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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 84 88
Rank change year-on-year -55 +4 -12
Contract jobs citing Retail 698 744 921
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.97% 2.91% 2.43%
As % of the General category 3.35% 4.64% 4.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 447 393 532
10th Percentile £207 £288 £268
25th Percentile £397 £413 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £505
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% +3.96% -3.81%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £636
90th Percentile £738 £773 £738
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -6.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 12 56
10th Percentile £12.93 £18.13 £11.06
25th Percentile £16.17 £20.47 £12.79
Median hourly rate £17.69 £32.50 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -45.58% +99.39% -17.72%
75th Percentile £24.40 £50.38 £21.37
90th Percentile £47.20 £66.28 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £18.87 £33.00 £16.30
% change year-on-year -42.82% +102.45% -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 20,808 16,032 22,399
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 58.77% 62.79% 58.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,176 9,995 14,668
10th Percentile £300 £296 £265
25th Percentile £406 £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 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,293 543 1,628
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.25 £13.18
25th Percentile £17.14 £20.00 £15.32
Median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.76% +17.12% -16.69%
75th Percentile £55.00 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £23.83 £29.80 £26.00
% change year-on-year -20.05% +14.62% -13.33%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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 -40 394 £550 - 368
South East -42 85 £425 -20.93% 441
North of England -49 80 £500 +11.11% 305
Midlands -43 68 £495 -1.00% 284
East Midlands -8 41 £495 -1.00% 176
North West -41 40 £525 +16.67% 145
Yorkshire -51 36 £500 +83.49% 118
East of England -31 32 £526 -4.32% 208
West Midlands -54 26 £463 -11.90% 100
South West -16 20 £261 -19.62% 155
North East -13 4 £206 -65.63% 46
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 31 (4.44%) Confluence
2 15 (2.15%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.72%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.72%) CMS
4 11 (1.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (0.57%) WordPress
6 3 (0.43%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.29%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.29%) SAS
8 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 22 (3.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (2.01%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.43%) Chatbot
4 10 (1.43%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.43%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.29%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.29%) Trello
7 1 (0.14%) 3ds Max
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.14%) InDesign
7 1 (0.14%) Maya
7 1 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.14%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 18 (2.58%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.72%) SAP Retail
2 12 (1.72%) Shopify
3 10 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (1.00%) Oracle Retail
5 6 (0.86%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (0.72%) Finacle
6 5 (0.72%) SAP Payroll
7 4 (0.57%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.57%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.43%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.29%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.29%) Sprinklr
10 1 (0.14%) Magento
10 1 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
10 1 (0.14%) Sage X3
10 1 (0.14%) SAP CAR
10 1 (0.14%) SAP GTS
10 1 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 81 (11.60%) Azure
2 47 (6.73%) AWS
3 46 (6.59%) Power Platform
4 42 (6.02%) GCP
5 22 (3.15%) Azure DevOps
