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

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 136 60 70
Rank change year-on-year -76 +10 +12
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 784 1,102 1,264
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.11% 3.46% 2.99%
As % of the General category 3.51% 5.62% 5.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 511 524 769
10th Percentile £170 £278 £210
25th Percentile £309 £393 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -1.04%
75th Percentile £574 £601 £623
90th Percentile £675 £687 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% +2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 29 36
10th Percentile £17.01 £20.50 £14.56
25th Percentile £20.50 £22.50 £24.44
Median hourly rate £23.75 £32.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.92% -45.83% +11.63%
75th Percentile £24.50 £60.00 £80.00
90th Percentile £42.65 £75.00 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.66 £38.03 £67.50
% change year-on-year -37.78% -43.66% +12.50%

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 22,315 19,603 24,900
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 60.15% 61.57% 58.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,028 11,680 16,324
10th Percentile £283 £281 £270
25th Percentile £400 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £730 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,368 653 1,171
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.48 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.37 £19.59 £16.13
Median hourly rate £23.00 £27.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.36% -8.33% +20.00%
75th Percentile £45.81 £53.75 £57.42
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.71 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.00 £26.13 £28.96
% change year-on-year -19.62% -9.79% +28.71%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -74 692 £463 -8.87% 700
UK excluding London -64 451 £450 -10.00% 664
London -35 274 £450 -16.28% 107
Work from Home -51 182 £475 -7.77% 254
South East -45 150 £475 -5.00% 246
Midlands -29 76 £400 -20.99% 95
South West -41 74 £525 -2.33% 81
North of England -36 72 £313 -35.90% 103
West Midlands -35 54 £525 +2.44% 56
East of England -31 39 £475 +5.56% 103
North West -24 35 £250 -50.98% 49
Scotland +13 27 £281 -34.78% 29
East Midlands -15 22 £158 -10.00% 37
North East -4 18 £175 -51.72% 17
Yorkshire -46 18 £481 -3.75% 39
Northern Ireland +5 12 £150 - 10
Wales -1 9 £160 -56.16% 23
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 17 (2.17%) Confluence
2 14 (1.79%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.28%) Microsoft Exchange
4 8 (1.02%) Appian
5 7 (0.89%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.77%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.26%) Apache
7 2 (0.26%) CMS
8 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.13%) IIS
8 1 (0.13%) Jupyter
Applications
1 50 (6.38%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (2.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.91%) Microsoft Project
4 13 (1.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.15%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.51%) Autodesk Inventor
7 3 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.26%) AutoCAD
8 2 (0.26%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.13%) FrameMaker
9 1 (0.13%) MadCap Flare
9 1 (0.13%) Trello
Business Applications
1 14 (1.79%) SAP BRIM
1 14 (1.79%) SAP Hybris
1 14 (1.79%) SAP PSCD
2 4 (0.51%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 4 (0.51%) SAP ERP
3 3 (0.38%) Primavera
4 2 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.26%) SAP CO
4 2 (0.26%) SAP FI
4 2 (0.26%) SAP FI/CO
4 2 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 60 (7.65%) Azure
2 55 (7.02%) Microsoft 365
3 44 (5.61%) AWS
4 28 (3.57%) GCP
5 14 (1.79%) SaaS
5 14 (1.79%) SAP Commerce Cloud
6 13 (1.66%) GitHub
6 13 (1.66%) Power Platform
7 10 (1.28%) Dynamics 365
8 8 (1.02%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (1.02%) Entra ID
