Retail Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Retailing
UK > UK excluding London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Retail in contract job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Retail over the 6 months leading up to 12 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 149 109 104
Rank change year-on-year -40 -5 -20
Contract jobs citing Retail 307 309 430
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.71% 2.24% 2.20%
As % of the General category 2.99% 3.71% 3.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 188 165 251
10th Percentile £171 £177 £263
25th Percentile £313 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £600
90th Percentile £650 £659 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 6 26
10th Percentile £12.85 £17.19 £10.52
25th Percentile £16.17 £18.13 £13.00
Median hourly rate £16.34 £25.32 £19.81
Median % change year-on-year -35.47% +27.79% -
75th Percentile £19.50 £33.75 £20.56
90th Percentile £23.70 £34.50 £21.46
UK median hourly rate £17.50 £32.50 £19.81
% change year-on-year -46.15% +64.06% -

All General Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 10,282 8,330 10,814
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 57.27% 60.50% 55.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,334 4,705 6,721
10th Percentile £204 £210 £210
25th Percentile £363 £356 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £481 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.14% -3.90% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,104 488 962
10th Percentile £13.50 £15.24 £13.41
25th Percentile £16.00 £18.13 £15.00
Median hourly rate £21.46 £26.00 £28.68
Median % change year-on-year -17.45% -9.36% +27.47%
75th Percentile £44.94 £53.75 £56.56
90th Percentile £69.89 £70.38 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £23.00 £27.19 £30.00
% change year-on-year -15.40% -9.38% +20.00%

Retail
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Retail relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Retail job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Retail
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Retail.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Retail

Retail
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Retail in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 12 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Retail in the UK excluding London

Retail
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Retail.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Retail

Retail
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Retail in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 12 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Retail in the UK excluding London

Retail
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Retail within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 12 January 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
South East -18 90 £518 -5.77% 419
North of England -41 79 £485 +7.78% 324
Midlands -36 65 £463 -7.50% 220
East Midlands +7 46 £495 -1.00% 133
Yorkshire -28 41 £500 +25.00% 147
East of England -23 38 £529 -1.63% 202
North West -30 34 £495 +8.49% 136
West Midlands -53 18 £331 -36.90% 85
Scotland -4 17 £450 -14.29% 51
South West -17 14 £175 -57.78% 175
North East -7 5 £200 -66.67% 42
Wales 0 3 £625 +331.03% 66
Northern Ireland -5 1 - - 30
Retail
UK

