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 7 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 84 86
Rank change year-on-year +3 +2 +21
Contract jobs citing Retail 143 67 119
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.37% 2.25% 2.09%
As % of the General category 4.93% 3.70% 4.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 36 66
10th Percentile £187 £255 £281
25th Percentile £256 £359 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £519 £463
Median % change year-on-year +0.24% +12.16% -15.91%
75th Percentile £638 £589 £600
90th Percentile £738 £722 £713
England median daily rate £525 £525 £513
% change year-on-year - +2.44% -3.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 7
10th Percentile £16.17 £16.45 £11.00
25th Percentile £16.80 £18.25 £13.50
Median hourly rate £21.25 £22.50 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +40.63% -27.80%
75th Percentile £22.50 £28.25 -
90th Percentile £22.63 £30.95 £19.30
England median hourly rate £21.00 £22.50 £16.00
% change year-on-year -6.67% +40.63% -21.59%

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 2,901 1,809 2,814
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 48.08% 60.87% 49.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,731 1,155 1,529
10th Percentile £250 £211 £210
25th Percentile £400 £375 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £493
Median % change year-on-year - +1.42% -1.40%
75th Percentile £610 £588 £608
90th Percentile £695 £660 £688
England median daily rate £515 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -1.90% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 362 138 348
10th Percentile £13.53 £13.00 £12.88
25th Percentile £21.35 £14.23 £18.32
Median hourly rate £48.61 £20.72 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +134.66% -53.97% -10.00%
75th Percentile £82.25 £57.81 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £70.24
England median hourly rate £32.00 £28.18 £30.83
% change year-on-year +13.56% -8.58% -2.94%

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 7 June 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 7 June 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 -10 73 £588 +17.50% 103
Hampshire +8 50 £322 -40.12% 29
Berkshire -7 44 £725 +26.09% 71
Buckinghamshire -35 22 £203 -59.50% 19
Kent +6 9 £390 +90.33% 17
Oxfordshire -22 7 £525 +5.00% 15
Surrey -17 5 £450 -3.74% 38
West Sussex -18 2 £550 +175.00% 7
Home Counties -1 1 £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 (2.80%) Confluence
2 2 (1.40%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.70%) Adobe Experience Manager
Applications
1 8 (5.59%) Microsoft Project
2 6 (4.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.80%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (2.80%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.70%) Oracle Payables
2 1 (0.70%) Oracle Receivables
2 1 (0.70%) Sage X3
2 1 (0.70%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.70%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.70%) SAP Hybris
2 1 (0.70%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.70%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 20 (13.99%) Power Platform
2 14 (9.79%) Azure
3 6 (4.20%) AWS
4 5 (3.50%) Azure Sentinel
5 4 (2.80%) SaaS
6 2 (1.40%) Dynamics 365
6 2 (1.40%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (0.70%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (0.70%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.70%) iPaaS
7 1 (0.70%) Salsify
7 1 (0.70%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 1 (0.70%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.90%) ATM
2 5 (3.50%) Cisco ASA
2 5 (3.50%) Cisco Firepower
2 5 (3.50%) Cisco Nexus
2 5 (3.50%) RFID
2 5 (3.50%) VPN
2 5 (3.50%) VSAN
3 4 (2.80%) Firewall
4 1 (0.70%) Broadband
4 1 (0.70%) LAN
4 1 (0.70%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (13.99%) Power BI
2 1 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.70%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.70%) Metadata
2 1 (0.70%) MySQL
2 1 (0.70%) Oracle ODI
2 1 (0.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 14 (9.79%) JIRA
2 2 (1.40%) Postman
3 1 (0.70%) Git
General
1 44 (30.77%) Finance
2 27 (18.88%) Analytical Skills
2 27 (18.88%) Social Skills
3 15 (10.49%) Documentation Skills
4 11 (7.69%) French Language
4 11 (7.69%) Spanish Language
5 9 (6.29%) Public Sector
