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 14 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 113 80
Rank change year-on-year +32 -33 +8
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,442 673 907
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.16% 2.44% 2.72%
As % of the General category 5.71% 3.79% 4.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 837 353 500
10th Percentile £319 £300 £300
25th Percentile £450 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £503
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +4.48% -5.19%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £743 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £513 £500
% change year-on-year +7.32% +2.50% -6.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 42 60
10th Percentile £12.76 - £12.15
25th Percentile £13.51 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £17.50 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +7.36% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £37.48 £24.84
UK median hourly rate £17.12 £16.30 £16.30
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -17.72%

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 25,244 17,764 19,195
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.36% 64.28% 57.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,039 11,302 12,323
10th Percentile £313 £277 £300
25th Percentile £419 £400 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £512 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.54% -4.83% -2.18%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £663
90th Percentile £750 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,001 964 1,232
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.25 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.87 £16.48 £18.03
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £62.00 £50.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £70.39
UK median hourly rate £31.53 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +25.36% -34.02% +38.62%

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 14 August 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 14 August 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 14 August 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 +50 827 £560 +1.82% 1,574
North of England -16 187 £550 +10.00% 501
South East +3 176 £525 -4.55% 424
Midlands +26 136 £550 +27.76% 322
North West +7 120 £550 +10.00% 287
East Midlands +14 76 £500 +17.86% 159
East of England +15 66 £550 +4.76% 137
West Midlands -12 59 £606 +38.57% 163
Yorkshire -36 53 £500 -9.09% 181
South West -42 39 £350 -1.48% 165
North East -35 14 £155 -64.89% 39
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 45 (3.12%) Confluence
2 18 (1.25%) CMS
3 12 (0.83%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 10 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.62%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.35%) SAS
7 4 (0.28%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.14%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.14%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.14%) CICS
9 1 (0.069%) Apache
9 1 (0.069%) Mendix
9 1 (0.069%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.069%) Mule
9 1 (0.069%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 54 (3.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 36 (2.50%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 15 (1.04%) Microsoft Project
6 9 (0.62%) Chatbot
6 9 (0.62%) Photoshop
7 8 (0.55%) Adobe Illustrator
8 7 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
9 6 (0.42%) InDesign
9 6 (0.42%) MS Visio
10 4 (0.28%) CPLEX
10 4 (0.28%) Notion
11 1 (0.069%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.069%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 39 (2.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.87%) Shopify
3 11 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.55%) Magento
4 8 (0.55%) Oracle Retail
5 6 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
5 6 (0.42%) SAP CRM
5 6 (0.42%) SAP Retail
6 5 (0.35%) NetSuite
6 5 (0.35%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.28%) Payment Gateway
7 4 (0.28%) SAP SD
8 3 (0.21%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.21%) SAP IBP
8 3 (0.21%) Workday HCM
9 2 (0.14%) Cognos Controller
9 2 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 181 (12.55%) Azure
2 139 (9.64%) AWS
3 71 (4.92%) Power Platform
4 66 (4.58%) GCP
5 49 (3.40%) Snowflake
