Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 11 May 2021

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for WAN skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited WAN over the 6 months to 11 May 2021 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

Note that daily and hourly rates are treated separately in these statistics. When calculating contractor rate percentiles, daily rates are never derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK
6 months to
11 May 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 169 115 156
Rank change year-on-year -54 +41 +11
Contract jobs citing WAN 864 1,044 1,692
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.54% 2.03% 1.82%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.53% 14.84% 14.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 589 667 1,094
10th Percentile £225 £175 £200
25th Percentile £325 £300 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £413
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -3.03% +3.13%
75th Percentile £500 £500 £500
90th Percentile £581 £600 £575
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £405 £400
% change year-on-year -1.23% +1.25% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 71 96
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.39 £10.75
25th Percentile £15.13 £18.50 £13.17
Median hourly rate £20.00 £26.81 £18.06
Median % change year-on-year -25.40% +48.49% +9.42%
75th Percentile £40.00 £46.50 £28.75
90th Percentile £46.00 £51.75 £47.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.50 £20.00 £17.50
% change year-on-year -2.50% +14.29% +4.92%

WAN is in the Communications and Computer Networking category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills.

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK
Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 6,386 7,037 11,618
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.42% 13.67% 12.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,113 4,294 7,312
10th Percentile £225 £178 £202
25th Percentile £350 £313 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% - +2.41%
75th Percentile £538 £525 £538
90th Percentile £625 £613 £610
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £400 £413
% change year-on-year - -3.03% +6.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 292 404 533
10th Percentile £12.92 £13.25 £12.00
25th Percentile £15.49 £16.25 £14.50
Median hourly rate £28.00 £21.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.33% +10.53% +1.60%
75th Percentile £50.00 £46.25 £44.50
90th Percentile £63.23 £53.00 £50.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £19.00 £17.50
% change year-on-year +26.32% +8.57% -2.94%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing WAN.

Daily rate trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 11 May 2021.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing WAN.

Hourly rate trend for WAN in the UK

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN over the 6 months to 11 May 2021.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the UK

WAN
Top 19 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the UK over the 6 months to 11 May 2021. 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
Job
Vacancies
England -46 710 £425 +6.25% 333
UK excluding London -26 482 £400 -1.23% 276
London -12 269 £455 +21.33% 82
Work from Home -125 199 £450 +12.50% 59
South East +1 153 £440 -2.22% 59
Midlands -12 96 £405 -7.43% 55
North of England -14 91 £385 +17.11% 83
West Midlands -21 72 £425 -10.53% 25
North West -1 53 £400 +10.34% 41
South West +20 49 £375 - 36
Scotland -33 42 £335 -21.18% 14
Yorkshire +4 34 £378 +16.15% 34
East of England -14 33 £258 -42.78% 18
East Midlands +10 24 £403 +91.67% 30
Wales +4 13 £250 -37.50% 11
Northern Ireland +12 8 £496 -
North East +8 4 £238 -34.26% 8
Isle of Man - 1 £413 -
Channel Islands - 1 - -

For the 6 months to 11 May 2021, IT contractor jobs citing WAN also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads with a requirement for WAN.

1 613 (70.95%) LAN
2 438 (50.69%) Cisco
3 380 (43.98%) Firewall
4 232 (26.85%) Windows
5 198 (22.92%) VMware
6 195 (22.57%) VPN
6 195 (22.57%) Microsoft
7 188 (21.76%) Cisco Certification
8 183 (21.18%) Active Directory
8 183 (21.18%) Data Centre
9 180 (20.83%) Azure
10 179 (20.72%) Security Cleared
11 165 (19.10%) SD-WAN
12 163 (18.87%) Social Skills
13 141 (16.32%) Wireless
14 139 (16.09%) VMware Infrastructure
15 134 (15.51%) Microsoft 365
16 128 (14.81%) DNS
17 126 (14.58%) CheckPoint
18 125 (14.47%) SC Cleared
19 120 (13.89%) Telecoms
20 119 (13.77%) ITIL
21 118 (13.66%) CCNP
22 114 (13.19%) Linux
23 109 (12.62%) TCP/IP
24 105 (12.15%) Finance
25 102 (11.81%) Migration
26 101 (11.69%) F5
27 100 (11.57%) Network Security
28 99 (11.46%) CCNA

