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 8 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 96 85
Rank change year-on-year -25 -11 +7
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,005 770 1,085
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.12% 2.65% 2.52%
As % of the General category 3.92% 4.18% 4.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 595 411 603
10th Percentile £206 £308 £280
25th Percentile £384 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £505
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +3.96% -3.81%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £733 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 20 88
10th Percentile £13.22 £15.12 £11.56
25th Percentile £16.02 £16.30 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £32.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.38% +100.00% -19.23%
75th Percentile £36.69 £58.31 £21.37
90th Percentile £45.25 £87.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £16.30 £15.90
% change year-on-year +7.36% +2.52% -19.74%

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 25,651 18,440 25,063
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.05% 63.36% 58.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,724 11,753 15,798
10th Percentile £306 £295 £275
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £769
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +0.53% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,633 780 1,936
10th Percentile £13.95 £14.00 £12.77
25th Percentile £17.50 £17.44 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.82% -8.17%
75th Percentile £61.18 £56.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.14
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.62 £24.66 £28.50
% change year-on-year +12.00% -13.47% -1.72%

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 8 May 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 8 May 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 8 May 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 -6 919 £500 -4.76% 1,124
London -17 501 £525 -4.55% 376
UK excluding London -4 428 £492 -1.60% 857
Work from Home -43 252 £500 -3.85% 394
North of England -27 127 £510 +13.33% 234
South East -25 117 £423 -15.50% 270
Midlands -35 85 £495 -1.00% 154
North West -6 76 £518 +3.50% 142
East of England -6 49 £480 -8.67% 108
East Midlands -2 47 £495 -1.00% 83
Yorkshire -42 47 £513 +38.51% 78
West Midlands -46 38 £500 - 71
South West -26 26 £326 -23.68% 76
Scotland -3 21 £474 -10.45% 33
North East -15 4 £200 -73.33% 17
Northern Ireland +4 2 £190 -44.48% 6
Wales -11 1 £190 +29.52% 15

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 36 (3.58%) Confluence
2 17 (1.69%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.09%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 9 (0.90%) CMS
5 7 (0.70%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.50%) SAS
7 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.20%) Magnolia
9 1 (0.100%) CICS
9 1 (0.100%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.100%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 33 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 20 (1.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 19 (1.89%) Microsoft Project
4 16 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
5 13 (1.29%) Chatbot
6 11 (1.09%) MS Visio
7 8 (0.80%) Photoshop
8 6 (0.60%) Adobe Illustrator
9 3 (0.30%) InDesign
10 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.20%) Trello
10 2 (0.20%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.100%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.100%) Adobe After Effects
11 1 (0.100%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.100%) Maya
11 1 (0.100%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.100%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 21 (2.09%) Shopify
2 18 (1.79%) SAP S/4HANA
3 11 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.70%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 7 (0.70%) Oracle Retail
4 7 (0.70%) SAP Retail
5 6 (0.60%) Finacle
6 5 (0.50%) Oracle EBS
7 4 (0.40%) SAP CRM
7 4 (0.40%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.40%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.30%) Magento
9 2 (0.20%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
9 2 (0.20%) NetSuite
9 2 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
