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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 79 92
Rank change year-on-year -13 +13 -2
Contract jobs citing Retail 118 76 116
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.08% 2.53% 2.06%
As % of the General category 4.18% 4.14% 3.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 75 37 69
10th Percentile £172 £265 £300
25th Percentile £191 £413 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £538 £500
Median % change year-on-year -23.26% +7.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £663 £666 £729
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 4
10th Percentile - £16.45 -
25th Percentile £16.17 £18.25 £11.00
Median hourly rate £16.92 £22.50 £13.75
Median % change year-on-year -24.80% +63.64% -25.68%
75th Percentile £17.05 £28.25 £18.06
90th Percentile £21.07 £30.95 £21.78
England median hourly rate £16.92 £30.25 £16.00
% change year-on-year -44.07% +89.06% -19.23%

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 2,820 1,837 2,914
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 49.70% 61.15% 51.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,817 1,150 1,593
10th Percentile £250 £219 £205
25th Percentile £394 £399 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £688 £666 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 128 327
10th Percentile £15.35 £14.10 £12.80
25th Percentile £20.71 £15.00 £18.95
Median hourly rate £47.54 £24.42 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +94.68% -42.54% -5.56%
75th Percentile £82.25 £59.06 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £68.19
England median hourly rate £30.00 £28.75 £27.51
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.52% -21.41%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 -28 73 £500 -6.98% 55
Berkshire -31 36 £625 +4.17% 34
Hampshire -7 35 £321 -40.29% 27
Buckinghamshire -12 26 £196 -61.71% 14
Oxfordshire -8 11 £525 +5.00% 7
Surrey -8 4 £450 - 27
East Sussex +3 1 £475 - 1
Kent -7 1 £625 +204.88% 21
Middlesex - 1 £740 - 8
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 (3.39%) SharePoint
2 3 (2.54%) Confluence
3 1 (0.85%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 1 (0.85%) CMS
Applications
1 8 (6.78%) Microsoft Project
2 7 (5.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 4 (3.39%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.85%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.85%) Sage X3
2 1 (0.85%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.85%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 18 (15.25%) Power Platform
2 14 (11.86%) Azure
3 5 (4.24%) AWS
4 4 (3.39%) SaaS
5 3 (2.54%) GCP
5 3 (2.54%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (1.69%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (1.69%) Entra ID
7 1 (0.85%) Azure API Management
7 1 (0.85%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (0.85%) Azure Functions
7 1 (0.85%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (0.85%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.85%) GitHub
7 1 (0.85%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.85%) IaaS
7 1 (0.85%) PaaS
7 1 (0.85%) Serverless
7 1 (0.85%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 8 (6.78%) VPN
2 5 (4.24%) RFID
3 4 (3.39%) Firewall
4 2 (1.69%) Cisco ASA
4 2 (1.69%) Cisco Firepower
4 2 (1.69%) Cisco Nexus
4 2 (1.69%) LAN
4 2 (1.69%) VSAN
5 1 (0.85%) Broadband
5 1 (0.85%) MPLS
5 1 (0.85%) SAN
5 1 (0.85%) WAN
5 1 (0.85%) Wireless
5 1 (0.85%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (15.25%) Power BI
2 1 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.85%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.85%) MySQL
2 1 (0.85%) Oracle ODI
2 1 (0.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 14 (11.86%) JIRA
2 1 (0.85%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.85%) Git
2 1 (0.85%) Jenkins
General
1 30 (25.42%) Finance
2 26 (22.03%) Social Skills
3 25 (21.19%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (11.02%) Documentation Skills
5 5 (4.24%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.54%) French Language
6 3 (2.54%) Manufacturing
6 3 (2.54%) Spanish Language
7 2 (1.69%) Automotive
7 2 (1.69%) Billing
