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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 104 79
Rank change year-on-year +12 -25 +6
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,155 648 997
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.67% 2.59% 2.66%
As % of the General category 4.86% 4.04% 4.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 683 334 548
10th Percentile £283 £325 £287
25th Percentile £413 £413 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £520
Median % change year-on-year - +0.96% -0.95%
75th Percentile £644 £628 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £513 £505
% change year-on-year +2.44% +1.49% -4.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 28 86
10th Percentile £13.02 £14.71 £11.44
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 23,749 16,057 21,404
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 54.81% 64.28% 57.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,466 10,331 13,650
10th Percentile £313 £281 £287
25th Percentile £413 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £520 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -2.80% -2.73%
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 1,674 784 1,843
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.25 £12.88
25th Percentile £18.75 £16.86 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.50 £28.18 £31.97
Median % change year-on-year +15.33% -11.85% +14.26%
75th Percentile £63.75 £53.75 £53.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £68.75
UK median hourly rate £32.23 £28.00 £31.00
% change year-on-year +15.09% -9.68% +3.33%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 +11 666 £550 - 379
South East +8 152 £525 -1.18% 267
North of England -36 136 £550 +10.00% 187
Midlands -8 96 £500 +8.11% 157
North West 0 90 £575 +15.00% 96
East of England +7 57 £550 - 97
East Midlands -2 53 £495 +7.03% 91
West Midlands -31 43 £500 +5.26% 66
Yorkshire -56 43 £500 - 75
South West -24 34 £329 -27.00% 78
North East -35 3 £173 -76.98% 22
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 (2.77%) Confluence
2 16 (1.39%) CMS
3 14 (1.21%) 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 32 (2.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (2.08%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.56%) Microsoft Project
4 17 (1.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (1.13%) Chatbot
6 11 (0.95%) MS Visio
7 9 (0.78%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.69%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 8 (0.69%) Adobe Illustrator
9 5 (0.43%) 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 (2.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.99%) Shopify
3 11 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.87%) Oracle Retail
5 9 (0.78%) SAP Retail
6 7 (0.61%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 6 (0.52%) Finacle
7 6 (0.52%) SAP CRM
8 5 (0.43%) 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
1 140 (12.12%) Azure
2 111 (9.61%) AWS
3 68 (5.89%) GCP
4 65 (5.63%) Power Platform
5 38 (3.29%) Snowflake
6 25 (2.16%) GitHub
7 23 (1.99%) Dynamics 365
8 21 (1.82%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (1.56%) Entra ID
10 16 (1.39%) Figma
10 16 (1.39%) GitHub Actions
11 14 (1.21%) SaaS
12 13 (1.13%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 11 (0.95%) Azure Data Factory
13 11 (0.95%) BigCommerce
13 11 (0.95%) dbt
13 11 (0.95%) Google Workspace
14 10 (0.87%) Microsoft 365
15 9 (0.78%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 9 (0.78%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.13%) ATM
1 13 (1.13%) Firewall
1 13 (1.13%) WAN
2 12 (1.04%) Network Security
3 11 (0.95%) VPN
3 11 (0.95%) Wireless
4 9 (0.78%) 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 (0.43%) BGP
7 5 (0.43%) Cisco ASA
7 5 (0.43%) Cisco Nexus
7 5 (0.43%) IPsec
7 5 (0.43%) OSPF
7 5 (0.43%) VSAN
8 4 (0.35%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 4 (0.35%) Internet
8 4 (0.35%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (5.45%) Power BI
2 25 (2.16%) BigQuery
3 21 (1.82%) MySQL
4 18 (1.56%) Data Warehouse
4 18 (1.56%) Tableau
5 15 (1.30%) Metadata
5 15 (1.30%) SQL Server
6 11 (0.95%) Data Lake
6 11 (0.95%) NoSQL
6 11 (0.95%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
8 6 (0.52%) Data Vault
9 5 (0.43%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.43%) Power Query
10 4 (0.35%) Big Data
10 4 (0.35%) Couchbase
10 4 (0.35%) Looker
10 4 (0.35%) Redis
10 4 (0.35%) Semantic Layer
10 4 (0.35%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 73 (6.32%) JIRA
2 17 (1.47%) Git
3 11 (0.95%) 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
1 333 (28.83%) Social Skills
2 274 (23.72%) Finance
3 109 (9.44%) Analytical Skills
4 100 (8.66%) Banking
5 72 (6.23%) Marketing
6 66 (5.71%) Manufacturing
7 56 (4.85%) Organisational Skills
8 47 (4.07%) Retail Banking
9 38 (3.29%) Investment Banking
10 34 (2.94%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (2.34%) Telecoms
12 25 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
13 23 (1.99%) Public Sector
14 22 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
16 19 (1.65%) French Language
16 19 (1.65%) Legal
17 18 (1.56%) Spanish Language
18 17 (1.47%) Advertising
