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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 110 86
Rank change year-on-year +33 -24 +4
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,508 698 859
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.24% 2.51% 2.61%
As % of the General category 5.79% 3.90% 4.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 868 373 471
10th Percentile £325 £300 £268
25th Percentile £456 £413 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -
75th Percentile £675 £638 £625
90th Percentile £738 £748 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 62 35
10th Percentile £12.76 £15.25 £12.15
25th Percentile £13.45 £15.48 £15.07
Median hourly rate £15.67 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -4.07% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £19.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £25.15 £35.30
UK median hourly rate £15.24 £16.34 £16.30
% change year-on-year -6.70% +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 26,050 17,915 19,198
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.96% 64.41% 58.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,340 11,348 11,698
10th Percentile £313 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
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 2,257 1,020 975
10th Percentile £13.63 £13.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £16.17 £17.44
Median hourly rate £31.16 £25.15 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +23.88% -34.68% +29.41%
75th Percentile £57.50 £47.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £71.28 £71.40
UK median hourly rate £29.96 £25.15 £35.36
% change year-on-year +19.13% -28.87% +28.58%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +45 841 £575 +4.55% 1,868
North of England -20 198 £550 +10.00% 565
South East +3 170 £575 +4.55% 551
Midlands +32 157 £550 +29.41% 388
North West +1 122 £550 +10.00% 317
East Midlands +21 91 £500 +14.68% 181
East of England +11 80 £550 - 195
West Midlands -3 65 £575 +35.29% 207
Yorkshire -37 58 £500 - 201
South West -21 48 £375 +19.05% 173
North East -38 18 £525 +18.64% 53
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 (3.32%) Confluence
2 22 (1.46%) CMS
3 14 (0.93%) SharePoint
4 12 (0.80%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.53%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 5 (0.33%) SAS
7 4 (0.27%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.20%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.13%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.13%) Apache
9 2 (0.13%) CICS
9 2 (0.13%) WordPress
10 1 (0.066%) Mendix
10 1 (0.066%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.066%) Mule
10 1 (0.066%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 64 (4.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 49 (3.25%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (0.99%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 12 (0.80%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
6 10 (0.66%) MS Visio
7 9 (0.60%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.53%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.40%) CPLEX
9 6 (0.40%) InDesign
10 4 (0.27%) Chatbot
10 4 (0.27%) Notion
11 1 (0.066%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.066%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.066%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.066%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.066%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 47 (3.12%) SAP S/4HANA
2 26 (1.72%) Shopify
3 14 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.66%) Oracle Retail
5 8 (0.53%) Magento
5 8 (0.53%) SAP Retail
6 6 (0.40%) NetSuite
6 6 (0.40%) Salesforce CRM
6 6 (0.40%) SAP CRM
7 5 (0.33%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.33%) Workday HCM
8 4 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.27%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.20%) OpenText VIM for SAP
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle BPM
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.20%) SAP IBP
9 3 (0.20%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 201 (13.33%) Azure
2 141 (9.35%) AWS
3 76 (5.04%) Power Platform
4 72 (4.77%) GCP
5 54 (3.58%) Snowflake
6 47 (3.12%) GitHub
7 36 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
8 33 (2.19%) Entra ID
9 28 (1.86%) GitHub Actions
