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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 461 389 325
Rank change year-on-year -72 -64 +74
Contract jobs citing MPLS 208 167 284
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.51% 0.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.18% 4.19% 5.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 114 152
10th Percentile £300 £325 £289
25th Percentile £400 £427 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £400
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +25.00% -20.00%
75th Percentile £550 £597 £538
90th Percentile £638 £649 £673
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 12
10th Percentile £22.53 £36.63 £14.00
25th Percentile £29.88 £37.19 £16.72
Median hourly rate £42.25 £38.75 £23.29
Median % change year-on-year +9.03% +66.38% -57.90%
75th Percentile £42.38 £39.69 £28.75
90th Percentile - £39.88 £40.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 - £18.38
% change year-on-year - - -26.50%

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 4,976 3,981 5,061
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.43% 12.18% 12.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,993 2,436 3,038
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.25% -2.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £602
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.63% -5.00% +8.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 330 195 368
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.22 £47.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.80% +5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £74.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £43.25 £48.56
% change year-on-year -38.36% -10.93% -14.42%

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 July 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 July 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 24 July 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 -109 151 £505 +1.00% 31
UK excluding London -56 140 £500 +11.11% 34
South East -34 59 £525 +16.67% 5
Work from Home -63 51 £450 -10.00% 9
London -97 46 £450 -10.00% 9
Scotland +28 41 £310 -39.51% 12
South West -42 14 £525 -16.00% 7
Midlands -62 10 £468 +6.97% 4
North of England -79 10 £575 +21.05% 6
West Midlands -73 8 £468 +6.97% 4
North West -58 7 £588 +23.68% 3
East of England - 7 £500 -
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 9 (4.33%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.92%) Confluence
2 4 (1.92%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 24 (11.54%) MS Visio
2 12 (5.77%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (2.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (1.44%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.96%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 37 (17.79%) Azure
2 24 (11.54%) AWS
3 12 (5.77%) GCP
4 10 (4.81%) Entra ID
5 6 (2.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 5 (2.40%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (1.92%) AWS Direct Connect
7 4 (1.92%) IaaS
7 4 (1.92%) OpenShift
8 3 (1.44%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (0.96%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (0.96%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.96%) GitHub
9 2 (0.96%) Mimecast
9 2 (0.96%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.48%) Amazon Macie
10 1 (0.48%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.48%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 1 (0.48%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 144 (69.23%) WAN
2 108 (51.92%) BGP
3 105 (50.48%) LAN
4 98 (47.12%) Firewall
5 68 (32.69%) OSPF
6 56 (26.92%) VPN
7 55 (26.44%) Network Security
8 53 (25.48%) SD-WAN
9 38 (18.27%) IPsec
10 29 (13.94%) Cisco Nexus
11 24 (11.54%) VLAN
12 22 (10.58%) SDH
13 21 (10.10%) Cisco ASA
13 21 (10.10%) Wireshark
14 20 (9.62%) Ethernet VPN
14 20 (9.62%) TCP/IP
14 20 (9.62%) Wi-Fi
15 19 (9.13%) Wireless
16 18 (8.65%) VXLAN
17 17 (8.17%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.96%) Power BI
1 2 (0.96%) Tableau
2 1 (0.48%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.48%) Cloud Spanner
Development Applications
1 7 (3.37%) JIRA
2 6 (2.88%) Sonatype Nexus
3 5 (2.40%) Git
4 2 (0.96%) GitLab
4 2 (0.96%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.48%) AppScan
5 1 (0.48%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.48%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.48%) Metasploit
General
1 72 (34.62%) Telecoms
2 59 (28.37%) Social Skills
3 31 (14.90%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (10.10%) Finance
5 14 (6.73%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (4.33%) Legal
7 8 (3.85%) Financial Institution
7 8 (3.85%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.40%) Law
8 5 (2.40%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.44%) Billing
9 3 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.44%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.44%) Retail
10 2 (0.96%) Aviation
10 2 (0.96%) Banking
10 2 (0.96%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.96%) Military
Job Titles
1 71 (34.13%) Network Engineer
2 39 (18.75%) Architect
3 27 (12.98%) Network Architect
4 23 (11.06%) Telecoms Engineer