9 2 (0.20%) Sage X3
9 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
9 2 (0.20%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.20%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 91 (9.05%) Azure
2 72 (7.16%) AWS
3 58 (5.77%) GCP
4 49 (4.88%) Power Platform
5 29 (2.89%) Snowflake
6 24 (2.39%) Dynamics 365
7 20 (1.99%) GitHub
8 18 (1.79%) Microsoft 365
9 17 (1.69%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 15 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
11 14 (1.39%) BigCommerce
11 14 (1.39%) SaaS
12 13 (1.29%) Entra ID
12 13 (1.29%) Figma
13 12 (1.19%) GitHub Actions
13 12 (1.19%) Google Workspace
14 11 (1.09%) Cloud Run
14 11 (1.09%) Miro
15 10 (1.00%) Azure Data Factory
16 8 (0.80%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.59%) RFID
1 16 (1.59%) VPN
2 15 (1.49%) Firewall
2 15 (1.49%) Wireless
3 14 (1.39%) WAN
4 8 (0.80%) NFC
5 7 (0.70%) Cisco Nexus
5 7 (0.70%) LAN
5 7 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (0.60%) ATM
6 6 (0.60%) BGP
6 6 (0.60%) OSPF
7 5 (0.50%) Network Security
8 4 (0.40%) Cisco Firepower
8 4 (0.40%) EIGRP
8 4 (0.40%) VoIP
9 3 (0.30%) MPLS
9 3 (0.30%) SD-WAN
9 3 (0.30%) VSAN
9 3 (0.30%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (4.48%) Power BI
2 26 (2.59%) BigQuery
3 16 (1.59%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.29%) MySQL
4 13 (1.29%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.19%) Tableau
6 9 (0.90%) Data Lake
6 9 (0.90%) Metadata
7 6 (0.60%) NoSQL
7 6 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
7 6 (0.60%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.50%) Data Vault
9 4 (0.40%) Delta Lake
10 3 (0.30%) Looker
10 3 (0.30%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.30%) OLAP
10 3 (0.30%) Oracle OLAP
10 3 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
10 3 (0.30%) Semantic Layer
10 3 (0.30%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 73 (7.26%) JIRA
2 18 (1.79%) Git
3 11 (1.09%) GitLab
3 11 (1.09%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.40%) Maven
5 3 (0.30%) ERwin
6 2 (0.20%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.20%) Gatling
6 2 (0.20%) Hudson
6 2 (0.20%) JMeter
6 2 (0.20%) MLflow
6 2 (0.20%) Selenium
6 2 (0.20%) Subversion
6 2 (0.20%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.20%) WebDriver
7 1 (0.100%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.100%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.100%) IBM UrbanCode
7 1 (0.100%) Mockito
7 1 (0.100%) webpack
General
1 299 (29.75%) Social Skills
2 247 (24.58%) Finance
3 107 (10.65%) Analytical Skills
4 91 (9.05%) Banking
5 57 (5.67%) Marketing
6 45 (4.48%) Organisational Skills
7 42 (4.18%) Retail Banking
8 41 (4.08%) Manufacturing
9 36 (3.58%) Investment Banking
10 34 (3.38%) Corporate Banking
11 28 (2.79%) Presentation Skills
12 27 (2.69%) Documentation Skills
13 25 (2.49%) Public Sector
14 23 (2.29%) Telecoms
15 22 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
16 18 (1.79%) Legal
17 14 (1.39%) Back Office
18 12 (1.19%) Advertising
19 10 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
19 10 (1.00%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 162 (16.12%) Analyst
2 139 (13.83%) Architect
3 125 (12.44%) Senior
4 111 (11.04%) Project Manager
5 98 (9.75%) Business Analyst
6 79 (7.86%) Lead
7 53 (5.27%) Senior Manager
8 48 (4.78%) Solutions Architect
9 36 (3.58%) Technical Manager
10 33 (3.28%) Consultant
10 33 (3.28%) Designer
11 32 (3.18%) Developer
12 28 (2.79%) Enterprise Architect
12 28 (2.79%) Senior Project Manager
13 26 (2.59%) Data Architect
14 22 (2.19%) Product Manager
15 21 (2.09%) Programme Manager
16 18 (1.79%) Data Engineer
16 18 (1.79%) Service Manager
17 17 (1.69%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.08%) Middleware
2 30 (2.99%) VML
3 28 (2.79%) REST
4 21 (2.09%) React
5 19 (1.89%) Spring
6 15 (1.49%) Node.js
7 13 (1.29%) Spring Boot
8 12 (1.19%) AngularJS
9 10 (1.00%) CSS
9 10 (1.00%) Kafka
9 10 (1.00%) PySpark
10 7 (0.70%) HTML
10 7 (0.70%) LangChain
10 7 (0.70%) SOAP
11 6 (0.60%) GraphQL
11 6 (0.60%) jQuery
11 6 (0.60%) JSON
11 6 (0.60%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.50%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.50%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 68 (6.77%) Product Ownership
2 37 (3.68%) Driving Licence
3 32 (3.18%) Cloud Native
3 32 (3.18%) EPoS
4 25 (2.49%) Onboarding
5 24 (2.39%) Data Centre
