Retail Contract Job Trends

Retailing
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Retail in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Retail over the 6 months leading up to 20 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 123 90
Rank change year-on-year +36 -33 +8
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,591 753 959
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.97% 2.29% 2.47%
As % of the General category 5.40% 3.61% 4.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 926 398 535
10th Percentile £317 £280 £300
25th Percentile £456 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% +2.50% -5.66%
75th Percentile £663 £634 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £709
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 44 57
10th Percentile £12.76 £14.50 £12.15
25th Percentile £13.51 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £17.02 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +4.40% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £36.43 £22.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £14.36 £15.96 £16.00
% change year-on-year -10.03% -0.25% -19.23%

All General Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 29,452 20,852 22,255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.04% 63.51% 57.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,473 12,975 13,936
10th Percentile £313 £275 £290
25th Percentile £415 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £746 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,245 1,142 1,320
10th Percentile £13.90 £13.26 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.20 £16.30 £16.85
Median hourly rate £31.50 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.25% -32.93% +36.36%
75th Percentile £56.25 £50.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £71.14 £70.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +44.53% -41.92% +52.48%

Retail
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Retail job vacancy trend in the UK

Retail
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Retail
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Retail over the 6 months to 20 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Retail in the UK

Retail
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Retail
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Retail over the 6 months to 20 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Retail in the UK

Retail
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 20 August 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
England +32 1,460 £550 +7.32% 2,365
London +45 831 £568 +3.18% 1,111
UK excluding London +15 646 £525 +5.00% 1,507
Work from Home -1 348 £525 +5.00% 843
North of England -9 190 £550 +10.00% 455
South East +13 176 £525 -4.55% 393
Midlands +16 136 £513 +19.05% 299
North West +15 120 £550 +10.00% 249
East Midlands +16 77 £500 +14.68% 156
East of England +21 70 £575 +9.52% 138
West Midlands -16 58 £575 +35.29% 143
Yorkshire -42 53 £500 - 170
South West -29 44 £400 +17.65% 111
Scotland -2 24 £301 -42.63% 93
North East -27 17 £525 +18.64% 41
Wales -13 4 - - 38
Northern Ireland +7 3 £203 -63.18% 16

