Retail Contract Job Trends in England

Retailing
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Retail in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Retail over the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 92 76
Rank change year-on-year -12 -16 +10
Contract jobs citing Retail 923 665 991
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.27% 2.74% 2.70%
As % of the General category 4.18% 4.26% 4.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 546 355 548
10th Percentile £210 £316 £287
25th Percentile £400 £413 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £518
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +1.45% -1.43%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £756 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £505
% change year-on-year -4.76% +3.96% -4.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 17 86
10th Percentile £13.14 £15.25 £11.44
25th Percentile £15.87 £16.30 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £29.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.59% +81.25% -19.23%
75th Percentile £27.50 £51.25 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £60.15 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £31.50 £16.00
% change year-on-year -33.33% +96.88% -19.23%

All General Skills
England

Retail 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 in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 22,074 15,601 21,399
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 54.38% 64.17% 58.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,667 10,126 13,790
10th Percentile £306 £300 £280
25th Percentile £410 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,465 667 1,786
10th Percentile £14.23 £14.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.27 £16.98 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.58 £27.50 £30.75
Median % change year-on-year +11.20% -10.57% -5.38%
75th Percentile £63.75 £56.58 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.50
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.16
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.82% -11.29%

Retail
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Retail relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Retail job vacancy trend in England

Retail
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Retail.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Retail

Retail
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Retail in England over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Retail in England

Retail
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Retail.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Retail

Retail
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Retail in England over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Retail in England

Retail
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Retail within the England region over the 6 months to 12 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
London -18 502 £525 -4.55% 383
North of England -33 127 £510 +13.33% 246
South East -14 118 £425 -15.00% 264
Midlands -23 85 £495 -1.00% 156
North West -3 76 £518 +3.50% 145
East of England -5 50 £480 -8.67% 111
East Midlands -5 48 £495 -1.00% 81
Yorkshire -48 47 £513 +38.51% 85
West Midlands -55 37 £500 +5.26% 75
South West -19 28 £333 -33.50% 73
North East -17 4 £200 -73.33% 20
Retail
UK

