Network Support Contract Job Trends

Network Support
UK

The median Network Support daily rate in the UK is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 January 2026.

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

 6 months to
2 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 534 512 529
Rank change year-on-year -22 +17 +208
Contract jobs requiring a Network Support 41 28 70
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.085% 0.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.092% 0.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 32 17 36
10th Percentile £300 £200 £198
25th Percentile £356 £208 £267
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £350 £386
Median % change year-on-year +35.71% -9.39% +6.55%
75th Percentile £500 £400 £453
90th Percentile - £438 £513
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £226 £323
% change year-on-year +121.15% -29.89% -14.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
Median hourly rate £13.25 - -
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 33,832 30,446 40,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.22% 92.70% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,457 18,648 27,012
10th Percentile £300 £291 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,952 945 1,577
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.51 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.05 £19.06
Median hourly rate £26.11 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.66% -27.78% +41.02%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £46.09
% change year-on-year -20.81% -31.09% +78.99%

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 2 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 11 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 2 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 -32 41 £475 +102.13% 29
UK excluding London -40 31 £500 +121.15% 24
South East -1 17 £500 +158.06% 8
London -13 10 £475 +37.68% 15
East of England -12 7 £363 +3.57% 5
Midlands -40 6 £300 -40.00% 2
West Midlands -35 5 £300 -40.00%
Work from Home -1 3 £363 -9.38% 17
East Midlands -25 1 - - 2
North West -30 1 £330 - 2
North of England -39 1 £330 +52.71% 2

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

For the 6 months to 2 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 (56.10%) Cisco
2 20 (48.78%) Juniper
2 20 (48.78%) Security Cleared
3 19 (46.34%) Windows
4 18 (43.90%) SolarWinds
5 17 (41.46%) Junos
5 17 (41.46%) Windows Server
6 16 (39.02%) Active Directory
6 16 (39.02%) Cisco IOS
7 15 (36.59%) Cisco Firepower
7 15 (36.59%) Cisco ISE
7 15 (36.59%) DV Cleared
7 15 (36.59%) ITSM
7 15 (36.59%) Service Management
7 15 (36.59%) vCenter Server
7 15 (36.59%) VMware NSX
8 8 (19.51%) Firewall
8 8 (19.51%) Network Security
8 8 (19.51%) WAN
9 7 (17.07%) VPN
9 7 (17.07%) Wireless
10 6 (14.63%) BGP
10 6 (14.63%) Change Management
10 6 (14.63%) Incident Response
10 6 (14.63%) Load Balancing
11 5 (12.20%) IPsec
11 5 (12.20%) IT Strategy
11 5 (12.20%) MPLS
11 5 (12.20%) Network Architecture
11 5 (12.20%) Palo Alto

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 (4.88%) Apache
1 2 (4.88%) IIS
Applications
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 2 (4.88%) Entra ID
2 1 (2.44%) Azure
2 1 (2.44%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (2.44%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 17 (41.46%) Junos
2 16 (39.02%) Cisco IOS
3 15 (36.59%) Cisco Firepower
3 15 (36.59%) Cisco ISE
4 8 (19.51%) Firewall
4 8 (19.51%) Network Security
4 8 (19.51%) WAN
5 7 (17.07%) VPN
5 7 (17.07%) Wireless
6 6 (14.63%) BGP
7 5 (12.20%) IPsec
7 5 (12.20%) MPLS
7 5 (12.20%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (7.32%) LAN
9 2 (4.88%) DNS
9 2 (4.88%) SD-WAN
10 1 (2.44%) Cisco ASA
10 1 (2.44%) NGFW
10 1 (2.44%) PuTTY
10 1 (2.44%) Structured Cabling
General
1 5 (12.20%) Public Sector
2 3 (7.32%) Social Skills
3 2 (4.88%) Finance
4 1 (2.44%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (2.44%) Banking
4 1 (2.44%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.44%) ADO
1 1 (2.44%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 5 (12.20%) Cyber Threat
1 5 (12.20%) Onboarding
1 5 (12.20%) PKI
1 5 (12.20%) Virtual Team
2 3 (7.32%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (2.44%) Anti-Spyware
3 1 (2.44%) CCTV
3 1 (2.44%) Clustering
3 1 (2.44%) Fibre Optics
3 1 (2.44%) Management Information System
3 1 (2.44%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 19 (46.34%) Windows
2 17 (41.46%) Windows Server
3 1 (2.44%) Linux
3 1 (2.44%) Mac OS
3 1 (2.44%) Windows 10
3 1 (2.44%) Windows 7
3 1 (2.44%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (36.59%) ITSM
1 15 (36.59%) Service Management
2 6 (14.63%) Change Management
2 6 (14.63%) Incident Response
2 6 (14.63%) Load Balancing
3 5 (12.20%) IT Strategy
3 5 (12.20%) Network Architecture
3 5 (12.20%) Security Operations
3 5 (12.20%) Vulnerability Assessment
4 3 (7.32%) Agile
4 3 (7.32%) Break/Fix
5 2 (4.88%) Cybersecurity
5 2 (4.88%) Infrastructure as Code
5 2 (4.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 2 (4.88%) ITIL
5 2 (4.88%) Network Design
5 2 (4.88%) PRINCE2
5 2 (4.88%) Problem-Solving
5 2 (4.88%) Server Building
6 1 (2.44%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 2 (4.88%) Python
2 1 (2.44%) SQL
Qualifications
1 20 (48.78%) Security Cleared
2 15 (36.59%) DV Cleared
3 3 (7.32%) CCNA
3 3 (7.32%) Cisco Certification
3 3 (7.32%) SC Cleared
4 1 (2.44%) CCNP
4 1 (2.44%) CEH
4 1 (2.44%) CISSP
4 1 (2.44%) CompTIA Security+
4 1 (2.44%) MCP
4 1 (2.44%) MCSA
4 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
4 1 (2.44%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.88%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (39.02%) Active Directory
2 15 (36.59%) VMware NSX
3 2 (4.88%) Firmware
4 1 (2.44%) BitLocker
4 1 (2.44%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 15 (36.59%) vCenter Server
2 3 (7.32%) Ansible
3 1 (2.44%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (2.44%) FortiGate
3 1 (2.44%) SCCM
3 1 (2.44%) Terraform
Vendors
1 23 (56.10%) Cisco
2 20 (48.78%) Juniper
3 18 (43.90%) SolarWinds
4 5 (12.20%) Palo Alto
5 2 (4.88%) CheckPoint
5 2 (4.88%) Microsoft
6 1 (2.44%) Aruba
6 1 (2.44%) Dell
6 1 (2.44%) Draytek
6 1 (2.44%) FireEye
6 1 (2.44%) Fortinet
6 1 (2.44%) Infoblox
6 1 (2.44%) McAfee
6 1 (2.44%) Mitel
6 1 (2.44%) Tanium
34 Network Support jobs Nationwide