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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 79 85 87
Rank change year-on-year +6 +2 +18
Contract jobs citing Retail 169 83 93
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.56% 2.38% 2.02%
As % of the General category 4.85% 4.06% 3.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 44 43
10th Percentile £313 £239 £200
25th Percentile £463 £465 £318
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +15.79% -13.64%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £723 £665
England median daily rate £550 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 7 5
10th Percentile £13.45 - -
25th Percentile £14.21 £16.17 -
Median hourly rate £20.00 £16.34 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +22.44% +2.09% -27.27%
75th Percentile £22.50 £16.50 -
90th Percentile - - £20.95
England median hourly rate £15.67 £16.34 £16.30
% change year-on-year -4.07% +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 3,488 2,043 2,364
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 52.74% 58.67% 51.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,809 1,278 1,324
10th Percentile £263 £200 £213
25th Percentile £413 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £625 £588 £608
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 539 183 183
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.00 £15.38
25th Percentile £17.04 £14.42 £27.38
Median hourly rate £37.50 £18.87 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +98.73% -67.10% +9.24%
75th Percentile £67.50 £40.83 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.32 £77.00 £77.40
England median hourly rate £30.90 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +22.86% -34.02% +27.07%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 +1 95 £613 +11.36% 228
Hampshire +3 54 £480 -20.00% 67
Berkshire -2 53 £725 +33.64% 131
Oxfordshire -13 21 £653 +18.64% 31
Buckinghamshire -16 21 £387 -14.96% 66
Kent -5 8 £155 -70.41% 25
Surrey -15 6 £175 -41.67% 52
West Sussex - 3 £550 - 24
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 (2.96%) Confluence
2 1 (0.59%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (2.37%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.18%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.18%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (1.78%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (1.18%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.59%) Cognos Controller
3 1 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.59%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.59%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.59%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.59%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.59%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.59%) Oracle Retail
3 1 (0.59%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.59%) SAP MDG
3 1 (0.59%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.59%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 22 (13.02%) Azure
2 14 (8.28%) Power Platform
3 6 (3.55%) OCI
3 6 (3.55%) SaaS
4 3 (1.78%) AWS
4 3 (1.78%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (1.78%) Dynamics 365
4 3 (1.78%) Entra ID
4 3 (1.78%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
4 3 (1.78%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
5 2 (1.18%) GCP
5 2 (1.18%) Lucidchart
5 2 (1.18%) Snowflake
6 1 (0.59%) Azure Cosmos DB
6 1 (0.59%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.59%) Azure Functions
6 1 (0.59%) Collibra
6 1 (0.59%) Contentful
6 1 (0.59%) Google Sheets
6 1 (0.59%) Salsify
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.14%) ATM
2 4 (2.37%) Firewall
3 3 (1.78%) Cisco ASA
3 3 (1.78%) Cisco Firepower
3 3 (1.78%) Cisco Nexus
3 3 (1.78%) DNS
3 3 (1.78%) VPN
3 3 (1.78%) VSAN
4 2 (1.18%) Structured Cabling
4 2 (1.18%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.59%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (8.28%) Power BI
2 4 (2.37%) BigQuery
3 3 (1.78%) Tableau
4 2 (1.18%) Metadata
5 1 (0.59%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.59%) BusinessObjects
5 1 (0.59%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.59%) Oracle ODI
5 1 (0.59%) SQLPlus
5 1 (0.59%) Tableau Desktop
5 1 (0.59%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 8 (4.73%) JIRA
2 2 (1.18%) Postman
3 1 (0.59%) MSI
General
1 52 (30.77%) Social Skills
2 45 (26.63%) Finance
3 32 (18.93%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (11.83%) Marketing
5 16 (9.47%) French Language
5 16 (9.47%) Spanish Language
6 8 (4.73%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (4.14%) Manufacturing
7 7 (4.14%) Public Sector
