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

6 months to
25 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 65 67
Rank change year-on-year -68 +2 +15
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 792 1,075 1,349
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.09% 3.41% 3.05%
As % of the General category 3.51% 5.51% 5.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 518 504 789
10th Percentile £170 £268 £205
25th Percentile £315 £378 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -1.04%
75th Percentile £570 £613 £625
90th Percentile £675 £681 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% +4.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 29 39
10th Percentile £16.97 £20.50 £19.02
25th Percentile £20.50 £22.50 £24.38
Median hourly rate £23.79 £32.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.81% -45.83% +24.35%
75th Percentile £24.50 £57.50 £75.50
90th Percentile £42.83 £75.00 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.75 £38.03 £66.25
% change year-on-year -37.55% -42.60% +29.27%

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 22,544 19,514 26,027
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 59.51% 61.87% 58.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,190 11,639 16,905
10th Percentile £284 £285 £265
25th Percentile £401 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
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 1,381 641 1,469
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £16.45 £20.00 £15.39
Median hourly rate £23.00 £27.50 £26.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.36% +3.77% +6.00%
75th Percentile £47.00 £53.75 £55.47
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.56 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.38 £26.50 £26.00
% change year-on-year -19.32% +1.92% +16.02%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -78 703 £475 -6.86% 675
UK excluding London -65 450 £450 -10.00% 638
London -29 283 £475 -12.04% 123
Work from Home -49 188 £475 -8.65% 198
South East -45 155 £475 -5.00% 233
Midlands -35 74 £400 -20.00% 91
North of England -47 73 £330 -30.53% 100
South West -37 72 £525 -4.55% 73
West Midlands -47 52 £520 +2.72% 57
East of England -27 38 £513 +13.89% 107
North West -25 36 £288 -41.62% 52
Scotland +17 25 £309 -28.41% 29
East Midlands -13 22 £158 -10.00% 34
North East -6 18 £175 -51.72% 12
Yorkshire -48 18 £481 -3.75% 38
Northern Ireland +5 12 £150 - 7
Wales -3 9 £160 -56.16% 22
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 15 (1.89%) Confluence
2 13 (1.64%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.39%) Appian
4 10 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
5 7 (0.88%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.76%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.38%) IIS
8 2 (0.25%) Apache
8 2 (0.25%) CMS
8 2 (0.25%) JBoss
8 2 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 2 (0.25%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.25%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 50 (6.31%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (2.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.64%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.88%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.51%) 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 17 (2.15%) SAP BRIM
1 17 (2.15%) SAP Hybris
1 17 (2.15%) SAP PSCD
2 7 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.63%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.51%) SAP ERP
5 3 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
5 3 (0.38%) Primavera
6 2 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.25%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.25%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.25%) SAP FI/CO
6 2 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 60 (7.58%) Azure
2 53 (6.69%) Microsoft 365
3 48 (6.06%) AWS
4 29 (3.66%) GCP
5 17 (2.15%) SAP Commerce Cloud
6 14 (1.77%) SaaS
7 12 (1.52%) GitHub
7 12 (1.52%) Power Platform
