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

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 97 77
Rank change year-on-year +2 -20 +8
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,146 654 1,009
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.65% 2.63% 2.67%
As % of the General category 4.84% 4.08% 4.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 340 554
10th Percentile £281 £325 £282
25th Percentile £413 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £509
Median % change year-on-year - +3.19% -3.10%
75th Percentile £644 £635 £634
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £520 £505
% change year-on-year +0.96% +2.97% -5.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 28 87
10th Percentile £13.02 £14.71 £11.50
25th Percentile £15.25 £15.25 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.83% +1.88% -19.23%
75th Percentile £22.50 £34.06 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £58.93 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £19.40 £16.00
% change year-on-year +8.25% +21.25% -19.23%

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 23,658 16,017 21,573
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 54.76% 64.32% 57.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,411 10,325 13,753
10th Percentile £313 £282 £285
25th Percentile £413 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £520 £534
Median % change year-on-year - -2.62% -2.91%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £749 £763 £775
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,651 774 1,850
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.38 £12.88
25th Percentile £18.75 £16.93 £15.62
Median hourly rate £33.00 £28.18 £31.97
Median % change year-on-year +17.10% -11.85% +6.57%
75th Percentile £63.75 £53.75 £53.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £75.00 £67.83
UK median hourly rate £32.36 £28.00 £30.50
% change year-on-year +15.58% -8.20% -0.13%

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 20 June 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 20 June 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 20 June 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 +12 660 £540 -1.82% 392
South East +4 153 £525 -2.33% 272
North of England -41 135 £525 +5.00% 179
Midlands -19 95 £500 +8.11% 164
North West -5 88 £575 +15.00% 99
East of England +1 56 £544 -1.14% 95
East Midlands -1 53 £495 +7.03% 96
Yorkshire -59 44 £500 - 66
West Midlands -34 42 £514 +8.30% 68
South West -21 33 £333 -26.11% 75
North East -35 3 £173 -76.98% 19
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 32 (2.79%) Confluence
2 16 (1.40%) CMS
3 14 (1.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 10 (0.87%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.61%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.35%) SAS
7 3 (0.26%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.17%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.17%) CICS
9 1 (0.087%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 33 (2.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (2.18%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.57%) Microsoft Project
4 17 (1.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (1.13%) Chatbot
6 11 (0.96%) MS Visio
7 9 (0.79%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.70%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.70%) Adobe Illustrator
9 5 (0.44%) InDesign
10 3 (0.26%) Notion
10 3 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
11 2 (0.17%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.087%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.087%) CPLEX
12 1 (0.087%) Maya
12 1 (0.087%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.087%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 25 (2.18%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (2.01%) Shopify
3 12 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.87%) Oracle Retail
5 9 (0.79%) SAP Retail
6 7 (0.61%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 6 (0.52%) Finacle
7 6 (0.52%) SAP CRM
8 5 (0.44%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.35%) Magento
9 4 (0.35%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
10 3 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
10 3 (0.26%) SAP CAR
10 3 (0.26%) SAP SD
11 2 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
11 2 (0.17%) Oracle EBS
11 2 (0.17%) SAP ERP
