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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 119 80
Rank change year-on-year +36 -39 +12
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,568 750 1,015
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.94% 2.28% 2.60%
As % of the General category 5.35% 3.60% 4.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 935 392 559
10th Percentile £307 £300 £300
25th Percentile £438 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £507 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.59% +1.30% -6.98%
75th Percentile £656 £631 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +4.00% - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 43 68
10th Percentile £12.98 £14.65 £12.15
25th Percentile £13.81 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £18.75 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +15.03% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £53.25 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £15.24 £15.96 £16.00
% change year-on-year -4.51% -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 29,316 20,829 22,431
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.00% 63.29% 57.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,434 13,018 14,116
10th Percentile £313 £278 £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 £627 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,170 1,117 1,403
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.64 £16.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% -34.02% +27.07%
75th Percentile £60.00 £50.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.06 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +46.79% -41.92% +46.62%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 +35 1,432 £550 +7.32% 1,926
London +48 822 £550 - 833
UK excluding London +19 631 £520 +4.00% 1,260
Work from Home -1 341 £525 +5.00% 678
North of England -14 186 £550 +10.00% 343
South East +19 179 £525 -7.49% 361
Midlands +11 127 £513 +19.05% 244
North West -1 118 £550 +10.00% 189
East Midlands +21 70 £500 +21.21% 108
East of England +16 65 £544 +3.57% 103
West Midlands -17 57 £600 +33.33% 136
Yorkshire -40 56 £500 -4.76% 118
South West -41 38 £325 -8.59% 132
Scotland +11 27 £447 -12.78% 73
North East -34 12 £155 -64.89% 39
Wales -7 5 £190 - 23
Northern Ireland +7 4 £196 -64.32% 14

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 52 (3.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (1.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.02%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (0.83%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 12 (0.77%) Chatbot
7 9 (0.57%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.51%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.38%) InDesign
9 6 (0.38%) MS Visio
10 5 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
11 4 (0.26%) Notion
12 3 (0.19%) CPLEX
13 1 (0.064%) PlantUML
13 1 (0.064%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 42 (2.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.79%) Shopify
3 11 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
4 9 (0.57%) Oracle Retail
4 9 (0.57%) SAP CRM
4 9 (0.57%) SAP Retail
5 8 (0.51%) Magento
6 6 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
7 5 (0.32%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.26%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.26%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.19%) OpenText VIM for SAP
9 3 (0.19%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.19%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.19%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.19%) SAP IBP
10 2 (0.13%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 2 (0.13%) SAP CAR
Cloud Services
1 186 (11.86%) Azure
2 141 (8.99%) AWS
3 73 (4.66%) GCP
4 70 (4.46%) Power Platform
5 52 (3.32%) Snowflake
6 42 (2.68%) GitHub
7 32 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
8 30 (1.91%) Entra ID
9 26 (1.66%) GitHub Actions
10 24 (1.53%) Dynamics 365
11 22 (1.40%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
12 19 (1.21%) Figma
13 17 (1.08%) SaaS
14 16 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
15 15 (0.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 12 (0.77%) dbt
16 12 (0.77%) Microsoft 365
17 11 (0.70%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 11 (0.70%) Serverless
18 10 (0.64%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 19 (1.21%) WAN
2 17 (1.08%) Firewall
3 16 (1.02%) ATM
3 16 (1.02%) Wireless
4 14 (0.89%) VPN
5 13 (0.83%) LAN
5 13 (0.83%) Network Security
6 9 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.51%) BGP
7 8 (0.51%) IPsec
7 8 (0.51%) OSPF
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%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.38%) VSAN
10 5 (0.32%) Cisco ASA
10 5 (0.32%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (4.40%) Power BI
2 32 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
3 31 (1.98%) BigQuery
4 21 (1.34%) Data Lake
5 19 (1.21%) NoSQL
6 17 (1.08%) Metadata
6 17 (1.08%) MongoDB
6 17 (1.08%) Tableau
7 15 (0.96%) MySQL
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%) Looker
