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

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 79 107 82
Rank change year-on-year +28 -25 +8
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,464 697 876
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.19% 2.51% 2.66%
As % of the General category 5.76% 3.91% 4.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 847 371 483
10th Percentile £320 £300 £288
25th Percentile £456 £413 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £723
UK median daily rate £550 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +7.32% -2.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 113 52 49
10th Percentile £12.76 - £12.15
25th Percentile £13.50 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £16.92 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +3.58% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £20.91 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £25.15 £25.42
UK median hourly rate £15.92 £16.34 £16.30
% change year-on-year -2.54% +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 25,412 17,843 19,038
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.37% 64.31% 57.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,070 11,342 12,003
10th Percentile £313 £275 £300
25th Percentile £423 £400 £418
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £501 £538
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% -6.88% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £653
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 2,055 991 1,082
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.50 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.50 £16.28 £18.00
Median hourly rate £31.50 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +25.25% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £79.50 £72.50 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £31.13 £25.15 £37.04
% change year-on-year +23.77% -32.10% +34.69%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 +42 833 £575 +4.55% 1,456
North of England -21 189 £550 +10.00% 505
South East +3 174 £550 - 405
Midlands +25 140 £513 +19.05% 323
North West -2 119 £550 +10.00% 272
East Midlands +18 79 £500 +14.68% 181
East of England +10 71 £575 +9.52% 164
West Midlands 0 60 £575 +35.29% 142
Yorkshire -48 53 £500 - 188
South West -29 45 £375 +17.19% 140
North East -26 17 £525 +18.64% 49
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 (3.42%) Confluence
2 19 (1.30%) CMS
3 10 (0.68%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 10 (0.68%) Apache Airflow
3 10 (0.68%) SharePoint
4 5 (0.34%) SAS
5 4 (0.27%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.14%) Anypoint
6 2 (0.14%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.14%) CICS
7 1 (0.068%) Apache
7 1 (0.068%) Mendix
7 1 (0.068%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.068%) Mule
7 1 (0.068%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 53 (3.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (2.66%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.09%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 15 (1.02%) Microsoft Project
6 10 (0.68%) Photoshop
6 10 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
7 9 (0.61%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.55%) MS Visio
9 7 (0.48%) InDesign
10 6 (0.41%) Chatbot
10 6 (0.41%) CPLEX
11 4 (0.27%) Notion
12 1 (0.068%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.068%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.068%) Siemens NX
12 1 (0.068%) SOLIDWORKS
12 1 (0.068%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 43 (2.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.84%) Shopify
3 11 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.68%) Oracle Retail
5 8 (0.55%) Magento
6 7 (0.48%) SAP Retail
7 6 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.41%) SAP CRM
8 5 (0.34%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.34%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
9 4 (0.27%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.20%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 3 (0.20%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.20%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.20%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.20%) Workday HCM
11 2 (0.14%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 2 (0.14%) SAP Forecasting and Replenishment
Cloud Services
1 189 (12.91%) Azure
2 139 (9.49%) AWS
3 76 (5.19%) Power Platform
4 67 (4.58%) GCP
5 51 (3.48%) Snowflake
6 39 (2.66%) GitHub
