Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for MPLS skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited MPLS over the 6 months to 5 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
5 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 290 492 501
Rank change year-on-year +202 +9 -29
Contract jobs citing MPLS 347 229 403
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.80% 0.39% 0.45%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.28% 3.13% 4.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 178 128 251
10th Percentile £296 £313 £313
25th Percentile £335 £370 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £411 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -13.42% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £588 £599 £563
90th Percentile £675 £679 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £425 £425
% change year-on-year -11.76% - -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 11 6
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £21.00
25th Percentile £23.48 £34.93 £22.13
Median hourly rate £32.50 £62.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.58% +138.46% +33.33%
75th Percentile £40.00 £66.62 £28.19
90th Percentile £64.75 £70.00 £29.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £62.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year -35.48% +181.82% +12.82%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

MPLS 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,525 7,311 9,672
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.80% 12.38% 10.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,306 4,755 6,321
10th Percentile £205 £240 £230
25th Percentile £350 £400 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £520 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.81% +4.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £610
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £440
% change year-on-year - +7.95% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 420 473 363
10th Percentile £13.50 £9.80 £14.89
25th Percentile £16.72 £10.63 £17.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £18.82 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +112.54% -31.56% +3.77%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £65.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.88 £18.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year +148.00% -13.95% -9.71%

MPLS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing MPLS over the 6 months to 5 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for MPLS in the UK

MPLS
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MPLS within the UK over the 6 months to 5 May 2024. 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 +198 329 £400 -16.67% 103
UK excluding London +130 210 £375 -11.76% 62
London +158 119 £538 -2.27% 39
Midlands +104 115 £375 +15.38% 18
West Midlands +88 112 £363 +11.54% 11
South East +51 70 £375 -11.76% 18
Work from Home +87 53 £375 -22.68% 91
South West +16 13 £650 - 6
North of England +12 7 £345 -8.00% 13
North West +12 5 £602 +60.53% 5
Scotland +44 4 £475 -5.00%
East Midlands - 3 £575 - 7
North East - 2 £345 - 1
Wales +15 1 - - 3
East of England +10 1 - - 5

MPLS
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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:

