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

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 459 373 313
Rank change year-on-year -86 -60 +102
Contract jobs citing MPLS 203 170 302
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.56% 0.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.20% 4.55% 5.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 136 109 155
10th Percentile £263 £325 £272
25th Percentile £400 £425 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year -6.20% +25.00% -18.86%
75th Percentile £552 £600 £563
90th Percentile £638 £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 4,833 3,739 5,403
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.48% 12.33% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,959 2,277 3,185
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 £495
% change year-on-year +2.77% -5.05% +4.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 178 428
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £20.37 £21.31 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.69 £43.75 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.71% -2.78% +114.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.78 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.08 £76.50 £73.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £35.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -23.83% -26.32% +115.91%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -133 157 £490 - 34
UK excluding London -75 126 £500 +11.11% 40
Work from Home -57 60 £450 -10.00% 22
South East -34 57 £505 +12.22% 12
London -87 52 £438 -12.50% 15
Scotland +19 27 £403 -5.29% 13
South West -41 13 £538 -14.00% 5
North of England -84 12 £575 +21.05% 4
Midlands -65 11 £440 +25.79% 3
North West -63 9 £575 +21.05% 1
West Midlands -68 9 £440 +25.79% 3
East of England -22 6 £500 - 2
Yorkshire -40 3 £483 +37.86% 3
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 9 (4.43%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.97%) Confluence
3 3 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 18 (8.87%) MS Visio
2 9 (4.43%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (3.45%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (1.48%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.99%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 38 (18.72%) Azure
2 25 (12.32%) AWS
3 12 (5.91%) GCP
4 10 (4.93%) Entra ID
5 6 (2.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 5 (2.46%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (1.97%) IaaS
8 3 (1.48%) AWS Direct Connect
9 2 (0.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (0.99%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.99%) IBM Watson
9 2 (0.99%) Mimecast
9 2 (0.99%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.99%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.49%) Amazon ELB
10 1 (0.49%) Amazon Macie
10 1 (0.49%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.49%) AWS CloudTrail
10 1 (0.49%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.49%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 132 (65.02%) WAN
2 104 (51.23%) BGP
3 94 (46.31%) Firewall
4 92 (45.32%) LAN
5 68 (33.50%) OSPF
6 64 (31.53%) VPN
7 60 (29.56%) SD-WAN
8 54 (26.60%) Network Security
9 33 (16.26%) IPsec
10 31 (15.27%) VLAN
11 27 (13.30%) Cisco Nexus
12 26 (12.81%) Cisco ASA
13 23 (11.33%) Wireshark
14 22 (10.84%) Ethernet VPN
15 20 (9.85%) VXLAN
16 19 (9.36%) Multicast
17 18 (8.87%) TCP/IP
17 18 (8.87%) Wi-Fi
17 18 (8.87%) Wireless
18 17 (8.37%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.99%) Power BI
1 2 (0.99%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (2.96%) JIRA
2 4 (1.97%) Git
2 4 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.49%) AppScan
3 1 (0.49%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.49%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.49%) Metasploit
General
1 60 (29.56%) Telecoms
2 54 (26.60%) Social Skills
3 27 (13.30%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (11.82%) Finance
5 12 (5.91%) Legal
6 11 (5.42%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (4.43%) Financial Institution
7 9 (4.43%) Law
8 8 (3.94%) Organisational Skills
9 7 (3.45%) Public Sector
10 4 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.48%) Billing
11 3 (1.48%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.48%) Retail
12 2 (0.99%) Aviation
12 2 (0.99%) Banking
12 2 (0.99%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.49%) Police
Job Titles
1 74 (36.45%) Network Engineer
2 36 (17.73%) Architect
3 25 (12.32%) Network Architect
4 23 (11.33%) Senior
5 12 (5.91%) Telecoms Engineer
6 11 (5.42%) Field Engineer
7 10 (4.93%) Network Manager
7 10 (4.93%) Security Engineer
8 9 (4.43%) Field Telecoms Engineer
8 9 (4.43%) Lead
8 9 (4.43%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 8 (3.94%) Network Field Engineer
10 7 (3.45%) Developer