5 21 (10.10%) Senior
6 16 (7.69%) Field Engineer
7 14 (6.73%) Developer
8 13 (6.25%) Field Telecoms Engineer
9 11 (5.29%) Network Field Engineer
9 11 (5.29%) Project Engineer
10 9 (4.33%) Lead
10 9 (4.33%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 8 (3.85%) Network Manager
12 7 (3.37%) Consultant
12 7 (3.37%) IP Engineer
12 7 (3.37%) Project Manager
12 7 (3.37%) Security Engineer
12 7 (3.37%) Test Engineer
13 6 (2.88%) IP Architect
13 6 (2.88%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.29%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.29%) REST
1 11 (5.29%) YANG
2 8 (3.85%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.88%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.88%) RESTCONF
4 4 (1.92%) Jinja
5 3 (1.44%) Java RMI
5 3 (1.44%) LDAP
6 2 (0.96%) RFC 2544
7 1 (0.48%) JSON
7 1 (0.48%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 42 (20.19%) Data Centre
2 22 (10.58%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (5.77%) Cloud Native
3 12 (5.77%) Driving Licence
4 9 (4.33%) Analytical Mindset
5 8 (3.85%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (3.85%) Private Cloud
6 7 (3.37%) PKI
7 6 (2.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 6 (2.88%) Management Information System
7 6 (2.88%) Operational Technology
8 5 (2.40%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.92%) SCADA
9 4 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.44%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (1.44%) Security Posture
11 2 (0.96%) Onboarding
11 2 (0.96%) Wiki
12 1 (0.48%) IoT
12 1 (0.48%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 13 (6.25%) Linux
2 11 (5.29%) Windows
3 5 (2.40%) Unix
3 5 (2.40%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.44%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.96%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.48%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.48%) VMS
6 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (23.08%) Project Delivery
2 33 (15.87%) Problem-Solving
3 27 (12.98%) Network Design
4 26 (12.50%) Change Management
5 24 (11.54%) Migration
5 24 (11.54%) Network Architecture
6 23 (11.06%) Zero Trust
7 22 (10.58%) ITIL
8 21 (10.10%) Agile
8 21 (10.10%) Roadmaps
8 21 (10.10%) Stakeholder Management
8 21 (10.10%) Technical Leadership
9 18 (8.65%) Network Segmentation
10 17 (8.17%) DevOps
11 16 (7.69%) AI
12 15 (7.21%) Disaster Recovery
13 14 (6.73%) Continuous Improvement
13 14 (6.73%) Incident Management
13 14 (6.73%) Project Management
14 13 (6.25%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 38 (18.27%) Python
2 4 (1.92%) Bash
2 4 (1.92%) PowerShell
2 4 (1.92%) SQL
3 3 (1.44%) PHP
4 2 (0.96%) C
4 2 (0.96%) Perl
5 1 (0.48%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 69 (33.17%) Security Cleared
2 63 (30.29%) Cisco Certification
3 38 (18.27%) CCNP
3 38 (18.27%) SC Cleared
4 31 (14.90%) CCIE
5 28 (13.46%) DV Cleared
6 21 (10.10%) CCNA
7 13 (6.25%) Degree
7 13 (6.25%) JNCIE
8 6 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (1.92%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.92%) ISTQB
9 4 (1.92%) PMP
9 4 (1.92%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (1.44%) BC Cleared
10 3 (1.44%) CCDP
10 3 (1.44%) GIAC
10 3 (1.44%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (1.44%) JNCIP
10 3 (1.44%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.81%) SLA
2 9 (4.33%) NCSC
3 7 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.37%) NIST
4 4 (1.92%) QA
5 3 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (1.44%) GDPR
5 3 (1.44%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.96%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.48%) COBIT
7 1 (0.48%) GRC
7 1 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.48%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.48%) PMO
System Software
1 10 (4.81%) Active Directory
1 10 (4.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (3.37%) VMware NSX
3 4 (1.92%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.96%) Docker
4 2 (0.96%) Firmware
4 2 (0.96%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.96%) VMware Workstation
5 1 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 39 (18.75%) Ansible
2 11 (5.29%) Terraform
3 8 (3.85%) Cisco Prime
4 6 (2.88%) FortiGate
5 4 (1.92%) Grafana
5 4 (1.92%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.92%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.44%) Salt
6 3 (1.44%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.96%) Iperf
7 2 (0.96%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.96%) Nmap
7 2 (0.96%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.96%) SCOM
8 1 (0.48%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.48%) Nessus
8 1 (0.48%) OPNET
8 1 (0.48%) Puppet
8 1 (0.48%) QRadar
8 1 (0.48%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 129 (62.02%) Cisco
2 52 (25.00%) Palo Alto
3 44 (21.15%) F5
4 41 (19.71%) Microsoft
5 38 (18.27%) Fortinet
6 37 (17.79%) Juniper
7 23 (11.06%) CheckPoint
8 22 (10.58%) Aruba
8 22 (10.58%) Nokia
9 21 (10.10%) SolarWinds
10 20 (9.62%) VMware
11 14 (6.73%) Arista
12 11 (5.29%) Meraki
13 8 (3.85%) Splunk
14 7 (3.37%) ServiceNow
15 4 (1.92%) BigPanda
15 4 (1.92%) Google
15 4 (1.92%) HP
15 4 (1.92%) Tufin
16 3 (1.44%) LogicMonitor