WAN
Co-occurring IT Skills by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same job type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 43 (4.98%) SharePoint
2 34 (3.94%) Skype for Business
3 24 (2.78%) WebSphere
4 13 (1.50%) MS Exchange
5 11 (1.27%) JBoss
6 10 (1.16%) Confluence
7 9 (1.04%) Apache
7 9 (1.04%) IIS
7 9 (1.04%) Tomcat
8 7 (0.81%) WebLogic
9 5 (0.58%) NetWeaver
9 5 (0.58%) WebSphere Application Server
10 4 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
11 2 (0.23%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.23%) Drupal
11 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
11 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
11 2 (0.23%) IBM Notes
11 2 (0.23%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 65 (7.52%) Microsoft Office
2 54 (6.25%) MS Visio
3 29 (3.36%) Microsoft Excel
4 15 (1.74%) Microsoft Project
5 14 (1.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 7 (0.81%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.35%) StreamServe
3 1 (0.12%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.12%) Refinitiv Enterprise Platform
3 1 (0.12%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 180 (20.83%) Azure
2 134 (15.51%) Microsoft 365
3 85 (9.84%) AWS
4 53 (6.13%) PaaS
5 44 (5.09%) IaaS
6 39 (4.51%) SaaS
7 27 (3.13%) GCP
8 23 (2.66%) Azure Active Directory
9 20 (2.31%) OneDrive
10 14 (1.62%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 11 (1.27%) GitHub
11 11 (1.27%) Yammer
12 6 (0.69%) Cloud Computing
13 5 (0.58%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 4 (0.46%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 3 (0.35%) AWS CloudFormation
15 3 (0.35%) IBM Cloud
15 3 (0.35%) Mimecast
15 3 (0.35%) OpenShift
16 2 (0.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 613 (70.95%) LAN
2 380 (43.98%) Firewall
3 195 (22.57%) VPN
4 165 (19.10%) SD-WAN
5 141 (16.32%) Wireless
6 128 (14.81%) DNS
7 109 (12.62%) TCP/IP
8 100 (11.57%) Network Security
9 99 (11.46%) MPLS
10 95 (11.00%) DHCP
11 92 (10.65%) Internet
12 79 (9.14%) VLAN
13 78 (9.03%) BGP
14 77 (8.91%) VoIP
15 76 (8.80%) Cisco Nexus
15 76 (8.80%) OSPF
16 72 (8.33%) Cisco ASA
17 66 (7.64%) Wi-Fi
18 58 (6.71%) SAN
19 52 (6.02%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (4.17%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.62%) Data Warehouse
2 14 (1.62%) DB2
3 10 (1.16%) HBase
4 9 (1.04%) Hadoop
5 7 (0.81%) MongoDB
5 7 (0.81%) SQL Server 2012
5 7 (0.81%) SQL Server 2014
5 7 (0.81%) SQL Server 2016
6 6 (0.69%) MySQL
6 6 (0.69%) Oracle Reports
7 5 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.58%) SAP HANA
8 4 (0.46%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.46%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (0.35%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.35%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.23%) Power BI
10 2 (0.23%) Riak
11 1 (0.12%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 41 (4.75%) JIRA
2 19 (2.20%) Jenkins
3 14 (1.62%) LoadRunner
4 12 (1.39%) Git (software)
4 12 (1.39%) Sonatype Nexus
5 7 (0.81%) Team Foundation Server
6 5 (0.58%) VSS/SourceSafe
7 4 (0.46%) GitLab
7 4 (0.46%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.46%) Subversion
8 3 (0.35%) Hudson
9 2 (0.23%) Bitbucket Server
9 2 (0.23%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.23%) Rational Team Concert
10 1 (0.12%) Ant
10 1 (0.12%) MSI