Retail
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 21 (6.84%) Confluence
2 11 (3.58%) SharePoint
3 8 (2.61%) CMS
4 5 (1.63%) Camunda
5 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 14 (4.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.61%) Microsoft Project
3 7 (2.28%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (2.28%) MS Visio
4 6 (1.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.98%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 6 (1.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.63%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (0.98%) Dynamics AX
3 3 (0.98%) Oracle Retail
3 3 (0.98%) Salesforce CRM
3 3 (0.98%) SAP Retail
3 3 (0.98%) Shopify
4 1 (0.33%) BambooHR
4 1 (0.33%) CA PPM
4 1 (0.33%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.33%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle Cash Management
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle General Ledger
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle Payroll
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle Receivables
4 1 (0.33%) ResourceLink
4 1 (0.33%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 34 (11.07%) Azure
2 17 (5.54%) AWS
3 16 (5.21%) GCP
4 15 (4.89%) Power Platform
5 10 (3.26%) Microsoft 365
6 9 (2.93%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
7 7 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
7 7 (2.28%) OCI
8 6 (1.95%) SaaS
9 5 (1.63%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (1.63%) Entra ID
9 5 (1.63%) Serverless
10 4 (1.30%) Figma
10 4 (1.30%) Salesforce Service Cloud
10 4 (1.30%) Snowflake
11 3 (0.98%) PowerApps
12 2 (0.65%) Boomi
12 2 (0.65%) GitHub
12 2 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (0.65%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.89%) RFID
2 14 (4.56%) NFC
2 14 (4.56%) Wireless
3 7 (2.28%) Firewall
4 4 (1.30%) VPN
5 2 (0.65%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.33%) Intranet
6 1 (0.33%) LAN
6 1 (0.33%) MPLS
6 1 (0.33%) SAN
6 1 (0.33%) WAN
6 1 (0.33%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (4.23%) Power BI
2 5 (1.63%) BigQuery
3 4 (1.30%) SQL Server
3 4 (1.30%) Tableau
4 2 (0.65%) MySQL
4 2 (0.65%) Power Query
4 2 (0.65%) SAP BW
4 2 (0.65%) SAP HANA
5 1 (0.33%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.33%) Data Hub
5 1 (0.33%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.33%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.33%) DataStage
5 1 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.33%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 35 (11.40%) JIRA
2 4 (1.30%) Storybook
3 3 (0.98%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.98%) Selenium
4 2 (0.65%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.33%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.33%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.33%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.33%) Git
5 1 (0.33%) GitLab
5 1 (0.33%) Postman
5 1 (0.33%) TestRail
5 1 (0.33%) Zephyr
General
1 108 (35.18%) Social Skills
2 49 (15.96%) Finance
3 33 (10.75%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (6.51%) Marketing
5 19 (6.19%) Banking
6 18 (5.86%) Organisational Skills
7 16 (5.21%) Public Sector
8 15 (4.89%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (4.89%) Manufacturing
9 12 (3.91%) Influencing Skills
10 10 (3.26%) Legal
11 9 (2.93%) Retail Banking
12 8 (2.61%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (1.63%) Corporate Banking
13 5 (1.63%) Investment Banking
14 4 (1.30%) Automotive
14 4 (1.30%) Telecoms
15 3 (0.98%) Billing
15 3 (0.98%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.98%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 82 (26.71%) Analyst
2 38 (12.38%) Project Manager
3 37 (12.05%) Architect
4 34 (11.07%) Business Analyst
5 24 (7.82%) Solutions Architect
6 20 (6.51%) Senior
7 17 (5.54%) Lead
8 13 (4.23%) Service Manager
9 12 (3.91%) Field Engineer
9 12 (3.91%) Help Desk Analyst
10 11 (3.58%) Support Analyst
11 10 (3.26%) EPoS Engineer
11 10 (3.26%) EPoS Field Engineer
12 9 (2.93%) Administrator
12 9 (2.93%) Desktop Analyst
12 9 (2.93%) Desktop Support
12 9 (2.93%) Desktop Support Analyst
12 9 (2.93%) Senior Manager
13 8 (2.61%) Consultant
14 7 (2.28%) Implementation Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (2.93%) React
2 7 (2.28%) REST
3 4 (1.30%) Bootstrap
3 4 (1.30%) CSS
3 4 (1.30%) CSS3
3 4 (1.30%) Express.js
3 4 (1.30%) HTML
3 4 (1.30%) HTML5
3 4 (1.30%) Next.js
3 4 (1.30%) Node.js
3 4 (1.30%) Redux
3 4 (1.30%) RESTful
3 4 (1.30%) VML
4 3 (0.98%) AngularJS
4 3 (0.98%) EDI
5 2 (0.65%) .NET
5 2 (0.65%) EJB
5 2 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (0.65%) SAP PI
5 2 (0.65%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 18 (5.86%) IoT
2 17 (5.54%) Legacy Systems
3 16 (5.21%) EPoS
4 15 (4.89%) Product Ownership
4 15 (4.89%) Self-Motivation
5 12 (3.91%) Management Information System
6 11 (3.58%) Driving Licence
7 9 (2.93%) FMCG
8 7 (2.28%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.95%) Data Centre
10 5 (1.63%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (1.63%) Mobile App
11 4 (1.30%) e-Learning
11 4 (1.30%) Learning Management System
11 4 (1.30%) Smart Meter
12 3 (0.98%) Mainframe
12 3 (0.98%) Security Operations Centre
13 2 (0.65%) Cloud Native
13 2 (0.65%) Data Protection Act
13 2 (0.65%) Marketing Technology
Operating Systems
1 24 (7.82%) Windows
2 3 (0.98%) Linux
3 2 (0.65%) Android
3 2 (0.65%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.33%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.33%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.33%) Mac OS X
4 1 (0.33%) Windows 10
4 1 (0.33%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.33%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (24.10%) Agile
2 68 (22.15%) Stakeholder Management
3 52 (16.94%) Problem-Solving
4 38 (12.38%) E-Commerce
5 31 (10.10%) Continuous Improvement
5 31 (10.10%) Project Management
6 27 (8.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 27 (8.79%) Waterfall
7 25 (8.14%) Analytics
7 25 (8.14%) Workshop Facilitation
8 24 (7.82%) Migration
9 23 (7.49%) Customer Service
10 22 (7.17%) Logistics
11 20 (6.51%) Service Delivery
12 19 (6.19%) AI
12 19 (6.19%) CRM
12 19 (6.19%) Cybersecurity
12 19 (6.19%) Decision-Making
12 19 (6.19%) Incident Management
12 19 (6.19%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 23 (7.49%) SQL
2 15 (4.89%) Python
3 5 (1.63%) Java
4 4 (1.30%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.98%) TypeScript
6 2 (0.65%) ABAP
6 2 (0.65%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (0.65%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.65%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.33%) Bash
7 1 (0.33%) C#
7 1 (0.33%) CLIST
7 1 (0.33%) JCL
7 1 (0.33%) PHP
7 1 (0.33%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.33%) R
7 1 (0.33%) REXX
7 1 (0.33%) X++
Qualifications
1 13 (4.23%) Degree
2 8 (2.61%) Security Cleared
3 6 (1.95%) PMP
4 5 (1.63%) Master's Degree
4 5 (1.63%) PMI Certification
5 4 (1.30%) CSPO
5 4 (1.30%) MBA
6 2 (0.65%) ACCA
6 2 (0.65%) IIBA
6 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.33%) CEH
7 1 (0.33%) CISSP
7 1 (0.33%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.33%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.33%) PRINCE2 Certification
7 1 (0.33%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (3.26%) QA
2 9 (2.93%) SLA
3 6 (1.95%) COBIT
3 6 (1.95%) Data Quality
3 6 (1.95%) PMO
4 3 (0.98%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.98%) GDPR
5 2 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.65%) NIST
5 2 (0.65%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 7 (2.28%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.98%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.33%) RACF
3 1 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 7 (2.28%) Terraform
2 6 (1.95%) Ansible
3 3 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (0.65%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.33%) AirWatch
5 1 (0.33%) Control-M
5 1 (0.33%) HP ALM
5 1 (0.33%) Nmap
5 1 (0.33%) SCCM
5 1 (0.33%) zSecure
Vendors
1 33 (10.75%) Microsoft
2 19 (6.19%) Oracle
2 19 (6.19%) Salesforce
3 13 (4.23%) HP
3 13 (4.23%) SAP
4 10 (3.26%) Dell
5 9 (2.93%) Google
6 6 (1.95%) CheckPoint
6 6 (1.95%) Databricks
6 6 (1.95%) Dynatrace
6 6 (1.95%) F5
7 4 (1.30%) ServiceNow
8 3 (0.98%) MuleSoft
8 3 (0.98%) Palo Alto
8 3 (0.98%) Qualys
8 3 (0.98%) VMware
8 3 (0.98%) Zscaler
9 2 (0.65%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
9 2 (0.65%) TikTok
10 1 (0.33%) Rapid7