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

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 86 107 74
Rank change year-on-year +21 -33 +14
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,359 694 984
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.01% 2.52% 2.85%
As % of the General category 5.42% 3.95% 4.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 821 363 541
10th Percentile £308 £306 £300
25th Percentile £425 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -0.94%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £538 £500 £505
% change year-on-year +7.50% -0.99% -5.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 95 41 72
10th Percentile £12.98 - £12.15
25th Percentile £14.63 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +28.83% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £53.75 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.30
% change year-on-year +28.83% - -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 25,061 17,576 19,893
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.42% 63.73% 57.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,048 11,227 12,824
10th Percentile £313 £281 £300
25th Percentile £414 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -5.12% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £653
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 1,844 925 1,403
10th Percentile £14.23 £13.29 £13.87
25th Percentile £19.02 £16.36 £16.81
Median hourly rate £34.00 £25.32 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +34.26% -33.58% +26.86%
75th Percentile £65.00 £51.10 £58.75
90th Percentile £82.25 £74.50 £70.14
UK median hourly rate £33.00 £25.15 £36.05
% change year-on-year +31.21% -30.23% +18.03%

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 26 July 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 26 July 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 26 July 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 +35 788 £550 - 520
South East +6 174 £525 -7.49% 288
North of England -23 172 £550 +10.00% 242
North West +3 111 £575 +15.00% 124
Midlands +1 110 £500 +17.65% 180
East of England +11 64 £544 -1.14% 97
East Midlands +9 58 £500 +21.21% 81
West Midlands -20 52 £613 +36.11% 98
Yorkshire -42 51 £500 - 93
South West -33 38 £325 -8.59% 91
North East -38 10 £155 -79.29% 29
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 37 (2.72%) Confluence
2 19 (1.40%) CMS
3 15 (1.10%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 9 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (0.44%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.29%) SAS
6 4 (0.29%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.15%) Anypoint
7 2 (0.15%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.15%) CICS
8 1 (0.074%) Apache
8 1 (0.074%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.074%) Mule
Applications
1 46 (3.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 31 (2.28%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 19 (1.40%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (0.96%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 13 (0.96%) Chatbot
6 10 (0.74%) Photoshop
7 9 (0.66%) Adobe Illustrator
8 6 (0.44%) InDesign
9 4 (0.29%) MS Visio
10 3 (0.22%) CPLEX
10 3 (0.22%) Notion
10 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
11 1 (0.074%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.074%) Maya
11 1 (0.074%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.074%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.074%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 39 (2.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.99%) Shopify
3 11 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.74%) Oracle Retail
5 8 (0.59%) Magento
6 7 (0.52%) SAP CRM
7 6 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.44%) SAP MDG
7 6 (0.44%) SAP Retail
8 5 (0.37%) SAP SD
9 4 (0.29%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.29%) Payment Gateway
10 3 (0.22%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 3 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.22%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.22%) SAP CAR
10 3 (0.22%) SAP ERP
11 2 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
11 2 (0.15%) Finacle
11 2 (0.15%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 172 (12.66%) Azure
2 131 (9.64%) AWS
3 68 (5.00%) GCP