7 31 (2.12%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (2.12%) Entra ID
8 25 (1.71%) GitHub Actions
9 23 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
10 20 (1.37%) Figma
10 20 (1.37%) SaaS
11 15 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
11 15 (1.02%) Microsoft 365
11 15 (1.02%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
12 14 (0.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 13 (0.89%) dbt
14 12 (0.82%) OCI
15 11 (0.75%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 9 (0.61%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.57%) Firewall
1 23 (1.57%) WAN
2 18 (1.23%) VPN
3 16 (1.09%) Wireless
4 15 (1.02%) LAN
4 15 (1.02%) Network Security
5 14 (0.96%) ATM
6 12 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.55%) BGP
7 8 (0.55%) IPsec
7 8 (0.55%) OSPF
7 8 (0.55%) SD-WAN
8 7 (0.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (0.48%) VLAN
9 6 (0.41%) Cisco Firepower
9 6 (0.41%) Internet
9 6 (0.41%) VSAN
10 5 (0.34%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (0.34%) Cisco Nexus
10 5 (0.34%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (5.19%) Power BI
2 35 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
3 32 (2.19%) BigQuery
4 25 (1.71%) Data Lake
5 21 (1.43%) Metadata
6 19 (1.30%) NoSQL
7 18 (1.23%) MongoDB
8 17 (1.16%) SQL Server
9 16 (1.09%) Tableau
10 12 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
10 12 (0.82%) MySQL
10 12 (0.82%) Power Query
10 12 (0.82%) Relational Database
11 11 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
12 10 (0.68%) Redis
12 10 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 8 (0.55%) Couchbase
14 7 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 7 (0.48%) Star Schema
15 6 (0.41%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 78 (5.33%) JIRA
2 24 (1.64%) Git
3 18 (1.23%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.55%) Subversion
5 7 (0.48%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.34%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.27%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.27%) GitLab
7 4 (0.27%) JMeter
8 3 (0.20%) Hudson
8 3 (0.20%) Selenium
9 2 (0.14%) git-flow
9 2 (0.14%) MLflow
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.14%) Postman
9 2 (0.14%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.14%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.14%) webpack
10 1 (0.068%) HP UFT
10 1 (0.068%) Toad
General
1 411 (28.07%) Social Skills
2 344 (23.50%) Finance
3 158 (10.79%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (8.27%) Banking
5 105 (7.17%) Marketing
6 101 (6.90%) Manufacturing
7 59 (4.03%) Organisational Skills
8 57 (3.89%) Retail Banking
9 39 (2.66%) Investment Banking
10 38 (2.60%) Corporate Banking
11 32 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
12 30 (2.05%) Public Sector
12 30 (2.05%) Telecoms
13 28 (1.91%) Legal
14 27 (1.84%) Advertising
15 24 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
16 19 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
16 19 (1.30%) French Language
17 18 (1.23%) Spanish Language
18 14 (0.96%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 250 (17.08%) Architect
2 209 (14.28%) Analyst
3 162 (11.07%) Senior
4 143 (9.77%) Solutions Architect
5 119 (8.13%) Project Manager
6 107 (7.31%) Business Analyst
7 106 (7.24%) Lead
8 76 (5.19%) Developer
9 50 (3.42%) Product Manager
10 47 (3.21%) Designer
11 45 (3.07%) Consultant
12 44 (3.01%) Senior Manager
13 40 (2.73%) Supply Chain Architect
14 35 (2.39%) Technical Manager
15 34 (2.32%) Senior Developer
16 33 (2.25%) Data Architect
16 33 (2.25%) Programme Manager
17 31 (2.12%) Enterprise Architect
18 29 (1.98%) Data Analyst
19 26 (1.78%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (4.03%) REST
2 50 (3.42%) Terraform
3 37 (2.53%) React
4 31 (2.12%) Kafka
5 28 (1.91%) Spring
6 24 (1.64%) Middleware
7 23 (1.57%) Node.js
7 23 (1.57%) Spring Boot
8 21 (1.43%) VML
9 20 (1.37%) Django
10 19 (1.30%) MACH
11 18 (1.23%) RESTful
12 15 (1.02%) HTML
12 15 (1.02%) SOAP
13 14 (0.96%) Next.js
14 12 (0.82%) OAuth
15 11 (0.75%) CSS
16 10 (0.68%) .NET
16 10 (0.68%) Jakarta EE
17 9 (0.61%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 77 (5.26%) Product Ownership
2 68 (4.64%) FMCG
3 52 (3.55%) EPoS
4 50 (3.42%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.87%) Cloud Native
6 34 (2.32%) Legacy Systems
7 31 (2.12%) Data Centre
8 27 (1.84%) Mobile App
9 23 (1.57%) Data Structures
10 22 (1.50%) Greenfield Project
10 22 (1.50%) Operational Technology
11 21 (1.43%) Marketing Technology