8 11 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
9 9 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
10 8 (1.01%) Entra ID
10 8 (1.01%) GitHub Actions
11 7 (0.88%) Tricentis Tosca
12 5 (0.63%) Miro
13 4 (0.51%) Power Automate
14 3 (0.38%) Asana
14 3 (0.38%) IaaS
14 3 (0.38%) Salesforce Service Cloud
14 3 (0.38%) Slack
14 3 (0.38%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 49 (6.19%) Firewall
2 44 (5.56%) WAN
3 43 (5.43%) Wireless
4 35 (4.42%) LAN
5 28 (3.54%) MPLS
6 25 (3.16%) 5G
7 23 (2.90%) Network Security
7 23 (2.90%) VPN
8 22 (2.78%) 4G
9 21 (2.65%) DNS
9 21 (2.65%) Radio Access Network
10 19 (2.40%) Broadband
10 19 (2.40%) LTE
10 19 (2.40%) VoIP
11 18 (2.27%) SD-WAN
12 16 (2.02%) BGP
13 15 (1.89%) SDH
14 14 (1.77%) Wireshark
15 13 (1.64%) 3GPP
16 12 (1.52%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.26%) Power BI
2 8 (1.01%) MySQL
3 6 (0.76%) Oracle Database
3 6 (0.76%) Tableau
4 4 (0.51%) Big Data
4 4 (0.51%) Data Warehouse
4 4 (0.51%) Electronic Patient Records
4 4 (0.51%) GIS
4 4 (0.51%) Relational Database
4 4 (0.51%) SAP BW
4 4 (0.51%) SQL Server
5 3 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.25%) Power Query
6 2 (0.25%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.13%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.13%) Hadoop
7 1 (0.13%) Looker
7 1 (0.13%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 29 (3.66%) JIRA
2 19 (2.40%) GitLab
3 10 (1.26%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.01%) Robot Framework
4 8 (1.01%) Selenium
5 7 (0.88%) Cucumber
5 7 (0.88%) SonarQube
6 6 (0.76%) Git
7 5 (0.63%) Postman
8 4 (0.51%) 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%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.25%) JMeter
10 2 (0.25%) Maven
11 1 (0.13%) Gradle
11 1 (0.13%) Mockito
11 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 278 (35.10%) Finance
2 250 (31.57%) Public Sector
3 244 (30.81%) Social Skills
4 203 (25.63%) Marketing
5 192 (24.24%) Electronics
6 189 (23.86%) Manufacturing
7 88 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
8 35 (4.42%) Billing
9 30 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
10 21 (2.65%) Organisational Skills
11 16 (2.02%) Banking
12 13 (1.64%) Legal
13 12 (1.52%) Retail
14 8 (1.01%) Military
15 5 (0.63%) Law
16 4 (0.51%) General Ledger
16 4 (0.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 4 (0.51%) Influencing Skills
16 4 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
17 3 (0.38%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 82 (10.35%) Analyst
2 77 (9.72%) Architect
3 49 (6.19%) Business Analyst
4 47 (5.93%) Project Manager
5 45 (5.68%) Senior
6 43 (5.43%) IT Support
7 42 (5.30%) Consultant
8 39 (4.92%) Lead
9 36 (4.55%) Desktop Support
9 36 (4.55%) Network Engineer
10 26 (3.28%) 2nd Line Support
11 25 (3.16%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
11 25 (3.16%) Developer
11 25 (3.16%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
12 21 (2.65%) SAP Consultant
12 21 (2.65%) Solutions Architect
12 21 (2.65%) Support Engineer
13 20 (2.53%) Migration Engineer
13 20 (2.53%) Network Specialist
14 19 (2.40%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (3.28%) REST
2 21 (2.65%) SOAP
3 11 (1.39%) XML
4 9 (1.14%) JSON
4 9 (1.14%) SailPoint
5 8 (1.01%) 802.1X
5 8 (1.01%) RESTful
5 8 (1.01%) Web Services
6 7 (0.88%) Jinja
6 7 (0.88%) NETCONF
6 7 (0.88%) React
7 6 (0.76%) RFC 2544
7 6 (0.76%) YANG
8 5 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (0.63%) Spring
9 4 (0.51%) .NET
9 4 (0.51%) HTML
9 4 (0.51%) Node.js
9 4 (0.51%) Spring Boot
10 3 (0.38%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 55 (6.94%) Data Centre
2 33 (4.17%) Driving Licence
3 29 (3.66%) Data Protection Act
4 28 (3.54%) Product Ownership
5 21 (2.65%) CMDB
5 21 (2.65%) Onboarding
6 18 (2.27%) NHS
7 16 (2.02%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (1.89%) Cloud Native
8 15 (1.89%) IoT
9 13 (1.64%) Fibre Optics
9 13 (1.64%) Mobile App
10 10 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
