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 9 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 113 82
Rank change year-on-year +22 -31 +13
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,374 785 1,117
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.62% 2.43% 2.58%
As % of the General category 4.78% 3.86% 4.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 828 403 625
10th Percentile £281 £306 £295
25th Percentile £413 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £515
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -0.49% -2.83%
75th Percentile £645 £633 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £514 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.75% - -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 41 86
10th Percentile £13.05 £14.50 £11.88
25th Percentile £15.25 £15.25 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.83% +1.88% -19.23%
75th Percentile £22.50 £32.75 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £77.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.92 £15.50 £15.95
% change year-on-year +9.16% -2.82% -19.49%

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 28,745 20,351 24,809
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.77% 63.01% 57.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,230 12,786 15,526
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £401 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £472 £490
% change year-on-year +5.88% -3.62% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,986 1,021 1,931
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.46 £12.81
25th Percentile £18.41 £16.32 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.50 £27.13 £31.97
Median % change year-on-year +19.82% -15.15% +6.57%
75th Percentile £61.18 £53.50 £53.75
90th Percentile £80.63 £70.00 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £23.00 £31.25
% change year-on-year +41.30% -26.40% +20.42%

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 9 July 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 9 July 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 9 July 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 +12 1,259 £538 +2.38% 1,331
London +20 728 £550 - 509
UK excluding London +7 545 £514 +2.75% 939
Work from Home -18 302 £500 - 459
South East +14 168 £525 -5.41% 291
North of England -32 152 £550 +7.32% 248
Midlands -14 102 £500 +8.11% 209
North West +9 100 £575 +15.00% 139
East of England +14 60 £550 -4.35% 107
East Midlands +3 53 £495 +7.03% 115
West Midlands -33 49 £550 +20.55% 92
Yorkshire -48 47 £513 -2.38% 86
South West -31 36 £325 -19.38% 64
Scotland -1 21 £496 -3.22% 25
North East -31 5 £173 -79.07% 26
Northern Ireland +8 3 £196 -64.32% 16
Wales -16 3 £190 +29.52% 11

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 37 (2.69%) Confluence
2 19 (1.38%) CMS
3 15 (1.09%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 12 (0.87%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.51%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.36%) SAS
7 4 (0.29%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.15%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.15%) CICS
9 2 (0.15%) Mule
10 1 (0.073%) Apache
10 1 (0.073%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 37 (2.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
3 20 (1.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (1.24%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (0.95%) Chatbot
6 11 (0.80%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 10 (0.73%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.66%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.44%) InDesign
9 6 (0.44%) MS Visio
10 3 (0.22%) Notion
10 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
11 2 (0.15%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.073%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.073%) CPLEX
12 1 (0.073%) Maya
12 1 (0.073%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.073%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 33 (2.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.82%) Shopify
3 14 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
4 11 (0.80%) Oracle Retail
5 9 (0.66%) SAP CRM
6 7 (0.51%) Magento
7 6 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.44%) SAP Retail
8 5 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
9 4 (0.29%) Finacle
9 4 (0.29%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.29%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.29%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.22%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 3 (0.22%) SAP CAR