12 20 (1.37%) Driving Licence
13 19 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
14 17 (1.16%) Management Information System
14 17 (1.16%) Smartphone
15 15 (1.02%) Distributed Systems
15 15 (1.02%) IoT
15 15 (1.02%) Mainframe
16 14 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 53 (3.62%) Windows
2 20 (1.37%) Linux
3 11 (0.75%) Android
4 8 (0.55%) Apple iOS
4 8 (0.55%) Unix
5 7 (0.48%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.41%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.34%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.34%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.14%) Debian
8 2 (0.14%) zOS
9 1 (0.068%) SUSE
9 1 (0.068%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.068%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 395 (26.98%) Stakeholder Management
2 347 (23.70%) Agile
3 216 (14.75%) E-Commerce
4 187 (12.77%) Migration
5 179 (12.23%) Problem-Solving
6 172 (11.75%) Analytics
7 165 (11.27%) Roadmaps
8 162 (11.07%) Logistics
9 157 (10.72%) AI
10 133 (9.08%) Customer Experience
11 127 (8.67%) Decision-Making
11 127 (8.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 124 (8.47%) Continuous Improvement
13 114 (7.79%) Project Management
14 111 (7.58%) CI/CD
15 108 (7.38%) CRM
16 107 (7.31%) Business Intelligence
17 101 (6.90%) User Acceptance Testing
18 99 (6.76%) DevOps
18 99 (6.76%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 123 (8.40%) SQL
2 100 (6.83%) Python
3 50 (3.42%) Java
4 34 (2.32%) TypeScript
5 24 (1.64%) JavaScript
6 12 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.68%) C#
7 10 (0.68%) R
8 9 (0.61%) PowerShell
9 8 (0.55%) ABAP
9 8 (0.55%) Bash
10 6 (0.41%) Apex Code
10 6 (0.41%) PL/SQL
10 6 (0.41%) Scala
10 6 (0.41%) SOQL
11 5 (0.34%) Bicep
11 5 (0.34%) Groovy
12 4 (0.27%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.27%) SOSL
13 3 (0.20%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 62 (4.23%) Degree
2 44 (3.01%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.50%) PMP
4 19 (1.30%) SC Cleared
5 11 (0.75%) DBS Check
5 11 (0.75%) PMI Certification
6 7 (0.48%) Cisco Certification
6 7 (0.48%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (0.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (0.41%) CISSP
7 6 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (0.34%) CCNP
8 5 (0.34%) CCSE
8 5 (0.34%) CCSM
8 5 (0.34%) CISM
8 5 (0.34%) CSPO
8 5 (0.34%) Six Sigma Green Belt
9 4 (0.27%) City & Guilds
10 3 (0.20%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.20%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (4.71%) QA
2 62 (4.23%) Data Quality
3 34 (2.32%) GDPR
4 23 (1.57%) Accessibility
4 23 (1.57%) PMO
5 14 (0.96%) PCI DSS
6 11 (0.75%) SLA
7 9 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (0.48%) NIST
9 5 (0.34%) WCAG
10 4 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.20%) GRC
11 3 (0.20%) PSD2
12 2 (0.14%) GAAP
12 2 (0.14%) IFRS
12 2 (0.14%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.068%) Cyber Essentials
13 1 (0.068%) GxP
13 1 (0.068%) IASME
System Software
1 36 (2.46%) Docker
2 31 (2.12%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.34%) Firmware
6 5 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.20%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.068%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 38 (2.60%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.68%) Ansible
3 9 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
5 7 (0.48%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 6 (0.41%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.27%) SCCM
8 3 (0.20%) Bosun
9 2 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.14%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.14%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.14%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.14%) logstash
9 2 (0.14%) MOM
9 2 (0.14%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.14%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.068%) CloudHub
10 1 (0.068%) Grafana
10 1 (0.068%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.068%) vMotion
Vendors
1 134 (9.15%) Microsoft
2 106 (7.24%) SAP
3 74 (5.05%) Databricks
4 71 (4.85%) Oracle
5 70 (4.78%) Salesforce
6 43 (2.94%) Google
7 39 (2.66%) Adobe
8 25 (1.71%) Zscaler
9 17 (1.16%) Cisco
9 17 (1.16%) MuleSoft
10 16 (1.09%) ServiceNow
10 16 (1.09%) Workday
11 14 (0.96%) Fortinet
12 13 (0.89%) Apple
12 13 (0.89%) Palo Alto
12 13 (0.89%) VMware
13 12 (0.82%) IBM
13 12 (0.82%) IFS
14 11 (0.75%) Braze
14 11 (0.75%) New Relic