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

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 71 93
Rank change year-on-year -25 +22 +13
Contract jobs citing Retail 87 91 116
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.86% 2.91% 2.11%
As % of the General category 3.43% 4.91% 3.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 44 60
10th Percentile £171 £315 £300
25th Percentile £256 £450 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £450
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +22.22% -12.62%
75th Percentile £550 £595 £586
90th Percentile £653 £660 £650
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -0.95%
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 £16.42 £32.50 £17.65
% change year-on-year -49.48% +84.14% -10.90%

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 2,540 1,853 3,020
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 54.18% 59.33% 54.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,697 1,088 1,767
10th Percentile £219 £224 £205
25th Percentile £363 £385 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £670 £663 £683
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 241 68 260
10th Percentile £13.00 £16.03 £12.98
25th Percentile £16.36 £21.00 £18.56
Median hourly rate £22.50 £42.50 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.06% +16.44% -18.89%
75th Percentile £51.53 £62.31 £59.95
90th Percentile £80.00 £76.44 £68.03
England median hourly rate £22.85 £30.31 £25.25
% change year-on-year -24.60% +20.02% -6.48%

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 10 February 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 10 February 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 -24 52 £518 +1.12% 66
Berkshire -28 33 £575 +15.00% 32
Hampshire -23 24 £425 -26.09% 31
Buckinghamshire -9 13 £173 -67.05% 30
Oxfordshire -12 6 £529 +5.85% 4
Kent - 5 £525 - 12
Surrey -14 1 - - 37
East Sussex - 1 £475 - 8
Middlesex - 1 £740 - 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 5 (5.75%) SharePoint
2 4 (4.60%) Camunda
2 4 (4.60%) Confluence
3 2 (2.30%) CMS
4 1 (1.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (1.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 7 (8.05%) Microsoft Project
2 5 (5.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (3.45%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (1.15%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (1.15%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (1.15%) Sage X3
2 1 (1.15%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (1.15%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 12 (13.79%) Azure
2 7 (8.05%) Power Platform
3 5 (5.75%) Azure DevOps
4 4 (4.60%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (3.45%) Dynamics 365
5 3 (3.45%) Entra ID
5 3 (3.45%) GCP
5 3 (3.45%) Snowflake
6 2 (2.30%) AWS
6 2 (2.30%) SaaS
6 2 (2.30%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 1 (1.15%) Azure API Management
7 1 (1.15%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (1.15%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.15%) GitHub
7 1 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.15%) IaaS
7 1 (1.15%) PaaS
7 1 (1.15%) PowerApps
7 1 (1.15%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 3 (3.45%) VPN
2 2 (2.30%) RFID
3 1 (1.15%) Broadband
3 1 (1.15%) LAN
3 1 (1.15%) MPLS
3 1 (1.15%) SAN
3 1 (1.15%) WAN
3 1 (1.15%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (8.05%) Power BI
2 3 (3.45%) BigQuery
3 1 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (1.15%) Data Lake
3 1 (1.15%) MySQL
3 1 (1.15%) SQL Server
3 1 (1.15%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 15 (17.24%) JIRA
2 1 (1.15%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.15%) Git
2 1 (1.15%) Jenkins
General
1 26 (29.89%) Social Skills
2 17 (19.54%) Analytical Skills
2 17 (19.54%) Finance
3 6 (6.90%) Marketing
4 4 (4.60%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (3.45%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.30%) Automotive