10 3 (0.22%) SAP ERP
11 2 (0.15%) Cognos Controller
11 2 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
11 2 (0.15%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 166 (12.08%) Azure
2 136 (9.90%) AWS
3 80 (5.82%) GCP
4 66 (4.80%) Power Platform
5 51 (3.71%) Snowflake
6 28 (2.04%) GitHub
7 25 (1.82%) Dynamics 365
8 24 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
9 22 (1.60%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 21 (1.53%) Entra ID
11 20 (1.46%) Figma
12 19 (1.38%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (1.31%) SaaS
14 14 (1.02%) dbt
15 13 (0.95%) Azure Data Factory
16 12 (0.87%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 11 (0.80%) Google Workspace
17 11 (0.80%) Microsoft 365
17 11 (0.80%) Salesforce Service Cloud
18 10 (0.73%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.02%) WAN
2 13 (0.95%) ATM
2 13 (0.95%) Firewall
2 13 (0.95%) Wireless
3 12 (0.87%) Network Security
4 11 (0.80%) VPN
5 9 (0.66%) RFID
6 8 (0.58%) LAN
6 8 (0.58%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.44%) Cisco Firepower
7 6 (0.44%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.36%) BGP
8 5 (0.36%) Cisco ASA
8 5 (0.36%) Cisco Nexus
8 5 (0.36%) IPsec
8 5 (0.36%) OSPF
8 5 (0.36%) VSAN
9 4 (0.29%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 4 (0.29%) Internet
9 4 (0.29%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (4.66%) Power BI
2 30 (2.18%) BigQuery
2 30 (2.18%) Data Warehouse
3 21 (1.53%) Tableau
4 20 (1.46%) Metadata
4 20 (1.46%) MySQL
5 18 (1.31%) Data Lake
6 16 (1.16%) NoSQL
7 15 (1.09%) SQL Server
8 12 (0.87%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (0.58%) MongoDB
9 8 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 7 (0.51%) Power Query
10 7 (0.51%) SAP HANA
11 6 (0.44%) Data Vault
11 6 (0.44%) Looker
11 6 (0.44%) Semantic Layer
12 5 (0.36%) Couchbase
Development Applications
1 72 (5.24%) JIRA
2 28 (2.04%) Git
3 19 (1.38%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.51%) Subversion
5 5 (0.36%) GitLab
6 4 (0.29%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.29%) Maven
7 3 (0.22%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.22%) ERwin
7 3 (0.22%) Hudson
7 3 (0.22%) JMeter
7 3 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
7 3 (0.22%) Selenium
8 2 (0.15%) git-flow
8 2 (0.15%) MLflow
8 2 (0.15%) Postman
8 2 (0.15%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.15%) WebDriver
8 2 (0.15%) webpack
9 1 (0.073%) REST Assured
General
1 392 (28.53%) Social Skills
2 318 (23.14%) Finance
3 126 (9.17%) Analytical Skills
4 120 (8.73%) Banking
5 86 (6.26%) Marketing
6 81 (5.90%) Manufacturing
7 61 (4.44%) Retail Banking
8 59 (4.29%) Organisational Skills
9 47 (3.42%) Investment Banking
10 45 (3.28%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (1.97%) Public Sector
11 27 (1.97%) Telecoms
12 24 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
12 24 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
13 23 (1.67%) French Language
14 22 (1.60%) Legal
15 21 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (1.31%) Advertising
16 18 (1.31%) Spanish Language
17 14 (1.02%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 231 (16.81%) Architect
2 198 (14.41%) Analyst
3 164 (11.94%) Senior
4 123 (8.95%) Project Manager
5 118 (8.59%) Solutions Architect
6 116 (8.44%) Business Analyst
7 101 (7.35%) Lead
8 63 (4.59%) Developer
9 61 (4.44%) Senior Manager
10 47 (3.42%) Designer
11 40 (2.91%) Consultant
11 40 (2.91%) Product Manager
12 39 (2.84%) Enterprise Architect
12 39 (2.84%) Technical Manager
13 36 (2.62%) Senior Project Manager
14 33 (2.40%) Data Architect
15 31 (2.26%) Data Analyst
16 30 (2.18%) Data Engineer
16 30 (2.18%) Programme Manager
17 29 (2.11%) Supply Chain Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (4.44%) REST
2 37 (2.69%) Middleware
3 31 (2.26%) React
4 27 (1.97%) Spring
5 26 (1.89%) Kafka
6 23 (1.67%) VML
7 20 (1.46%) Node.js
8 19 (1.38%) Spring Boot
9 18 (1.31%) RESTful
10 17 (1.24%) HTML
11 16 (1.16%) CSS
11 16 (1.16%) SOAP
12 15 (1.09%) MACH
13 14 (1.02%) Django
13 14 (1.02%) OAuth
14 13 (0.95%) J2EE
15 11 (0.80%) .NET
15 11 (0.80%) JSON
16 9 (0.66%) OAuth2
16 9 (0.66%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 86 (6.26%) Product Ownership
2 53 (3.86%) FMCG
3 48 (3.49%) EPoS
4 44 (3.20%) Onboarding
5 40 (2.91%) Driving Licence
6 39 (2.84%) Cloud Native
7 27 (1.97%) Legacy Systems
8 26 (1.89%) Data Centre
