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

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 76 106
Rank change year-on-year -18 +30 -2
Contract jobs citing Retail 90 96 103
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.04% 2.87% 2.02%
As % of the General category 3.73% 4.89% 3.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 48 51
10th Percentile £171 £313 £300
25th Percentile £358 £433 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £550 £488
Median % change year-on-year -6.09% +12.82% -11.36%
75th Percentile £550 £638 £585
90th Percentile £699 £665 £650
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 3
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £16.17 - £11.00
Median hourly rate £16.34 - £11.50
75th Percentile £16.50 - £17.50
90th Percentile - - £20.80
England median hourly rate £17.00 £32.50 £19.81
% change year-on-year -47.69% +64.06% -

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 2,415 1,965 2,843
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 54.71% 58.71% 55.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,609 1,168 1,726
10th Percentile £210 £214 £205
25th Percentile £363 £363 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £534 £550
% change year-on-year -6.37% -2.91% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 226 72 207
10th Percentile £13.06 £18.52 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.50 £23.50 £22.61
Median hourly rate £22.00 £42.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -48.24% -10.53% +30.84%
75th Percentile £49.68 £62.24 £61.74
90th Percentile £75.79 £74.13 £70.24
England median hourly rate £23.00 £30.00 £29.69
% change year-on-year -23.33% +1.06% +15.46%

