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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 113 80
Rank change year-on-year +18 -33 +15
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,327 746 1,095
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.58% 2.41% 2.52%
As % of the General category 4.73% 3.81% 4.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 793 382 614
10th Percentile £267 £308 £282
25th Percentile £413 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -0.94%
75th Percentile £644 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 36 86
10th Percentile £12.99 £14.20 £11.88
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 £41.31 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £82.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.92 £15.73 £15.95
% change year-on-year +7.57% -1.38% -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 28,045 19,559 24,774
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.50% 63.16% 57.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,821 12,304 15,501
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.40% -4.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £473 £490
% change year-on-year +5.82% -3.57% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,932 963 1,967
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.47 £12.79
25th Percentile £18.25 £16.46 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.00 £27.35 £31.71
Median % change year-on-year +17.00% -13.75% +3.97%
75th Percentile £60.00 £53.00 £53.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.25 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.78 £23.00 £30.37
% change year-on-year +38.16% -24.27% +20.88%

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 +14 1,218 £538 +2.38% 1,460
London +19 703 £550 - 595
UK excluding London +1 529 £513 +2.50% 977
Work from Home -22 286 £500 - 513
South East +14 162 £550 - 323
North of England -31 143 £550 +8.64% 236
Midlands -5 101 £500 +8.11% 198
North West -4 95 £575 +15.00% 132
East of England +22 60 £550 +4.76% 113
East Midlands -1 55 £495 +7.03% 111
West Midlands -29 46 £529 +15.91% 87
Yorkshire -45 45 £513 -2.38% 86
South West -26 36 £325 -19.38% 71
Scotland -1 21 £496 -3.22% 34
Northern Ireland +3 3 £196 -64.32% 19
Wales -15 3 £190 +29.52% 14
North East -30 3 £173 -76.98% 21

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 (2.94%) Confluence
2 19 (1.43%) CMS
3 15 (1.13%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 12 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.53%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.38%) SAS
7 4 (0.30%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.15%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.15%) CICS
9 1 (0.075%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.075%) Apache
9 1 (0.075%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 32 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (1.96%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 17 (1.28%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (0.98%) Chatbot
6 10 (0.75%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 10 (0.75%) Photoshop
7 9 (0.68%) Adobe Illustrator
8 7 (0.53%) MS Visio
9 6 (0.45%) InDesign
10 3 (0.23%) Notion
10 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
11 2 (0.15%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.075%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.075%) CPLEX
12 1 (0.075%) Maya
12 1 (0.075%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.075%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 30 (2.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.73%) Shopify
3 13 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
4 11 (0.83%) Oracle Retail
5 7 (0.53%) SAP CRM
5 7 (0.53%) SAP Retail
6 6 (0.45%) Magento
6 6 (0.45%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 5 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
8 4 (0.30%) Finacle
8 4 (0.30%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.30%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.30%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.23%) SAP CAR
9 3 (0.23%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.23%) SAP MDG
10 2 (0.15%) Cognos Controller
