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

6 months to
22 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 86 85
Rank change year-on-year -52 -1 -2
Contract jobs citing Retail 728 713 940
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.94% 2.89% 2.49%
As % of the General category 3.38% 4.55% 4.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 466 384 543
10th Percentile £200 £305 £281
25th Percentile £363 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £736 £762 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 15 66
10th Percentile £12.75 £16.40 £11.09
25th Percentile £12.95 £19.69 £12.15
Median hourly rate £16.92 £32.50 £15.95
Median % change year-on-year -47.94% +103.76% -19.49%
75th Percentile £46.25 £50.00 £21.37
90th Percentile £55.75 £62.60 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £16.92 £32.50 £15.90
% change year-on-year -47.94% +104.40% -19.74%

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 21,546 15,659 22,064
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 57.45% 63.48% 58.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,618 10,132 14,382
10th Percentile £300 £300 £270
25th Percentile £406 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,352 591 1,665
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £19.79 £15.17
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.35 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.76% +20.56% -25.71%
75th Percentile £60.00 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.00 £30.00 £25.75
% change year-on-year -16.67% +16.50% -26.43%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -42 404 £538 -2.49% 359
South East -32 103 £423 -21.40% 254
North of England -57 83 £500 +11.11% 227
Midlands -38 70 £495 -1.00% 188
East Midlands -11 42 £495 -1.00% 122
North West -28 42 £513 +13.89% 106
Yorkshire -36 37 £513 +38.51% 99
East of England -19 33 £498 -0.50% 94
West Midlands -66 27 £463 -11.90% 66
South West -27 19 £261 -40.63% 86
North East -12 4 £206 -72.50% 24
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 33 (4.53%) Confluence
2 15 (2.06%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.65%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 11 (1.51%) CMS
5 10 (1.37%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.55%) WordPress
7 3 (0.41%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.27%) SAS
9 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 25 (3.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (2.34%) Microsoft Project
3 13 (1.79%) Microsoft Office
4 12 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (1.51%) Chatbot
6 10 (1.37%) MS Visio
7 4 (0.55%) Photoshop
8 3 (0.41%) Adobe Illustrator
9 2 (0.27%) InDesign
9 2 (0.27%) Trello
10 1 (0.14%) 3ds Max
10 1 (0.14%) Adobe After Effects
10 1 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.14%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.14%) Maya
10 1 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
10 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
10 1 (0.14%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 16 (2.20%) SAP S/4HANA
1 16 (2.20%) Shopify
2 12 (1.65%) SAP Retail
3 10 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (1.10%) Oracle Retail
5 6 (0.82%) Finacle
5 6 (0.82%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (0.69%) SAP Payroll
7 4 (0.55%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.55%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.41%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.27%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.27%) Sprinklr
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
10 1 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
10 1 (0.14%) Sage X3
10 1 (0.14%) SAP CAR
10 1 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 79 (10.85%) Azure
2 50 (6.87%) Power Platform
3 45 (6.18%) AWS
4 39 (5.36%) GCP
5 23 (3.16%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (2.75%) Dynamics 365
6 20 (2.75%) GitHub
