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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 90 78
Rank change year-on-year -13 -12 +7
Contract jobs citing Retail 938 654 992
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.30% 2.70% 2.72%
As % of the General category 4.24% 4.21% 4.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 560 347 548
10th Percentile £237 £313 £287
25th Percentile £411 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.95% +1.94% -1.90%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £753 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £505
% change year-on-year -4.31% +3.47% -5.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 15 86
10th Percentile £13.18 £15.25 £11.44
25th Percentile £15.85 £16.30 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £22.50 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +40.63% -20.12%
75th Percentile £35.00 £52.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £62.60 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £29.00 £16.00
% change year-on-year -27.59% +81.25% -20.12%

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 22,101 15,523 21,243
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 54.26% 64.15% 58.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,699 10,059 13,688
10th Percentile £306 £296 £280
25th Percentile £412 £409 £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 1,452 669 1,780
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.97 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.00 £16.95 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.78 £27.50 £30.50
Median % change year-on-year +11.93% -9.84% -6.15%
75th Percentile £63.75 £55.25 £51.91
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.33
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.16
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.82% -11.29%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -16 512 £538 -2.49% 395
North of England -31 125 £511 +13.61% 249
South East -13 123 £463 -2.63% 276
Midlands -26 86 £495 -1.00% 157
North West +1 75 £518 +6.15% 141
East Midlands +1 50 £495 -1.00% 78
East of England -8 49 £509 -3.05% 112
Yorkshire -50 47 £513 +38.51% 96
West Midlands -52 36 £500 +11.11% 79
South West -16 29 £333 -33.50% 71
North East -19 3 £201 -73.17% 16
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 (3.73%) Confluence
2 14 (1.49%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 7 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (0.64%) CMS
6 4 (0.43%) SAS
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.21%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.11%) CICS
8 1 (0.11%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 33 (3.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (2.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (2.03%) Microsoft Project
4 13 (1.39%) Chatbot
5 11 (1.17%) MS Visio
6 8 (0.85%) Photoshop
7 6 (0.64%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.32%) InDesign
9 2 (0.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.21%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.11%) 3ds Max
10 1 (0.11%) Adobe After Effects
10 1 (0.11%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.11%) Maya
10 1 (0.11%) PlantUML
10 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
10 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
10 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (2.13%) Shopify
2 16 (1.71%) SAP S/4HANA
3 9 (0.96%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.75%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 7 (0.75%) Oracle Retail
4 7 (0.75%) SAP Retail
5 6 (0.64%) Finacle
6 5 (0.53%) SAP CRM
6 5 (0.53%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.43%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.32%) Magento
8 3 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
9 2 (0.21%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
9 2 (0.21%) NetSuite
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
9 2 (0.21%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.21%) SAP MM
10 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 94 (10.02%) Azure
