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 2 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 60 71
Rank change year-on-year -68 +11 +14
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 797 1,165 1,264
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.15% 3.55% 2.92%
As % of the General category 3.54% 5.78% 4.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 519 564 787
10th Percentile £169 £278 £256
25th Percentile £315 £400 £396
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% +1.56%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £623
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 35 36
10th Percentile £15.28 £19.50 £14.56
25th Percentile £19.53 £22.50 £24.44
Median hourly rate £23.54 £35.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.75% -39.13% +9.52%
75th Percentile £24.50 £61.75 £80.00
90th Percentile £41.43 £75.00 £92.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.58 £48.56 £65.00
% change year-on-year -51.45% -25.29% +8.33%

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 22,509 20,164 25,593
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 60.69% 61.39% 59.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,144 12,012 16,860
10th Percentile £283 £285 £275
25th Percentile £400 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £543
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -3.31% -1.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £730 £756 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,393 690 1,126
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.48 £14.16
25th Percentile £16.50 £18.78 £16.26
Median hourly rate £23.50 £27.50 £32.75
Median % change year-on-year -14.55% -16.03% +31.00%
75th Percentile £46.00 £54.69 £59.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.58 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £26.23 £30.48
% change year-on-year -16.13% -13.93% +38.52%

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 2 January 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 2 January 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 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 -74 702 £463 -9.31% 507
UK excluding London -63 459 £450 -10.00% 410
London -34 276 £450 -15.69% 140
Work from Home -65 186 £481 -6.55% 164
South East -43 156 £475 -6.40% 150
South West -32 79 £525 -1.87% 51
Midlands -30 77 £400 -20.99% 59
North of England -35 68 £313 -34.21% 87
West Midlands -41 55 £525 +2.44% 49
East of England -29 38 £513 +17.14% 53
North West -35 33 £275 -42.11% 42
Scotland +16 28 £275 -36.23% 16
East Midlands -8 22 £158 -10.00% 10
Yorkshire -47 19 £447 -10.63% 32
North East -4 15 £175 -51.72% 17
Northern Ireland 0 12 £150 - 2
Wales +1 9 £160 -56.16% 9
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 (2.01%) Confluence
2 14 (1.76%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.88%) Appian
4 7 (0.88%) OpenStack
5 6 (0.75%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.25%) Apache
6 2 (0.25%) CMS
7 1 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.13%) IIS
7 1 (0.13%) Jupyter
Applications
1 49 (6.15%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (2.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.88%) Microsoft Project
4 14 (1.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.13%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.50%) Autodesk Inventor
7 3 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.25%) AutoCAD
8 2 (0.25%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.13%) FrameMaker
9 1 (0.13%) MadCap Flare
9 1 (0.13%) Trello
Business Applications
1 14 (1.76%) SAP BRIM
1 14 (1.76%) SAP Hybris
1 14 (1.76%) SAP PSCD
2 4 (0.50%) SAP ERP
3 3 (0.38%) Primavera
4 2 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.25%) Endur
4 2 (0.25%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
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 64 (8.03%) Azure
2 53 (6.65%) Microsoft 365
3 51 (6.40%) AWS
4 34 (4.27%) GCP
5 16 (2.01%) SaaS
6 14 (1.76%) Power Platform
6 14 (1.76%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 13 (1.63%) GitHub
8 10 (1.25%) Dynamics 365
9 8 (1.00%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (1.00%) Entra ID
