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

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 109 73 97
Rank change year-on-year -36 +24 -1
Contract jobs citing Retail 103 83 117
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.90% 2.82% 2.08%
As % of the General category 3.72% 4.66% 3.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 44 71
10th Percentile £171 £313 £300
25th Percentile £191 £433 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £538 £475
Median % change year-on-year -23.26% +13.16% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £589 £594
90th Percentile £644 £657 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £513
% change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 2
10th Percentile - £16.45 -
25th Percentile £16.17 £18.25 £11.00
Median hourly rate £16.92 £22.50 £11.50
Median % change year-on-year -24.80% +95.65% -37.84%
75th Percentile £17.05 £28.25 £12.00
90th Percentile £21.07 £30.95 -
England median hourly rate £16.34 £32.50 £15.90
% change year-on-year -49.74% +104.40% -19.74%

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 2,771 1,783 2,992
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 51.11% 60.63% 53.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,816 1,122 1,671
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £397 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £493
Median % change year-on-year - +1.42% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £679 £663 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 288 112 305
10th Percentile £15.06 £14.20 £12.80
25th Percentile £18.87 £16.95 £18.50
Median hourly rate £37.00 £26.92 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +37.46% -28.22% -16.67%
75th Percentile £82.25 £62.24 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £66.74
England median hourly rate £25.38 £30.10 £26.00
% change year-on-year -15.68% +15.77% -25.71%

