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

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 92 80
Rank change year-on-year -34 -12 +3
Contract jobs citing Retail 842 682 977
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.13% 2.78% 2.62%
As % of the General category 3.83% 4.35% 4.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 521 370 559
10th Percentile £206 £305 £278
25th Percentile £380 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £520
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -0.95%
75th Percentile £619 £629 £644
90th Percentile £738 £739 £739
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £513
% change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 15 81
10th Percentile £12.95 £15.67 £11.13
25th Percentile £15.38 £17.22 £12.15
Median hourly rate £17.50 £29.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -39.66% +81.25% -19.23%
75th Percentile £21.00 £42.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £46.25 £62.60 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £17.50 £31.50 £16.00
% change year-on-year -44.44% +96.88% -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 21,975 15,663 21,764
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.66% 63.96% 58.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,793 10,199 14,070
10th Percentile £304 £300 £275
25th Percentile £408 £411 £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 1,415 653 1,765
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.94 £17.61 £15.39
Median hourly rate £29.04 £28.75 £28.44
Median % change year-on-year +1.01% +1.09% -16.35%
75th Percentile £61.18 £58.75 £50.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £27.71 £28.68 £28.00
% change year-on-year -3.37% +2.41% -20.00%

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 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 19 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 19 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 -22 459 £525 -4.55% 350
South East -13 115 £394 -25.00% 232
North of England -41 110 £500 +11.11% 226
Midlands -44 74 £495 -1.00% 163
North West -21 62 £500 - 125
East of England -10 46 £535 -2.73% 112
Yorkshire -42 44 £513 +38.51% 81
East Midlands -11 39 £495 -1.00% 86
West Midlands -56 34 £500 +12.68% 77
South West -20 22 £318 -6.62% 72
North East -14 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 35 (4.16%) Confluence
2 17 (2.02%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.54%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 9 (1.07%) CMS
5 8 (0.95%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.36%) SAS
7 2 (0.24%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.24%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.24%) WordPress
8 1 (0.12%) CICS
8 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.12%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 34 (4.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (2.26%) Microsoft Project
3 16 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
5 13 (1.54%) Chatbot
6 11 (1.31%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.83%) Photoshop
8 5 (0.59%) Adobe Illustrator
9 3 (0.36%) InDesign
10 2 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 2 (0.24%) Trello
10 2 (0.24%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.12%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.12%) Adobe After Effects
11 1 (0.12%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.12%) Maya
11 1 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 19 (2.26%) Shopify
2 13 (1.54%) SAP S/4HANA
3 12 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.95%) Oracle Retail
5 7 (0.83%) SAP Retail
6 6 (0.71%) Finacle
6 6 (0.71%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 5 (0.59%) SAP Payroll
8 4 (0.48%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.48%) Temenos T24
9 3 (0.36%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 2 (0.24%) BambooHR
10 2 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
10 2 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
10 2 (0.24%) Sprinklr
11 1 (0.12%) OpenText VIM for SAP
11 1 (0.12%) Sage X3
11 1 (0.12%) SAP CAR
11 1 (0.12%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 88 (10.45%) Azure
2 54 (6.41%) AWS
2 54 (6.41%) Power Platform
