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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 102 83
Rank change year-on-year -1 -19 +12
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,170 739 1,084
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.37% 2.55% 2.52%
As % of the General category 4.39% 4.02% 4.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 685 379 598
10th Percentile £244 £313 £287
25th Percentile £410 £413 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £520 £503
Median % change year-on-year - +3.48% -6.73%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 27 88
10th Percentile £13.35 £14.71 £11.56
25th Percentile £15.75 £15.25 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £25.15 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.50% +57.19% -19.23%
75th Percentile £22.50 £54.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £87.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.21 £16.30 £15.90
% change year-on-year +5.58% +2.52% -19.74%

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 26,645 18,395 24,713
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 53.95% 63.35% 57.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,132 11,601 15,502
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £769
UK excluding London median daily rate £494 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.95% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,765 839 1,985
10th Percentile £13.81 £13.44 £12.78
25th Percentile £17.75 £16.95 £15.50
Median hourly rate £31.16 £28.00 £30.12
Median % change year-on-year +11.27% -7.04% -7.04%
75th Percentile £60.75 £55.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £67.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.50 £24.50 £28.46
% change year-on-year +24.49% -13.91% +1.72%

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 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 6 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 6 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 +2 1,068 £525 - 1,440
London +4 600 £545 -0.91% 569
UK excluding London +2 480 £500 - 991
Work from Home -28 272 £500 - 525
South East -1 142 £520 +0.24% 293
North of England -38 135 £513 +2.50% 284
Midlands -14 95 £495 +10.00% 180
North West -3 84 £550 +10.00% 164
East Midlands -2 55 £495 +6.74% 99
East of England 0 51 £509 -3.05% 96
Yorkshire -60 48 £506 +6.58% 97
West Midlands -38 40 £500 +14.29% 81
South West -13 32 £326 -23.68% 83
Scotland -3 21 £500 -6.10% 46
North East -26 3 £173 -76.98% 25
Northern Ireland +5 2 £190 -44.48% 19
Wales -20 2 £190 +29.52% 16

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 38 (3.25%) Confluence
2 13 (1.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 13 (1.11%) CMS
3 12 (1.03%) SharePoint
4 11 (0.94%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (0.43%) SAS
6 2 (0.17%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.17%) CICS
6 2 (0.17%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.085%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 30 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (2.14%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.62%) Microsoft Project
4 17 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (1.11%) Chatbot
6 11 (0.94%) MS Visio
7 10 (0.85%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.68%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.51%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 5 (0.43%) InDesign
11 3 (0.26%) Notion
11 3 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
12 2 (0.17%) UserZoom
13 1 (0.085%) 3ds Max
13 1 (0.085%) Adobe After Effects
13 1 (0.085%) Adobe XD
13 1 (0.085%) Maya
13 1 (0.085%) PlantUML
13 1 (0.085%) SOLIDWORKS
13 1 (0.085%) Trello
Business Applications
1 23 (1.97%) Shopify
2 22 (1.88%) SAP S/4HANA
3 14 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
4 9 (0.77%) SAP Retail
5 7 (0.60%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 7 (0.60%) SAP CRM
6 6 (0.51%) Finacle
6 6 (0.51%) Oracle Retail
7 5 (0.43%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.43%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.34%) Magento
8 4 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
9 3 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
10 2 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.17%) Sage X3
10 2 (0.17%) SAP CAR