8 6 (3.55%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.96%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (2.37%) Automotive
10 4 (2.37%) Banking
10 4 (2.37%) Legal
11 2 (1.18%) Local Government
12 1 (0.59%) Advertising
12 1 (0.59%) German Language
12 1 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.59%) Publishing
12 1 (0.59%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 50 (29.59%) Architect
2 46 (27.22%) Solutions Architect
3 18 (10.65%) Analyst
4 16 (9.47%) 2nd Line Support
4 16 (9.47%) 2nd Line Technical Support
4 16 (9.47%) Technical Support
5 13 (7.69%) Project Manager
6 12 (7.10%) Lead
6 12 (7.10%) Supply Chain Architect
7 9 (5.33%) Business Analyst
8 8 (4.73%) ERP Architect
9 7 (4.14%) Business Manager
9 7 (4.14%) Dynamics 365 Architect
9 7 (4.14%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
9 7 (4.14%) Salesforce Architect
9 7 (4.14%) Salesforce Solution Architect
10 6 (3.55%) EPoS Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) Oracle Architect
10 6 (3.55%) Senior
10 6 (3.55%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.14%) MACH
2 5 (2.96%) RESTful
3 3 (1.78%) Middleware
4 2 (1.18%) .NET
4 2 (1.18%) .NET Core
4 2 (1.18%) .NET Framework
4 2 (1.18%) AngularJS
4 2 (1.18%) Blazor
4 2 (1.18%) JSON
4 2 (1.18%) Razor View Engine
4 2 (1.18%) XML
5 1 (0.59%) Next.js
5 1 (0.59%) Node.js
5 1 (0.59%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.59%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (0.59%) React
5 1 (0.59%) REST
5 1 (0.59%) SOAP
5 1 (0.59%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.10%) EPoS
2 6 (3.55%) Data Centre
2 6 (3.55%) Enterprise Software
3 5 (2.96%) Smartphone
4 4 (2.37%) Driving Licence
5 3 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (1.78%) FMCG
5 3 (1.78%) Greenfield Project
5 3 (1.78%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (1.78%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.78%) Product Ownership
5 3 (1.78%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.18%) Data Structures
6 2 (1.18%) IVR
7 1 (0.59%) AI Agents
7 1 (0.59%) Chip and PIN
7 1 (0.59%) Digital Signage
7 1 (0.59%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.59%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.59%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 24 (14.20%) Windows
2 5 (2.96%) Linux
3 3 (1.78%) Windows 10
4 2 (1.18%) Debian
4 2 (1.18%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.59%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.59%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.59%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (30.77%) Stakeholder Management
2 34 (20.12%) Problem-Solving
3 28 (16.57%) Migration
4 27 (15.98%) Customer Service
4 27 (15.98%) ERP
5 21 (12.43%) Continuous Improvement
6 20 (11.83%) Change Management
7 19 (11.24%) Business Intelligence
8 18 (10.65%) Analytics
8 18 (10.65%) Customer Experience
9 16 (9.47%) Architecture Governance
9 16 (9.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 15 (8.88%) CRM
10 15 (8.88%) Decision-Making
10 15 (8.88%) User Acceptance Testing
11 14 (8.28%) Agile
11 14 (8.28%) Project Delivery
12 13 (7.69%) Process Improvement
13 11 (6.51%) Data Protection
13 11 (6.51%) Enterprise Architecture
Programming Languages
1 24 (14.20%) SQL
2 2 (1.18%) C#
2 2 (1.18%) PL/SQL
2 2 (1.18%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.18%) Python
2 2 (1.18%) VBScript
3 1 (0.59%) R
3 1 (0.59%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 7 (4.14%) Degree
2 3 (1.78%) CCNP
2 3 (1.78%) CCSE
2 3 (1.78%) CCSM
2 3 (1.78%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (1.18%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.69%) GDPR
2 5 (2.96%) PMO
3 3 (1.78%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.78%) SLA
4 2 (1.18%) QA
5 1 (0.59%) GAAP
5 1 (0.59%) IFRS
5 1 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.59%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 4 (2.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (1.78%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (0.59%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.59%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (2.37%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (1.18%) AirWatch
2 2 (1.18%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.59%) SCCM
Vendors
1 16 (9.47%) Salesforce
2 15 (8.88%) Oracle
3 10 (5.92%) Microsoft
4 8 (4.73%) IFS
4 8 (4.73%) SAP
5 7 (4.14%) MuleSoft
6 6 (3.55%) VMware
7 5 (2.96%) Databricks
8 4 (2.37%) Palo Alto
8 4 (2.37%) Workday
9 3 (1.78%) CheckPoint
9 3 (1.78%) Cisco
9 3 (1.78%) Fortinet
10 2 (1.18%) Adobe
10 2 (1.18%) Apple
10 2 (1.18%) Google
11 1 (0.59%) Cognos
11 1 (0.59%) HP
11 1 (0.59%) IBM
11 1 (0.59%) Informatica