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

6 months to
17 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 94 78
Rank change year-on-year -8 -16 +10
Contract jobs citing Retail 959 663 992
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.33% 2.71% 2.73%
As % of the General category 4.30% 4.23% 4.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 571 352 547
10th Percentile £238 £313 £278
25th Percentile £411 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% +1.94% -1.90%
75th Percentile £625 £632 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £505
% change year-on-year -4.31% +3.47% -5.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 16 86
10th Percentile £13.30 £15.25 £11.44
25th Percentile £15.86 £16.30 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £25.75 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.45% +60.94% -22.42%
75th Percentile £31.25 £54.13 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £72.50 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £30.25 £16.00
% change year-on-year -30.58% +89.06% -22.42%

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 22,297 15,680 21,183
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 54.24% 64.09% 58.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,814 10,164 13,657
10th Percentile £308 £293 £281
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £505 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -2.88% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,475 675 1,773
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.81 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.00 £16.95 £15.46
Median hourly rate £30.58 £27.50 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +11.20% -8.82% -6.63%
75th Percentile £63.75 £55.25 £51.91
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £66.74
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.00
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -7.96%

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 17 May 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 17 May 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 17 May 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 -11 524 £539 -2.05% 420
North of England -35 128 £505 +12.22% 259
South East -12 125 £463 -2.63% 277
Midlands -28 88 £495 -1.00% 164
North West -4 77 £510 +4.62% 150
East Midlands +3 52 £495 -1.00% 80
East of England -4 50 £509 -3.05% 109
Yorkshire -50 48 £513 +38.51% 98
West Midlands -52 36 £500 +12.68% 83
South West -17 30 £326 -34.75% 83
North East -20 3 £201 -73.17% 15
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 35 (3.65%) Confluence
2 14 (1.46%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 7 (0.73%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (0.63%) CMS
6 4 (0.42%) SAS
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.21%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.10%) CICS
8 1 (0.10%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 33 (3.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (2.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 20 (2.09%) Microsoft Office
4 19 (1.98%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (1.36%) Chatbot
6 11 (1.15%) MS Visio
7 8 (0.83%) Photoshop
8 6 (0.63%) Adobe Illustrator
9 3 (0.31%) InDesign
10 2 (0.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 2 (0.21%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.10%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.10%) Adobe After Effects
11 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.10%) Maya
11 1 (0.10%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.10%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
11 1 (0.10%) Trello
Business Applications
1 21 (2.19%) Shopify
2 16 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.83%) SAP Retail
5 7 (0.73%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 7 (0.73%) Oracle Retail
6 6 (0.63%) Finacle
7 5 (0.52%) SAP CRM
7 5 (0.52%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.42%) Temenos T24
9 3 (0.31%) Magento
9 3 (0.31%) NetSuite
9 3 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
10 2 (0.21%) BambooHR
10 2 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
10 2 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
10 2 (0.21%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.21%) SAP MM