Retail
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 49 (3.08%) Confluence
2 18 (1.13%) CMS
3 12 (0.75%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 10 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.57%) SharePoint
6 6 (0.38%) SAS
7 4 (0.25%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.13%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.13%) CICS
9 2 (0.13%) Mule
10 1 (0.063%) Apache
10 1 (0.063%) Mendix
10 1 (0.063%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.063%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 54 (3.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 37 (2.33%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.01%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 13 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
6 9 (0.57%) Chatbot
6 9 (0.57%) Photoshop
7 8 (0.50%) Adobe Illustrator
7 8 (0.50%) MS Visio
8 7 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
9 6 (0.38%) InDesign
10 4 (0.25%) CPLEX
10 4 (0.25%) Notion
11 1 (0.063%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.063%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 47 (2.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.76%) Shopify
3 12 (0.75%) SAP Retail
4 11 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
5 10 (0.63%) Oracle Retail
5 10 (0.63%) SAP CRM
6 8 (0.50%) Magento
7 6 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.31%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.31%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.25%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.19%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.19%) SAP ERP
10 3 (0.19%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.19%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.19%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 189 (11.88%) Azure
2 143 (8.99%) AWS
3 75 (4.71%) Power Platform
4 69 (4.34%) GCP
5 52 (3.27%) Snowflake
6 40 (2.51%) GitHub
7 34 (2.14%) Entra ID
8 30 (1.89%) Azure DevOps
9 25 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
9 25 (1.57%) GitHub Actions
10 23 (1.45%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 21 (1.32%) Figma
12 20 (1.26%) SaaS
13 15 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
13 15 (0.94%) Microsoft 365
14 14 (0.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 12 (0.75%) dbt
16 11 (0.69%) OCI
16 11 (0.69%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 11 (0.69%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.32%) WAN
2 20 (1.26%) Firewall
3 16 (1.01%) ATM
3 16 (1.01%) VPN
3 16 (1.01%) Wireless
4 14 (0.88%) LAN
4 14 (0.88%) Network Security
5 10 (0.63%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (0.50%) BGP
6 8 (0.50%) IPsec
6 8 (0.50%) OSPF
7 7 (0.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 7 (0.44%) SD-WAN
7 7 (0.44%) Structured Cabling
7 7 (0.44%) VLAN
8 6 (0.38%) Cisco Firepower
8 6 (0.38%) VSAN
9 5 (0.31%) Cisco ASA
9 5 (0.31%) Cisco Nexus
9 5 (0.31%) RFID
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (4.65%) Power BI
2 38 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
3 30 (1.89%) BigQuery
4 23 (1.45%) Data Lake
5 20 (1.26%) Metadata
5 20 (1.26%) NoSQL
6 19 (1.19%) MongoDB
7 16 (1.01%) SQL Server
8 15 (0.94%) Tableau
9 14 (0.88%) MySQL
10 12 (0.75%) Amazon Redshift
10 12 (0.75%) Power Query
10 12 (0.75%) Relational Database
11 11 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
12 10 (0.63%) Redis
12 10 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 8 (0.50%) Couchbase
14 7 (0.44%) SAP HANA
14 7 (0.44%) Star Schema
15 6 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 78 (4.90%) JIRA
2 28 (1.76%) Git
3 19 (1.19%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.50%) Subversion
5 7 (0.44%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.31%) GitLab
6 5 (0.31%) JMeter
7 4 (0.25%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.25%) Hudson
8 3 (0.19%) Maven
9 2 (0.13%) git-flow
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.13%) Postman
9 2 (0.13%) Selenium
9 2 (0.13%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) webpack
10 1 (0.063%) Gatling
10 1 (0.063%) Pylint
General
1 443 (27.84%) Social Skills
2 381 (23.95%) Finance
3 167 (10.50%) Analytical Skills
4 132 (8.30%) Banking
5 104 (6.54%) Marketing
6 99 (6.22%) Manufacturing
7 69 (4.34%) Retail Banking
8 64 (4.02%) Organisational Skills
9 48 (3.02%) Investment Banking
10 46 (2.89%) Corporate Banking
11 36 (2.26%) Public Sector
12 31 (1.95%) Influencing Skills
13 30 (1.89%) Telecoms
14 29 (1.82%) Legal
15 28 (1.76%) Advertising
16 23 (1.45%) French Language
16 23 (1.45%) Presentation Skills
17 21 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
18 18 (1.13%) Spanish Language
19 15 (0.94%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 259 (16.28%) Architect
2 238 (14.96%) Analyst
3 178 (11.19%) Senior
4 144 (9.05%) Solutions Architect
5 138 (8.67%) Business Analyst
6 125 (7.86%) Project Manager
7 113 (7.10%) Lead
8 86 (5.41%) Developer
9 53 (3.33%) Consultant
10 49 (3.08%) Product Manager
11 47 (2.95%) Senior Manager
12 46 (2.89%) Data Analyst
12 46 (2.89%) Designer
13 40 (2.51%) Service Manager
13 40 (2.51%) Supply Chain Architect
14 37 (2.33%) Enterprise Architect
14 37 (2.33%) Senior Developer
15 35 (2.20%) Data Architect
15 35 (2.20%) Programme Manager