10 2 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 163 (12.28%) Azure
2 132 (9.95%) AWS
3 80 (6.03%) GCP
4 64 (4.82%) Power Platform
5 51 (3.84%) Snowflake
6 27 (2.03%) GitHub
7 23 (1.73%) Azure DevOps
7 23 (1.73%) Dynamics 365
8 21 (1.58%) Entra ID
9 19 (1.43%) Figma
10 18 (1.36%) GitHub Actions
10 18 (1.36%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 17 (1.28%) SaaS
12 14 (1.06%) dbt
13 13 (0.98%) Azure Data Factory
14 11 (0.83%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 11 (0.83%) Google Workspace
14 11 (0.83%) Microsoft 365
15 10 (0.75%) OCI
15 10 (0.75%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.06%) WAN
2 13 (0.98%) ATM
2 13 (0.98%) Firewall
3 12 (0.90%) Network Security
3 12 (0.90%) Wireless
4 11 (0.83%) VPN
5 9 (0.68%) RFID
6 8 (0.60%) LAN
6 8 (0.60%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.45%) Cisco Firepower
7 6 (0.45%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.38%) BGP
8 5 (0.38%) Cisco ASA
8 5 (0.38%) Cisco Nexus
8 5 (0.38%) IPsec
8 5 (0.38%) OSPF
8 5 (0.38%) VSAN
9 4 (0.30%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 4 (0.30%) Internet
9 4 (0.30%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (4.67%) Power BI
2 29 (2.19%) BigQuery
3 27 (2.03%) Data Warehouse
4 21 (1.58%) MySQL
4 21 (1.58%) Tableau
5 18 (1.36%) Data Lake
5 18 (1.36%) Metadata
6 16 (1.21%) SQL Server
7 15 (1.13%) NoSQL
8 12 (0.90%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (0.60%) MongoDB
9 8 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 6 (0.45%) Data Vault
10 6 (0.45%) Looker
10 6 (0.45%) SAP HANA
10 6 (0.45%) Semantic Layer
11 5 (0.38%) Couchbase
11 5 (0.38%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 76 (5.73%) JIRA
2 27 (2.03%) Git
3 17 (1.28%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.45%) Subversion
5 5 (0.38%) GitLab
6 4 (0.30%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.30%) Maven
7 3 (0.23%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.23%) ERwin
7 3 (0.23%) Hudson
7 3 (0.23%) JMeter
7 3 (0.23%) Oracle Forms
7 3 (0.23%) Selenium
8 2 (0.15%) git-flow
8 2 (0.15%) MLflow
8 2 (0.15%) Postman
8 2 (0.15%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.15%) WebDriver
8 2 (0.15%) webpack
9 1 (0.075%) Cucumber
General
1 380 (28.64%) Social Skills
2 306 (23.06%) Finance
3 122 (9.19%) Analytical Skills
4 119 (8.97%) Banking
5 83 (6.25%) Marketing
6 77 (5.80%) Manufacturing
7 61 (4.60%) Retail Banking
8 60 (4.52%) Organisational Skills
9 47 (3.54%) Investment Banking
10 45 (3.39%) Corporate Banking
11 28 (2.11%) Public Sector
11 28 (2.11%) Telecoms
12 25 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
13 24 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
14 23 (1.73%) French Language
15 21 (1.58%) Legal
15 21 (1.58%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (1.36%) Spanish Language
17 17 (1.28%) Advertising
18 14 (1.06%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 220 (16.58%) Architect
2 190 (14.32%) Analyst
3 164 (12.36%) Senior
4 121 (9.12%) Project Manager
5 110 (8.29%) Solutions Architect
6 109 (8.21%) Business Analyst
7 100 (7.54%) Lead
8 63 (4.75%) Senior Manager
9 55 (4.14%) Developer
10 46 (3.47%) Designer
11 40 (3.01%) Consultant
11 40 (3.01%) Technical Manager
12 38 (2.86%) Enterprise Architect
13 37 (2.79%) Product Manager
13 37 (2.79%) Senior Project Manager
14 30 (2.26%) Data Architect
14 30 (2.26%) Data Engineer
15 29 (2.19%) 2nd Line Support
15 29 (2.19%) Data Analyst
15 29 (2.19%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (4.37%) REST
2 37 (2.79%) Middleware
3 29 (2.19%) React
4 26 (1.96%) Spring
5 24 (1.81%) VML
6 23 (1.73%) Kafka
7 19 (1.43%) Spring Boot
8 18 (1.36%) Node.js
9 17 (1.28%) HTML
10 16 (1.21%) CSS
10 16 (1.21%) RESTful
11 15 (1.13%) MACH
12 14 (1.06%) OAuth
13 13 (0.98%) J2EE
13 13 (0.98%) SOAP
14 12 (0.90%) Django
15 11 (0.83%) .NET
16 9 (0.68%) AngularJS
16 9 (0.68%) JSON
16 9 (0.68%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 85 (6.41%) Product Ownership
2 52 (3.92%) FMCG
3 48 (3.62%) EPoS
4 41 (3.09%) Driving Licence
4 41 (3.09%) Onboarding
5 39 (2.94%) Cloud Native
6 26 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
7 24 (1.81%) Data Centre
8 22 (1.66%) Marketing Technology
9 21 (1.58%) Mobile App
10 20 (1.51%) Data Structures
11 18 (1.36%) Mainframe