2 72 (7.68%) AWS
3 54 (5.76%) GCP
4 50 (5.33%) Power Platform
5 27 (2.88%) Snowflake
6 22 (2.35%) Dynamics 365
7 21 (2.24%) GitHub
8 17 (1.81%) Microsoft 365
9 15 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
9 15 (1.60%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 13 (1.39%) BigCommerce
10 13 (1.39%) Figma
10 13 (1.39%) GitHub Actions
11 11 (1.17%) Entra ID
12 10 (1.07%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.07%) Miro
12 10 (1.07%) SaaS
13 9 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
13 9 (0.96%) Cloud Run
14 8 (0.85%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.60%) Firewall
1 15 (1.60%) WAN
2 14 (1.49%) VPN
3 12 (1.28%) RFID
4 11 (1.17%) Wireless
5 8 (0.85%) ATM
5 8 (0.85%) Cisco Nexus
5 8 (0.85%) LAN
6 7 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.64%) BGP
7 6 (0.64%) OSPF
8 5 (0.53%) Cisco Firepower
8 5 (0.53%) Network Security
9 4 (0.43%) Cisco ASA
9 4 (0.43%) EIGRP
9 4 (0.43%) NFC
9 4 (0.43%) VoIP
9 4 (0.43%) VSAN
10 3 (0.32%) MPLS
10 3 (0.32%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (4.90%) Power BI
2 28 (2.99%) BigQuery
3 17 (1.81%) Data Warehouse
4 12 (1.28%) MySQL
4 12 (1.28%) SQL Server
5 11 (1.17%) Tableau
6 10 (1.07%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.96%) Metadata
8 6 (0.64%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.53%) Data Vault
9 5 (0.53%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.43%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.43%) Semantic Layer
11 3 (0.32%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.32%) Big Data
11 3 (0.32%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.32%) OLAP
11 3 (0.32%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.32%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 73 (7.78%) JIRA
2 14 (1.49%) Git
3 12 (1.28%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.85%) GitLab
5 4 (0.43%) Maven
6 3 (0.32%) ERwin
6 3 (0.32%) Subversion
7 2 (0.21%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.21%) JMeter
7 2 (0.21%) MLflow
7 2 (0.21%) Selenium
7 2 (0.21%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.21%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.11%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.11%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.11%) Gatling
8 1 (0.11%) Hudson
8 1 (0.11%) Mockito
8 1 (0.11%) webpack
8 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 275 (29.32%) Social Skills
2 244 (26.01%) Finance
3 96 (10.23%) Analytical Skills
4 84 (8.96%) Banking
5 60 (6.40%) Marketing
6 45 (4.80%) Organisational Skills
7 41 (4.37%) Manufacturing
8 38 (4.05%) Retail Banking
9 33 (3.52%) Investment Banking
10 31 (3.30%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (2.88%) Presentation Skills
11 27 (2.88%) Public Sector
12 25 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
12 25 (2.67%) Telecoms
13 22 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
14 16 (1.71%) Legal
15 13 (1.39%) Back Office
16 12 (1.28%) Advertising
17 10 (1.07%) French Language
18 9 (0.96%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 144 (15.35%) Architect
2 138 (14.71%) Analyst
3 119 (12.69%) Senior
4 102 (10.87%) Project Manager
5 83 (8.85%) Business Analyst
6 68 (7.25%) Lead
7 55 (5.86%) Senior Manager
7 55 (5.86%) Solutions Architect
8 39 (4.16%) Technical Manager
9 33 (3.52%) Designer
10 32 (3.41%) Consultant
11 30 (3.20%) Enterprise Architect
12 29 (3.09%) Senior Project Manager
13 28 (2.99%) Developer
14 26 (2.77%) Data Architect
15 24 (2.56%) Product Manager
16 20 (2.13%) Programme Manager
17 18 (1.92%) Data Engineer
17 18 (1.92%) Network Engineer
17 18 (1.92%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.20%) VML
2 27 (2.88%) Middleware
3 22 (2.35%) REST
4 21 (2.24%) React
5 18 (1.92%) Spring
6 16 (1.71%) Node.js
7 13 (1.39%) AngularJS
8 12 (1.28%) Spring Boot
9 9 (0.96%) CSS
10 8 (0.85%) PySpark
11 7 (0.75%) Kafka
11 7 (0.75%) LangChain
11 7 (0.75%) MACH
11 7 (0.75%) OpenTelemetry
12 6 (0.64%) HTML
12 6 (0.64%) jQuery
12 6 (0.64%) OAuth
12 6 (0.64%) OAuth2
12 6 (0.64%) OpenID
12 6 (0.64%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 68 (7.25%) Product Ownership
2 28 (2.99%) Cloud Native