Retail
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 34 (3.68%) Confluence
2 16 (1.73%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 7 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (0.76%) CMS
5 4 (0.43%) SAS
6 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.22%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.11%) CICS
8 1 (0.11%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.11%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 34 (3.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (2.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (2.06%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
5 13 (1.41%) Chatbot
6 11 (1.19%) MS Visio
7 8 (0.87%) Photoshop
8 6 (0.65%) Adobe Illustrator
9 3 (0.33%) InDesign
10 2 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 2 (0.22%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.11%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.11%) Adobe After Effects
11 1 (0.11%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.11%) Maya
11 1 (0.11%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
11 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 21 (2.28%) Shopify
2 16 (1.73%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.76%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 7 (0.76%) Oracle Retail
4 7 (0.76%) SAP Retail
5 6 (0.65%) Finacle
6 4 (0.43%) Magento
6 4 (0.43%) SAP CRM
6 4 (0.43%) SAP MDG
6 4 (0.43%) Temenos T24
7 2 (0.22%) BambooHR
7 2 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
7 2 (0.22%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.22%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.22%) SAP MM
7 2 (0.22%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 89 (9.64%) Azure
2 67 (7.26%) AWS
3 53 (5.74%) GCP
4 50 (5.42%) Power Platform
5 25 (2.71%) Snowflake
6 21 (2.28%) Dynamics 365
7 20 (2.17%) GitHub
8 17 (1.84%) Microsoft 365
9 15 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
10 14 (1.52%) BigCommerce
10 14 (1.52%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 13 (1.41%) Figma
12 12 (1.30%) Entra ID
12 12 (1.30%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (1.08%) Google Workspace
13 10 (1.08%) Miro
13 10 (1.08%) SaaS
14 9 (0.98%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (0.98%) Cloud Run
15 8 (0.87%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.73%) RFID
1 16 (1.73%) VPN
2 15 (1.63%) Firewall
2 15 (1.63%) Wireless
3 14 (1.52%) WAN
4 8 (0.87%) ATM
4 8 (0.87%) NFC
5 7 (0.76%) Cisco Nexus
5 7 (0.76%) LAN
5 7 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (0.65%) BGP
6 6 (0.65%) OSPF
7 5 (0.54%) Network Security
8 4 (0.43%) Cisco Firepower
8 4 (0.43%) EIGRP
8 4 (0.43%) VoIP
9 3 (0.33%) MPLS
9 3 (0.33%) SD-WAN
9 3 (0.33%) VSAN
9 3 (0.33%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (4.98%) Power BI
2 27 (2.93%) BigQuery
3 16 (1.73%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.41%) MySQL
5 12 (1.30%) SQL Server
6 10 (1.08%) Tableau
7 9 (0.98%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.98%) Metadata
8 6 (0.65%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.54%) Data Vault
10 4 (0.43%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.43%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.43%) Semantic Layer
11 3 (0.33%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.33%) Big Data
11 3 (0.33%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.33%) OLAP
11 3 (0.33%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.33%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 72 (7.80%) JIRA
2 13 (1.41%) Git
3 11 (1.19%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.87%) GitLab
5 4 (0.43%) Maven
6 3 (0.33%) ERwin
6 3 (0.33%) Subversion
7 2 (0.22%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.22%) MLflow
7 2 (0.22%) Selenium
7 2 (0.22%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.22%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.11%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.11%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.11%) Gatling
8 1 (0.11%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.11%) Hudson
8 1 (0.11%) Mockito
8 1 (0.11%) webpack
8 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 274 (29.69%) Social Skills
2 237 (25.68%) Finance
3 95 (10.29%) Analytical Skills
4 82 (8.88%) Banking
5 57 (6.18%) Marketing
6 45 (4.88%) Organisational Skills
7 39 (4.23%) Manufacturing
8 35 (3.79%) Retail Banking
9 33 (3.58%) Investment Banking
10 31 (3.36%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (2.93%) Presentation Skills
12 25 (2.71%) Documentation Skills
13 24 (2.60%) Public Sector
14 23 (2.49%) Telecoms
15 22 (2.38%) Influencing Skills
16 16 (1.73%) Legal
17 15 (1.63%) Back Office
18 13 (1.41%) Advertising
19 9 (0.98%) French Language
20 8 (0.87%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 137 (14.84%) Analyst
2 136 (14.73%) Architect
3 118 (12.78%) Senior
4 103 (11.16%) Project Manager
5 83 (8.99%) Business Analyst
6 70 (7.58%) Lead
7 54 (5.85%) Senior Manager
8 47 (5.09%) Solutions Architect
9 36 (3.90%) Technical Manager
10 32 (3.47%) Consultant
10 32 (3.47%) Designer
11 29 (3.14%) Enterprise Architect
11 29 (3.14%) Senior Project Manager
12 26 (2.82%) Data Architect
13 24 (2.60%) Developer
14 23 (2.49%) Product Manager