11 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 96 (10.01%) Azure
2 73 (7.61%) AWS
3 55 (5.74%) GCP
4 50 (5.21%) Power Platform
5 27 (2.82%) Snowflake
6 22 (2.29%) Dynamics 365
6 22 (2.29%) GitHub
7 17 (1.77%) Microsoft 365
8 15 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
8 15 (1.56%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
9 14 (1.46%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (1.36%) BigCommerce
10 13 (1.36%) Figma
11 11 (1.15%) Entra ID
12 10 (1.04%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.04%) Miro
12 10 (1.04%) SaaS
13 9 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
13 9 (0.94%) Cloud Run
14 8 (0.83%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.56%) Firewall
1 15 (1.56%) WAN
2 14 (1.46%) VPN
3 12 (1.25%) RFID
4 11 (1.15%) Wireless
5 10 (1.04%) ATM
6 8 (0.83%) Cisco Nexus
6 8 (0.83%) LAN
7 7 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
8 6 (0.63%) BGP
8 6 (0.63%) OSPF
9 5 (0.52%) Cisco Firepower
9 5 (0.52%) Network Security
10 4 (0.42%) Cisco ASA
10 4 (0.42%) EIGRP
10 4 (0.42%) NFC
10 4 (0.42%) VoIP
10 4 (0.42%) VSAN
11 3 (0.31%) MPLS
11 3 (0.31%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (4.80%) Power BI
2 28 (2.92%) BigQuery
3 17 (1.77%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.36%) MySQL
4 13 (1.36%) SQL Server
5 11 (1.15%) Tableau
6 10 (1.04%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.94%) Metadata
8 6 (0.63%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.52%) Data Vault
9 5 (0.52%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.42%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.42%) MongoDB
10 4 (0.42%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.42%) Semantic Layer
11 3 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.31%) Big Data
11 3 (0.31%) OLAP
11 3 (0.31%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.31%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 73 (7.61%) JIRA
2 14 (1.46%) Git
3 12 (1.25%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.83%) GitLab
5 4 (0.42%) Maven
6 3 (0.31%) ERwin
6 3 (0.31%) JMeter
6 3 (0.31%) Subversion
7 2 (0.21%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.21%) git-flow
7 2 (0.21%) MLflow
7 2 (0.21%) Selenium
7 2 (0.21%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.21%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.10%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.10%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.10%) Gatling
8 1 (0.10%) Hudson
8 1 (0.10%) Mockito
8 1 (0.10%) webpack
General
1 280 (29.20%) Social Skills
2 247 (25.76%) Finance
3 96 (10.01%) Analytical Skills
4 85 (8.86%) Banking
5 62 (6.47%) Marketing
6 45 (4.69%) Organisational Skills
7 41 (4.28%) Manufacturing
8 39 (4.07%) Retail Banking
9 33 (3.44%) Investment Banking
10 31 (3.23%) Corporate Banking
11 28 (2.92%) Public Sector
12 27 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
13 25 (2.61%) Documentation Skills
13 25 (2.61%) Telecoms
14 22 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
15 16 (1.67%) Legal
16 14 (1.46%) Advertising
17 13 (1.36%) Back Office
18 10 (1.04%) French Language
18 10 (1.04%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 149 (15.54%) Architect
2 138 (14.39%) Analyst
3 122 (12.72%) Senior
4 104 (10.84%) Project Manager
5 83 (8.65%) Business Analyst
6 69 (7.19%) Lead
7 59 (6.15%) Solutions Architect
8 56 (5.84%) Senior Manager
9 39 (4.07%) Technical Manager
10 33 (3.44%) Designer
11 32 (3.34%) Consultant
12 31 (3.23%) Enterprise Architect
13 30 (3.13%) Senior Project Manager
14 29 (3.02%) Developer
15 26 (2.71%) Data Architect
16 24 (2.50%) Product Manager
17 20 (2.09%) Programme Manager
18 19 (1.98%) Service Manager
19 18 (1.88%) Data Engineer
19 18 (1.88%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.13%) VML
2 27 (2.82%) Middleware
3 23 (2.40%) REST
4 22 (2.29%) React
5 18 (1.88%) Spring
6 16 (1.67%) Node.js
7 13 (1.36%) AngularJS
8 12 (1.25%) Spring Boot
9 9 (0.94%) CSS
10 8 (0.83%) OpenTelemetry
10 8 (0.83%) PySpark
11 7 (0.73%) Kafka
11 7 (0.73%) LangChain
11 7 (0.73%) MACH
11 7 (0.73%) OAuth
11 7 (0.73%) OAuth2
11 7 (0.73%) OpenID
11 7 (0.73%) RESTful
12 6 (0.63%) .NET
12 6 (0.63%) jQuery
Miscellaneous
1 68 (7.09%) Product Ownership
2 30 (3.13%) EPoS
3 28 (2.92%) Cloud Native
4 27 (2.82%) Driving Licence
5 25 (2.61%) Onboarding
6 23 (2.40%) Data Centre
6 23 (2.40%) FMCG
7 19 (1.98%) Data Structures
