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

6 months to
14 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 87 91
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 +23
Contract jobs citing Retail 147 66 121
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.42% 2.18% 2.11%
As % of the General category 4.98% 3.59% 4.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 83 34 69
10th Percentile £188 £236 £293
25th Percentile £272 £416 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £531 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.18% +11.84% -13.64%
75th Percentile £706 £592 £600
90th Percentile £738 £723 £729
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 £19.40 £16.00
% change year-on-year +8.25% +21.25% -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 2,954 1,837 2,845
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 48.57% 60.81% 49.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,732 1,158 1,548
10th Percentile £257 £210 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £489
Median % change year-on-year - +2.30% -2.25%
75th Percentile £613 £592 £608
90th Percentile £700 £663 £688
England median daily rate £520 £520 £533
% change year-on-year - -2.35% -3.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 379 146 349
10th Percentile £13.89 £13.00 £12.88
25th Percentile £21.35 £14.41 £18.32
Median hourly rate £47.54 £19.96 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +138.24% -55.66% -14.29%
75th Percentile £82.25 £53.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £70.39
England median hourly rate £32.50 £28.08 £31.97
% change year-on-year +15.76% -12.18% +4.82%

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 14 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 14 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 -7 76 £600 +20.00% 85
Hampshire +10 50 £320 -40.47% 20
Berkshire +5 47 £725 +26.09% 56
Buckinghamshire -28 22 £203 -57.37% 13
Kent +8 9 £390 +90.33% 16
Oxfordshire -23 7 £525 +5.00% 18
Surrey -20 5 £450 -14.29% 39
Home Counties -1 2 £650 -
West Sussex -20 2 £550 +175.00% 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 2 (1.36%) Confluence
2 1 (0.68%) Adobe Experience Manager
Applications
1 6 (4.08%) Microsoft Excel
1 6 (4.08%) Microsoft Project
2 4 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (2.72%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.68%) Cognos Controller
2 1 (0.68%) IBM Planning Analytics
2 1 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.68%) Oracle Payables
2 1 (0.68%) Oracle Receivables
2 1 (0.68%) Sage X3
2 1 (0.68%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.68%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.68%) SAP Hybris
2 1 (0.68%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.68%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 20 (13.61%) Power Platform
2 13 (8.84%) Azure
3 6 (4.08%) AWS
4 5 (3.40%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (2.04%) SaaS
6 2 (1.36%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.68%) Azure Data Factory
7 1 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (0.68%) iPaaS
7 1 (0.68%) Salsify
7 1 (0.68%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 1 (0.68%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.76%) ATM
2 5 (3.40%) Cisco ASA
2 5 (3.40%) Cisco Firepower
2 5 (3.40%) Cisco Nexus
2 5 (3.40%) VPN
2 5 (3.40%) VSAN
3 4 (2.72%) Firewall
3 4 (2.72%) RFID
4 1 (0.68%) Broadband
4 1 (0.68%) LAN
4 1 (0.68%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (13.61%) Power BI
2 1 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.68%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.68%) Metadata
2 1 (0.68%) Oracle ODI
2 1 (0.68%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (7.48%) JIRA
2 2 (1.36%) Postman
3 1 (0.68%) Git
General
1 45 (30.61%) Finance
2 29 (19.73%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (19.05%) Social Skills
4 14 (9.52%) Documentation Skills
5 13 (8.84%) French Language
5 13 (8.84%) Spanish Language
6 9 (6.12%) Public Sector
7 8 (5.44%) Manufacturing
8 5 (3.40%) Banking
9 4 (2.72%) Legal
9 4 (2.72%) Telecoms
10 3 (2.04%) Automotive
11 2 (1.36%) Local Government
11 2 (1.36%) Marketing
