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 8 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 84 60
Rank change year-on-year -79 -24 +23
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 764 855 1,427
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.67% 2.93% 3.25%
As % of the General category 2.99% 4.65% 5.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 480 472 793
10th Percentile £175 £303 £200
25th Percentile £350 £371 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -7.51%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £588
90th Percentile £675 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -7.50% +11.11% +1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 34 62
10th Percentile £19.18 £14.00 £12.15
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.20 £12.28
Median hourly rate £23.83 £25.26 £26.75
Median % change year-on-year -5.67% -5.58% -49.05%
75th Percentile £37.19 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £59.50 £63.53 £76.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £23.00 £14.59
% change year-on-year +3.59% +57.70% -72.22%

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 25,537 18,398 25,541
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.82% 62.96% 58.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,887 11,782 16,206
10th Percentile £303 £300 £270
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £640 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,600 742 1,874
10th Percentile £13.71 £14.70 £12.78
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.51 £15.39
Median hourly rate £25.77 £29.00 £26.70
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% +8.63% -23.73%
75th Percentile £59.00 £57.50 £50.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £27.13 £25.28
% change year-on-year -7.83% +7.32% -17.82%

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 8 April 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 8 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Telecoms in the UK

Telecoms
Top 17 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 8 April 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 -79 666 £475 -5.57% 512
UK excluding London -76 422 £463 -7.50% 422
London -29 273 £500 -4.08% 139
Work from Home -55 173 £475 -5.00% 175
South East -55 167 £469 -6.20% 141
North of England -66 65 £463 -9.31% 94
Midlands -40 62 £525 +2.44% 63
South West -50 55 £525 - 50
West Midlands -51 44 £550 +7.32% 43
East of England -23 38 £475 +18.75% 56
North West -51 27 £450 -13.88% 46
Scotland +5 21 £233 -31.11% 27
North East -10 19 £500 +37.93% 11
East Midlands -21 18 £329 -47.40% 20
Yorkshire -44 18 £481 -10.47% 42
Wales -4 10 £160 -56.16% 10
Northern Ireland 0 9 £150 -72.73% 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 10 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.18%) Confluence
3 8 (1.05%) OpenStack
4 7 (0.92%) Apache Spark
4 7 (0.92%) SharePoint
5 6 (0.79%) Appian
6 5 (0.65%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.52%) Apache
8 3 (0.39%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.39%) IIS
8 3 (0.39%) JBoss
8 3 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 3 (0.39%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.39%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.26%) Oracle Spatial
10 1 (0.13%) Camunda
10 1 (0.13%) CMS
10 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
10 1 (0.13%) Smallworld
Applications
1 40 (5.24%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (3.14%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.31%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.65%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.26%) MicroStation
6 2 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.26%) Trello
7 1 (0.13%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.13%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.13%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.13%) MadCap Flare
Business Applications
1 17 (2.23%) SAP PSCD
2 16 (2.09%) SAP BRIM
2 16 (2.09%) SAP Hybris
3 10 (1.31%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.79%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.52%) BambooHR
6 3 (0.39%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.26%) Primavera
7 2 (0.26%) SAP CO
7 2 (0.26%) SAP FI/CO
