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

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 91 91
Rank change year-on-year -59 0 -4
Contract jobs citing Retail 801 825 1,025
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.86% 2.80% 2.30%
As % of the General category 3.25% 4.46% 3.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 504 439 593
10th Percentile £191 £291 £278
25th Percentile £360 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £609 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £751 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -7.50% - -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 16 63
10th Percentile £12.83 £16.69 £11.07
25th Percentile £14.25 £20.47 £12.15
Median hourly rate £18.85 £32.50 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.00% +103.13% -19.23%
75th Percentile £34.62 £58.31 £21.37
90th Percentile £51.95 £82.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.71 £22.50 £13.94
% change year-on-year -25.73% +61.41% -29.63%

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 24,665 18,494 26,029
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 57.14% 62.67% 58.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,396 11,683 16,666
10th Percentile £300 £295 £263
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £490
% change year-on-year - -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,514 651 1,807
10th Percentile £13.65 £15.25 £12.93
25th Percentile £17.00 £20.23 £15.39
Median hourly rate £24.19 £30.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.37% +15.38% -21.21%
75th Percentile £56.25 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £76.18 £76.25 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.85 £27.97 £25.00
% change year-on-year -18.31% +11.88% -13.79%

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 14 March 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 14 March 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 14 March 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 -50 720 £500 -4.76% 1,076
London -50 400 £538 -3.59% 343
UK excluding London -32 330 £463 -7.50% 903
Work from Home -75 196 £500 -4.76% 384
South East -38 98 £420 -22.76% 260
North of England -48 80 £500 +11.11% 222
Midlands -37 71 £495 -1.00% 198
East Midlands -8 43 £495 -1.00% 114
North West -37 39 £550 +22.22% 110
Yorkshire -34 37 £506 +26.56% 94
East of England -19 35 £526 +0.24% 85
West Midlands -63 27 £463 -11.90% 84
Scotland +15 23 £450 -15.49% 58
South West -18 19 £261 -26.41% 67
North East -11 4 £206 - 20
Northern Ireland -2 2 £190 -44.48% 11
Wales -12 2 £235 +60.19% 28

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 35 (4.37%) Confluence
2 16 (2.00%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.62%) CMS
4 12 (1.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 12 (1.50%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.50%) WordPress
6 3 (0.37%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.37%) SAS
7 2 (0.25%) Magnolia
8 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.12%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.12%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 25 (3.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (2.00%) Microsoft Project
3 13 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
4 12 (1.50%) Chatbot
4 12 (1.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (1.25%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.37%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.25%) Trello
8 1 (0.12%) 3ds Max
8 1 (0.12%) Adobe After Effects
8 1 (0.12%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.12%) InDesign
8 1 (0.12%) Maya
8 1 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.12%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 16 (2.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.87%) Shopify
3 12 (1.50%) Dynamics CRM
3 12 (1.50%) SAP Retail
4 9 (1.12%) Oracle Retail
5 6 (0.75%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (0.62%) Finacle
6 5 (0.62%) SAP Payroll
7 4 (0.50%) ResourceLink
7 4 (0.50%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.50%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.37%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.25%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.25%) NetSuite
