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 1 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 66 68
Rank change year-on-year -71 +2 +14
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 796 1,063 1,377
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.07% 3.38% 3.07%
As % of the General category 3.49% 5.46% 5.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 516 498 811
10th Percentile £170 £278 £205
25th Percentile £313 £373 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £501 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.22% +5.53% -
75th Percentile £570 £600 £623
90th Percentile £675 £680 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £450
% change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 28 39
10th Percentile £16.97 £20.25 £19.02
25th Percentile £20.50 £22.50 £24.38
Median hourly rate £23.79 £31.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.88% -47.92% +50.00%
75th Percentile £24.50 £54.69 £75.50
90th Percentile £42.83 £66.07 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.75 £27.50 £66.25
% change year-on-year -13.64% -58.49% +32.50%

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 22,804 19,459 26,421
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 59.18% 61.95% 58.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,323 11,606 17,132
10th Percentile £286 £282 £266
25th Percentile £400 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
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 1,387 626 1,569
10th Percentile £13.72 £15.62 £13.12
25th Percentile £16.35 £20.12 £15.16
Median hourly rate £22.50 £28.60 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.33% +10.00% +4.00%
75th Percentile £47.00 £53.75 £55.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.25 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.13 £26.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year -20.28% +6.00% +11.11%

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 1 February 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 1 February 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 1 February 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 -68 705 £475 -6.86% 575
UK excluding London -61 449 £450 -10.00% 468
London -25 287 £475 -11.83% 157
Work from Home -52 187 £475 -8.65% 176
South East -46 155 £475 -5.00% 184
North of England -47 77 £365 -18.89% 85
Midlands -45 71 £425 -15.00% 71
South West -40 70 £525 -4.55% 42
West Midlands -46 49 £525 +3.70% 53
North West -25 38 £300 -36.84% 50
East of England -31 37 £513 +13.89% 78
Scotland +17 26 £309 -31.39% 21
East Midlands -10 22 £158 -10.00% 18
North East -7 20 £175 -51.72% 10
Yorkshire -50 18 £481 -3.75% 27
Northern Ireland +9 12 £150 - 1
Wales -2 9 £160 -56.16% 6
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 14 (1.76%) Confluence
2 13 (1.63%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.38%) Appian
4 10 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.75%) Apache Spark
5 6 (0.75%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.38%) IIS
7 2 (0.25%) Apache
7 2 (0.25%) ArcGIS
7 2 (0.25%) CMS
7 2 (0.25%) JBoss
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle Spatial
7 2 (0.25%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.25%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 53 (6.66%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (3.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.63%) Microsoft Project
4 12 (1.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.88%) 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 17 (2.14%) SAP BRIM
1 17 (2.14%) SAP Hybris
1 17 (2.14%) SAP PSCD
2 9 (1.13%) Remedy ITSM
3 6 (0.75%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.50%) 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
7 1 (0.13%) Remedy AR System
Cloud Services
1 60 (7.54%) Azure
2 53 (6.66%) Microsoft 365
3 47 (5.90%) AWS
4 27 (3.39%) GCP
5 17 (2.14%) SAP Commerce Cloud
6 13 (1.63%) SaaS
7 12 (1.51%) Power Platform
8 11 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
