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 29 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 104 79
Rank change year-on-year +13 -25 +7
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,196 653 1,015
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.74% 2.56% 2.72%
As % of the General category 5.00% 4.00% 4.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 715 336 559
10th Percentile £302 £317 £277
25th Percentile £413 £413 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% - -
75th Percentile £663 £636 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £728
UK median daily rate £525 £513 £520
% change year-on-year +2.44% -1.44% -1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 32 84
10th Percentile £12.98 £14.58 £11.83
25th Percentile £15.25 £15.25 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.83% +1.88% -19.23%
75th Percentile £22.50 £29.94 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £55.10 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.00
% change year-on-year +28.83% +1.88% -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 23,925 16,328 21,412
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 54.88% 64.11% 57.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,509 10,492 13,660
10th Percentile £313 £282 £291
25th Percentile £413 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £535
Median % change year-on-year +1.01% -2.85% -2.73%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £750 £763 £775
UK median daily rate £518 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.50% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,714 803 1,802
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.27 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.75 £16.50 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.50 £27.76 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +17.07% -15.61% +9.65%
75th Percentile £63.75 £52.08 £54.89
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £68.75
UK median hourly rate £32.00 £27.50 £31.76
% change year-on-year +16.36% -13.40% +3.98%

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 29 June 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 29 June 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 29 June 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 +19 694 £550 - 371
South East +8 157 £550 - 270
North of England -31 139 £550 +8.64% 183
Midlands -12 99 £500 +8.11% 180
North West -1 91 £575 +15.00% 104
East of England +12 58 £550 +4.76% 102
East Midlands +6 56 £495 +7.03% 103
Yorkshire -48 45 £506 -3.57% 63
West Midlands -32 43 £514 +12.75% 77
South West -29 35 £325 -19.38% 65
North East -36 3 £173 -76.98% 22
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 37 (3.09%) Confluence
2 19 (1.59%) CMS
3 15 (1.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 11 (0.92%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.59%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.33%) SAS
6 4 (0.33%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.17%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.17%) CICS
8 1 (0.084%) Apache
8 1 (0.084%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 31 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (2.09%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.34%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (1.09%) Chatbot
6 10 (0.84%) Photoshop
7 9 (0.75%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.75%) Adobe Illustrator
7 9 (0.75%) MS Visio
8 6 (0.50%) InDesign
9 3 (0.25%) Notion
9 3 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.17%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.084%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.084%) CPLEX
11 1 (0.084%) Maya
11 1 (0.084%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.084%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 26 (2.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (2.01%) Shopify
3 11 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.92%) Oracle Retail
4 8 (0.67%) SAP Retail
5 6 (0.50%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 6 (0.50%) SAP CRM
6 5 (0.42%) Finacle
6 5 (0.42%) Magento
7 4 (0.33%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
7 4 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
7 4 (0.33%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.25%) SAP CAR
8 3 (0.25%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.25%) SAP SD