4 66 (4.86%) Power Platform
5 44 (3.24%) Snowflake
6 40 (2.94%) GitHub
7 28 (2.06%) Entra ID
8 26 (1.91%) Azure DevOps
9 25 (1.84%) GitHub Actions
10 23 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (1.47%) Figma
12 16 (1.18%) SaaS
13 15 (1.10%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
14 12 (0.88%) Azure Data Factory
15 11 (0.81%) Google Workspace
15 11 (0.81%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 10 (0.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 10 (0.74%) dbt
16 10 (0.74%) Microsoft 365
17 9 (0.66%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.25%) WAN
2 16 (1.18%) Firewall
3 15 (1.10%) Wireless
4 14 (1.03%) ATM
4 14 (1.03%) VPN
5 13 (0.96%) Network Security
6 11 (0.81%) LAN
7 8 (0.59%) BGP
7 8 (0.59%) IPsec
7 8 (0.59%) OSPF
7 8 (0.59%) RFID
7 8 (0.59%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (0.52%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (0.52%) VLAN
9 6 (0.44%) Cisco Firepower
9 6 (0.44%) SD-WAN
10 5 (0.37%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (0.37%) Cisco Nexus
10 5 (0.37%) Structured Cabling
10 5 (0.37%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (4.71%) Power BI
2 32 (2.35%) BigQuery
3 20 (1.47%) Data Lake
4 19 (1.40%) Data Warehouse
5 16 (1.18%) Metadata
6 15 (1.10%) MySQL
6 15 (1.10%) NoSQL
7 14 (1.03%) Tableau
8 12 (0.88%) Relational Database
9 10 (0.74%) MongoDB
9 10 (0.74%) SQL Server
10 8 (0.59%) Amazon Redshift
10 8 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
10 8 (0.59%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.52%) Power Query
11 7 (0.52%) Redis
12 6 (0.44%) Couchbase
12 6 (0.44%) Looker
12 6 (0.44%) SAP HANA
12 6 (0.44%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 70 (5.15%) JIRA
2 26 (1.91%) Git
3 18 (1.32%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.59%) Subversion
5 6 (0.44%) Claude Code
6 4 (0.29%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.29%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.29%) Maven
7 3 (0.22%) GitLab
8 2 (0.15%) git-flow
8 2 (0.15%) Hudson
8 2 (0.15%) JMeter
8 2 (0.15%) MLflow
8 2 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.15%) Postman
8 2 (0.15%) Selenium
8 2 (0.15%) webpack
9 1 (0.074%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.074%) Terragrunt
9 1 (0.074%) TestRail
General
1 383 (28.18%) Social Skills
2 310 (22.81%) Finance
3 130 (9.57%) Analytical Skills
4 104 (7.65%) Banking
5 94 (6.92%) Marketing
6 84 (6.18%) Manufacturing
7 58 (4.27%) Organisational Skills
8 49 (3.61%) Retail Banking
9 38 (2.80%) Investment Banking
10 35 (2.58%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
12 24 (1.77%) Telecoms
13 23 (1.69%) Public Sector
14 22 (1.62%) Legal
14 22 (1.62%) Presentation Skills
15 21 (1.55%) Advertising
15 21 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
16 19 (1.40%) French Language
17 18 (1.32%) Spanish Language
18 14 (1.03%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 230 (16.92%) Architect
2 181 (13.32%) Analyst
3 169 (12.44%) Senior
4 125 (9.20%) Project Manager
4 125 (9.20%) Solutions Architect
5 97 (7.14%) Lead
6 94 (6.92%) Business Analyst
7 65 (4.78%) Developer
8 60 (4.42%) Senior Manager
9 50 (3.68%) Designer
10 44 (3.24%) Product Manager
11 39 (2.87%) Consultant
12 37 (2.72%) Technical Manager
13 34 (2.50%) Senior Project Manager
14 33 (2.43%) Enterprise Architect
14 33 (2.43%) Programme Manager
15 32 (2.35%) Supply Chain Architect
16 31 (2.28%) Data Architect
17 30 (2.21%) Senior Developer
18 26 (1.91%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (4.64%) REST
2 34 (2.50%) React
3 30 (2.21%) Middleware
3 30 (2.21%) Spring
4 25 (1.84%) Kafka
5 22 (1.62%) Spring Boot
6 21 (1.55%) Node.js
6 21 (1.55%) VML
7 19 (1.40%) Django
8 18 (1.32%) RESTful
9 17 (1.25%) HTML
10 16 (1.18%) CSS
11 14 (1.03%) MACH
11 14 (1.03%) OAuth
11 14 (1.03%) SOAP
12 13 (0.96%) Jakarta EE
13 11 (0.81%) .NET
14 9 (0.66%) AngularJS
14 9 (0.66%) OAuth2
15 8 (0.59%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 72 (5.30%) Product Ownership
2 64 (4.71%) FMCG
3 51 (3.75%) EPoS
4 43 (3.16%) Onboarding
5 41 (3.02%) Cloud Native
6 34 (2.50%) Driving Licence
7 29 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
8 27 (1.99%) Data Centre
9 26 (1.91%) Mobile App
10 22 (1.62%) Data Structures
11 21 (1.55%) Operational Technology
11 21 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
12 20 (1.47%) Marketing Technology
