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 10 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 118 81
Rank change year-on-year +30 -37 +12
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,568 755 992
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.94% 2.28% 2.56%
As % of the General category 5.34% 3.60% 4.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 922 397 547
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £450 £413 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% +2.50% -7.41%
75th Percentile £667 £630 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -3.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 44 62
10th Percentile £12.85 £14.50 £12.15
25th Percentile £13.66 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £17.50 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +7.36% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £47.28 £23.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.22 £15.96 £16.00
% change year-on-year -4.64% -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 29,369 21,001 22,288
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.06% 63.35% 57.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,411 13,107 14,053
10th Percentile £313 £279 £290
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.99% -1.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,226 1,130 1,377
10th Percentile £13.97 £13.25 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.30 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.00 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +27.24% -34.02% +27.07%
75th Percentile £57.99 £50.38 £58.49
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +46.79% -41.92% +46.90%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 +34 1,435 £550 +4.76% 1,947
London +43 828 £555 +0.91% 855
UK excluding London +18 626 £525 +5.00% 1,239
Work from Home +10 339 £525 +5.00% 685
North of England -18 183 £550 +10.00% 345
South East +4 179 £525 -5.41% 333
Midlands +19 130 £538 +24.85% 257
North West +1 116 £550 +10.00% 190
East Midlands +21 71 £500 +21.21% 114
East of England +20 65 £550 +4.76% 108
West Midlands -10 59 £606 +34.72% 143
Yorkshire -34 55 £500 -4.76% 124
South West -39 37 £350 -1.48% 134
Scotland +3 25 £447 -14.86% 53
North East -36 12 £155 -64.89% 34
Wales -14 4 - - 31
Northern Ireland +7 3 £203 -63.18% 12

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 44 (2.81%) Confluence
2 18 (1.15%) CMS
3 13 (0.83%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 12 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.57%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.32%) SAS
7 4 (0.26%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.13%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.13%) CICS
9 2 (0.13%) Mule
10 1 (0.064%) Apache
10 1 (0.064%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 55 (3.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 36 (2.30%) Microsoft Office
3 24 (1.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.02%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (0.83%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 11 (0.70%) Chatbot
7 9 (0.57%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.51%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.38%) InDesign
9 6 (0.38%) MS Visio
9 6 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
10 4 (0.26%) Notion
11 3 (0.19%) CPLEX
12 1 (0.064%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.064%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 43 (2.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.79%) Shopify
3 11 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.64%) SAP Retail
5 9 (0.57%) Oracle Retail
5 9 (0.57%) SAP CRM
6 8 (0.51%) Magento
7 6 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.32%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.32%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.26%) 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
11 2 (0.13%) Finacle
11 2 (0.13%) SAP CAR
Cloud Services
1 186 (11.86%) Azure
2 142 (9.06%) AWS
3 71 (4.53%) Power Platform
4 68 (4.34%) GCP
5 52 (3.32%) Snowflake
6 42 (2.68%) GitHub
