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 20 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 132 60 73
Rank change year-on-year -72 +13 +12
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 816 1,200 1,264
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.21% 3.52% 2.87%
As % of the General category 3.62% 5.77% 4.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 530 575 803
10th Percentile £163 £278 £263
25th Percentile £313 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +4.17%
75th Percentile £575 £618 £620
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £463
% change year-on-year -10.00% +8.11% +2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 41 32
10th Percentile £14.75 £21.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.22 £24.50 £23.19
Median hourly rate £22.08 £50.00 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year -55.85% -6.98% +7.50%
75th Percentile £24.50 £73.75 £77.75
90th Percentile £41.25 £75.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.50 £51.25 £60.00
% change year-on-year -54.15% -14.58% +14.29%

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 common skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 22,544 20,791 26,224
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 61.15% 61.01% 59.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,076 12,425 17,340
10th Percentile £275 £285 £276
25th Percentile £400 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,457 714 1,084
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.48 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.50 £18.53 £16.75
Median hourly rate £23.58 £27.37 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.86% -17.07% +32.00%
75th Percentile £45.46 £53.75 £59.15
90th Percentile £69.65 £70.95 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.97 £26.00 £30.03
% change year-on-year -15.51% -13.41% +40.96%

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 20 December 2025.

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 20 December 2025.

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 20 December 2025. 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 -74 717 £458 -9.31% 412
UK excluding London -57 470 £450 -10.00% 384
London -30 279 £450 -14.29% 101
Work from Home -70 184 £500 -2.44% 144
South East -38 169 £500 -1.48% 155
Midlands -37 81 £380 -24.94% 55
South West -34 79 £550 +2.80% 46
North of England -46 62 £288 -30.72% 77
West Midlands -32 59 £450 -12.20% 43
East of England -38 37 £475 +4.11% 37
North West -22 34 £250 -41.52% 36
Scotland +14 28 £275 -36.23% 23
East Midlands -8 22 £158 -10.00% 12
Yorkshire -49 17 £376 -24.75% 31
Northern Ireland +1 12 £150 - 3
Wales +5 10 £160 -56.16% 7
North East -9 10 £175 -50.00% 15
Channel Islands -2 1 - -