9 2 (0.25%) Sage X3
9 2 (0.25%) Sprinklr
10 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
10 1 (0.12%) SAP CAR
10 1 (0.12%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 89 (11.11%) Azure
2 57 (7.12%) AWS
3 51 (6.37%) Power Platform
4 45 (5.62%) GCP
5 23 (2.87%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (2.75%) Dynamics 365
6 22 (2.75%) Snowflake
7 21 (2.62%) GitHub
8 16 (2.00%) Microsoft 365
9 14 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (1.62%) SaaS
11 12 (1.50%) Figma
11 12 (1.50%) Google Workspace
12 11 (1.37%) Azure Data Factory
12 11 (1.37%) Cloud Run
13 10 (1.25%) Entra ID
13 10 (1.25%) Miro
14 9 (1.12%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
15 8 (1.00%) dbt
15 8 (1.00%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.75%) RFID
2 13 (1.62%) VPN
3 11 (1.37%) Firewall
3 11 (1.37%) WAN
4 10 (1.25%) Wireless
5 8 (1.00%) NFC
6 7 (0.87%) LAN
7 6 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (0.62%) Cisco Nexus
9 4 (0.50%) BGP
9 4 (0.50%) EIGRP
9 4 (0.50%) OSPF
9 4 (0.50%) VoIP
10 3 (0.37%) MPLS
11 2 (0.25%) Network Security
11 2 (0.25%) SAN
11 2 (0.25%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.25%) WLAN
12 1 (0.12%) FTP
12 1 (0.12%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (5.37%) Power BI
2 22 (2.75%) BigQuery
3 17 (2.12%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.62%) SQL Server
4 13 (1.62%) Tableau
5 12 (1.50%) Metadata
5 12 (1.50%) MySQL
6 8 (1.00%) Data Lake
7 7 (0.87%) Data Vault
8 6 (0.75%) Delta Lake
8 6 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.62%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.62%) Oracle Reports
9 5 (0.62%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (0.50%) MongoDB
10 4 (0.50%) Redis
10 4 (0.50%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.37%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.37%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 71 (8.86%) JIRA
2 16 (2.00%) Git
3 11 (1.37%) Jenkins
4 10 (1.25%) GitLab
5 5 (0.62%) ERwin
6 4 (0.50%) Maven
6 4 (0.50%) MLflow
7 3 (0.37%) Selenium
7 3 (0.37%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.25%) PowerDesigner
8 2 (0.25%) WebDriver
8 2 (0.25%) Xcode
9 1 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.12%) HP UFT
9 1 (0.12%) JMeter
9 1 (0.12%) Mockito
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
General
1 271 (33.83%) Social Skills
2 186 (23.22%) Finance
3 87 (10.86%) Analytical Skills
4 76 (9.49%) Banking
5 60 (7.49%) Marketing
6 37 (4.62%) Public Sector
7 35 (4.37%) Retail Banking
8 32 (4.00%) Investment Banking
8 32 (4.00%) Manufacturing
9 30 (3.75%) Corporate Banking
9 30 (3.75%) Organisational Skills
10 24 (3.00%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (2.75%) Documentation Skills
12 19 (2.37%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (1.87%) Legal
14 12 (1.50%) Telecoms
15 11 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (1.12%) Financial Institution
17 7 (0.87%) Private Banking
17 7 (0.87%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 135 (16.85%) Analyst
2 107 (13.36%) Project Manager
3 91 (11.36%) Senior
4 89 (11.11%) Architect
5 68 (8.49%) Business Analyst
6 66 (8.24%) Lead
7 39 (4.87%) Senior Manager
8 35 (4.37%) Consultant
8 35 (4.37%) Solutions Architect
9 28 (3.50%) Technical Manager
10 24 (3.00%) Developer
11 23 (2.87%) Senior Project Manager
12 18 (2.25%) Product Manager
12 18 (2.25%) Programme Manager
12 18 (2.25%) Service Manager
13 17 (2.12%) Data Analyst
14 15 (1.87%) Data Architect
15 14 (1.75%) Designer
15 14 (1.75%) E-Commerce Manager
16 13 (1.62%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.12%) REST
2 21 (2.62%) Middleware
3 20 (2.50%) VML
4 17 (2.12%) Spring
5 13 (1.62%) React
6 12 (1.50%) PySpark
6 12 (1.50%) Spring Boot
7 11 (1.37%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.25%) scikit-learn
9 9 (1.12%) .NET
10 8 (1.00%) CSS
10 8 (1.00%) HTML
10 8 (1.00%) Node.js
10 8 (1.00%) PyTorch
11 7 (0.87%) JSON
11 7 (0.87%) Kafka
11 7 (0.87%) XML
12 6 (0.75%) FastAPI
12 6 (0.75%) LangChain
12 6 (0.75%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 49 (6.12%) Product Ownership
2 38 (4.74%) Driving Licence
3 27 (3.37%) EPoS
4 24 (3.00%) Onboarding
4 24 (3.00%) Self-Motivation
5 22 (2.75%) Cloud Native
6 21 (2.62%) Legacy Systems
7 20 (2.50%) Management Information System