6 21 (3.01%) GitHub
7 19 (2.72%) Dynamics 365
8 16 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
8 16 (2.29%) Snowflake
9 14 (2.01%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (1.86%) Figma
10 13 (1.86%) SaaS
11 12 (1.72%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.43%) Entra ID
12 10 (1.43%) Miro
13 9 (1.29%) Cloud Run
14 8 (1.15%) Azure Data Factory
14 8 (1.15%) dbt
14 8 (1.15%) WhatsApp
15 7 (1.00%) BigCommerce
Communications & Networking
1 17 (2.44%) RFID
2 11 (1.58%) NFC
2 11 (1.58%) Wireless
3 10 (1.43%) VPN
3 10 (1.43%) WAN
4 7 (1.00%) Firewall
5 6 (0.86%) Wi-Fi
6 5 (0.72%) LAN
7 4 (0.57%) BGP
7 4 (0.57%) Cisco Nexus
7 4 (0.57%) EIGRP
7 4 (0.57%) OSPF
7 4 (0.57%) VoIP
8 3 (0.43%) MPLS
9 2 (0.29%) SAN
9 2 (0.29%) WLAN
10 1 (0.14%) Broadband
10 1 (0.14%) FTP
10 1 (0.14%) SMS
10 1 (0.14%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (5.44%) Power BI
2 22 (3.15%) BigQuery
3 18 (2.58%) Data Warehouse
4 14 (2.01%) Metadata
5 13 (1.86%) SQL Server
5 13 (1.86%) Tableau
6 11 (1.58%) MySQL
7 10 (1.43%) Data Lake
8 7 (1.00%) Data Vault
9 6 (0.86%) Delta Lake
10 5 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.72%) Snowflake Schema
11 4 (0.57%) Redis
11 4 (0.57%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 3 (0.43%) MongoDB
12 3 (0.43%) OLAP
12 3 (0.43%) Oracle OLAP
12 3 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
12 3 (0.43%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 66 (9.46%) JIRA
2 11 (1.58%) Jenkins
3 7 (1.00%) GitLab
4 6 (0.86%) Git
5 5 (0.72%) ERwin
6 4 (0.57%) MLflow
7 3 (0.43%) Maven
7 3 (0.43%) Selenium
7 3 (0.43%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.29%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.29%) Mockito
8 2 (0.29%) PowerDesigner
8 2 (0.29%) Xcode
9 1 (0.14%) Android Studio
9 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.14%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.14%) Gradle
9 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.14%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.14%) Zephyr
General
1 245 (35.10%) Social Skills
2 153 (21.92%) Finance
3 74 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (8.88%) Marketing
5 59 (8.45%) Banking
6 31 (4.44%) Organisational Skills
6 31 (4.44%) Public Sector
7 29 (4.15%) Manufacturing
8 24 (3.44%) Influencing Skills
9 22 (3.15%) Corporate Banking
9 22 (3.15%) Investment Banking
9 22 (3.15%) Retail Banking
10 19 (2.72%) Presentation Skills
11 18 (2.58%) Documentation Skills
12 13 (1.86%) Legal
12 13 (1.86%) Telecoms
13 11 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (1.00%) Financial Institution
14 7 (1.00%) Publishing
15 5 (0.72%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 117 (16.76%) Analyst
2 95 (13.61%) Project Manager
3 85 (12.18%) Senior
4 80 (11.46%) Architect
5 63 (9.03%) Lead
6 60 (8.60%) Business Analyst
7 41 (5.87%) Senior Manager
8 32 (4.58%) Consultant
9 31 (4.44%) Solutions Architect
10 23 (3.30%) Senior Project Manager
10 23 (3.30%) Technical Manager
11 17 (2.44%) Product Manager
11 17 (2.44%) Programme Manager
12 15 (2.15%) Data Engineer
12 15 (2.15%) Service Manager
13 14 (2.01%) Designer
13 14 (2.01%) E-Commerce Manager
14 13 (1.86%) Data Architect
14 13 (1.86%) Developer
14 13 (1.86%) IT Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.72%) VML
2 17 (2.44%) REST
3 14 (2.01%) Middleware
3 14 (2.01%) Spring
4 12 (1.72%) PySpark
5 11 (1.58%) Spring Boot
6 10 (1.43%) AngularJS
6 10 (1.43%) React
6 10 (1.43%) scikit-learn
7 9 (1.29%) .NET
7 9 (1.29%) PyTorch
8 7 (1.00%) HTML
8 7 (1.00%) Node.js
8 7 (1.00%) OpenTelemetry
9 6 (0.86%) CSS
9 6 (0.86%) LangChain
10 5 (0.72%) TensorFlow
10 5 (0.72%) XML
11 4 (0.57%) GraphQL
11 4 (0.57%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 42 (6.02%) Product Ownership
2 23 (3.30%) Driving Licence
2 23 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
3 22 (3.15%) Cloud Native
4 21 (3.01%) Onboarding
5 19 (2.72%) Management Information System
6 17 (2.44%) FMCG
7 16 (2.29%) EPoS
7 16 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
8 15 (2.15%) Data Structures
9 12 (1.72%) Data Centre
9 12 (1.72%) IoT
9 12 (1.72%) Mobile App