8 18 (1.88%) Management Information System
8 18 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
9 14 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
9 14 (1.46%) Mainframe
10 13 (1.36%) Mobile App
11 10 (1.04%) AI Agents
11 10 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
11 10 (1.04%) Virtual Team
12 9 (0.94%) Smartphone
13 8 (0.83%) CCTV
14 7 (0.73%) Enterprise Cloud
15 6 (0.63%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 44 (4.59%) Windows
2 20 (2.09%) Linux
3 8 (0.83%) Android
4 7 (0.73%) Mac OS
5 6 (0.63%) Unix
6 5 (0.52%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.42%) zOS
8 3 (0.31%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.21%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.10%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 210 (21.90%) Stakeholder Management
2 207 (21.58%) Agile
3 172 (17.94%) Problem-Solving
4 142 (14.81%) E-Commerce
5 118 (12.30%) Migration
6 110 (11.47%) Roadmaps
7 103 (10.74%) Project Management
8 100 (10.43%) Analytics
9 92 (9.59%) Customer Experience
10 81 (8.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 80 (8.34%) ERP
12 73 (7.61%) Continuous Improvement
12 73 (7.61%) Scrum
13 71 (7.40%) Project Delivery
14 70 (7.30%) AI
15 69 (7.19%) Change Management
16 67 (6.99%) Decision-Making
17 65 (6.78%) Workshop Facilitation
18 64 (6.67%) User Acceptance Testing
19 61 (6.36%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 59 (6.15%) SQL
2 52 (5.42%) Python
3 28 (2.92%) Java
4 22 (2.29%) JavaScript
5 11 (1.15%) TypeScript
6 10 (1.04%) PowerShell
6 10 (1.04%) Shell Script
7 6 (0.63%) Bash
8 5 (0.52%) C#
8 5 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.42%) Bicep
9 4 (0.42%) Scala
9 4 (0.42%) SOQL
9 4 (0.42%) VBA
10 3 (0.31%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.31%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.31%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.31%) SOSL
11 2 (0.21%) Korn
11 2 (0.21%) R
Qualifications
1 48 (5.01%) Degree
2 40 (4.17%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.71%) SC Cleared
4 17 (1.77%) PMP
5 11 (1.15%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.94%) CSPO
7 8 (0.83%) CCNP
7 8 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
8 7 (0.73%) APMP
8 7 (0.73%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (0.73%) DBS Check
8 7 (0.73%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (0.52%) CISSP
10 5 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (0.52%) MBA
11 4 (0.42%) CCIE
11 4 (0.42%) CCSE
11 4 (0.42%) CCSM
12 3 (0.31%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (4.17%) QA
2 39 (4.07%) Data Quality
3 34 (3.55%) GDPR
4 32 (3.34%) PMO
5 14 (1.46%) Accessibility
5 14 (1.46%) SLA
6 10 (1.04%) PCI DSS
7 8 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.52%) NIST
9 4 (0.42%) IFRS
10 3 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.21%) GRC
11 2 (0.21%) WCAG
12 1 (0.10%) COBIT
12 1 (0.10%) GAAP
12 1 (0.10%) IFRS 9
12 1 (0.10%) ISO 8583
12 1 (0.10%) NCSC
System Software
1 20 (2.09%) Docker
2 18 (1.88%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.63%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.31%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.10%) RACF
Systems Management
1 22 (2.29%) Terraform
2 14 (1.46%) Kubernetes
3 9 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (0.73%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.63%) Argo
5 6 (0.63%) Istio
6 5 (0.52%) SCCM
6 5 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.42%) Grafana
8 2 (0.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.21%) Ansible
8 2 (0.21%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.21%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.21%) MOM
8 2 (0.21%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.10%) Control-M
9 1 (0.10%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.10%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.10%) zSecure
Vendors
1 81 (8.45%) Microsoft
2 71 (7.40%) SAP
3 58 (6.05%) Oracle
4 48 (5.01%) Salesforce
5 45 (4.69%) Google
6 39 (4.07%) Databricks
7 24 (2.50%) Adobe
8 15 (1.56%) ServiceNow
8 15 (1.56%) Sitecore
9 14 (1.46%) IFS
10 13 (1.36%) Cisco
11 11 (1.15%) VMware
12 9 (0.94%) CheckPoint
12 9 (0.94%) Palo Alto
13 8 (0.83%) Fortinet
13 8 (0.83%) Temenos
14 7 (0.73%) Workday
15 6 (0.63%) GoldenSource
15 6 (0.63%) IBM
15 6 (0.63%) Zscaler