8 17 (2.12%) Data Centre
8 17 (2.12%) FMCG
9 15 (1.87%) Data Structures
9 15 (1.87%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.37%) Mainframe
11 9 (1.12%) Algorithms
11 9 (1.12%) IoT
11 9 (1.12%) Virtual Team
12 8 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
13 7 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
13 7 (0.87%) Reference Data
14 6 (0.75%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 36 (4.49%) Windows
2 18 (2.25%) Linux
3 9 (1.12%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.62%) Android
4 5 (0.62%) zOS
5 4 (0.50%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.50%) Unix
6 3 (0.37%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.12%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 188 (23.47%) Stakeholder Management
2 186 (23.22%) Agile
3 156 (19.48%) Problem-Solving
4 105 (13.11%) E-Commerce
5 100 (12.48%) Project Management
6 84 (10.49%) Migration
7 81 (10.11%) Analytics
8 79 (9.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 78 (9.74%) Roadmaps
10 67 (8.36%) Continuous Improvement
10 67 (8.36%) Customer Experience
11 64 (7.99%) Workshop Facilitation
12 63 (7.87%) ERP
13 62 (7.74%) DevOps
13 62 (7.74%) Project Delivery
13 62 (7.74%) Scrum
14 59 (7.37%) AI
14 59 (7.37%) Decision-Making
15 58 (7.24%) Change Management
16 57 (7.12%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 78 (9.74%) SQL
2 70 (8.74%) Python
3 29 (3.62%) Java
4 19 (2.37%) JavaScript
5 14 (1.75%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.37%) Bash
7 9 (1.12%) Shell Script
8 8 (1.00%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (1.00%) TypeScript
9 7 (0.87%) C#
10 6 (0.75%) Kotlin
11 5 (0.62%) PL/SQL
12 4 (0.50%) VBA
13 3 (0.37%) Apex Code
13 3 (0.37%) SOQL
13 3 (0.37%) SOSL
14 2 (0.25%) Bicep
14 2 (0.25%) R
14 2 (0.25%) Scala
14 2 (0.25%) Swift
Qualifications
1 49 (6.12%) Degree
2 22 (2.75%) PMP
3 20 (2.50%) Security Cleared
4 17 (2.12%) PMI Certification
5 9 (1.12%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.00%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.00%) SC Cleared
7 7 (0.87%) APMP
7 7 (0.87%) CISSP
7 7 (0.87%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (0.87%) MBA
8 5 (0.62%) CCNP
8 5 (0.62%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (0.62%) ITIL Certification
9 4 (0.50%) CCIE
9 4 (0.50%) CISM
9 4 (0.50%) CRISC
9 4 (0.50%) CSPO
10 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.25%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (5.49%) QA
2 43 (5.37%) Data Quality
3 27 (3.37%) PMO
4 22 (2.75%) GDPR
5 18 (2.25%) SLA
6 15 (1.87%) Accessibility
7 6 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (0.75%) PCI DSS
8 5 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (0.50%) IFRS
10 3 (0.37%) COBIT
10 3 (0.37%) NIST
11 2 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.25%) NCSC
11 2 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.12%) GAAP
12 1 (0.12%) GRC
12 1 (0.12%) IFRS 9
12 1 (0.12%) MiFID
12 1 (0.12%) WCAG
System Software
1 18 (2.25%) Docker
2 13 (1.62%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.50%) RACF
3 4 (0.50%) VMware NSX
4 3 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.25%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.12%) Varnish
6 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 20 (2.50%) Terraform
2 16 (2.00%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.12%) Grafana
4 7 (0.87%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.75%) Argo
5 6 (0.75%) Istio
5 6 (0.75%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.37%) SCCM
6 3 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.25%) Ansible
7 2 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.25%) MOM
8 1 (0.12%) Cacti
8 1 (0.12%) Control-M
8 1 (0.12%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.12%) Nmap
8 1 (0.12%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.12%) ZABBIX
8 1 (0.12%) zSecure
Vendors
1 73 (9.11%) Microsoft
2 61 (7.62%) SAP
3 52 (6.49%) Google
4 50 (6.24%) Oracle
5 33 (4.12%) Salesforce
6 28 (3.50%) Databricks
7 21 (2.62%) Adobe
8 14 (1.75%) ServiceNow
9 9 (1.12%) Cisco
9 9 (1.12%) IBM
9 9 (1.12%) Sitecore
10 8 (1.00%) CheckPoint
10 8 (1.00%) Dell
11 7 (0.87%) Splunk
11 7 (0.87%) Temenos
12 6 (0.75%) F5
12 6 (0.75%) HP
12 6 (0.75%) VMware
12 6 (0.75%) Workday
13 5 (0.62%) IFS