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 17 January 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 17 January 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 -22 57 £517 +3.30% 147
Berkshire -24 38 £495 -5.71% 87
Hampshire -27 23 £520 -9.57% 43
Buckinghamshire -9 12 £172 -65.55% 47
Oxfordshire -4 7 £534 +6.70% 13
Kent - 6 £525 - 29
Surrey -5 1 £300 - 49
Middlesex - 1 £740 - 4
East Sussex - 1 £475 - 26
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 5 (5.56%) Camunda
1 5 (5.56%) SharePoint
2 4 (4.44%) Confluence
3 2 (2.22%) CMS
4 1 (1.11%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 5 (5.56%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (5.56%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (3.33%) Dynamics AX
1 3 (3.33%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (1.11%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (1.11%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 15 (16.67%) Azure
2 6 (6.67%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (5.56%) Power Platform
4 4 (4.44%) GCP
4 4 (4.44%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (3.33%) AWS
5 3 (3.33%) Dynamics 365
5 3 (3.33%) Entra ID
5 3 (3.33%) SaaS
5 3 (3.33%) Snowflake
6 2 (2.22%) IaaS
6 2 (2.22%) PaaS
7 1 (1.11%) Adobe Analytics
7 1 (1.11%) Azure API Management
7 1 (1.11%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.11%) Boomi
7 1 (1.11%) Contentsquare
7 1 (1.11%) GitHub
7 1 (1.11%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.11%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 3 (3.33%) VPN
2 1 (1.11%) Broadband
2 1 (1.11%) LAN
2 1 (1.11%) MPLS
2 1 (1.11%) RFID
2 1 (1.11%) SAN
2 1 (1.11%) WAN
2 1 (1.11%) Wi-Fi
2 1 (1.11%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (5.56%) Power BI
2 3 (3.33%) BigQuery
3 2 (2.22%) SQL Server
4 1 (1.11%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (1.11%) Data Hub
4 1 (1.11%) Data Lake
4 1 (1.11%) MySQL
4 1 (1.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 1 (1.11%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 13 (14.44%) JIRA
2 1 (1.11%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.11%) Git
2 1 (1.11%) Jenkins
General
1 25 (27.78%) Social Skills
2 19 (21.11%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (16.67%) Finance
4 6 (6.67%) Marketing
5 4 (4.44%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (4.44%) Telecoms
6 2 (2.22%) Automotive
6 2 (2.22%) Billing
6 2 (2.22%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.22%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.11%) Advertising
7 1 (1.11%) Aviation
7 1 (1.11%) Banking
7 1 (1.11%) Electronics
7 1 (1.11%) Financial Institution
7 1 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.11%) Law
7 1 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 35 (38.89%) Analyst
2 19 (21.11%) Architect
3 15 (16.67%) Solutions Architect
4 14 (15.56%) Project Manager
5 9 (10.00%) Desktop Analyst
5 9 (10.00%) Desktop Support
5 9 (10.00%) Desktop Support Analyst
5 9 (10.00%) Support Analyst
6 8 (8.89%) Help Desk Analyst
7 6 (6.67%) Lead
8 5 (5.56%) Business Analyst
8 5 (5.56%) Senior
9 3 (3.33%) Azure Engineer
9 3 (3.33%) Commercial Manager
9 3 (3.33%) Commercial Project Manager
9 3 (3.33%) Customer Analyst
9 3 (3.33%) Dynamics 365 Architect
9 3 (3.33%) PMO Analyst
9 3 (3.33%) Programme Manager
9 3 (3.33%) Vulnerability Management Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.44%) REST
2 3 (3.33%) AngularJS
2 3 (3.33%) React
3 2 (2.22%) EDI
3 2 (2.22%) GraphQL
4 1 (1.11%) .NET
4 1 (1.11%) .NET Core
4 1 (1.11%) ARM Templates
4 1 (1.11%) MACH
4 1 (1.11%) OAuth
4 1 (1.11%) OAuth2
4 1 (1.11%) OpenID
4 1 (1.11%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (12.22%) Self-Motivation
2 8 (8.89%) Management Information System
3 5 (5.56%) Data Centre
3 5 (5.56%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (3.33%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (3.33%) Mobile App
4 3 (3.33%) Product Ownership
4 3 (3.33%) Smart Meter
5 2 (2.22%) FMCG
5 2 (2.22%) Mainframe
5 2 (2.22%) Marketing Technology
5 2 (2.22%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.11%) Digital Signage
6 1 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.11%) EPoS
6 1 (1.11%) Fat Client
6 1 (1.11%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (1.11%) Private Cloud
6 1 (1.11%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 2 (2.22%) Windows
2 1 (1.11%) Apple iOS
2 1 (1.11%) Kali Linux
2 1 (1.11%) Linux
2 1 (1.11%) Mac OS X
2 1 (1.11%) Windows 10
2 1 (1.11%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (25.56%) Agile
2 22 (24.44%) Stakeholder Management
3 17 (18.89%) Problem-Solving
4 14 (15.56%) CRM
5 12 (13.33%) Waterfall
6 11 (12.22%) Roadmaps
6 11 (12.22%) Service Delivery
7 10 (11.11%) DevOps
8 9 (10.00%) Continuous Improvement
8 9 (10.00%) Customer Service
8 9 (10.00%) Project Management
9 8 (8.89%) Business Impact Analysis
9 8 (8.89%) Impact Analysis
9 8 (8.89%) Incident Management
9 8 (8.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 8 (8.89%) Workshop Facilitation
10 7 (7.78%) Analytics
10 7 (7.78%) BPMN
10 7 (7.78%) Business Case
10 7 (7.78%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 9 (10.00%) SQL
2 6 (6.67%) Python
3 1 (1.11%) Bash
3 1 (1.11%) C#
3 1 (1.11%) Java
3 1 (1.11%) JavaScript
3 1 (1.11%) PHP
3 1 (1.11%) PowerShell
3 1 (1.11%) X++
Qualifications
1 4 (4.44%) Degree
2 3 (3.33%) PMI Certification
2 3 (3.33%) PMP
3 1 (1.11%) CEH
3 1 (1.11%) CISSP
3 1 (1.11%) CompTIA Security+
3 1 (1.11%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (8.89%) SLA
2 5 (5.56%) PMO
3 3 (3.33%) QA
4 2 (2.22%) PCI DSS
5 1 (1.11%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (1.11%) Data Quality
5 1 (1.11%) GDPR
5 1 (1.11%) NIST
System Software
1 3 (3.33%) VMware NSX
2 2 (2.22%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 3 (3.33%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (1.11%) AirWatch
2 1 (1.11%) Jamf Pro
2 1 (1.11%) Nmap
2 1 (1.11%) Terraform
Vendors
1 10 (11.11%) Microsoft
2 5 (5.56%) Salesforce
3 4 (4.44%) Databricks
4 3 (3.33%) Palo Alto
4 3 (3.33%) Qualys
4 3 (3.33%) ServiceNow
4 3 (3.33%) VMware
4 3 (3.33%) Zscaler
5 2 (2.22%) Oracle
6 1 (1.11%) Adobe
6 1 (1.11%) Dell
6 1 (1.11%) Google
6 1 (1.11%) Meraki
6 1 (1.11%) MuleSoft
6 1 (1.11%) Planon
6 1 (1.11%) Rapid7
6 1 (1.11%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
6 1 (1.11%) Splunk
6 1 (1.11%) Tenable