9 2 (0.17%) Cognos Controller
9 2 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
9 2 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.17%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 149 (12.46%) Azure
2 118 (9.87%) AWS
3 70 (5.85%) GCP
4 63 (5.27%) Power Platform
5 44 (3.68%) Snowflake
6 26 (2.17%) GitHub
7 22 (1.84%) Dynamics 365
8 21 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (1.51%) Entra ID
10 17 (1.42%) Figma
10 17 (1.42%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (1.25%) SaaS
12 14 (1.17%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 12 (1.00%) dbt
14 11 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
14 11 (0.92%) Google Workspace
15 10 (0.84%) BigCommerce
15 10 (0.84%) Microsoft 365
15 10 (0.84%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 9 (0.75%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.09%) ATM
1 13 (1.09%) Firewall
1 13 (1.09%) WAN
2 12 (1.00%) Network Security
3 11 (0.92%) VPN
3 11 (0.92%) Wireless
4 9 (0.75%) RFID
5 8 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (0.59%) LAN
7 6 (0.50%) Cisco Firepower
7 6 (0.50%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.42%) BGP
8 5 (0.42%) Cisco ASA
8 5 (0.42%) Cisco Nexus
8 5 (0.42%) IPsec
8 5 (0.42%) OSPF
8 5 (0.42%) VSAN
9 4 (0.33%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 4 (0.33%) Internet
9 4 (0.33%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (5.10%) Power BI
2 28 (2.34%) BigQuery
3 23 (1.92%) Data Warehouse
4 21 (1.76%) MySQL
5 19 (1.59%) Tableau
6 17 (1.42%) Data Lake
6 17 (1.42%) Metadata
7 15 (1.25%) SQL Server
8 14 (1.17%) NoSQL
9 12 (1.00%) Relational Database
10 7 (0.59%) Amazon Redshift
10 7 (0.59%) Data Vault
10 7 (0.59%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
10 7 (0.59%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 6 (0.50%) Looker
11 6 (0.50%) Semantic Layer
12 5 (0.42%) Couchbase
12 5 (0.42%) Power Query
13 4 (0.33%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 75 (6.27%) JIRA
2 19 (1.59%) Git
3 13 (1.09%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.42%) Subversion
5 4 (0.33%) Eclipse
5 4 (0.33%) Maven
6 3 (0.25%) Cypress.io
6 3 (0.25%) ERwin
6 3 (0.25%) GitLab
6 3 (0.25%) Selenium
6 3 (0.25%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.17%) git-flow
7 2 (0.17%) Hudson
7 2 (0.17%) JMeter
7 2 (0.17%) MLflow
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
7 2 (0.17%) Postman
7 2 (0.17%) WebDriver
7 2 (0.17%) webpack
8 1 (0.084%) MSI
General
1 347 (29.01%) Social Skills
2 278 (23.24%) Finance
3 112 (9.36%) Analytical Skills
4 104 (8.70%) Banking
5 77 (6.44%) Marketing
6 72 (6.02%) Manufacturing
7 56 (4.68%) Organisational Skills
8 48 (4.01%) Retail Banking
9 39 (3.26%) Investment Banking
10 36 (3.01%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (2.26%) Telecoms
12 25 (2.09%) Documentation Skills
13 23 (1.92%) Public Sector
14 22 (1.84%) Influencing Skills
15 21 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
16 19 (1.59%) French Language
16 19 (1.59%) Legal
17 18 (1.51%) Spanish Language
18 17 (1.42%) Advertising
19 13 (1.09%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 205 (17.14%) Architect
2 162 (13.55%) Analyst
3 147 (12.29%) Senior
4 114 (9.53%) Project Manager
5 102 (8.53%) Solutions Architect
6 88 (7.36%) Lead
7 87 (7.27%) Business Analyst
8 62 (5.18%) Senior Manager
9 46 (3.85%) Developer
10 44 (3.68%) Designer
11 39 (3.26%) Technical Manager
12 37 (3.09%) Senior Project Manager
13 36 (3.01%) Enterprise Architect
14 35 (2.93%) Consultant
14 35 (2.93%) Product Manager
15 29 (2.42%) 2nd Line Support
16 27 (2.26%) Data Architect
16 27 (2.26%) Data Engineer
17 26 (2.17%) Programme Manager
18 23 (1.92%) Supply Chain Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (4.01%) REST
2 30 (2.51%) Middleware
3 26 (2.17%) React
4 24 (2.01%) Spring
4 24 (2.01%) VML
5 19 (1.59%) Kafka
6 17 (1.42%) Spring Boot
7 16 (1.34%) HTML
8 15 (1.25%) CSS
9 14 (1.17%) MACH
9 14 (1.17%) RESTful
10 13 (1.09%) Node.js
10 13 (1.09%) OAuth
11 12 (1.00%) Django
11 12 (1.00%) J2EE
12 11 (0.92%) .NET
13 9 (0.75%) AngularJS
13 9 (0.75%) SOAP
14 8 (0.67%) OAuth2
14 8 (0.67%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.19%) Product Ownership
2 49 (4.10%) FMCG
3 40 (3.34%) EPoS
4 36 (3.01%) Onboarding
5 33 (2.76%) Cloud Native
6 29 (2.42%) Driving Licence
7 24 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
8 23 (1.92%) Data Centre
9 21 (1.76%) Data Structures