11 2 (1.36%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.68%) German Language
12 1 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 33 (22.45%) Architect
2 32 (21.77%) Solutions Architect
3 19 (12.93%) Analyst
4 18 (12.24%) Lead
5 13 (8.84%) 2nd Line Support
5 13 (8.84%) 2nd Line Technical Support
5 13 (8.84%) Technical Support
6 9 (6.12%) Supply Chain Architect
7 8 (5.44%) Dynamics 365 Architect
7 8 (5.44%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
7 8 (5.44%) ERP Architect
7 8 (5.44%) PMO Analyst
8 6 (4.08%) Business Analyst
9 5 (3.40%) Data Engineer
9 5 (3.40%) Network Engineer
9 5 (3.40%) NOC Engineer
9 5 (3.40%) Oracle Architect
9 5 (3.40%) Oracle Solutions Architect
9 5 (3.40%) Programme Manager
10 4 (2.72%) Head of IT Infrastructure
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.08%) RESTful
2 5 (3.40%) MACH
3 4 (2.72%) Middleware
4 2 (1.36%) .NET
4 2 (1.36%) .NET Core
4 2 (1.36%) .NET Framework
4 2 (1.36%) AngularJS
4 2 (1.36%) Blazor
4 2 (1.36%) JSON
4 2 (1.36%) Razor View Engine
4 2 (1.36%) XML
5 1 (0.68%) Oracle Fusion
5 1 (0.68%) REST
5 1 (0.68%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (7.48%) Data Centre
2 10 (6.80%) EPoS
3 8 (5.44%) Driving Licence
4 5 (3.40%) Smartphone
5 4 (2.72%) FMCG
6 3 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (2.04%) Greenfield Project
6 3 (2.04%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.36%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.36%) Learning Management System
7 2 (1.36%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.68%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.68%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.68%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 1 (0.68%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (0.68%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.68%) Life Science
8 1 (0.68%) Robotics
8 1 (0.68%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 23 (15.65%) Windows
2 6 (4.08%) Linux
3 4 (2.72%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.68%) Debian
4 1 (0.68%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.68%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (25.85%) Problem-Solving
2 37 (25.17%) Stakeholder Management
3 31 (21.09%) Change Management
4 30 (20.41%) ERP
5 25 (17.01%) Customer Service
6 24 (16.33%) Business Intelligence
7 20 (13.61%) Customer Experience
7 20 (13.61%) Migration
8 17 (11.56%) Agile
8 17 (11.56%) Continuous Improvement
8 17 (11.56%) Project Delivery
8 17 (11.56%) Roadmaps
9 16 (10.88%) Process Improvement
9 16 (10.88%) User Acceptance Testing
10 15 (10.20%) Validation
11 14 (9.52%) Data Protection
11 14 (9.52%) Requirements Gathering
11 14 (9.52%) Scenario Testing
12 13 (8.84%) Data Cleansing
13 12 (8.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 17 (11.56%) SQL
2 2 (1.36%) C#
2 2 (1.36%) PL/SQL
3 1 (0.68%) PowerShell
3 1 (0.68%) Python
3 1 (0.68%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 6 (4.08%) Degree
2 5 (3.40%) CCNP
2 5 (3.40%) CCSE
2 5 (3.40%) CCSM
2 5 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (1.36%) DBS Check
4 1 (0.68%) PMP
4 1 (0.68%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (12.24%) GDPR
2 11 (7.48%) PMO
3 5 (3.40%) SLA
4 4 (2.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (2.04%) QA
6 2 (1.36%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.68%) GAAP
7 1 (0.68%) IFRS
System Software
1 5 (3.40%) VMware ESXi
1 5 (3.40%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (2.72%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.68%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (2.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.36%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.36%) MOM
3 1 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (8.84%) IFS
1 13 (8.84%) Oracle
2 7 (4.76%) Microsoft
3 6 (4.08%) Palo Alto
3 6 (4.08%) VMware
4 5 (3.40%) CheckPoint
4 5 (3.40%) Cisco
4 5 (3.40%) Fortinet
4 5 (3.40%) SAP
5 2 (1.36%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.68%) Adobe
6 1 (0.68%) Cognos
6 1 (0.68%) Databricks
6 1 (0.68%) IBM
6 1 (0.68%) Informatica
6 1 (0.68%) Sage
6 1 (0.68%) Samsung
6 1 (0.68%) Workday
6 1 (0.68%) Zscaler