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 9 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 142 85 87
Rank change year-on-year -57 +2 -3
Contract jobs citing Retail 700 723 927
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.94% 2.90% 2.43%
As % of the General category 3.34% 4.60% 4.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 452 393 530
10th Percentile £206 £278 £275
25th Percentile £380 £413 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £505
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +3.96% -3.81%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £734 £771 £744
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 13 65
10th Percentile £12.77 £18.13 £11.09
25th Percentile £13.65 £21.25 £12.15
Median hourly rate £17.68 £32.50 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.62% +103.13% -19.23%
75th Percentile £40.63 £48.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £54.80 £65.05 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £18.86 £32.50 £16.00
% change year-on-year -41.97% +103.13% -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 20,929 15,709 22,312
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 58.13% 63.07% 58.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,261 10,035 14,572
10th Percentile £300 £300 £266
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £756
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,303 570 1,672
10th Percentile £14.15 £15.06 £13.05
25th Percentile £17.55 £19.93 £15.29
Median hourly rate £25.00 £30.41 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.78% +16.94% -19.38%
75th Percentile £57.25 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £24.03 £29.23 £25.71
% change year-on-year -17.79% +13.69% -19.66%

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 9 March 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 9 March 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 9 March 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 -44 396 £539 -3.36% 354
South East -37 91 £416 -22.56% 291
North of England -46 78 £500 +11.11% 247
Midlands -45 68 £495 -1.00% 241
East Midlands -13 41 £495 -1.00% 136
North West -30 40 £525 +10.53% 124
Yorkshire -41 34 £506 +249.14% 102
East of England -30 32 £526 +0.24% 117
West Midlands -56 26 £496 -5.59% 104
South West -21 18 £261 -26.41% 100
North East -10 4 £206 - 26
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 30 (4.29%) Confluence
2 15 (2.14%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.71%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 12 (1.71%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.71%) CMS
4 4 (0.57%) WordPress
5 3 (0.43%) Jupyter
5 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.29%) SAS
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 23 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (2.00%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (1.57%) Chatbot
3 11 (1.57%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.43%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.43%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.29%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.29%) Trello
7 1 (0.14%) 3ds Max
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.14%) InDesign
7 1 (0.14%) Maya
7 1 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.14%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 15 (2.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.71%) SAP Retail
2 12 (1.71%) Shopify
3 10 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (1.00%) Oracle Retail
5 6 (0.86%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (0.71%) Finacle
6 5 (0.71%) SAP Payroll
7 4 (0.57%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.57%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.43%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.29%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.29%) Sprinklr
10 1 (0.14%) Bloomberg TOMS
10 1 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
10 1 (0.14%) Sage X3
10 1 (0.14%) SAP BPC
10 1 (0.14%) SAP GTS
10 1 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 80 (11.43%) Azure
2 47 (6.71%) Power Platform