15 22 (2.38%) Programme Manager
16 18 (1.95%) Data Engineer
17 17 (1.84%) Service Manager
18 16 (1.73%) E-Commerce Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.36%) VML
2 25 (2.71%) Middleware
3 21 (2.28%) REST
4 20 (2.17%) React
5 17 (1.84%) Spring
6 15 (1.63%) Node.js
7 12 (1.30%) AngularJS
8 11 (1.19%) Spring Boot
9 9 (0.98%) CSS
10 8 (0.87%) PySpark
11 7 (0.76%) Kafka
11 7 (0.76%) LangChain
12 6 (0.65%) GraphQL
12 6 (0.65%) HTML
12 6 (0.65%) jQuery
12 6 (0.65%) OpenTelemetry
13 5 (0.54%) MACH
13 5 (0.54%) PyTorch
13 5 (0.54%) SAML
13 5 (0.54%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 66 (7.15%) Product Ownership
2 28 (3.03%) Cloud Native
2 28 (3.03%) Driving Licence
2 28 (3.03%) EPoS
3 24 (2.60%) Data Centre
4 23 (2.49%) Onboarding
5 20 (2.17%) FMCG
6 19 (2.06%) Data Structures
6 19 (2.06%) Management Information System
6 19 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
7 14 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (1.52%) Mainframe
7 14 (1.52%) Mobile App
8 10 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
8 10 (1.08%) IoT
8 10 (1.08%) Virtual Team
9 9 (0.98%) AI Agents
10 7 (0.76%) Enterprise Cloud
10 7 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (0.76%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 40 (4.33%) Windows
2 19 (2.06%) Linux
3 7 (0.76%) Android
3 7 (0.76%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.54%) Unix
4 5 (0.54%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.43%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.43%) zOS
6 2 (0.22%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.11%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 205 (22.21%) Stakeholder Management
2 202 (21.89%) Agile
3 169 (18.31%) Problem-Solving
4 138 (14.95%) E-Commerce
5 116 (12.57%) Migration
6 108 (11.70%) Roadmaps
7 102 (11.05%) Project Management
8 96 (10.40%) Analytics
9 88 (9.53%) Customer Experience
10 80 (8.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 77 (8.34%) ERP
12 73 (7.91%) Continuous Improvement
13 69 (7.48%) AI
14 68 (7.37%) Scrum
15 67 (7.26%) Project Delivery
16 66 (7.15%) Change Management
16 66 (7.15%) Workshop Facilitation
17 64 (6.93%) Decision-Making
18 62 (6.72%) Business Intelligence
18 62 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 56 (6.07%) SQL
2 50 (5.42%) Python
3 27 (2.93%) Java
4 21 (2.28%) JavaScript
5 11 (1.19%) PowerShell
6 10 (1.08%) Shell Script
6 10 (1.08%) TypeScript
7 6 (0.65%) Bash
8 5 (0.54%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.43%) Scala
9 4 (0.43%) VBA
10 3 (0.33%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.33%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.33%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.33%) SOQL
10 3 (0.33%) SOSL
11 2 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.22%) Google Apps Script
11 2 (0.22%) Korn
11 2 (0.22%) R
Qualifications
1 47 (5.09%) Degree
2 38 (4.12%) Security Cleared
3 25 (2.71%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.95%) PMP
5 13 (1.41%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.98%) CSPO
7 7 (0.76%) APMP
7 7 (0.76%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.76%) CCNP
7 7 (0.76%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (0.76%) DBS Check
7 7 (0.76%) Master's Degree
8 6 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.54%) CISSP
9 5 (0.54%) MBA
10 4 (0.43%) CCIE
10 4 (0.43%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.33%) CCSE
11 3 (0.33%) CISM
11 3 (0.33%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (4.23%) QA
2 37 (4.01%) Data Quality
3 35 (3.79%) GDPR
4 31 (3.36%) PMO
5 15 (1.63%) SLA
6 14 (1.52%) Accessibility
7 10 (1.08%) PCI DSS
8 9 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.54%) NIST
10 4 (0.43%) IFRS
11 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.22%) GRC
12 2 (0.22%) WCAG
13 1 (0.11%) COBIT
13 1 (0.11%) GAAP
13 1 (0.11%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.11%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.11%) NCSC
System Software
1 19 (2.06%) Active Directory
2 17 (1.84%) Docker
3 5 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (0.54%) VMware NSX
4 3 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.11%) RACF
6 1 (0.11%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 20 (2.17%) Terraform
2 13 (1.41%) Kubernetes
3 9 (0.98%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.76%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.65%) Argo
5 6 (0.65%) Istio
6 5 (0.54%) SCCM
7 4 (0.43%) Grafana
8 2 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.22%) Ansible
8 2 (0.22%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.22%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.22%) MOM
8 2 (0.22%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.11%) Control-M
9 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.11%) zSecure
Vendors
1 76 (8.23%) Microsoft
2 68 (7.37%) SAP
3 57 (6.18%) Oracle
4 49 (5.31%) Salesforce
5 44 (4.77%) Google
6 38 (4.12%) Databricks
7 25 (2.71%) Adobe
8 16 (1.73%) ServiceNow
8 16 (1.73%) Sitecore
9 14 (1.52%) IFS
10 12 (1.30%) Cisco
11 11 (1.19%) VMware
12 10 (1.08%) Palo Alto
13 8 (0.87%) CheckPoint
13 8 (0.87%) Temenos
13 8 (0.87%) Zscaler
14 7 (0.76%) Fortinet
14 7 (0.76%) Workday
15 6 (0.65%) Apple
15 6 (0.65%) GoldenSource