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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 111 80
Rank change year-on-year +34 -31 +12
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,470 683 893
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.20% 2.48% 2.69%
As % of the General category 5.79% 3.85% 4.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 856 358 497
10th Percentile £319 £281 £300
25th Percentile £456 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £505
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% +1.49% -3.81%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £513 £500
% change year-on-year +7.32% +2.50% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 46 56
10th Percentile £12.76 - £12.15
25th Percentile £13.51 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £17.50 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +7.36% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £28.95 £22.86
UK median hourly rate £16.92 £16.30 £16.30
% change year-on-year +3.80% - -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 25,381 17,754 19,136
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.33% 64.34% 57.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,120 11,287 12,208
10th Percentile £313 £275 £300
25th Percentile £420 £400 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £508 £538
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% -5.58% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £656
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 2,032 979 1,155
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.33 £14.26
25th Percentile £17.70 £16.34 £17.25
Median hourly rate £32.36 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +28.68% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £60.00 £50.00 £60.03
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £31.50 £25.15 £35.50
% change year-on-year +25.25% -29.15% +29.09%

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 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 22 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 22 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 +40 838 £565 +2.73% 361
North of England -18 190 £550 +10.00% 313
South East +11 176 £525 -4.55% 319
Midlands +20 138 £513 +19.05% 238
North West +6 118 £550 +10.00% 166
East Midlands +13 78 £500 +14.68% 127
East of England +13 70 £575 +9.52% 103
West Midlands -8 59 £575 +35.29% 111
Yorkshire -39 55 £500 - 118
South West -31 45 £400 +17.65% 92
North East -32 17 £525 +18.64% 33
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 (3.40%) Confluence
2 18 (1.22%) CMS
3 11 (0.75%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 9 (0.61%) Apache Airflow
4 9 (0.61%) SharePoint
5 5 (0.34%) SAS
6 4 (0.27%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.14%) Anypoint
7 2 (0.14%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.14%) CICS
8 1 (0.068%) Apache
8 1 (0.068%) Mendix
8 1 (0.068%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.068%) Mule
8 1 (0.068%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 52 (3.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 37 (2.52%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.09%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 14 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
6 9 (0.61%) Photoshop
7 8 (0.54%) Adobe Illustrator
7 8 (0.54%) MS Visio
7 8 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
8 6 (0.41%) Chatbot
8 6 (0.41%) InDesign
9 4 (0.27%) CPLEX
9 4 (0.27%) Notion
10 1 (0.068%) PlantUML
10 1 (0.068%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 43 (2.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.84%) Shopify
3 11 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.68%) Oracle Retail
5 8 (0.54%) 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 ERP
10 3 (0.20%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.20%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.20%) Workday HCM
11 2 (0.14%) Finacle
Cloud Services
1 186 (12.65%) Azure
2 139 (9.46%) AWS
3 77 (5.24%) Power Platform
4 69 (4.69%) GCP
5 49 (3.33%) Snowflake
6 39 (2.65%) GitHub
7 31 (2.11%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (2.11%) Entra ID
8 25 (1.70%) Dynamics 365
9 24 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
10 20 (1.36%) Figma
11 19 (1.29%) SaaS
12 16 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
13 15 (1.02%) Microsoft 365
13 15 (1.02%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
14 14 (0.95%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 11 (0.75%) dbt
15 11 (0.75%) OCI
15 11 (0.75%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 10 (0.68%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.50%) WAN
2 20 (1.36%) Firewall
3 17 (1.16%) VPN
4 16 (1.09%) Wireless
5 14 (0.95%) ATM
5 14 (0.95%) LAN
5 14 (0.95%) Network Security
6 10 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.54%) BGP
7 8 (0.54%) IPsec
7 8 (0.54%) OSPF
8 7 (0.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (0.48%) SD-WAN
8 7 (0.48%) VLAN
9 6 (0.41%) Cisco Firepower
9 6 (0.41%) VSAN
10 5 (0.34%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (0.34%) Cisco Nexus
10 5 (0.34%) RFID
10 5 (0.34%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (5.17%) Power BI
2 34 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
3 32 (2.18%) BigQuery
4 24 (1.63%) Data Lake
5 20 (1.36%) Metadata
6 19 (1.29%) NoSQL
7 18 (1.22%) MongoDB
8 17 (1.16%) SQL Server
9 16 (1.09%) Tableau
10 13 (0.88%) MySQL
11 12 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
11 12 (0.82%) Power Query
11 12 (0.82%) Relational Database
12 11 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
13 10 (0.68%) Redis
13 10 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 8 (0.54%) Couchbase
15 7 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 7 (0.48%) Star Schema
16 6 (0.41%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 78 (5.31%) JIRA
2 24 (1.63%) Git