10 7 (3.45%) IP Architect
10 7 (3.45%) IP Engineer
10 7 (3.45%) Senior Network Engineer
10 7 (3.45%) Test Engineer
11 6 (2.96%) Project Manager
11 6 (2.96%) Solutions Architect
12 5 (2.46%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.40%) REST
2 11 (5.42%) NETCONF
2 11 (5.42%) YANG
3 9 (4.43%) 802.1X
4 6 (2.96%) LDAP
5 4 (1.97%) Jinja
5 4 (1.97%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.97%) RESTCONF
6 2 (0.99%) Django
6 2 (0.99%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.49%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 38 (18.72%) Data Centre
2 20 (9.85%) Hybrid Cloud
3 13 (6.40%) Cloud Native
3 13 (6.40%) Data Protection Act
4 11 (5.42%) PKI
5 7 (3.45%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (3.45%) Private Cloud
5 7 (3.45%) Security Posture
6 6 (2.96%) Management Information System
6 6 (2.96%) Operational Technology
7 5 (2.46%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 5 (2.46%) Driving Licence
7 5 (2.46%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.97%) SCADA
8 4 (1.97%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.48%) Fibre Optics
9 3 (1.48%) Onboarding
9 3 (1.48%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.99%) CESG
10 2 (0.99%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.39%) Linux
2 8 (3.94%) Windows
3 6 (2.96%) Ubuntu
4 4 (1.97%) Unix
5 3 (1.48%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.49%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.49%) VMS
6 1 (0.49%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (17.24%) Project Delivery
2 31 (15.27%) Change Management
3 29 (14.29%) Network Design
4 28 (13.79%) Problem-Solving
5 26 (12.81%) Network Architecture
6 25 (12.32%) ITIL
7 24 (11.82%) Roadmaps
8 23 (11.33%) Migration
8 23 (11.33%) Stakeholder Management
9 22 (10.84%) Zero Trust
10 21 (10.34%) Network Segmentation
10 21 (10.34%) Technical Leadership
11 20 (9.85%) Agile
12 17 (8.37%) Cybersecurity
12 17 (8.37%) DevOps
13 16 (7.88%) TOGAF
14 15 (7.39%) AI
14 15 (7.39%) Data Protection
14 15 (7.39%) Network Monitoring
14 15 (7.39%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 41 (20.20%) Python
2 4 (1.97%) PHP
3 3 (1.48%) SQL
4 2 (0.99%) Bash
4 2 (0.99%) C
4 2 (0.99%) Perl
4 2 (0.99%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.49%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 68 (33.50%) Security Cleared
2 61 (30.05%) Cisco Certification
3 48 (23.65%) SC Cleared
4 38 (18.72%) CCNP
5 32 (15.76%) CCIE
6 21 (10.34%) DV Cleared
7 17 (8.37%) CCNA
8 13 (6.40%) Degree
8 13 (6.40%) JNCIE
9 5 (2.46%) GIAC
10 4 (1.97%) APMG
10 4 (1.97%) AWS Certification
10 4 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (1.97%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (1.97%) ISTQB
10 4 (1.97%) JNCIP
10 4 (1.97%) PMP
10 4 (1.97%) SSCP
10 4 (1.97%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (1.48%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.42%) NCSC
2 9 (4.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (4.43%) NIST
2 9 (4.43%) SLA
3 4 (1.97%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.97%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 4 (1.97%) QA
4 3 (1.48%) GDPR
4 3 (1.48%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.99%) Government Security Classifications
5 2 (0.99%) RMADS
6 1 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.49%) COBIT
6 1 (0.49%) GRC
6 1 (0.49%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (0.49%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.49%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.49%) PMO
System Software
1 12 (5.91%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (4.43%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.94%) VMware NSX
4 7 (3.45%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.99%) Firmware
5 2 (0.99%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.99%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 43 (21.18%) Ansible
2 9 (4.43%) Cisco Prime
2 9 (4.43%) Terraform
3 6 (2.96%) FortiGate
3 6 (2.96%) vCenter Server
4 4 (1.97%) Grafana
4 4 (1.97%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (1.97%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.48%) Salt
5 3 (1.48%) SCOM
6 2 (0.99%) Iperf
6 2 (0.99%) Nmap
7 1 (0.49%) Avamar
7 1 (0.49%) CASB
7 1 (0.49%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.49%) OPNET
7 1 (0.49%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.49%) QRadar
7 1 (0.49%) SolarWinds Orion
7 1 (0.49%) Suricata
Vendors
1 121 (59.61%) Cisco
2 51 (25.12%) Palo Alto
3 38 (18.72%) F5
3 38 (18.72%) Fortinet
4 34 (16.75%) Juniper
5 32 (15.76%) Microsoft
6 24 (11.82%) CheckPoint
7 23 (11.33%) VMware
8 21 (10.34%) Aruba
8 21 (10.34%) SolarWinds
9 19 (9.36%) Nokia
10 17 (8.37%) Arista
11 12 (5.91%) Meraki
12 10 (4.93%) Splunk
13 7 (3.45%) ServiceNow
14 5 (2.46%) ADVA
14 5 (2.46%) NetScout
15 4 (1.97%) BigPanda
15 4 (1.97%) HP
15 4 (1.97%) Tufin