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 18 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 104 87 92
Rank change year-on-year -17 +5 -31
Contract jobs citing Retail 703 858 1,084
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 2.53% 2.61% 2.59%
As % of the General category 3.92% 4.47% 4.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 376 468 650
10th Percentile £300 £273 £312
25th Percentile £413 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £744 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £523 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -0.48% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 35 42
10th Percentile £15.25 £12.15 £18.50
25th Percentile £15.48 £15.07 £19.06
Median hourly rate £16.34 £16.30 £19.81
Median % change year-on-year +0.21% -17.72% -
75th Percentile £19.50 £21.37 £20.56
90th Percentile £25.15 £35.30 £22.00
UK median hourly rate £16.34 £16.30 £19.81
% change year-on-year +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 common skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 17,920 19,188 24,913
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 64.49% 58.26% 59.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,360 11,708 17,206
10th Percentile £275 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% -2.27% -
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £750 £775 £777
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,012 979 979
10th Percentile £13.50 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.17 £17.44 £16.65
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.85 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -35.26% +41.27% +10.93%
75th Percentile £47.50 £61.30 £58.67
90th Percentile £71.48 £71.50 £71.26
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year -30.14% +30.91% +12.24%

Retail
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Retail as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Retail 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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025. 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 -21 356 £550 - 776
North of England -4 117 £500 -4.76% 348
South East +7 82 £550 +15.79% 651
Yorkshire -17 60 £500 -4.76% 132
North West +2 52 £500 +8.11% 197
Midlands -22 52 £425 -15.00% 279
East of England -24 37 £550 +7.32% 187
South West +40 34 £315 -25.00% 166
East Midlands +6 33 £436 -12.80% 136
West Midlands -26 19 £425 -30.61% 137
North East 0 6 £443 -29.20% 26
Retail
UK

Retail
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 19 (2.70%) Confluence
2 12 (1.71%) CMS
3 8 (1.14%) SharePoint
4 6 (0.85%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.85%) Camunda
5 3 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.28%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.14%) Apache
7 1 (0.14%) Appian
7 1 (0.14%) SAS
7 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 36 (5.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 31 (4.41%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.85%) Trello
5 5 (0.71%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.57%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.57%) Sketch
7 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
8 2 (0.28%) Photoshop
8 2 (0.28%) UserZoom
9 1 (0.14%) Adobe After Effects
9 1 (0.14%) InDesign
9 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 31 (4.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (2.70%) Shopify
3 8 (1.14%) Oracle Retail
4 5 (0.71%) Dynamics AX
4 5 (0.71%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (0.57%) Avolution ABACUS
5 4 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (0.57%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.57%) SAP GTS
6 3 (0.43%) Magento
6 3 (0.43%) NetSuite
6 3 (0.43%) Sprinklr
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.28%) SAP CAR
7 2 (0.28%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.28%) SAP Retail
8 1 (0.14%) Infor M3
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 1 (0.14%) SAP POS DM
Cloud Services
1 83 (11.81%) Azure
2 50 (7.11%) AWS
3 42 (5.97%) Power Platform
4 34 (4.84%) GCP
