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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 141 84 87
Rank change year-on-year -57 +3 -4
Contract jobs citing Retail 711 743 911
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.96% 2.93% 2.43%
As % of the General category 3.34% 4.66% 4.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 453 398 524
10th Percentile £206 £290 £275
25th Percentile £388 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £514
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.19% -2.14%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
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 29 12 61
10th Percentile £12.91 £18.13 £11.06
25th Percentile £16.17 £20.47 £13.00
Median hourly rate £18.87 £32.50 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -41.94% +99.39% -17.72%
75th Percentile £24.61 £50.38 £21.37
90th Percentile £48.15 £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 21,281 15,947 22,043
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 58.60% 62.87% 58.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,458 10,008 14,438
10th Percentile £300 £300 £265
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £753
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,317 547 1,616
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.25 £13.14
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £15.29
Median hourly rate £24.00 £30.45 £25.90
Median % change year-on-year -21.18% +17.59% -20.32%
75th Percentile £55.00 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £23.83 £30.00 £25.50
% change year-on-year -20.58% +17.65% -19.28%

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 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 5 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 5 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 -41 402 £545 -0.91% 372
South East -44 91 £416 -22.56% 263
North of England -47 81 £500 +11.11% 226
Midlands -51 68 £495 -1.00% 215
East Midlands -13 41 £495 -1.00% 118
North West -36 41 £525 +16.67% 115
Yorkshire -51 36 £500 +83.49% 88
East of England -28 32 £526 -4.32% 99
West Midlands -58 26 £463 -11.90% 96
South West -21 18 £261 -26.41% 80
North East -10 4 £206 - 27
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 (4.36%) Confluence
2 15 (2.11%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.69%) Apache Airflow
3 12 (1.69%) CMS
4 11 (1.55%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 4 (0.56%) WordPress
6 3 (0.42%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.28%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.28%) SAS
8 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 22 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.97%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (1.55%) Chatbot
3 11 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.41%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.42%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.28%) 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 17 (2.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.69%) SAP Retail
2 12 (1.69%) Shopify
3 10 (1.41%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.98%) Oracle Retail
5 6 (0.84%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (0.70%) Finacle
6 5 (0.70%) SAP Payroll
7 4 (0.56%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.56%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.42%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.42%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.28%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.28%) Sprinklr
10 1 (0.14%) Adobe Campaign
10 1 (0.14%) Endur
10 1 (0.14%) FLEXCUBE
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
10 1 (0.14%) SAP CAR
10 1 (0.14%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 85 (11.95%) Azure
2 47 (6.61%) AWS
2 47 (6.61%) Power Platform
3 41 (5.77%) GCP
4 23 (3.23%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (3.09%) GitHub
