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 10 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 106 83
Rank change year-on-year +30 -23 +5
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,500 697 869
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.24% 2.51% 2.65%
As % of the General category 5.81% 3.89% 4.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 863 368 481
10th Percentile £325 £299 £285
25th Percentile £456 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £675 £638 £625
90th Percentile £738 £738 £713
UK median daily rate £550 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +7.32% -2.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 60 38
10th Percentile £12.76 - £12.15
25th Percentile £13.45 £15.25 £15.03
Median hourly rate £15.88 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -2.79% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £19.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £25.15 £32.71
UK median hourly rate £15.24 £16.34 £16.30
% change year-on-year -6.70% +0.21% -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 25,803 17,901 18,994
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.72% 64.41% 58.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,244 11,321 11,735
10th Percentile £313 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
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 2,146 1,001 1,014
10th Percentile £13.81 £13.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.11 £16.17 £18.00
Median hourly rate £31.31 £25.15 £38.68
Median % change year-on-year +24.48% -34.97% +40.64%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £72.50 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +19.28% -32.93% +36.36%

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 10 September 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 10 September 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 10 September 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 +47 839 £568 +3.18% 1,518
North of England -15 198 £550 +10.00% 495
South East 0 173 £550 - 426
Midlands +25 152 £525 +21.95% 315
North West +5 121 £550 +10.00% 268
East Midlands +18 87 £500 +14.68% 161
East of England +10 78 £550 +4.76% 170
West Midlands 0 64 £563 +32.35% 154
Yorkshire -44 59 £500 - 170
South West -28 48 £350 +11.03% 153
North East -34 18 £525 +18.64% 62
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 50 (3.33%) Confluence
2 21 (1.40%) CMS
3 13 (0.87%) SharePoint
4 12 (0.80%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.60%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 5 (0.33%) SAS
7 4 (0.27%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.20%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.13%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.13%) Apache
9 2 (0.13%) CICS
9 2 (0.13%) WordPress
10 1 (0.067%) Mendix
10 1 (0.067%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.067%) Mule
10 1 (0.067%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 60 (4.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 47 (3.13%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (1.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.07%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 14 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
6 12 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
7 10 (0.67%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.60%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.53%) MS Visio
10 7 (0.47%) InDesign
11 6 (0.40%) CPLEX
12 5 (0.33%) Chatbot
13 4 (0.27%) Notion
14 1 (0.067%) 3ds Max
14 1 (0.067%) PlantUML
14 1 (0.067%) Siemens NX
14 1 (0.067%) SOLIDWORKS
14 1 (0.067%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 45 (3.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.87%) Shopify
3 11 (0.73%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.67%) Oracle Retail
5 8 (0.53%) Magento
5 8 (0.53%) SAP Retail
6 6 (0.40%) Salesforce CRM
6 6 (0.40%) SAP CRM
7 5 (0.33%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.33%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.33%) Workday HCM
8 4 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.27%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.20%) OpenText VIM for SAP
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.20%) SAP IBP
9 3 (0.20%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
10 2 (0.13%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 198 (13.20%) Azure
2 143 (9.53%) AWS
3 76 (5.07%) Power Platform
4 70 (4.67%) GCP
5 54 (3.60%) Snowflake
