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 5 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 87 80
Rank change year-on-year -43 -7 +5
Contract jobs citing Retail 795 690 972
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.05% 2.83% 2.59%
As % of the General category 3.63% 4.45% 4.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 504 376 558
10th Percentile £200 £306 £280
25th Percentile £363 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £514
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.19% -2.14%
75th Percentile £606 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £744 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £505
% change year-on-year -4.76% +3.96% -4.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 15 74
10th Percentile £12.83 £16.40 £11.13
25th Percentile £14.25 £19.69 £12.15
Median hourly rate £16.34 £32.50 £15.95
Median % change year-on-year -49.74% +103.76% -19.49%
75th Percentile £23.75 £50.00 £21.37
90th Percentile £51.95 £62.60 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £16.50 £33.00 £15.90
% change year-on-year -50.00% +107.55% -19.74%

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 21,923 15,520 21,920
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 56.59% 63.70% 58.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,818 10,111 14,221
10th Percentile £303 £300 £275
25th Percentile £408 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,376 629 1,714
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.42 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £18.13 £15.29
Median hourly rate £26.80 £29.07 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.80% +7.67% -22.86%
75th Percentile £61.18 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £25.77 £29.00 £26.37
% change year-on-year -11.14% +9.97% -24.66%

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 5 April 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 5 April 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 5 April 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 -30 443 £525 -4.55% 362
South East -20 111 £420 -21.86% 242
North of England -55 92 £500 +11.11% 224
Midlands -41 76 £495 -1.00% 186
Yorkshire -33 45 £519 +34.74% 91
East Midlands -9 44 £495 -1.00% 118
North West -47 43 £488 +2.63% 111
East of England -19 38 £475 -9.52% 88
West Midlands -53 31 £500 +11.11% 68
South West -21 19 £310 -4.62% 84
North East -12 4 £206 -72.50% 25
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 36 (4.53%) Confluence
2 14 (1.76%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.64%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 11 (1.38%) CMS
5 9 (1.13%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.50%) WordPress
7 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.25%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.25%) SAS
9 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.13%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 28 (3.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (2.39%) Microsoft Project
3 14 (1.76%) Microsoft Office
4 13 (1.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (1.51%) Chatbot
6 10 (1.26%) MS Visio
7 5 (0.63%) Photoshop
8 4 (0.50%) Adobe Illustrator
9 3 (0.38%) InDesign
10 2 (0.25%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 2 (0.25%) Trello
11 1 (0.13%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.13%) Adobe After Effects
11 1 (0.13%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.13%) Maya
11 1 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
11 1 (0.13%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 20 (2.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (2.14%) Shopify
3 13 (1.64%) SAP Retail
4 11 (1.38%) Dynamics CRM
5 8 (1.01%) Oracle Retail
6 6 (0.75%) Finacle
6 6 (0.75%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 5 (0.63%) SAP Payroll
8 4 (0.50%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.50%) Temenos T24
9 3 (0.38%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 2 (0.25%) BambooHR
10 2 (0.25%) Sprinklr
11 1 (0.13%) Adobe Campaign
11 1 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
11 1 (0.13%) Sage X3
11 1 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
11 1 (0.13%) SAP CAR
11 1 (0.13%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 85 (10.69%) Azure
2 54 (6.79%) Power Platform
