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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 394 331 325
Rank change year-on-year -63 -6 +137
Contract jobs citing MPLS 165 242 344
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.50% 0.63% 0.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.34% 5.28% 5.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 115 128 163
10th Percentile £300 £361 £327
25th Percentile £413 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.85% +4.00%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £649 £691 £641
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% +2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 5 13
10th Percentile £36.63 £17.98 £14.90
25th Percentile £37.19 £18.50 £24.50
Median hourly rate £38.75 £22.40 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +72.99% -66.05% +153.77%
75th Percentile £39.69 £24.18 -
90th Percentile £39.88 £48.67 £69.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £19.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year - -71.20% +199.91%

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 3,805 4,583 6,569
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.55% 11.89% 13.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,363 2,666 4,180
10th Percentile £225 £225 £228
25th Percentile £363 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £608 £613
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £453
% change year-on-year -10.00% +10.50% +0.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 252 305
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.16 £16.95
25th Percentile £25.15 £21.37 £23.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £51.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% -9.72% +36.12%
75th Percentile £64.38 £65.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £75.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £57.35 £57.50
% change year-on-year -25.89% -0.26% +27.78%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS 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 19 September 2025.

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
Top 15 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 19 September 2025. 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 -62 145 £475 -5.00% 48
UK excluding London -43 95 £450 -10.00% 36
Work from Home +11 61 £500 - 29
London -6 53 £525 +10.53% 15
South East -6 35 £450 -10.00% 13
West Midlands -5 29 £400 -20.00% 10
Midlands -22 29 £400 -20.00% 15
North of England -46 16 £463 -7.50% 7
North West -12 12 £450 -10.89% 6
South West +13 9 £625 -1.19% 1
Scotland -8 3 £513 +10.81% 1
Yorkshire -30 3 £350 -30.00%
Northern Ireland - 3 £475 -
East of England +1 1 £300 -
North East -3 1 £550 +29.41% 1