7 2 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
8 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.13%) Remedy AR System
8 1 (0.13%) SAP FI-CA
8 1 (0.13%) SAP IBP
8 1 (0.13%) SAP SRM
8 1 (0.13%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 77 (10.08%) Azure
2 65 (8.51%) AWS
3 44 (5.76%) GCP
4 42 (5.50%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (2.88%) Power Platform
6 17 (2.23%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 12 (1.57%) SaaS
8 9 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
8 9 (1.18%) GitHub
9 7 (0.92%) GitHub Actions
10 6 (0.79%) dbt
11 5 (0.65%) Datadog
11 5 (0.65%) Serverless
12 4 (0.52%) AWS Lambda
12 4 (0.52%) Dagster
12 4 (0.52%) Entra ID
12 4 (0.52%) Figma
12 4 (0.52%) IaaS
12 4 (0.52%) Slack
12 4 (0.52%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 43 (5.63%) 5G
2 42 (5.50%) WAN
3 41 (5.37%) Firewall
4 36 (4.71%) MPLS
5 30 (3.93%) LAN
6 29 (3.80%) 4G
7 27 (3.53%) SD-WAN
8 26 (3.40%) Network Security
9 25 (3.27%) Radio Access Network
10 22 (2.88%) DNS
11 21 (2.75%) Wireless
12 20 (2.62%) BGP
12 20 (2.62%) Internet
12 20 (2.62%) LTE
12 20 (2.62%) VPN
13 17 (2.23%) VoIP
14 16 (2.09%) Broadband
15 15 (1.96%) 2G
16 14 (1.83%) 3GPP
17 13 (1.70%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (2.75%) Power BI
2 12 (1.57%) Data Warehouse
2 12 (1.57%) Looker
3 11 (1.44%) Tableau
4 10 (1.31%) MySQL
5 9 (1.18%) BigQuery
6 8 (1.05%) Big Data
6 8 (1.05%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.92%) Amazon Redshift
7 7 (0.92%) GIS
8 6 (0.79%) Oracle Database
8 6 (0.79%) SQL Server
9 5 (0.65%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.39%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.39%) Metadata
10 3 (0.39%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.39%) RDBMS
10 3 (0.39%) Semantic Layer
10 3 (0.39%) Star Schema
11 2 (0.26%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 23 (3.01%) JIRA
2 7 (0.92%) GitLab
2 7 (0.92%) Jenkins
3 5 (0.65%) Git
4 4 (0.52%) JUnit
5 3 (0.39%) Storybook
6 2 (0.26%) Appium
6 2 (0.26%) CircleCI
6 2 (0.26%) JMeter
6 2 (0.26%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.13%) Maven
7 1 (0.13%) Mockito
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 222 (29.06%) Social Skills
2 213 (27.88%) Finance
3 176 (23.04%) Public Sector
4 128 (16.75%) Marketing
5 121 (15.84%) Electronics
6 115 (15.05%) Manufacturing
7 91 (11.91%) Analytical Skills
8 39 (5.10%) Billing
9 20 (2.62%) Organisational Skills
10 18 (2.36%) Legal
11 17 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
12 14 (1.83%) Retail
13 13 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
14 10 (1.31%) Military
15 8 (1.05%) Banking
16 7 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
17 5 (0.65%) Law
18 3 (0.39%) Financial Institution
19 2 (0.26%) Aerospace
19 2 (0.26%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 83 (10.86%) Architect
2 74 (9.69%) Analyst
3 49 (6.41%) Lead
4 46 (6.02%) Consultant
5 45 (5.89%) Senior
6 42 (5.50%) Project Manager
7 39 (5.10%) Business Analyst
8 32 (4.19%) Network Engineer
9 29 (3.80%) IT Support
9 29 (3.80%) Solutions Architect
10 28 (3.66%) Developer
10 28 (3.66%) Telecoms Manager
11 23 (3.01%) Desktop Support
12 21 (2.75%) Data Engineer
13 19 (2.49%) Programme Manager
14 18 (2.36%) Coordinator
14 18 (2.36%) SAP Consultant
14 18 (2.36%) ServiceNow Architect
15 17 (2.23%) Designer
16 16 (2.09%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.27%) REST
2 16 (2.09%) SOAP
3 10 (1.31%) Elastic Stack
4 9 (1.18%) Kafka
5 8 (1.05%) .NET
6 6 (0.79%) Middleware
6 6 (0.79%) RabbitMQ
6 6 (0.79%) RESTful
7 5 (0.65%) Spring
7 5 (0.65%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.52%) HTML
8 4 (0.52%) React
9 3 (0.39%) CSS
9 3 (0.39%) GraphQL
9 3 (0.39%) Node.js
9 3 (0.39%) PySpark
9 3 (0.39%) RFC 2544
9 3 (0.39%) Swagger
9 3 (0.39%) Vitest
9 3 (0.39%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 39 (5.10%) Data Centre
2 28 (3.66%) Data Protection Act
3 26 (3.40%) Driving Licence
4 25 (3.27%) Onboarding
4 25 (3.27%) Product Ownership
5 21 (2.75%) Cloud Native
6 18 (2.36%) CMDB
7 16 (2.09%) IoT
8 13 (1.70%) Mobile App
8 13 (1.70%) NHS
9 11 (1.44%) Analytical Mindset
9 11 (1.44%) Distributed Systems
9 11 (1.44%) Legacy Systems
9 11 (1.44%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.18%) Algorithms