3 50 (6.29%) GCP
4 47 (5.91%) AWS
5 23 (2.89%) Dynamics 365
6 21 (2.64%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (2.39%) GitHub
7 19 (2.39%) Snowflake
8 18 (2.26%) Microsoft 365
9 13 (1.64%) SaaS
10 12 (1.51%) Entra ID
10 12 (1.51%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (1.51%) Google Workspace
11 11 (1.38%) Figma
12 10 (1.26%) BigCommerce
12 10 (1.26%) Miro
13 9 (1.13%) Cloud Run
13 9 (1.13%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
14 8 (1.01%) Azure Logic Apps
14 8 (1.01%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.01%) RFID
2 15 (1.89%) VPN
3 11 (1.38%) Firewall
3 11 (1.38%) WAN
3 11 (1.38%) Wireless
4 8 (1.01%) NFC
5 7 (0.88%) LAN
6 6 (0.75%) Cisco Nexus
6 6 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (0.63%) BGP
7 5 (0.63%) OSPF
8 4 (0.50%) EIGRP
8 4 (0.50%) VoIP
9 3 (0.38%) MPLS
10 2 (0.25%) Cisco ASA
10 2 (0.25%) Network Security
10 2 (0.25%) SAN
10 2 (0.25%) SSL
10 2 (0.25%) VSAN
10 2 (0.25%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (5.79%) Power BI
2 27 (3.40%) BigQuery
3 16 (2.01%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.64%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.51%) MySQL
6 11 (1.38%) Tableau
7 10 (1.26%) Metadata
8 7 (0.88%) Data Vault
9 5 (0.63%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.63%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.63%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.50%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.50%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.38%) Looker
11 3 (0.38%) OLAP
11 3 (0.38%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.38%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.38%) SAP BW
11 3 (0.38%) Snowflake Schema
11 3 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 69 (8.68%) JIRA
2 9 (1.13%) Git
2 9 (1.13%) Jenkins
3 7 (0.88%) GitLab
4 5 (0.63%) ERwin
5 4 (0.50%) Maven
6 3 (0.38%) Selenium
6 3 (0.38%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.25%) MLflow
7 2 (0.25%) PowerDesigner
7 2 (0.25%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.13%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.13%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.13%) Gatling
8 1 (0.13%) Hudson
8 1 (0.13%) JMeter
8 1 (0.13%) Mockito
8 1 (0.13%) Xcode
8 1 (0.13%) Zephyr
General
1 269 (33.84%) Social Skills
2 200 (25.16%) Finance
3 92 (11.57%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (8.55%) Banking
5 60 (7.55%) Marketing
6 38 (4.78%) Organisational Skills
7 37 (4.65%) Manufacturing
8 34 (4.28%) Public Sector
9 26 (3.27%) Documentation Skills
10 25 (3.14%) Presentation Skills
11 24 (3.02%) Influencing Skills
11 24 (3.02%) Investment Banking
12 23 (2.89%) Retail Banking
13 22 (2.77%) Corporate Banking
14 13 (1.64%) Telecoms
15 11 (1.38%) Legal
16 9 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 8 (1.01%) Pharmaceutical
18 7 (0.88%) Publishing
19 6 (0.75%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 142 (17.86%) Analyst
2 105 (13.21%) Architect
3 100 (12.58%) Project Manager
4 98 (12.33%) Senior
5 80 (10.06%) Business Analyst
6 62 (7.80%) Lead
7 43 (5.41%) Senior Manager
8 39 (4.91%) Solutions Architect
9 36 (4.53%) Consultant
10 31 (3.90%) Technical Manager
11 23 (2.89%) Senior Project Manager
12 22 (2.77%) Data Architect
13 21 (2.64%) Programme Manager
14 20 (2.52%) Enterprise Architect
15 17 (2.14%) Service Manager
16 16 (2.01%) Designer
16 16 (2.01%) Developer
16 16 (2.01%) IT Manager
17 15 (1.89%) Data Engineer
17 15 (1.89%) Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (3.02%) VML
2 21 (2.64%) Middleware
3 19 (2.39%) REST
4 15 (1.89%) Spring
5 12 (1.51%) AngularJS
6 11 (1.38%) React
7 10 (1.26%) Spring Boot
8 9 (1.13%) PySpark
9 8 (1.01%) .NET
9 8 (1.01%) CSS
9 8 (1.01%) HTML
9 8 (1.01%) Node.js
10 7 (0.88%) scikit-learn
11 6 (0.75%) jQuery
11 6 (0.75%) LangChain
11 6 (0.75%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.63%) OAuth
12 5 (0.63%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.63%) OpenID
12 5 (0.63%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 55 (6.92%) Product Ownership
2 26 (3.27%) Driving Licence
2 26 (3.27%) Self-Motivation
3 24 (3.02%) Cloud Native
4 21 (2.64%) Onboarding
5 20 (2.52%) Data Centre
5 20 (2.52%) Management Information System
6 19 (2.39%) FMCG
7 15 (1.89%) Data Structures
7 15 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (1.64%) EPoS