16 34 (2.14%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (4.34%) REST
2 51 (3.21%) Terraform
3 41 (2.58%) React
4 35 (2.20%) Kafka
5 30 (1.89%) Spring
6 29 (1.82%) Middleware
6 29 (1.82%) Node.js
7 23 (1.45%) Spring Boot
8 21 (1.32%) VML
9 20 (1.26%) Django
9 20 (1.26%) RESTful
10 19 (1.19%) MACH
10 19 (1.19%) SOAP
11 15 (0.94%) HTML
12 14 (0.88%) Next.js
12 14 (0.88%) OAuth
13 13 (0.82%) CSS
14 12 (0.75%) Jakarta EE
15 11 (0.69%) Lightning Web Components
16 10 (0.63%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 87 (5.47%) Product Ownership
2 68 (4.27%) FMCG
3 58 (3.65%) EPoS
4 56 (3.52%) Onboarding
5 47 (2.95%) Cloud Native
6 33 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
7 31 (1.95%) Driving Licence
8 30 (1.89%) Data Centre
9 27 (1.70%) Mobile App
10 25 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
11 23 (1.45%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.38%) Mainframe
12 22 (1.38%) Marketing Technology
13 21 (1.32%) Operational Technology
14 19 (1.19%) Self-Motivation
14 19 (1.19%) Smartphone
15 18 (1.13%) AI Agents
15 18 (1.13%) Management Information System
16 16 (1.01%) Distributed Systems
17 15 (0.94%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 57 (3.58%) Windows
2 22 (1.38%) Linux
3 11 (0.69%) Android
3 11 (0.69%) Unix
4 8 (0.50%) Apple iOS
5 7 (0.44%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.38%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.31%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.31%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.25%) zOS
9 2 (0.13%) Debian
10 1 (0.063%) SUSE
10 1 (0.063%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.063%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 402 (25.27%) Stakeholder Management
2 379 (23.82%) Agile
3 242 (15.21%) E-Commerce
4 203 (12.76%) Problem-Solving
5 190 (11.94%) Migration
6 174 (10.94%) Analytics
6 174 (10.94%) Roadmaps
7 168 (10.56%) Logistics
8 166 (10.43%) AI
9 141 (8.86%) Customer Experience
10 139 (8.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 133 (8.36%) Decision-Making
12 130 (8.17%) Continuous Improvement
13 121 (7.61%) CI/CD
14 120 (7.54%) Project Management
15 114 (7.17%) CRM
16 109 (6.85%) User Acceptance Testing
17 108 (6.79%) ERP
18 107 (6.73%) Business Intelligence
19 106 (6.66%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 140 (8.80%) SQL
2 105 (6.60%) Python
3 55 (3.46%) Java
4 34 (2.14%) TypeScript
5 30 (1.89%) JavaScript
6 12 (0.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.63%) Apex Code
7 10 (0.63%) C#
7 10 (0.63%) PowerShell
7 10 (0.63%) SOQL
8 9 (0.57%) ABAP
9 8 (0.50%) Bash
9 8 (0.50%) R
9 8 (0.50%) SOSL
10 6 (0.38%) Bicep
10 6 (0.38%) PL/SQL
10 6 (0.38%) Scala
11 5 (0.31%) Groovy
12 4 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 63 (3.96%) Degree
2 45 (2.83%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.38%) PMP
3 22 (1.38%) SC Cleared
4 13 (0.82%) DBS Check
5 12 (0.75%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
8 6 (0.38%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.38%) CISSP
9 5 (0.31%) CCNP
9 5 (0.31%) CCSE
9 5 (0.31%) CCSM
9 5 (0.31%) CISM
9 5 (0.31%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.31%) CSPO
9 5 (0.31%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 4 (0.25%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.25%) City & Guilds
11 3 (0.19%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (4.84%) Data Quality
2 76 (4.78%) QA
3 41 (2.58%) GDPR
4 26 (1.63%) PMO
5 22 (1.38%) Accessibility
6 15 (0.94%) SLA
7 14 (0.88%) PCI DSS
8 8 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.38%) NIST
10 5 (0.31%) WCAG
11 3 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.19%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.19%) GAAP
11 3 (0.19%) GRC
11 3 (0.19%) IFRS
11 3 (0.19%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.063%) GxP
13 1 (0.063%) HL7
System Software
1 37 (2.33%) Docker
2 33 (2.07%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.31%) Firmware
6 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.19%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.063%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (2.58%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.69%) Ansible
3 10 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
4 9 (0.57%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 8 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.38%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.25%) SCCM
8 3 (0.19%) Bosun
9 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.13%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.13%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.13%) CloudHub
9 2 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.13%) logstash
9 2 (0.13%) MOM
9 2 (0.13%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.063%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.063%) Nagios
10 1 (0.063%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 139 (8.74%) Microsoft
2 120 (7.54%) SAP
3 80 (5.03%) Salesforce
4 75 (4.71%) Oracle
5 73 (4.59%) Databricks
6 46 (2.89%) Google
7 38 (2.39%) Adobe
8 25 (1.57%) Zscaler
9 20 (1.26%) MuleSoft
10 18 (1.13%) Workday
11 17 (1.07%) ServiceNow
12 16 (1.01%) Cisco
13 14 (0.88%) IBM
13 14 (0.88%) IFS
14 13 (0.82%) Fortinet
14 13 (0.82%) Palo Alto
14 13 (0.82%) VMware
15 11 (0.69%) Apple
15 11 (0.69%) Informatica
15 11 (0.69%) New Relic