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 16 (1.96%) Confluence
2 15 (1.84%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 9 (1.10%) OpenStack
5 8 (0.98%) Apache Spark
6 7 (0.86%) Appian
7 4 (0.49%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.25%) Apache
8 2 (0.25%) CMS
8 2 (0.25%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.12%) Headless CMS
9 1 (0.12%) IIS
9 1 (0.12%) Jupyter
Applications
1 49 (6.00%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.96%) Microsoft Project
4 12 (1.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.10%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.49%) Autodesk Inventor
7 3 (0.37%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.25%) AutoCAD
8 2 (0.25%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.12%) FrameMaker
9 1 (0.12%) MadCap Flare
9 1 (0.12%) Sketch
9 1 (0.12%) Trello
Business Applications
1 14 (1.72%) SAP BRIM
1 14 (1.72%) SAP Hybris
1 14 (1.72%) SAP PSCD
2 5 (0.61%) Endur
3 4 (0.49%) Primavera
3 4 (0.49%) SAP ERP
4 2 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.25%) SAP CO
4 2 (0.25%) SAP FI
4 2 (0.25%) SAP FI/CO
4 2 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 69 (8.46%) Azure
2 63 (7.72%) AWS
3 53 (6.50%) Microsoft 365
4 41 (5.02%) GCP
5 22 (2.70%) SaaS
6 17 (2.08%) Power Platform
7 14 (1.72%) SAP Commerce Cloud
8 12 (1.47%) GitHub
9 10 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
10 8 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
10 8 (0.98%) Entra ID
10 8 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
11 7 (0.86%) Tricentis Tosca
12 6 (0.74%) IaaS
12 6 (0.74%) Miro
13 5 (0.61%) OpenShift
14 4 (0.49%) Cloud Computing
14 4 (0.49%) dbt
14 4 (0.49%) PaaS
14 4 (0.49%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 59 (7.23%) Firewall
2 52 (6.37%) WAN
3 47 (5.76%) LAN
4 45 (5.51%) Wireless
5 32 (3.92%) VPN
6 29 (3.55%) SD-WAN
7 28 (3.43%) 5G
8 26 (3.19%) Broadband
9 25 (3.06%) Radio Access Network
10 24 (2.94%) 4G
10 24 (2.94%) DNS
11 23 (2.82%) VoIP
12 21 (2.57%) MPLS
12 21 (2.57%) Network Security
12 21 (2.57%) Wi-Fi
13 17 (2.08%) BGP
14 16 (1.96%) LTE
14 16 (1.96%) Wireshark
15 15 (1.84%) SDH
16 13 (1.59%) 3GPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (1.84%) Power BI
2 12 (1.47%) Tableau
3 9 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (0.98%) MySQL
5 7 (0.86%) Big Data
6 6 (0.74%) GIS
6 6 (0.74%) MongoDB
7 5 (0.61%) Relational Database
8 4 (0.49%) Electronic Patient Records
8 4 (0.49%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (0.49%) SAP BW
9 3 (0.37%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.25%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.25%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.25%) Power Query
11 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.12%) Data Mining
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Exadata
11 1 (0.12%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 27 (3.31%) JIRA
2 22 (2.70%) GitLab
3 11 (1.35%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.10%) Postman
5 8 (0.98%) Robot Framework
5 8 (0.98%) Selenium
6 7 (0.86%) Cucumber
6 7 (0.86%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.49%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.49%) Git
7 4 (0.49%) JUnit
8 3 (0.37%) Clang
8 3 (0.37%) GCC
8 3 (0.37%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.37%) Storybook
9 2 (0.25%) Appium
9 2 (0.25%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.25%) Maven
10 1 (0.12%) JMeter
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle APEX
General
1 303 (37.13%) Finance
2 276 (33.82%) Public Sector
3 260 (31.86%) Social Skills
4 218 (26.72%) Marketing
5 210 (25.74%) Manufacturing
6 207 (25.37%) Electronics
7 86 (10.54%) Analytical Skills
8 30 (3.68%) Documentation Skills
9 26 (3.19%) Legal
10 22 (2.70%) Organisational Skills
11 21 (2.57%) Billing
12 14 (1.72%) Law
13 11 (1.35%) Retail
14 10 (1.23%) Automotive
14 10 (1.23%) Banking
15 9 (1.10%) Military
16 7 (0.86%) Back Office
17 6 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
17 6 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
18 5 (0.61%) French Language
Job Titles
1 99 (12.13%) Architect
2 76 (9.31%) Analyst
3 49 (6.00%) Project Manager
4 46 (5.64%) IT Support
5 44 (5.39%) Business Analyst
5 44 (5.39%) Desktop Support
6 43 (5.27%) Consultant
7 37 (4.53%) Lead
7 37 (4.53%) Senior
8 33 (4.04%) Network Engineer
9 29 (3.55%) 2nd Line Support
10 28 (3.43%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
10 28 (3.43%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
11 27 (3.31%) Solutions Architect
12 26 (3.19%) Network Architect
13 25 (3.06%) Network Specialist
14 22 (2.70%) Developer
14 22 (2.70%) Support Engineer
15 21 (2.57%) Support Technician
15 21 (2.57%) Telecoms Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.06%) REST
2 17 (2.08%) SOAP
3 12 (1.47%) JSON
3 12 (1.47%) React
4 11 (1.35%) XML
5 9 (1.10%) RESTful
