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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 110 78
Rank change year-on-year +30 -32 +10
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,452 682 903
As % of all contract jobs in England 3.17% 2.45% 2.72%
As % of the General category 5.72% 3.82% 4.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 841 358 501
10th Percentile £319 £300 £300
25th Percentile £450 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £505
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +3.96% -4.72%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £513 £500
% change year-on-year +7.32% +2.50% -6.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 43 60
10th Percentile £12.76 - £12.15
25th Percentile £13.51 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £17.50 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +7.36% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £36.95 £24.84
UK median hourly rate £17.12 £16.30 £16.30
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -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 25,402 17,860 19,121
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 55.39% 64.26% 57.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,152 11,345 12,286
10th Percentile £313 £276 £300
25th Percentile £419 £400 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -5.20% -2.18%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £660
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 2,011 974 1,219
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.25 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.85 £16.36 £18.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% -34.02% +38.62%
75th Percentile £62.00 £50.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £70.56
UK median hourly rate £31.56 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +25.47% -34.02% +38.62%

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 16 August 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 +44 830 £561 +2.05% 384
North of England -26 189 £550 +10.00% 303
South East +4 176 £525 -4.55% 316
Midlands +27 138 £550 +27.76% 230
North West +11 120 £550 +10.00% 159
East Midlands +16 78 £500 +17.86% 107
East of England +15 68 £550 +4.76% 105
West Midlands -10 59 £606 +38.57% 123
Yorkshire -44 53 £500 -4.76% 106
South West -43 40 £350 -1.48% 94
North East -30 16 £525 +18.64% 41
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 45 (3.10%) Confluence
2 18 (1.24%) CMS
3 12 (0.83%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 10 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.62%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.34%) SAS
7 4 (0.28%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.14%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.14%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.14%) CICS
9 1 (0.069%) Apache
9 1 (0.069%) Mendix
9 1 (0.069%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.069%) Mule
9 1 (0.069%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 53 (3.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 36 (2.48%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 15 (1.03%) Microsoft Project
6 9 (0.62%) Chatbot
6 9 (0.62%) Photoshop
7 8 (0.55%) Adobe Illustrator
8 7 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
9 6 (0.41%) InDesign
9 6 (0.41%) MS Visio
10 4 (0.28%) CPLEX
10 4 (0.28%) Notion
11 1 (0.069%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.069%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 39 (2.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.86%) Shopify
3 11 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
4 9 (0.62%) Oracle Retail
5 8 (0.55%) Magento
6 6 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
6 6 (0.41%) SAP CRM
6 6 (0.41%) SAP Retail
7 5 (0.34%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.34%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.28%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.28%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.21%) OpenText VIM for SAP
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.21%) SAP IBP
9 3 (0.21%) Workday HCM
10 2 (0.14%) Finacle
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 181 (12.47%) Azure
2 139 (9.57%) AWS
3 71 (4.89%) Power Platform
4 65 (4.48%) GCP
5 49 (3.37%) Snowflake
6 43 (2.96%) GitHub