8 8 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (0.89%) Tricentis Tosca
10 5 (0.64%) Miro
11 4 (0.51%) IaaS
11 4 (0.51%) Power Automate
12 3 (0.38%) Asana
12 3 (0.38%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 3 (0.38%) Slack
12 3 (0.38%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 52 (6.63%) Firewall
2 49 (6.25%) WAN
3 44 (5.61%) Wireless
4 38 (4.85%) LAN
5 28 (3.57%) VPN
6 26 (3.32%) MPLS
7 24 (3.06%) 5G
7 24 (3.06%) Network Security
8 23 (2.93%) SD-WAN
9 21 (2.68%) 4G
9 21 (2.68%) DNS
9 21 (2.68%) Radio Access Network
10 20 (2.55%) Broadband
11 19 (2.42%) VoIP
12 18 (2.30%) LTE
13 17 (2.17%) BGP
14 15 (1.91%) SDH
15 14 (1.79%) Wireshark
16 13 (1.66%) 3GPP
17 12 (1.53%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.40%) Power BI
2 8 (1.02%) MySQL
3 6 (0.77%) 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%) Oracle Database
4 4 (0.51%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.51%) SAP BW
4 4 (0.51%) SQL Server
5 2 (0.26%) BigQuery
5 2 (0.26%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.26%) Power Query
6 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.13%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.13%) Hadoop
6 1 (0.13%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Exadata
6 1 (0.13%) Redis
Development Applications
1 28 (3.57%) JIRA
2 22 (2.81%) GitLab
3 11 (1.40%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.15%) Postman
5 8 (1.02%) Robot Framework
5 8 (1.02%) Selenium
6 7 (0.89%) Cucumber
6 7 (0.89%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.77%) Git
8 4 (0.51%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.51%) JUnit
9 3 (0.38%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.38%) Storybook
10 2 (0.26%) Appium
10 2 (0.26%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.26%) Maven
11 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.13%) Gradle
11 1 (0.13%) JMeter
11 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 281 (35.84%) Finance
2 260 (33.16%) Public Sector
3 243 (30.99%) Social Skills
4 208 (26.53%) Marketing
5 199 (25.38%) Electronics
6 198 (25.26%) Manufacturing
7 85 (10.84%) Analytical Skills
8 32 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
9 25 (3.19%) Billing
10 22 (2.81%) Organisational Skills
11 16 (2.04%) Banking
12 13 (1.66%) Legal
13 11 (1.40%) Retail
14 8 (1.02%) Military
15 5 (0.64%) 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 83 (10.59%) Architect
2 81 (10.33%) Analyst
3 48 (6.12%) Project Manager
4 46 (5.87%) Business Analyst
4 46 (5.87%) IT Support
5 42 (5.36%) Senior
6 39 (4.97%) Consultant
6 39 (4.97%) Desktop Support
7 37 (4.72%) Lead
8 32 (4.08%) Network Engineer
9 28 (3.57%) 2nd Line Support
10 27 (3.44%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
10 27 (3.44%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
11 24 (3.06%) Solutions Architect
12 22 (2.81%) Developer
13 21 (2.68%) Support Engineer
14 20 (2.55%) Migration Engineer
14 20 (2.55%) Network Specialist
15 19 (2.42%) Field Engineer
15 19 (2.42%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (2.81%) REST
2 17 (2.17%) SOAP
3 11 (1.40%) XML
4 9 (1.15%) JSON
4 9 (1.15%) RESTful
4 9 (1.15%) SailPoint
5 8 (1.02%) 802.1X
6 7 (0.89%) Jinja
6 7 (0.89%) NETCONF
6 7 (0.89%) React
6 7 (0.89%) Web Services
7 6 (0.77%) RFC 2544
7 6 (0.77%) YANG
8 5 (0.64%) Node.js
8 5 (0.64%) Spring
9 4 (0.51%) Elastic Stack
9 4 (0.51%) HTML
9 4 (0.51%) Spring Boot
10 3 (0.38%) Playwright
10 3 (0.38%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 61 (7.78%) Data Centre
2 34 (4.34%) Driving Licence
3 28 (3.57%) Product Ownership
4 26 (3.32%) Data Protection Act
5 21 (2.68%) CMDB
6 20 (2.55%) Cloud Native
7 19 (2.42%) Onboarding
8 18 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
9 17 (2.17%) NHS
10 15 (1.91%) IoT
11 14 (1.79%) Mobile App
12 13 (1.66%) Fibre Optics
13 10 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
13 10 (1.28%) Virtual Team
14 9 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
14 9 (1.15%) Cyber Threat
15 8 (1.02%) SCADA
16 7 (0.89%) Management Information System
16 7 (0.89%) Operational Technology
