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

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 76 90
Rank change year-on-year -14 +14 +21
Contract jobs citing Retail 160 91 96
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.46% 2.56% 2.19%
As % of the General category 4.58% 4.42% 4.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 49 46
10th Percentile £338 £283 £200
25th Percentile £463 £470 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £581 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.68% +10.00% -6.98%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £664
England median daily rate £550 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 7 4
10th Percentile £13.45 - -
25th Percentile £14.01 £16.17 -
Median hourly rate £17.61 £16.34 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.81% +2.09% -27.27%
75th Percentile £22.50 £16.50 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £15.11 £16.34 £16.30
% change year-on-year -7.50% +0.21% -17.72%

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 3,495 2,058 2,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 53.70% 57.96% 52.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,769 1,301 1,301
10th Percentile £263 £200 £213
25th Percentile £413 £327 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £625 £588 £608
90th Percentile £725 £664 £688
England median daily rate £525 £500 £530
% change year-on-year +5.00% -5.66% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 577 188 145
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.00 £14.51
25th Percentile £16.75 £14.75 £26.25
Median hourly rate £32.81 £20.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +64.03% -65.13% +9.24%
75th Percentile £67.50 £34.39 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.96 £73.23 £75.34
England median hourly rate £29.07 £25.08 £36.00
% change year-on-year +15.93% -30.35% +23.08%

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 October 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Retail in the South East over the 6 months to 5 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Retail in the South East