6 8 (5.59%) Manufacturing
7 5 (3.50%) Banking
8 4 (2.80%) Legal
8 4 (2.80%) Telecoms
9 3 (2.10%) Automotive
10 2 (1.40%) Local Government
10 2 (1.40%) Marketing
10 2 (1.40%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.70%) German Language
11 1 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 30 (20.98%) Architect
2 29 (20.28%) Solutions Architect
3 18 (12.59%) Analyst
3 18 (12.59%) Lead
4 11 (7.69%) 2nd Line Support
4 11 (7.69%) 2nd Line Technical Support
4 11 (7.69%) Technical Support
5 8 (5.59%) Dynamics 365 Architect
5 8 (5.59%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
5 8 (5.59%) ERP Architect
5 8 (5.59%) PMO Analyst
6 6 (4.20%) Oracle Architect
6 6 (4.20%) Oracle Solutions Architect
6 6 (4.20%) Supply Chain Architect
7 5 (3.50%) Business Analyst
7 5 (3.50%) Data Engineer
7 5 (3.50%) Network Engineer
7 5 (3.50%) NOC Engineer
7 5 (3.50%) Project Manager
8 4 (2.80%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.20%) RESTful
2 4 (2.80%) MACH
2 4 (2.80%) Middleware
3 2 (1.40%) .NET
3 2 (1.40%) .NET Core
3 2 (1.40%) .NET Framework
3 2 (1.40%) AngularJS
3 2 (1.40%) Blazor
3 2 (1.40%) JSON
3 2 (1.40%) Razor View Engine
3 2 (1.40%) XML
4 1 (0.70%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.70%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (0.70%) REST
4 1 (0.70%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (7.69%) Data Centre
2 10 (6.99%) EPoS
3 8 (5.59%) Driving Licence
4 5 (3.50%) Smartphone
5 4 (2.80%) FMCG
5 4 (2.80%) Product Ownership
6 3 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (2.10%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.40%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.40%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.40%) Learning Management System
7 2 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.70%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.70%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.70%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.70%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.70%) Life Science
8 1 (0.70%) Taxonomies
8 1 (0.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 21 (14.69%) Windows
2 6 (4.20%) Linux
3 4 (2.80%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.70%) Debian
4 1 (0.70%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.70%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (25.87%) Problem-Solving
2 35 (24.48%) Stakeholder Management
3 31 (21.68%) Change Management
4 29 (20.28%) ERP
5 24 (16.78%) Business Intelligence
6 23 (16.08%) Customer Service
7 20 (13.99%) Migration
8 18 (12.59%) Agile
8 18 (12.59%) Customer Experience
8 18 (12.59%) Project Delivery
8 18 (12.59%) Roadmaps
9 16 (11.19%) User Acceptance Testing
10 15 (10.49%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (10.49%) Process Improvement
10 15 (10.49%) Validation
11 14 (9.79%) Data Protection
11 14 (9.79%) Requirements Gathering
11 14 (9.79%) Scenario Testing
12 13 (9.09%) Data Cleansing
12 13 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 15 (10.49%) SQL
2 2 (1.40%) C#
2 2 (1.40%) PL/SQL
3 1 (0.70%) Java
3 1 (0.70%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.70%) Python
3 1 (0.70%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 7 (4.90%) Degree
2 5 (3.50%) CCNP
2 5 (3.50%) CCSE
2 5 (3.50%) CCSM
2 5 (3.50%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (1.40%) DBS Check
4 1 (0.70%) PMP
4 1 (0.70%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (12.59%) GDPR
2 13 (9.09%) PMO
3 5 (3.50%) SLA
4 4 (2.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (2.10%) QA
6 2 (1.40%) Data Quality
System Software
1 5 (3.50%) VMware ESXi
1 5 (3.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (2.80%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.70%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (2.80%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.40%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.40%) MOM
3 1 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (9.09%) IFS
1 13 (9.09%) Oracle
2 7 (4.90%) Microsoft
3 6 (4.20%) Palo Alto
3 6 (4.20%) VMware
4 5 (3.50%) CheckPoint
4 5 (3.50%) Cisco
4 5 (3.50%) Fortinet
4 5 (3.50%) SAP
5 2 (1.40%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.70%) Adobe
6 1 (0.70%) Databricks
6 1 (0.70%) Informatica
6 1 (0.70%) Sage
6 1 (0.70%) Samsung
6 1 (0.70%) Workday
6 1 (0.70%) Zscaler