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 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 472 404 315
Rank change year-on-year -68 -89 +59
Contract jobs citing MPLS 203 163 268
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.50% 0.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.04% 4.14% 5.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 128 110 149
10th Percentile £304 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £425 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £478 £425
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% +12.35% -19.05%
75th Percentile £540 £600 £560
90th Percentile £626 £650 £677
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £375
% change year-on-year +11.11% +20.00% -16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 2 8
10th Percentile £22.53 £36.63 £13.78
25th Percentile £29.88 £37.19 £16.72
Median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £20.70
Median % change year-on-year +9.03% +87.20% -48.46%
75th Percentile £42.38 £39.69 £24.39
90th Percentile - £39.88 £37.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 - £17.75
% change year-on-year - - -29.00%

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 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%

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 11 August 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 11 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 13 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 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 -112 147 £500 +4.71% 53
UK excluding London -47 137 £500 +11.11% 35
South East -50 55 £525 +16.67% 11
London -97 48 £450 -14.29% 27
Work from Home -70 47 £450 -10.00% 22
Scotland +29 44 £310 -39.51% 9
South West -32 14 £525 -16.00% 5
Midlands -68 9 £440 +3.59% 3
North of England -85 9 £575 +24.32% 7
West Midlands -71 7 £440 +3.59% 3
East of England - 7 £500 -
North West -48 6 £575 +24.32% 4
Yorkshire -45 3 £483 +37.86% 3

