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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 58 68
Rank change year-on-year -79 +10 +17
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 774 1,124 1,286
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.13% 3.54% 2.99%
As % of the General category 3.53% 5.75% 5.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 503 541 791
10th Percentile £170 £278 £213
25th Percentile £313 £399 £377
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -2.06%
75th Percentile £575 £606 £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 64 34 37
10th Percentile £16.80 £21.08 £14.67
25th Percentile £20.50 £22.92 £24.50
Median hourly rate £23.75 £41.78 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.15% -30.37% +11.63%
75th Percentile £24.50 £61.99 £80.00
90th Percentile £42.48 £75.00 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.66 £48.56 £66.25
% change year-on-year -51.27% -26.70% +10.42%

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 21,923 19,550 25,372
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 60.24% 61.51% 59.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,747 11,658 16,657
10th Percentile £283 £285 £272
25th Percentile £400 £411 £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 £727 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £485 £500
% change year-on-year -2.06% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,363 647 1,179
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.48 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.50 £19.59 £16.25
Median hourly rate £23.00 £27.39 £30.48
Median % change year-on-year -16.01% -10.14% +21.90%
75th Percentile £45.88 £53.75 £57.33
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.64 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.46 £26.12 £29.65
% change year-on-year -17.85% -11.90% +31.78%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -72 681 £470 -7.39% 670
UK excluding London -61 445 £450 -10.00% 637
London -28 270 £456 -13.10% 95
Work from Home -66 181 £481 -7.00% 231
South East -40 147 £475 -5.94% 229
Midlands -33 76 £400 -20.00% 87
South West -38 75 £525 -1.87% 74
North of England -37 69 £313 -35.90% 112
West Midlands -32 54 £525 +3.70% 55
East of England -30 37 £550 +25.71% 100
North West -28 33 £250 -50.98% 50
Scotland +11 28 £275 -36.23% 28
East Midlands -10 22 £158 -10.00% 30
Yorkshire -46 18 £481 -3.75% 46
North East -3 17 £175 -51.72% 19
Northern Ireland +4 12 £150 - 8
Wales +2 9 £160 -56.16% 21
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 (2.07%) Confluence
2 14 (1.81%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.90%) Appian
4 7 (0.90%) OpenStack
5 6 (0.78%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.26%) Apache
6 2 (0.26%) CMS
7 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.13%) IIS
7 1 (0.13%) Jupyter
Applications
1 49 (6.33%) Microsoft Office
2 23 (2.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.94%) Microsoft Project
4 13 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.16%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.52%) Autodesk Inventor
7 3 (0.39%) 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 (1.81%) SAP BRIM
1 14 (1.81%) SAP Hybris
1 14 (1.81%) SAP PSCD
2 4 (0.52%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 4 (0.52%) SAP ERP
3 3 (0.39%) 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 (7.75%) Azure
2 54 (6.98%) Microsoft 365
3 45 (5.81%) AWS
4 29 (3.75%) GCP
5 14 (1.81%) SaaS
5 14 (1.81%) SAP Commerce Cloud
6 13 (1.68%) GitHub
6 13 (1.68%) Power Platform
7 10 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
8 8 (1.03%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (1.03%) Entra ID
8 8 (1.03%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (0.90%) Tricentis Tosca
10 5 (0.65%) Miro
11 4 (0.52%) IaaS
11 4 (0.52%) Power Automate
12 3 (0.39%) Asana
12 3 (0.39%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 3 (0.39%) Slack