Application Platforms
1 19 (5.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 13 (3.75%) Apache
2 13 (3.75%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.58%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.29%) WebSphere
Applications
1 6 (1.73%) MS Visio
2 5 (1.44%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.29%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 50 (14.41%) Azure
2 31 (8.93%) AWS
3 16 (4.61%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (3.75%) GCP
5 10 (2.88%) Entra ID
5 10 (2.88%) IaaS
6 6 (1.73%) Mimecast
7 5 (1.44%) Cloudflare
7 5 (1.44%) OCI
8 4 (1.15%) SaaS
9 2 (0.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 1 (0.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (0.29%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 240 (69.16%) BGP
2 199 (57.35%) WAN
3 130 (37.46%) VPN
4 128 (36.89%) IPsec
5 108 (31.12%) Firewall
6 65 (18.73%) LAN
7 63 (18.16%) OSPF
8 56 (16.14%) Junos
9 51 (14.70%) DNS
10 43 (12.39%) SD-WAN
11 38 (10.95%) Ethernet VPN
12 37 (10.66%) Cisco Nexus
13 35 (10.09%) SNMP
13 35 (10.09%) SSL
14 33 (9.51%) HSRP
15 32 (9.22%) Cisco ASA
15 32 (9.22%) DHCP
16 31 (8.93%) Internet
16 31 (8.93%) Network Security
17 30 (8.65%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (3.46%) MongoDB
1 12 (3.46%) NoSQL
1 12 (3.46%) PostgreSQL
2 8 (2.31%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 22 (6.34%) Git
2 18 (5.19%) JIRA
3 13 (3.75%) GitLab
3 13 (3.75%) Robot Framework
3 13 (3.75%) TestRail
4 6 (1.73%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.29%) Hudson
General
1 62 (17.87%) Finance
2 58 (16.71%) Social Skills
3 38 (10.95%) Telecoms
4 26 (7.49%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.63%) Public Sector
6 10 (2.88%) Aerospace
7 9 (2.59%) Financial Institution
8 5 (1.44%) Aviation
8 5 (1.44%) Banking
9 4 (1.15%) French Language
9 4 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.58%) Advertising
10 2 (0.58%) Legal
11 1 (0.29%) Billing
11 1 (0.29%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.29%) Local Government
11 1 (0.29%) Publishing
11 1 (0.29%) Retail
Job Titles
1 156 (44.96%) Network Engineer
2 63 (18.16%) Architect
3 51 (14.70%) Network Architect
4 44 (12.68%) WAN Engineer
5 36 (10.37%) Network Support
6 33 (9.51%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 29 (8.36%) Senior
8 26 (7.49%) 3rd Line Support
9 19 (5.48%) Design Engineer
9 19 (5.48%) Network Design Engineer
9 19 (5.48%) Support Engineer
10 17 (4.90%) IP Expert
11 16 (4.61%) 2nd Line Support
12 15 (4.32%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
12 15 (4.32%) Test Engineer
13 14 (4.03%) 2nd Line Engineer
14 13 (3.75%) Cisco Engineer
14 13 (3.75%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 13 (3.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 13 (3.75%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (14.41%) NETCONF
2 49 (14.12%) YANG
3 37 (10.66%) JSON
3 37 (10.66%) XML
4 20 (5.76%) Jinja
5 13 (3.75%) REST
5 13 (3.75%) RESTCONF
5 13 (3.75%) SOAP
6 9 (2.59%) Web Services
7 5 (1.44%) 802.1X
8 3 (0.86%) RESTful
8 3 (0.86%) SAML
9 2 (0.58%) LDAP
10 1 (0.29%) .NET
10 1 (0.29%) IBM Integration Bus
10 1 (0.29%) WebSphere MQ
Miscellaneous
1 74 (21.33%) PKI
2 55 (15.85%) Data Centre
3 25 (7.20%) Distributed Architecture
4 11 (3.17%) Clustering
5 8 (2.31%) Client/Server
5 8 (2.31%) Public Cloud
5 8 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (1.73%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (0.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (0.86%) Management Information System
8 3 (0.86%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (0.58%) CMDB
9 2 (0.58%) IoT
9 2 (0.58%) IPTV
9 2 (0.58%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.29%) BYOD
10 1 (0.29%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.29%) IVR
10 1 (0.29%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 28 (8.07%) Windows
2 15 (4.32%) Windows Server
3 14 (4.03%) Unix
4 6 (1.73%) Linux
5 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (23.05%) Network Design
2 66 (19.02%) Load Balancing
3 38 (10.95%) Migration
4 36 (10.37%) DevOps
4 36 (10.37%) Network Management
5 32 (9.22%) Network Architecture
6 30 (8.65%) Customer Requirements
7 29 (8.36%) Technical Leadership
8 22 (6.34%) Project Delivery
9 21 (6.05%) Agile
10 20 (5.76%) Roadmaps
11 18 (5.19%) Problem-Solving
12 17 (4.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 17 (4.90%) Integration Testing
12 17 (4.90%) Network Monitoring
12 17 (4.90%) Test Planning
12 17 (4.90%) Workflow
13 16 (4.61%) ITIL
13 16 (4.61%) Scrum
13 16 (4.61%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 46 (13.26%) Python
2 16 (4.61%) SQL
3 8 (2.31%) PowerShell
4 3 (0.86%) Perl
5 1 (0.29%) C
5 1 (0.29%) C++
5 1 (0.29%) Java
Qualifications
1 126 (36.31%) Security Cleared
2 93 (26.80%) Cisco Certification
3 66 (19.02%) CCNP
4 59 (17.00%) SC Cleared
5 38 (10.95%) CCIE
6 31 (8.93%) CCNA
7 21 (6.05%) Degree
8 11 (3.17%) JNCIS
9 10 (2.88%) CCIE Service Provider
9 10 (2.88%) DV Cleared
10 9 (2.59%) CCIE Data Center
11 8 (2.31%) BC Cleared
11 8 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
11 8 (2.31%) JNCIA
12 6 (1.73%) AWS Certification
12 6 (1.73%) CCDP
13 5 (1.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 5 (1.44%) Azure Certification
13 5 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (1.15%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.75%) SLA
2 9 (2.59%) QA
3 3 (0.86%) HIPAA
3 3 (0.86%) NCSC
3 3 (0.86%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 27 (7.78%) Active Directory
2 20 (5.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (3.46%) Docker
4 9 (2.59%) Firmware
5 8 (2.31%) Virtual Servers
5 8 (2.31%) VMware Workstation
6 7 (2.02%) VMware NSX
7 5 (1.44%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.29%) Terminal Server
9 1 (0.29%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 25 (7.20%) Endace
2 18 (5.19%) Ansible
3 13 (3.75%) SCCM
4 10 (2.88%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (2.59%) FortiGate
5 9 (2.59%) Terraform
6 8 (2.31%) Microsoft Clustering
6 8 (2.31%) Nagios
6 8 (2.31%) NetBackup
7 7 (2.02%) SolarWinds Orion
8 3 (0.86%) Kibana
8 3 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.58%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.58%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.58%) Kubernetes
10 1 (0.29%) Netcool
Vendors
1 162 (46.69%) Cisco
2 154 (44.38%) Juniper
3 69 (19.88%) F5
4 44 (12.68%) Nokia
5 38 (10.95%) Palo Alto
6 35 (10.09%) Fortinet
7 29 (8.36%) Microsoft
7 29 (8.36%) VMware
8 25 (7.20%) CheckPoint
9 20 (5.76%) Infoblox
10 16 (4.61%) Zscaler
11 12 (3.46%) SolarWinds
12 11 (3.17%) Citrix
13 9 (2.59%) Meraki
14 8 (2.31%) Arista
14 8 (2.31%) Aruba
14 8 (2.31%) Hitachi
14 8 (2.31%) NetApp
15 7 (2.02%) Google
15 7 (2.02%) Okta