6 19 (2.67%) Dynamics 365
7 16 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
7 16 (2.25%) Snowflake
8 15 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
9 13 (1.83%) Figma
9 13 (1.83%) SaaS
10 12 (1.69%) Google Workspace
11 11 (1.55%) Entra ID
12 10 (1.41%) Miro
13 9 (1.27%) Azure Data Factory
13 9 (1.27%) Cloud Run
14 8 (1.13%) dbt
14 8 (1.13%) WhatsApp
15 7 (0.98%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 17 (2.39%) RFID
2 13 (1.83%) VPN
3 11 (1.55%) NFC
3 11 (1.55%) Wireless
4 10 (1.41%) Firewall
4 10 (1.41%) WAN
5 6 (0.84%) Wi-Fi
6 5 (0.70%) LAN
7 4 (0.56%) BGP
7 4 (0.56%) Cisco Nexus
7 4 (0.56%) EIGRP
7 4 (0.56%) OSPF
7 4 (0.56%) VoIP
8 3 (0.42%) MPLS
9 2 (0.28%) SAN
9 2 (0.28%) WLAN
10 1 (0.14%) FTP
10 1 (0.14%) HTTPS
10 1 (0.14%) SMS
10 1 (0.14%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (5.49%) Power BI
2 22 (3.09%) BigQuery
3 18 (2.53%) Data Warehouse
4 14 (1.97%) Metadata
5 13 (1.83%) SQL Server
6 12 (1.69%) Tableau
7 11 (1.55%) MySQL
8 10 (1.41%) Data Lake
9 7 (0.98%) Data Vault
10 6 (0.84%) Delta Lake
11 5 (0.70%) PostgreSQL
11 5 (0.70%) Snowflake Schema
12 4 (0.56%) Redis
12 4 (0.56%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.56%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 3 (0.42%) MongoDB
13 3 (0.42%) OLAP
13 3 (0.42%) Oracle OLAP
13 3 (0.42%) SAP BW
13 3 (0.42%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 66 (9.28%) JIRA
2 11 (1.55%) Jenkins
3 7 (0.98%) Git
3 7 (0.98%) GitLab
4 5 (0.70%) ERwin
5 4 (0.56%) MLflow
6 3 (0.42%) Maven
6 3 (0.42%) Selenium
6 3 (0.42%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.28%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.28%) Mockito
7 2 (0.28%) PowerDesigner
7 2 (0.28%) Xcode
8 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.14%) Gradle
8 1 (0.14%) JMeter
8 1 (0.14%) JUnit
8 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.14%) WebDriver
General
1 244 (34.32%) Social Skills
2 160 (22.50%) Finance
3 77 (10.83%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (8.72%) Marketing
5 60 (8.44%) Banking
6 34 (4.78%) Public Sector
7 31 (4.36%) Organisational Skills
8 29 (4.08%) Manufacturing
9 24 (3.38%) Influencing Skills
10 23 (3.23%) Investment Banking
11 22 (3.09%) Corporate Banking
11 22 (3.09%) Retail Banking
12 19 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
12 19 (2.67%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.83%) Legal
13 13 (1.83%) Telecoms
14 11 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 8 (1.13%) Financial Institution
16 7 (0.98%) Publishing
17 5 (0.70%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 118 (16.60%) Analyst
2 96 (13.50%) Project Manager
3 85 (11.95%) Senior
4 82 (11.53%) Architect
5 62 (8.72%) Lead
6 60 (8.44%) Business Analyst
7 41 (5.77%) Senior Manager
8 32 (4.50%) Consultant
9 31 (4.36%) Solutions Architect
10 24 (3.38%) Technical Manager
11 23 (3.23%) Senior Project Manager
12 17 (2.39%) Product Manager
12 17 (2.39%) Programme Manager
13 15 (2.11%) Data Engineer
13 15 (2.11%) Service Manager
14 14 (1.97%) Data Architect
14 14 (1.97%) Designer
14 14 (1.97%) E-Commerce Manager
15 13 (1.83%) Developer
15 13 (1.83%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.67%) VML
2 17 (2.39%) REST
3 14 (1.97%) Middleware
3 14 (1.97%) Spring
4 12 (1.69%) PySpark
5 11 (1.55%) Spring Boot
6 10 (1.41%) AngularJS
6 10 (1.41%) React
6 10 (1.41%) scikit-learn
7 9 (1.27%) .NET
7 9 (1.27%) PyTorch
8 7 (0.98%) HTML
8 7 (0.98%) Node.js
8 7 (0.98%) OpenTelemetry
9 6 (0.84%) CSS
9 6 (0.84%) LangChain
10 5 (0.70%) TensorFlow
10 5 (0.70%) XML
11 4 (0.56%) Kafka
11 4 (0.56%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 43 (6.05%) Product Ownership
2 26 (3.66%) Driving Licence
3 23 (3.23%) Self-Motivation
4 22 (3.09%) Cloud Native
5 21 (2.95%) Onboarding
6 19 (2.67%) Management Information System
7 17 (2.39%) FMCG
8 16 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
9 15 (2.11%) Data Centre