7 16 (2.20%) Microsoft 365
8 14 (1.92%) GitHub Actions
8 14 (1.92%) Snowflake
9 12 (1.65%) Google Workspace
10 11 (1.51%) Figma
10 11 (1.51%) SaaS
11 10 (1.37%) Entra ID
11 10 (1.37%) Miro
12 9 (1.24%) Azure Data Factory
12 9 (1.24%) BigCommerce
12 9 (1.24%) Cloud Run
12 9 (1.24%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
12 9 (1.24%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.06%) RFID
2 13 (1.79%) VPN
3 11 (1.51%) WAN
4 10 (1.37%) Wireless
5 9 (1.24%) Firewall
6 8 (1.10%) NFC
7 7 (0.96%) LAN
8 6 (0.82%) Cisco Nexus
8 6 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (0.55%) BGP
9 4 (0.55%) EIGRP
9 4 (0.55%) OSPF
9 4 (0.55%) VoIP
10 3 (0.41%) MPLS
11 2 (0.27%) Cisco ASA
11 2 (0.27%) Network Security
11 2 (0.27%) SAN
11 2 (0.27%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.27%) VSAN
11 2 (0.27%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (5.77%) Power BI
2 20 (2.75%) BigQuery
3 17 (2.34%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.79%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.65%) MySQL
6 11 (1.51%) Metadata
6 11 (1.51%) Tableau
7 7 (0.96%) Data Lake
7 7 (0.96%) Data Vault
8 6 (0.82%) Delta Lake
9 5 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.55%) Redis
10 4 (0.55%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.55%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.41%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.41%) OLAP
11 3 (0.41%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.41%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 68 (9.34%) JIRA
2 9 (1.24%) Git
2 9 (1.24%) Jenkins
3 7 (0.96%) GitLab
4 5 (0.69%) ERwin
5 4 (0.55%) Maven
5 4 (0.55%) MLflow
6 3 (0.41%) Selenium
6 3 (0.41%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.27%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.27%) PowerDesigner
7 2 (0.27%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.14%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.14%) Gatling
8 1 (0.14%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.14%) Mockito
8 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.14%) Xcode
8 1 (0.14%) Zephyr
General
1 245 (33.65%) Social Skills
2 175 (24.04%) Finance
3 82 (11.26%) Analytical Skills
4 65 (8.93%) Banking
5 57 (7.83%) Marketing
6 33 (4.53%) Public Sector
7 32 (4.40%) Manufacturing
8 30 (4.12%) Organisational Skills
9 24 (3.30%) Investment Banking
10 23 (3.16%) Influencing Skills
10 23 (3.16%) Retail Banking
11 22 (3.02%) Corporate Banking
11 22 (3.02%) Documentation Skills
12 19 (2.61%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.79%) Telecoms
14 11 (1.51%) Legal
15 9 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 7 (0.96%) Financial Institution
16 7 (0.96%) Publishing
17 6 (0.82%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 124 (17.03%) Analyst
2 99 (13.60%) Project Manager
3 88 (12.09%) Senior
4 87 (11.95%) Architect
5 67 (9.20%) Business Analyst
6 61 (8.38%) Lead
7 39 (5.36%) Senior Manager
8 36 (4.95%) Solutions Architect
9 33 (4.53%) Consultant
10 27 (3.71%) Technical Manager
11 22 (3.02%) Senior Project Manager
12 19 (2.61%) Programme Manager
13 18 (2.47%) Product Manager
14 17 (2.34%) Service Manager
15 14 (1.92%) Data Architect
15 14 (1.92%) Designer
15 14 (1.92%) Developer
15 14 (1.92%) E-Commerce Manager
16 13 (1.79%) Enterprise Architect
16 13 (1.79%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.88%) VML
2 19 (2.61%) Middleware
2 19 (2.61%) REST
3 15 (2.06%) Spring
4 11 (1.51%) AngularJS
4 11 (1.51%) React
5 10 (1.37%) scikit-learn
5 10 (1.37%) Spring Boot
6 9 (1.24%) PySpark
7 8 (1.10%) .NET
7 8 (1.10%) Node.js
8 7 (0.96%) CSS
8 7 (0.96%) HTML
8 7 (0.96%) PyTorch
9 6 (0.82%) LangChain
9 6 (0.82%) OpenTelemetry
10 5 (0.69%) jQuery
11 4 (0.55%) JSON
11 4 (0.55%) Spring MVC
11 4 (0.55%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 48 (6.59%) Product Ownership
2 27 (3.71%) Driving Licence
3 24 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
4 23 (3.16%) Cloud Native
5 20 (2.75%) Onboarding