2 28 (2.99%) EPoS
3 27 (2.88%) Driving Licence
4 24 (2.56%) Onboarding
5 23 (2.45%) Data Centre
6 21 (2.24%) FMCG
7 19 (2.03%) Data Structures
7 19 (2.03%) Management Information System
7 19 (2.03%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (1.49%) Mainframe
9 13 (1.39%) Mobile App
10 10 (1.07%) AI Agents
10 10 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
10 10 (1.07%) Virtual Team
11 8 (0.85%) CCTV
12 7 (0.75%) Enterprise Cloud
12 7 (0.75%) Smartphone
13 6 (0.64%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 43 (4.58%) Windows
2 20 (2.13%) Linux
3 7 (0.75%) Android
3 7 (0.75%) Mac OS
4 6 (0.64%) Unix
5 5 (0.53%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.43%) zOS
7 3 (0.32%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.21%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.11%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (22.07%) Stakeholder Management
2 206 (21.96%) Agile
3 171 (18.23%) Problem-Solving
4 141 (15.03%) E-Commerce
5 116 (12.37%) Migration
6 110 (11.73%) Roadmaps
7 101 (10.77%) Project Management
8 98 (10.45%) Analytics
9 91 (9.70%) Customer Experience
10 80 (8.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 79 (8.42%) ERP
12 72 (7.68%) Scrum
13 71 (7.57%) Continuous Improvement
14 70 (7.46%) AI
15 69 (7.36%) Project Delivery
16 68 (7.25%) Change Management
17 67 (7.14%) Decision-Making
18 65 (6.93%) Workshop Facilitation
19 63 (6.72%) User Acceptance Testing
20 61 (6.50%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 59 (6.29%) SQL
2 52 (5.54%) Python
3 28 (2.99%) Java
4 22 (2.35%) JavaScript
5 10 (1.07%) PowerShell
5 10 (1.07%) Shell Script
5 10 (1.07%) TypeScript
6 6 (0.64%) Bash
7 5 (0.53%) Kusto Query Language
8 4 (0.43%) Scala
8 4 (0.43%) SOQL
8 4 (0.43%) VBA
9 3 (0.32%) Apex Code
9 3 (0.32%) Bicep
9 3 (0.32%) C#
9 3 (0.32%) Kotlin
9 3 (0.32%) PL/SQL
9 3 (0.32%) SOSL
10 2 (0.21%) Google Apps Script
10 2 (0.21%) R
Qualifications
1 48 (5.12%) Degree
2 40 (4.26%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.77%) SC Cleared
4 16 (1.71%) PMP
5 11 (1.17%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.96%) CSPO
7 8 (0.85%) CCNP
7 8 (0.85%) Cisco Certification
8 7 (0.75%) APMP
8 7 (0.75%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (0.75%) DBS Check
8 7 (0.75%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.64%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (0.53%) CISSP
10 5 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (0.53%) MBA
11 4 (0.43%) CCIE
11 4 (0.43%) CCSE
11 4 (0.43%) CCSM
12 3 (0.32%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (4.16%) QA
2 38 (4.05%) Data Quality
3 34 (3.62%) GDPR
4 31 (3.30%) PMO
5 15 (1.60%) SLA
6 14 (1.49%) Accessibility
7 10 (1.07%) PCI DSS
8 8 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.53%) NIST
10 4 (0.43%) IFRS
11 3 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.21%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.21%) GRC
12 2 (0.21%) WCAG
13 1 (0.11%) COBIT
13 1 (0.11%) GAAP
13 1 (0.11%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.11%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.11%) NCSC
System Software
1 19 (2.03%) Docker
2 18 (1.92%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.32%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.11%) RACF
Systems Management
1 21 (2.24%) Terraform
2 14 (1.49%) Kubernetes
3 9 (0.96%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (0.75%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.64%) Argo
5 6 (0.64%) Istio
6 5 (0.53%) SCCM
6 5 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.43%) 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 (0.11%) Control-M
9 1 (0.11%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.11%) zSecure
Vendors
1 80 (8.53%) Microsoft
2 70 (7.46%) SAP
3 58 (6.18%) Oracle
4 48 (5.12%) Salesforce
5 44 (4.69%) Google
6 39 (4.16%) Databricks
7 24 (2.56%) Adobe
8 15 (1.60%) ServiceNow
8 15 (1.60%) Sitecore
9 14 (1.49%) IFS
10 13 (1.39%) Cisco
11 11 (1.17%) VMware
12 9 (0.96%) CheckPoint
12 9 (0.96%) Palo Alto
13 8 (0.85%) Fortinet
13 8 (0.85%) Temenos
14 7 (0.75%) Workday
15 6 (0.64%) GoldenSource
15 6 (0.64%) IBM
15 6 (0.64%) Zscaler