Network Support Contract Job Trends

Network Support
UK

The median Network Support daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 January 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 555 508 522
Rank change year-on-year -47 +14 +190
Contract jobs requiring a Network Support 40 26 68
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.083% 0.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.089% 0.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 31 14 33
10th Percentile £285 £187 £184
25th Percentile £356 £201 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £296 £338
Median % change year-on-year +68.87% -12.27% -11.18%
75th Percentile - £400 £438
90th Percentile - £438 £482
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £215 £320
% change year-on-year +132.56% -32.81% -14.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 0
Median hourly rate £13.25 £37.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -64.67% - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.25 - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 35,199 29,243 40,804
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.46% 92.89% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,208 17,871 27,021
10th Percentile £300 £293 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £477 £495
% change year-on-year -0.47% -3.59% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,087 861 2,102
10th Percentile £14.41 £16.00 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.22
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -13.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.98
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.51 £40.00
% change year-on-year -12.73% -21.23% +33.33%

Network Support
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Network Support' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Network Support job vacancy trend in the UK

Network Support
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Support job vacancies in the UK

Network Support
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Support over the 6 months to 29 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Support in the UK

Network Support
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Support job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Support job vacancies in the UK

Network Support
Top 9 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Support within the UK over the 6 months to 29 January 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 -53 40 £500 +132.56% 8
UK excluding London -51 30 £500 +132.56% 9
South East -14 17 £500 +158.06% 2
London -17 10 £475 - 1
East of England - 7 £363 - 1
Midlands -59 6 £300 -29.41% 3
West Midlands -33 5 £300 -29.41% 3
Work from Home -5 3 £363 -9.38% 2
East Midlands -32 1 - -

Network Support Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 January 2026, Network Support contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Network Support in the job title.

1 23 (57.50%) Cisco
2 21 (52.50%) Security Cleared
3 20 (50.00%) Juniper
4 19 (47.50%) Windows
5 18 (45.00%) SolarWinds
6 17 (42.50%) Windows Server
7 16 (40.00%) Active Directory
7 16 (40.00%) Cisco IOS
7 16 (40.00%) ITSM
7 16 (40.00%) Junos
7 16 (40.00%) Service Management
8 15 (37.50%) Cisco Firepower
8 15 (37.50%) Cisco ISE
8 15 (37.50%) DV Cleared
8 15 (37.50%) vCenter Server
8 15 (37.50%) VMware NSX
9 10 (25.00%) Network Security
10 9 (22.50%) Firewall
11 7 (17.50%) WAN
11 7 (17.50%) Wireless
12 6 (15.00%) BGP
12 6 (15.00%) Change Management
12 6 (15.00%) Incident Response
12 6 (15.00%) Load Balancing
12 6 (15.00%) Palo Alto
12 6 (15.00%) Security Operations
12 6 (15.00%) VPN
13 5 (12.50%) IPsec
13 5 (12.50%) IT Strategy
13 5 (12.50%) MPLS

Network Support Skill Set
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 2 (5.00%) Apache
1 2 (5.00%) IIS
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.00%) Entra ID
2 1 (2.50%) AWS
2 1 (2.50%) Azure
2 1 (2.50%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 16 (40.00%) Cisco IOS
1 16 (40.00%) Junos
2 15 (37.50%) Cisco Firepower
2 15 (37.50%) Cisco ISE
3 10 (25.00%) Network Security
4 9 (22.50%) Firewall
5 7 (17.50%) WAN
5 7 (17.50%) Wireless
6 6 (15.00%) BGP
6 6 (15.00%) VPN
7 5 (12.50%) IPsec
7 5 (12.50%) MPLS
7 5 (12.50%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (5.00%) LAN
9 1 (2.50%) DHCP
9 1 (2.50%) DNS
9 1 (2.50%) OSPF
9 1 (2.50%) SSH
9 1 (2.50%) TCP/IP
9 1 (2.50%) Telnet
General
1 5 (12.50%) Public Sector
2 3 (7.50%) Finance
3 2 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (5.00%) Banking
4 1 (2.50%) Financial Institution
4 1 (2.50%) Social Skills
Miscellaneous
1 5 (12.50%) Cyber Threat
1 5 (12.50%) Onboarding
1 5 (12.50%) PKI
1 5 (12.50%) Virtual Team
2 3 (7.50%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (2.50%) CCTV
3 1 (2.50%) Clustering
3 1 (2.50%) Fibre Optics
3 1 (2.50%) Management Information System
3 1 (2.50%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 19 (47.50%) Windows
2 17 (42.50%) Windows Server
3 1 (2.50%) Linux
3 1 (2.50%) Mac OS
3 1 (2.50%) Windows 10
3 1 (2.50%) Windows 7
3 1 (2.50%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (40.00%) ITSM
1 16 (40.00%) Service Management
2 6 (15.00%) Change Management
2 6 (15.00%) Incident Response
2 6 (15.00%) Load Balancing
2 6 (15.00%) Security Operations
3 5 (12.50%) IT Strategy
3 5 (12.50%) Network Architecture
3 5 (12.50%) Vulnerability Assessment
4 3 (7.50%) Agile
4 3 (7.50%) Cybersecurity
4 3 (7.50%) ITIL
5 2 (5.00%) API Integration
5 2 (5.00%) Break/Fix
5 2 (5.00%) Infrastructure as Code
5 2 (5.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 2 (5.00%) PRINCE2
5 2 (5.00%) Problem-Solving
5 2 (5.00%) Regulatory Compliance
5 2 (5.00%) Server Building
Programming Languages
1 2 (5.00%) Python
2 1 (2.50%) SQL
Qualifications
1 21 (52.50%) Security Cleared
2 15 (37.50%) DV Cleared
3 5 (12.50%) SC Cleared
4 2 (5.00%) CCNA
4 2 (5.00%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (2.50%) CEH
5 1 (2.50%) CISSP
5 1 (2.50%) CompTIA Security+
5 1 (2.50%) MCP
5 1 (2.50%) MCSA
5 1 (2.50%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (2.50%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (5.00%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (40.00%) Active Directory
2 15 (37.50%) VMware NSX
3 2 (5.00%) Firmware
4 1 (2.50%) BitLocker
4 1 (2.50%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 15 (37.50%) vCenter Server
2 2 (5.00%) Ansible
3 1 (2.50%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (2.50%) FortiGate
3 1 (2.50%) SCCM
Vendors
1 23 (57.50%) Cisco
2 20 (50.00%) Juniper
3 18 (45.00%) SolarWinds
4 6 (15.00%) Palo Alto
5 3 (7.50%) Fortinet
6 2 (5.00%) CheckPoint
7 1 (2.50%) Aruba
7 1 (2.50%) Dell
7 1 (2.50%) Draytek
7 1 (2.50%) F5
7 1 (2.50%) FireEye
7 1 (2.50%) McAfee
7 1 (2.50%) Microsoft
7 1 (2.50%) Mitel
7 1 (2.50%) Tanium