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 5 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 174 89 64
Rank change year-on-year -85 -25 +22
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 734 816 1,360
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.54% 2.79% 3.15%
As % of the General category 2.85% 4.41% 5.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 454 451 702
10th Percentile £200 £306 £200
25th Percentile £375 £378 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £494 £450
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +9.78% -8.16%
75th Percentile £573 £600 £588
90th Percentile £671 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £464 £488 £450
% change year-on-year -4.87% +8.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 37 93
10th Percentile £18.42 - £12.15
25th Percentile £20.50 £14.00 £13.25
Median hourly rate £23.83 £23.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.59% -58.18% +4.76%
75th Percentile £50.00 £60.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £110.75 £68.25 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.08 £23.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -4.02% -56.19% -

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 25,759 18,500 25,090
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.18% 63.16% 58.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,831 11,804 15,823
10th Percentile £306 £300 £275
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £641 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £766
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £495
% change year-on-year - -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,641 792 1,939
10th Percentile £13.72 £14.00 £12.77
25th Percentile £17.63 £17.49 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -10.14%
75th Percentile £60.59 £56.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.01
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £25.00 £28.25
% change year-on-year +10.00% -11.50% -2.59%

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 5 May 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 5 May 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 5 May 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 -87 637 £475 -5.00% 611
UK excluding London -88 387 £464 -4.87% 457
London -23 270 £500 -2.44% 217
Work from Home -42 192 £481 +0.05% 206
South East -64 156 £465 -4.62% 155
North of England -57 68 £481 -8.33% 81
Midlands -49 56 £538 +4.88% 57
South West -54 49 £511 -2.67% 60
West Midlands -40 44 £550 +7.32% 36
North West -46 35 £463 -11.90% 40
East of England -39 33 £200 -50.00% 73
Yorkshire -40 19 £481 -12.50% 32
Scotland -19 16 £263 -19.23% 38
North East -13 14 £500 +19.40% 13
East Midlands -30 12 £500 -20.00% 20
Northern Ireland -1 7 £150 -72.73%
Wales -10 6 £160 -56.16% 11

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 11 (1.50%) OpenStack
2 8 (1.09%) Confluence
3 7 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.82%) Appian
5 5 (0.68%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (0.68%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.68%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.54%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.41%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.41%) IIS
7 3 (0.41%) JBoss
7 3 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 3 (0.41%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.41%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.27%) Apache
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Spatial
9 1 (0.14%) Camunda
9 1 (0.14%) CMS
9 1 (0.14%) Smallworld
Applications
1 27 (3.68%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.68%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.41%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.27%) MicroStation
7 2 (0.27%) Trello
8 1 (0.14%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.14%) FrameMaker
8 1 (0.14%) MadCap Flare
8 1 (0.14%) Revit
8 1 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 14 (1.91%) SAP BRIM
1 14 (1.91%) SAP PSCD
2 13 (1.77%) SAP Hybris
3 9 (1.23%) Remedy ITSM
4 6 (0.82%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.54%) BambooHR
6 3 (0.41%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.27%) SAP CO
7 2 (0.27%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.14%) Primavera