11 2 (0.17%) SAP MM
12 1 (0.087%) Cognos Controller
Cloud Services
1 133 (11.61%) Azure
2 104 (9.08%) AWS
3 65 (5.67%) Power Platform
4 63 (5.50%) GCP
5 38 (3.32%) Snowflake
6 24 (2.09%) GitHub
7 22 (1.92%) Azure DevOps
7 22 (1.92%) Dynamics 365
8 18 (1.57%) Entra ID
9 16 (1.40%) Figma
10 15 (1.31%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (1.22%) SaaS
12 13 (1.13%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 12 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
14 11 (0.96%) BigCommerce
14 11 (0.96%) dbt
14 11 (0.96%) Google Workspace
15 10 (0.87%) Microsoft 365
16 9 (0.79%) Miro
16 9 (0.79%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.13%) ATM
1 13 (1.13%) Firewall
1 13 (1.13%) WAN
2 12 (1.05%) Network Security
3 11 (0.96%) VPN
3 11 (0.96%) Wireless
4 9 (0.79%) RFID
5 7 (0.61%) LAN
6 6 (0.52%) Cisco Firepower
6 6 (0.52%) SD-WAN
6 6 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (0.44%) BGP
7 5 (0.44%) Cisco ASA
7 5 (0.44%) Cisco Nexus
7 5 (0.44%) IPsec
7 5 (0.44%) OSPF
7 5 (0.44%) VSAN
8 4 (0.35%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 4 (0.35%) VLAN
9 3 (0.26%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (5.50%) Power BI
2 25 (2.18%) BigQuery
3 19 (1.66%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (1.66%) MySQL
4 18 (1.57%) Tableau
5 16 (1.40%) SQL Server
6 15 (1.31%) Metadata
7 12 (1.05%) Data Lake
8 10 (0.87%) NoSQL
9 9 (0.79%) Relational Database
10 6 (0.52%) Data Vault
11 5 (0.44%) MongoDB
11 5 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
11 5 (0.44%) Power Query
12 4 (0.35%) Big Data
12 4 (0.35%) Looker
12 4 (0.35%) Semantic Layer
12 4 (0.35%) Snowflake Schema
13 3 (0.26%) Amazon QuickSight
13 3 (0.26%) Couchbase
Development Applications
1 73 (6.37%) JIRA
2 18 (1.57%) Git
3 11 (0.96%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.35%) Maven
4 4 (0.35%) Subversion
5 3 (0.26%) Cypress.io
5 3 (0.26%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.26%) ERwin
5 3 (0.26%) GitLab
5 3 (0.26%) Selenium
5 3 (0.26%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.17%) git-flow
6 2 (0.17%) Hudson
6 2 (0.17%) JMeter
6 2 (0.17%) MLflow
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
6 2 (0.17%) Postman
6 2 (0.17%) WebDriver
6 2 (0.17%) webpack
7 1 (0.087%) Toad
General
1 327 (28.53%) Social Skills
2 272 (23.73%) Finance
3 109 (9.51%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (8.73%) Banking
5 72 (6.28%) Marketing
6 60 (5.24%) Manufacturing
7 56 (4.89%) Organisational Skills
8 47 (4.10%) Retail Banking
9 38 (3.32%) Investment Banking
10 34 (2.97%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (2.36%) Telecoms
12 25 (2.18%) Documentation Skills
13 22 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
13 22 (1.92%) Public Sector
14 20 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
15 19 (1.66%) Legal
16 18 (1.57%) French Language
17 17 (1.48%) Advertising
17 17 (1.48%) Spanish Language
18 13 (1.13%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 192 (16.75%) Architect
2 153 (13.35%) Analyst
3 135 (11.78%) Senior
4 108 (9.42%) Project Manager
5 93 (8.12%) Solutions Architect
6 87 (7.59%) Lead
7 83 (7.24%) Business Analyst
8 60 (5.24%) Senior Manager
9 42 (3.66%) Designer
10 41 (3.58%) Developer
11 40 (3.49%) Technical Manager
12 36 (3.14%) Enterprise Architect
12 36 (3.14%) Product Manager
13 35 (3.05%) Consultant
14 34 (2.97%) Senior Project Manager
15 28 (2.44%) 2nd Line Support
16 26 (2.27%) Data Engineer
17 25 (2.18%) Programme Manager
18 24 (2.09%) Data Architect
19 21 (1.83%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (3.66%) REST
2 29 (2.53%) Middleware
3 25 (2.18%) VML
4 24 (2.09%) React
5 21 (1.83%) Spring
6 16 (1.40%) Kafka
7 15 (1.31%) Spring Boot
8 14 (1.22%) CSS
8 14 (1.22%) HTML
9 13 (1.13%) Node.js
9 13 (1.13%) RESTful
10 11 (0.96%) .NET
10 11 (0.96%) J2EE
10 11 (0.96%) MACH
11 10 (0.87%) OAuth
12 9 (0.79%) AngularJS
13 8 (0.70%) Django
13 8 (0.70%) OAuth2
13 8 (0.70%) OpenID
13 8 (0.70%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 73 (6.37%) Product Ownership
2 45 (3.93%) FMCG
3 38 (3.32%) EPoS
4 33 (2.88%) Onboarding
5 30 (2.62%) Cloud Native
6 29 (2.53%) Driving Licence
7 21 (1.83%) Data Centre
7 21 (1.83%) Data Structures
8 20 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
9 17 (1.48%) Self-Motivation
10 16 (1.40%) Mobile App
11 15 (1.31%) Marketing Technology
12 14 (1.22%) Greenfield Project