6 43 (2.98%) GitHub
7 32 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
8 31 (2.15%) Entra ID
9 27 (1.87%) GitHub Actions
10 23 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (1.39%) Figma
12 18 (1.25%) SaaS
13 15 (1.04%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
14 14 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
14 14 (0.97%) Microsoft 365
15 11 (0.76%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 11 (0.76%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 11 (0.76%) Serverless
16 10 (0.69%) dbt
17 9 (0.62%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.39%) WAN
2 19 (1.32%) Firewall
3 16 (1.11%) VPN
3 16 (1.11%) Wireless
4 14 (0.97%) ATM
4 14 (0.97%) Network Security
5 12 (0.83%) LAN
6 11 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.55%) BGP
7 8 (0.55%) IPsec
7 8 (0.55%) OSPF
7 8 (0.55%) SD-WAN
8 7 (0.49%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (0.49%) VLAN
9 6 (0.42%) Cisco Firepower
9 6 (0.42%) VSAN
10 5 (0.35%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (0.35%) Cisco Nexus
10 5 (0.35%) RFID
10 5 (0.35%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (4.85%) Power BI
2 30 (2.08%) BigQuery
2 30 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
3 24 (1.66%) Data Lake
4 18 (1.25%) NoSQL
5 16 (1.11%) MongoDB
6 15 (1.04%) Metadata
7 14 (0.97%) MySQL
7 14 (0.97%) SQL Server
7 14 (0.97%) Tableau
8 12 (0.83%) Amazon Redshift
8 12 (0.83%) Power Query
8 12 (0.83%) Relational Database
9 11 (0.76%) PostgreSQL
10 10 (0.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 8 (0.55%) Couchbase
11 8 (0.55%) Redis
12 6 (0.42%) Looker
12 6 (0.42%) SAP HANA
12 6 (0.42%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 73 (5.06%) JIRA
2 25 (1.73%) Git
3 18 (1.25%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.55%) Subversion
5 7 (0.49%) Claude Code
6 4 (0.28%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.28%) GitLab
6 4 (0.28%) JMeter
7 3 (0.21%) Hudson
7 3 (0.21%) Maven
8 2 (0.14%) git-flow
8 2 (0.14%) MLflow
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.14%) Postman
8 2 (0.14%) Selenium
8 2 (0.14%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.14%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.14%) webpack
9 1 (0.069%) REST Assured
General
1 402 (27.88%) Social Skills
2 337 (23.37%) Finance
3 154 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
4 115 (7.98%) Banking
5 104 (7.21%) Marketing
6 94 (6.52%) Manufacturing
7 61 (4.23%) Organisational Skills
8 54 (3.74%) Retail Banking
9 41 (2.84%) Investment Banking
10 38 (2.64%) Corporate Banking
11 32 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
12 30 (2.08%) Telecoms
13 29 (2.01%) Legal
14 28 (1.94%) Advertising
15 25 (1.73%) Public Sector
16 21 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
16 21 (1.46%) Presentation Skills
17 19 (1.32%) French Language
18 18 (1.25%) Spanish Language
19 13 (0.90%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 242 (16.78%) Architect
2 200 (13.87%) Analyst
3 169 (11.72%) Senior
4 137 (9.50%) Solutions Architect
5 123 (8.53%) Project Manager
6 102 (7.07%) Business Analyst
7 99 (6.87%) Lead
8 75 (5.20%) Developer
9 48 (3.33%) Senior Manager
10 46 (3.19%) Product Manager
11 45 (3.12%) Designer
12 44 (3.05%) Consultant
13 36 (2.50%) Supply Chain Architect
14 34 (2.36%) Enterprise Architect
14 34 (2.36%) Programme Manager
14 34 (2.36%) Senior Developer
15 33 (2.29%) Technical Manager
16 31 (2.15%) Data Architect
17 27 (1.87%) Data Analyst
18 26 (1.80%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (4.23%) REST
2 37 (2.57%) React
3 29 (2.01%) Kafka
4 28 (1.94%) Middleware
4 28 (1.94%) Spring
5 23 (1.60%) Node.js
6 21 (1.46%) Spring Boot
6 21 (1.46%) VML
7 20 (1.39%) Django
8 19 (1.32%) MACH
9 18 (1.25%) RESTful
10 15 (1.04%) HTML
11 14 (0.97%) Next.js
11 14 (0.97%) OAuth
11 14 (0.97%) SOAP
12 13 (0.90%) CSS
13 12 (0.83%) Jakarta EE
14 10 (0.69%) .NET
15 9 (0.62%) OAuth2
16 8 (0.55%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 77 (5.34%) Product Ownership
2 66 (4.58%) FMCG
3 52 (3.61%) EPoS
3 52 (3.61%) Onboarding
4 44 (3.05%) Cloud Native
5 31 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
6 30 (2.08%) Data Centre
7 25 (1.73%) Mobile App
8 23 (1.60%) Driving Licence
9 22 (1.53%) Data Structures
9 22 (1.53%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (1.46%) Marketing Technology
10 21 (1.46%) Operational Technology
10 21 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
11 17 (1.18%) Smartphone
12 16 (1.11%) IoT