12 3 (0.39%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 51 (6.59%) Firewall
2 49 (6.33%) WAN
3 44 (5.68%) Wireless
4 38 (4.91%) LAN
5 28 (3.62%) VPN
6 24 (3.10%) 5G
6 24 (3.10%) MPLS
7 23 (2.97%) SD-WAN
8 22 (2.84%) 4G
8 22 (2.84%) Network Security
8 22 (2.84%) Radio Access Network
9 21 (2.71%) DNS
10 19 (2.45%) Broadband
10 19 (2.45%) VoIP
11 18 (2.33%) LTE
12 16 (2.07%) BGP
13 15 (1.94%) SDH
13 15 (1.94%) Wireshark
14 14 (1.81%) 3GPP
15 12 (1.55%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.42%) Power BI
2 8 (1.03%) MySQL
3 7 (0.90%) Tableau
4 5 (0.65%) Big Data
4 5 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
5 4 (0.52%) Electronic Patient Records
5 4 (0.52%) GIS
5 4 (0.52%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (0.52%) SAP BW
5 4 (0.52%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.26%) BigQuery
6 2 (0.26%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.26%) Power Query
7 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.13%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Exadata
7 1 (0.13%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.13%) Redis
7 1 (0.13%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 27 (3.49%) JIRA
2 22 (2.84%) GitLab
3 11 (1.42%) Jenkins
4 9 (1.16%) Postman
5 8 (1.03%) Robot Framework
5 8 (1.03%) Selenium
6 7 (0.90%) Cucumber
6 7 (0.90%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.78%) Git
8 4 (0.52%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.52%) JUnit
9 3 (0.39%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.39%) Storybook
10 2 (0.26%) Appium
10 2 (0.26%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.26%) Maven
11 1 (0.13%) Clang
11 1 (0.13%) JMeter
11 1 (0.13%) MLflow
11 1 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 282 (36.43%) Finance
2 261 (33.72%) Public Sector
3 238 (30.75%) Social Skills
4 210 (27.13%) Marketing
5 200 (25.84%) Electronics
5 200 (25.84%) Manufacturing
6 81 (10.47%) Analytical Skills
7 32 (4.13%) Documentation Skills
8 24 (3.10%) Billing
9 22 (2.84%) Organisational Skills
10 14 (1.81%) Banking
11 13 (1.68%) Legal
12 10 (1.29%) Retail
13 8 (1.03%) Military
14 5 (0.65%) Law
15 4 (0.52%) General Ledger
15 4 (0.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 4 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
16 3 (0.39%) Health Technology
16 3 (0.39%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 83 (10.72%) Architect
2 78 (10.08%) Analyst
3 47 (6.07%) Project Manager
4 45 (5.81%) Business Analyst
4 45 (5.81%) IT Support
5 40 (5.17%) Consultant
5 40 (5.17%) Senior
6 39 (5.04%) Desktop Support
7 37 (4.78%) Lead
8 28 (3.62%) 2nd Line Support
8 28 (3.62%) Network Engineer
9 27 (3.49%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
9 27 (3.49%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
10 24 (3.10%) Solutions Architect
11 22 (2.84%) Developer
12 21 (2.71%) Network Specialist
12 21 (2.71%) Support Engineer
13 20 (2.58%) Migration Engineer
14 19 (2.45%) Field Engineer
14 19 (2.45%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (2.84%) REST
2 17 (2.20%) SOAP
3 11 (1.42%) XML
4 9 (1.16%) JSON
4 9 (1.16%) RESTful
4 9 (1.16%) SailPoint
5 8 (1.03%) 802.1X
6 7 (0.90%) Jinja
6 7 (0.90%) NETCONF
6 7 (0.90%) React
6 7 (0.90%) Web Services
7 6 (0.78%) RFC 2544
7 6 (0.78%) YANG
8 5 (0.65%) Node.js
8 5 (0.65%) Spring
9 4 (0.52%) Elastic Stack
9 4 (0.52%) HTML
9 4 (0.52%) Spring Boot
10 3 (0.39%) .NET
10 3 (0.39%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 61 (7.88%) Data Centre
2 34 (4.39%) Driving Licence
3 26 (3.36%) Product Ownership
4 24 (3.10%) Data Protection Act
5 21 (2.71%) CMDB
6 19 (2.45%) Cloud Native
7 18 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
7 18 (2.33%) Onboarding
8 16 (2.07%) NHS
9 15 (1.94%) IoT
10 14 (1.81%) Fibre Optics
10 14 (1.81%) Mobile App
11 10 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
11 10 (1.29%) Virtual Team
