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 16 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 126 96
Rank change year-on-year +32 -30 +6
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,645 746 912
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.97% 2.24% 2.42%
As % of the General category 5.23% 3.55% 4.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 969 420 470
10th Percentile £280 £295 £284
25th Percentile £438 £423 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -
75th Percentile £660 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 63 16
10th Percentile £12.76 £15.25 £14.63
25th Percentile £13.45 £15.37 £16.00
Median hourly rate £14.50 £16.34 £16.90
Median % change year-on-year -11.23% -3.34% -14.69%
75th Percentile £22.50 £19.50 £41.25
90th Percentile £41.75 £25.15 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.81 £16.34 £16.00
% change year-on-year -15.46% +2.09% -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 31,467 21,032 22,075
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.89% 63.22% 58.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,284 13,119 13,034
10th Percentile £313 £275 £281
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £647
90th Percentile £740 £738 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +5.26% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,870 1,259 912
10th Percentile £13.45 £13.57 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.28 £17.06
Median hourly rate £26.84 £25.00 £32.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.36% -21.88% +7.56%
75th Percentile £53.75 £44.42 £59.96
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.25 £71.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.50 £21.30 £30.00
% change year-on-year +24.41% -29.00% +11.11%

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 16 October 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 16 October 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 16 October 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 +38 1,503 £550 +4.76% 518
London +46 832 £575 +5.50% 152
UK excluding London +14 691 £525 +5.00% 449
Work from Home +10 356 £550 +0.92% 216
North of England -12 185 £525 +5.00% 88
Midlands +34 169 £500 +17.65% 119
South East -5 166 £575 +6.98% 132
North West +8 115 £550 +10.00% 44
East Midlands +18 88 £488 +14.71% 62
East of England +14 83 £544 -1.14% 46
West Midlands +17 80 £550 +20.55% 57
South West -17 52 £475 +163.89% 50
Yorkshire -33 52 £475 -20.83% 40
Scotland -19 26 £168 -66.47% 14
North East -23 18 £525 +288.89% 5
Wales -9 7 £180 -71.20% 12
Northern Ireland +7 4 £191 - 5

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 52 (3.16%) Confluence
2 27 (1.64%) CMS
3 20 (1.22%) Apache Airflow
3 20 (1.22%) SharePoint
4 7 (0.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 5 (0.30%) Apache
6 4 (0.24%) SAS
6 4 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
6 4 (0.24%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.18%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.12%) Mule
8 2 (0.12%) WordPress
9 1 (0.061%) CICS
9 1 (0.061%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.061%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.061%) Mendix
9 1 (0.061%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.061%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 78 (4.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (3.59%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (0.85%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 13 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
6 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
7 10 (0.61%) MS Visio
8 8 (0.49%) Photoshop
9 6 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.36%) CPLEX
10 5 (0.30%) InDesign
11 4 (0.24%) Notion
12 1 (0.061%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.061%) AutoCAD
12 1 (0.061%) Chatbot
12 1 (0.061%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.061%) Revit
12 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
12 1 (0.061%) SOLIDWORKS
12 1 (0.061%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 62 (3.77%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.64%) Shopify
3 15 (0.91%) SAP Retail
4 11 (0.67%) Dynamics CRM
4 11 (0.67%) SAP CRM
5 9 (0.55%) Magento
5 9 (0.55%) Oracle Retail
6 6 (0.36%) NetSuite
6 6 (0.36%) SAP MM
7 5 (0.30%) Payment Gateway
7 5 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.30%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.30%) Workday HCM
8 4 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
8 4 (0.24%) SAP CAR
8 4 (0.24%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
