Retail Contract Job Trends in the South East

Retailing
England > South East

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Retail in contract job vacancies in the South East. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Retail over the 6 months leading up to 5 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 101 84
Rank change year-on-year +18 -17 +24
Contract jobs citing Retail 164 65 125
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.58% 1.98% 2.20%
As % of the General category 5.11% 3.29% 4.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 34 71
10th Percentile £190 £209 £263
25th Percentile £330 £422 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £555 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.15% +16.84% -13.64%
75th Percentile £738 £629 £600
90th Percentile - £709 £725
England median daily rate £540 £525 £520
% change year-on-year +2.86% +0.96% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 7
10th Percentile £16.17 £16.45 £11.00
25th Percentile £16.80 £18.25 £13.50
Median hourly rate £21.25 £22.50 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +40.63% -27.80%
75th Percentile £22.50 £28.25 -
90th Percentile £22.63 £30.95 £19.30
England median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.00
% change year-on-year +28.83% +1.88% -19.23%

All General Skills
South East

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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 3,211 1,974 2,773
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 50.46% 60.18% 48.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,825 1,229 1,509
10th Percentile £263 £205 £213
25th Percentile £405 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.00% - -
75th Percentile £613 £588 £608
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £525 £518 £535
% change year-on-year +1.45% -3.27% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 427 169 331
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.00 £12.88
25th Percentile £21.35 £14.54 £18.35
Median hourly rate £47.50 £18.87 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +151.72% -58.07% -10.00%
75th Percentile £82.25 £53.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £72.33
England median hourly rate £32.50 £27.21 £33.00
% change year-on-year +19.44% -17.55% +10.00%

Retail
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Retail relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Retail job vacancy trend in the South East

Retail
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Retail.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Retail

Retail
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Retail in the South East over the 6 months to 5 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Retail in the South East

Retail
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Retail.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Retail

Retail
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Retail within the South East region over the 6 months to 5 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
Thames Valley +7 87 £606 +15.48% 105
Berkshire +9 55 £725 +29.46% 45
Hampshire +1 55 £322 -44.02% 39
Buckinghamshire -30 23 £203 -52.35% 43
Kent +3 9 £390 -37.57% 17
Oxfordshire - 9 £525 - 20
Surrey -17 6 £375 -28.57% 51
West Sussex -16 3 £550 +175.00% 11
Home Counties +1 2 £650 -
Retail
England