12 9 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.16%) Cyber Threat
13 8 (1.03%) SCADA
14 7 (0.90%) Management Information System
14 7 (0.90%) Operational Technology
15 6 (0.78%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 47 (6.07%) Windows
2 39 (5.04%) Android
3 32 (4.13%) Mac OS
4 18 (2.33%) Windows 10
5 16 (2.07%) Linux
6 9 (1.16%) Windows Server
7 8 (1.03%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.39%) Debian
9 3 (0.39%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.39%) Unix
9 3 (0.39%) 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
1 205 (26.49%) Business Intelligence
2 202 (26.10%) Programme Management
3 196 (25.32%) Digital Marketing
4 128 (16.54%) Agile
5 122 (15.76%) Problem-Solving
6 108 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
7 96 (12.40%) Migration
8 73 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
9 72 (9.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 66 (8.53%) ITIL
11 55 (7.11%) Workflow
12 54 (6.98%) Logistics
13 50 (6.46%) Customer Service
13 50 (6.46%) Project Management
14 47 (6.07%) CI/CD
15 46 (5.94%) Service Delivery
16 45 (5.81%) DevOps
16 45 (5.81%) Roadmaps
17 44 (5.68%) Change Management
18 40 (5.17%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 60 (7.75%) Python
2 36 (4.65%) JavaScript
3 30 (3.88%) SQL
4 15 (1.94%) Java
4 15 (1.94%) PowerShell
5 11 (1.42%) TypeScript
6 9 (1.16%) Bash
7 8 (1.03%) C
7 8 (1.03%) C++
8 5 (0.65%) C#
8 5 (0.65%) Go
9 4 (0.52%) ABAP
10 3 (0.39%) BeanShell
10 3 (0.39%) PHP
11 2 (0.26%) R
11 2 (0.26%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.13%) Groovy
12 1 (0.13%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.13%) Scala
12 1 (0.13%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 210 (27.13%) Security Cleared
2 172 (22.22%) SC Cleared
3 59 (7.62%) Degree
4 27 (3.49%) DV Cleared
5 18 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
5 18 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
6 14 (1.81%) CCNP
7 11 (1.42%) PMP
8 10 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (1.16%) ITIL Certification
10 8 (1.03%) CCIE
10 8 (1.03%) PMI Certification
11 7 (0.90%) ACCA
11 7 (0.90%) CISSP
11 7 (0.90%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.78%) Azure Certification
12 6 (0.78%) CCNA
12 6 (0.78%) JNCIP
13 5 (0.65%) CIMA
13 5 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (4.01%) SLA
2 30 (3.88%) QA
3 18 (2.33%) GDPR
3 18 (2.33%) PMO
4 14 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (1.42%) Data Quality
6 9 (1.16%) Accessibility
7 8 (1.03%) GRC
8 6 (0.78%) JSP 440
8 6 (0.78%) NCSC
8 6 (0.78%) NIST
8 6 (0.78%) RMADS
9 5 (0.65%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.39%) GAAP
10 3 (0.39%) IFRS
11 2 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.26%) ISO 26262
11 2 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 2 (0.26%) WCAG
System Software
1 29 (3.75%) Active Directory
2 20 (2.58%) Docker
3 6 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.39%) QEMU
4 3 (0.39%) 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 (3.10%) Ansible
2 20 (2.58%) Kubernetes
3 12 (1.55%) Terraform
4 7 (0.90%) SCCM
5 5 (0.65%) Argo
5 5 (0.65%) Grafana
5 5 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.39%) Podman
6 3 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.39%) 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%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.13%) Data Guard
8 1 (0.13%) FreeIPA
8 1 (0.13%) Kibana
8 1 (0.13%) SCOM
8 1 (0.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 222 (28.68%) SAP
2 123 (15.89%) Cisco
3 92 (11.89%) Microsoft
4 44 (5.68%) ServiceNow
5 33 (4.26%) Juniper
6 30 (3.88%) Nokia
7 25 (3.23%) HP
8 24 (3.10%) Apple
8 24 (3.10%) Dell
9 22 (2.84%) Salesforce
10 20 (2.58%) F5
11 18 (2.33%) Ericsson
12 16 (2.07%) CheckPoint
12 16 (2.07%) Fortinet
13 15 (1.94%) Oracle
14 14 (1.81%) Google
14 14 (1.81%) Remedy
15 11 (1.42%) Meraki
15 11 (1.42%) Palo Alto
16 9 (1.16%) Actix