10 10 (1.26%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.14%) Analytical Mindset
11 9 (1.14%) Cyber Threat
11 9 (1.14%) SCADA
12 8 (1.01%) Operational Technology
13 7 (0.88%) Management Information System
13 7 (0.88%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 40 (5.05%) Windows
2 39 (4.92%) Android
3 32 (4.04%) Mac OS
4 19 (2.40%) Windows 10
5 18 (2.27%) Linux
6 8 (1.01%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.01%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.51%) Unix
8 3 (0.38%) Debian
8 3 (0.38%) Ubuntu
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
1 193 (24.37%) Business Intelligence
2 192 (24.24%) Programme Management
3 188 (23.74%) Digital Marketing
4 128 (16.16%) Agile
5 121 (15.28%) Problem-Solving
6 115 (14.52%) Stakeholder Management
7 92 (11.62%) Migration
8 76 (9.60%) Continuous Improvement
9 73 (9.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 71 (8.96%) ITIL
11 56 (7.07%) Logistics
12 54 (6.82%) Workflow
13 52 (6.57%) Customer Service
13 52 (6.57%) Project Management
14 45 (5.68%) CI/CD
15 44 (5.56%) Change Management
15 44 (5.56%) DevOps
15 44 (5.56%) Roadmaps
15 44 (5.56%) Service Delivery
16 40 (5.05%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 52 (6.57%) Python
2 34 (4.29%) JavaScript
3 29 (3.66%) SQL
4 16 (2.02%) Java
5 14 (1.77%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.39%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.14%) Bash
8 8 (1.01%) C++
9 7 (0.88%) C
10 6 (0.76%) C#
11 5 (0.63%) Go
12 4 (0.51%) ABAP
13 3 (0.38%) BeanShell
13 3 (0.38%) PHP
13 3 (0.38%) R
14 2 (0.25%) Shell Script
15 1 (0.13%) Groovy
15 1 (0.13%) PL/SQL
15 1 (0.13%) Scala
15 1 (0.13%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 205 (25.88%) Security Cleared
2 168 (21.21%) SC Cleared
3 60 (7.58%) Degree
4 27 (3.41%) DV Cleared
5 21 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (2.27%) Cisco Certification
7 12 (1.52%) CCNP
7 12 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
8 11 (1.39%) PMP
9 9 (1.14%) ACCA
9 9 (1.14%) ITIL Certification
10 8 (1.01%) CCNA
10 8 (1.01%) PMI Certification
11 7 (0.88%) CIMA
11 7 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
12 6 (0.76%) CCIE
12 6 (0.76%) Master's Degree
13 5 (0.63%) Azure Certification
13 5 (0.63%) CISSP
13 5 (0.63%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.17%) SLA
2 31 (3.91%) QA
3 20 (2.53%) PMO
4 19 (2.40%) GDPR
5 14 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 11 (1.39%) Data Quality
7 9 (1.14%) Accessibility
7 9 (1.14%) GRC
8 7 (0.88%) NIST
8 7 (0.88%) RMADS
9 6 (0.76%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.76%) NCSC
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%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.25%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.25%) IEC 61508
12 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 27 (3.41%) Active Directory
2 18 (2.27%) Docker
3 6 (0.76%) 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 22 (2.78%) Ansible
2 19 (2.40%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.01%) Terraform
4 7 (0.88%) SCCM
5 5 (0.63%) Argo
5 5 (0.63%) Grafana
5 5 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.38%) Podman
6 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.38%) vRealize
7 2 (0.25%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.25%) Iperf
7 2 (0.25%) Nmap
7 2 (0.25%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.13%) Fluentd
8 1 (0.13%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.13%) FreeIPA
8 1 (0.13%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.13%) Istio
8 1 (0.13%) Kibana
Vendors
1 218 (27.53%) SAP
2 120 (15.15%) Cisco
3 94 (11.87%) Microsoft
4 42 (5.30%) ServiceNow
5 33 (4.17%) Nokia
6 31 (3.91%) Juniper
7 25 (3.16%) HP
8 24 (3.03%) Apple
8 24 (3.03%) Dell
9 21 (2.65%) Salesforce
10 20 (2.53%) Oracle
11 18 (2.27%) Ericsson
11 18 (2.27%) F5
11 18 (2.27%) Remedy
12 15 (1.89%) Fortinet
13 14 (1.77%) CheckPoint
14 11 (1.39%) Google
14 11 (1.39%) Meraki
14 11 (1.39%) Palo Alto
15 9 (1.14%) VMware