8 1 (0.14%) Remedy AR System
8 1 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.14%) SAP FI-CA
8 1 (0.14%) SAP IBP
8 1 (0.14%) SAP S/4HANA
8 1 (0.14%) SAP SD
8 1 (0.14%) SAP SRM
8 1 (0.14%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 67 (9.13%) Azure
2 59 (8.04%) AWS
3 36 (4.90%) GCP
4 30 (4.09%) Microsoft 365
5 20 (2.72%) Power Platform
6 14 (1.91%) SaaS
6 14 (1.91%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 8 (1.09%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (1.09%) dbt
8 6 (0.82%) GitHub
9 5 (0.68%) Datadog
9 5 (0.68%) Serverless
10 4 (0.54%) AWS Lambda
10 4 (0.54%) Dagster
10 4 (0.54%) Entra ID
10 4 (0.54%) Figma
10 4 (0.54%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (0.54%) IaaS
10 4 (0.54%) Prefect
10 4 (0.54%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 45 (6.13%) 5G
2 44 (5.99%) Firewall
3 38 (5.18%) WAN
4 37 (5.04%) MPLS
5 27 (3.68%) LAN
5 27 (3.68%) Network Security
6 25 (3.41%) 4G
7 23 (3.13%) DNS
7 23 (3.13%) Internet
7 23 (3.13%) SD-WAN
8 22 (3.00%) BGP
8 22 (3.00%) Radio Access Network
9 18 (2.45%) LTE
10 17 (2.32%) 3GPP
10 17 (2.32%) VPN
11 16 (2.18%) VoIP
12 14 (1.91%) Broadband
12 14 (1.91%) OSPF
12 14 (1.91%) VLAN
13 13 (1.77%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (2.59%) Power BI
2 12 (1.63%) Data Warehouse
2 12 (1.63%) Looker
2 12 (1.63%) Tableau
3 9 (1.23%) BigQuery
4 8 (1.09%) Big Data
5 7 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
5 7 (0.95%) Relational Database
6 6 (0.82%) SQL Server
7 5 (0.68%) MySQL
7 5 (0.68%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.41%) Amazon Athena
8 3 (0.41%) GIS
8 3 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
8 3 (0.41%) Star Schema
9 2 (0.27%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.27%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.27%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.27%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 22 (3.00%) JIRA
2 8 (1.09%) Git
3 7 (0.95%) GitLab
4 5 (0.68%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.27%) Appium
5 2 (0.27%) CircleCI
5 2 (0.27%) JMeter
5 2 (0.27%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.14%) JUnit
6 1 (0.14%) Maven
6 1 (0.14%) Mockito
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.14%) TestRail
General
1 214 (29.16%) Social Skills
2 153 (20.84%) Finance
3 119 (16.21%) Public Sector
4 93 (12.67%) Analytical Skills
5 78 (10.63%) Marketing
6 67 (9.13%) Electronics
7 62 (8.45%) Manufacturing
8 41 (5.59%) Billing
9 23 (3.13%) Retail
10 19 (2.59%) Documentation Skills
10 19 (2.59%) Legal
10 19 (2.59%) Organisational Skills
11 14 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
12 7 (0.95%) Banking
12 7 (0.95%) Military
12 7 (0.95%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.68%) Publishing
14 3 (0.41%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.41%) Police
15 2 (0.27%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 89 (12.13%) Architect
2 70 (9.54%) Analyst
3 56 (7.63%) Lead
4 49 (6.68%) Senior
5 39 (5.31%) Project Manager
6 38 (5.18%) Consultant
6 38 (5.18%) Network Engineer
7 35 (4.77%) Solutions Architect
7 35 (4.77%) Telecoms Manager
8 33 (4.50%) Business Analyst
9 23 (3.13%) Developer
10 22 (3.00%) Designer
10 22 (3.00%) ServiceNow Architect
11 21 (2.86%) Data Engineer
12 19 (2.59%) Programme Manager
13 15 (2.04%) IT Analyst
13 15 (2.04%) IT Manager
13 15 (2.04%) Sales Manager
13 15 (2.04%) SAP Consultant
14 14 (1.91%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (4.22%) REST
2 16 (2.18%) SOAP
3 12 (1.63%) Kafka
4 11 (1.50%) Elastic Stack
5 9 (1.23%) Middleware
6 7 (0.95%) .NET
6 7 (0.95%) OpenAPI
6 7 (0.95%) Swagger
6 7 (0.95%) XML
7 6 (0.82%) JSON
7 6 (0.82%) RabbitMQ
8 5 (0.68%) ONVIF
9 4 (0.54%) RAML
9 4 (0.54%) RESTful
10 3 (0.41%) 802.1X
10 3 (0.41%) GraphQL
10 3 (0.41%) RFC 2544
10 3 (0.41%) Spring
10 3 (0.41%) Web Services
11 2 (0.27%) React
Miscellaneous
1 32 (4.36%) Data Protection Act
2 30 (4.09%) Data Centre
2 30 (4.09%) Onboarding
3 26 (3.54%) Product Ownership
4 22 (3.00%) Driving Licence
5 18 (2.45%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.04%) Virtual Team
7 14 (1.91%) CMDB
8 12 (1.63%) Analytical Mindset
9 11 (1.50%) Distributed Systems
10 10 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.36%) NHS
10 10 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.23%) IoT