17 6 (0.77%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 47 (5.99%) Windows
2 39 (4.97%) Android
3 32 (4.08%) Mac OS
4 19 (2.42%) Windows 10
5 15 (1.91%) Linux
6 9 (1.15%) Windows Server
7 8 (1.02%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.38%) Debian
9 3 (0.38%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.38%) Unix
9 3 (0.38%) VMS
10 1 (0.13%) CentOS
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 203 (25.89%) Business Intelligence
2 200 (25.51%) Programme Management
3 194 (24.74%) Digital Marketing
4 130 (16.58%) Agile
5 124 (15.82%) Problem-Solving
6 113 (14.41%) Stakeholder Management
7 96 (12.24%) Migration
8 75 (9.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 73 (9.31%) Continuous Improvement
10 70 (8.93%) ITIL
11 56 (7.14%) Workflow
12 54 (6.89%) Logistics
13 53 (6.76%) Customer Service
14 52 (6.63%) Project Management
15 48 (6.12%) CI/CD
16 46 (5.87%) Change Management
16 46 (5.87%) Roadmaps
16 46 (5.87%) Service Delivery
17 45 (5.74%) DevOps
18 40 (5.10%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 58 (7.40%) Python
2 36 (4.59%) JavaScript
3 29 (3.70%) SQL
4 15 (1.91%) Java
5 14 (1.79%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.40%) TypeScript
7 8 (1.02%) Bash
8 7 (0.89%) C
8 7 (0.89%) C++
9 5 (0.64%) C#
9 5 (0.64%) Go
10 4 (0.51%) ABAP
11 3 (0.38%) BeanShell
11 3 (0.38%) PHP
12 2 (0.26%) R
12 2 (0.26%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.13%) Groovy
13 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.13%) Scala
13 1 (0.13%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 211 (26.91%) Security Cleared
2 173 (22.07%) SC Cleared
3 60 (7.65%) Degree
4 27 (3.44%) DV Cleared
5 20 (2.55%) Cisco Certification
6 18 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (1.79%) CCNP
8 11 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
8 11 (1.40%) PMP
9 9 (1.15%) ITIL Certification
10 8 (1.02%) ACCA
10 8 (1.02%) CCIE
10 8 (1.02%) CCNA
10 8 (1.02%) PMI Certification
11 7 (0.89%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.77%) Azure Certification
12 6 (0.77%) CIMA
12 6 (0.77%) CISSP
12 6 (0.77%) JNCIP
12 6 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (4.08%) SLA
2 31 (3.95%) QA
3 19 (2.42%) PMO
4 18 (2.30%) GDPR
5 13 (1.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 11 (1.40%) Data Quality
7 10 (1.28%) GRC
8 9 (1.15%) Accessibility
9 6 (0.77%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.77%) NIST
10 5 (0.64%) NCSC
10 5 (0.64%) RMADS
10 5 (0.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.38%) GAAP
11 3 (0.38%) IFRS
12 2 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.26%) HIPAA
12 2 (0.26%) ISO 26262
12 2 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.26%) WCAG
System Software
1 30 (3.83%) Active Directory
2 19 (2.42%) Docker
3 6 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.38%) QEMU
4 3 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.26%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.13%) Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.13%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 24 (3.06%) Ansible
2 20 (2.55%) Kubernetes
3 12 (1.53%) Terraform
4 7 (0.89%) SCCM
5 5 (0.64%) Argo
5 5 (0.64%) Grafana
5 5 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.38%) Podman
6 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.38%) vRealize
7 2 (0.26%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.26%) Iperf
7 2 (0.26%) Nmap
7 2 (0.26%) Puppet
8 1 (0.13%) FreeIPA
8 1 (0.13%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.13%) Istio
8 1 (0.13%) Kibana
8 1 (0.13%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.13%) SCOM
Vendors
1 220 (28.06%) SAP
2 124 (15.82%) Cisco
3 96 (12.24%) Microsoft
4 44 (5.61%) ServiceNow
5 33 (4.21%) Juniper
6 31 (3.95%) Nokia
7 25 (3.19%) HP
8 24 (3.06%) Apple
8 24 (3.06%) Dell
9 23 (2.93%) Salesforce
10 20 (2.55%) F5
11 17 (2.17%) Ericsson
12 16 (2.04%) CheckPoint
12 16 (2.04%) Fortinet
13 15 (1.91%) Oracle
14 14 (1.79%) Remedy
15 13 (1.66%) Google
16 11 (1.40%) Meraki
16 11 (1.40%) Palo Alto
17 8 (1.02%) Actix