.55%) VMware NSX
4 2 (1.02%) Firmware
4 2 (1.02%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.02%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 41 (20.81%) Ansible
2 9 (4.57%) Cisco Prime
3 8 (4.06%) Terraform
4 6 (3.05%) FortiGate
4 6 (3.05%) vCenter Server
5 4 (2.03%) Grafana
5 4 (2.03%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (2.03%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.52%) Salt
6 3 (1.52%) SCOM
7 2 (1.02%) Iperf
7 2 (1.02%) Nmap
8 1 (0.51%) CASB
8 1 (0.51%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.51%) Nessus
8 1 (0.51%) OPNET
8 1 (0.51%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.51%) QRadar
8 1 (0.51%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.51%) Suricata
Vendors
1 114 (57.87%) Cisco
2 49 (24.87%) Palo Alto
3 37 (18.78%) Fortinet
4 36 (18.27%) F5
5 32 (16.24%) Juniper
6 26 (13.20%) Microsoft
7 24 (12.18%) CheckPoint
8 21 (10.66%) Aruba
8 21 (10.66%) VMware
9 20 (10.15%) SolarWinds
10 18 (9.14%) Nokia
11 17 (8.63%) Arista
12 11 (5.58%) Meraki
13 10 (5.08%) Splunk
14 7 (3.55%) ADVA
15 6 (3.05%) ServiceNow
16 5 (2.54%) NetScout
17 4 (2.03%) BigPanda
17 4 (2.03%) HP
17 4 (2.03%) Tufin