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

6 months to
24 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 94 83
Rank change year-on-year -3 -11 +25
Contract jobs citing Retail 128 59 123
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.14% 2.01% 2.23%
As % of the General category 4.50% 3.30% 4.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 76 33 68
10th Percentile £185 £227 £300
25th Percentile £191 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +2.56% -11.36%
75th Percentile £638 £588 £600
90th Percentile £738 £670 £731
England median daily rate £525 £525 £513
% change year-on-year - +2.44% -3.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 3 7
10th Percentile £16.17 £16.45 £11.00
25th Percentile £16.80 £18.25 £13.50
Median hourly rate £20.00 £22.50 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% +40.63% -27.80%
75th Percentile £22.50 £28.25 -
90th Percentile £22.75 £30.95 £19.30
England median hourly rate £21.00 £25.75 £16.00
% change year-on-year -18.45% +60.94% -22.42%

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 2,844 1,790 2,761
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.57% 61.03% 50.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,755 1,149 1,513
10th Percentile £250 £210 £212
25th Percentile £400 £370 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £613 £588 £608
90th Percentile £695 £656 £688
England median daily rate £514 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.10% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 333 129 343
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.00 £12.88
25th Percentile £21.35 £14.20 £18.32
Median hourly rate £48.72 £21.43 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +127.34% -52.38% -5.84%
75th Percentile £82.25 £57.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £70.00
England median hourly rate £30.67 £27.39 £30.00
% change year-on-year +11.97% -8.71% -6.25%