5 9 (1.10%) SailPoint
6 8 (0.98%) 802.1X
7 7 (0.86%) Jinja
7 7 (0.86%) NETCONF
7 7 (0.86%) Web Services
8 6 (0.74%) HTML
8 6 (0.74%) Node.js
8 6 (0.74%) RFC 2544
8 6 (0.74%) YANG
9 5 (0.61%) CSS
9 5 (0.61%) Spring
9 5 (0.61%) Swagger
10 4 (0.49%) Elastic Stack
10 4 (0.49%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 69 (8.46%) Data Centre
2 35 (4.29%) Driving Licence
3 27 (3.31%) Legacy Systems
4 24 (2.94%) Product Ownership
5 23 (2.82%) Cloud Native
5 23 (2.82%) Data Protection Act
6 19 (2.33%) CMDB
6 19 (2.33%) Onboarding
7 18 (2.21%) Fibre Optics
8 16 (1.96%) Mobile App
9 15 (1.84%) NHS
10 14 (1.72%) IoT
11 13 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.35%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
14 9 (1.10%) Cyber Threat
15 8 (0.98%) Renewable Energy
15 8 (0.98%) SCADA
16 7 (0.86%) Management Information System
16 7 (0.86%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 51 (6.25%) Windows
2 39 (4.78%) Android
3 32 (3.92%) Mac OS
4 18 (2.21%) Linux
5 17 (2.08%) Windows 10
6 10 (1.23%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.98%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.49%) Unix
9 1 (0.12%) CentOS
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.12%) VMS
9 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 222 (27.21%) Business Intelligence
2 212 (25.98%) Programme Management
3 206 (25.25%) Digital Marketing
4 136 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
5 134 (16.42%) Agile
6 113 (13.85%) Stakeholder Management
7 102 (12.50%) Migration
8 81 (9.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 73 (8.95%) ITIL
10 70 (8.58%) Continuous Improvement
11 61 (7.48%) Workflow
12 57 (6.99%) Logistics
13 56 (6.86%) Customer Service
14 53 (6.50%) Project Management
15 52 (6.37%) AI
16 51 (6.25%) Service Delivery
17 50 (6.13%) DevOps
18 49 (6.00%) CI/CD
18 49 (6.00%) Network Design
19 47 (5.76%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 69 (8.46%) Python
2 38 (4.66%) JavaScript
3 36 (4.41%) SQL
4 17 (2.08%) Java
4 17 (2.08%) PowerShell
5 12 (1.47%) Bash
6 11 (1.35%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.10%) C
8 8 (0.98%) C#
8 8 (0.98%) C++
9 7 (0.86%) Go
10 4 (0.49%) ABAP
10 4 (0.49%) PHP
11 3 (0.37%) BeanShell
11 3 (0.37%) R
12 2 (0.25%) Kotlin
12 2 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.12%) Groovy
13 1 (0.12%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.12%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 237 (29.04%) Security Cleared
2 188 (23.04%) SC Cleared
3 72 (8.82%) Degree
4 41 (5.02%) DV Cleared
5 25 (3.06%) Cisco Certification
6 17 (2.08%) CCNP
7 14 (1.72%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (1.72%) Master's Degree
7 14 (1.72%) PMP
8 13 (1.59%) CISSP
9 11 (1.35%) CCNA
9 11 (1.35%) PMI Certification
10 10 (1.23%) CCIE
10 10 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.10%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (0.98%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.86%) CESG Certified Professional
14 6 (0.74%) CISM
14 6 (0.74%) JNCIP
15 5 (0.61%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (4.53%) QA
2 32 (3.92%) SLA
3 18 (2.21%) GDPR
3 18 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 17 (2.08%) PMO
5 15 (1.84%) Data Quality
6 10 (1.23%) Accessibility
7 9 (1.10%) GRC
8 8 (0.98%) NCSC
8 8 (0.98%) NIST
9 7 (0.86%) RMADS
10 5 (0.61%) JSP 440
10 5 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.37%) GAAP
11 3 (0.37%) IFRS
11 3 (0.37%) WCAG
12 2 (0.25%) Def Stans
12 2 (0.25%) ISO 26262
12 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.25%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 31 (3.80%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.06%) Docker
3 6 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.61%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.37%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.12%) Firmware
7 1 (0.12%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 27 (3.31%) Ansible
2 25 (3.06%) Kubernetes
3 18 (2.21%) Terraform
4 7 (0.86%) Grafana
4 7 (0.86%) SCCM
5 5 (0.61%) Argo
5 5 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.37%) Cisco CUCM
7 3 (0.37%) Puppet
7 3 (0.37%) vRealize
8 2 (0.25%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.25%) Iperf
8 2 (0.25%) Nmap
8 2 (0.25%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.25%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.12%) FreeIPA
9 1 (0.12%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.12%) Istio
9 1 (0.12%) Kibana
Vendors
1 239 (29.29%) SAP
2 135 (16.54%) Cisco
3 97 (11.89%) Microsoft
4 43 (5.27%) ServiceNow
5 33 (4.04%) Juniper
6 30 (3.68%) Salesforce
7 29 (3.55%) Nokia
8 25 (3.06%) Dell
8 25 (3.06%) HP
9 24 (2.94%) Apple
10 22 (2.70%) Fortinet
11 21 (2.57%) F5
12 20 (2.45%) Ericsson
13 17 (2.08%) CheckPoint
14 16 (1.96%) Google
15 15 (1.84%) Oracle
16 14 (1.72%) Remedy
17 11 (1.35%) Meraki
17 11 (1.35%) Palo Alto
18 10 (1.23%) Actix