3 52 (6.18%) GCP
4 25 (2.97%) Dynamics 365
5 21 (2.49%) Azure DevOps
5 21 (2.49%) Snowflake
6 20 (2.38%) GitHub
7 18 (2.14%) Microsoft 365
8 14 (1.66%) Entra ID
9 13 (1.54%) Figma
9 13 (1.54%) GitHub Actions
9 13 (1.54%) Google Workspace
9 13 (1.54%) SaaS
10 12 (1.43%) BigCommerce
11 11 (1.31%) Miro
12 10 (1.19%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 9 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
13 9 (1.07%) Cloud Run
14 8 (0.95%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 17 (2.02%) VPN
2 16 (1.90%) RFID
3 14 (1.66%) Firewall
3 14 (1.66%) WAN
4 11 (1.31%) Wireless
5 8 (0.95%) LAN
5 8 (0.95%) NFC
6 6 (0.71%) Cisco Nexus
6 6 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (0.59%) BGP
7 5 (0.59%) OSPF
8 4 (0.48%) EIGRP
8 4 (0.48%) VoIP
9 3 (0.36%) Cisco Firepower
9 3 (0.36%) MPLS
9 3 (0.36%) Network Security
9 3 (0.36%) SD-WAN
9 3 (0.36%) WLAN
10 2 (0.24%) Cisco ASA
10 2 (0.24%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (5.46%) Power BI
2 24 (2.85%) BigQuery
3 18 (2.14%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (1.90%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.43%) MySQL
6 10 (1.19%) Metadata
6 10 (1.19%) Tableau
7 8 (0.95%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.83%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.71%) Data Vault
10 5 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
11 4 (0.48%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.48%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.48%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.36%) Looker
12 3 (0.36%) OLAP
12 3 (0.36%) Oracle OLAP
13 2 (0.24%) MongoDB
13 2 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
13 2 (0.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 68 (8.08%) JIRA
2 9 (1.07%) Git
2 9 (1.07%) Jenkins
3 8 (0.95%) GitLab
4 5 (0.59%) ERwin
5 4 (0.48%) Maven
6 3 (0.36%) Selenium
6 3 (0.36%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.24%) MLflow
7 2 (0.24%) PowerDesigner
7 2 (0.24%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.12%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.12%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.12%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.12%) Hudson
8 1 (0.12%) JMeter
8 1 (0.12%) Mockito
8 1 (0.12%) Xcode
8 1 (0.12%) Zephyr
General
1 264 (31.35%) Social Skills
2 216 (25.65%) Finance
3 99 (11.76%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (8.19%) Banking
5 59 (7.01%) Marketing
6 40 (4.75%) Manufacturing
6 40 (4.75%) Organisational Skills
7 29 (3.44%) Documentation Skills
8 27 (3.21%) Presentation Skills
8 27 (3.21%) Public Sector
9 24 (2.85%) Influencing Skills
9 24 (2.85%) Investment Banking
10 23 (2.73%) Retail Banking
11 22 (2.61%) Corporate Banking
12 20 (2.38%) Telecoms
13 13 (1.54%) Legal
14 11 (1.31%) Back Office
15 8 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
16 7 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 6 (0.71%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 140 (16.63%) Analyst
2 118 (14.01%) Architect
3 107 (12.71%) Senior
4 102 (12.11%) Project Manager
5 80 (9.50%) Business Analyst
6 67 (7.96%) Lead
7 46 (5.46%) Senior Manager
8 44 (5.23%) Solutions Architect
9 35 (4.16%) Consultant
10 30 (3.56%) Technical Manager
11 26 (3.09%) Designer
12 25 (2.97%) Senior Project Manager
13 23 (2.73%) Enterprise Architect
14 22 (2.61%) Data Architect
15 21 (2.49%) Programme Manager
16 18 (2.14%) Developer
16 18 (2.14%) Product Manager
17 16 (1.90%) IT Manager
18 15 (1.78%) Data Engineer
18 15 (1.78%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (3.33%) VML
2 24 (2.85%) Middleware
3 21 (2.49%) REST
4 15 (1.78%) Spring
5 13 (1.54%) React
6 12 (1.43%) AngularJS
7 10 (1.19%) Spring Boot
8 9 (1.07%) CSS
8 9 (1.07%) Node.js
9 8 (0.95%) .NET
9 8 (0.95%) PySpark
10 7 (0.83%) HTML
10 7 (0.83%) LangChain
10 7 (0.83%) scikit-learn
11 6 (0.71%) jQuery
11 6 (0.71%) OAuth
11 6 (0.71%) OAuth2
11 6 (0.71%) OpenID
11 6 (0.71%) OpenTelemetry
11 6 (0.71%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 57 (6.77%) Product Ownership
2 27 (3.21%) Cloud Native
2 27 (3.21%) Self-Motivation
3 24 (2.85%) Driving Licence
4 22 (2.61%) Data Centre
5 21 (2.49%) Management Information System
5 21 (2.49%) Onboarding
6 20 (2.38%) FMCG
7 18 (2.14%) Data Structures
8 16 (1.90%) EPoS
