Unified Communications Contract Job Trends

Unified Communications
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Unified Communications skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 608 490 499
Rank change year-on-year -118 +9 -6
Contract jobs citing Unified Communications 70 67 62
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.21% 0.16%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.38% 1.79% 1.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 44 45 24
10th Percentile £200 £340 £338
25th Percentile £272 £413 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £344 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -31.20% -6.98% +2.38%
75th Percentile £556 £585 £649
90th Percentile £636 £649 £720
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -27.27% +10.00% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 5 5
10th Percentile - £15.28 £39.60
25th Percentile £31.25 £15.50 £71.25
Median hourly rate £32.50 £16.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +103.13% -78.67% +294.74%
75th Percentile £33.75 £25.00 -
90th Percentile - £31.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £16.00 £75.00
% change year-on-year +103.13% -78.67% +294.74%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

Unified Communications falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,075 3,744 4,522
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.33% 11.54% 11.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,953 2,307 2,642
10th Percentile £235 £228 £231
25th Percentile £385 £363 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £478 £505
Median % change year-on-year +4.69% -5.43% +1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £610
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £454 £500
% change year-on-year +4.74% -9.30% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 406 196 260
10th Percentile £14.57 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £27.11 £43.00 £51.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.95% -15.69% -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.88 £64.06 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.03 £74.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -38.49% -25.89% -0.26%

Unified Communications
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Unified Communications relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Unified Communications job vacancy trend in the UK

Unified Communications
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unified Communications.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unified Communications

Unified Communications
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Unified Communications over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Unified Communications in the UK

Unified Communications
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unified Communications.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Unified Communications

Unified Communications
Top 12 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Unified Communications within the UK over the 6 months to 15 September 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 -131 51 £369 -32.91% 109
UK excluding London -119 39 £400 -27.27% 62
London -83 19 £325 -23.53% 50
Work from Home -62 15 £400 -36.00% 38
Midlands -41 12 £388 -26.19% 10
West Midlands -48 12 £388 -26.19% 4
Scotland -14 10 £493 +9.44% 2
South East -57 10 £400 +150.00% 26
North of England -75 8 £200 -42.86% 11
North West -51 6 £200 -23.81% 4
Yorkshire - 2 £338 - 5
South West -64 1 - - 5

