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 15 January 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 540 507 511
Rank change year-on-year -33 +4 +215
Contract jobs requiring a Network Support 38 27 69
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.085% 0.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.091% 0.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 16 32
10th Percentile £297 £191 £196
25th Percentile £356 £204 £222
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £305 £344
Median % change year-on-year +63.93% -11.27% -8.33%
75th Percentile - £400 £441
90th Percentile - £438 £485
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £216 £320
% change year-on-year +131.38% -32.47% -14.67%
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 33,883 29,520 39,341
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.34% 92.72% 93.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,433 18,105 26,194
10th Percentile £300 £288 £280
25th Percentile £405 £408 £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 £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,985 889 1,660
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.24 £21.05 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.30 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.08% -23.53% +21.43%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.29 £45.00
% change year-on-year -19.62% -30.47% +55.17%

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 15 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 15 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 -33 38 £500 +131.38% 12
UK excluding London -55 29 £500 +131.38% 10
South East -1 17 £500 +158.06% 2
London -16 9 £475 - 3
East of England - 7 £363 - 2
Midlands -41 5 £300 -29.41% 2
West Midlands -33 4 £300 -29.41% 2
Work from Home +1 2 £363 -9.38% 3
East Midlands -32 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 15 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 22 (57.89%) Cisco
2 19 (50.00%) Juniper
2 19 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 19 (50.00%) Windows
3 18 (47.37%) SolarWinds
4 17 (44.74%) Windows Server
5 16 (42.11%) Active Directory
5 16 (42.11%) Cisco IOS
5 16 (42.11%) Junos
6 15 (39.47%) Cisco Firepower
6 15 (39.47%) Cisco ISE
6 15 (39.47%) DV Cleared
6 15 (39.47%) ITSM
6 15 (39.47%) Service Management
6 15 (39.47%) vCenter Server
6 15 (39.47%) VMware NSX
7 8 (21.05%) Network Security
8 7 (18.42%) Firewall
8 7 (18.42%) Wireless
9 6 (15.79%) Change Management
9 6 (15.79%) Incident Response
9 6 (15.79%) WAN
10 5 (13.16%) BGP
10 5 (13.16%) IT Strategy
10 5 (13.16%) Load Balancing
10 5 (13.16%) Network Architecture
10 5 (13.16%) Security Operations
10 5 (13.16%) VPN
10 5 (13.16%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 5 (13.16%) Wi-Fi

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 (5.26%) Apache
1 2 (5.26%) IIS
Applications
1 1 (2.63%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (2.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.26%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 16 (42.11%) Cisco IOS
1 16 (42.11%) Junos
2 15 (39.47%) Cisco Firepower
2 15 (39.47%) Cisco ISE
3 8 (21.05%) Network Security
4 7 (18.42%) Firewall
4 7 (18.42%) Wireless
5 6 (15.79%) WAN
6 5 (13.16%) BGP
6 5 (13.16%) VPN
6 5 (13.16%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (10.53%) IPsec
7 4 (10.53%) MPLS
8 2 (5.26%) LAN
9 1 (2.63%) DHCP
9 1 (2.63%) PuTTY
9 1 (2.63%) SSH
9 1 (2.63%) Structured Cabling
9 1 (2.63%) TCP/IP
9 1 (2.63%) VLAN
General
1 4 (10.53%) Public Sector
2 2 (5.26%) Finance
2 2 (5.26%) Social Skills
3 1 (2.63%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (2.63%) Banking
3 1 (2.63%) Financial Institution
Miscellaneous
1 5 (13.16%) Cyber Threat
1 5 (13.16%) Onboarding
1 5 (13.16%) Virtual Team
2 4 (10.53%) PKI
3 3 (7.89%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (2.63%) CCTV
4 1 (2.63%) Clustering
4 1 (2.63%) Fibre Optics
4 1 (2.63%) Management Information System
4 1 (2.63%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 19 (50.00%) Windows
2 17 (44.74%) Windows Server
3 1 (2.63%) Linux
3 1 (2.63%) Mac OS
3 1 (2.63%) Windows 10
3 1 (2.63%) Windows 7
3 1 (2.63%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (39.47%) ITSM
1 15 (39.47%) Service Management
2 6 (15.79%) Change Management
2 6 (15.79%) Incident Response
3 5 (13.16%) IT Strategy
3 5 (13.16%) Load Balancing
3 5 (13.16%) Network Architecture
3 5 (13.16%) Security Operations
3 5 (13.16%) Vulnerability Assessment
4 2 (5.26%) Agile
4 2 (5.26%) Break/Fix
4 2 (5.26%) Cybersecurity
4 2 (5.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 2 (5.26%) ITIL
4 2 (5.26%) PRINCE2
4 2 (5.26%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (5.26%) Server Building
5 1 (2.63%) Analytical Thinking
5 1 (2.63%) Infrastructure as Code
5 1 (2.63%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 1 (2.63%) Python
1 1 (2.63%) SQL
Qualifications
1 19 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 15 (39.47%) DV Cleared
3 3 (7.89%) SC Cleared
4 2 (5.26%) CCNA
4 2 (5.26%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (2.63%) CEH
5 1 (2.63%) CISSP
5 1 (2.63%) CompTIA Security+
5 1 (2.63%) MCP
5 1 (2.63%) MCSA
5 1 (2.63%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (2.63%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (5.26%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (42.11%) Active Directory
2 15 (39.47%) VMware NSX
3 2 (5.26%) Firmware
4 1 (2.63%) BitLocker
4 1 (2.63%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 15 (39.47%) vCenter Server
2 2 (5.26%) Ansible
3 1 (2.63%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (2.63%) FortiGate
3 1 (2.63%) SCCM
Vendors
1 22 (57.89%) Cisco
2 19 (50.00%) Juniper
3 18 (47.37%) SolarWinds
4 4 (10.53%) Palo Alto
5 2 (5.26%) Microsoft
6 1 (2.63%) Aruba
6 1 (2.63%) CheckPoint
6 1 (2.63%) Dell
6 1 (2.63%) Draytek
6 1 (2.63%) FireEye
6 1 (2.63%) Fortinet
6 1 (2.63%) McAfee
6 1 (2.63%) Mitel
6 1 (2.63%) Tanium