6 44 (2.93%) GitHub
7 35 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
8 31 (2.07%) Entra ID
9 27 (1.80%) GitHub Actions
10 26 (1.73%) Dynamics 365
11 23 (1.53%) SaaS
12 20 (1.33%) Figma
13 19 (1.27%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
14 16 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
14 16 (1.07%) dbt
15 15 (1.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 15 (1.00%) Microsoft 365
16 13 (0.87%) OCI
16 13 (0.87%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 10 (0.67%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.53%) WAN
2 20 (1.33%) Firewall
3 16 (1.07%) Wireless
4 15 (1.00%) LAN
4 15 (1.00%) Network Security
4 15 (1.00%) VPN
5 14 (0.93%) ATM
6 12 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.53%) BGP
7 8 (0.53%) IPsec
7 8 (0.53%) OSPF
7 8 (0.53%) SD-WAN
8 7 (0.47%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (0.47%) Internet
8 7 (0.47%) Structured Cabling
8 7 (0.47%) VLAN
9 6 (0.40%) Cisco Firepower
9 6 (0.40%) VSAN
10 5 (0.33%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (0.33%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (5.07%) Power BI
2 37 (2.47%) Data Warehouse
3 33 (2.20%) BigQuery
4 27 (1.80%) Data Lake
5 21 (1.40%) Metadata
6 20 (1.33%) NoSQL
6 20 (1.33%) SQL Server
7 18 (1.20%) MongoDB
8 17 (1.13%) Tableau
9 13 (0.87%) Power Query
10 12 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
10 12 (0.80%) Relational Database
11 11 (0.73%) MySQL
11 11 (0.73%) PostgreSQL
12 10 (0.67%) Redis
12 10 (0.67%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 8 (0.53%) Couchbase
13 8 (0.53%) SAP BW
13 8 (0.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 8 (0.53%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 77 (5.13%) JIRA
2 25 (1.67%) Git
3 19 (1.27%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.53%) Subversion
5 7 (0.47%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.33%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.27%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.27%) GitLab
7 4 (0.27%) Hudson
7 4 (0.27%) JMeter
8 3 (0.20%) Selenium
9 2 (0.13%) git-flow
9 2 (0.13%) MLflow
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.13%) Postman
9 2 (0.13%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) webpack
10 1 (0.067%) Pylint
10 1 (0.067%) REST Assured
General
1 435 (29.00%) Social Skills
2 347 (23.13%) Finance
3 160 (10.67%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (8.27%) Marketing
5 122 (8.13%) Banking
6 101 (6.73%) Manufacturing
7 68 (4.53%) Organisational Skills
8 59 (3.93%) Retail Banking
9 39 (2.60%) Corporate Banking
9 39 (2.60%) Investment Banking
10 33 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (2.00%) Telecoms
12 28 (1.87%) Legal
12 28 (1.87%) Public Sector
13 27 (1.80%) Advertising
14 24 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
15 19 (1.27%) French Language
16 18 (1.20%) Spanish Language
17 17 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
18 16 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 257 (17.13%) Architect
2 210 (14.00%) Analyst
3 168 (11.20%) Senior
4 146 (9.73%) Solutions Architect
5 119 (7.93%) Project Manager
6 112 (7.47%) Business Analyst
7 107 (7.13%) Lead
8 77 (5.13%) Developer
9 51 (3.40%) Product Manager
10 48 (3.20%) Designer
11 47 (3.13%) Consultant
12 45 (3.00%) Senior Manager
13 41 (2.73%) Supply Chain Architect
14 34 (2.27%) Senior Developer
15 33 (2.20%) Technical Manager
16 32 (2.13%) Data Architect
17 31 (2.07%) Enterprise Architect
18 30 (2.00%) Data Analyst
18 30 (2.00%) Programme Manager
19 26 (1.73%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (4.13%) REST
2 51 (3.40%) Terraform
3 39 (2.60%) React
4 33 (2.20%) Kafka
5 27 (1.80%) Spring
6 25 (1.67%) Node.js
7 23 (1.53%) Middleware
7 23 (1.53%) Spring Boot
8 21 (1.40%) MACH
8 21 (1.40%) VML
9 20 (1.33%) Django
10 18 (1.20%) RESTful
10 18 (1.20%) SOAP
11 16 (1.07%) Next.js
12 15 (1.00%) HTML
13 12 (0.80%) OAuth
14 11 (0.73%) PySpark
15 10 (0.67%) .NET
15 10 (0.67%) CSS
15 10 (0.67%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 76 (5.07%) Product Ownership
2 68 (4.53%) FMCG
3 55 (3.67%) Onboarding
4 51 (3.40%) EPoS
5 45 (3.00%) Cloud Native
6 35 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
7 28 (1.87%) Data Centre
8 27 (1.80%) Mobile App
9 25 (1.67%) Data Structures
10 24 (1.60%) Management Information System
11 22 (1.47%) Greenfield Project
11 22 (1.47%) Marketing Technology
11 22 (1.47%) Operational Technology
12 21 (1.40%) Driving Licence
12 21 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