7 32 (2.20%) Azure DevOps
8 31 (2.13%) Entra ID
9 27 (1.86%) GitHub Actions
10 23 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (1.38%) Figma
12 18 (1.24%) SaaS
13 15 (1.03%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
14 14 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
14 14 (0.96%) Microsoft 365
15 11 (0.76%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 11 (0.76%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 11 (0.76%) Serverless
16 10 (0.69%) dbt
17 9 (0.62%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.38%) WAN
2 19 (1.31%) Firewall
3 16 (1.10%) VPN
3 16 (1.10%) Wireless
4 14 (0.96%) ATM
4 14 (0.96%) Network Security
5 12 (0.83%) LAN
6 11 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.55%) BGP
7 8 (0.55%) IPsec
7 8 (0.55%) OSPF
7 8 (0.55%) SD-WAN
8 7 (0.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (0.48%) VLAN
9 6 (0.41%) Cisco Firepower
9 6 (0.41%) VSAN
10 5 (0.34%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (0.34%) Cisco Nexus
10 5 (0.34%) RFID
10 5 (0.34%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (4.82%) Power BI
2 30 (2.07%) Data Warehouse
3 29 (2.00%) BigQuery
4 24 (1.65%) Data Lake
5 19 (1.31%) NoSQL
6 16 (1.10%) Metadata
6 16 (1.10%) MongoDB
7 14 (0.96%) MySQL
7 14 (0.96%) SQL Server
7 14 (0.96%) Tableau
8 12 (0.83%) Amazon Redshift
8 12 (0.83%) Power Query
8 12 (0.83%) Relational Database
9 11 (0.76%) PostgreSQL
10 10 (0.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 8 (0.55%) Couchbase
11 8 (0.55%) Redis
12 6 (0.41%) SAP HANA
12 6 (0.41%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 6 (0.41%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 73 (5.03%) JIRA
2 25 (1.72%) Git
3 18 (1.24%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.55%) Subversion
5 7 (0.48%) Claude Code
6 4 (0.28%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.28%) GitLab
6 4 (0.28%) JMeter
7 3 (0.21%) Hudson
7 3 (0.21%) Maven
8 2 (0.14%) git-flow
8 2 (0.14%) MLflow
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.14%) Postman
8 2 (0.14%) Selenium
8 2 (0.14%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.14%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.14%) webpack
9 1 (0.069%) Pylint
General
1 401 (27.62%) Social Skills
2 340 (23.42%) Finance
3 155 (10.67%) Analytical Skills
4 117 (8.06%) Banking
5 104 (7.16%) Marketing
6 94 (6.47%) Manufacturing
7 61 (4.20%) Organisational Skills
8 55 (3.79%) Retail Banking
9 42 (2.89%) Investment Banking
10 39 (2.69%) Corporate Banking
11 32 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
12 30 (2.07%) Telecoms
13 29 (2.00%) Legal
14 28 (1.93%) Advertising
15 27 (1.86%) Public Sector
16 21 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
16 21 (1.45%) Presentation Skills
17 19 (1.31%) French Language
18 18 (1.24%) Spanish Language
19 13 (0.90%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 244 (16.80%) Architect
2 203 (13.98%) Analyst
3 169 (11.64%) Senior
4 138 (9.50%) Solutions Architect
5 123 (8.47%) Project Manager
6 106 (7.30%) Business Analyst
7 100 (6.89%) Lead
8 76 (5.23%) Developer
9 48 (3.31%) Senior Manager
10 46 (3.17%) Product Manager
11 45 (3.10%) Designer
12 44 (3.03%) Consultant
13 37 (2.55%) Supply Chain Architect
14 34 (2.34%) Enterprise Architect
14 34 (2.34%) Programme Manager
14 34 (2.34%) Senior Developer
15 33 (2.27%) Technical Manager
16 32 (2.20%) Data Architect
17 27 (1.86%) Data Analyst
18 26 (1.79%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (4.27%) REST
2 37 (2.55%) React
3 29 (2.00%) Kafka
4 28 (1.93%) Middleware
4 28 (1.93%) Spring
5 23 (1.58%) Node.js
6 21 (1.45%) Spring Boot
6 21 (1.45%) VML
7 20 (1.38%) Django
8 19 (1.31%) MACH
9 18 (1.24%) RESTful
10 15 (1.03%) HTML
10 15 (1.03%) SOAP
11 14 (0.96%) Next.js
11 14 (0.96%) OAuth
12 13 (0.90%) CSS
13 12 (0.83%) Jakarta EE
14 10 (0.69%) .NET
15 9 (0.62%) OAuth2
16 8 (0.55%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 78 (5.37%) Product Ownership
2 66 (4.55%) FMCG
3 52 (3.58%) EPoS
3 52 (3.58%) Onboarding
4 44 (3.03%) Cloud Native
5 32 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
6 30 (2.07%) Data Centre
7 25 (1.72%) Mobile App
8 23 (1.58%) Data Structures
8 23 (1.58%) Driving Licence
8 23 (1.58%) Greenfield Project
9 21 (1.45%) Marketing Technology
9 21 (1.45%) Operational Technology
9 21 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
10 17 (1.17%) Smartphone