3 44 (6.29%) AWS
4 39 (5.57%) GCP
5 22 (3.14%) Azure DevOps
6 21 (3.00%) GitHub
7 19 (2.71%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (2.29%) Snowflake
9 15 (2.14%) Microsoft 365
10 14 (2.00%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (1.86%) Figma
11 13 (1.86%) SaaS
12 12 (1.71%) Google Workspace
13 10 (1.43%) Entra ID
13 10 (1.43%) Miro
14 9 (1.29%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (1.29%) Cloud Run
15 8 (1.14%) dbt
15 8 (1.14%) WhatsApp
16 7 (1.00%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.00%) RFID
2 13 (1.86%) VPN
3 10 (1.43%) WAN
4 9 (1.29%) Firewall
5 8 (1.14%) NFC
5 8 (1.14%) Wireless
6 6 (0.86%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (0.71%) LAN
8 4 (0.57%) BGP
8 4 (0.57%) Cisco Nexus
8 4 (0.57%) EIGRP
8 4 (0.57%) OSPF
8 4 (0.57%) VoIP
9 3 (0.43%) MPLS
10 2 (0.29%) SAN
10 2 (0.29%) WLAN
11 1 (0.14%) Broadband
11 1 (0.14%) FTP
11 1 (0.14%) SMS
11 1 (0.14%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (5.57%) Power BI
2 21 (3.00%) BigQuery
3 18 (2.57%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.86%) Metadata
4 13 (1.86%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.71%) MySQL
5 12 (1.71%) Tableau
6 9 (1.29%) Data Lake
7 7 (1.00%) Data Vault
8 6 (0.86%) Delta Lake
9 5 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.71%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (0.57%) Redis
10 4 (0.57%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.43%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.43%) OLAP
11 3 (0.43%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.43%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 64 (9.14%) JIRA
2 10 (1.43%) Jenkins
3 7 (1.00%) Git
3 7 (1.00%) GitLab
4 5 (0.71%) ERwin
5 4 (0.57%) Maven
5 4 (0.57%) MLflow
6 3 (0.43%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.29%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.29%) Mockito
7 2 (0.29%) PowerDesigner
7 2 (0.29%) Selenium
7 2 (0.29%) Xcode
8 1 (0.14%) Android Studio
8 1 (0.14%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.14%) Gradle
8 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.14%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.14%) Zephyr
General
1 240 (34.29%) Social Skills
2 162 (23.14%) Finance
3 77 (11.00%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (8.57%) Marketing
5 58 (8.29%) Banking
6 32 (4.57%) Public Sector
7 30 (4.29%) Manufacturing
8 29 (4.14%) Organisational Skills
9 24 (3.43%) Influencing Skills
10 23 (3.29%) Investment Banking
11 22 (3.14%) Corporate Banking
12 21 (3.00%) Retail Banking
13 19 (2.71%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (2.57%) Documentation Skills
15 13 (1.86%) Telecoms
16 11 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 11 (1.57%) Legal
17 8 (1.14%) Financial Institution
18 7 (1.00%) Publishing
19 5 (0.71%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 118 (16.86%) Analyst
2 96 (13.71%) Project Manager
3 85 (12.14%) Architect
4 82 (11.71%) Senior
5 60 (8.57%) Business Analyst
5 60 (8.57%) Lead
6 39 (5.57%) Senior Manager
7 34 (4.86%) Solutions Architect
8 32 (4.57%) Consultant
9 24 (3.43%) Senior Project Manager
9 24 (3.43%) Technical Manager
10 17 (2.43%) Product Manager
11 16 (2.29%) Service Manager
12 14 (2.00%) Data Architect
12 14 (2.00%) Data Engineer
12 14 (2.00%) Designer
12 14 (2.00%) E-Commerce Manager
12 14 (2.00%) Programme Manager
13 13 (1.86%) Developer
13 13 (1.86%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.71%) VML
2 18 (2.57%) REST
3 15 (2.14%) Spring
4 14 (2.00%) Middleware
5 11 (1.57%) AngularJS
5 11 (1.57%) PySpark
5 11 (1.57%) Spring Boot
6 10 (1.43%) React
6 10 (1.43%) scikit-learn
7 9 (1.29%) .NET
8 8 (1.14%) PyTorch
9 7 (1.00%) CSS
9 7 (1.00%) HTML
9 7 (1.00%) Node.js
9 7 (1.00%) OpenTelemetry
10 6 (0.86%) LangChain
11 5 (0.71%) jQuery
11 5 (0.71%) XML
12 4 (0.57%) JSON
12 4 (0.57%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 43 (6.14%) Product Ownership
2 26 (3.71%) Driving Licence
3 24 (3.43%) Self-Motivation
4 22 (3.14%) Cloud Native
5 19 (2.71%) Management Information System
5 19 (2.71%) Onboarding
6 17 (2.43%) FMCG
7 16 (2.29%) EPoS
8 15 (2.14%) Data Centre