9 15 (2.11%) Data Structures
9 15 (2.11%) EPoS
10 12 (1.69%) IoT
10 12 (1.69%) Mobile App
11 9 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
11 9 (1.27%) Virtual Team
12 8 (1.13%) Social Media
13 7 (0.98%) Algorithms
13 7 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
13 7 (0.98%) Reference Data
14 6 (0.84%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 36 (5.06%) Windows
2 16 (2.25%) Linux
3 9 (1.27%) Mac OS
4 6 (0.84%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.70%) Android
6 4 (0.56%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.42%) Unix
7 3 (0.42%) zOS
8 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (23.49%) Stakeholder Management
2 157 (22.08%) Agile
3 137 (19.27%) Problem-Solving
4 97 (13.64%) E-Commerce
5 94 (13.22%) Project Management
6 78 (10.97%) Analytics
7 73 (10.27%) Migration
7 73 (10.27%) Roadmaps
8 64 (9.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 64 (9.00%) Workshop Facilitation
9 59 (8.30%) Customer Experience
10 57 (8.02%) Continuous Improvement
11 55 (7.74%) AI
12 54 (7.59%) Scrum
13 53 (7.45%) DevOps
13 53 (7.45%) Project Delivery
14 51 (7.17%) Business Intelligence
15 50 (7.03%) ERP
16 48 (6.75%) Data Modelling
17 47 (6.61%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 61 (8.58%) Python
1 61 (8.58%) SQL
2 23 (3.23%) Java
3 16 (2.25%) JavaScript
4 14 (1.97%) PowerShell
5 11 (1.55%) Bash
6 9 (1.27%) Shell Script
7 8 (1.13%) Kusto Query Language
8 7 (0.98%) C#
9 5 (0.70%) TypeScript
10 4 (0.56%) Kotlin
11 3 (0.42%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.42%) VBA
12 2 (0.28%) Bicep
12 2 (0.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.28%) Google Apps Script
12 2 (0.28%) PHP
12 2 (0.28%) R
12 2 (0.28%) Swift
13 1 (0.14%) JCL
Qualifications
1 42 (5.91%) Degree
2 23 (3.23%) PMP
3 19 (2.67%) Security Cleared
4 18 (2.53%) PMI Certification
5 9 (1.27%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.13%) SC Cleared
7 7 (0.98%) APMP
7 7 (0.98%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.98%) CISSP
7 7 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (0.98%) MBA
8 5 (0.70%) CISM
8 5 (0.70%) CRISC
8 5 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (0.56%) CCIE
9 4 (0.56%) CCNP
9 4 (0.56%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (0.56%) CSPO
10 3 (0.42%) GIAC
10 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.08%) Data Quality
1 29 (4.08%) QA
2 26 (3.66%) PMO
3 20 (2.81%) GDPR
4 17 (2.39%) Accessibility
5 15 (2.11%) SLA
6 6 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.84%) PCI DSS
7 5 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
8 4 (0.56%) IFRS
9 3 (0.42%) NCSC
9 3 (0.42%) NIST
10 2 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.28%) COBIT
10 2 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.14%) GAAP
11 1 (0.14%) GRC
11 1 (0.14%) MiFID
11 1 (0.14%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (2.25%) Docker
2 13 (1.83%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.42%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (0.42%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.14%) RACF
4 1 (0.14%) Varnish
4 1 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 21 (2.95%) Terraform
2 15 (2.11%) Kubernetes
3 7 (0.98%) Grafana
3 7 (0.98%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.84%) Argo
4 6 (0.84%) Istio
4 6 (0.84%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.42%) SCCM
5 3 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.28%) 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 66 (9.28%) Microsoft
2 58 (8.16%) SAP
3 49 (6.89%) Google
4 42 (5.91%) Oracle
5 31 (4.36%) Salesforce
6 25 (3.52%) Databricks
7 20 (2.81%) Adobe
8 13 (1.83%) ServiceNow
9 8 (1.13%) Sitecore
10 7 (0.98%) Temenos
11 6 (0.84%) Workday
12 5 (0.70%) Apple
12 5 (0.70%) Avaloq
12 5 (0.70%) BMC
12 5 (0.70%) CheckPoint
12 5 (0.70%) Cisco
12 5 (0.70%) F5
12 5 (0.70%) GoldenSource
12 5 (0.70%) MicroStrategy
12 5 (0.70%) Zscaler