11 9 (1.23%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.23%) Mobile App
12 8 (1.09%) EPoS
12 8 (1.09%) Hybrid Cloud
12 8 (1.09%) TM Forum
13 7 (0.95%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 37 (5.04%) Windows
2 21 (2.86%) Linux
2 21 (2.86%) Windows 10
3 10 (1.36%) Android
4 8 (1.09%) Unix
5 5 (0.68%) Apple iOS
5 5 (0.68%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.54%) Mac OS
6 4 (0.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.41%) Debian
7 3 (0.41%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.41%) VMS
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.14%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (15.40%) Stakeholder Management
2 103 (14.03%) Agile
3 93 (12.67%) Problem-Solving
4 80 (10.90%) Business Intelligence
5 76 (10.35%) Continuous Improvement
6 67 (9.13%) Programme Management
7 66 (8.99%) Migration
8 64 (8.72%) ITIL
9 60 (8.17%) Digital Marketing
9 60 (8.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 59 (8.04%) Project Management
11 52 (7.08%) Decision-Making
12 49 (6.68%) Analytics
12 49 (6.68%) Project Delivery
13 48 (6.54%) Customer Service
14 46 (6.27%) Data Protection
15 44 (5.99%) Roadmaps
16 43 (5.86%) CI/CD
17 40 (5.45%) Workflow
18 39 (5.31%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 53 (7.22%) Python
2 37 (5.04%) SQL
3 17 (2.32%) Java
4 16 (2.18%) JavaScript
5 11 (1.50%) Bash
6 7 (0.95%) C#
6 7 (0.95%) C++
7 6 (0.82%) Go
7 6 (0.82%) PowerShell
7 6 (0.82%) R
8 4 (0.54%) DataWeave
8 4 (0.54%) TypeScript
9 3 (0.41%) C
9 3 (0.41%) LookML
9 3 (0.41%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.27%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.27%) PHP
10 2 (0.27%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.14%) Cypher
11 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 139 (18.94%) Security Cleared
2 108 (14.71%) SC Cleared
3 69 (9.40%) Degree
4 27 (3.68%) Cisco Certification
5 24 (3.27%) DV Cleared
6 18 (2.45%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (2.45%) PMP
7 17 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
8 16 (2.18%) CCNP
9 15 (2.04%) A+ Certification
10 14 (1.91%) BPSS Clearance
10 14 (1.91%) CCNA
11 10 (1.36%) Network+ Certification
11 10 (1.36%) PMI Certification
12 8 (1.09%) Azure Certification
13 7 (0.95%) ACCA
13 7 (0.95%) AWS Certification
13 7 (0.95%) CCIE
13 7 (0.95%) CIMA
13 7 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (3.13%) SLA
2 21 (2.86%) GDPR
3 20 (2.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 20 (2.72%) QA
4 18 (2.45%) PMO
5 13 (1.77%) Data Quality
6 11 (1.50%) NCSC
7 9 (1.23%) NIST
8 8 (1.09%) GRC
9 7 (0.95%) RMADS
10 5 (0.68%) JSP 440
11 2 (0.27%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.14%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 1 (0.14%) EU AI Act
12 1 (0.14%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.14%) IFRS
12 1 (0.14%) IFRS 9
12 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.14%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 20 (2.72%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.91%) Docker
3 10 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.54%) vSphere
5 3 (0.41%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.41%) QEMU
6 2 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.27%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 37 (5.04%) Kubernetes
2 15 (2.04%) Ansible
3 14 (1.91%) Grafana
4 11 (1.50%) Prometheus
4 11 (1.50%) Terraform
5 6 (0.82%) SCCM
6 4 (0.54%) Argo
6 4 (0.54%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.41%) Iperf
7 3 (0.41%) Podman
8 2 (0.27%) Amdocs OSS
8 2 (0.27%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.27%) Kibana
8 2 (0.27%) Nmap
8 2 (0.27%) NSN NetAct
8 2 (0.27%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.27%) vRealize
9 1 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
9 1 (0.14%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 86 (11.72%) Microsoft
2 81 (11.04%) SAP
3 69 (9.40%) Cisco
4 58 (7.90%) ServiceNow
5 37 (5.04%) Nokia
6 24 (3.27%) Salesforce
7 19 (2.59%) BT
7 19 (2.59%) Ericsson
7 19 (2.59%) Oracle
8 18 (2.45%) Fortinet
9 17 (2.32%) Juniper
10 15 (2.04%) Google
11 14 (1.91%) CheckPoint
12 13 (1.77%) F5
12 13 (1.77%) Huawei
13 12 (1.63%) Meraki
13 12 (1.63%) Palo Alto
13 12 (1.63%) VMware
14 11 (1.50%) Remedy
15 10 (1.36%) MuleSoft