13 15 (1.04%) Management Information System
14 14 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
15 13 (0.90%) AI Agents
15 13 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 54 (3.74%) Windows
2 21 (1.46%) Linux
3 11 (0.76%) Android
4 10 (0.69%) Unix
5 8 (0.55%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.49%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.42%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.35%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.35%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.21%) zOS
10 2 (0.14%) Debian
11 1 (0.069%) SUSE
11 1 (0.069%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.069%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 371 (25.73%) Stakeholder Management
2 336 (23.30%) Agile
3 216 (14.98%) E-Commerce
4 187 (12.97%) Problem-Solving
5 180 (12.48%) Migration
6 170 (11.79%) Roadmaps
7 157 (10.89%) Analytics
8 154 (10.68%) AI
9 147 (10.19%) Logistics
10 128 (8.88%) Customer Experience
11 123 (8.53%) Decision-Making
12 121 (8.39%) Continuous Improvement
13 119 (8.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 113 (7.84%) CI/CD
15 112 (7.77%) Project Management
16 110 (7.63%) CRM
17 105 (7.28%) ERP
18 100 (6.93%) Business Intelligence
18 100 (6.93%) Project Delivery
19 99 (6.87%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 117 (8.11%) SQL
2 100 (6.93%) Python
3 51 (3.54%) Java
4 32 (2.22%) TypeScript
5 26 (1.80%) JavaScript
6 12 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.69%) C#
7 10 (0.69%) PowerShell
8 7 (0.49%) ABAP
8 7 (0.49%) Bash
8 7 (0.49%) R
9 6 (0.42%) Apex Code
9 6 (0.42%) Bicep
9 6 (0.42%) PL/SQL
9 6 (0.42%) Scala
9 6 (0.42%) SOQL
10 5 (0.35%) Groovy
11 4 (0.28%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.28%) SOSL
12 3 (0.21%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 62 (4.30%) Degree
2 41 (2.84%) Security Cleared
3 20 (1.39%) PMP
3 20 (1.39%) SC Cleared
4 11 (0.76%) DBS Check
5 10 (0.69%) PMI Certification
6 7 (0.49%) CISSP
6 7 (0.49%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (0.42%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (0.42%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (0.42%) CISM
7 6 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (0.35%) CCNP
8 5 (0.35%) CCSE
8 5 (0.35%) CCSM
8 5 (0.35%) CSPO
9 4 (0.28%) Azure Certification
9 4 (0.28%) City & Guilds
9 4 (0.28%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 3 (0.21%) APMG
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (4.65%) QA
2 56 (3.88%) Data Quality
3 38 (2.64%) GDPR
4 26 (1.80%) PMO
5 22 (1.53%) Accessibility
6 16 (1.11%) PCI DSS
7 12 (0.83%) SLA
8 8 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.49%) NIST
10 4 (0.28%) GRC
10 4 (0.28%) WCAG
11 3 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.21%) GAAP
11 3 (0.21%) IFRS
11 3 (0.21%) PSD2
12 2 (0.14%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.14%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.069%) COBIT
13 1 (0.069%) GxP
System Software
1 38 (2.64%) Docker
2 32 (2.22%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.35%) Firmware
6 5 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.21%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.069%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 50 (3.47%) Terraform
2 38 (2.64%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.69%) Ansible
4 9 (0.62%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
5 8 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (0.42%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.28%) SCCM
8 3 (0.21%) Bosun
9 2 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.14%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.14%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.14%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.14%) logstash
9 2 (0.14%) MOM
9 2 (0.14%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.14%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.069%) CloudHub
10 1 (0.069%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.069%) vMotion
Vendors
1 127 (8.81%) Microsoft
2 103 (7.14%) SAP
3 71 (4.92%) Databricks
4 70 (4.85%) Oracle
5 63 (4.37%) Salesforce
6 45 (3.12%) Google
7 38 (2.64%) Adobe
8 24 (1.66%) Zscaler
9 17 (1.18%) ServiceNow
9 17 (1.18%) Workday
10 16 (1.11%) Cisco
11 15 (1.04%) MuleSoft
12 14 (0.97%) IFS
13 13 (0.90%) Fortinet
13 13 (0.90%) Palo Alto
13 13 (0.90%) VMware
14 11 (0.76%) Apple
14 11 (0.76%) Braze
15 10 (0.69%) IBM
15 10 (0.69%) New Relic