Telecoms Contract Job Trends

Telecommunications
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Telecoms in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Telecoms over the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 119 65
Rank change year-on-year -46 -54 +10
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 960 785 1,218
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.74% 2.37% 3.25%
As % of the General category 3.07% 3.74% 5.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 526 480 545
10th Percentile £263 £184 £248
25th Percentile £356 £350 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £549 £573 £600
90th Percentile £669 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £438 £500
% change year-on-year +2.86% -12.50% +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 52 72
10th Percentile £13.54 £14.08 £24.26
25th Percentile £15.21 £15.31 £37.50
Median hourly rate £17.50 £23.00 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.91% -65.93% +28.57%
75th Percentile £31.00 £41.10 £72.50
90th Percentile £50.00 £65.25 £76.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £21.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -16.67% -70.00% +33.33%

All General Skills
UK

Telecoms falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 31,316 20,992 21,990
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.66% 63.27% 58.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,212 13,093 12,972
10th Percentile £313 £275 £280
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £646
90th Percentile £738 £738 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £477
% change year-on-year +5.26% -0.42% -4.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,802 1,249 919
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.51 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.01 £16.17 £17.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £25.00 £32.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -21.88% +7.56%
75th Percentile £53.84 £44.75 £59.98
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £21.39 £30.00
% change year-on-year +28.56% -28.70% +11.11%

Telecoms
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Telecoms relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Telecoms job vacancy trend in the UK

Telecoms
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms

Telecoms
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Telecoms over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Telecoms in the UK

Telecoms
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms

Telecoms
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Telecoms over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Telecoms in the UK

Telecoms
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Telecoms within the UK over the 6 months to 14 October 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 -54 800 £469 +1.41% 1,032
UK excluding London -53 495 £450 +2.86% 511
London -38 359 £500 +8.11% 542
Work from Home -29 272 £478 -4.50% 392
South East -34 193 £469 -6.20% 166
East of England +32 93 £325 -35.64% 79
Scotland +9 65 £300 -9.09% 35
North of England -68 57 £475 +95.88% 94
South West -66 47 £494 -5.90% 46
Yorkshire -13 35 £475 +48.44% 25
Midlands -83 34 £475 +25.00% 70
West Midlands -69 32 £481 +26.64% 47
North West -62 20 £500 +115.05% 58
Wales -9 7 £200 +19.40% 14
Northern Ireland 0 5 £358 +110.29% 18
Channel Islands -3 2 £606 -
East Midlands -26 2 £475 +185.71% 23
North East -46 2 £298 +70.00% 12