6 2 (2.30%) Billing
6 2 (2.30%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.30%) Telecoms
7 1 (1.15%) Advertising
7 1 (1.15%) Aviation
7 1 (1.15%) Banking
7 1 (1.15%) Financial Institution
7 1 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.15%) Law
7 1 (1.15%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 36 (41.38%) Analyst
2 16 (18.39%) Architect
3 14 (16.09%) Project Manager
4 13 (14.94%) Solutions Architect
5 9 (10.34%) Desktop Analyst
5 9 (10.34%) Desktop Support
5 9 (10.34%) Desktop Support Analyst
5 9 (10.34%) Support Analyst
6 8 (9.20%) Help Desk Analyst
7 7 (8.05%) PMO Analyst
8 6 (6.90%) Lead
9 4 (4.60%) Business Analyst
9 4 (4.60%) Senior
10 3 (3.45%) Azure Engineer
10 3 (3.45%) Commercial Manager
10 3 (3.45%) Commercial Project Manager
10 3 (3.45%) Customer Analyst
10 3 (3.45%) Digital Project Manager
10 3 (3.45%) Dynamics 365 Architect
11 2 (2.30%) Active Directory Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.45%) REST
2 2 (2.30%) AngularJS
2 2 (2.30%) EDI
2 2 (2.30%) GraphQL
2 2 (2.30%) React
3 1 (1.15%) .NET
3 1 (1.15%) .NET Core
3 1 (1.15%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.15%) MACH
3 1 (1.15%) OAuth
3 1 (1.15%) OAuth2
3 1 (1.15%) OpenID
3 1 (1.15%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (11.49%) Self-Motivation
2 8 (9.20%) Management Information System
3 5 (5.75%) Data Centre
4 4 (4.60%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (3.45%) Driving Licence
5 3 (3.45%) FMCG
5 3 (3.45%) Mobile App
6 2 (2.30%) Marketing Technology
6 2 (2.30%) Product Ownership
6 2 (2.30%) Smart Meter
7 1 (1.15%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (1.15%) Fat Client
7 1 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (1.15%) Life Science
7 1 (1.15%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (1.15%) Mainframe
7 1 (1.15%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.15%) Thin Client
7 1 (1.15%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.15%) Kali Linux
1 1 (1.15%) Linux
1 1 (1.15%) Windows
1 1 (1.15%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (26.44%) Stakeholder Management
2 22 (25.29%) Agile
3 19 (21.84%) Problem-Solving
4 13 (14.94%) Waterfall
5 12 (13.79%) Customer Service
6 11 (12.64%) Service Delivery
7 10 (11.49%) CRM
7 10 (11.49%) Project Management
8 9 (10.34%) DevOps
8 9 (10.34%) Roadmaps
9 8 (9.20%) Business Impact Analysis
9 8 (9.20%) Business Intelligence
9 8 (9.20%) Impact Analysis
9 8 (9.20%) Incident Management
10 7 (8.05%) Business Case
10 7 (8.05%) Continuous Improvement
10 7 (8.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 6 (6.90%) Decision-Making
11 6 (6.90%) Project Delivery
11 6 (6.90%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 7 (8.05%) SQL
2 5 (5.75%) Python
3 1 (1.15%) Bash
3 1 (1.15%) C#
3 1 (1.15%) Java
3 1 (1.15%) JavaScript
3 1 (1.15%) PHP
3 1 (1.15%) PowerShell
3 1 (1.15%) X++
Qualifications
1 6 (6.90%) Degree
2 3 (3.45%) PMP
3 2 (2.30%) PMI Certification
4 1 (1.15%) CEH
4 1 (1.15%) CISSP
4 1 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (10.34%) PMO
2 8 (9.20%) SLA
3 3 (3.45%) QA
4 1 (1.15%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (1.15%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.15%) NIST
4 1 (1.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 3 (3.45%) VMware NSX
2 2 (2.30%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.15%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 3 (3.45%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (1.15%) Nmap
2 1 (1.15%) Terraform
Vendors
1 10 (11.49%) Microsoft
2 4 (4.60%) Databricks
3 3 (3.45%) Palo Alto
3 3 (3.45%) Salesforce
3 3 (3.45%) ServiceNow
3 3 (3.45%) VMware
3 3 (3.45%) Zscaler
4 2 (2.30%) Oracle
4 2 (2.30%) Qualys
5 1 (1.15%) Adobe
5 1 (1.15%) Google
5 1 (1.15%) MuleSoft
5 1 (1.15%) Planon
5 1 (1.15%) Rapid7
5 1 (1.15%) Sage
5 1 (1.15%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
5 1 (1.15%) SAP
5 1 (1.15%) Splunk
5 1 (1.15%) Tenable