8 16 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
9 14 (1.66%) Mainframe
10 11 (1.31%) Mobile App
11 10 (1.19%) IoT
11 10 (1.19%) Virtual Team
12 8 (0.95%) Greenfield Project
12 8 (0.95%) Reference Data
13 7 (0.83%) AI Agents
13 7 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
13 7 (0.83%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 34 (4.04%) Windows
2 19 (2.26%) Linux
3 8 (0.95%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.59%) Android
4 5 (0.59%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.48%) Unix
5 4 (0.48%) zOS
6 3 (0.36%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.24%) VMS
8 1 (0.12%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.12%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (22.68%) Stakeholder Management
2 184 (21.85%) Agile
3 162 (19.24%) Problem-Solving
4 116 (13.78%) E-Commerce
5 106 (12.59%) Migration
6 103 (12.23%) Project Management
7 99 (11.76%) Roadmaps
8 86 (10.21%) Analytics
9 83 (9.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 77 (9.14%) Customer Experience
11 73 (8.67%) AI
11 73 (8.67%) ERP
12 71 (8.43%) Workshop Facilitation
13 64 (7.60%) Project Delivery
13 64 (7.60%) Scrum
14 63 (7.48%) Change Management
14 63 (7.48%) Continuous Improvement
15 61 (7.24%) Business Intelligence
16 58 (6.89%) Decision-Making
17 56 (6.65%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 56 (6.65%) SQL
2 54 (6.41%) Python
3 26 (3.09%) Java
4 19 (2.26%) JavaScript
5 15 (1.78%) PowerShell
6 9 (1.07%) Bash
6 9 (1.07%) Shell Script
7 7 (0.83%) C#
7 7 (0.83%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.59%) TypeScript
9 4 (0.48%) VBA
10 3 (0.36%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.36%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.36%) Scala
11 2 (0.24%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.24%) Google Apps Script
11 2 (0.24%) R
11 2 (0.24%) SOQL
11 2 (0.24%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 46 (5.46%) Degree
2 33 (3.92%) Security Cleared
3 23 (2.73%) SC Cleared
4 20 (2.38%) PMP
5 16 (1.90%) PMI Certification
6 9 (1.07%) CSPO
7 7 (0.83%) APMP
7 7 (0.83%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.83%) CISSP
7 7 (0.83%) Master's Degree
8 6 (0.71%) CCNP
8 6 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.59%) MBA
10 4 (0.48%) CCIE
10 4 (0.48%) CISM
10 4 (0.48%) CRISC
10 4 (0.48%) DBS Check
11 3 (0.36%) IIBA
11 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (4.63%) Data Quality
2 36 (4.28%) QA
3 31 (3.68%) GDPR
3 31 (3.68%) PMO
4 17 (2.02%) SLA
5 14 (1.66%) Accessibility
6 9 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 7 (0.83%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.71%) NIST
9 4 (0.48%) IFRS
10 3 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.24%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.24%) GRC
11 2 (0.24%) NCSC
11 2 (0.24%) WCAG
12 1 (0.12%) COBIT
12 1 (0.12%) GAAP
12 1 (0.12%) GxP
12 1 (0.12%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 19 (2.26%) Active Directory
2 16 (1.90%) Docker
3 5 (0.59%) VMware NSX
4 4 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.48%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.12%) RACF
6 1 (0.12%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 21 (2.49%) Terraform
2 13 (1.54%) Kubernetes
3 8 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.83%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.71%) Argo
5 6 (0.71%) Istio
6 5 (0.59%) Grafana
7 4 (0.48%) SCCM
8 2 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.24%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.24%) MOM
8 2 (0.24%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.12%) Ansible
9 1 (0.12%) Control-M
9 1 (0.12%) Nmap
9 1 (0.12%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.12%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.12%) zSecure
Vendors
1 77 (9.14%) Microsoft
2 64 (7.60%) SAP
3 51 (6.06%) Oracle
4 50 (5.94%) Google
5 41 (4.87%) Salesforce
6 33 (3.92%) Databricks
7 28 (3.33%) Adobe
8 19 (2.26%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.78%) Sitecore
10 11 (1.31%) IFS
11 10 (1.19%) Cisco
12 9 (1.07%) VMware
13 8 (0.95%) Palo Alto
13 8 (0.95%) Temenos
13 8 (0.95%) Workday
14 7 (0.83%) CheckPoint
14 7 (0.83%) Zscaler
15 6 (0.71%) Apple
15 6 (0.71%) Avaloq
15 6 (0.71%) GoldenSource