12 7 (0.45%) SAP HANA
13 6 (0.38%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 76 (4.85%) JIRA
2 30 (1.91%) 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%) webpack
9 1 (0.064%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.064%) Zephyr
General
1 434 (27.68%) Social Skills
2 370 (23.60%) Finance
3 159 (10.14%) Analytical Skills
4 127 (8.10%) Banking
5 102 (6.51%) Marketing
6 91 (5.80%) Manufacturing
7 65 (4.15%) Retail Banking
8 62 (3.95%) Organisational Skills
9 49 (3.13%) Investment Banking
10 45 (2.87%) Corporate Banking
11 31 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
12 30 (1.91%) Legal
13 28 (1.79%) Public Sector
13 28 (1.79%) Telecoms
14 27 (1.72%) Advertising
15 23 (1.47%) French Language
16 22 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
17 21 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
18 18 (1.15%) Spanish Language
19 14 (0.89%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 254 (16.20%) Architect
2 228 (14.54%) Analyst
3 184 (11.73%) Senior
4 139 (8.86%) Solutions Architect
5 132 (8.42%) Business Analyst
6 121 (7.72%) Project Manager
7 113 (7.21%) Lead
8 83 (5.29%) Developer
9 51 (3.25%) Senior Manager
10 49 (3.13%) Consultant
11 46 (2.93%) Designer
12 45 (2.87%) Product Manager
13 44 (2.81%) Data Analyst
14 40 (2.55%) Service Manager
15 36 (2.30%) Enterprise Architect
15 36 (2.30%) Senior Developer
15 36 (2.30%) Supply Chain Architect
16 35 (2.23%) Data Architect
17 34 (2.17%) Programme Manager
18 33 (2.10%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (4.53%) REST
2 41 (2.61%) React
3 33 (2.10%) Middleware
3 33 (2.10%) Spring
4 31 (1.98%) Kafka
5 28 (1.79%) Node.js
6 25 (1.59%) Spring Boot
7 21 (1.34%) VML
8 20 (1.28%) Django
8 20 (1.28%) RESTful
9 17 (1.08%) SOAP
10 16 (1.02%) HTML
10 16 (1.02%) MACH
11 15 (0.96%) CSS
12 14 (0.89%) Next.js
12 14 (0.89%) OAuth
13 13 (0.83%) Jakarta EE
14 11 (0.70%) .NET
15 9 (0.57%) OAuth2
16 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 45 (2.87%) Driving Licence
7 32 (2.04%) Legacy Systems
8 31 (1.98%) Mobile App
9 29 (1.85%) Data Centre
10 23 (1.47%) Marketing Technology
11 22 (1.40%) Greenfield Project
12 21 (1.34%) Data Structures
12 21 (1.34%) Mainframe
12 21 (1.34%) Operational Technology
13 20 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
14 19 (1.21%) Smartphone
15 17 (1.08%) AI Agents
16 16 (1.02%) IoT
17 14 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
17 14 (0.89%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 56 (3.57%) 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%) zOS
7 6 (0.38%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.32%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.32%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.32%) Windows Server
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
1 376 (23.98%) Stakeholder Management
2 364 (23.21%) Agile
3 236 (15.05%) E-Commerce
4 217 (13.84%) Problem-Solving
5 182 (11.61%) Migration
6 181 (11.54%) Roadmaps
7 168 (10.71%) Analytics
8 165 (10.52%) AI
9 150 (9.57%) Customer Experience
10 143 (9.12%) Logistics
11 134 (8.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 127 (8.10%) Continuous Improvement
13 126 (8.04%) Decision-Making
14 123 (7.84%) CI/CD
15 112 (7.14%) CRM
16 111 (7.08%) Project Management
17 109 (6.95%) ERP
18 107 (6.82%) Customer Service
19 105 (6.70%) DevOps
19 105 (6.70%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 137 (8.74%) SQL
2 106 (6.76%) Python
3 58 (3.70%) Java
4 32 (2.04%) TypeScript
5 30 (1.91%) JavaScript
6 12 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 11 (0.70%) C#
8 8 (0.51%) ABAP
8 8 (0.51%) Apex Code
8 8 (0.51%) PowerShell
8 8 (0.51%) R
8 8 (0.51%) SOQL
9 6 (0.38%) Bash
9 6 (0.38%) Bicep
9 6 (0.38%) Kotlin
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
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
10 3 (0.19%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (4.91%) QA
2 70 (4.46%) Data Quality
3 41 (2.61%) GDPR
4 28 (1.79%) PMO
5 24 (1.53%) 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 37 (2.36%) 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 49 (3.13%) Terraform
2 38 (2.42%) Kubernetes
3 12 (0.77%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 11 (0.70%) Ansible
5 7 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (0.38%) FortiGate
6 6 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (0.32%) Grafana
8 4 (0.26%) SCCM
9 3 (0.19%) Bosun
10 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.13%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.13%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.13%) CloudHub
10 2 (0.13%) MOM
10 2 (0.13%) PingFederate
10 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.064%) Kubeflow
11 1 (0.064%) Nagios
11 1 (0.064%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 128 (8.16%) Microsoft
2 112 (7.14%) SAP
3 73 (4.66%) Oracle
4 71 (4.53%) Databricks
5 69 (4.40%) Salesforce
6 53 (3.38%) 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%) IBM
12 14 (0.89%) IFS
12 14 (0.89%) Splunk
13 13 (0.83%) Fortinet
13 13 (0.83%) Palo Alto
13 13 (0.83%) VMware
14 11 (0.70%) Braze
14 11 (0.70%) Informatica