9 8 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (0.88%) Tricentis Tosca
11 5 (0.63%) Miro
12 4 (0.50%) IaaS
12 4 (0.50%) Power Automate
13 3 (0.38%) Asana
13 3 (0.38%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 3 (0.38%) Slack
13 3 (0.38%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 55 (6.90%) Firewall
2 51 (6.40%) WAN
3 43 (5.40%) Wireless
4 42 (5.27%) LAN
5 30 (3.76%) VPN
6 27 (3.39%) SD-WAN
7 24 (3.01%) 5G
8 23 (2.89%) 4G
8 23 (2.89%) MPLS
8 23 (2.89%) Radio Access Network
9 21 (2.63%) Broadband
9 21 (2.63%) DNS
9 21 (2.63%) Network Security
10 19 (2.38%) LTE
10 19 (2.38%) VoIP
11 16 (2.01%) Wi-Fi
11 16 (2.01%) Wireshark
12 15 (1.88%) BGP
12 15 (1.88%) SDH
13 13 (1.63%) 3GPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.51%) Power BI
2 8 (1.00%) MySQL
2 8 (1.00%) Tableau
3 6 (0.75%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (0.63%) Big Data
5 4 (0.50%) Electronic Patient Records
5 4 (0.50%) GIS
5 4 (0.50%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.50%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.50%) SAP BW
5 4 (0.50%) SQL Server
6 3 (0.38%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.25%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.25%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.25%) Power Query
7 2 (0.25%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.13%) Data Mining
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Exadata
8 1 (0.13%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 27 (3.39%) JIRA
2 22 (2.76%) GitLab
3 11 (1.38%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.13%) Postman
5 8 (1.00%) Robot Framework
5 8 (1.00%) Selenium
6 7 (0.88%) Cucumber
6 7 (0.88%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.75%) Git
8 4 (0.50%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.50%) JUnit
9 3 (0.38%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.38%) Storybook
10 2 (0.25%) Appium
10 2 (0.25%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.25%) Clang
10 2 (0.25%) GCC
10 2 (0.25%) Maven
11 1 (0.13%) MLflow
11 1 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 293 (36.76%) Finance
2 268 (33.63%) Public Sector
3 247 (30.99%) Social Skills
4 215 (26.98%) Marketing
5 205 (25.72%) Electronics
5 205 (25.72%) Manufacturing
6 84 (10.54%) Analytical Skills
7 32 (4.02%) Documentation Skills
8 23 (2.89%) Billing
9 22 (2.76%) Organisational Skills
10 15 (1.88%) Legal
11 14 (1.76%) Banking
12 10 (1.25%) Retail
13 8 (1.00%) Military
14 7 (0.88%) Law
15 6 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
16 5 (0.63%) Automotive
16 5 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
17 4 (0.50%) Aerospace
17 4 (0.50%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 93 (11.67%) Architect
2 79 (9.91%) Analyst
3 47 (5.90%) Project Manager
4 46 (5.77%) Business Analyst
5 45 (5.65%) IT Support
6 41 (5.14%) Consultant
6 41 (5.14%) Desktop Support
6 41 (5.14%) Senior
7 39 (4.89%) Lead
8 29 (3.64%) 2nd Line Support
9 28 (3.51%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
9 28 (3.51%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
10 27 (3.39%) Network Engineer
11 26 (3.26%) Solutions Architect
12 24 (3.01%) Network Specialist
13 23 (2.89%) Network Architect
14 21 (2.63%) Developer
14 21 (2.63%) Support Engineer
15 20 (2.51%) Migration Engineer
16 19 (2.38%) Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (2.76%) REST
2 17 (2.13%) SOAP
3 11 (1.38%) XML
4 10 (1.25%) JSON
5 9 (1.13%) RESTful
5 9 (1.13%) SailPoint
6 8 (1.00%) 802.1X
6 8 (1.00%) React
7 7 (0.88%) Jinja
7 7 (0.88%) NETCONF
7 7 (0.88%) Web Services
8 6 (0.75%) RFC 2544
8 6 (0.75%) YANG
9 5 (0.63%) Node.js
9 5 (0.63%) Spring
10 4 (0.50%) Elastic Stack
10 4 (0.50%) HTML
10 4 (0.50%) Spring Boot
11 3 (0.38%) Kafka
11 3 (0.38%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 62 (7.78%) Data Centre
2 34 (4.27%) Driving Licence
3 27 (3.39%) Product Ownership
4 24 (3.01%) Data Protection Act
5 21 (2.63%) Cloud Native
5 21 (2.63%) CMDB
5 21 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
6 19 (2.38%) Onboarding
7 17 (2.13%) Fibre Optics
7 17 (2.13%) NHS
8 15 (1.88%) Mobile App
9 14 (1.76%) IoT
10 10 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.25%) Self-Motivation
