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 26 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 115 84
Rank change year-on-year +17 -31 +9
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,297 734 1,078
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.55% 2.43% 2.48%
As % of the General category 4.68% 3.82% 4.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 774 379 597
10th Percentile £263 £308 £297
25th Percentile £413 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% - -3.30%
75th Percentile £642 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 33 85
10th Percentile £12.98 £14.17 £11.85
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 £51.25 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £85.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.71 £15.50 £15.95
% change year-on-year +7.81% -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 27,713 19,217 24,814
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.46% 63.53% 57.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,696 12,097 15,544
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £490
% change year-on-year +6.61% -4.29% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,891 928 1,984
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.43 £12.79
25th Percentile £18.00 £16.35 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.00 £27.45 £31.89
Median % change year-on-year +16.58% -13.91% +6.28%
75th Percentile £61.18 £53.75 £53.75
90th Percentile £80.06 £72.50 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.50 £23.00 £31.25
% change year-on-year +36.96% -26.40% +22.07%

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 26 June 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 26 June 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 26 June 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 +17 1,191 £533 +1.56% 1,070
London +21 690 £550 - 373
UK excluding London +7 514 £500 - 830
Work from Home -29 278 £500 - 353
South East +15 158 £525 -2.33% 266
North of England -31 138 £550 +10.00% 187
Midlands -18 98 £500 +8.11% 181
North West -3 91 £575 +15.00% 106
East of England +11 58 £550 -4.35% 106
East Midlands +9 55 £495 +7.03% 105
Yorkshire -49 44 £500 -4.76% 68
West Midlands -32 43 £514 +8.30% 76
South West -25 35 £325 -27.89% 72
Scotland -4 21 £496 -6.85% 32
Northern Ireland +5 3 £196 -64.32% 12
Wales -15 3 £190 +29.52% 9
North East -31 3 £173 -76.98% 19

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 39 (3.01%) Confluence
2 18 (1.39%) CMS
3 15 (1.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 13 (1.00%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.54%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.39%) SAS
7 3 (0.23%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.15%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.15%) CICS
9 1 (0.077%) Apache
9 1 (0.077%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 33 (2.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.46%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (1.00%) Chatbot
6 10 (0.77%) Photoshop
7 9 (0.69%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.69%) Adobe Illustrator
7 9 (0.69%) MS Visio
8 6 (0.46%) InDesign
9 3 (0.23%) Notion
9 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.15%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.077%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.077%) CPLEX
11 1 (0.077%) Maya
11 1 (0.077%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.077%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 29 (2.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.77%) Shopify
3 13 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.77%) Oracle Retail
5 9 (0.69%) SAP Retail
6 7 (0.54%) SAP CRM
7 6 (0.46%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 5 (0.39%) Finacle
8 5 (0.39%) Magento
8 5 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.39%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.31%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
10 3 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
10 3 (0.23%) SAP CAR
10 3 (0.23%) SAP SD
11 2 (0.15%) Cognos Controller
11 2 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
11 2 (0.15%) SAP ERP
11 2 (0.15%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 154 (11.87%) Azure
2 127 (9.79%) AWS
3 76 (5.86%) GCP
4 67 (5.17%) Power Platform
5 49 (3.78%) Snowflake
6 26 (2.00%) GitHub
7 23 (1.77%) Dynamics 365