6 22 (2.19%) Management Information System
7 21 (2.09%) Mainframe
8 20 (1.99%) FMCG
8 20 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
9 19 (1.89%) Data Structures
10 18 (1.79%) Mobile App
11 13 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
13 10 (1.00%) AI Agents
13 10 (1.00%) IoT
13 10 (1.00%) Virtual Team
14 8 (0.80%) Clustering
15 7 (0.70%) Hybrid Cloud
16 6 (0.60%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 41 (4.08%) Windows
2 21 (2.09%) Linux
3 8 (0.80%) Mac OS
4 7 (0.70%) Android
4 7 (0.70%) zOS
5 6 (0.60%) Unix
6 5 (0.50%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.40%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.20%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.100%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 219 (21.79%) Stakeholder Management
2 217 (21.59%) Agile
3 184 (18.31%) Problem-Solving
4 143 (14.23%) E-Commerce
5 127 (12.64%) Migration
6 116 (11.54%) Roadmaps
7 113 (11.24%) Project Management
8 100 (9.95%) Analytics
9 92 (9.15%) Customer Experience
10 89 (8.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 82 (8.16%) ERP
12 79 (7.86%) AI
13 76 (7.56%) Project Delivery
14 75 (7.46%) Continuous Improvement
15 74 (7.36%) Decision-Making
16 71 (7.06%) Change Management
16 71 (7.06%) Workshop Facilitation
17 70 (6.97%) Scrum
18 67 (6.67%) User Acceptance Testing
19 62 (6.17%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 72 (7.16%) SQL
2 60 (5.97%) Python
3 31 (3.08%) Java
4 22 (2.19%) JavaScript
5 12 (1.19%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.09%) TypeScript
7 10 (1.00%) Shell Script
8 8 (0.80%) Bash
9 6 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.50%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.50%) Kotlin
10 5 (0.50%) SOQL
10 5 (0.50%) SOSL
11 4 (0.40%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.40%) Scala
11 4 (0.40%) VBA
12 2 (0.20%) C#
12 2 (0.20%) Korn
12 2 (0.20%) R
12 2 (0.20%) REXX
Qualifications
1 48 (4.78%) Degree
2 38 (3.78%) Security Cleared
3 25 (2.49%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.79%) PMP
5 13 (1.29%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.90%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (0.90%) CSPO
7 7 (0.70%) APMP
7 7 (0.70%) CCNP
7 7 (0.70%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (0.70%) Master's Degree
8 6 (0.60%) CISSP
8 6 (0.60%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (0.60%) DBS Check
9 5 (0.50%) MBA
10 4 (0.40%) CCIE
10 4 (0.40%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.30%) CCSE
11 3 (0.30%) CISM
11 3 (0.30%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (5.27%) QA
2 48 (4.78%) Data Quality
3 36 (3.58%) GDPR
4 32 (3.18%) PMO
5 18 (1.79%) SLA
6 14 (1.39%) Accessibility
7 10 (1.00%) PCI DSS
8 9 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.50%) NIST
10 4 (0.40%) IFRS
11 3 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.20%) GRC
12 2 (0.20%) WCAG
13 1 (0.100%) COBIT
13 1 (0.100%) GAAP
13 1 (0.100%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.100%) NCSC
13 1 (0.100%) Solvency II
System Software
1 21 (2.09%) Active Directory
2 18 (1.79%) Docker
3 5 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (0.50%) VMware NSX
4 4 (0.40%) RACF
5 3 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.100%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 21 (2.09%) Terraform
2 14 (1.39%) Kubernetes
3 9 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (0.70%) Grafana
5 7 (0.70%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 6 (0.60%) Argo
6 6 (0.60%) Istio
7 5 (0.50%) SCCM
8 3 (0.30%) Ansible
9 2 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.20%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.20%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.20%) MOM
9 2 (0.20%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.20%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.100%) Cacti
10 1 (0.100%) Control-M
10 1 (0.100%) Nagios
Vendors
1 80 (7.96%) Microsoft
2 72 (7.16%) SAP
3 62 (6.17%) Oracle
4 53 (5.27%) Salesforce
5 49 (4.88%) Google
6 40 (3.98%) Databricks
7 26 (2.59%) Adobe
8 17 (1.69%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.59%) Cisco
9 16 (1.59%) Sitecore
10 15 (1.49%) IFS
11 11 (1.09%) IBM
11 11 (1.09%) VMware
12 10 (1.00%) Palo Alto
13 9 (0.90%) Splunk
14 8 (0.80%) CheckPoint
14 8 (0.80%) Temenos
14 8 (0.80%) Workday
14 8 (0.80%) Zscaler
15 7 (0.70%) Fortinet