3 18 (1.22%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.54%) 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%) Maven
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%) Pylint
General
1 406 (27.62%) Social Skills
2 347 (23.61%) Finance
3 160 (10.88%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (8.30%) Banking
5 104 (7.07%) Marketing
6 97 (6.60%) Manufacturing
7 59 (4.01%) Organisational Skills
7 59 (4.01%) Retail Banking
8 42 (2.86%) Investment Banking
9 40 (2.72%) Corporate Banking
10 32 (2.18%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (2.04%) Public Sector
11 30 (2.04%) Telecoms
12 29 (1.97%) Legal
13 28 (1.90%) Advertising
14 24 (1.63%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
16 19 (1.29%) French Language
17 18 (1.22%) Spanish Language
18 13 (0.88%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 254 (17.28%) Architect
2 208 (14.15%) Analyst
3 163 (11.09%) Senior
4 143 (9.73%) Solutions Architect
5 119 (8.10%) Project Manager
6 108 (7.35%) Business Analyst
7 104 (7.07%) Lead
8 76 (5.17%) Developer
9 48 (3.27%) Product Manager
10 46 (3.13%) Consultant
10 46 (3.13%) Designer
11 44 (2.99%) Senior Manager
12 40 (2.72%) Supply Chain Architect
13 35 (2.38%) Enterprise Architect
14 34 (2.31%) Data Architect
14 34 (2.31%) Senior Developer
15 33 (2.24%) Programme Manager
15 33 (2.24%) Technical Manager
16 29 (1.97%) Data Analyst
17 26 (1.77%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (4.15%) REST
2 49 (3.33%) Terraform
3 37 (2.52%) React
4 31 (2.11%) Kafka
5 29 (1.97%) Spring
6 28 (1.90%) Middleware
7 23 (1.56%) Node.js
7 23 (1.56%) Spring Boot
8 21 (1.43%) VML
9 20 (1.36%) Django
10 19 (1.29%) MACH
11 18 (1.22%) RESTful
12 15 (1.02%) HTML
12 15 (1.02%) SOAP
13 14 (0.95%) Next.js
13 14 (0.95%) OAuth
14 12 (0.82%) CSS
15 11 (0.75%) Jakarta EE
16 10 (0.68%) .NET
17 9 (0.61%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 78 (5.31%) Product Ownership
2 68 (4.63%) FMCG
3 52 (3.54%) EPoS
4 51 (3.47%) Onboarding
5 44 (2.99%) Cloud Native
6 33 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
7 31 (2.11%) Data Centre
8 25 (1.70%) Mobile App
9 24 (1.63%) Data Structures
10 23 (1.56%) Greenfield Project
11 22 (1.50%) Driving Licence
12 21 (1.43%) Marketing Technology
12 21 (1.43%) Operational Technology
13 19 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
14 17 (1.16%) Smartphone
15 16 (1.09%) Mainframe
16 15 (1.02%) Distributed Systems
16 15 (1.02%) IoT
16 15 (1.02%) Management Information System
17 14 (0.95%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 53 (3.61%) Windows
2 20 (1.36%) Linux
3 11 (0.75%) Android
4 9 (0.61%) Unix
5 8 (0.54%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.48%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.41%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.34%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.34%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.20%) zOS
10 2 (0.14%) Debian
11 1 (0.068%) SUSE
11 1 (0.068%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.068%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 385 (26.19%) Stakeholder Management
2 343 (23.33%) Agile
3 217 (14.76%) E-Commerce
4 187 (12.72%) Problem-Solving
5 186 (12.65%) Migration
6 170 (11.56%) Analytics
7 168 (11.43%) Roadmaps
8 159 (10.82%) Logistics
9 156 (10.61%) AI
10 133 (9.05%) Customer Experience
11 126 (8.57%) Decision-Making
11 126 (8.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 124 (8.44%) Continuous Improvement
13 114 (7.76%) CI/CD
13 114 (7.76%) Project Management
14 110 (7.48%) CRM
15 107 (7.28%) Business Intelligence
16 104 (7.07%) ERP
17 102 (6.94%) DevOps
18 101 (6.87%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 124 (8.44%) SQL
2 100 (6.80%) Python
3 52 (3.54%) Java
4 34 (2.31%) TypeScript
5 25 (1.70%) 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 (0.54%) ABAP
10 7 (0.48%) Bash
11 6 (0.41%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.41%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.41%) Scala
11 6 (0.41%) SOQL
12 5 (0.34%) Bicep
12 5 (0.34%) Groovy
13 4 (0.27%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.27%) SOSL
14 3 (0.20%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 62 (4.22%) Degree
2 43 (2.93%) Security Cleared
3 21 (1.43%) PMP
4 20 (1.36%) SC Cleared
5 11 (0.75%) DBS Check
5 11 (0.75%) PMI Certification
6 7 (0.48%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (0.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (0.41%) CISSP
8 5 (0.34%) CCNP
8 5 (0.34%) CCSE
8 5 (0.34%) CCSM
8 5 (0.34%) CISM
8 5 (0.34%) Computer Science Degree
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%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (4.69%) QA
2 62 (4.22%) Data Quality
3 36 (2.45%) GDPR
4 25 (1.70%) PMO
5 22 (1.50%) Accessibility
6 14 (0.95%) PCI DSS
7 11 (0.75%) SLA
8 8 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.41%) NIST
10 5 (0.34%) WCAG
11 3 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.20%) GAAP
11 3 (0.20%) GRC
11 3 (0.20%) IFRS
11 3 (0.20%) PSD2
12 2 (0.14%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.068%) Basel III
13 1 (0.068%) GxP
13 1 (0.068%) HL7
System Software
1 36 (2.45%) Docker
2 30 (2.04%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.54%) 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 (2.59%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.68%) Ansible
3 9 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (0.54%) 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%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.068%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.068%) vMotion
Vendors
1 133 (9.05%) Microsoft
2 109 (7.41%) SAP
3 75 (5.10%) Databricks
4 73 (4.97%) Oracle
5 69 (4.69%) Salesforce
6 45 (3.06%) Google
7 38 (2.59%) Adobe
8 25 (1.70%) Zscaler
9 17 (1.16%) ServiceNow
9 17 (1.16%) Workday
10 16 (1.09%) Cisco
11 15 (1.02%) MuleSoft
12 13 (0.88%) Fortinet
12 13 (0.88%) IBM
12 13 (0.88%) IFS
12 13 (0.88%) Palo Alto
12 13 (0.88%) VMware
13 12 (0.82%) Apple
14 11 (0.75%) Braze
14 11 (0.75%) New Relic
1,287 Retail jobs in England