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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 108 83
Rank change year-on-year +28 -25 +7
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,462 690 875
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.20% 2.50% 2.65%
As % of the General category 5.78% 3.89% 4.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 847 367 480
10th Percentile £325 £290 £299
25th Percentile £456 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +9.89% -4.67% -
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +9.89% -4.67% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 113 52 44
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 £28.36
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 25,277 17,733 19,119
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.35% 64.31% 57.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,970 11,266 11,992
10th Percentile £313 £275 £300
25th Percentile £424 £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 £651
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 2,056 987 1,075
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.50 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.45 £16.21 £18.00
Median hourly rate £31.93 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +26.94% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £72.70 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £31.16 £25.15 £36.50
% change year-on-year +23.88% -31.10% +32.73%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +44 831 £570 +4.59% 1,580
North of England -15 189 £550 +10.00% 531
South East +8 172 £550 - 447
Midlands +21 141 £525 +21.95% 334
North West -1 119 £550 +10.00% 291
East Midlands +17 80 £500 +14.68% 162
East of England +11 72 £600 +14.29% 171
West Midlands -10 60 £575 +35.29% 172
Yorkshire -40 53 £500 - 198
South West -28 45 £375 +19.05% 161
North East -34 17 £525 +18.64% 46
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 51 (3.49%) Confluence
2 20 (1.37%) 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 (3.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (2.67%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.09%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 15 (1.03%) Microsoft Project
6 11 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
7 10 (0.68%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.62%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.55%) MS Visio
10 7 (0.48%) InDesign
11 6 (0.41%) Chatbot
11 6 (0.41%) CPLEX
12 4 (0.27%) Notion
13 1 (0.068%) 3ds Max
13 1 (0.068%) PlantUML
13 1 (0.068%) Siemens NX
13 1 (0.068%) SOLIDWORKS
13 1 (0.068%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 43 (2.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.92%) 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 (0.21%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 3 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.21%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.21%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.21%) Workday HCM
11 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
11 2 (0.14%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 189 (12.93%) Azure
2 139 (9.51%) AWS
3 75 (5.13%) Power Platform
4 68 (4.65%) GCP
5 51 (3.49%) Snowflake
6 39 (2.67%) GitHub
7 32 (2.19%) Azure DevOps
8 31 (2.12%) Entra ID
9 25 (1.71%) GitHub Actions
10 24 (1.64%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (1.37%) Figma
11 20 (1.37%) SaaS
12 15 (1.03%) Microsoft 365
12 15 (1.03%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 14 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
14 13 (0.89%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 13 (0.89%) dbt
15 12 (0.82%) OCI
16 11 (0.75%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 9 (0.62%) 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 (1.03%) LAN
4 15 (1.03%) 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 75 (5.13%) Power BI
2 35 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
3 33 (2.26%) BigQuery
4 25 (1.71%) Data Lake
5 21 (1.44%) 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
15 6 (0.41%) SAP BW
15 6 (0.41%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 79 (5.40%) 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 (0.21%) Hudson
8 3 (0.21%) 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%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.068%) ScriptRunner
General
1 413 (28.25%) Social Skills
2 344 (23.53%) Finance
3 157 (10.74%) Analytical Skills
4 121 (8.28%) Banking
5 106 (7.25%) Marketing
6 102 (6.98%) Manufacturing
7 60 (4.10%) Organisational Skills
8 58 (3.97%) Retail Banking
9 39 (2.67%) Corporate Banking
9 39 (2.67%) Investment Banking
10 32 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (2.05%) Public Sector
11 30 (2.05%) Telecoms