9 3 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.18%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.18%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 221 (13.43%) Azure
2 151 (9.18%) AWS
3 78 (4.74%) Power Platform
4 74 (4.50%) GCP
5 53 (3.22%) GitHub
6 52 (3.16%) Snowflake
7 40 (2.43%) Azure DevOps
8 34 (2.07%) Entra ID
9 30 (1.82%) GitHub Actions
10 28 (1.70%) SaaS
11 26 (1.58%) dbt
12 24 (1.46%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 23 (1.40%) Azure Data Factory
14 22 (1.34%) Dynamics 365
15 20 (1.22%) Figma
16 17 (1.03%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 17 (1.03%) Microsoft 365
17 15 (0.91%) OCI
18 12 (0.73%) Salesforce Service Cloud
18 12 (0.73%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.22%) WAN
2 18 (1.09%) Firewall
3 16 (0.97%) ATM
4 14 (0.85%) VPN
5 13 (0.79%) Network Security
5 13 (0.79%) Wireless
6 12 (0.73%) LAN
6 12 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (0.55%) Structured Cabling
8 7 (0.43%) BGP
8 7 (0.43%) Internet
8 7 (0.43%) IPsec
8 7 (0.43%) OSPF
9 6 (0.36%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 6 (0.36%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.36%) VLAN
10 5 (0.30%) DNS
10 5 (0.30%) SMS
11 4 (0.24%) Broadband
11 4 (0.24%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (4.56%) Power BI
2 56 (3.40%) Data Warehouse
3 34 (2.07%) Data Lake
4 27 (1.64%) BigQuery
5 23 (1.40%) SQL Server
6 22 (1.34%) Metadata
7 21 (1.28%) Tableau
8 19 (1.16%) MongoDB
9 18 (1.09%) NoSQL
10 17 (1.03%) PostgreSQL
11 15 (0.91%) Relational Database
11 15 (0.91%) SAP BW
12 14 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
12 14 (0.85%) MySQL
12 14 (0.85%) SAP HANA
13 12 (0.73%) Power Query
14 11 (0.67%) Redis
14 11 (0.67%) Star Schema
15 10 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 9 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 76 (4.62%) JIRA
2 25 (1.52%) Git
3 23 (1.40%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.49%) Subversion
5 7 (0.43%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.30%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.30%) JMeter
7 4 (0.24%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.24%) GitLab
8 3 (0.18%) Hudson
8 3 (0.18%) Postman
9 2 (0.12%) git-flow
9 2 (0.12%) LSMW
9 2 (0.12%) MLflow
9 2 (0.12%) Pylint
9 2 (0.12%) Selenium
9 2 (0.12%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 2 (0.12%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 464 (28.21%) Social Skills
2 359 (21.82%) Finance
3 153 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
4 141 (8.57%) Marketing
5 119 (7.23%) Banking
6 114 (6.93%) Manufacturing
7 76 (4.62%) Organisational Skills
8 58 (3.53%) Retail Banking
9 39 (2.37%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (2.25%) Corporate Banking
11 36 (2.19%) Investment Banking
12 34 (2.07%) Public Sector
13 33 (2.01%) Advertising
14 27 (1.64%) Legal
15 25 (1.52%) Telecoms
16 19 (1.16%) French Language
16 19 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 15 (0.91%) Automotive
17 15 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
17 15 (0.91%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 247 (15.02%) Architect
2 234 (14.22%) Analyst
3 170 (10.33%) Senior
4 143 (8.69%) Solutions Architect
5 133 (8.09%) Business Analyst
6 116 (7.05%) Lead
7 113 (6.87%) Project Manager
8 85 (5.17%) Developer
9 61 (3.71%) Consultant
10 56 (3.40%) Product Manager
11 50 (3.04%) Data Analyst
12 45 (2.74%) Designer
12 45 (2.74%) EPoS Engineer
13 43 (2.61%) Supply Chain Architect
14 40 (2.43%) Senior Manager
15 36 (2.19%) IT Engineer
16 35 (2.13%) Service Manager
17 34 (2.07%) Senior Developer
17 34 (2.07%) Service Transition Manager
17 34 (2.07%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (4.56%) REST
2 49 (2.98%) Terraform
3 42 (2.55%) Kafka
4 40 (2.43%) React
5 31 (1.88%) Spring
6 30 (1.82%) Node.js
7 27 (1.64%) Spring Boot
8 25 (1.52%) RESTful
9 23 (1.40%) Django
9 23 (1.40%) Middleware
9 23 (1.40%) SOAP
10 20 (1.22%) Next.js
11 18 (1.09%) .NET
11 18 (1.09%) MACH
11 18 (1.09%) SAP Fiori
12 15 (0.91%) HTML
13 13 (0.79%) SAPUI5
13 13 (0.79%) VML
14 11 (0.67%) SAP Basis
15 10 (0.61%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 95 (5.78%) EPoS
2 85 (5.17%) Product Ownership
3 76 (4.62%) Driving Licence
4 73 (4.44%) FMCG
5 62 (3.77%) Onboarding
6 55 (3.34%) Cloud Native
7 37 (2.25%) Management Information System
8 33 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
9 30 (1.82%) Marketing Technology
9 30 (1.82%) Mobile App
9 30 (1.82%) Smartphone
10 26 (1.58%) Greenfield Project
11 23 (1.40%) Data Centre