9 12 (1.51%) Mainframe
10 11 (1.38%) Mobile App
11 9 (1.13%) IoT
11 9 (1.13%) Virtual Team
12 8 (1.01%) Reference Data
13 7 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
13 7 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
13 7 (0.88%) Social Media
14 6 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 37 (4.65%) Windows
2 19 (2.39%) Linux
3 9 (1.13%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.63%) Android
5 4 (0.50%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.50%) Unix
5 4 (0.50%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.38%) zOS
7 1 (0.13%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.13%) VMS
7 1 (0.13%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (23.14%) Stakeholder Management
2 177 (22.26%) Agile
3 156 (19.62%) Problem-Solving
4 111 (13.96%) E-Commerce
5 97 (12.20%) Migration
6 90 (11.32%) Analytics
6 90 (11.32%) Project Management
7 88 (11.07%) Roadmaps
8 80 (10.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 73 (9.18%) Customer Experience
10 72 (9.06%) Workshop Facilitation
11 69 (8.68%) ERP
12 65 (8.18%) Continuous Improvement
13 64 (8.05%) AI
13 64 (8.05%) Project Delivery
13 64 (8.05%) Scrum
14 63 (7.92%) Change Management
15 60 (7.55%) Business Intelligence
16 57 (7.17%) DevOps
17 54 (6.79%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 57 (7.17%) SQL
2 55 (6.92%) Python
3 27 (3.40%) Java
4 18 (2.26%) JavaScript
5 14 (1.76%) PowerShell
6 9 (1.13%) Bash
6 9 (1.13%) Shell Script
7 8 (1.01%) Kusto Query Language
8 7 (0.88%) C#
9 4 (0.50%) Scala
9 4 (0.50%) VBA
10 3 (0.38%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.38%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.38%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.25%) Bicep
11 2 (0.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.25%) PHP
11 2 (0.25%) R
11 2 (0.25%) SOQL
11 2 (0.25%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 45 (5.66%) Degree
2 32 (4.03%) Security Cleared
3 21 (2.64%) PMP
4 19 (2.39%) SC Cleared
5 16 (2.01%) PMI Certification
6 7 (0.88%) APMP
6 7 (0.88%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (0.88%) CSPO
6 7 (0.88%) Master's Degree
7 6 (0.75%) CCNP
7 6 (0.75%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (0.75%) CISSP
7 6 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (0.75%) MBA
8 4 (0.50%) CCIE
8 4 (0.50%) CISM
8 4 (0.50%) CRISC
9 3 (0.38%) Azure Certification
9 3 (0.38%) DBS Check
9 3 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (4.40%) Data Quality
2 33 (4.15%) QA
3 30 (3.77%) PMO
4 24 (3.02%) GDPR
5 18 (2.26%) SLA
6 12 (1.51%) Accessibility
7 8 (1.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.75%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.63%) NIST
10 4 (0.50%) IFRS
11 3 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.25%) GRC
12 2 (0.25%) NCSC
13 1 (0.13%) GAAP
13 1 (0.13%) GxP
13 1 (0.13%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.13%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.13%) Solvency II
System Software
1 17 (2.14%) Active Directory
2 15 (1.89%) Docker
3 4 (0.50%) VMware NSX
4 3 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.13%) RACF
6 1 (0.13%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 20 (2.52%) Terraform
2 13 (1.64%) Kubernetes
3 7 (0.88%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (0.88%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.75%) Argo
4 6 (0.75%) Istio
5 5 (0.63%) Grafana
5 5 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.50%) SCCM
7 2 (0.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.25%) CA Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.25%) MOM
7 2 (0.25%) PingFederate
8 1 (0.13%) Cacti
8 1 (0.13%) Control-M
8 1 (0.13%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.13%) Nmap
8 1 (0.13%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.13%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 75 (9.43%) Microsoft
2 67 (8.43%) SAP
3 49 (6.16%) Google
4 46 (5.79%) Oracle
5 36 (4.53%) Salesforce
6 33 (4.15%) Databricks
7 26 (3.27%) Adobe
8 18 (2.26%) ServiceNow
9 13 (1.64%) Sitecore
10 8 (1.01%) Cisco
10 8 (1.01%) IFS
10 8 (1.01%) Temenos
11 7 (0.88%) CheckPoint
11 7 (0.88%) VMware
11 7 (0.88%) Workday
12 6 (0.75%) Apple
12 6 (0.75%) Avaloq
12 6 (0.75%) GoldenSource
12 6 (0.75%) Palo Alto
12 6 (0.75%) Zscaler
1,108 Retail jobs in England