7 2 (1.69%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.85%) Advertising
8 1 (0.85%) Aviation
8 1 (0.85%) Banking
8 1 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.85%) Law
8 1 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.85%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 31 (26.27%) Analyst
2 18 (15.25%) Lead
3 16 (13.56%) Architect
4 13 (11.02%) Solutions Architect
5 9 (7.63%) Desktop Analyst
5 9 (7.63%) Desktop Support
5 9 (7.63%) Desktop Support Analyst
5 9 (7.63%) Project Manager
5 9 (7.63%) Support Analyst
6 8 (6.78%) PMO Analyst
7 6 (5.08%) Business Analyst
7 6 (5.08%) Oracle Architect
7 6 (5.08%) Oracle Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.24%) Business Manager
9 4 (3.39%) Business Development Manager
9 4 (3.39%) Development Manager
9 4 (3.39%) Head of Infrastructure
9 4 (3.39%) Head of IT
9 4 (3.39%) Head of IT Infrastructure
9 4 (3.39%) Help Desk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.69%) GraphQL
2 1 (0.85%) .NET
2 1 (0.85%) .NET Core
2 1 (0.85%) ARM Templates
2 1 (0.85%) MACH
2 1 (0.85%) Middleware
2 1 (0.85%) OAuth
2 1 (0.85%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.85%) OpenID
2 1 (0.85%) Oracle Fusion
2 1 (0.85%) REST
2 1 (0.85%) RESTful
2 1 (0.85%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (10.17%) Data Centre
2 10 (8.47%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (6.78%) Management Information System
4 6 (5.08%) Driving Licence
5 5 (4.24%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (3.39%) FMCG
7 3 (2.54%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.69%) EPoS
8 2 (1.69%) Learning Management System
8 2 (1.69%) Onboarding
9 1 (0.85%) AI Agents
9 1 (0.85%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.85%) Data Structures
9 1 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.85%) Fat Client
9 1 (0.85%) Life Science
9 1 (0.85%) Mainframe
9 1 (0.85%) Mobile App
9 1 (0.85%) Thin Client
9 1 (0.85%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (7.63%) Windows
2 4 (3.39%) Windows Server
3 3 (2.54%) Linux
4 1 (0.85%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (27.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 30 (25.42%) Problem-Solving
3 26 (22.03%) Change Management
4 22 (18.64%) Customer Service
5 21 (17.80%) Business Intelligence
6 19 (16.10%) ERP
7 18 (15.25%) Agile
8 15 (12.71%) Migration
9 14 (11.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 14 (11.86%) User Acceptance Testing
10 13 (11.02%) Roadmaps
10 13 (11.02%) Service Delivery
11 12 (10.17%) Data Protection
11 12 (10.17%) Process Improvement
11 12 (10.17%) Requirements Gathering
11 12 (10.17%) Scenario Testing
11 12 (10.17%) Validation
12 11 (9.32%) Data Cleansing
12 11 (9.32%) Project Delivery
12 11 (9.32%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 5 (4.24%) SQL
2 2 (1.69%) Python
3 1 (0.85%) Bash
3 1 (0.85%) C#
3 1 (0.85%) Java
3 1 (0.85%) JavaScript
3 1 (0.85%) PHP
3 1 (0.85%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 6 (5.08%) Degree
2 2 (1.69%) CCNP
2 2 (1.69%) CCSE
2 2 (1.69%) CCSM
2 2 (1.69%) Cisco Certification
2 2 (1.69%) PMP
3 1 (0.85%) CEH
3 1 (0.85%) CISSP
3 1 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
3 1 (0.85%) PMI Certification
3 1 (0.85%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (12.71%) GDPR
2 11 (9.32%) PMO
3 10 (8.47%) SLA
4 4 (3.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (2.54%) QA
6 1 (0.85%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.85%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.85%) NIST
System Software
1 5 (4.24%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.39%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.69%) VMware ESXi
3 2 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
1 4 (3.39%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (1.69%) MOM
3 1 (0.85%) Nmap
3 1 (0.85%) Terraform
Vendors
1 11 (9.32%) IFS
2 10 (8.47%) Oracle
3 9 (7.63%) Microsoft
4 6 (5.08%) Palo Alto
4 6 (5.08%) VMware
5 4 (3.39%) Zscaler
6 3 (2.54%) ServiceNow
7 2 (1.69%) CheckPoint
7 2 (1.69%) Cisco
7 2 (1.69%) Fortinet
7 2 (1.69%) Qualys
7 2 (1.69%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.85%) Adobe
8 1 (0.85%) Databricks
8 1 (0.85%) Google
8 1 (0.85%) Planon
8 1 (0.85%) Rapid7
8 1 (0.85%) Sage
8 1 (0.85%) Splunk
8 1 (0.85%) Tenable