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

6 months to
6 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 85 92
Rank change year-on-year +5 +7 +16
Contract jobs citing Retail 173 80 91
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.62% 2.29% 1.95%
As % of the General category 5.02% 3.90% 3.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 93 42 46
10th Percentile £191 £221 £200
25th Percentile £456 £455 £343
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +15.79% -13.64%
75th Percentile £738 £638 £638
90th Percentile - £716 £700
England median daily rate £550 £520 £525
% change year-on-year +5.77% -0.95% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 5 5
10th Percentile £13.45 £15.62 -
25th Percentile £14.59 £16.17 -
Median hourly rate £18.46 £16.34 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.01% +2.09% -27.27%
75th Percentile £22.50 £16.50 -
90th Percentile - - £20.95
England median hourly rate £16.92 £16.34 £16.30
% change year-on-year +3.58% +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 3,449 2,053 2,331
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 52.30% 58.84% 49.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,847 1,272 1,315
10th Percentile £263 £200 £218
25th Percentile £413 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £491 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.92% -1.80% -
75th Percentile £625 £588 £621
90th Percentile £725 £675 £688
England median daily rate £525 £500 £538
% change year-on-year +5.00% -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 504 184 201
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £18.20 £14.20 £34.00
Median hourly rate £38.72 £18.82 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +105.74% -67.18% +9.24%
75th Percentile £67.50 £48.72 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.11 £78.50 £76.99
England median hourly rate £31.50 £25.15 £38.31
% change year-on-year +25.25% -34.35% +39.31%

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 6 September 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 6 September 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 6 September 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 -2 94 £600 +9.09% 141
Hampshire +19 60 £480 -20.00% 56
Berkshire +1 52 £725 +33.64% 70
Buckinghamshire -18 25 £403 +92.82% 48
Oxfordshire -11 17 £525 -4.55% 23
Kent -2 8 £155 -70.41% 20
Surrey -21 5 £350 +16.67% 38
West Sussex - 3 £550 - 18
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 4 (2.31%) Confluence
2 1 (0.58%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (2.31%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.16%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (1.73%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (1.16%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.58%) Cognos Controller
3 1 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.58%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.58%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.58%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.58%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.58%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.58%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.58%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.58%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 16 (9.25%) Power Platform
2 15 (8.67%) Azure
3 6 (3.47%) AWS
4 5 (2.89%) Azure Sentinel
5 4 (2.31%) Dynamics 365
5 4 (2.31%) OCI
5 4 (2.31%) SaaS
6 2 (1.16%) GCP
6 2 (1.16%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
6 2 (1.16%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
6 2 (1.16%) Snowflake
7 1 (0.58%) Algolia
7 1 (0.58%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 1 (0.58%) Azure Functions
7 1 (0.58%) Collibra
7 1 (0.58%) Commercetools
7 1 (0.58%) Contentful
7 1 (0.58%) Google Sheets
7 1 (0.58%) Salsify
7 1 (0.58%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.05%) ATM
2 5 (2.89%) Cisco ASA
2 5 (2.89%) Cisco Firepower
2 5 (2.89%) Cisco Nexus
2 5 (2.89%) VSAN
3 2 (1.16%) Firewall
3 2 (1.16%) Structured Cabling
3 2 (1.16%) VPN
3 2 (1.16%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.58%) DHCP
4 1 (0.58%) DNS
4 1 (0.58%) LAN
4 1 (0.58%) RFID
4 1 (0.58%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (9.25%) Power BI
2 4 (2.31%) BigQuery
3 3 (1.73%) Tableau
4 2 (1.16%) Metadata
5 1 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.58%) BusinessObjects
5 1 (0.58%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.58%) Oracle ODI
5 1 (0.58%) SQLPlus
5 1 (0.58%) Tableau Desktop
5 1 (0.58%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 7 (4.05%) JIRA
2 2 (1.16%) Postman
3 1 (0.58%) MSI
General
1 51 (29.48%) Finance
2 47 (27.17%) Social Skills