10 1 (0.12%) TestDirector
10 1 (0.12%) Testinfra
10 1 (0.12%) TestRail
10 1 (0.12%) Travis CI
General
1 163 (18.87%) Social Skills
2 120 (13.89%) Telecoms
3 105 (12.15%) Finance
4 97 (11.23%) Public Sector
5 37 (4.28%) Analytical Skills
6 28 (3.24%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (2.78%) Banking
8 21 (2.43%) Presentation Skills
9 16 (1.85%) Organisational Skills
10 15 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
11 14 (1.62%) Back Office
12 9 (1.04%) Legal
12 9 (1.04%) Retail
13 8 (0.93%) Billing
13 8 (0.93%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.69%) Police
15 5 (0.58%) Electronics
15 5 (0.58%) Military
16 4 (0.46%) Financial Institution
16 4 (0.46%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 247 (28.59%) Network Engineer
2 185 (21.41%) Architect
3 69 (7.99%) Network Architect
4 66 (7.64%) Analyst
5 58 (6.71%) Project Manager
6 44 (5.09%) Support Engineer
7 43 (4.98%) Consultant
7 43 (4.98%) Solutions Architect
8 41 (4.75%) Cisco Engineer
9 40 (4.63%) Infrastructure Architect
10 39 (4.51%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 37 (4.28%) Senior Network Engineer
12 36 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 33 (3.82%) Infrastructure Manager
14 30 (3.47%) Infrastructure Project Manager
15 28 (3.24%) Network Consultant
16 27 (3.13%) Security Engineer
17 24 (2.78%) Network Support
18 21 (2.43%) Network Support Engineer
18 21 (2.43%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (2.89%) 802.1X
2 17 (1.97%) Middleware
3 10 (1.16%) JSON
4 9 (1.04%) WebSphere MQ
5 7 (0.81%) LDAP
6 6 (0.69%) Jinja
7 5 (0.58%) .NET
7 5 (0.58%) REST
7 5 (0.58%) SAP Basis
7 5 (0.58%) SOAP
7 5 (0.58%) Spine.js
7 5 (0.58%) Web Services
8 4 (0.46%) Node.js
8 4 (0.46%) SAML
8 4 (0.46%) XML
8 4 (0.46%) YAML
9 3 (0.35%) CGI
9 3 (0.35%) HTML
9 3 (0.35%) OAuth
9 3 (0.35%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 183 (21.18%) Data Centre
2 38 (4.40%) Self-Motivation
3 34 (3.94%) PKI
4 33 (3.82%) Video Conferencing
5 29 (3.36%) Public Cloud
6 24 (2.78%) Clustering
7 23 (2.66%) Management Information System
8 22 (2.55%) Hybrid Cloud
9 18 (2.08%) Driving Licence
10 16 (1.85%) NHS
10 16 (1.85%) Private Cloud
11 14 (1.62%) Greenfield Project
12 13 (1.50%) Virtual Team
13 12 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.39%) Tandem
14 10 (1.16%) User Experience
15 8 (0.93%) Fibre Optics
16 6 (0.69%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
16 6 (0.69%) Linux Command Line
16 6 (0.69%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 232 (26.85%) Windows
2 114 (13.19%) Linux
3 79 (9.14%) Windows Server
4 63 (7.29%) Windows 10
5 32 (3.70%) Unix
6 31 (3.59%) Windows Server 2016
7 26 (3.01%) Windows Server 2012
8 15 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 13 (1.50%) Windows 7
9 13 (1.50%) Windows Server 2019
10 10 (1.16%) Ubuntu
10 10 (1.16%) Windows Server 2003
11 9 (1.04%) Android
11 9 (1.04%) Windows Server 2008
12 8 (0.93%) Apple iOS
12 8 (0.93%) CentOS
12 8 (0.93%) Mac OS
13 7 (0.81%) Windows 8
14 6 (0.69%) AIX
14 6 (0.69%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 119 (13.77%) ITIL
2 102 (11.81%) Migration
3 82 (9.49%) Agile Software Development
4 81 (9.38%) Load Balancing
5 80 (9.26%) Network Design
6 72 (8.33%) Project Management
7 64 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 59 (6.83%) Disaster Recovery
9 52 (6.02%) DevOps
9 52 (6.02%) Network Architecture