11 16 (1.10%) IoT
12 15 (1.03%) Mainframe
12 15 (1.03%) Management Information System
13 14 (0.96%) Distributed Systems
14 13 (0.90%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 54 (3.72%) Windows
2 21 (1.45%) Linux
3 11 (0.76%) Android
4 10 (0.69%) Unix
5 8 (0.55%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.48%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.41%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.34%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.34%) Windows Server
9 3 (0.21%) zOS
10 2 (0.14%) Debian
11 1 (0.069%) SUSE
11 1 (0.069%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.069%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 373 (25.69%) Stakeholder Management
2 337 (23.21%) Agile
3 217 (14.94%) E-Commerce
4 187 (12.88%) Problem-Solving
5 179 (12.33%) Migration
6 170 (11.71%) Roadmaps
7 158 (10.88%) Analytics
8 154 (10.61%) AI
9 150 (10.33%) Logistics
10 130 (8.95%) Customer Experience
11 124 (8.54%) Decision-Making
12 121 (8.33%) Continuous Improvement
13 119 (8.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 113 (7.78%) CI/CD
14 113 (7.78%) Project Management
15 110 (7.58%) CRM
16 105 (7.23%) ERP
17 100 (6.89%) Business Intelligence
17 100 (6.89%) DevOps
17 100 (6.89%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 117 (8.06%) SQL
2 100 (6.89%) Python
3 51 (3.51%) Java
4 32 (2.20%) TypeScript
5 26 (1.79%) JavaScript
6 12 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.69%) C#
7 10 (0.69%) PowerShell
8 7 (0.48%) ABAP
8 7 (0.48%) Bash
8 7 (0.48%) R
9 6 (0.41%) Apex Code
9 6 (0.41%) Bicep
9 6 (0.41%) PL/SQL
9 6 (0.41%) Scala
9 6 (0.41%) SOQL
10 5 (0.34%) Groovy
11 4 (0.28%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.28%) SOSL
12 3 (0.21%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 63 (4.34%) Degree
2 41 (2.82%) Security Cleared
3 20 (1.38%) PMP
3 20 (1.38%) SC Cleared
4 11 (0.76%) DBS Check
5 10 (0.69%) PMI Certification
6 7 (0.48%) CISSP
6 7 (0.48%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (0.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (0.41%) CISM
7 6 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (0.34%) CCNP
8 5 (0.34%) CCSE
8 5 (0.34%) CCSM
8 5 (0.34%) CSPO
8 5 (0.34%) Six Sigma Green Belt
9 4 (0.28%) Azure Certification
9 4 (0.28%) City & Guilds
10 3 (0.21%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (4.61%) QA
2 56 (3.86%) Data Quality
3 38 (2.62%) GDPR
4 26 (1.79%) PMO
5 22 (1.52%) Accessibility
6 16 (1.10%) PCI DSS
7 12 (0.83%) SLA
8 8 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.48%) NIST
10 4 (0.28%) GRC
10 4 (0.28%) WCAG
11 3 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.21%) GAAP
11 3 (0.21%) IFRS
11 3 (0.21%) PSD2
12 2 (0.14%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.14%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.069%) GxP
13 1 (0.069%) HL7
System Software
1 38 (2.62%) Docker
2 32 (2.20%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.34%) Firmware
6 5 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.21%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.069%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 50 (3.44%) Terraform
2 38 (2.62%) Kubernetes
3 10 (0.69%) Ansible
4 9 (0.62%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
5 8 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (0.41%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.28%) SCCM
8 3 (0.21%) Bosun
9 2 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.14%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.14%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.14%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.14%) logstash
9 2 (0.14%) MOM
9 2 (0.14%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.14%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.069%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.069%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.069%) vMotion
Vendors
1 127 (8.75%) Microsoft
2 103 (7.09%) SAP
3 71 (4.89%) Databricks
3 71 (4.89%) Oracle
4 65 (4.48%) Salesforce
5 44 (3.03%) Google
6 38 (2.62%) Adobe
7 24 (1.65%) Zscaler
8 17 (1.17%) ServiceNow
8 17 (1.17%) Workday
9 16 (1.10%) Cisco
10 15 (1.03%) MuleSoft
11 14 (0.96%) IFS
12 13 (0.90%) Fortinet
12 13 (0.90%) Palo Alto
12 13 (0.90%) VMware
13 11 (0.76%) Apple
13 11 (0.76%) Braze
14 10 (0.69%) IBM
14 10 (0.69%) New Relic
1,281 Retail jobs in England