8 21 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (1.54%) Entra ID
10 18 (1.39%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 17 (1.31%) Figma
11 17 (1.31%) GitHub Actions
12 15 (1.16%) SaaS
13 14 (1.08%) dbt
14 12 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
15 11 (0.85%) Google Workspace
15 11 (0.85%) Microsoft 365
16 10 (0.77%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 10 (0.77%) BigCommerce
16 10 (0.77%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.00%) ATM
1 13 (1.00%) Firewall
1 13 (1.00%) WAN
2 12 (0.93%) Network Security
3 11 (0.85%) VPN
3 11 (0.85%) Wireless
4 9 (0.69%) RFID
5 7 (0.54%) LAN
5 7 (0.54%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (0.46%) Cisco Firepower
6 6 (0.46%) SD-WAN
7 5 (0.39%) BGP
7 5 (0.39%) Cisco ASA
7 5 (0.39%) Cisco Nexus
7 5 (0.39%) IPsec
7 5 (0.39%) OSPF
7 5 (0.39%) VSAN
8 4 (0.31%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 4 (0.31%) Internet
8 4 (0.31%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (5.01%) Power BI
2 28 (2.16%) Data Warehouse
3 27 (2.08%) BigQuery
4 21 (1.62%) MySQL
4 21 (1.62%) Tableau
5 17 (1.31%) Data Lake
5 17 (1.31%) Metadata
6 15 (1.16%) SQL Server
7 14 (1.08%) NoSQL
8 11 (0.85%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.62%) PostgreSQL
10 7 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
10 7 (0.54%) Data Vault
10 7 (0.54%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.54%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 6 (0.46%) Looker
11 6 (0.46%) Semantic Layer
11 6 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
12 5 (0.39%) Couchbase
12 5 (0.39%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 81 (6.25%) JIRA
2 24 (1.85%) Git
3 13 (1.00%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.39%) GitLab
4 5 (0.39%) Subversion
5 4 (0.31%) Maven
6 3 (0.23%) Cypress.io
6 3 (0.23%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.23%) ERwin
6 3 (0.23%) Hudson
6 3 (0.23%) JMeter
6 3 (0.23%) Oracle Forms
6 3 (0.23%) Selenium
6 3 (0.23%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.15%) git-flow
7 2 (0.15%) MLflow
7 2 (0.15%) Postman
7 2 (0.15%) WebDriver
7 2 (0.15%) webpack
8 1 (0.077%) Gatling
General
1 375 (28.91%) Social Skills
2 303 (23.36%) Finance
3 121 (9.33%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (9.10%) Banking
5 75 (5.78%) Marketing
6 73 (5.63%) Manufacturing
7 61 (4.70%) Organisational Skills
8 60 (4.63%) Retail Banking
9 47 (3.62%) Investment Banking
10 44 (3.39%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (2.08%) Public Sector
11 27 (2.08%) Telecoms
12 26 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
13 23 (1.77%) French Language
14 22 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
14 22 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
15 21 (1.62%) Legal
16 18 (1.39%) Spanish Language
17 17 (1.31%) Advertising
18 14 (1.08%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 209 (16.11%) Architect
2 189 (14.57%) Analyst
3 162 (12.49%) Senior
4 119 (9.18%) Project Manager
5 110 (8.48%) Business Analyst
6 100 (7.71%) Lead
6 100 (7.71%) Solutions Architect
7 63 (4.86%) Senior Manager
8 53 (4.09%) Developer
9 44 (3.39%) Designer
10 40 (3.08%) Technical Manager
11 39 (3.01%) Consultant
12 38 (2.93%) Enterprise Architect
13 37 (2.85%) Senior Project Manager
14 35 (2.70%) Product Manager
15 29 (2.24%) 2nd Line Support
15 29 (2.24%) Data Architect
15 29 (2.24%) Data Engineer
16 28 (2.16%) Data Analyst
17 27 (2.08%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (4.09%) REST
2 35 (2.70%) Middleware
3 29 (2.24%) React
4 25 (1.93%) Spring
4 25 (1.93%) VML
5 23 (1.77%) Kafka
6 18 (1.39%) Spring Boot
7 16 (1.23%) CSS
7 16 (1.23%) HTML
7 16 (1.23%) Node.js
8 15 (1.16%) RESTful
9 13 (1.00%) MACH
9 13 (1.00%) OAuth
10 12 (0.93%) Django
11 11 (0.85%) .NET
11 11 (0.85%) J2EE
11 11 (0.85%) SOAP
12 9 (0.69%) AngularJS
13 8 (0.62%) OAuth2
13 8 (0.62%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 80 (6.17%) Product Ownership
2 49 (3.78%) FMCG
3 48 (3.70%) EPoS
4 41 (3.16%) Driving Licence
5 38 (2.93%) Cloud Native
5 38 (2.93%) Onboarding
6 25 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
7 22 (1.70%) Data Centre
8 21 (1.62%) Data Structures
8 21 (1.62%) Marketing Technology
8 21 (1.62%) Mobile App
9 18 (1.39%) Mainframe
9 18 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
10 17 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
11 16 (1.23%) Management Information System