19 13 (1.13%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 193 (16.71%) Architect
2 157 (13.59%) Analyst
3 139 (12.03%) Senior
4 110 (9.52%) Project Manager
5 94 (8.14%) Solutions Architect
6 87 (7.53%) Lead
7 82 (7.10%) Business Analyst
8 61 (5.28%) Senior Manager
9 42 (3.64%) Designer
10 41 (3.55%) Developer
11 40 (3.46%) Technical Manager
12 36 (3.12%) Enterprise Architect
13 35 (3.03%) Consultant
13 35 (3.03%) Product Manager
13 35 (3.03%) Senior Project Manager
14 29 (2.51%) 2nd Line Support
15 26 (2.25%) Data Engineer
16 25 (2.16%) Programme Manager
17 24 (2.08%) Data Architect
18 22 (1.90%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (3.81%) REST
2 29 (2.51%) Middleware
3 26 (2.25%) React
4 25 (2.16%) VML
5 21 (1.82%) Spring
6 17 (1.47%) Kafka
7 15 (1.30%) Spring Boot
8 14 (1.21%) CSS
8 14 (1.21%) HTML
9 13 (1.13%) Node.js
9 13 (1.13%) RESTful
10 12 (1.04%) MACH
10 12 (1.04%) OAuth
11 11 (0.95%) .NET
11 11 (0.95%) J2EE
12 10 (0.87%) Django
13 9 (0.78%) AngularJS
14 8 (0.69%) OAuth2
14 8 (0.69%) OpenID
14 8 (0.69%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 72 (6.23%) Product Ownership
2 45 (3.90%) FMCG
3 38 (3.29%) EPoS
4 33 (2.86%) Cloud Native
4 33 (2.86%) Onboarding
5 29 (2.51%) Driving Licence
6 25 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
7 21 (1.82%) Data Structures
8 20 (1.73%) Data Centre
9 17 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
10 16 (1.39%) Mobile App
11 15 (1.30%) Marketing Technology
12 14 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
12 14 (1.21%) Mainframe
12 14 (1.21%) Management Information System
13 11 (0.95%) AI Agents
13 11 (0.95%) Operational Technology
13 11 (0.95%) Smartphone
13 11 (0.95%) Taxonomies
14 10 (0.87%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 52 (4.50%) Windows
2 25 (2.16%) Linux
3 12 (1.04%) Android
4 9 (0.78%) Unix
5 6 (0.52%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.43%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.43%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.43%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.35%) zOS
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
1 270 (23.38%) Stakeholder Management
2 265 (22.94%) Agile
3 174 (15.06%) Problem-Solving
4 173 (14.98%) E-Commerce
5 154 (13.33%) Migration
6 143 (12.38%) Roadmaps
7 122 (10.56%) Analytics
8 113 (9.78%) Customer Experience
9 107 (9.26%) Project Management
10 95 (8.23%) AI
11 94 (8.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 89 (7.71%) ERP
13 83 (7.19%) Business Intelligence
13 83 (7.19%) Continuous Improvement
14 82 (7.10%) Change Management
14 82 (7.10%) Project Delivery
15 81 (7.01%) Decision-Making
16 80 (6.93%) Scrum
16 80 (6.93%) User Acceptance Testing
17 79 (6.84%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 88 (7.62%) SQL
2 74 (6.41%) Python
3 46 (3.98%) Java
4 24 (2.08%) JavaScript
5 17 (1.47%) TypeScript
6 10 (0.87%) C#
6 10 (0.87%) Shell Script
7 9 (0.78%) PowerShell
8 6 (0.52%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (0.52%) PL/SQL
9 5 (0.43%) Bash
9 5 (0.43%) Bicep
9 5 (0.43%) SOQL
10 4 (0.35%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.35%) Groovy
10 4 (0.35%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.35%) R
10 4 (0.35%) Scala
11 3 (0.26%) ABAP
11 3 (0.26%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 55 (4.76%) Degree
2 38 (3.29%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.08%) SC Cleared
4 17 (1.47%) PMP
5 10 (0.87%) DBS Check
5 10 (0.87%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.78%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (0.69%) CISSP
8 7 (0.61%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (0.52%) CISM
10 5 (0.43%) APMP
10 5 (0.43%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (0.43%) CCNP
10 5 (0.43%) CCSE
10 5 (0.43%) CCSM
10 5 (0.43%) CSPO
10 5 (0.43%) MBA
11 4 (0.35%) City & Guilds
12 3 (0.26%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (4.16%) QA
2 43 (3.72%) Data Quality
3 34 (2.94%) GDPR
4 32 (2.77%) PMO
5 18 (1.56%) Accessibility
6 15 (1.30%) PCI DSS
7 10 (0.87%) SLA
8 9 (0.78%) 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 23 (1.99%) Docker
2 22 (1.90%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
3 6 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.17%) Firmware
5 2 (0.17%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 31 (2.68%) Terraform
2 23 (1.99%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 8 (0.69%) Ansible
5 6 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.43%) SCCM
7 4 (0.35%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.26%) Grafana
9 2 (0.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.17%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.17%) MOM
9 2 (0.17%) PingFederate
10 1 (0.087%) Argo
10 1 (0.087%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.087%) Istio
10 1 (0.087%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 96 (8.31%) Microsoft
2 79 (6.84%) SAP
3 71 (6.15%) Oracle
4 54 (4.68%) Salesforce
5 50 (4.33%) Google
6 40 (3.46%) Databricks
7 32 (2.77%) Adobe
8 21 (1.82%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.21%) IFS
10 13 (1.13%) Cisco
10 13 (1.13%) Sitecore
10 13 (1.13%) Zscaler
11 11 (0.95%) Fortinet
11 11 (0.95%) Palo Alto
12 10 (0.87%) VMware
13 9 (0.78%) MuleSoft
13 9 (0.78%) Splunk
14 7 (0.61%) Apple
14 7 (0.61%) IBM
14 7 (0.61%) JDA