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 27 March 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 27 March 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 -32 64 £463 -7.50% 56
Berkshire -37 35 £619 +23.75% 34
Hampshire -18 28 £329 -42.71% 40
Buckinghamshire -13 23 £190 -63.81% 14
Oxfordshire -4 6 £521 +4.15% 8
Surrey -9 4 £450 - 32
Kent - 2 £625 - 17
Middlesex - 1 £740 - 7
East Sussex - 1 £475 - 9
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 (3.88%) SharePoint
2 3 (2.91%) Confluence
3 1 (0.97%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 1 (0.97%) CMS
3 1 (0.97%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 8 (7.77%) Microsoft Project
2 7 (6.80%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (3.88%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.97%) Dynamics AX
2 1 (0.97%) Sage X3
2 1 (0.97%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 14 (13.59%) Azure
1 14 (13.59%) Power Platform
2 5 (4.85%) AWS
3 4 (3.88%) SaaS
4 3 (2.91%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (2.91%) GCP
4 3 (2.91%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (1.94%) Azure Sentinel
5 2 (1.94%) Dynamics 365
5 2 (1.94%) Entra ID
6 1 (0.97%) Azure API Management
6 1 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
6 1 (0.97%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (0.97%) GitHub
6 1 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.97%) IaaS
6 1 (0.97%) PaaS
6 1 (0.97%) PowerApps
6 1 (0.97%) SAP Commerce Cloud
6 1 (0.97%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 6 (5.83%) VPN
2 5 (4.85%) RFID
3 3 (2.91%) Firewall
4 2 (1.94%) Cisco ASA
4 2 (1.94%) Cisco Firepower
4 2 (1.94%) Cisco Nexus
4 2 (1.94%) LAN
4 2 (1.94%) VSAN
5 1 (0.97%) Broadband
5 1 (0.97%) MPLS
5 1 (0.97%) SAN
5 1 (0.97%) WAN
5 1 (0.97%) Wireless
5 1 (0.97%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (13.59%) Power BI
2 1 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.97%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.97%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.97%) MySQL
2 1 (0.97%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.97%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 14 (13.59%) JIRA
2 1 (0.97%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.97%) Git
2 1 (0.97%) Jenkins
General
1 24 (23.30%) Finance
2 22 (21.36%) Social Skills
3 19 (18.45%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (7.77%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (3.88%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.91%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.94%) Automotive
7 2 (1.94%) Billing
7 2 (1.94%) Marketing
7 2 (1.94%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.97%) Advertising
8 1 (0.97%) Aviation
8 1 (0.97%) Banking
8 1 (0.97%) French Language
8 1 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.97%) Law
8 1 (0.97%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.97%) Retail Banking
8 1 (0.97%) Spanish Language
8 1 (0.97%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 29 (28.16%) Analyst
2 17 (16.50%) Architect
3 13 (12.62%) Solutions Architect
4 11 (10.68%) Lead
5 10 (9.71%) Project Manager
6 9 (8.74%) Desktop Analyst
6 9 (8.74%) Desktop Support
6 9 (8.74%) Desktop Support Analyst
6 9 (8.74%) Support Analyst
7 8 (7.77%) PMO Analyst
8 6 (5.83%) Oracle Architect
8 6 (5.83%) Oracle Solutions Architect
9 5 (4.85%) Senior
10 4 (3.88%) Help Desk Analyst
11 3 (2.91%) Business Analyst
11 3 (2.91%) Business Manager
11 3 (2.91%) Enterprise Architect
11 3 (2.91%) Head of Infrastructure
11 3 (2.91%) Head of IT
11 3 (2.91%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.94%) GraphQL
2 1 (0.97%) .NET
2 1 (0.97%) .NET Core
2 1 (0.97%) ARM Templates
2 1 (0.97%) EDI
2 1 (0.97%) MACH
2 1 (0.97%) Middleware
2 1 (0.97%) OAuth
2 1 (0.97%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.97%) OpenID
2 1 (0.97%) REST
2 1 (0.97%) RESTful
2 1 (0.97%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.71%) Data Centre
2 9 (8.74%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (7.77%) Management Information System
4 6 (5.83%) Driving Licence
5 4 (3.88%) FMCG
5 4 (3.88%) Hybrid Cloud
6 3 (2.91%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.94%) EPoS
7 2 (1.94%) Mobile App
7 2 (1.94%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.97%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.97%) Fat Client
8 1 (0.97%) Learning Management System
8 1 (0.97%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.97%) Life Science
8 1 (0.97%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.97%) Mainframe
8 1 (0.97%) Thin Client
8 1 (0.97%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 6 (5.83%) Windows
2 3 (2.91%) Linux
2 3 (2.91%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.97%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (27.18%) Stakeholder Management
2 22 (21.36%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (18.45%) Change Management
3 19 (18.45%) Customer Service
4 18 (17.48%) Agile
5 16 (15.53%) Business Intelligence
6 13 (12.62%) ERP
7 12 (11.65%) Roadmaps
7 12 (11.65%) Service Delivery
8 11 (10.68%) Waterfall
9 10 (9.71%) Migration
10 9 (8.74%) Project Delivery
10 9 (8.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 8 (7.77%) Business Impact Analysis
11 8 (7.77%) Cybersecurity
11 8 (7.77%) Impact Analysis
11 8 (7.77%) Incident Management
12 7 (6.80%) Continuous Improvement
12 7 (6.80%) Process Improvement
12 7 (6.80%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (4.85%) SQL
2 3 (2.91%) Python
3 1 (0.97%) Bash
3 1 (0.97%) C#
3 1 (0.97%) Java
3 1 (0.97%) JavaScript
3 1 (0.97%) PHP
3 1 (0.97%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.97%) X++
Qualifications
1 7 (6.80%) Degree
2 2 (1.94%) CCNP
2 2 (1.94%) CCSE
2 2 (1.94%) CCSM
2 2 (1.94%) Cisco Certification
2 2 (1.94%) PMP
3 1 (0.97%) CEH
3 1 (0.97%) CISSP
3 1 (0.97%) CompTIA Security+
3 1 (0.97%) PMI Certification
3 1 (0.97%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (10.68%) PMO
2 10 (9.71%) SLA
3 9 (8.74%) GDPR
4 3 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (2.91%) QA
5 1 (0.97%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.97%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.97%) NIST
System Software
1 4 (3.88%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.91%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.94%) VMware ESXi
3 2 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 3 (2.91%) Microsoft Intune
1 3 (2.91%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (1.94%) MOM
3 1 (0.97%) Nmap
3 1 (0.97%) Terraform
Vendors
1 9 (8.74%) Microsoft
2 8 (7.77%) Oracle
3 6 (5.83%) IFS
4 5 (4.85%) Palo Alto
4 5 (4.85%) VMware
5 3 (2.91%) ServiceNow
5 3 (2.91%) Zscaler
6 2 (1.94%) CheckPoint
6 2 (1.94%) Cisco
6 2 (1.94%) Databricks
6 2 (1.94%) Fortinet
6 2 (1.94%) Qualys
7 1 (0.97%) Adobe
7 1 (0.97%) Google
7 1 (0.97%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.97%) Rapid7
7 1 (0.97%) Sage
7 1 (0.97%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.97%) SAP
7 1 (0.97%) Splunk