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 25 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 82 88
Rank change year-on-year -53 +6 -8
Contract jobs citing Retail 700 754 912
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.98% 2.95% 2.43%
As % of the General category 3.36% 4.71% 4.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 446 397 527
10th Percentile £218 £290 £270
25th Percentile £400 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £525 £520
Median % change year-on-year -1.62% +0.96% -0.95%
75th Percentile £627 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £773 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -6.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 12 55
10th Percentile £12.95 £18.13 £11.02
25th Percentile £16.17 £20.47 £12.58
Median hourly rate £18.87 £32.50 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -41.94% +99.39% -17.72%
75th Percentile £23.39 £50.38 £21.37
90th Percentile £46.25 £66.28 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £18.94 £33.00 £16.30
% change year-on-year -42.62% +102.45% -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 20,824 16,022 22,125
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 59.05% 62.63% 59.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,201 9,904 14,520
10th Percentile £300 £300 £265
25th Percentile £406 £411 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,294 531 1,578
10th Percentile £14.04 £15.62 £13.18
25th Percentile £17.00 £20.23 £15.17
Median hourly rate £23.58 £31.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.95% +19.23% -13.33%
75th Percentile £54.00 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £23.00 £30.00 £26.00
% change year-on-year -23.33% +15.38% -8.77%

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 25 February 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 25 February 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 25 February 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 -47 397 £550 - 278
South East -42 86 £481 -10.47% 230
North of England -55 78 £500 +11.11% 179
Midlands -51 69 £495 -1.00% 176
East Midlands -14 42 £495 -1.00% 94
North West -38 40 £550 +22.22% 102
Yorkshire -49 35 £506 +26.56% 60
East of England -27 32 £526 -4.32% 89
West Midlands -59 26 £432 -17.67% 82
South West -15 20 £213 -34.62% 74
North East -16 4 £206 -65.63% 19
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 29 (4.14%) Confluence
2 15 (2.14%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.71%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.71%) CMS
4 10 (1.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (0.57%) Jupyter
5 4 (0.57%) WordPress
6 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.29%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.29%) SAS
8 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 22 (3.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (2.00%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (1.57%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.43%) Chatbot
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 20 (2.86%) 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%) Dynamics AX
8 3 (0.43%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.29%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.29%) Payment Gateway
9 2 (0.29%) Sprinklr
10 1 (0.14%) Adobe Campaign
10 1 (0.14%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
10 1 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 82 (11.71%) Azure
2 46 (6.57%) AWS
3 45 (6.43%) Power Platform
4 40 (5.71%) GCP
5 22 (3.14%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (2.86%) GitHub
7 19 (2.71%) Dynamics 365
8 17 (2.43%) 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%) Cloud Run
15 8 (1.14%) dbt
15 8 (1.14%) WhatsApp
16 7 (1.00%) Azure Data Factory
16 7 (1.00%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.86%) RFID
2 14 (2.00%) NFC
2 14 (2.00%) Wireless
3 10 (1.43%) VPN
3 10 (1.43%) WAN
4 7 (1.00%) Firewall
5 6 (0.86%) Wi-Fi
6 5 (0.71%) LAN
7 4 (0.57%) BGP
7 4 (0.57%) Cisco Nexus
7 4 (0.57%) EIGRP
7 4 (0.57%) OSPF
7 4 (0.57%) VoIP
8 3 (0.43%) MPLS
9 2 (0.29%) SAN
9 2 (0.29%) WLAN
10 1 (0.14%) FTP
10 1 (0.14%) HTTPS
10 1 (0.14%) SMS
10 1 (0.14%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (5.29%) Power BI
2 22 (3.14%) BigQuery
3 20 (2.86%) Data Warehouse
4 15 (2.14%) Metadata
5 13 (1.86%) SQL Server
5 13 (1.86%) Tableau
6 11 (1.57%) Data Lake
7 10 (1.43%) MySQL
8 7 (1.00%) Data Vault
9 6 (0.86%) Delta Lake
10 5 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.71%) Snowflake Schema
11 4 (0.57%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.57%) Redis
11 4 (0.57%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (0.43%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (0.43%) OLAP
12 3 (0.43%) Oracle OLAP
12 3 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 67 (9.57%) JIRA
2 11 (1.57%) Jenkins
3 8 (1.14%) GitLab
4 7 (1.00%) Git
5 5 (0.71%) ERwin
6 4 (0.57%) MLflow
6 4 (0.57%) Selenium
7 3 (0.43%) Maven
7 3 (0.43%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.29%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.29%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.29%) JMeter
8 2 (0.29%) JUnit
8 2 (0.29%) Mockito
8 2 (0.29%) PowerDesigner
8 2 (0.29%) Xcode
9 1 (0.14%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.14%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.14%) WebDriver
General
1 242 (34.57%) Social Skills
2 155 (22.14%) Finance
3 70 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (8.43%) Banking