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 10 (4.93%) OpenStack
2 5 (2.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.97%) Confluence
Applications
1 25 (12.32%) MS Visio
2 11 (5.42%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (3.94%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (2.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (1.48%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.49%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 37 (18.23%) Azure
2 25 (12.32%) AWS
3 10 (4.93%) GCP
4 7 (3.45%) Entra ID
5 5 (2.46%) AWS Direct Connect
5 5 (2.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 4 (1.97%) OpenShift
7 3 (1.48%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 3 (1.48%) IaaS
7 3 (1.48%) Microsoft 365
8 2 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (0.99%) GitHub
8 2 (0.99%) Mimecast
8 2 (0.99%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.49%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.49%) Cloud Functions
9 1 (0.49%) Cloud Run
9 1 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.49%) Google Compute Engine
9 1 (0.49%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 147 (72.41%) WAN
2 108 (53.20%) LAN
3 102 (50.25%) BGP
4 94 (46.31%) Firewall
5 59 (29.06%) OSPF
6 53 (26.11%) SD-WAN
7 51 (25.12%) Network Security
8 49 (24.14%) VPN
9 37 (18.23%) IPsec
10 28 (13.79%) Cisco Nexus
11 23 (11.33%) SDH
12 20 (9.85%) VLAN
12 20 (9.85%) Wi-Fi
13 19 (9.36%) TCP/IP
13 19 (9.36%) VXLAN
14 18 (8.87%) DNS
14 18 (8.87%) Ethernet VPN
14 18 (8.87%) Wireless
14 18 (8.87%) Wireshark
15 17 (8.37%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.99%) Power BI
1 2 (0.99%) Tableau
2 1 (0.49%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.49%) Cloud Spanner
Development Applications
1 7 (3.45%) Git
1 7 (3.45%) JIRA
2 4 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
3 2 (0.99%) GitLab
3 2 (0.99%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.49%) Bitbucket
General
1 73 (35.96%) Telecoms
2 60 (29.56%) Social Skills
3 35 (17.24%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (8.37%) Finance
5 11 (5.42%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (4.43%) Legal
7 8 (3.94%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (3.45%) Financial Institution
9 5 (2.46%) Law
10 4 (1.97%) Military
11 3 (1.48%) Banking
11 3 (1.48%) Billing
11 3 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.48%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.48%) Retail
12 2 (0.99%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.99%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.99%) Public Sector
13 1 (0.49%) Police
Job Titles
1 74 (36.45%) Network Engineer
2 38 (18.72%) Architect
3 27 (13.30%) Network Architect
4 25 (12.32%) Telecoms Engineer
5 17 (8.37%) Developer
6 16 (7.88%) Field Engineer
6 16 (7.88%) Senior
7 13 (6.40%) Field Telecoms Engineer
7 13 (6.40%) Project Engineer
8 11 (5.42%) Network Field Engineer
9 9 (4.43%) Lead
10 8 (3.94%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 7 (3.45%) Consultant
11 7 (3.45%) Network Consultant
11 7 (3.45%) Project Manager
11 7 (3.45%) Solutions Architect
12 6 (2.96%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 6 (2.96%) IP Architect
12 6 (2.96%) Network Manager
12 6 (2.96%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (5.91%) NETCONF
1 12 (5.91%) YANG
2 11 (5.42%) REST
3 7 (3.45%) 802.1X
3 7 (3.45%) OpenConfig
4 6 (2.96%) RESTCONF
5 4 (1.97%) Jinja
6 3 (1.48%) Java RMI
7 1 (0.49%) JSON
7 1 (0.49%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.49%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 39 (19.21%) Data Centre
2 22 (10.84%) Hybrid Cloud
3 13 (6.40%) Cloud Native
3 13 (6.40%) Driving Licence
4 9 (4.43%) Analytical Mindset
5 8 (3.94%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (3.94%) Private Cloud
6 7 (3.45%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.96%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 5 (2.46%) Management Information System
8 5 (2.46%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.97%) PKI
9 4 (1.97%) SCADA
9 4 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.99%) Enterprise Cloud
10 2 (0.99%) Fibre Optics
10 2 (0.99%) Onboarding
10 2 (0.99%) Security Posture
10 2 (0.99%) Wiki
11 1 (0.49%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 10 (4.93%) Windows
2 9 (4.43%) Linux
3 6 (2.96%) Windows Server
4 5 (2.46%) Unix
5 3 (1.48%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (23.65%) Project Delivery
2 35 (17.24%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (12.32%) Network Architecture
3 25 (12.32%) Network Design
4 24 (11.82%) Zero Trust
5 23 (11.33%) Technical Leadership
6 22 (10.84%) Change Management
6 22 (10.84%) ITIL
6 22 (10.84%) Roadmaps
6 22 (10.84%) Stakeholder Management
7 21 (10.34%) Migration
8 20 (9.85%) Agile
9 18 (8.87%) Network Segmentation
10 17 (8.37%) DevOps
11 16 (7.88%) AI
12 14 (6.90%) Disaster Recovery
12 14 (6.90%) Network Monitoring
12 14 (6.90%) TOGAF
13 13 (6.40%) Continuous Improvement
13 13 (6.40%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 35 (17.24%) Python
2 4 (1.97%) PowerShell
2 4 (1.97%) SQL
3 3 (1.48%) Bash
4 2 (0.99%) C
4 2 (0.99%) Perl
Qualifications
1 65 (32.02%) Security Cleared
2 62 (30.54%) Cisco Certification
3 36 (17.73%) CCNP
4 30 (14.78%) CCIE
4 30 (14.78%) DV Cleared
5 28 (13.79%) SC Cleared
6 20 (9.85%) CCNA
7 14 (6.90%) Degree
7 14 (6.90%) JNCIE
8 6 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (1.97%) PMP
9 4 (1.97%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (1.48%) AWS Certification
10 3 (1.48%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.48%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (0.99%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.99%) CCDP
11 2 (0.99%) CISSP
11 2 (0.99%) JNCIP
12 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.93%) SLA
2 5 (2.46%) NCSC
3 3 (1.48%) NIST
3 3 (1.48%) QA
4 2 (0.99%) GDPR
4 2 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.99%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.49%) Government Security Classifications
5 1 (0.49%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.49%) PMO
System Software
1 9 (4.43%) Active Directory
2 7 (3.45%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (3.45%) VMware NSX
3 2 (0.99%) Docker
3 2 (0.99%) Firmware
3 2 (0.99%) VMware Workstation
4 1 (0.49%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 37 (18.23%) Ansible
2 12 (5.91%) Terraform
3 7 (3.45%) Cisco Prime
3 7 (3.45%) FortiGate
4 4 (1.97%) Grafana
4 4 (1.97%) Kubernetes
4 4 (1.97%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.48%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.48%) Salt
6 2 (0.99%) SolarWinds Orion
7 1 (0.49%) Avamar
7 1 (0.49%) Cilium
7 1 (0.49%) Istio
7 1 (0.49%) OPNET
7 1 (0.49%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.49%) Puppet
7 1 (0.49%) QRadar
7 1 (0.49%) Suricata
Vendors
1 131 (64.53%) Cisco
2 51 (25.12%) Palo Alto
3 44 (21.67%) F5
4 42 (20.69%) Microsoft
5 37 (18.23%) Fortinet
6 33 (16.26%) Juniper
7 25 (12.32%) Nokia
8 21 (10.34%) Aruba
9 19 (9.36%) SolarWinds
10 18 (8.87%) CheckPoint
10 18 (8.87%) VMware
11 13 (6.40%) Arista
12 10 (4.93%) Meraki
13 7 (3.45%) ServiceNow
13 7 (3.45%) Splunk
14 4 (1.97%) BigPanda
14 4 (1.97%) Google
15 3 (1.48%) LogicMonitor
15 3 (1.48%) NetScout
15 3 (1.48%) Qualys