3 35 (20.23%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (9.25%) French Language
4 16 (9.25%) Spanish Language
5 14 (8.09%) Marketing
6 10 (5.78%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (5.20%) Manufacturing
8 8 (4.62%) Public Sector
9 6 (3.47%) Telecoms
10 5 (2.89%) Banking
11 4 (2.31%) Automotive
11 4 (2.31%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (2.31%) Legal
12 2 (1.16%) Local Government
12 2 (1.16%) Retail Banking
13 1 (0.58%) Advertising
13 1 (0.58%) German Language
13 1 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.58%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 46 (26.59%) Architect
2 43 (24.86%) Solutions Architect
3 18 (10.40%) Analyst
4 16 (9.25%) 2nd Line Support
4 16 (9.25%) 2nd Line Technical Support
4 16 (9.25%) Technical Support
5 14 (8.09%) Lead
6 13 (7.51%) Project Manager
7 12 (6.94%) Supply Chain Architect
8 9 (5.20%) Dynamics 365 Architect
8 9 (5.20%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
8 9 (5.20%) ERP Architect
9 8 (4.62%) Business Analyst
10 7 (4.05%) Business Manager
11 6 (3.47%) Senior
11 6 (3.47%) Senior Manager
12 5 (2.89%) Network Engineer
12 5 (2.89%) NOC Engineer
12 5 (2.89%) Oracle Architect
12 5 (2.89%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.05%) MACH
2 6 (3.47%) RESTful
3 4 (2.31%) Middleware
4 2 (1.16%) .NET
4 2 (1.16%) .NET Core
4 2 (1.16%) .NET Framework
4 2 (1.16%) AngularJS
4 2 (1.16%) Blazor
4 2 (1.16%) JSON
4 2 (1.16%) Razor View Engine
4 2 (1.16%) XML
5 1 (0.58%) Next.js
5 1 (0.58%) Node.js
5 1 (0.58%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.58%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (0.58%) React
5 1 (0.58%) REST
5 1 (0.58%) SOAP
5 1 (0.58%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.36%) EPoS
2 7 (4.05%) Data Centre
2 7 (4.05%) Enterprise Software
3 5 (2.89%) Onboarding
3 5 (2.89%) Smartphone
4 3 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (1.73%) Driving Licence
4 3 (1.73%) FMCG
4 3 (1.73%) Greenfield Project
4 3 (1.73%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.16%) Data Structures
5 2 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (1.16%) IVR
5 2 (1.16%) Product Ownership
6 1 (0.58%) Chip and PIN
6 1 (0.58%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (0.58%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.58%) Management Information System
6 1 (0.58%) Podcast
6 1 (0.58%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 26 (15.03%) Windows
2 7 (4.05%) Linux
3 3 (1.73%) Windows 10
4 2 (1.16%) Debian
4 2 (1.16%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.58%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.58%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (27.75%) Stakeholder Management
2 38 (21.97%) Problem-Solving
3 30 (17.34%) ERP
4 28 (16.18%) Customer Service
4 28 (16.18%) Migration
5 24 (13.87%) Change Management
6 21 (12.14%) Business Intelligence
6 21 (12.14%) Continuous Improvement
7 18 (10.40%) Analytics
7 18 (10.40%) Customer Experience
7 18 (10.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 17 (9.83%) Project Delivery
9 15 (8.67%) Architecture Governance
9 15 (8.67%) Decision-Making
9 15 (8.67%) User Acceptance Testing
10 14 (8.09%) Agile
10 14 (8.09%) CRM
10 14 (8.09%) Process Improvement
11 13 (7.51%) Data Protection
11 13 (7.51%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 24 (13.87%) SQL
2 2 (1.16%) C#
2 2 (1.16%) PL/SQL
2 2 (1.16%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.16%) Python
2 2 (1.16%) VBScript
3 1 (0.58%) R
3 1 (0.58%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 8 (4.62%) Degree
2 5 (2.89%) CCNP
2 5 (2.89%) CCSE
2 5 (2.89%) CCSM
2 5 (2.89%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (1.16%) DBS Check
4 1 (0.58%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.67%) GDPR
2 5 (2.89%) PMO
2 5 (2.89%) SLA
3 3 (1.73%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.16%) QA
5 1 (0.58%) GAAP
5 1 (0.58%) IFRS
5 1 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.58%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 6 (3.47%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (2.89%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.58%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.58%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 2 (1.16%) AirWatch
1 2 (1.16%) Kubernetes
1 2 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (0.58%) SCCM
Vendors
1 14 (8.09%) Oracle
2 11 (6.36%) Microsoft
3 10 (5.78%) IFS
3 10 (5.78%) Salesforce
4 8 (4.62%) SAP
4 8 (4.62%) VMware
5 6 (3.47%) Palo Alto
6 5 (2.89%) CheckPoint
6 5 (2.89%) Cisco
6 5 (2.89%) Databricks
6 5 (2.89%) Fortinet
7 4 (2.31%) Workday
8 2 (1.16%) Adobe
8 2 (1.16%) Apple
8 2 (1.16%) Google
8 2 (1.16%) MuleSoft
9 1 (0.58%) Cognos
9 1 (0.58%) IBM
9 1 (0.58%) Informatica
9 1 (0.58%) Teradata