10 2 (0.17%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.17%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 128 (10.94%) Azure
2 97 (8.29%) AWS
3 69 (5.90%) GCP
4 55 (4.70%) Power Platform
5 40 (3.42%) Snowflake
6 27 (2.31%) GitHub
7 23 (1.97%) Dynamics 365
8 20 (1.71%) Azure DevOps
9 19 (1.62%) Entra ID
9 19 (1.62%) GitHub Actions
10 17 (1.45%) Figma
10 17 (1.45%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 15 (1.28%) Microsoft 365
11 15 (1.28%) SaaS
12 13 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
13 12 (1.03%) BigCommerce
13 12 (1.03%) dbt
14 11 (0.94%) Cloud Run
14 11 (0.94%) Google Workspace
15 10 (0.85%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 13 (1.11%) ATM
2 12 (1.03%) Firewall
2 12 (1.03%) WAN
3 10 (0.85%) Network Security
3 10 (0.85%) VPN
4 9 (0.77%) Wireless
5 8 (0.68%) RFID
6 6 (0.51%) Cisco Firepower
6 6 (0.51%) Cisco Nexus
6 6 (0.51%) LAN
6 6 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (0.43%) Cisco ASA
7 5 (0.43%) SD-WAN
7 5 (0.43%) VSAN
8 4 (0.34%) BGP
8 4 (0.34%) OSPF
9 3 (0.26%) Broadband
9 3 (0.26%) IPsec
9 3 (0.26%) MPLS
10 2 (0.17%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (4.44%) Power BI
2 29 (2.48%) BigQuery
3 21 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
4 17 (1.45%) MySQL
4 17 (1.45%) SQL Server
5 15 (1.28%) Tableau
6 13 (1.11%) Metadata
7 11 (0.94%) Data Lake
8 9 (0.77%) NoSQL
9 6 (0.51%) Data Vault
9 6 (0.51%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.51%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.51%) Snowflake Schema
10 5 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
11 4 (0.34%) Big Data
11 4 (0.34%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.34%) Looker
11 4 (0.34%) Semantic Layer
12 3 (0.26%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (0.26%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 79 (6.75%) JIRA
2 22 (1.88%) Git
3 16 (1.37%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.94%) GitLab
5 4 (0.34%) JMeter
5 4 (0.34%) Maven
5 4 (0.34%) Subversion
6 3 (0.26%) ERwin
6 3 (0.26%) Hudson
6 3 (0.26%) Selenium
6 3 (0.26%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.17%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.17%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.17%) Gatling
7 2 (0.17%) git-flow
7 2 (0.17%) MLflow
7 2 (0.17%) Postman
7 2 (0.17%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.085%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.085%) Toad
General
1 331 (28.29%) Social Skills
2 280 (23.93%) Finance
3 113 (9.66%) Analytical Skills
4 104 (8.89%) Banking
5 70 (5.98%) Marketing
6 56 (4.79%) Manufacturing
7 53 (4.53%) Organisational Skills
7 53 (4.53%) Retail Banking
8 43 (3.68%) Investment Banking
9 39 (3.33%) Corporate Banking
10 30 (2.56%) Public Sector
11 27 (2.31%) Telecoms
12 26 (2.22%) Documentation Skills
13 22 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (1.79%) Legal
15 19 (1.62%) Influencing Skills
16 18 (1.54%) French Language
17 16 (1.37%) Advertising
18 13 (1.11%) Back Office
18 13 (1.11%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 179 (15.30%) Architect
2 167 (14.27%) Analyst
3 144 (12.31%) Senior
4 119 (10.17%) Project Manager
5 98 (8.38%) Business Analyst
6 89 (7.61%) Lead
7 79 (6.75%) Solutions Architect
8 59 (5.04%) Senior Manager
9 46 (3.93%) Developer
10 45 (3.85%) Technical Manager
11 40 (3.42%) Designer
12 36 (3.08%) Enterprise Architect
13 34 (2.91%) Product Manager
13 34 (2.91%) Senior Project Manager
14 33 (2.82%) Consultant
15 29 (2.48%) Data Architect
16 28 (2.39%) Data Engineer
17 24 (2.05%) 2nd Line Support
17 24 (2.05%) Service Manager
18 23 (1.97%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (2.99%) REST
2 33 (2.82%) Middleware
3 28 (2.39%) React
4 27 (2.31%) VML
5 24 (2.05%) Spring
6 19 (1.62%) Kafka
7 18 (1.54%) Node.js
7 18 (1.54%) Spring Boot
8 14 (1.20%) AngularJS
8 14 (1.20%) CSS
9 13 (1.11%) RESTful
10 12 (1.03%) HTML
11 10 (0.85%) .NET
12 9 (0.77%) MACH
13 8 (0.68%) OpenTelemetry
13 8 (0.68%) PySpark
13 8 (0.68%) SOAP
14 7 (0.60%) JSON
14 7 (0.60%) LangChain
14 7 (0.60%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 73 (6.24%) Product Ownership
2 42 (3.59%) EPoS
3 41 (3.50%) Driving Licence
4 40 (3.42%) FMCG
5 34 (2.91%) Cloud Native
6 31 (2.65%) Onboarding
7 20 (1.71%) Data Structures
7 20 (1.71%) Mainframe
8 19 (1.62%) Data Centre
9 18 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
10 17 (1.45%) Mobile App