6 19 (2.61%) Management Information System
7 18 (2.47%) Data Centre
8 17 (2.34%) FMCG
8 17 (2.34%) Legacy Systems
9 16 (2.20%) Data Structures
10 15 (2.06%) EPoS
11 12 (1.65%) Mobile App
12 9 (1.24%) IoT
12 9 (1.24%) Virtual Team
13 8 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
13 8 (1.10%) Reference Data
14 7 (0.96%) Algorithms
14 7 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
15 6 (0.82%) CMDB
15 6 (0.82%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 34 (4.67%) Windows
2 19 (2.61%) Linux
3 9 (1.24%) Mac OS
4 4 (0.55%) Android
4 4 (0.55%) Apple iOS
4 4 (0.55%) Unix
5 3 (0.41%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.41%) zOS
6 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.14%) VMS
6 1 (0.14%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (23.63%) Stakeholder Management
2 168 (23.08%) Agile
3 143 (19.64%) Problem-Solving
4 107 (14.70%) E-Commerce
5 90 (12.36%) Project Management
6 79 (10.85%) Migration
7 77 (10.58%) Analytics
8 76 (10.44%) Roadmaps
9 71 (9.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 66 (9.07%) Workshop Facilitation
11 62 (8.52%) Customer Experience
11 62 (8.52%) ERP
12 60 (8.24%) Scrum
13 59 (8.10%) Project Delivery
14 58 (7.97%) Continuous Improvement
15 57 (7.83%) AI
16 56 (7.69%) Change Management
16 56 (7.69%) DevOps
17 51 (7.01%) Business Intelligence
18 48 (6.59%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 58 (7.97%) SQL
2 57 (7.83%) Python
3 24 (3.30%) Java
4 17 (2.34%) JavaScript
5 14 (1.92%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.51%) Bash
7 9 (1.24%) Shell Script
8 8 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.96%) C#
10 4 (0.55%) VBA
11 3 (0.41%) Kotlin
11 3 (0.41%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.41%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.27%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.27%) Google Apps Script
12 2 (0.27%) PHP
12 2 (0.27%) R
12 2 (0.27%) Scala
12 2 (0.27%) SOQL
12 2 (0.27%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 44 (6.04%) Degree
2 22 (3.02%) PMP
3 20 (2.75%) Security Cleared
4 17 (2.34%) PMI Certification
5 8 (1.10%) Master's Degree
5 8 (1.10%) SC Cleared
6 7 (0.96%) APMP
6 7 (0.96%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (0.96%) MBA
7 6 (0.82%) CCNP
7 6 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (0.82%) CISSP
7 6 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (0.69%) CSPO
9 4 (0.55%) CCIE
9 4 (0.55%) CISM
9 4 (0.55%) CRISC
9 4 (0.55%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.41%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (4.53%) Data Quality
1 33 (4.53%) QA
2 28 (3.85%) PMO
3 18 (2.47%) SLA
4 17 (2.34%) GDPR
5 13 (1.79%) Accessibility
6 6 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.82%) PCI DSS
7 5 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
8 4 (0.55%) IFRS
9 3 (0.41%) NIST
10 2 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.27%) NCSC
10 2 (0.27%) 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 17 (2.34%) Docker
2 13 (1.79%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.55%) VMware NSX
4 3 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.14%) RACF
6 1 (0.14%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 20 (2.75%) Terraform
2 15 (2.06%) Kubernetes
3 7 (0.96%) Grafana
3 7 (0.96%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.82%) Argo
4 6 (0.82%) Istio
4 6 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.41%) SCCM
5 3 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (0.27%) 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 67 (9.20%) Microsoft
2 61 (8.38%) SAP
3 49 (6.73%) Google
4 45 (6.18%) Oracle
5 31 (4.26%) Salesforce
6 23 (3.16%) Adobe
6 23 (3.16%) Databricks
7 13 (1.79%) ServiceNow
8 11 (1.51%) Sitecore
9 8 (1.10%) Temenos
10 7 (0.96%) CheckPoint
10 7 (0.96%) Cisco
10 7 (0.96%) VMware
11 6 (0.82%) Avaloq
11 6 (0.82%) GoldenSource
11 6 (0.82%) IFS
11 6 (0.82%) Workday
12 5 (0.69%) Apple
12 5 (0.69%) BMC
12 5 (0.69%) Palo Alto