4 59 (8.43%) Marketing
5 32 (4.57%) Organisational Skills
6 31 (4.43%) Manufacturing
7 30 (4.29%) Public Sector
8 25 (3.57%) Influencing Skills
9 23 (3.29%) Corporate Banking
9 23 (3.29%) Retail Banking
10 22 (3.14%) Investment Banking
11 19 (2.71%) Presentation Skills
12 17 (2.43%) Documentation Skills
13 12 (1.71%) Legal
13 12 (1.71%) Telecoms
14 11 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 7 (1.00%) Publishing
16 6 (0.86%) Financial Institution
17 5 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 121 (17.29%) Analyst
2 92 (13.14%) Project Manager
3 85 (12.14%) Senior
4 79 (11.29%) Architect
5 64 (9.14%) Lead
6 61 (8.71%) Business Analyst
7 41 (5.86%) Senior Manager
8 33 (4.71%) Solutions Architect
9 31 (4.43%) Consultant
10 22 (3.14%) Senior Project Manager
10 22 (3.14%) Technical Manager
11 18 (2.57%) Product Manager
11 18 (2.57%) Programme Manager
12 15 (2.14%) Data Engineer
13 14 (2.00%) Designer
13 14 (2.00%) E-Commerce Manager
13 14 (2.00%) Service Manager
14 13 (1.86%) Developer
14 13 (1.86%) IT Manager
14 13 (1.86%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.71%) VML
2 17 (2.43%) REST
3 13 (1.86%) PySpark
3 13 (1.86%) Spring
4 11 (1.57%) Middleware
4 11 (1.57%) Spring Boot
5 10 (1.43%) React
5 10 (1.43%) scikit-learn
6 9 (1.29%) .NET
6 9 (1.29%) AngularJS
7 8 (1.14%) PyTorch
8 7 (1.00%) HTML
8 7 (1.00%) Node.js
8 7 (1.00%) OpenTelemetry
9 6 (0.86%) LangChain
10 5 (0.71%) CSS
10 5 (0.71%) XML
11 4 (0.57%) JSON
11 4 (0.57%) Kafka
11 4 (0.57%) Matplotlib
Miscellaneous
1 40 (5.71%) Product Ownership
2 23 (3.29%) Self-Motivation
3 21 (3.00%) Cloud Native
3 21 (3.00%) Driving Licence
4 19 (2.71%) Management Information System
4 19 (2.71%) Onboarding
5 17 (2.43%) EPoS
5 17 (2.43%) FMCG
6 16 (2.29%) Data Structures
6 16 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
7 15 (2.14%) IoT
8 13 (1.86%) Data Centre
8 13 (1.86%) Mobile App
9 9 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
9 9 (1.29%) Virtual Team
10 8 (1.14%) Social Media
11 7 (1.00%) Algorithms
11 7 (1.00%) Reference Data
12 6 (0.86%) CMDB
12 6 (0.86%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 31 (4.43%) Windows
2 14 (2.00%) Linux
3 8 (1.14%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.71%) Android
5 4 (0.57%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.43%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.29%) Unix
7 2 (0.29%) zOS
8 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 168 (24.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 158 (22.57%) Agile
3 127 (18.14%) Problem-Solving
4 95 (13.57%) Project Management
5 94 (13.43%) E-Commerce
6 75 (10.71%) Analytics
7 72 (10.29%) Migration
8 71 (10.14%) Roadmaps
9 64 (9.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 63 (9.00%) Workshop Facilitation
11 56 (8.00%) Continuous Improvement
12 55 (7.86%) Customer Experience
13 52 (7.43%) AI
13 52 (7.43%) Scrum
14 51 (7.29%) Business Intelligence
15 49 (7.00%) DevOps
16 48 (6.86%) Project Delivery
17 47 (6.71%) Data Modelling
18 46 (6.57%) Decision-Making
18 46 (6.57%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 62 (8.86%) SQL
2 61 (8.71%) Python
3 23 (3.29%) Java
4 15 (2.14%) JavaScript
5 13 (1.86%) 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 5 (0.71%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.57%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.43%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.43%) VBA
13 2 (0.29%) Google Apps Script
13 2 (0.29%) PHP
13 2 (0.29%) Swift
14 1 (0.14%) Bicep
14 1 (0.14%) CLIST
14 1 (0.14%) JCL
14 1 (0.14%) ProC
Qualifications
1 40 (5.71%) Degree
2 22 (3.14%) PMP
3 18 (2.57%) Security Cleared
4 17 (2.43%) PMI Certification
5 9 (1.29%) Master's Degree
6 7 (1.00%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (1.00%) CISSP
6 7 (1.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (1.00%) MBA
6 7 (1.00%) SC Cleared
7 6 (0.86%) APMP
7 6 (0.86%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (0.71%) CISM
8 5 (0.71%) CRISC
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 28 (4.00%) QA
3 24 (3.43%) PMO
4 17 (2.43%) Accessibility
5 14 (2.00%) GDPR
5 14 (2.00%) SLA
6 6 (0.86%) Actionable Recommendations
6 6 (0.86%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.43%) IFRS
7 3 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.43%) NCSC
7 3 (0.43%) NIST
8 2 (0.29%) COBIT
9 1 (0.14%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.14%) GRC
9 1 (0.14%) IFRS 9
9 1 (0.14%) MiFID
9 1 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.14%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (2.29%) Docker
2 9 (1.29%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (0.43%) VMware NSX
4 2 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.14%) RACF
5 1 (0.14%) Varnish
5 1 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 20 (2.86%) 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
5 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.43%) SCCM
5 3 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.14%) Ansible
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 65 (9.29%) Microsoft
2 59 (8.43%) SAP
3 49 (7.00%) Google
4 40 (5.71%) Oracle
5 31 (4.43%) Salesforce
6 24 (3.43%) Databricks
7 21 (3.00%) Adobe
8 12 (1.71%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.14%) Sitecore
10 7 (1.00%) Temenos
11 6 (0.86%) Splunk
12 5 (0.71%) Apple
12 5 (0.71%) Avaloq
12 5 (0.71%) BMC
12 5 (0.71%) CheckPoint
12 5 (0.71%) Cisco
12 5 (0.71%) F5
12 5 (0.71%) GoldenSource
12 5 (0.71%) MicroStrategy
12 5 (0.71%) Zscaler