Retail
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 4 (2.44%) Confluence
2 1 (0.61%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 1 (0.61%) CMS
Applications
1 3 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.83%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (1.83%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (2.44%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.61%) Cognos Controller
2 1 (0.61%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 1 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.61%) Oracle Payables
2 1 (0.61%) Oracle Receivables
2 1 (0.61%) Sage X3
2 1 (0.61%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.61%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.61%) SAP Hybris
2 1 (0.61%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.61%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 18 (10.98%) Power Platform
2 12 (7.32%) Azure
3 6 (3.66%) AWS
4 5 (3.05%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (1.83%) SaaS
6 2 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.61%) GCP
7 1 (0.61%) iPaaS
7 1 (0.61%) Salsify
7 1 (0.61%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 1 (0.61%) Snowflake
7 1 (0.61%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.27%) ATM
2 5 (3.05%) Cisco ASA
2 5 (3.05%) Cisco Firepower
2 5 (3.05%) Cisco Nexus
2 5 (3.05%) VPN
2 5 (3.05%) VSAN
3 4 (2.44%) Firewall
3 4 (2.44%) RFID
4 2 (1.22%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.61%) Broadband
5 1 (0.61%) DHCP
5 1 (0.61%) LAN
5 1 (0.61%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (10.98%) Power BI
2 2 (1.22%) BigQuery
3 1 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
3 1 (0.61%) Metadata
3 1 (0.61%) Oracle ODI
Development Applications
1 11 (6.71%) JIRA
2 2 (1.22%) Postman
3 1 (0.61%) MSI
General
1 46 (28.05%) Finance
2 32 (19.51%) Analytical Skills
3 31 (18.90%) Social Skills
4 16 (9.76%) French Language
4 16 (9.76%) Spanish Language
5 14 (8.54%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (6.71%) Public Sector
7 8 (4.88%) Manufacturing
8 6 (3.66%) Marketing
9 5 (3.05%) Banking
9 5 (3.05%) Telecoms
10 4 (2.44%) Legal
11 3 (1.83%) Automotive
12 2 (1.22%) Local Government
12 2 (1.22%) Retail Banking
13 1 (0.61%) German Language
13 1 (0.61%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 37 (22.56%) Architect
2 36 (21.95%) Solutions Architect
3 18 (10.98%) Analyst
3 18 (10.98%) Lead
4 16 (9.76%) 2nd Line Support
4 16 (9.76%) 2nd Line Technical Support
4 16 (9.76%) Technical Support
5 12 (7.32%) Supply Chain Architect
6 9 (5.49%) Dynamics 365 Architect
6 9 (5.49%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
6 9 (5.49%) ERP Architect
6 9 (5.49%) Project Manager
7 6 (3.66%) Business Analyst
7 6 (3.66%) Senior
7 6 (3.66%) Senior Manager
8 5 (3.05%) Network Engineer
8 5 (3.05%) NOC Engineer
8 5 (3.05%) Oracle Architect
8 5 (3.05%) Oracle Solutions Architect
8 5 (3.05%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.27%) MACH
2 6 (3.66%) RESTful
3 4 (2.44%) Middleware
4 2 (1.22%) .NET
4 2 (1.22%) .NET Core
4 2 (1.22%) .NET Framework
4 2 (1.22%) AngularJS
4 2 (1.22%) Blazor
4 2 (1.22%) JSON
4 2 (1.22%) Razor View Engine
4 2 (1.22%) XML
5 1 (0.61%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (0.61%) REST
5 1 (0.61%) SOAP
5 1 (0.61%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.32%) EPoS
2 10 (6.10%) Data Centre
3 8 (4.88%) Driving Licence
4 5 (3.05%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.05%) Smartphone
5 4 (2.44%) FMCG
6 3 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
6 3 (1.83%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.83%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.22%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.22%) Learning Management System
7 2 (1.22%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.61%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.61%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 1 (0.61%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.61%) Life Science
8 1 (0.61%) Mobile App
8 1 (0.61%) Robotics
8 1 (0.61%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 28 (17.07%) Windows
2 7 (4.27%) Linux
3 4 (2.44%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.83%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.22%) Debian
5 2 (1.22%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.61%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.61%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (27.44%) Stakeholder Management
2 42 (25.61%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (19.51%) Change Management
4 31 (18.90%) Customer Service
4 31 (18.90%) ERP
5 24 (14.63%) Business Intelligence
6 23 (14.02%) Customer Experience
6 23 (14.02%) Migration
7 20 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
7 20 (12.20%) Project Delivery
7 20 (12.20%) Roadmaps
8 18 (10.98%) Agile
9 17 (10.37%) User Acceptance Testing
10 16 (9.76%) Data Protection
10 16 (9.76%) Process Improvement
10 16 (9.76%) Validation
11 15 (9.15%) Requirements Gathering
12 14 (8.54%) Scenario Testing
13 13 (7.93%) Data Cleansing
13 13 (7.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 21 (12.80%) SQL
2 2 (1.22%) C#
2 2 (1.22%) PL/SQL
2 2 (1.22%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.22%) VBScript
3 1 (0.61%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (4.88%) Degree
2 5 (3.05%) CCNP
2 5 (3.05%) CCSE
2 5 (3.05%) CCSM
2 5 (3.05%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (1.22%) DBS Check
4 1 (0.61%) PMP
4 1 (0.61%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (11.59%) GDPR
2 10 (6.10%) PMO
3 5 (3.05%) SLA
4 4 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.83%) QA
6 2 (1.22%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.61%) GAAP
7 1 (0.61%) IFRS
7 1 (0.61%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 6 (3.66%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (3.05%) VMware ESXi
3 4 (2.44%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.61%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (2.44%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.22%) AirWatch
2 2 (1.22%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.22%) MOM
3 1 (0.61%) SCCM
3 1 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 15 (9.15%) Oracle
2 13 (7.93%) IFS
3 8 (4.88%) VMware
4 7 (4.27%) SAP
5 6 (3.66%) Microsoft
5 6 (3.66%) Palo Alto
6 5 (3.05%) CheckPoint
6 5 (3.05%) Cisco
6 5 (3.05%) Fortinet
6 5 (3.05%) Salesforce
7 3 (1.83%) Adobe
8 2 (1.22%) Apple
9 1 (0.61%) Cognos
9 1 (0.61%) Google
9 1 (0.61%) IBM
9 1 (0.61%) Informatica
9 1 (0.61%) Meraki
9 1 (0.61%) Sage
9 1 (0.61%) Samsung
9 1 (0.61%) Workday