8 15 (2.14%) Data Structures
8 15 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
9 12 (1.71%) Mobile App
10 9 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.29%) IoT
10 9 (1.29%) Virtual Team
11 7 (1.00%) Algorithms
11 7 (1.00%) Greenfield Project
11 7 (1.00%) Reference Data
12 6 (0.86%) CMDB
12 6 (0.86%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 34 (4.86%) Windows
2 17 (2.43%) Linux
3 9 (1.29%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.71%) Android
5 4 (0.57%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.57%) Unix
5 4 (0.57%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.43%) zOS
7 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (23.57%) Stakeholder Management
2 154 (22.00%) Agile
3 134 (19.14%) Problem-Solving
4 98 (14.00%) E-Commerce
5 88 (12.57%) Project Management
6 78 (11.14%) Analytics
7 74 (10.57%) Roadmaps
8 72 (10.29%) Migration
9 65 (9.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 64 (9.14%) Workshop Facilitation
11 59 (8.43%) Customer Experience
12 56 (8.00%) Continuous Improvement
13 54 (7.71%) AI
13 54 (7.71%) ERP
13 54 (7.71%) Scrum
14 52 (7.43%) DevOps
14 52 (7.43%) Project Delivery
15 50 (7.14%) Business Intelligence
16 47 (6.71%) Data Modelling
17 46 (6.57%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.71%) SQL
2 60 (8.57%) Python
3 24 (3.43%) Java
4 16 (2.29%) JavaScript
5 14 (2.00%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.57%) Bash
7 9 (1.29%) Shell Script
8 8 (1.14%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (1.00%) C#
10 4 (0.57%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.57%) TypeScript
10 4 (0.57%) VBA
11 3 (0.43%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.29%) Bicep
12 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.29%) Google Apps Script
12 2 (0.29%) PHP
12 2 (0.29%) R
12 2 (0.29%) Swift
13 1 (0.14%) Scala
Qualifications
1 42 (6.00%) Degree
2 23 (3.29%) PMP
3 19 (2.71%) Security Cleared
4 18 (2.57%) PMI Certification
5 8 (1.14%) Master's Degree
5 8 (1.14%) SC Cleared
6 7 (1.00%) APMP
6 7 (1.00%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (1.00%) CISSP
6 7 (1.00%) MBA
7 6 (0.86%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (0.71%) CISM
8 5 (0.71%) CRISC
8 5 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (0.57%) CCIE
9 4 (0.57%) CCNP
9 4 (0.57%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (0.57%) CSPO
10 3 (0.43%) GIAC
10 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (4.29%) Data Quality
2 29 (4.14%) QA
3 27 (3.86%) PMO
4 18 (2.57%) GDPR
5 16 (2.29%) Accessibility
5 16 (2.29%) SLA
6 6 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.86%) PCI DSS
7 5 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
8 4 (0.57%) IFRS
9 3 (0.43%) NCSC
9 3 (0.43%) NIST
10 2 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.14%) COBIT
11 1 (0.14%) GAAP
11 1 (0.14%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.14%) MiFID
11 1 (0.14%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (2.29%) Docker
2 12 (1.71%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (0.43%) VMware NSX
4 2 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.14%) RACF
5 1 (0.14%) Varnish
5 1 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 19 (2.71%) Terraform
2 15 (2.14%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.00%) Grafana
3 7 (1.00%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.86%) Argo
4 6 (0.86%) Istio
4 6 (0.86%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.43%) SCCM
5 3 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (0.29%) MOM
7 1 (0.14%) Cacti
7 1 (0.14%) Control-M
7 1 (0.14%) Nmap
7 1 (0.14%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.14%) ZABBIX
7 1 (0.14%) zSecure
Vendors
1 66 (9.43%) Microsoft
2 56 (8.00%) SAP
3 49 (7.00%) Google
4 43 (6.14%) Oracle
5 29 (4.14%) Salesforce
6 25 (3.57%) Databricks
7 20 (2.86%) Adobe
8 13 (1.86%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.14%) Sitecore
10 7 (1.00%) Temenos
11 6 (0.86%) Workday
12 5 (0.71%) Apple
12 5 (0.71%) Avaloq
12 5 (0.71%) BMC
12 5 (0.71%) Cisco
12 5 (0.71%) GoldenSource
12 5 (0.71%) MicroStrategy
12 5 (0.71%) Zscaler
13 4 (0.57%) CheckPoint
13 4 (0.57%) TikTok