10 10 (1.25%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.13%) Cyber Threat
12 8 (1.00%) SCADA
13 7 (0.88%) Management Information System
13 7 (0.88%) Operational Technology
13 7 (0.88%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 48 (6.02%) Windows
2 39 (4.89%) Android
3 32 (4.02%) Mac OS
4 17 (2.13%) Linux
4 17 (2.13%) Windows 10
5 9 (1.13%) Windows Server
6 8 (1.00%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.38%) Debian
8 3 (0.38%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.38%) Unix
8 3 (0.38%) VMS
9 1 (0.13%) CentOS
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 211 (26.47%) Business Intelligence
2 207 (25.97%) Programme Management
3 201 (25.22%) Digital Marketing
4 131 (16.44%) Agile
5 126 (15.81%) Problem-Solving
6 110 (13.80%) Stakeholder Management
7 96 (12.05%) Migration
8 77 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 72 (9.03%) Continuous Improvement
10 68 (8.53%) ITIL
11 57 (7.15%) Workflow
12 56 (7.03%) Logistics
13 52 (6.52%) Customer Service
14 51 (6.40%) Project Management
15 47 (5.90%) CI/CD
15 47 (5.90%) DevOps
15 47 (5.90%) Service Delivery
16 46 (5.77%) Change Management
16 46 (5.77%) Roadmaps
17 43 (5.40%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 60 (7.53%) Python
2 36 (4.52%) JavaScript
3 32 (4.02%) SQL
4 16 (2.01%) PowerShell
5 15 (1.88%) Java
6 11 (1.38%) TypeScript
7 10 (1.25%) Bash
8 8 (1.00%) C
8 8 (1.00%) C++
9 6 (0.75%) C#
10 5 (0.63%) Go
11 4 (0.50%) ABAP
12 3 (0.38%) BeanShell
12 3 (0.38%) PHP
13 2 (0.25%) R
13 2 (0.25%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.13%) Groovy
14 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.13%) Scala
14 1 (0.13%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 222 (27.85%) Security Cleared
2 181 (22.71%) SC Cleared
3 60 (7.53%) Degree
4 32 (4.02%) DV Cleared
5 18 (2.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 18 (2.26%) Cisco Certification
6 14 (1.76%) CCNP
7 11 (1.38%) PMP
8 9 (1.13%) CISSP
8 9 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (1.13%) ITIL Certification
9 8 (1.00%) CCIE
9 8 (1.00%) Master's Degree
9 8 (1.00%) PMI Certification
10 7 (0.88%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.75%) ACCA
11 6 (0.75%) CCNA
11 6 (0.75%) JNCIP
12 5 (0.63%) CESG Certified Professional
12 5 (0.63%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.14%) QA
2 31 (3.89%) SLA
3 19 (2.38%) GDPR
4 16 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 16 (2.01%) PMO
5 12 (1.51%) Data Quality
6 9 (1.13%) Accessibility
7 8 (1.00%) GRC
7 8 (1.00%) NIST
8 7 (0.88%) NCSC
9 6 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.75%) RMADS
10 5 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.38%) GAAP
11 3 (0.38%) IFRS
12 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.25%) Def Stans
12 2 (0.25%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.25%) ISO 26262
12 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 29 (3.64%) Active Directory
2 22 (2.76%) Docker
3 6 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.38%) QEMU
4 3 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.25%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.13%) Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.13%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 25 (3.14%) Ansible
2 21 (2.63%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.63%) Terraform
4 7 (0.88%) SCCM
5 5 (0.63%) Argo
5 5 (0.63%) Grafana
5 5 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.38%) Podman
7 3 (0.38%) vRealize
8 2 (0.25%) EMC NetWorker
8 2 (0.25%) Iperf
8 2 (0.25%) Nmap
8 2 (0.25%) Puppet
9 1 (0.13%) FreeIPA
9 1 (0.13%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.13%) Istio
9 1 (0.13%) Kibana
9 1 (0.13%) Kubeflow
9 1 (0.13%) SCOM
Vendors
1 230 (28.86%) SAP
2 125 (15.68%) Cisco
3 91 (11.42%) Microsoft
4 45 (5.65%) ServiceNow
5 33 (4.14%) Juniper
6 30 (3.76%) Nokia
7 26 (3.26%) Salesforce
8 25 (3.14%) HP
9 24 (3.01%) Apple
9 24 (3.01%) Dell
10 20 (2.51%) F5
10 20 (2.51%) Fortinet
11 19 (2.38%) Ericsson
12 16 (2.01%) CheckPoint
13 15 (1.88%) Google
14 14 (1.76%) Remedy
15 13 (1.63%) Oracle
16 11 (1.38%) Meraki
16 11 (1.38%) Palo Alto
17 10 (1.25%) Actix