10 9 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (0.92%) Fibre Optics
11 7 (0.92%) Hybrid Cloud
12 6 (0.79%) Management Information System
12 6 (0.79%) NB-IoT
Operating Systems
1 42 (5.50%) Windows
2 25 (3.27%) Android
3 24 (3.14%) Linux
4 22 (2.88%) Windows 10
5 19 (2.49%) Mac OS
6 7 (0.92%) Unix
7 6 (0.79%) Apple iOS
8 5 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.65%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.39%) Debian
9 3 (0.39%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.39%) VMS
10 2 (0.26%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.13%) CentOS
11 1 (0.13%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (17.80%) Business Intelligence
2 120 (15.71%) Programme Management
3 116 (15.18%) Stakeholder Management
4 114 (14.92%) Digital Marketing
5 105 (13.74%) Agile
6 96 (12.57%) Problem-Solving
7 83 (10.86%) Migration
8 76 (9.95%) Continuous Improvement
9 69 (9.03%) ITIL
10 65 (8.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 57 (7.46%) Project Management
12 52 (6.81%) Logistics
13 49 (6.41%) Customer Service
13 49 (6.41%) Workflow
14 48 (6.28%) Analytics
14 48 (6.28%) Decision-Making
15 44 (5.76%) Roadmaps
16 43 (5.63%) Project Delivery
17 42 (5.50%) CI/CD
18 41 (5.37%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 59 (7.72%) Python
2 45 (5.89%) SQL
3 21 (2.75%) JavaScript
4 18 (2.36%) Java
5 10 (1.31%) Bash
6 8 (1.05%) PowerShell
7 7 (0.92%) C++
7 7 (0.92%) R
8 6 (0.79%) Go
8 6 (0.79%) TypeScript
9 5 (0.65%) C#
10 3 (0.39%) C
10 3 (0.39%) LookML
10 3 (0.39%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.26%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.26%) PHP
11 2 (0.26%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.13%) Bicep
12 1 (0.13%) Cypher
12 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 172 (22.51%) Security Cleared
2 139 (18.19%) SC Cleared
3 66 (8.64%) Degree
4 29 (3.80%) DV Cleared
5 19 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (2.49%) PMP
6 17 (2.23%) Cisco Certification
7 15 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (1.70%) PMI Certification
9 12 (1.57%) CCNP
10 11 (1.44%) ITIL Certification
11 10 (1.31%) Microsoft Certification
12 8 (1.05%) ACCA
12 8 (1.05%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.92%) A+ Certification
13 7 (0.92%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.92%) CCIE
13 7 (0.92%) CIMA
13 7 (0.92%) Network+ Certification
14 6 (0.79%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (3.66%) SLA
2 22 (2.88%) GDPR
3 20 (2.62%) PMO
4 19 (2.49%) QA
5 16 (2.09%) Data Quality
5 16 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 11 (1.44%) NCSC
7 10 (1.31%) GRC
8 9 (1.18%) NIST
9 7 (0.92%) RMADS
10 5 (0.65%) JSP 440
11 3 (0.39%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.26%) IFRS
12 2 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.13%) GAAP
13 1 (0.13%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.13%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.13%) NEBOSH
13 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.13%) SOC 1
System Software
1 22 (2.88%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.83%) Docker
3 5 (0.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.39%) QEMU
5 2 (0.26%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.13%) Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 32 (4.19%) Kubernetes
2 15 (1.96%) Ansible
3 13 (1.70%) Grafana
4 11 (1.44%) Terraform
5 10 (1.31%) Prometheus
6 6 (0.79%) SCCM
7 4 (0.52%) Argo
7 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.39%) Cisco Prime
8 3 (0.39%) Iperf
8 3 (0.39%) Podman
9 2 (0.26%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.26%) EMC NetWorker
9 2 (0.26%) Nmap
9 2 (0.26%) vRealize
10 1 (0.13%) Consul
10 1 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
10 1 (0.13%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.13%) Rancher
Vendors
1 138 (18.06%) SAP
2 92 (12.04%) Microsoft
3 88 (11.52%) Cisco
4 53 (6.94%) ServiceNow
5 34 (4.45%) Nokia
6 22 (2.88%) Juniper
7 21 (2.75%) Oracle
8 20 (2.62%) Fortinet
9 19 (2.49%) Ericsson
10 16 (2.09%) Google
11 14 (1.83%) BT
11 14 (1.83%) Salesforce
12 13 (1.70%) Dell
12 13 (1.70%) F5
12 13 (1.70%) Huawei
13 12 (1.57%) Apple
13 12 (1.57%) CheckPoint
13 12 (1.57%) HP
13 12 (1.57%) Remedy
14 11 (1.44%) Meraki