8 11 (1.38%) GitHub
9 9 (1.13%) 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 (0.50%) 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 46 (5.78%) Firewall
2 42 (5.28%) WAN
3 40 (5.03%) Wireless
4 36 (4.52%) LAN
5 29 (3.64%) MPLS
6 25 (3.14%) 5G
7 22 (2.76%) 4G
7 22 (2.76%) VPN
8 21 (2.64%) Network Security
8 21 (2.64%) Radio Access Network
9 19 (2.39%) LTE
9 19 (2.39%) VoIP
10 18 (2.26%) Broadband
10 18 (2.26%) DNS
10 18 (2.26%) SD-WAN
11 16 (2.01%) BGP
12 15 (1.88%) SDH
12 15 (1.88%) Wireshark
13 14 (1.76%) Internet
14 13 (1.63%) 3GPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.26%) Power BI
2 8 (1.01%) MySQL
3 6 (0.75%) GIS
3 6 (0.75%) Oracle Database
4 5 (0.63%) Tableau
5 4 (0.50%) Big Data
5 4 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (0.50%) Electronic Patient Records
5 4 (0.50%) Relational Database
5 4 (0.50%) SAP BW
5 4 (0.50%) SQL Server
6 3 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.25%) Power Query
7 2 (0.25%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
8 1 (0.13%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.13%) Looker
8 1 (0.13%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Exadata
8 1 (0.13%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 28 (3.52%) JIRA
2 18 (2.26%) 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 (0.75%) Git
7 4 (0.50%) JUnit
7 4 (0.50%) Postman
8 3 (0.38%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.38%) Storybook
9 2 (0.25%) Appium
9 2 (0.25%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.25%) JMeter
10 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.13%) Maven
10 1 (0.13%) Mockito
10 1 (0.13%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 276 (34.67%) Finance
2 251 (31.53%) Social Skills
3 249 (31.28%) Public Sector
4 198 (24.87%) Marketing
5 188 (23.62%) Electronics
6 185 (23.24%) Manufacturing
7 93 (11.68%) Analytical Skills
8 36 (4.52%) Billing
9 26 (3.27%) Documentation Skills
10 23 (2.89%) Organisational Skills
11 15 (1.88%) Banking
12 13 (1.63%) Legal
12 13 (1.63%) Retail
13 8 (1.01%) Military
14 6 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.63%) Law
16 4 (0.50%) General Ledger
16 4 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 4 (0.50%) Presentation Skills
17 3 (0.38%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 83 (10.43%) Analyst
2 79 (9.92%) Architect
3 51 (6.41%) Business Analyst
4 45 (5.65%) Lead
5 44 (5.53%) Project Manager
6 43 (5.40%) IT Support
6 43 (5.40%) Senior
7 40 (5.03%) Consultant
8 36 (4.52%) Desktop Support
9 34 (4.27%) Network Engineer
10 26 (3.27%) 2nd Line Support
11 25 (3.14%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
11 25 (3.14%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
12 24 (3.02%) Developer
13 23 (2.89%) Solutions Architect
14 21 (2.64%) SAP Consultant
14 21 (2.64%) Support Engineer
15 20 (2.51%) Migration Engineer
15 20 (2.51%) Network Specialist
16 19 (2.39%) Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (3.39%) REST
2 22 (2.76%) SOAP
3 11 (1.38%) XML
4 9 (1.13%) JSON
4 9 (1.13%) SailPoint
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 (0.75%) .NET
7 6 (0.75%) YANG
8 5 (0.63%) 802.1X
8 5 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
8 5 (0.63%) RFC 2544
9 4 (0.50%) HTML
9 4 (0.50%) Spring
9 4 (0.50%) Spring Boot
10 3 (0.38%) Kafka
10 3 (0.38%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 51 (6.41%) Data Centre
2 33 (4.15%) Driving Licence
3 29 (3.64%) Data Protection Act
4 27 (3.39%) Product Ownership
5 22 (2.76%) CMDB
5 22 (2.76%) Onboarding
6 18 (2.26%) NHS
7 16 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (1.88%) IoT
9 13 (1.63%) Cloud Native
9 13 (1.63%) Mobile App
10 12 (1.51%) Fibre Optics
11 10 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
11 10 (1.26%) Virtual Team
12 9 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.13%) Cyber Threat
12 9 (1.13%) Management Information System
12 9 (1.13%) SCADA
13 8 (1.01%) Operational Technology