12 22 (1.34%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.34%) Distributed Systems
13 21 (1.28%) Operational Technology
14 17 (1.03%) Credit Risk
15 16 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
15 16 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
16 15 (0.91%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 51 (3.10%) Windows
2 17 (1.03%) Linux
3 13 (0.79%) Android
4 9 (0.55%) Unix
5 8 (0.49%) Apple iOS
5 8 (0.49%) macOS
6 6 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.36%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.24%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.18%) zOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
10 1 (0.061%) OS/2
10 1 (0.061%) SUSE
10 1 (0.061%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.061%) VMS
10 1 (0.061%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 428 (26.02%) Stakeholder Management
2 369 (22.43%) Agile
3 268 (16.29%) E-Commerce
4 189 (11.49%) Analytics
5 187 (11.37%) Logistics
6 185 (11.25%) Migration
7 168 (10.21%) AI
8 164 (9.97%) Problem-Solving
8 164 (9.97%) Roadmaps
9 150 (9.12%) Decision-Making
10 138 (8.39%) CRM
11 137 (8.33%) Customer Experience
12 134 (8.15%) Continuous Improvement
13 129 (7.84%) CI/CD
14 125 (7.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 121 (7.36%) Customer Service
16 116 (7.05%) DevOps
17 112 (6.81%) Data Modelling
18 106 (6.44%) Business Intelligence
19 104 (6.32%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 161 (9.79%) SQL
2 119 (7.23%) Python
3 54 (3.28%) Java
4 33 (2.01%) TypeScript
5 29 (1.76%) JavaScript
6 14 (0.85%) ABAP
6 14 (0.85%) C#
7 12 (0.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 10 (0.61%) R
9 9 (0.55%) Apex Code
9 9 (0.55%) Bash
10 8 (0.49%) PowerShell
11 7 (0.43%) SOQL
12 6 (0.36%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.30%) Groovy
13 5 (0.30%) Shell Script
13 5 (0.30%) SOSL
14 4 (0.24%) Bicep
14 4 (0.24%) T-SQL
15 3 (0.18%) Scala
Qualifications
1 64 (3.89%) Degree
2 29 (1.76%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.34%) PMP
4 14 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
5 11 (0.67%) PMI Certification
6 10 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (0.55%) DBS Check
8 8 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (0.49%) SC Cleared
9 6 (0.36%) CISSP
10 5 (0.30%) AWS Certification
10 5 (0.30%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (0.30%) CISM
10 5 (0.30%) City & Guilds
11 4 (0.24%) SAP Certification
11 4 (0.24%) Six Sigma Green Belt
12 3 (0.18%) CCNP
12 3 (0.18%) CCSE
12 3 (0.18%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 3 (0.18%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (5.23%) Data Quality
2 73 (4.44%) QA
3 28 (1.70%) GDPR
4 25 (1.52%) Accessibility
4 25 (1.52%) PMO
5 13 (0.79%) PCI DSS
6 10 (0.61%) SLA
7 6 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
8 5 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 5 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.30%) NIST
8 5 (0.30%) WCAG
9 4 (0.24%) GRC
10 3 (0.18%) PSD2
11 2 (0.12%) APQC
11 2 (0.12%) GAAP
11 2 (0.12%) IFRS
12 1 (0.061%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.061%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.061%) IASME
System Software
1 36 (2.19%) Docker
2 25 (1.52%) Active Directory
3 14 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.30%) Firmware
6 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.061%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.061%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (2.55%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.61%) Ansible
2 10 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.43%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (0.30%) FortiGate
6 4 (0.24%) Bosun
6 4 (0.24%) SCCM
7 3 (0.18%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.12%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.12%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.12%) logstash
8 2 (0.12%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.061%) Argo
9 1 (0.061%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.061%) Grafana
9 1 (0.061%) Nagios
9 1 (0.061%) vMotion
9 1 (0.061%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 166 (10.09%) Microsoft
2 137 (8.33%) SAP
3 83 (5.05%) Salesforce
4 77 (4.68%) Databricks
5 64 (3.89%) Oracle
6 55 (3.34%) Google
7 32 (1.95%) Adobe
8 31 (1.88%) MuleSoft
9 23 (1.40%) Zscaler
10 20 (1.22%) IBM
11 18 (1.09%) Cisco
11 18 (1.09%) Workday
12 13 (0.79%) New Relic
12 13 (0.79%) Splunk
13 12 (0.73%) Apple
13 12 (0.73%) Braze
13 12 (0.73%) ServiceNow
14 10 (0.61%) Fortinet
14 10 (0.61%) Informatica
14 10 (0.61%) JDA