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 October 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 -3 90 £621 +12.95% 259
Berkshire -5 51 £725 +33.64% 144
Hampshire -8 48 £480 -14.67% 101
Buckinghamshire -14 22 £387 -44.79% 79
Oxfordshire -17 17 £675 +22.73% 36
Kent -4 8 £155 -70.41% 46
Surrey -15 8 £165 -44.94% 71
West Sussex - 3 £550 - 31
Home Counties - 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 5 (3.13%) Confluence
2 1 (0.63%) CMS
2 1 (0.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (3.13%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.88%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.25%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.63%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (1.88%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (1.25%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.63%) Cognos Controller
3 1 (0.63%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.63%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.63%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.63%) SAP CAR
3 1 (0.63%) SAP CRM
3 1 (0.63%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.63%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.63%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 21 (13.13%) Azure
2 12 (7.50%) Power Platform
3 6 (3.75%) OCI
4 5 (3.13%) SaaS
5 3 (1.88%) AWS
5 3 (1.88%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (1.88%) Dynamics 365
5 3 (1.88%) Entra ID
5 3 (1.88%) Lucidchart
5 3 (1.88%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
5 3 (1.88%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
6 2 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (1.25%) Azure Functions
6 2 (1.25%) GCP
6 2 (1.25%) GitHub
6 2 (1.25%) Serverless
6 2 (1.25%) Snowflake
7 1 (0.63%) Collibra
7 1 (0.63%) Contentful
7 1 (0.63%) Salsify
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.38%) ATM
2 3 (1.88%) Cisco ASA
2 3 (1.88%) Cisco Firepower
2 3 (1.88%) Cisco Nexus
2 3 (1.88%) DNS
2 3 (1.88%) Firewall
2 3 (1.88%) VSAN
3 2 (1.25%) Structured Cabling
3 2 (1.25%) VPN
3 2 (1.25%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.63%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.88%) Power BI
2 4 (2.50%) BigQuery
3 3 (1.88%) Tableau
4 2 (1.25%) Metadata
5 1 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.63%) BusinessObjects
5 1 (0.63%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.63%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.63%) Oracle ODI
5 1 (0.63%) SAP BW
5 1 (0.63%) SQLPlus
5 1 (0.63%) Tableau Desktop
5 1 (0.63%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 8 (5.00%) JIRA
2 2 (1.25%) Postman
3 1 (0.63%) MSI
General
1 50 (31.25%) Social Skills
2 42 (26.25%) Finance
3 27 (16.88%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (12.50%) Marketing
5 14 (8.75%) French Language
5 14 (8.75%) Spanish Language
6 7 (4.38%) Manufacturing
7 6 (3.75%) Public Sector
7 6 (3.75%) Telecoms
8 5 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (3.13%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.50%) Automotive
9 4 (2.50%) Banking
9 4 (2.50%) Legal
10 2 (1.25%) Local Government
10 2 (1.25%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.63%) German Language
11 1 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.63%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 48 (30.00%) Architect
2 44 (27.50%) Solutions Architect
3 16 (10.00%) Analyst
4 14 (8.75%) 2nd Line Support
4 14 (8.75%) 2nd Line Technical Support
4 14 (8.75%) Technical Support
5 13 (8.13%) Project Manager
6 12 (7.50%) Supply Chain Architect
7 8 (5.00%) Business Manager
7 8 (5.00%) Lead
8 7 (4.38%) Business Analyst
8 7 (4.38%) EPoS Engineer
8 7 (4.38%) ERP Architect
8 7 (4.38%) Salesforce Architect
8 7 (4.38%) Salesforce Solution Architect
9 6 (3.75%) Cloud Architect
9 6 (3.75%) Dynamics 365 Architect
9 6 (3.75%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
9 6 (3.75%) Oracle Architect
9 6 (3.75%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.38%) MACH
2 5 (3.13%) RESTful
3 4 (2.50%) Middleware
4 3 (1.88%) .NET
5 2 (1.25%) .NET Core
5 2 (1.25%) .NET Framework
5 2 (1.25%) AngularJS
5 2 (1.25%) Blazor
5 2 (1.25%) JSON
5 2 (1.25%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (1.25%) Razor View Engine
5 2 (1.25%) REST
5 2 (1.25%) XML
6 1 (0.63%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.63%) Next.js
6 1 (0.63%) Node.js
6 1 (0.63%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.63%) React
6 1 (0.63%) SOAP
6 1 (0.63%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 13 (8.13%) EPoS
2 6 (3.75%) Enterprise Software
3 5 (3.13%) Data Centre
3 5 (3.13%) Driving Licence
3 5 (3.13%) Product Ownership
3 5 (3.13%) Smartphone
4 3 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (1.88%) FMCG
4 3 (1.88%) Greenfield Project
4 3 (1.88%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (1.88%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.25%) Data Structures
5 2 (1.25%) IVR
5 2 (1.25%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.63%) AS400
6 1 (0.63%) Chip and PIN
6 1 (0.63%) Mobile App
6 1 (0.63%) Replication
6 1 (0.63%) Robotics
6 1 (0.63%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 21 (13.13%) Windows
2 5 (3.13%) Linux
3 3 (1.88%) Windows 10
4 2 (1.25%) Debian
4 2 (1.25%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.63%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.63%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (29.38%) Stakeholder Management
2 29 (18.13%) Problem-Solving
3 27 (16.88%) Migration
4 25 (15.63%) Customer Service
5 22 (13.75%) ERP
6 18 (11.25%) Analytics
6 18 (11.25%) Continuous Improvement
7 16 (10.00%) Architecture Governance
7 16 (10.00%) Business Intelligence
7 16 (10.00%) CRM
7 16 (10.00%) Customer Experience
8 15 (9.38%) Agile
8 15 (9.38%) Change Management
8 15 (9.38%) Decision-Making
9 14 (8.75%) User Acceptance Testing
10 13 (8.13%) Project Delivery
11 11 (6.88%) Enterprise Architecture
11 11 (6.88%) Process Improvement
11 11 (6.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 10 (6.25%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 23 (14.38%) SQL
2 3 (1.88%) C#
2 3 (1.88%) Python
3 2 (1.25%) PL/SQL
3 2 (1.25%) PowerShell
3 2 (1.25%) VBScript
4 1 (0.63%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.63%) R
4 1 (0.63%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 8 (5.00%) Degree
2 3 (1.88%) CCNP
2 3 (1.88%) CCSE
2 3 (1.88%) CCSM
2 3 (1.88%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (1.25%) DBS Check
4 1 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.63%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.63%) GDPR
2 4 (2.50%) PMO
3 3 (1.88%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.88%) QA
3 3 (1.88%) SLA
4 1 (0.63%) GAAP
4 1 (0.63%) IFRS
4 1 (0.63%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 4 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (1.88%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.63%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (2.50%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (1.25%) AirWatch
2 2 (1.25%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.63%) SCCM
Vendors
1 16 (10.00%) Salesforce
2 15 (9.38%) Oracle
3 11 (6.88%) Microsoft
4 9 (5.63%) SAP
5 7 (4.38%) MuleSoft
6 6 (3.75%) Databricks
6 6 (3.75%) VMware
7 5 (3.13%) IFS
8 4 (2.50%) Palo Alto
8 4 (2.50%) Workday
9 3 (1.88%) CheckPoint
9 3 (1.88%) Cisco
9 3 (1.88%) Fortinet
9 3 (1.88%) HP
10 2 (1.25%) Adobe
10 2 (1.25%) Apple
10 2 (1.25%) Google
11 1 (0.63%) Meraki
11 1 (0.63%) Splunk
11 1 (0.63%) Teradata