Telecoms
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 27 (2.81%) Confluence
2 15 (1.56%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.46%) OpenStack
4 9 (0.94%) ArcGIS
5 7 (0.73%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 2 (0.21%) Apache
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.10%) CMS
8 1 (0.10%) IIS
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 39 (4.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (3.02%) MS Visio
3 25 (2.60%) Microsoft Office
4 15 (1.56%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.52%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.31%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.21%) Revit
8 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.10%) InDesign
9 1 (0.10%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.10%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.10%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 26 (2.71%) SAP PSCD
2 18 (1.88%) SAP BRIM
3 13 (1.35%) SAP Hybris
4 11 (1.15%) SAP FI
5 10 (1.04%) SAP FI-CA
5 10 (1.04%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
7 5 (0.52%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.52%) Sage X3
8 4 (0.42%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 4 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.42%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.31%) Remedy AR System
9 3 (0.31%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
11 1 (0.10%) Oracle BRM
11 1 (0.10%) SAP FS
11 1 (0.10%) SAP IS-U
11 1 (0.10%) SAP SD
11 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 90 (9.38%) Azure
2 85 (8.85%) AWS
3 58 (6.04%) GCP
4 19 (1.98%) Entra ID
4 19 (1.98%) GitHub
5 18 (1.88%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (1.77%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 15 (1.56%) Power Platform
7 15 (1.56%) SaaS
8 12 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.04%) Cloud Computing
10 9 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
10 9 (0.94%) Microsoft Purview
10 9 (0.94%) OneDrive
11 7 (0.73%) Miro
12 6 (0.63%) Cloud Functions
12 6 (0.63%) dbt
12 6 (0.63%) Snowflake
13 5 (0.52%) Fivetran
13 5 (0.52%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 117 (12.19%) WAN
2 97 (10.10%) 5G
3 89 (9.27%) LAN
3 89 (9.27%) MPLS
4 73 (7.60%) 4G
5 71 (7.40%) Radio Access Network
6 57 (5.94%) Wi-Fi
7 55 (5.73%) Firewall
8 54 (5.63%) Broadband
9 39 (4.06%) VoIP
10 36 (3.75%) SD-WAN
11 32 (3.33%) SDH
11 32 (3.33%) Wireshark
12 31 (3.23%) 3GPP
12 31 (3.23%) BGP
12 31 (3.23%) DNS
12 31 (3.23%) Network Security
12 31 (3.23%) TCP/IP
13 27 (2.81%) LTE
14 22 (2.29%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.35%) NoSQL
2 12 (1.25%) Data Warehouse
3 11 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (1.15%) Power BI
4 10 (1.04%) GIS
5 9 (0.94%) BigQuery
5 9 (0.94%) Metadata
6 8 (0.83%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.83%) MySQL
7 7 (0.73%) Redis
7 7 (0.73%) Tableau
8 5 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (0.42%) SQL Server
10 3 (0.31%) Apache Cassandra
10 3 (0.31%) Big Data
10 3 (0.31%) BusinessObjects
10 3 (0.31%) Cloud Spanner
10 3 (0.31%) Hazelcast
10 3 (0.31%) SAP BW
10 3 (0.31%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 56 (5.83%) JIRA
2 44 (4.58%) Git
3 26 (2.71%) GitLab
4 15 (1.56%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.83%) Selenium
6 5 (0.52%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.31%) JMeter
7 3 (0.31%) Locust
7 3 (0.31%) TestCafe
8 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.10%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.10%) JUnit
9 1 (0.10%) Maven
9 1 (0.10%) Mockito
9 1 (0.10%) Newman
9 1 (0.10%) Postman
9 1 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.10%) TestRail
9 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 262 (27.29%) Social Skills
2 150 (15.63%) Finance
3 116 (12.08%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (6.46%) Public Sector
5 41 (4.27%) Billing
6 34 (3.54%) Documentation Skills
6 34 (3.54%) Organisational Skills
7 25 (2.60%) Retail
8 23 (2.40%) Legal
8 23 (2.40%) Manufacturing
9 22 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
10 16 (1.67%) Aerospace
10 16 (1.67%) Marketing
11 14 (1.46%) Banking
11 14 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (0.94%) Publishing
14 8 (0.83%) Police
15 6 (0.63%) Aviation
15 6 (0.63%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 144 (15.00%) Architect
2 76 (7.92%) Senior
3 75 (7.81%) Lead
4 70 (7.29%) Consultant
5 67 (6.98%) Network Engineer
6 61 (6.35%) Analyst
7 58 (6.04%) Field Engineer
7 58 (6.04%) Project Manager
8 54 (5.63%) Telecoms Engineer
9 37 (3.85%) Developer
9 37 (3.85%) Solutions Architect
10 35 (3.65%) Designer
11 28 (2.92%) ServiceNow Architect
11 28 (2.92%) Telecoms Manager
12 27 (2.81%) Business Analyst
13 26 (2.71%) Enterprise Architect
13 26 (2.71%) SAP Consultant
14 25 (2.60%) Test Engineer
15 22 (2.29%) Delivery Manager
15 22 (2.29%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (5.52%) REST
2 31 (3.23%) SOAP
3 19 (1.98%) Terraform
4 18 (1.88%) Kafka
5 16 (1.67%) NETCONF
5 16 (1.67%) RESTful
5 16 (1.67%) YANG
6 14 (1.46%) HTML
7 13 (1.35%) CSS
7 13 (1.35%) JSON
7 13 (1.35%) ONVIF
7 13 (1.35%) XML