14 7 (0.88%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 39 (4.90%) Android
2 38 (4.77%) Windows
3 32 (4.02%) Mac OS
4 19 (2.39%) Windows 10
5 18 (2.26%) Linux
6 8 (1.01%) Apple iOS
7 7 (0.88%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.75%) Unix
9 4 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.38%) Debian
10 3 (0.38%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.38%) VMS
11 1 (0.13%) CentOS
11 1 (0.13%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 189 (23.74%) Business Intelligence
2 188 (23.62%) Programme Management
3 184 (23.12%) Digital Marketing
4 127 (15.95%) Problem-Solving
5 122 (15.33%) Agile
6 117 (14.70%) Stakeholder Management
7 92 (11.56%) Migration
8 77 (9.67%) Continuous Improvement
9 76 (9.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 74 (9.30%) ITIL
11 57 (7.16%) Workflow
12 56 (7.04%) Logistics
13 54 (6.78%) Customer Service
14 52 (6.53%) Project Management
15 44 (5.53%) CI/CD
15 44 (5.53%) Roadmaps
16 43 (5.40%) DevOps
16 43 (5.40%) Service Delivery
17 42 (5.28%) Change Management
18 40 (5.03%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 52 (6.53%) Python
2 34 (4.27%) JavaScript
3 30 (3.77%) SQL
4 17 (2.14%) Java
5 14 (1.76%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.38%) TypeScript
7 10 (1.26%) Bash
8 8 (1.01%) C++
9 7 (0.88%) C
10 6 (0.75%) C#
11 5 (0.63%) Go
12 4 (0.50%) ABAP
12 4 (0.50%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.38%) BeanShell
13 3 (0.38%) PHP
13 3 (0.38%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.38%) R
14 1 (0.13%) Bicep
14 1 (0.13%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 202 (25.38%) Security Cleared
2 167 (20.98%) SC Cleared
3 61 (7.66%) Degree
4 27 (3.39%) DV Cleared
5 21 (2.64%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (2.26%) Cisco Certification
7 13 (1.63%) CCNP
8 12 (1.51%) PMP
9 11 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (1.26%) ACCA
11 9 (1.13%) ITIL Certification
11 9 (1.13%) PMI Certification
12 8 (1.01%) CIMA
13 7 (0.88%) CCIE
13 7 (0.88%) CCNA
13 7 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
14 6 (0.75%) Master's Degree
15 5 (0.63%) Azure Certification
15 5 (0.63%) CISSP
15 5 (0.63%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.15%) QA
2 32 (4.02%) SLA
3 20 (2.51%) PMO
4 19 (2.39%) GDPR
5 14 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (1.51%) Data Quality
7 10 (1.26%) GRC
8 9 (1.13%) Accessibility
9 7 (0.88%) NCSC
9 7 (0.88%) NIST
9 7 (0.88%) RMADS
10 6 (0.75%) JSP 440
11 5 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 4 (0.50%) IFRS
13 3 (0.38%) GAAP
14 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
14 2 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 2 (0.25%) HIPAA
14 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 2 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 27 (3.39%) Active Directory
2 16 (2.01%) 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
Systems Management
1 21 (2.64%) Ansible
2 18 (2.26%) Kubernetes
3 7 (0.88%) SCCM
3 7 (0.88%) Terraform
4 5 (0.63%) Argo
4 5 (0.63%) Grafana
4 5 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.38%) Iperf
5 3 (0.38%) Nmap
5 3 (0.38%) Podman
5 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.25%) Cisco Prime
6 2 (0.25%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (0.25%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.25%) vRealize
7 1 (0.13%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.13%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.13%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.13%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.13%) Rancher
Vendors
1 215 (27.01%) SAP
2 116 (14.57%) Cisco
3 96 (12.06%) Microsoft
4 44 (5.53%) ServiceNow
5 33 (4.15%) Nokia
6 27 (3.39%) Juniper
7 25 (3.14%) HP
8 24 (3.02%) Apple
8 24 (3.02%) Dell
9 23 (2.89%) Oracle
10 20 (2.51%) Salesforce
11 19 (2.39%) Remedy
12 18 (2.26%) Ericsson
13 16 (2.01%) Fortinet
14 15 (1.88%) F5
15 12 (1.51%) CheckPoint
15 12 (1.51%) Palo Alto
16 11 (1.38%) Meraki
17 9 (1.13%) Google
18 8 (1.01%) Actix