10 45 (5.21%) Network Management
10 45 (5.21%) Problem-Solving
11 44 (5.09%) Stakeholder Management
12 42 (4.86%) Service Management
13 39 (4.51%) Kalman Filter
13 39 (4.51%) Project Delivery
14 36 (4.17%) Computer Science
15 35 (4.05%) Business Continuity
16 34 (3.94%) Change Management
17 31 (3.59%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 41 (4.75%) PowerShell
2 37 (4.28%) SQL
3 35 (4.05%) Python
4 13 (1.50%) Bash Shell
4 13 (1.50%) C
5 12 (1.39%) Java
6 11 (1.27%) C#
7 8 (0.93%) Perl
8 7 (0.81%) C++
8 7 (0.81%) Ruby
9 3 (0.35%) Ada
9 3 (0.35%) AWK
9 3 (0.35%) JavaScript
9 3 (0.35%) PHP
9 3 (0.35%) sed
10 2 (0.23%) Go
10 2 (0.23%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.12%) Rust
11 1 (0.12%) VB
11 1 (0.12%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 188 (21.76%) Cisco Certification
2 179 (20.72%) Security Cleared
3 125 (14.47%) SC Cleared
4 118 (13.66%) CCNP
5 99 (11.46%) CCNA
6 56 (6.48%) Degree
7 47 (5.44%) CCIE
8 36 (4.17%) Microsoft Certification
9 35 (4.05%) DV Cleared
10 23 (2.66%) CCDP
11 20 (2.31%) JNCIA
12 17 (1.97%) CISSP
13 16 (1.85%) TOGAF Certification
14 15 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
15 14 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
15 14 (1.62%) MCSA
16 13 (1.50%) CCSA
16 13 (1.50%) CCSE
17 12 (1.39%) MCSE
18 11 (1.27%) CCDA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (3.13%) SLA
2 16 (1.85%) QA
3 13 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (1.27%) PCI DSS
5 7 (0.81%) COBIT
5 7 (0.81%) GDPR
6 6 (0.69%) NIST
6 6 (0.69%) PMO
7 5 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
7 5 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 3 (0.35%) NCSC
9 2 (0.23%) HL7
9 2 (0.23%) ISO 22301
9 2 (0.23%) ISO 9000
9 2 (0.23%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.23%) SEPA
10 1 (0.12%) BS25999
10 1 (0.12%) HAZOP
10 1 (0.12%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 183 (21.18%) Active Directory
2 139 (16.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 60 (6.94%) Hyper-V
4 36 (4.17%) VMware ESXi
4 36 (4.17%) VMware NSX
5 32 (3.70%) vSphere
6 16 (1.85%) Virtual Machines
7 15 (1.74%) Docker
7 15 (1.74%) ProxySG
8 11 (1.27%) KVM
9 9 (1.04%) Virtual Desktop
10 8 (0.93%) NFS
11 7 (0.81%) XenApp
12 6 (0.69%) HDFS
12 6 (0.69%) Xen
13 5 (0.58%) SRDF
14 4 (0.46%) Oracle RAC
14 4 (0.46%) Snort
14 4 (0.46%) VMware Workstation
14 4 (0.46%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 57 (6.60%) Ansible
2 42 (4.86%) SCCM
3 30 (3.47%) Terraform
4 22 (2.55%) FortiGate
5 19 (2.20%) Kubernetes
5 19 (2.20%) Microsoft Intune
6 16 (1.85%) Cisco Prime
6 16 (1.85%) NetBackup
7 15 (1.74%) Cisco CUCM
8 11 (1.27%) Puppet
9 10 (1.16%) Packer
9 10 (1.16%) vCenter Server
10 9 (1.04%) Opscode Chef
10 9 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (0.93%) SCOM
12 7 (0.81%) Nessus
12 7 (0.81%) SolarWinds Orion
12 7 (0.81%) vRealize
12 7 (0.81%) vRealize Orchestrator
13 6 (0.69%) WSUS
Vendors
1 438 (50.69%) Cisco
2 198 (22.92%) VMware
3 195 (22.57%) Microsoft
4 126 (14.58%) CheckPoint
5 101 (11.69%) F5
6 84 (9.72%) Juniper
7 71 (8.22%) Citrix
8 70 (8.10%) Palo Alto
9 68 (7.87%) Fortinet
10 55 (6.37%) Meraki
11 54 (6.25%) SolarWinds
12 43 (4.98%) Aruba
13 38 (4.40%) Oracle
14 31 (3.59%) Dell
14 31 (3.59%) HP
14 31 (3.59%) Riverbed
15 30 (3.47%) Blue Coat
15 30 (3.47%) Red Hat
16 23 (2.66%) EMC
17 22 (2.55%) Zscaler
372 WAN job vacancies Nationwide