8 10 (1.04%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.04%) Elastic Stack
9 9 (0.94%) FastAPI
9 9 (0.94%) Middleware
9 9 (0.94%) React
10 8 (0.83%) OpenAPI
10 8 (0.83%) Swagger
11 7 (0.73%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 58 (6.04%) Data Centre
2 46 (4.79%) Driving Licence
3 44 (4.58%) CMDB
4 40 (4.17%) Onboarding
5 34 (3.54%) Cloud Native
6 23 (2.40%) Product Ownership
7 22 (2.29%) Management Information System
8 19 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
9 16 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (1.56%) Video\Live Streaming
11 14 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
12 13 (1.35%) Data Structures
12 13 (1.35%) Fibre Optics
13 12 (1.25%) TM Forum
14 11 (1.15%) AI Agents
14 11 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
14 11 (1.15%) Social Media
14 11 (1.15%) Video Conferencing
15 10 (1.04%) Hybrid Cloud
15 10 (1.04%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 56 (5.83%) Linux
2 55 (5.73%) Windows
3 14 (1.46%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.15%) macOS
5 10 (1.04%) Unix
6 9 (0.94%) VMS
6 9 (0.94%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.31%) CentOS
9 2 (0.21%) Android
9 2 (0.21%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.21%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.21%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.10%) OpenWrt
10 1 (0.10%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 226 (23.54%) Stakeholder Management
2 132 (13.75%) Agile
3 129 (13.44%) Problem-Solving
4 91 (9.48%) AI
5 89 (9.27%) ITIL
6 85 (8.85%) Project Delivery
7 81 (8.44%) Migration
8 80 (8.33%) Continuous Improvement
9 78 (8.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 75 (7.81%) Validation
11 72 (7.50%) Service Management
12 71 (7.40%) Roadmaps
13 70 (7.29%) CI/CD
14 69 (7.19%) Project Management
15 64 (6.67%) Test Automation
16 58 (6.04%) Change Management
17 54 (5.63%) Decision-Making
18 53 (5.52%) DevOps
19 52 (5.42%) Technical Leadership
20 51 (5.31%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 85 (8.85%) Python
2 38 (3.96%) SQL
3 30 (3.13%) JavaScript
4 25 (2.60%) Bash
5 23 (2.40%) Java
6 9 (0.94%) PowerShell
7 8 (0.83%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.63%) Apex Code
8 6 (0.63%) C#
9 5 (0.52%) SOQL
10 4 (0.42%) ABAP
10 4 (0.42%) DataWeave
10 4 (0.42%) R
11 3 (0.31%) C
11 3 (0.31%) C++
11 3 (0.31%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.21%) DCL
13 1 (0.10%) Ada
13 1 (0.10%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.10%) Rust
Qualifications
1 165 (17.19%) Security Cleared
2 98 (10.21%) SC Cleared
3 93 (9.69%) Degree
4 76 (7.92%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (5.21%) CCNA
6 32 (3.33%) BPSS Clearance
7 28 (2.92%) CCNP
7 28 (2.92%) DV Cleared
8 21 (2.19%) PMP
9 20 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
10 19 (1.98%) PMI Certification
11 18 (1.88%) A+ Certification
12 17 (1.77%) CCIE
13 15 (1.56%) CISSP
14 14 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (1.46%) Master's Degree
15 13 (1.35%) MCSA
16 12 (1.25%) JNCIE
17 8 (0.83%) AWS Certification
17 8 (0.83%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (5.42%) QA
2 22 (2.29%) SLA
3 21 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 20 (2.08%) GRC
4 20 (2.08%) PMO
5 16 (1.67%) NCSC
6 15 (1.56%) GDPR
7 14 (1.46%) Data Quality
8 6 (0.63%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.52%) NIST
9 5 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.42%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.31%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.10%) EU AI Act
13 1 (0.10%) GAAP
13 1 (0.10%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.10%) ISO 31000
13 1 (0.10%) ISO/IEC 15288
System Software
1 36 (3.75%) Docker
2 22 (2.29%) Active Directory
3 20 (2.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.15%) VMware NSX
5 8 (0.83%) Firmware
6 5 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.42%) vSphere
8 3 (0.31%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.21%) NDS
9 2 (0.21%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.10%) Ceph
10 1 (0.10%) KVM
10 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (4.17%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.29%) Ansible
3 12 (1.25%) Grafana
3 12 (1.25%) Prometheus
4 8 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (0.42%) Cilium
6 4 (0.42%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (0.42%) Istio
6 4 (0.42%) Kibana
6 4 (0.42%) SolarWinds Orion
7 3 (0.31%) Check_MK
7 3 (0.31%) NSN NetAct
7 3 (0.31%) Podman
7 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.31%) vRealize
8 2 (0.21%) QRadar
9 1 (0.10%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.10%) Amdocs OSS
9 1 (0.10%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 128 (13.33%) Microsoft
2 122 (12.71%) Cisco
3 78 (8.13%) ServiceNow
4 69 (7.19%) Nokia
5 43 (4.48%) Salesforce
6 39 (4.06%) SAP
7 34 (3.54%) VMware
8 33 (3.44%) Ericsson
9 21 (2.19%) Juniper
10 19 (1.98%) Google
11 18 (1.88%) Fortinet
11 18 (1.88%) MuleSoft
12 17 (1.77%) BT
13 14 (1.46%) F5
14 13 (1.35%) Palo Alto
15 12 (1.25%) BMC
16 11 (1.15%) Arista
16 11 (1.15%) Oracle
16 11 (1.15%) Zscaler
17 10 (1.04%) Adobe