5 31 (4.41%) Microsoft 365
6 26 (3.70%) Dynamics 365
7 23 (3.27%) Entra ID
8 17 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
8 17 (2.42%) SaaS
9 16 (2.28%) Figma
10 12 (1.71%) BigCommerce
11 11 (1.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 8 (1.14%) GitHub
12 8 (1.14%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 7 (1.00%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 7 (1.00%) Power Automate
13 7 (1.00%) Serverless
14 6 (0.85%) Azure Data Factory
14 6 (0.85%) PowerApps
15 5 (0.71%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.56%) RFID
1 11 (1.56%) Wireless
2 10 (1.42%) NFC
3 9 (1.28%) Wi-Fi
4 5 (0.71%) Firewall
4 5 (0.71%) Structured Cabling
5 3 (0.43%) Broadband
5 3 (0.43%) DNS
5 3 (0.43%) HTTP
5 3 (0.43%) LAN
5 3 (0.43%) Network Security
5 3 (0.43%) TCP/IP
5 3 (0.43%) WAN
6 2 (0.28%) ATM
6 2 (0.28%) Cisco Nexus
6 2 (0.28%) DHCP
7 1 (0.14%) Ethernet
7 1 (0.14%) NAS
7 1 (0.14%) VPN
7 1 (0.14%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (5.26%) Power BI
2 19 (2.70%) Data Warehouse
3 13 (1.85%) Data Lake
4 12 (1.71%) Tableau
5 11 (1.56%) BigQuery
6 9 (1.28%) Metadata
7 7 (1.00%) Power Query
7 7 (1.00%) SQL Server
8 6 (0.85%) Data Vault
9 5 (0.71%) Big Data
9 5 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.43%) Looker
10 3 (0.43%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (0.43%) Star Schema
11 2 (0.28%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.28%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.28%) Parquet
11 2 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.14%) Apache Hive
12 1 (0.14%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 46 (6.54%) JIRA
2 18 (2.56%) Git
3 14 (1.99%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.71%) GitLab
5 4 (0.57%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.57%) Gradle
5 4 (0.57%) Postman
5 4 (0.57%) Storybook
6 3 (0.43%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.43%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.43%) Selenium
6 3 (0.43%) SoapUI
6 3 (0.43%) Xcode
7 2 (0.28%) JMeter
7 2 (0.28%) JUnit
7 2 (0.28%) Maven
7 2 (0.28%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.28%) Zephyr
8 1 (0.14%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.14%) SpecFlow
General
1 265 (37.70%) Social Skills
2 164 (23.33%) Finance
3 79 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
4 72 (10.24%) Banking
5 50 (7.11%) Marketing
6 49 (6.97%) Retail Banking
7 47 (6.69%) Investment Banking
8 44 (6.26%) Corporate Banking
9 40 (5.69%) Organisational Skills
10 37 (5.26%) Manufacturing
11 31 (4.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 26 (3.70%) Public Sector
13 23 (3.27%) Legal
14 16 (2.28%) Presentation Skills
15 14 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
16 13 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
17 11 (1.56%) French Language
18 10 (1.42%) Automotive
18 10 (1.42%) Financial Institution
18 10 (1.42%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 136 (19.35%) Analyst
2 75 (10.67%) Architect
3 63 (8.96%) Project Manager
4 54 (7.68%) Senior
5 47 (6.69%) Business Analyst
6 44 (6.26%) Solutions Architect
7 40 (5.69%) Lead
8 34 (4.84%) Developer
9 28 (3.98%) Senior Manager
10 26 (3.70%) Consultant
11 24 (3.41%) Product Manager
12 20 (2.84%) IT Manager
13 19 (2.70%) Data Analyst
13 19 (2.70%) Programme Manager
13 19 (2.70%) Support Manager
14 17 (2.42%) Designer
14 17 (2.42%) IT Support
15 16 (2.28%) Service Analyst
15 16 (2.28%) Service Desk Analyst
16 15 (2.13%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.99%) HTML
2 20 (2.84%) React
3 16 (2.28%) CSS
3 16 (2.28%) REST
4 13 (1.85%) Node.js
5 12 (1.71%) VML
6 10 (1.42%) PySpark
6 10 (1.42%) React Native
7 9 (1.28%) Kafka
7 9 (1.28%) Middleware
7 9 (1.28%) Web Services
8 8 (1.14%) .NET
8 8 (1.14%) EDI
9 7 (1.00%) Oracle Fusion
9 7 (1.00%) Redux
10 6 (0.85%) RESTful
10 6 (0.85%) SOAP
11 5 (0.71%) CSS3
11 5 (0.71%) HTML5
11 5 (0.71%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 34 (4.84%) Product Ownership
2 20 (2.84%) EPoS
3 19 (2.70%) iPhone
3 19 (2.70%) Mobile App
3 19 (2.70%) Smartphone
4 17 (2.42%) Onboarding
5 15 (2.13%) IoT