7 33 (2.10%) Azure DevOps
8 32 (2.04%) Entra ID
9 26 (1.66%) GitHub Actions
10 25 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
11 22 (1.40%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
12 18 (1.15%) SaaS
13 17 (1.08%) Figma
14 16 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
15 15 (0.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 14 (0.89%) Microsoft 365
17 12 (0.77%) dbt
18 11 (0.70%) Salesforce Service Cloud
18 11 (0.70%) Serverless
19 10 (0.64%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.34%) WAN
2 19 (1.21%) Firewall
3 16 (1.02%) ATM
3 16 (1.02%) VPN
3 16 (1.02%) Wireless
4 14 (0.89%) Network Security
5 13 (0.83%) LAN
6 11 (0.70%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.51%) BGP
7 8 (0.51%) IPsec
7 8 (0.51%) OSPF
7 8 (0.51%) SD-WAN
8 7 (0.45%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 7 (0.45%) RFID
8 7 (0.45%) Structured Cabling
8 7 (0.45%) VLAN
9 6 (0.38%) Cisco Firepower
9 6 (0.38%) VSAN
10 5 (0.32%) Cisco Nexus
10 5 (0.32%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (4.46%) Power BI
2 34 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
3 30 (1.91%) BigQuery
4 23 (1.47%) Data Lake
5 19 (1.21%) NoSQL
6 17 (1.08%) Metadata
6 17 (1.08%) MongoDB
7 15 (0.96%) MySQL
7 15 (0.96%) Tableau
8 14 (0.89%) SQL Server
9 12 (0.77%) Power Query
9 12 (0.77%) Relational Database
10 10 (0.64%) Amazon Redshift
10 10 (0.64%) PostgreSQL
10 10 (0.64%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 8 (0.51%) Redis
12 7 (0.45%) Couchbase
12 7 (0.45%) SAP HANA
13 6 (0.38%) Semantic Layer
13 6 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 75 (4.78%) JIRA
2 28 (1.79%) Git
3 19 (1.21%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.51%) Subversion
5 7 (0.45%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.32%) JMeter
7 4 (0.26%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.26%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.26%) GitLab
7 4 (0.26%) Hudson
7 4 (0.26%) Maven
8 2 (0.13%) git-flow
8 2 (0.13%) MLflow
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.13%) Postman
8 2 (0.13%) Selenium
8 2 (0.13%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.13%) webpack
9 1 (0.064%) REST Assured
General
1 436 (27.81%) Social Skills
2 376 (23.98%) Finance
3 162 (10.33%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (8.16%) Banking
5 104 (6.63%) Marketing
6 92 (5.87%) Manufacturing
7 65 (4.15%) Retail Banking
8 64 (4.08%) Organisational Skills
9 49 (3.13%) Investment Banking
10 45 (2.87%) Corporate Banking
11 32 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
12 29 (1.85%) Legal
12 29 (1.85%) Public Sector
13 28 (1.79%) Advertising
13 28 (1.79%) Telecoms
14 23 (1.47%) French Language
15 22 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
16 21 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
17 18 (1.15%) Spanish Language
18 14 (0.89%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 259 (16.52%) Architect
2 230 (14.67%) Analyst
3 183 (11.67%) Senior
4 142 (9.06%) Solutions Architect
5 132 (8.42%) Business Analyst
6 125 (7.97%) Project Manager
7 113 (7.21%) Lead
8 83 (5.29%) Developer
9 51 (3.25%) Consultant
9 51 (3.25%) Senior Manager
10 45 (2.87%) Data Analyst
10 45 (2.87%) Product Manager
11 44 (2.81%) Designer
12 41 (2.61%) Service Manager
13 38 (2.42%) Enterprise Architect
14 36 (2.30%) Senior Developer
14 36 (2.30%) Supply Chain Architect
15 35 (2.23%) Data Architect
15 35 (2.23%) Programme Manager
16 34 (2.17%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (4.34%) REST
2 40 (2.55%) React
3 32 (2.04%) Kafka
3 32 (2.04%) Middleware
4 29 (1.85%) Spring
5 28 (1.79%) Node.js
6 21 (1.34%) Spring Boot
6 21 (1.34%) VML
7 20 (1.28%) Django
7 20 (1.28%) RESTful
8 17 (1.08%) SOAP
9 16 (1.02%) MACH
10 15 (0.96%) HTML
11 14 (0.89%) CSS
11 14 (0.89%) Next.js
11 14 (0.89%) OAuth
12 13 (0.83%) Jakarta EE
13 10 (0.64%) .NET
14 9 (0.57%) OAuth2
15 8 (0.51%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 86 (5.48%) Product Ownership
2 65 (4.15%) FMCG
3 58 (3.70%) EPoS
4 57 (3.64%) Onboarding
5 46 (2.93%) Cloud Native
6 32 (2.04%) Legacy Systems
7 31 (1.98%) Driving Licence