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 24 May 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 24 May 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 69 £581 +16.25% 93
Hampshire -2 42 £320 -40.47% 30
Berkshire -3 39 £681 +18.48% 60
Buckinghamshire -32 23 £203 -55.00% 20
Kent -4 7 £155 -24.22% 27
Oxfordshire -17 7 £525 +5.00% 15
Surrey -11 4 £450 +50.00% 30
West Sussex -18 2 £550 +175.00% 8
East Sussex 0 1 £475 - 6
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 3 (2.34%) Confluence
1 3 (2.34%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.78%) Adobe Experience Manager
Applications
1 8 (6.25%) Microsoft Project
2 6 (4.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (3.13%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (3.13%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.78%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.78%) Sage X3
2 1 (0.78%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.78%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.78%) SAP Hybris
2 1 (0.78%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.78%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 20 (15.63%) Power Platform
2 14 (10.94%) Azure
3 5 (3.91%) AWS
4 4 (3.13%) Azure Sentinel
4 4 (3.13%) SaaS
5 3 (2.34%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (1.56%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.78%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (0.78%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.78%) Salsify
7 1 (0.78%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 1 (0.78%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 6 (4.69%) ATM
1 6 (4.69%) VPN
2 5 (3.91%) RFID
3 4 (3.13%) Cisco ASA
3 4 (3.13%) Cisco Firepower
3 4 (3.13%) Cisco Nexus
3 4 (3.13%) Firewall
3 4 (3.13%) VSAN
4 2 (1.56%) LAN
5 1 (0.78%) Broadband
5 1 (0.78%) MPLS
5 1 (0.78%) SAN
5 1 (0.78%) WAN
5 1 (0.78%) Wireless
5 1 (0.78%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (15.63%) Power BI
2 1 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.78%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.78%) Metadata
2 1 (0.78%) MySQL
2 1 (0.78%) Oracle ODI
2 1 (0.78%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (10.16%) JIRA
2 1 (0.78%) Git
General
1 41 (32.03%) Finance
2 27 (21.09%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (18.75%) Social Skills
4 15 (11.72%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (7.03%) French Language
5 9 (7.03%) Spanish Language
6 7 (5.47%) Public Sector
7 6 (4.69%) Manufacturing
8 4 (3.13%) Banking
9 3 (2.34%) Automotive
9 3 (2.34%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.56%) Legal
10 2 (1.56%) Local Government
10 2 (1.56%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.78%) German Language
11 1 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 26 (20.31%) Architect
2 25 (19.53%) Solutions Architect
3 20 (15.63%) Analyst
4 18 (14.06%) Lead
5 9 (7.03%) 2nd Line Support
5 9 (7.03%) 2nd Line Technical Support
5 9 (7.03%) Technical Support
6 8 (6.25%) PMO Analyst
7 7 (5.47%) Dynamics 365 Architect
7 7 (5.47%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
7 7 (5.47%) ERP Architect
8 6 (4.69%) Oracle Architect
8 6 (4.69%) Oracle Solutions Architect
9 5 (3.91%) Business Analyst
10 4 (3.13%) Development Manager
10 4 (3.13%) Head of IT
10 4 (3.13%) Help Desk Analyst
10 4 (3.13%) Network Engineer
10 4 (3.13%) Project Manager
10 4 (3.13%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.34%) MACH
1 3 (2.34%) Middleware
1 3 (2.34%) RESTful
2 1 (0.78%) .NET
2 1 (0.78%) .NET Core
2 1 (0.78%) .NET Framework
2 1 (0.78%) AngularJS
2 1 (0.78%) Blazor
2 1 (0.78%) GraphQL
2 1 (0.78%) Oracle Fusion
2 1 (0.78%) Razor View Engine
Miscellaneous
1 12 (9.38%) Data Centre
2 9 (7.03%) EPoS
3 8 (6.25%) Driving Licence
4 4 (3.13%) Product Ownership
4 4 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (3.13%) Smartphone
5 3 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (2.34%) FMCG
5 3 (2.34%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.56%) Data Structures
6 2 (1.56%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (1.56%) Learning Management System
6 2 (1.56%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.78%) AI Agents
7 1 (0.78%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.78%) Fat Client
7 1 (0.78%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.78%) Life Science
7 1 (0.78%) Taxonomies
7 1 (0.78%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 18 (14.06%) Windows
2 5 (3.91%) Linux
3 4 (3.13%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.78%) Debian
4 1 (0.78%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.78%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (27.34%) Problem-Solving
2 30 (23.44%) Change Management
2 30 (23.44%) Stakeholder Management
3 27 (21.09%) ERP
4 23 (17.97%) Customer Service
5 22 (17.19%) Business Intelligence
6 18 (14.06%) Migration
7 17 (13.28%) Agile
8 16 (12.50%) Customer Experience
8 16 (12.50%) Project Delivery
8 16 (12.50%) Roadmaps
8 16 (12.50%) User Acceptance Testing
9 15 (11.72%) Validation
10 14 (10.94%) Data Protection
10 14 (10.94%) Process Improvement
10 14 (10.94%) Requirements Gathering
10 14 (10.94%) Scenario Testing
11 13 (10.16%) Continuous Improvement
11 13 (10.16%) Data Cleansing
11 13 (10.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 11 (8.59%) SQL
2 1 (0.78%) C#
2 1 (0.78%) Java
2 1 (0.78%) PowerShell
2 1 (0.78%) Python
2 1 (0.78%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 7 (5.47%) Degree
2 4 (3.13%) CCNP
2 4 (3.13%) CCSE
2 4 (3.13%) CCSM
2 4 (3.13%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (1.56%) DBS Check
4 1 (0.78%) PMP
4 1 (0.78%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (14.06%) GDPR
2 11 (8.59%) PMO
3 6 (4.69%) SLA
4 4 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.56%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.56%) QA
System Software
1 4 (3.13%) Active Directory
1 4 (3.13%) VMware ESXi
1 4 (3.13%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (1.56%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.56%) MOM
2 2 (1.56%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.78%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 13 (10.16%) IFS
2 10 (7.81%) Oracle
3 8 (6.25%) Microsoft
4 6 (4.69%) Palo Alto
4 6 (4.69%) VMware
5 4 (3.13%) CheckPoint
5 4 (3.13%) Cisco
5 4 (3.13%) Fortinet
5 4 (3.13%) SAP
6 2 (1.56%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.56%) Zscaler
7 1 (0.78%) Adobe
7 1 (0.78%) Databricks
7 1 (0.78%) Informatica
7 1 (0.78%) Sage