10 26 (1.72%) Dynamics 365
10 26 (1.72%) SaaS
11 20 (1.33%) Figma
12 17 (1.13%) dbt
12 17 (1.13%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 16 (1.06%) Azure Data Factory
14 15 (0.99%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 15 (0.99%) OCI
15 14 (0.93%) Microsoft 365
16 13 (0.86%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 8 (0.53%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.46%) Firewall
1 22 (1.46%) WAN
2 16 (1.06%) VPN
3 14 (0.93%) ATM
3 14 (0.93%) Network Security
3 14 (0.93%) Wireless
4 13 (0.86%) LAN
5 12 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (0.53%) BGP
6 8 (0.53%) IPsec
6 8 (0.53%) OSPF
7 7 (0.46%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 7 (0.46%) Internet
7 7 (0.46%) SD-WAN
7 7 (0.46%) VLAN
8 6 (0.40%) Structured Cabling
9 5 (0.33%) DNS
10 4 (0.27%) Broadband
10 4 (0.27%) Cisco Firepower
10 4 (0.27%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (5.04%) Power BI
2 38 (2.52%) Data Warehouse
3 34 (2.25%) BigQuery
4 27 (1.79%) Data Lake
5 21 (1.39%) Metadata
5 21 (1.39%) SQL Server
6 19 (1.26%) MongoDB
7 18 (1.19%) NoSQL
8 17 (1.13%) Tableau
9 14 (0.93%) Relational Database
10 13 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
10 13 (0.86%) PostgreSQL
10 13 (0.86%) Power Query
11 12 (0.80%) MySQL
12 11 (0.73%) Redis
13 10 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 9 (0.60%) SAP BW
15 8 (0.53%) SAP HANA
15 8 (0.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 8 (0.53%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 77 (5.11%) JIRA
2 22 (1.46%) Git
3 20 (1.33%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.53%) Subversion
5 7 (0.46%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.33%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.27%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.27%) GitLab
7 4 (0.27%) Hudson
7 4 (0.27%) JMeter
8 3 (0.20%) Postman
9 2 (0.13%) git-flow
9 2 (0.13%) MLflow
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.13%) Selenium
9 2 (0.13%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) webpack
10 1 (0.066%) MSI
10 1 (0.066%) Toad
General
1 446 (29.58%) Social Skills
2 343 (22.75%) Finance
3 160 (10.61%) Analytical Skills
4 127 (8.42%) Marketing
5 113 (7.49%) Banking
6 105 (6.96%) Manufacturing
7 69 (4.58%) Organisational Skills
8 56 (3.71%) Retail Banking
9 38 (2.52%) Corporate Banking
10 37 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (2.45%) Investment Banking
11 29 (1.92%) Telecoms
12 28 (1.86%) Advertising
12 28 (1.86%) Legal
13 27 (1.79%) Public Sector
14 23 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
15 18 (1.19%) French Language
15 18 (1.19%) Spanish Language
16 17 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 15 (0.99%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 264 (17.51%) Architect
2 207 (13.73%) Analyst
3 164 (10.88%) Senior
4 151 (10.01%) Solutions Architect
5 119 (7.89%) Project Manager
6 111 (7.36%) Business Analyst
7 106 (7.03%) Lead
8 77 (5.11%) Developer
9 53 (3.51%) Product Manager
10 49 (3.25%) Consultant
10 49 (3.25%) Designer
11 46 (3.05%) Senior Manager
12 42 (2.79%) Supply Chain Architect
13 32 (2.12%) Senior Developer
14 31 (2.06%) Data Architect
14 31 (2.06%) Technical Manager
15 30 (1.99%) Data Analyst
15 30 (1.99%) Enterprise Architect
16 27 (1.79%) Programme Manager
17 26 (1.72%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (4.05%) REST
2 50 (3.32%) Terraform
3 39 (2.59%) React
4 34 (2.25%) Kafka
5 27 (1.79%) Spring
6 24 (1.59%) Node.js
6 24 (1.59%) Spring Boot
7 23 (1.53%) Middleware
8 21 (1.39%) Django
8 21 (1.39%) MACH
9 20 (1.33%) VML
10 19 (1.26%) RESTful
11 17 (1.13%) SOAP
12 16 (1.06%) HTML
12 16 (1.06%) Next.js
13 12 (0.80%) CSS
13 12 (0.80%) OAuth
14 11 (0.73%) SAP Fiori
15 10 (0.66%) .NET
15 10 (0.66%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 76 (5.04%) Product Ownership
2 69 (4.58%) FMCG
3 56 (3.71%) EPoS
4 53 (3.51%) Onboarding
5 46 (3.05%) Cloud Native
6 35 (2.32%) Legacy Systems
7 27 (1.79%) Driving Licence
7 27 (1.79%) Management Information System
7 27 (1.79%) Mobile App
8 26 (1.72%) Data Centre
9 24 (1.59%) Data Structures
10 23 (1.53%) Greenfield Project
11 22 (1.46%) Marketing Technology
11 22 (1.46%) Operational Technology
12 21 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (1.26%) Distributed Systems
14 17 (1.13%) Smartphone
15 16 (1.06%) Mainframe
16 15 (0.99%) Hybrid Cloud
