MPLS Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring MPLS skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 27 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 99 91 63
Rank change year-on-year -8 -28 +94
Contract jobs citing MPLS 26 24 59
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the West Midlands 1.41% 1.26% 2.85%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.09% 9.38% 13.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 8 9
10th Percentile £267 £339 -
25th Percentile £313 £391 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £463 £300
Median % change year-on-year -8.11% +54.17% -21.31%
75th Percentile £475 £569 £400
90th Percentile £548 £775 £456
England median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £12.50
Median hourly rate - - £13.00
75th Percentile - - £13.50
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £38.75 £23.29 £65.98
% change year-on-year +66.38% -64.70% +47.89%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
West Midlands

MPLS 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 in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 286 256 431
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 15.51% 13.46% 20.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 165 147 228
10th Percentile £243 £175 £200
25th Percentile £331 £300 £309
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +17.65% -1.16%
75th Percentile £556 £629 £578
90th Percentile £645 £695 £733
England median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -0.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 20
10th Percentile £16.81 £24.00 £18.20
25th Percentile £22.63 £28.13 £23.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +27.27% +46.67%
75th Percentile £35.63 £47.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £43.63 £55.00 £67.63
England median hourly rate £39.66 £57.35 £56.49
% change year-on-year -30.85% +1.52% +37.68%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Job postings citing MPLS as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the West Midlands

MPLS
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MPLS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MPLS

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 27 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the West Midlands

MPLS
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MPLS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing MPLS

MPLS
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 27 September 2025. 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
Birmingham +17 18 £413 - 9
Warwickshire -11 3 £450 -28.00% 2
Solihull -14 2 £363 +9.02%
Coventry - 2 - - 2
MPLS
England

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the West Midlands by Category

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

Cloud Services
1 1 (3.85%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 21 (80.77%) WAN
2 18 (69.23%) BGP
3 16 (61.54%) IPsec
3 16 (61.54%) VPN
4 6 (23.08%) Junos
5 5 (19.23%) LAN
6 3 (11.54%) Cisco Nexus
6 3 (11.54%) Ethernet
6 3 (11.54%) Firewall
6 3 (11.54%) SDH
6 3 (11.54%) SD-WAN
6 3 (11.54%) VoIP
7 2 (7.69%) Cisco Firepower
7 2 (7.69%) TCP/IP
7 2 (7.69%) Unified Communications
7 2 (7.69%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (7.69%) Wireless
8 1 (3.85%) Cisco ISE
8 1 (3.85%) EIGRP
8 1 (3.85%) OSPF
General
1 7 (26.92%) Public Sector
2 3 (11.54%) Social Skills
3 2 (7.69%) Legal
3 2 (7.69%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 14 (53.85%) Support Engineer
2 12 (46.15%) Network Engineer
3 10 (38.46%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 9 (34.62%) 3rd Line Support
4 9 (34.62%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
5 6 (23.08%) 2nd Line Engineer
5 6 (23.08%) Network Support
5 6 (23.08%) Network Support Engineer
5 6 (23.08%) WAN Engineer
6 5 (19.23%) 2nd Line Support
6 5 (19.23%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
7 4 (15.38%) 2nd Line Network Engineer
8 3 (11.54%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
8 3 (11.54%) Architect
8 3 (11.54%) Network Architect
9 2 (7.69%) Lead
9 2 (7.69%) Senior
9 2 (7.69%) Senior Network Engineer
10 1 (3.85%) 1st/2nd Line Support
10 1 (3.85%) 1st/2nd Line Support Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 16 (61.54%) PKI
2 4 (15.38%) Data Centre
2 4 (15.38%) Self-Motivation
3 3 (11.54%) SCADA
4 2 (7.69%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (7.69%) Legacy Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (57.69%) Load Balancing
2 10 (38.46%) Network Design
3 4 (15.38%) Data Protection
3 4 (15.38%) Network Monitoring
3 4 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (11.54%) Disaster Recovery
4 3 (11.54%) ITIL
4 3 (11.54%) Project Delivery
4 3 (11.54%) Root Cause Analysis
5 2 (7.69%) Knowledge Transfer
5 2 (7.69%) Migration
5 2 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
6 1 (3.85%) Mentoring
6 1 (3.85%) Roadmaps
6 1 (3.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
Qualifications
1 22 (84.62%) Security Cleared
2 19 (73.08%) SC Cleared
3 6 (23.08%) Cisco Certification
4 4 (15.38%) CCNP
5 3 (11.54%) CCIE
5 3 (11.54%) CCNA
5 3 (11.54%) Degree
Systems Management
1 2 (7.69%) Cisco CUCM
Vendors
1 17 (65.38%) Juniper
2 10 (38.46%) Cisco
3 3 (11.54%) Meraki
4 2 (7.69%) Fortinet
5 1 (3.85%) BT
5 1 (3.85%) CenturyLink
5 1 (3.85%) CheckPoint
5 1 (3.85%) F5
5 1 (3.85%) Fujitsu
5 1 (3.85%) Palo Alto