Unified Communications
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 9 (12.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (7.14%) SharePoint
3 2 (2.86%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (11.43%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (4.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (4.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 14 (20.00%) Azure
2 12 (17.14%) Microsoft 365
3 9 (12.86%) Entra ID
4 6 (8.57%) SaaS
5 5 (7.14%) OneDrive
6 4 (5.71%) AWS
7 2 (2.86%) GCP
7 2 (2.86%) PaaS
7 2 (2.86%) Power Platform
7 2 (2.86%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 25 (35.71%) VoIP
2 18 (25.71%) LAN
3 17 (24.29%) Firewall
4 15 (21.43%) WAN
5 13 (18.57%) Network Security
6 11 (15.71%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (12.86%) SD-WAN
7 9 (12.86%) WebEx
8 7 (10.00%) IPsec
8 7 (10.00%) VPN
9 6 (8.57%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (5.71%) DNS
10 4 (5.71%) Internet
10 4 (5.71%) PSTN
11 3 (4.29%) DHCP
11 3 (4.29%) ISDN
11 3 (4.29%) Softphone
11 3 (4.29%) TCP/IP
11 3 (4.29%) VLAN
12 2 (2.86%) Cisco IPT
Development Applications
1 2 (2.86%) JIRA
2 1 (1.43%) Fiddler
2 1 (1.43%) MSI
2 1 (1.43%) Visual Studio
General
1 20 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 6 (8.57%) Finance
3 4 (5.71%) Legal
4 2 (2.86%) Front Office
4 2 (2.86%) Telecoms
5 1 (1.43%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (1.43%) German Language
5 1 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (1.43%) Japanese Language
5 1 (1.43%) Local Government
5 1 (1.43%) Manufacturing
5 1 (1.43%) Retail
Job Titles
1 14 (20.00%) Architect
1 14 (20.00%) Solutions Architect
2 12 (17.14%) Audio Visual Engineer
3 11 (15.71%) Network Engineer
3 11 (15.71%) Unified Communications Engineer
4 5 (7.14%) Lead
4 5 (7.14%) Senior
4 5 (7.14%) Trainer
5 4 (5.71%) Microsoft Trainer
5 4 (5.71%) Voice Engineer
6 3 (4.29%) Analyst
6 3 (4.29%) Cisco Engineer
6 3 (4.29%) Cisco Voice Engineer
6 3 (4.29%) Service Analyst
6 3 (4.29%) Service Desk Analyst
6 3 (4.29%) Support Engineer
6 3 (4.29%) Technical Leader
6 3 (4.29%) Telephony Engineer
7 2 (2.86%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
7 2 (2.86%) Microsoft Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (4.29%) Microsoft Graph
1 3 (4.29%) XMPP
2 1 (1.43%) .NET
2 1 (1.43%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 12 (17.14%) Data Centre
1 12 (17.14%) Video Conferencing
2 6 (8.57%) Virtual Team
3 4 (5.71%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (4.29%) Handset
4 3 (4.29%) Onboarding
5 2 (2.86%) IoT
6 1 (1.43%) Acoustics
6 1 (1.43%) Distributed Architecture
6 1 (1.43%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (1.43%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.43%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.43%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 22 (31.43%) Windows
2 8 (11.43%) Linux
3 2 (2.86%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.43%) Android
4 1 (1.43%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.43%) Windows 10
4 1 (1.43%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (1.43%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (18.57%) Migration
1 13 (18.57%) Problem-Solving
2 12 (17.14%) Agile
2 12 (17.14%) Continuous Improvement
2 12 (17.14%) High Availability
3 9 (12.86%) Roadmaps
4 8 (11.43%) Load Balancing
4 8 (11.43%) Programme Delivery
4 8 (11.43%) Stakeholder Management
5 7 (10.00%) Digital Innovation
5 7 (10.00%) Mentoring
5 7 (10.00%) Network Management
5 7 (10.00%) Project Delivery
6 6 (8.57%) Data Protection
6 6 (8.57%) ITIL
6 6 (8.57%) Root Cause Analysis
7 5 (7.14%) Change Management
7 5 (7.14%) Network Monitoring
7 5 (7.14%) Runbook
7 5 (7.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 6 (8.57%) PowerShell
2 2 (2.86%) Python
3 1 (1.43%) C++
Qualifications
1 13 (18.57%) Cisco Certification
2 11 (15.71%) Security Cleared
3 10 (14.29%) CCNP
4 9 (12.86%) SC Cleared
5 7 (10.00%) Degree
6 3 (4.29%) CCNA
6 3 (4.29%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (2.86%) AWS Certification
7 2 (2.86%) Azure Certification
7 2 (2.86%) DV Cleared
8 1 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (1.43%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (1.43%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (12.86%) QA
2 5 (7.14%) Disclosure Scotland
3 4 (5.71%) SLA
4 3 (4.29%) PMO
System Software
1 6 (8.57%) Active Directory
2 4 (5.71%) Firmware
3 3 (4.29%) FreeRADIUS
Systems Management
1 14 (20.00%) Cisco CUCM
2 5 (7.14%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (4.29%) Cisco UCCX
3 3 (4.29%) FortiGate
4 2 (2.86%) Cisco Prime
4 2 (2.86%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (1.43%) SCCM
5 1 (1.43%) SCOM
Vendors
1 49 (70.00%) Cisco
2 32 (45.71%) Microsoft
3 10 (14.29%) F5
4 7 (10.00%) Palo Alto
5 6 (8.57%) Red Box
6 5 (7.14%) ServiceNow
7 4 (5.71%) Fortinet
7 4 (5.71%) Remedy
8 3 (4.29%) Aruba
8 3 (4.29%) Avaya
8 3 (4.29%) Logitech
8 3 (4.29%) Mitel
9 2 (2.86%) Red Hat
9 2 (2.86%) Ribbon
9 2 (2.86%) VMware
10 1 (1.43%) Genesys
10 1 (1.43%) Google
10 1 (1.43%) Nexthink
10 1 (1.43%) Splunk