16 15 (0.99%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 48 (3.18%) Windows
2 16 (1.06%) Linux
3 11 (0.73%) Android
4 7 (0.46%) Apple iOS
4 7 (0.46%) Unix
5 6 (0.40%) Mac OS
5 6 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.40%) Ubuntu
6 4 (0.27%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.13%) Debian
7 2 (0.13%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.13%) zOS
8 1 (0.066%) OS/2
8 1 (0.066%) SUSE
8 1 (0.066%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.066%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 412 (27.32%) Stakeholder Management
2 347 (23.01%) Agile
3 228 (15.12%) E-Commerce
4 188 (12.47%) Migration
5 178 (11.80%) Analytics
6 176 (11.67%) Problem-Solving
7 172 (11.41%) Logistics
8 165 (10.94%) Roadmaps
9 162 (10.74%) AI
10 139 (9.22%) Decision-Making
11 136 (9.02%) Customer Experience
12 134 (8.89%) Continuous Improvement
13 125 (8.29%) CRM
14 121 (8.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 115 (7.63%) CI/CD
16 114 (7.56%) Project Management
17 109 (7.23%) Customer Service
18 107 (7.10%) Business Intelligence
19 103 (6.83%) DevOps
20 102 (6.76%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 127 (8.42%) SQL
2 101 (6.70%) Python
3 48 (3.18%) Java
4 35 (2.32%) TypeScript
5 22 (1.46%) JavaScript
6 13 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.66%) ABAP
7 10 (0.66%) C#
7 10 (0.66%) R
8 8 (0.53%) Bash
9 7 (0.46%) PowerShell
10 6 (0.40%) Apex Code
10 6 (0.40%) PL/SQL
11 5 (0.33%) Groovy
11 5 (0.33%) Scala
12 4 (0.27%) Bicep
12 4 (0.27%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.27%) SOQL
12 4 (0.27%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.13%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 59 (3.91%) Degree
2 44 (2.92%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.46%) PMP
4 20 (1.33%) SC Cleared
5 11 (0.73%) PMI Certification
6 10 (0.66%) DBS Check
6 10 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (0.40%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (0.40%) CISSP
8 5 (0.33%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (0.33%) CISM
8 5 (0.33%) City & Guilds
8 5 (0.33%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (0.33%) CSPO
8 5 (0.33%) Six Sigma Green Belt
9 3 (0.20%) APMG
9 3 (0.20%) AWS Certification
9 3 (0.20%) CCSM
9 3 (0.20%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 3 (0.20%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (4.64%) QA
2 66 (4.38%) Data Quality
3 31 (2.06%) GDPR
4 25 (1.66%) PMO
5 24 (1.59%) Accessibility
6 14 (0.93%) PCI DSS
7 8 (0.53%) SLA
8 7 (0.46%) NIST
9 6 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 5 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.33%) WCAG
11 3 (0.20%) GRC
11 3 (0.20%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) GAAP
12 2 (0.13%) IFRS
12 2 (0.13%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.066%) Cyber Essentials
13 1 (0.066%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.066%) IASME
System Software
1 34 (2.25%) Docker
2 26 (1.72%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.86%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.40%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.33%) Firmware
5 5 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.066%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 37 (2.45%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (0.66%) Ansible
4 7 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.40%) FortiGate
6 5 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.27%) Bosun
7 4 (0.27%) SCCM
8 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.13%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.13%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.13%) logstash
8 2 (0.13%) PingFederate
8 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.066%) CloudHub
9 1 (0.066%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.066%) Grafana
9 1 (0.066%) Kubeflow
9 1 (0.066%) vMotion
Vendors
1 145 (9.62%) Microsoft
2 117 (7.76%) SAP
3 83 (5.50%) Salesforce
4 78 (5.17%) Databricks
5 72 (4.77%) Oracle
6 49 (3.25%) Google
7 38 (2.52%) Adobe
8 25 (1.66%) MuleSoft
8 25 (1.66%) Zscaler
9 18 (1.19%) Cisco
9 18 (1.19%) Workday
10 16 (1.06%) ServiceNow
11 15 (0.99%) IBM
12 13 (0.86%) Apple
13 12 (0.80%) Fortinet
13 12 (0.80%) New Relic
14 11 (0.73%) Braze
14 11 (0.73%) IFS
14 11 (0.73%) Palo Alto
15 10 (0.66%) Splunk
3,701 Retail jobs in England