13 19 (1.40%) Greenfield Project
14 16 (1.18%) IoT
15 13 (0.96%) AI Agents
15 13 (0.96%) Mainframe
16 12 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
16 12 (0.88%) Graphic Design
17 11 (0.81%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 54 (3.97%) Windows
2 23 (1.69%) Linux
3 11 (0.81%) Unix
4 10 (0.74%) Android
5 7 (0.52%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.44%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.44%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.37%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.37%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.29%) zOS
9 2 (0.15%) Debian
10 1 (0.074%) SUSE
10 1 (0.074%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.074%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 349 (25.68%) Stakeholder Management
2 328 (24.14%) Agile
3 220 (16.19%) E-Commerce
4 186 (13.69%) Problem-Solving
5 171 (12.58%) Migration
6 170 (12.51%) Roadmaps
7 142 (10.45%) Analytics
8 139 (10.23%) Customer Experience
9 138 (10.15%) AI
10 114 (8.39%) Logistics
11 110 (8.09%) Continuous Improvement
11 110 (8.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 109 (8.02%) Project Management
13 107 (7.87%) Decision-Making
14 105 (7.73%) CI/CD
15 103 (7.58%) CRM
16 101 (7.43%) ERP
17 97 (7.14%) Project Delivery
18 94 (6.92%) User Acceptance Testing
19 91 (6.70%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 101 (7.43%) SQL
2 91 (6.70%) Python
3 54 (3.97%) Java
4 27 (1.99%) TypeScript
5 25 (1.84%) JavaScript
6 11 (0.81%) C#
7 9 (0.66%) PowerShell
8 7 (0.52%) ABAP
8 7 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 7 (0.52%) R
9 6 (0.44%) Bicep
9 6 (0.44%) PL/SQL
9 6 (0.44%) Scala
10 5 (0.37%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.37%) Bash
10 5 (0.37%) Groovy
10 5 (0.37%) Shell Script
10 5 (0.37%) SOQL
11 4 (0.29%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 62 (4.56%) Degree
2 36 (2.65%) Security Cleared
3 23 (1.69%) PMP
4 20 (1.47%) SC Cleared
5 11 (0.81%) DBS Check
5 11 (0.81%) PMI Certification
6 8 (0.59%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (0.59%) CISSP
7 6 (0.44%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (0.44%) CISM
7 6 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (0.37%) CCNP
8 5 (0.37%) CCSE
8 5 (0.37%) CCSM
8 5 (0.37%) CSPO
9 4 (0.29%) Azure Certification
9 4 (0.29%) City & Guilds
9 4 (0.29%) PhD
10 3 (0.22%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (4.49%) QA
2 48 (3.53%) Data Quality
3 37 (2.72%) GDPR
4 30 (2.21%) PMO
5 22 (1.62%) Accessibility
6 16 (1.18%) PCI DSS
7 11 (0.81%) SLA
8 8 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.44%) NIST
10 4 (0.29%) WCAG
11 3 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.22%) GAAP
11 3 (0.22%) IFRS
11 3 (0.22%) PSD2
12 2 (0.15%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.15%) GRC
12 2 (0.15%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.074%) COBIT
13 1 (0.074%) GxP
System Software
1 36 (2.65%) Docker
2 32 (2.35%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.96%) Virtual Desktop
4 7 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.37%) Firmware
5 5 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.15%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 44 (3.24%) Terraform
2 34 (2.50%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.03%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 10 (0.74%) Ansible
5 6 (0.44%) FortiGate
5 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.29%) SCCM
8 3 (0.22%) Bosun
8 3 (0.22%) Grafana
9 2 (0.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.15%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.15%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.15%) MOM
9 2 (0.15%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.074%) Argo
10 1 (0.074%) CloudHub
10 1 (0.074%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.074%) Istio
10 1 (0.074%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 111 (8.17%) Microsoft
2 99 (7.28%) SAP
3 68 (5.00%) Oracle
4 57 (4.19%) Databricks
4 57 (4.19%) Salesforce
5 49 (3.61%) Google
6 37 (2.72%) Adobe
7 24 (1.77%) Zscaler
8 17 (1.25%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.10%) Cisco
9 15 (1.10%) MuleSoft
10 14 (1.03%) IFS
11 13 (0.96%) Fortinet
11 13 (0.96%) Palo Alto
11 13 (0.96%) Workday
12 12 (0.88%) VMware
13 11 (0.81%) Braze
14 10 (0.74%) IBM
14 10 (0.74%) Splunk
15 9 (0.66%) Sitecore