8 29 (1.85%) Data Centre
9 27 (1.72%) Mobile App
10 23 (1.47%) Greenfield Project
10 23 (1.47%) Marketing Technology
11 22 (1.40%) Data Structures
12 21 (1.34%) Operational Technology
12 21 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (1.21%) Mainframe
13 19 (1.21%) Management Information System
13 19 (1.21%) Smartphone
14 17 (1.08%) AI Agents
15 16 (1.02%) IoT
16 14 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 58 (3.70%) Windows
2 23 (1.47%) Linux
3 12 (0.77%) Unix
4 11 (0.70%) Android
5 8 (0.51%) Apple iOS
6 7 (0.45%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.38%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.32%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.32%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.32%) zOS
9 2 (0.13%) Debian
10 1 (0.064%) SUSE
10 1 (0.064%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.064%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 381 (24.30%) Stakeholder Management
2 366 (23.34%) Agile
3 236 (15.05%) E-Commerce
4 205 (13.07%) Problem-Solving
5 184 (11.73%) Migration
6 180 (11.48%) Roadmaps
7 167 (10.65%) Analytics
8 166 (10.59%) AI
9 151 (9.63%) Logistics
10 138 (8.80%) Customer Experience
11 136 (8.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 128 (8.16%) Continuous Improvement
12 128 (8.16%) Decision-Making
13 120 (7.65%) CI/CD
14 114 (7.27%) Project Management
15 113 (7.21%) CRM
16 110 (7.02%) ERP
17 105 (6.70%) User Acceptance Testing
18 103 (6.57%) Project Delivery
19 102 (6.51%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 138 (8.80%) SQL
2 107 (6.82%) Python
3 54 (3.44%) Java
4 32 (2.04%) TypeScript
5 30 (1.91%) JavaScript
6 12 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.64%) C#
7 10 (0.64%) PowerShell
8 8 (0.51%) ABAP
8 8 (0.51%) Apex Code
8 8 (0.51%) Bash
8 8 (0.51%) R
8 8 (0.51%) SOQL
9 6 (0.38%) Bicep
9 6 (0.38%) PL/SQL
9 6 (0.38%) Scala
9 6 (0.38%) SOSL
10 5 (0.32%) Groovy
11 4 (0.26%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 64 (4.08%) Degree
2 41 (2.61%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.40%) PMP
3 22 (1.40%) SC Cleared
4 13 (0.83%) DBS Check
5 12 (0.77%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (0.57%) CISSP
7 6 (0.38%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (0.38%) CISM
7 6 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (0.32%) CCNP
8 5 (0.32%) CCSE
8 5 (0.32%) CCSM
8 5 (0.32%) CSPO
9 4 (0.26%) Azure Certification
9 4 (0.26%) City & Guilds
9 4 (0.26%) PhD
9 4 (0.26%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (4.85%) QA
2 71 (4.53%) Data Quality
3 42 (2.68%) GDPR
4 28 (1.79%) PMO
5 22 (1.40%) Accessibility
6 16 (1.02%) PCI DSS
6 16 (1.02%) SLA
7 8 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (0.45%) NIST
9 4 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 4 (0.26%) GRC
9 4 (0.26%) WCAG
10 3 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.19%) GAAP
10 3 (0.19%) IFRS
10 3 (0.19%) PSD2
11 2 (0.13%) ISO 8583
11 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.064%) COBIT
12 1 (0.064%) GxP
System Software
1 36 (2.30%) Docker
2 34 (2.17%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.83%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.32%) Firmware
6 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.19%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.064%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 50 (3.19%) Terraform
2 38 (2.42%) Kubernetes
3 11 (0.70%) Ansible
3 11 (0.70%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 9 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (0.38%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.26%) 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 (0.064%) Nagios
10 1 (0.064%) vMotion
Vendors
1 134 (8.55%) Microsoft
2 115 (7.33%) SAP
3 74 (4.72%) Oracle
4 72 (4.59%) Databricks
5 71 (4.53%) Salesforce
6 49 (3.13%) Google
7 35 (2.23%) Adobe
8 24 (1.53%) Zscaler
9 19 (1.21%) MuleSoft
10 17 (1.08%) ServiceNow
10 17 (1.08%) Workday
11 15 (0.96%) Cisco
12 14 (0.89%) IFS
13 13 (0.83%) Fortinet
13 13 (0.83%) Palo Alto
13 13 (0.83%) VMware
14 12 (0.77%) IBM
15 11 (0.70%) Braze
15 11 (0.70%) Informatica
16 10 (0.64%) Apple