10 19 (1.59%) Marketing Technology
11 18 (1.51%) Mobile App
11 18 (1.51%) Self-Motivation
12 15 (1.25%) Greenfield Project
13 14 (1.17%) Mainframe
14 13 (1.09%) Management Information System
14 13 (1.09%) Operational Technology
15 11 (0.92%) AI Agents
15 11 (0.92%) Smartphone
15 11 (0.92%) Taxonomies
15 11 (0.92%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 52 (4.35%) Windows
2 26 (2.17%) Linux
3 12 (1.00%) Android
4 10 (0.84%) Unix
5 7 (0.59%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.50%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.50%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.42%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.42%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.33%) zOS
9 2 (0.17%) Debian
10 1 (0.084%) SUSE
10 1 (0.084%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.084%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 290 (24.25%) Stakeholder Management
2 282 (23.58%) Agile
3 177 (14.80%) E-Commerce
4 175 (14.63%) Problem-Solving
5 161 (13.46%) Migration
6 150 (12.54%) Roadmaps
7 134 (11.20%) Analytics
8 114 (9.53%) Customer Experience
9 107 (8.95%) AI
9 107 (8.95%) Project Management
10 96 (8.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 90 (7.53%) ERP
12 88 (7.36%) Project Delivery
13 87 (7.27%) Business Intelligence
13 87 (7.27%) Continuous Improvement
13 87 (7.27%) Decision-Making
13 87 (7.27%) Logistics
14 84 (7.02%) CI/CD
15 83 (6.94%) Workshop Facilitation
16 82 (6.86%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 96 (8.03%) SQL
2 78 (6.52%) Python
3 50 (4.18%) Java
4 24 (2.01%) JavaScript
5 18 (1.51%) TypeScript
6 10 (0.84%) C#
6 10 (0.84%) PowerShell
7 9 (0.75%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (0.50%) PL/SQL
9 5 (0.42%) Bash
9 5 (0.42%) Bicep
9 5 (0.42%) Groovy
9 5 (0.42%) R
9 5 (0.42%) Scala
9 5 (0.42%) SOQL
10 4 (0.33%) ABAP
10 4 (0.33%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.33%) Kotlin
11 3 (0.25%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 57 (4.77%) Degree
2 37 (3.09%) Security Cleared
3 23 (1.92%) SC Cleared
4 17 (1.42%) PMP
5 10 (0.84%) DBS Check
6 9 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (0.75%) PMI Certification
7 8 (0.67%) CISSP
8 6 (0.50%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.50%) CISM
9 5 (0.42%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (0.42%) CCNP
9 5 (0.42%) CCSE
9 5 (0.42%) CCSM
9 5 (0.42%) CSPO
9 5 (0.42%) Master's Degree
10 4 (0.33%) APMP
10 4 (0.33%) City & Guilds
10 4 (0.33%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.25%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (4.18%) QA
2 45 (3.76%) Data Quality
3 36 (3.01%) GDPR
4 29 (2.42%) PMO
5 19 (1.59%) Accessibility
6 17 (1.42%) PCI DSS
7 10 (0.84%) SLA
8 9 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.59%) NIST
10 3 (0.25%) GAAP
10 3 (0.25%) IFRS
10 3 (0.25%) PSD2
11 2 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.17%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
11 2 (0.17%) ISO 8583
11 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.17%) WCAG
12 1 (0.084%) COBIT
12 1 (0.084%) GxP
System Software
1 25 (2.09%) Docker
2 22 (1.84%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.25%) Firmware
7 2 (0.17%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 32 (2.68%) Terraform
2 24 (2.01%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.17%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 8 (0.67%) Ansible
5 6 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.50%) SCCM
6 5 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.33%) FortiGate
8 3 (0.25%) Grafana
9 2 (0.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.17%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.17%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.17%) MOM
9 2 (0.17%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.084%) Argo
10 1 (0.084%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.084%) Istio
10 1 (0.084%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 97 (8.11%) Microsoft
2 83 (6.94%) SAP
3 73 (6.10%) Oracle
4 54 (4.52%) Salesforce
5 51 (4.26%) Google
6 48 (4.01%) Databricks
7 36 (3.01%) Adobe
8 21 (1.76%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.17%) IFS
10 13 (1.09%) Cisco
10 13 (1.09%) Zscaler
11 12 (1.00%) Sitecore
11 12 (1.00%) VMware
12 11 (0.92%) Fortinet
12 11 (0.92%) Palo Alto
13 10 (0.84%) MuleSoft
13 10 (0.84%) Splunk
14 9 (0.75%) Apple
14 9 (0.75%) IBM
15 7 (0.59%) JDA