12 14 (1.22%) Mainframe
12 14 (1.22%) Management Information System
13 11 (0.96%) AI Agents
13 11 (0.96%) Operational Technology
13 11 (0.96%) Smartphone
14 10 (0.87%) Taxonomies
14 10 (0.87%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 51 (4.45%) Windows
2 23 (2.01%) Linux
3 12 (1.05%) Android
4 9 (0.79%) Unix
5 6 (0.52%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.44%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.44%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.35%) zOS
8 3 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.26%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.26%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.087%) Debian
9 1 (0.087%) SUSE
9 1 (0.087%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.087%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 263 (22.95%) Stakeholder Management
2 256 (22.34%) Agile
3 173 (15.10%) Problem-Solving
4 171 (14.92%) E-Commerce
5 152 (13.26%) Migration
6 144 (12.57%) Roadmaps
7 122 (10.65%) Analytics
8 112 (9.77%) Customer Experience
9 107 (9.34%) Project Management
10 93 (8.12%) AI
10 93 (8.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 89 (7.77%) ERP
12 83 (7.24%) Business Intelligence
13 82 (7.16%) Change Management
13 82 (7.16%) Project Delivery
14 81 (7.07%) Continuous Improvement
15 80 (6.98%) Decision-Making
15 80 (6.98%) User Acceptance Testing
16 79 (6.89%) Scrum
16 79 (6.89%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 86 (7.50%) SQL
2 72 (6.28%) Python
3 45 (3.93%) Java
4 24 (2.09%) JavaScript
5 17 (1.48%) TypeScript
6 10 (0.87%) C#
6 10 (0.87%) Shell Script
7 9 (0.79%) PowerShell
8 6 (0.52%) PL/SQL
9 5 (0.44%) Bash
9 5 (0.44%) Bicep
9 5 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (0.44%) SOQL
10 4 (0.35%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.35%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.35%) R
10 4 (0.35%) Scala
11 3 (0.26%) ABAP
11 3 (0.26%) Groovy
11 3 (0.26%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 56 (4.89%) Degree
2 38 (3.32%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.09%) SC Cleared
4 17 (1.48%) PMP
5 10 (0.87%) DBS Check
5 10 (0.87%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (0.70%) CISSP
8 7 (0.61%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (0.52%) CISM
10 5 (0.44%) APMP
10 5 (0.44%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (0.44%) CCNP
10 5 (0.44%) CCSE
10 5 (0.44%) CCSM
10 5 (0.44%) CSPO
10 5 (0.44%) MBA
11 4 (0.35%) City & Guilds
12 3 (0.26%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (4.19%) QA
2 42 (3.66%) Data Quality
3 34 (2.97%) GDPR
4 31 (2.71%) PMO
5 18 (1.57%) Accessibility
6 15 (1.31%) PCI DSS
7 10 (0.87%) SLA
8 9 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.61%) NIST
10 3 (0.26%) PSD2
11 2 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.17%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.17%) GAAP
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
11 2 (0.17%) IFRS
11 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.17%) WCAG
12 1 (0.087%) COBIT
12 1 (0.087%) GxP
12 1 (0.087%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 22 (1.92%) Active Directory
2 21 (1.83%) Docker
3 6 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
3 6 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.17%) Firmware
5 2 (0.17%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 28 (2.44%) Terraform
2 20 (1.75%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.52%) Ansible
4 6 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (0.44%) SCCM
6 4 (0.35%) FortiGate
6 4 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.26%) Grafana
8 2 (0.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.17%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.17%) MOM
8 2 (0.17%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.087%) Argo
9 1 (0.087%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.087%) Istio
9 1 (0.087%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 98 (8.55%) Microsoft
2 79 (6.89%) SAP
3 71 (6.20%) Oracle
4 50 (4.36%) Google
5 49 (4.28%) Salesforce
6 40 (3.49%) Databricks
7 32 (2.79%) Adobe
8 21 (1.83%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.22%) IFS
10 13 (1.13%) Cisco
10 13 (1.13%) Sitecore
10 13 (1.13%) Zscaler
11 11 (0.96%) Fortinet
11 11 (0.96%) Palo Alto
12 10 (0.87%) VMware
13 9 (0.79%) MuleSoft
13 9 (0.79%) Splunk
14 7 (0.61%) Apple
14 7 (0.61%) IBM
15 6 (0.52%) BMC