10 9 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.29%) Virtual Team
11 8 (1.15%) Social Media
12 7 (1.00%) Algorithms
12 7 (1.00%) Greenfield Project
12 7 (1.00%) Reference Data
13 6 (0.86%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 32 (4.58%) Windows
2 15 (2.15%) Linux
3 8 (1.15%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.72%) Android
5 4 (0.57%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.43%) Unix
6 3 (0.43%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.43%) zOS
7 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (23.64%) Stakeholder Management
2 157 (22.49%) Agile
3 132 (18.91%) Problem-Solving
4 97 (13.90%) E-Commerce
5 95 (13.61%) Project Management
6 77 (11.03%) Analytics
7 72 (10.32%) Migration
8 69 (9.89%) Roadmaps
9 64 (9.17%) Workshop Facilitation
10 63 (9.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 56 (8.02%) Continuous Improvement
11 56 (8.02%) Customer Experience
12 54 (7.74%) Scrum
13 53 (7.59%) AI
14 52 (7.45%) DevOps
15 51 (7.31%) Project Delivery
16 50 (7.16%) Business Intelligence
17 49 (7.02%) ERP
18 47 (6.73%) Data Modelling
18 47 (6.73%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.74%) SQL
2 60 (8.60%) Python
3 23 (3.30%) Java
4 16 (2.29%) JavaScript
5 13 (1.86%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.58%) Bash
7 9 (1.29%) Shell Script
8 8 (1.15%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (1.00%) C#
10 5 (0.72%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.57%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.43%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.43%) VBA
13 2 (0.29%) Google Apps Script
13 2 (0.29%) PHP
13 2 (0.29%) R
13 2 (0.29%) Swift
14 1 (0.14%) CLIST
14 1 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.14%) Scala
Qualifications
1 42 (6.02%) Degree
2 23 (3.30%) PMP
3 19 (2.72%) Security Cleared
4 18 (2.58%) PMI Certification
5 9 (1.29%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.15%) SC Cleared
7 7 (1.00%) APMP
7 7 (1.00%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (1.00%) CISSP
7 7 (1.00%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (1.00%) MBA
8 5 (0.72%) CISM
8 5 (0.72%) CRISC
8 5 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (0.57%) CCIE
9 4 (0.57%) CCNP
9 4 (0.57%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (0.57%) CSPO
10 3 (0.43%) GIAC
10 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.15%) Data Quality
1 29 (4.15%) QA
2 26 (3.72%) PMO
3 17 (2.44%) Accessibility
4 16 (2.29%) GDPR
5 15 (2.15%) SLA
6 6 (0.86%) Actionable Recommendations
6 6 (0.86%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.57%) IFRS
8 3 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.43%) NCSC
8 3 (0.43%) NIST
9 2 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.29%) COBIT
9 2 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.14%) GAAP
10 1 (0.14%) IFRS 9
10 1 (0.14%) MiFID
10 1 (0.14%) Solvency II
10 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (2.29%) Docker
2 9 (1.29%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (0.43%) VMware NSX
4 2 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.14%) RACF
5 1 (0.14%) Varnish
5 1 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 20 (2.87%) Terraform
2 15 (2.15%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.00%) Grafana
3 7 (1.00%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.86%) Argo
4 6 (0.86%) Istio
5 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.43%) SCCM
5 3 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.14%) Ansible
7 1 (0.14%) Cacti
7 1 (0.14%) Control-M
7 1 (0.14%) Nmap
7 1 (0.14%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.14%) ZABBIX
7 1 (0.14%) zSecure
Vendors
1 65 (9.31%) Microsoft
2 59 (8.45%) SAP
3 50 (7.16%) Google
4 41 (5.87%) Oracle
5 31 (4.44%) Salesforce
6 25 (3.58%) Databricks
7 20 (2.87%) Adobe
8 13 (1.86%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.15%) Sitecore
10 7 (1.00%) Temenos
11 6 (0.86%) Workday
12 5 (0.72%) Apple
12 5 (0.72%) Avaloq
12 5 (0.72%) BMC
12 5 (0.72%) CheckPoint
12 5 (0.72%) Cisco
12 5 (0.72%) F5
12 5 (0.72%) GoldenSource
12 5 (0.72%) MicroStrategy
12 5 (0.72%) Splunk