9 24 (1.75%) Data Structures
9 24 (1.75%) Mobile App
10 22 (1.60%) Marketing Technology
11 20 (1.46%) Greenfield Project
12 19 (1.38%) Mainframe
12 19 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
13 15 (1.09%) AI Agents
13 15 (1.09%) Management Information System
14 13 (0.95%) Operational Technology
15 11 (0.80%) Smartphone
15 11 (0.80%) Taxonomies
15 11 (0.80%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 53 (3.86%) Windows
2 26 (1.89%) Linux
3 12 (0.87%) Unix
4 11 (0.80%) Android
5 7 (0.51%) Mac OS
5 7 (0.51%) zOS
6 6 (0.44%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.44%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.36%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.36%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.15%) Debian
9 1 (0.073%) SUSE
9 1 (0.073%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.073%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 332 (24.16%) Agile
2 328 (23.87%) Stakeholder Management
3 216 (15.72%) E-Commerce
4 193 (14.05%) Problem-Solving
5 182 (13.25%) Migration
6 169 (12.30%) Roadmaps
7 149 (10.84%) Analytics
8 131 (9.53%) Customer Experience
9 129 (9.39%) AI
10 123 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 115 (8.37%) Project Management
12 103 (7.50%) Decision-Making
13 102 (7.42%) CI/CD
14 100 (7.28%) ERP
14 100 (7.28%) Logistics
15 98 (7.13%) CRM
16 97 (7.06%) Project Delivery
17 96 (6.99%) Continuous Improvement
18 93 (6.77%) User Acceptance Testing
19 92 (6.70%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 123 (8.95%) SQL
2 89 (6.48%) Python
3 56 (4.08%) Java
4 28 (2.04%) JavaScript
5 22 (1.60%) TypeScript
6 11 (0.80%) C#
7 10 (0.73%) PowerShell
8 8 (0.58%) Shell Script
9 7 (0.51%) ABAP
9 7 (0.51%) Apex Code
9 7 (0.51%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 7 (0.51%) PL/SQL
9 7 (0.51%) SOQL
10 6 (0.44%) Bash
10 6 (0.44%) Bicep
10 6 (0.44%) Kotlin
10 6 (0.44%) Scala
11 5 (0.36%) Groovy
11 5 (0.36%) R
11 5 (0.36%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 61 (4.44%) Degree
2 39 (2.84%) Security Cleared
3 24 (1.75%) SC Cleared
4 17 (1.24%) PMP
5 10 (0.73%) DBS Check
6 9 (0.66%) CISSP
6 9 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (0.58%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.58%) PMI Certification
8 6 (0.44%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.44%) CISM
8 6 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.36%) CCNP
9 5 (0.36%) CCSE
9 5 (0.36%) CCSM
9 5 (0.36%) CSPO
10 4 (0.29%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.29%) City & Guilds
11 3 (0.22%) APMG
11 3 (0.22%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (4.95%) Data Quality
2 65 (4.73%) QA
3 43 (3.13%) GDPR
4 29 (2.11%) PMO
5 21 (1.53%) Accessibility
6 17 (1.24%) PCI DSS
7 14 (1.02%) SLA
8 9 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.51%) NIST
10 4 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.22%) GAAP
11 3 (0.22%) IFRS
11 3 (0.22%) PSD2
12 2 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.15%) GRC
12 2 (0.15%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.15%) WCAG
13 1 (0.073%) Basel III
13 1 (0.073%) NCSC
System Software
1 26 (1.89%) Active Directory
1 26 (1.89%) Docker
2 7 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.22%) Firmware
6 2 (0.15%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (2.47%) Terraform
2 26 (1.89%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.02%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 9 (0.66%) Ansible
5 6 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.44%) SCCM
5 6 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.36%) Grafana
7 4 (0.29%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.15%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.15%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.15%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.15%) MOM
8 2 (0.15%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.073%) Argo
9 1 (0.073%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.073%) Istio
9 1 (0.073%) Nagios
9 1 (0.073%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 111 (8.08%) Microsoft
2 95 (6.91%) SAP
3 77 (5.60%) Oracle
4 66 (4.80%) Salesforce
5 55 (4.00%) Databricks
6 54 (3.93%) Google
7 37 (2.69%) Adobe
8 22 (1.60%) ServiceNow
9 19 (1.38%) MuleSoft
10 15 (1.09%) Cisco
10 15 (1.09%) IBM
11 14 (1.02%) IFS
11 14 (1.02%) Splunk
12 13 (0.95%) Zscaler
13 12 (0.87%) VMware
14 11 (0.80%) Fortinet
14 11 (0.80%) Palo Alto
14 11 (0.80%) Workday
15 10 (0.73%) Sitecore
16 9 (0.66%) Apple