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 21 (12.73%) OpenStack
2 7 (4.24%) Confluence
3 4 (2.42%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.21%) Camunda
5 1 (0.61%) SharePoint
Applications
1 8 (4.85%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.42%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 48 (29.09%) AWS
2 38 (23.03%) Azure
3 8 (4.85%) GCP
4 7 (4.24%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (3.64%) OpenShift
6 4 (2.42%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.82%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.82%) IaaS
8 2 (1.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (1.21%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Purview
9 1 (0.61%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.61%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 106 (64.24%) BGP
2 90 (54.55%) WAN
3 75 (45.45%) VPN
4 72 (43.64%) Firewall
5 63 (38.18%) OSPF
6 58 (35.15%) LAN
7 46 (27.88%) IPsec
8 36 (21.82%) SD-WAN
9 24 (14.55%) DNS
9 24 (14.55%) Wireshark
10 23 (13.94%) Wireless
11 21 (12.73%) VLAN
12 18 (10.91%) Network Security
13 16 (9.70%) 4G
13 16 (9.70%) Ethernet
13 16 (9.70%) LTE
13 16 (9.70%) VXLAN
14 15 (9.09%) SDH
15 14 (8.48%) Cisco Nexus
15 14 (8.48%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.21%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.21%) NoSQL
1 2 (1.21%) RDBMS
1 2 (1.21%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (5.45%) JIRA
2 5 (3.03%) Git
3 4 (2.42%) GitLab
4 3 (1.82%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.61%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.61%) Robot Framework
General
1 53 (32.12%) Social Skills
2 29 (17.58%) Telecoms
3 14 (8.48%) Public Sector
4 12 (7.27%) Finance
5 10 (6.06%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (6.06%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (4.85%) Legal
7 5 (3.03%) Law
8 4 (2.42%) Banking
9 2 (1.21%) Billing
9 2 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.21%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.61%) Aviation
10 1 (0.61%) Electronics
10 1 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.61%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 76 (46.06%) Network Engineer
2 22 (13.33%) Architect
3 18 (10.91%) Senior
3 18 (10.91%) Support Engineer
4 15 (9.09%) Designer
4 15 (9.09%) WAN Engineer
5 12 (7.27%) IP Engineer
5 12 (7.27%) Senior Network Engineer
6 10 (6.06%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 10 (6.06%) Consultant
7 9 (5.45%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 9 (5.45%) 3rd Line Support
7 9 (5.45%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
7 9 (5.45%) IP Network Engineer
7 9 (5.45%) Network Architect
7 9 (5.45%) Network Designer
7 9 (5.45%) Network Support
7 9 (5.45%) Network Support Engineer
8 8 (4.85%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
8 8 (4.85%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (9.09%) NETCONF
2 9 (5.45%) RESTCONF
2 9 (5.45%) YANG
3 8 (4.85%) REST
4 5 (3.03%) Jinja
5 3 (1.82%) JSON
6 2 (1.21%) gRPC
6 2 (1.21%) SOAP
6 2 (1.21%) XML
6 2 (1.21%) YAML
7 1 (0.61%) 802.1X
7 1 (0.61%) EDI
7 1 (0.61%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 35 (21.21%) Data Centre
2 26 (15.76%) PKI
3 19 (11.52%) Hybrid Cloud
4 14 (8.48%) Cloud Native
4 14 (8.48%) Operational Technology
4 14 (8.48%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (3.64%) SCADA
5 6 (3.64%) Security Posture
6 3 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (1.82%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.82%) Private Cloud
6 3 (1.82%) TM Forum
6 3 (1.82%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.21%) NHS
8 1 (0.61%) Driving Licence
8 1 (0.61%) Fibre Optics
8 1 (0.61%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.61%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.61%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 14 (8.48%) Linux
2 12 (7.27%) Unix
3 8 (4.85%) Windows
4 3 (1.82%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.21%) CentOS
6 1 (0.61%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (20.00%) Network Design
2 32 (19.39%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (16.97%) Network Virtualisation
4 25 (15.15%) Network Monitoring
4 25 (15.15%) Validation
5 22 (13.33%) Migration
6 21 (12.73%) Load Balancing
7 19 (11.52%) Network Architecture
8 16 (9.70%) ITIL
8 16 (9.70%) Roadmaps
9 15 (9.09%) DevOps
10 14 (8.48%) Network Segmentation
10 14 (8.48%) TOGAF
11 13 (7.88%) Fault Management
11 13 (7.88%) Project Management
12 12 (7.27%) Project Delivery
13 11 (6.67%) Change Control
14 10 (6.06%) Computer Science
14 10 (6.06%) High Availability
14 10 (6.06%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 51 (30.91%) Python
2 10 (6.06%) Java
3 4 (2.42%) Bash
4 3 (1.82%) SQL
5 1 (0.61%) Go
5 1 (0.61%) Perl
5 1 (0.61%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 70 (42.42%) Cisco Certification
2 51 (30.91%) CCNP
3 50 (30.30%) Security Cleared
4 42 (25.45%) SC Cleared
5 30 (18.18%) CCIE
6 23 (13.94%) Degree
7 19 (11.52%) JNCIE
8 14 (8.48%) CCNA
9 10 (6.06%) ISEB
9 10 (6.06%) ISTQB
9 10 (6.06%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 9 (5.45%) AWS Certification
11 7 (4.24%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (3.64%) Master's Degree
13 4 (2.42%) JNCIS
14 3 (1.82%) JNCIA
15 2 (1.21%) BPSS Clearance
15 2 (1.21%) JNCIP
15 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (1.21%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.42%) SLA
2 3 (1.82%) PCI DSS
3 2 (1.21%) OASIS TOSCA
3 2 (1.21%) QA
4 1 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.61%) NIST
System Software
1 19 (11.52%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (7.27%) Docker
3 9 (5.45%) Active Directory
4 7 (4.24%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (3.64%) VMware NSX
6 2 (1.21%) Firmware
7 1 (0.61%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.61%) vSphere
7 1 (0.61%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 50 (30.30%) Ansible
2 11 (6.67%) Terraform
3 6 (3.64%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.03%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.82%) Iperf
5 3 (1.82%) Nmap
5 3 (1.82%) SCCM
6 2 (1.21%) Amdocs OSS
6 2 (1.21%) Cisco CUCM
6 2 (1.21%) Failover Clustering
6 2 (1.21%) FortiGate
6 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.61%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 90 (54.55%) Cisco
2 55 (33.33%) Juniper
3 31 (18.79%) Fortinet
4 24 (14.55%) Microsoft
4 24 (14.55%) Palo Alto
5 22 (13.33%) VMware
6 18 (10.91%) F5
7 15 (9.09%) SolarWinds
8 12 (7.27%) Aruba
9 10 (6.06%) Arista
9 10 (6.06%) Meraki
10 9 (5.45%) CheckPoint
10 9 (5.45%) Dell
11 7 (4.24%) Atlassian
12 6 (3.64%) Citrix
13 4 (2.42%) Nokia
14 3 (1.82%) LogicMonitor
15 2 (1.21%) Huawei
15 2 (1.21%) Mellanox
15 2 (1.21%) Zscaler