11 18 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
12 17 (1.28%) Greenfield Project
13 15 (1.13%) AI Agents
13 15 (1.13%) Management Information System
14 13 (0.98%) Operational Technology
15 11 (0.83%) Smartphone
15 11 (0.83%) Taxonomies
15 11 (0.83%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 54 (4.07%) Windows
2 27 (2.03%) Linux
3 12 (0.90%) Android
3 12 (0.90%) Unix
4 7 (0.53%) Mac OS
4 7 (0.53%) zOS
5 6 (0.45%) Apple iOS
5 6 (0.45%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.38%) Windows 10
6 5 (0.38%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.15%) Debian
8 1 (0.075%) SUSE
8 1 (0.075%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.075%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 321 (24.19%) Agile
2 314 (23.66%) Stakeholder Management
3 198 (14.92%) E-Commerce
4 191 (14.39%) Problem-Solving
5 178 (13.41%) Migration
6 163 (12.28%) Roadmaps
7 146 (11.00%) Analytics
8 125 (9.42%) Customer Experience
9 118 (8.89%) AI
10 116 (8.74%) Project Management
11 111 (8.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 98 (7.39%) Decision-Making
13 97 (7.31%) CI/CD
13 97 (7.31%) Project Delivery
14 96 (7.23%) ERP
14 96 (7.23%) Logistics
15 93 (7.01%) Continuous Improvement
16 91 (6.86%) Business Intelligence
17 89 (6.71%) User Acceptance Testing
18 88 (6.63%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 119 (8.97%) SQL
2 86 (6.48%) Python
3 55 (4.14%) Java
4 26 (1.96%) JavaScript
5 21 (1.58%) TypeScript
6 11 (0.83%) C#
7 10 (0.75%) PowerShell
8 9 (0.68%) Shell Script
9 7 (0.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 7 (0.53%) PL/SQL
9 7 (0.53%) SOQL
10 6 (0.45%) ABAP
10 6 (0.45%) Apex Code
10 6 (0.45%) Bash
10 6 (0.45%) Bicep
10 6 (0.45%) Kotlin
11 5 (0.38%) Groovy
11 5 (0.38%) R
11 5 (0.38%) Scala
11 5 (0.38%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 60 (4.52%) Degree
2 38 (2.86%) Security Cleared
3 24 (1.81%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.36%) PMP
5 10 (0.75%) DBS Check
6 9 (0.68%) CISSP
6 9 (0.68%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (0.68%) PMI Certification
7 7 (0.53%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.45%) CISM
9 5 (0.38%) CCNP
9 5 (0.38%) CCSE
9 5 (0.38%) CCSM
9 5 (0.38%) CSPO
10 4 (0.30%) APMP
10 4 (0.30%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.30%) City & Guilds
10 4 (0.30%) ITIL Certification
10 4 (0.30%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (4.75%) QA
2 59 (4.45%) Data Quality
3 40 (3.01%) GDPR
4 30 (2.26%) PMO
5 20 (1.51%) Accessibility
6 17 (1.28%) PCI DSS
7 12 (0.90%) SLA
8 9 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.53%) 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%) ISO 8583
11 2 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.15%) WCAG
12 1 (0.075%) COBIT
12 1 (0.075%) NCSC
System Software
1 25 (1.88%) Active Directory
1 25 (1.88%) Docker
2 7 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (0.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.23%) Firmware
6 2 (0.15%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (2.56%) Terraform
2 26 (1.96%) Kubernetes
3 14 (1.06%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 9 (0.68%) Ansible
5 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.45%) SCCM
5 6 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.38%) Grafana
7 4 (0.30%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.15%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.15%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.15%) MOM
8 2 (0.15%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.075%) Argo
9 1 (0.075%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.075%) Istio
9 1 (0.075%) Nagios
9 1 (0.075%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.075%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 104 (7.84%) Microsoft
2 91 (6.86%) SAP
3 82 (6.18%) Oracle
4 60 (4.52%) Salesforce
5 55 (4.14%) Google
6 54 (4.07%) Databricks
7 37 (2.79%) Adobe
8 22 (1.66%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.21%) Cisco
9 16 (1.21%) IBM
10 14 (1.06%) IFS
10 14 (1.06%) MuleSoft
10 14 (1.06%) Splunk
11 13 (0.98%) Zscaler
12 12 (0.90%) VMware
13 11 (0.83%) Fortinet
13 11 (0.83%) Palo Alto
13 11 (0.83%) Sitecore
14 10 (0.75%) Workday
15 9 (0.68%) Dynatrace