13 18 (1.20%) Distributed Systems
14 17 (1.13%) Smartphone
15 16 (1.07%) Mainframe
16 15 (1.00%) IoT
17 14 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 50 (3.33%) Windows
2 18 (1.20%) Linux
3 11 (0.73%) Android
4 8 (0.53%) Apple iOS
5 7 (0.47%) Unix
6 6 (0.40%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.40%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.33%) Windows 10
8 2 (0.13%) Debian
8 2 (0.13%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.13%) zOS
9 1 (0.067%) OS/2
9 1 (0.067%) SUSE
9 1 (0.067%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.067%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 406 (27.07%) Stakeholder Management
2 349 (23.27%) Agile
3 228 (15.20%) E-Commerce
4 186 (12.40%) Migration
5 182 (12.13%) Problem-Solving
6 177 (11.80%) Analytics
7 171 (11.40%) Logistics
8 167 (11.13%) Roadmaps
9 162 (10.80%) AI
10 136 (9.07%) Customer Experience
11 134 (8.93%) Decision-Making
12 132 (8.80%) Continuous Improvement
13 126 (8.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 120 (8.00%) CRM
15 118 (7.87%) CI/CD
16 116 (7.73%) Project Management
17 108 (7.20%) Business Intelligence
18 105 (7.00%) Customer Service
18 105 (7.00%) DevOps
19 99 (6.60%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 128 (8.53%) SQL
2 102 (6.80%) Python
3 49 (3.27%) Java
4 36 (2.40%) TypeScript
5 23 (1.53%) JavaScript
6 13 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.67%) C#
7 10 (0.67%) R
8 9 (0.60%) ABAP
9 8 (0.53%) Apex Code
9 8 (0.53%) Bash
10 7 (0.47%) PowerShell
11 6 (0.40%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.40%) Scala
11 6 (0.40%) SOQL
12 5 (0.33%) Groovy
13 4 (0.27%) Bicep
13 4 (0.27%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.27%) SOSL
13 4 (0.27%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 61 (4.07%) Degree
2 44 (2.93%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.47%) PMP
4 19 (1.27%) SC Cleared
5 11 (0.73%) DBS Check
5 11 (0.73%) PMI Certification
6 8 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
7 7 (0.47%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.40%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (0.40%) CISSP
8 6 (0.40%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.33%) CCNP
9 5 (0.33%) CCSE
9 5 (0.33%) CCSM
9 5 (0.33%) CISM
9 5 (0.33%) City & Guilds
9 5 (0.33%) CSPO
9 5 (0.33%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 3 (0.20%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 3 (0.20%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (4.60%) QA
2 67 (4.47%) Data Quality
3 32 (2.13%) GDPR
4 24 (1.60%) PMO
5 23 (1.53%) Accessibility
6 14 (0.93%) PCI DSS
7 10 (0.67%) SLA
8 7 (0.47%) NIST
9 6 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 5 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.33%) WCAG
11 3 (0.20%) GRC
11 3 (0.20%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) GAAP
12 2 (0.13%) IFRS
12 2 (0.13%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.067%) Basel III
13 1 (0.067%) GxP
13 1 (0.067%) HL7
System Software
1 35 (2.33%) Docker
2 27 (1.80%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.53%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.33%) Firmware
5 5 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.20%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.067%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 37 (2.47%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.67%) Ansible
3 9 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.47%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.40%) FortiGate
6 5 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.27%) SCCM
8 3 (0.20%) Bosun
9 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.13%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.13%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.13%) logstash
9 2 (0.13%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.067%) CloudHub
10 1 (0.067%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.067%) Grafana
10 1 (0.067%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.067%) vMotion
Vendors
1 144 (9.60%) Microsoft
2 114 (7.60%) SAP
3 80 (5.33%) Salesforce
4 76 (5.07%) Databricks
5 69 (4.60%) Oracle
6 46 (3.07%) Google
7 39 (2.60%) Adobe
8 25 (1.67%) Zscaler
9 22 (1.47%) MuleSoft
10 19 (1.27%) Cisco
11 18 (1.20%) Workday
12 16 (1.07%) ServiceNow
13 14 (0.93%) Fortinet
13 14 (0.93%) IBM
14 13 (0.87%) Apple
14 13 (0.87%) Palo Alto
14 13 (0.87%) VMware
15 11 (0.73%) Braze
15 11 (0.73%) New Relic
16 10 (0.67%) Splunk
2,963 Retail jobs in England