5 15 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
6 14 (1.99%) FMCG
7 11 (1.56%) Cloud Native
7 11 (1.56%) Data Structures
8 10 (1.42%) Data Centre
9 9 (1.28%) Greenfield Project
9 9 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
10 8 (1.14%) Analytical Mindset
10 8 (1.14%) Management Information System
11 7 (1.00%) Social Media
12 6 (0.85%) Algorithms
13 5 (0.71%) Digital Media
13 5 (0.71%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 36 (5.12%) Windows
2 20 (2.84%) Mac OS
3 9 (1.28%) Apple iOS
4 7 (1.00%) Android
5 4 (0.57%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.43%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.28%) Linux
8 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (22.33%) Agile
2 143 (20.34%) Stakeholder Management
3 106 (15.08%) Problem-Solving
4 91 (12.94%) E-Commerce
5 71 (10.10%) Project Management
6 65 (9.25%) Analytics
6 65 (9.25%) Roadmaps
7 59 (8.39%) Migration
8 54 (7.68%) Customer Experience
8 54 (7.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 52 (7.40%) DevOps
10 48 (6.83%) Wealth Management
11 47 (6.69%) ITIL
12 46 (6.54%) Project Delivery
13 44 (6.26%) Customer Service
13 44 (6.26%) Data Modelling
14 43 (6.12%) Continuous Improvement
14 43 (6.12%) CRM
14 43 (6.12%) Waterfall
15 42 (5.97%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 64 (9.10%) SQL
2 59 (8.39%) Python
3 23 (3.27%) JavaScript
4 11 (1.56%) Java
5 10 (1.42%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 8 (1.14%) TypeScript
7 6 (0.85%) C#
8 4 (0.57%) PowerShell
9 3 (0.43%) ABAP
9 3 (0.43%) Bash
9 3 (0.43%) Korn
9 3 (0.43%) R
9 3 (0.43%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.28%) Go
10 2 (0.28%) JSX
10 2 (0.28%) Kotlin
10 2 (0.28%) Scala
10 2 (0.28%) Swift
10 2 (0.28%) VB
10 2 (0.28%) VBA
Qualifications
1 33 (4.69%) Degree
2 14 (1.99%) PMP
3 12 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
4 11 (1.56%) PMI Certification
5 10 (1.42%) Security Cleared
6 7 (1.00%) Microsoft Certification
6 7 (1.00%) SC Cleared
7 5 (0.71%) A+ Certification
7 5 (0.71%) MCSA
8 4 (0.57%) CISSP
8 4 (0.57%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (0.57%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.43%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.43%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 2 (0.28%) ACCA
10 2 (0.28%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (0.28%) CIPD
10 2 (0.28%) CISA
10 2 (0.28%) CISM
10 2 (0.28%) PCI QSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (3.27%) QA
2 20 (2.84%) GDPR
3 13 (1.85%) Data Quality
4 12 (1.71%) Accessibility
5 9 (1.28%) GRC
5 9 (1.28%) PCI DSS
6 7 (1.00%) PMO
7 5 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.43%) NIST
8 3 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.43%) SLA
9 2 (0.28%) COBIT
9 2 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.14%) CRD IV
10 1 (0.14%) FATCA
10 1 (0.14%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.14%) MiFID
10 1 (0.14%) SEPA
10 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 29 (4.13%) Active Directory
2 12 (1.71%) Docker
3 1 (0.14%) Veritas Cluster Server
3 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.14%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 22 (3.13%) Terraform
2 20 (2.84%) Jamf Pro
3 19 (2.70%) Kubernetes
4 10 (1.42%) Ansible
5 4 (0.57%) SCCM
6 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (0.28%) Puppet
7 2 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.14%) AirWatch
8 1 (0.14%) Grafana
8 1 (0.14%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.14%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.14%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.14%) Salt
8 1 (0.14%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 89 (12.66%) Microsoft
2 63 (8.96%) SAP
3 49 (6.97%) Salesforce
4 36 (5.12%) Oracle
5 28 (3.98%) ServiceNow
6 24 (3.41%) Adobe
7 23 (3.27%) Apple
8 18 (2.56%) Google
9 14 (1.99%) HP
10 13 (1.85%) Databricks
11 12 (1.71%) Sitecore
12 9 (1.28%) Dell
13 8 (1.14%) Planview
13 8 (1.14%) Splunk
14 6 (0.85%) Citrix
14 6 (0.85%) Dynatrace
15 5 (0.71%) Facebook
15 5 (0.71%) Genesys
15 5 (0.71%) MuleSoft
15 5 (0.71%) Workday