12 28 (1.92%) Legal
13 27 (1.85%) Advertising
14 24 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
15 19 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
15 19 (1.30%) French Language
16 18 (1.23%) Spanish Language
17 14 (0.96%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 249 (17.03%) Architect
2 210 (14.36%) Analyst
3 163 (11.15%) Senior
4 144 (9.85%) Solutions Architect
5 118 (8.07%) Project Manager
6 108 (7.39%) Business Analyst
7 107 (7.32%) Lead
8 76 (5.20%) Developer
9 50 (3.42%) Product Manager
10 47 (3.21%) Designer
11 46 (3.15%) Consultant
12 44 (3.01%) Senior Manager
13 41 (2.80%) Supply Chain Architect
14 34 (2.33%) Senior Developer
14 34 (2.33%) Technical Manager
15 32 (2.19%) Data Architect
15 32 (2.19%) Programme Manager
16 31 (2.12%) Enterprise Architect
17 29 (1.98%) Data Analyst
18 26 (1.78%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (4.04%) REST
2 50 (3.42%) Terraform
3 37 (2.53%) React
4 31 (2.12%) Kafka
5 28 (1.92%) Spring
6 24 (1.64%) Middleware
7 23 (1.57%) Node.js
7 23 (1.57%) Spring Boot
8 21 (1.44%) VML
9 20 (1.37%) Django
10 19 (1.30%) MACH
11 18 (1.23%) RESTful
12 15 (1.03%) HTML
12 15 (1.03%) 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 (0.62%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 77 (5.27%) Product Ownership
2 68 (4.65%) FMCG
3 52 (3.56%) EPoS
4 51 (3.49%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.87%) Cloud Native
6 35 (2.39%) Legacy Systems
7 31 (2.12%) Data Centre
8 27 (1.85%) Mobile App
9 23 (1.57%) Data Structures
10 22 (1.50%) Greenfield Project
10 22 (1.50%) Operational Technology
11 21 (1.44%) Marketing Technology
12 19 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
13 18 (1.23%) Driving Licence
14 17 (1.16%) Management Information System
14 17 (1.16%) Smartphone
15 15 (1.03%) Distributed Systems
15 15 (1.03%) IoT
15 15 (1.03%) Mainframe
16 14 (0.96%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 52 (3.56%) Windows
2 19 (1.30%) Linux
3 11 (0.75%) Android
4 8 (0.55%) Apple iOS
4 8 (0.55%) Unix
5 6 (0.41%) Mac OS
5 6 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.41%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.34%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.34%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.14%) Debian
7 2 (0.14%) zOS
8 1 (0.068%) SUSE
8 1 (0.068%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.068%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 397 (27.15%) Stakeholder Management
2 347 (23.73%) Agile
3 219 (14.98%) E-Commerce
4 188 (12.86%) Migration
5 176 (12.04%) Problem-Solving
6 173 (11.83%) Analytics
7 166 (11.35%) Roadmaps
8 164 (11.22%) Logistics
9 159 (10.88%) AI
10 132 (9.03%) Customer Experience
11 127 (8.69%) Decision-Making
12 126 (8.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 123 (8.41%) Continuous Improvement
14 115 (7.87%) Project Management
15 111 (7.59%) CI/CD
16 108 (7.39%) CRM
17 106 (7.25%) Business Intelligence
18 102 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
19 100 (6.84%) DevOps
19 100 (6.84%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 124 (8.48%) SQL
2 100 (6.84%) Python
3 50 (3.42%) Java
4 34 (2.33%) TypeScript
5 24 (1.64%) JavaScript
6 11 (0.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.68%) C#
7 10 (0.68%) R
8 8 (0.55%) ABAP
8 8 (0.55%) PowerShell
9 7 (0.48%) 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 (0.21%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 62 (4.24%) 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 (0.21%) Azure Certification
10 3 (0.21%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (4.79%) QA
2 62 (4.24%) Data Quality
3 34 (2.33%) GDPR
4 23 (1.57%) Accessibility
4 23 (1.57%) PMO
5 14 (0.96%) PCI DSS
6 11 (0.75%) SLA
7 9 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (0.48%) NIST
9 5 (0.34%) WCAG
10 4 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.21%) GRC
11 3 (0.21%) 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%) Basel III
13 1 (0.068%) GxP
13 1 (0.068%) HL7
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 (0.21%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.068%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 38 (2.60%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.68%) Ansible
3 9 (0.62%) 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 (0.21%) 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 (9.10%) Microsoft
2 107 (7.32%) SAP
3 74 (5.06%) Databricks
4 70 (4.79%) Oracle
4 70 (4.79%) Salesforce
5 44 (3.01%) Google
6 39 (2.67%) Adobe
7 25 (1.71%) Zscaler
8 17 (1.16%) Cisco
8 17 (1.16%) MuleSoft
9 16 (1.09%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.09%) Workday
10 14 (0.96%) Fortinet
11 13 (0.89%) Apple
11 13 (0.89%) Palo Alto
11 13 (0.89%) VMware
12 12 (0.82%) IBM
12 12 (0.82%) IFS
13 11 (0.75%) Braze
13 11 (0.75%) New Relic