10 17 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.28%) Management Information System
12 14 (1.20%) AI Agents
13 12 (1.03%) Greenfield Project
14 11 (0.94%) Smartphone
15 10 (0.85%) Operational Technology
15 10 (0.85%) Virtual Team
16 9 (0.77%) CCTV
16 9 (0.77%) Marketing Technology
Operating Systems
1 49 (4.19%) Windows
2 22 (1.88%) Linux
3 11 (0.94%) Android
4 7 (0.60%) Unix
4 7 (0.60%) zOS
5 5 (0.43%) Mac OS
5 5 (0.43%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.26%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.085%) Debian
8 1 (0.085%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.085%) SUSE
8 1 (0.085%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.085%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.085%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 262 (22.39%) Agile
2 247 (21.11%) Stakeholder Management
3 188 (16.07%) Problem-Solving
4 170 (14.53%) E-Commerce
5 144 (12.31%) Migration
6 136 (11.62%) Roadmaps
7 120 (10.26%) Project Management
8 117 (10.00%) Analytics
8 117 (10.00%) Customer Experience
9 101 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 91 (7.78%) ERP
11 88 (7.52%) Project Delivery
12 87 (7.44%) AI
13 85 (7.26%) Decision-Making
14 84 (7.18%) Change Management
14 84 (7.18%) Continuous Improvement
15 82 (7.01%) Scrum
16 79 (6.75%) User Acceptance Testing
17 77 (6.58%) CI/CD
18 74 (6.32%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 91 (7.78%) SQL
2 63 (5.38%) Python
3 38 (3.25%) Java
4 24 (2.05%) JavaScript
5 17 (1.45%) TypeScript
6 10 (0.85%) Shell Script
7 9 (0.77%) C#
7 9 (0.77%) PowerShell
8 7 (0.60%) SOQL
9 6 (0.51%) Kotlin
10 5 (0.43%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.43%) Bash
10 5 (0.43%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.43%) SOSL
11 4 (0.34%) Bicep
11 4 (0.34%) Scala
12 3 (0.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.26%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.26%) R
12 3 (0.26%) VBA
Qualifications
1 52 (4.44%) Degree
2 42 (3.59%) Security Cleared
3 29 (2.48%) SC Cleared
4 19 (1.62%) PMP
5 11 (0.94%) PMI Certification
6 10 (0.85%) DBS Check
7 9 (0.77%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (0.68%) CISSP
9 7 (0.60%) APMP
9 7 (0.60%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.51%) CCNP
10 6 (0.51%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (0.51%) CSPO
11 5 (0.43%) CCSE
11 5 (0.43%) CCSM
11 5 (0.43%) CISM
11 5 (0.43%) MBA
12 4 (0.34%) City & Guilds
12 4 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (4.87%) QA
2 56 (4.79%) Data Quality
3 37 (3.16%) GDPR
4 35 (2.99%) PMO
5 18 (1.54%) Accessibility
6 13 (1.11%) PCI DSS
7 12 (1.03%) SLA
8 8 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.43%) NIST
10 3 (0.26%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.17%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
11 2 (0.17%) PSD2
11 2 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.17%) WCAG
12 1 (0.085%) COBIT
12 1 (0.085%) GAAP
12 1 (0.085%) GxP
12 1 (0.085%) IFRS
12 1 (0.085%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 25 (2.14%) Active Directory
2 23 (1.97%) Docker
3 6 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
3 6 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.17%) RACF
5 2 (0.17%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 27 (2.31%) Terraform
2 21 (1.79%) Kubernetes
3 11 (0.94%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 7 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.51%) Argo
5 6 (0.51%) Grafana
5 6 (0.51%) Istio
6 5 (0.43%) SCCM
6 5 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.26%) Ansible
8 2 (0.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.17%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.17%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.17%) MOM
8 2 (0.17%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.085%) Nagios
9 1 (0.085%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.085%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 99 (8.46%) Microsoft
2 79 (6.75%) SAP
3 69 (5.90%) Oracle
4 55 (4.70%) Google
4 55 (4.70%) Salesforce
5 44 (3.76%) Databricks
6 30 (2.56%) Adobe
7 21 (1.79%) ServiceNow
8 15 (1.28%) Cisco
8 15 (1.28%) IFS
9 14 (1.20%) Sitecore
10 11 (0.94%) IBM
10 11 (0.94%) Splunk
10 11 (0.94%) Zscaler
11 10 (0.85%) MuleSoft
11 10 (0.85%) VMware
12 9 (0.77%) Fortinet
12 9 (0.77%) Palo Alto
13 7 (0.60%) Dynatrace
13 7 (0.60%) Workday