12 15 (1.16%) AI Agents
13 13 (1.00%) Operational Technology
14 11 (0.85%) Smartphone
14 11 (0.85%) Taxonomies
14 11 (0.85%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 55 (4.24%) Windows
2 27 (2.08%) Linux
3 12 (0.93%) Android
4 10 (0.77%) Unix
5 7 (0.54%) Mac OS
5 7 (0.54%) zOS
6 6 (0.46%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.46%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.39%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.39%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.15%) Debian
9 1 (0.077%) SUSE
9 1 (0.077%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.077%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 312 (24.06%) Agile
2 302 (23.28%) Stakeholder Management
3 188 (14.49%) Problem-Solving
4 187 (14.42%) E-Commerce
5 164 (12.64%) Migration
6 155 (11.95%) Roadmaps
7 141 (10.87%) Analytics
8 124 (9.56%) Customer Experience
9 117 (9.02%) AI
10 115 (8.87%) Project Management
11 112 (8.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 95 (7.32%) Decision-Making
13 94 (7.25%) ERP
13 94 (7.25%) Project Delivery
14 93 (7.17%) Business Intelligence
15 92 (7.09%) CI/CD
16 91 (7.02%) Continuous Improvement
17 89 (6.86%) Logistics
18 88 (6.78%) User Acceptance Testing
19 87 (6.71%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 114 (8.79%) SQL
2 84 (6.48%) Python
3 53 (4.09%) Java
4 26 (2.00%) JavaScript
5 20 (1.54%) TypeScript
6 10 (0.77%) C#
6 10 (0.77%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.77%) Shell Script
7 7 (0.54%) PL/SQL
7 7 (0.54%) SOQL
8 6 (0.46%) Apex Code
8 6 (0.46%) Bash
8 6 (0.46%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (0.46%) Kotlin
9 5 (0.39%) ABAP
9 5 (0.39%) Bicep
9 5 (0.39%) Groovy
9 5 (0.39%) Scala
9 5 (0.39%) SOSL
10 4 (0.31%) R
Qualifications
1 56 (4.32%) Degree
2 39 (3.01%) Security Cleared
3 25 (1.93%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.39%) PMP
5 10 (0.77%) DBS Check
5 10 (0.77%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.69%) CISSP
6 9 (0.69%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (0.54%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (0.46%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.46%) CISM
9 5 (0.39%) APMP
9 5 (0.39%) CCNP
9 5 (0.39%) CCSE
9 5 (0.39%) CCSM
9 5 (0.39%) CSPO
9 5 (0.39%) Master's Degree
10 4 (0.31%) City & Guilds
10 4 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (0.23%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (4.78%) QA
2 60 (4.63%) Data Quality
3 40 (3.08%) GDPR
4 34 (2.62%) PMO
5 19 (1.46%) Accessibility
6 16 (1.23%) PCI DSS
7 12 (0.93%) SLA
8 9 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.54%) NIST
10 3 (0.23%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.23%) GAAP
10 3 (0.23%) IFRS
10 3 (0.23%) PSD2
11 2 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.15%) GRC
11 2 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.15%) WCAG
12 1 (0.077%) Basel III
12 1 (0.077%) COBIT
12 1 (0.077%) NCSC
System Software
1 24 (1.85%) Active Directory
1 24 (1.85%) Docker
2 7 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (0.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.23%) Firmware
6 2 (0.15%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (2.62%) Terraform
2 26 (2.00%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.08%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 9 (0.69%) Ansible
5 6 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.46%) SCCM
5 6 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.39%) Grafana
7 4 (0.31%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.15%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.15%) MOM
8 2 (0.15%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.077%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.077%) Argo
9 1 (0.077%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.077%) Istio
9 1 (0.077%) Nagios
9 1 (0.077%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.077%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 102 (7.86%) Microsoft
2 88 (6.78%) SAP
3 76 (5.86%) Oracle
4 59 (4.55%) Salesforce
5 53 (4.09%) Google
6 50 (3.86%) Databricks
7 35 (2.70%) Adobe
8 22 (1.70%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.23%) Cisco
10 14 (1.08%) IBM
10 14 (1.08%) IFS
11 13 (1.00%) Splunk
11 13 (1.00%) Zscaler
12 12 (0.93%) MuleSoft
12 12 (0.93%) Sitecore
13 11 (0.85%) Fortinet
13 11 (0.85%) Palo Alto
13 11 (0.85%) VMware
14 8 (0.62%) Braze
14 8 (0.62%) Dynatrace