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

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 147 88 92
Rank change year-on-year -59 +4 -7
Contract jobs citing Retail 767 856 1,020
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.87% 2.83% 2.30%
As % of the General category 3.20% 4.56% 3.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 481 444 591
10th Percentile £206 £266 £275
25th Percentile £380 £410 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -6.76%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -0.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 14 56
10th Percentile £12.95 £18.13 £11.03
25th Percentile £16.17 £23.19 £12.79
Median hourly rate £18.94 £33.00 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -42.62% +102.45% -17.72%
75th Percentile £24.22 £64.44 £21.37
90th Percentile £46.25 £84.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.34 £22.50 £15.29
% change year-on-year -27.40% +47.16% -22.82%

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 23,960 18,763 26,157
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 58.48% 62.10% 58.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,990 11,449 16,828
10th Percentile £300 £290 £265
25th Percentile £404 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £621 £649 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £478 £500
% change year-on-year -0.52% -4.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,462 613 1,710
10th Percentile £13.69 £15.62 £13.00
25th Percentile £16.48 £20.45 £15.29
Median hourly rate £23.00 £30.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.33% +15.38% -8.77%
75th Percentile £51.53 £58.27 £51.25
90th Percentile £73.72 £75.00 £65.98
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £27.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year -20.00% +10.00% -2.59%

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 24 February 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 24 February 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 24 February 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 -51 697 £515 -2.00% 928
London -36 394 £550 - 287
UK excluding London -52 313 £475 -5.00% 792
Work from Home -83 183 £500 -4.76% 316
South East -40 86 £481 -11.49% 227
North of England -57 78 £500 +11.11% 175
Midlands -49 69 £495 -1.00% 177
East Midlands -13 42 £495 -1.00% 97
North West -32 40 £550 +22.22% 103
Yorkshire -45 35 £506 +26.56% 56
East of England -26 32 £526 -4.32% 91
West Midlands -61 26 £432 -17.67% 80
Scotland +10 22 £450 -14.29% 40
South West -9 20 £213 -34.62% 76
Wales -5 4 £453 +210.25% 23
North East -15 4 £206 -65.63% 16
Northern Ireland -1 2 £190 +41.31% 8

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 33 (4.30%) Confluence
2 16 (2.09%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.83%) CMS
4 11 (1.43%) Apache Airflow
5 10 (1.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (0.52%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.52%) WordPress
7 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.26%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.26%) Magnolia
8 2 (0.26%) SAS
9 1 (0.13%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.13%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.13%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 22 (2.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.83%) Microsoft Project
3 12 (1.56%) Chatbot
4 11 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (1.30%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.39%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.26%) Adobe Illustrator
7 2 (0.26%) Trello
8 1 (0.13%) 3ds Max
8 1 (0.13%) Adobe After Effects
8 1 (0.13%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.13%) InDesign
8 1 (0.13%) Maya
8 1 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.13%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 20 (2.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (1.56%) SAP Retail
2 12 (1.56%) Shopify
3 9 (1.17%) Oracle Retail
4 6 (0.78%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 5 (0.65%) Finacle
5 5 (0.65%) SAP Payroll
6 4 (0.52%) ResourceLink
6 4 (0.52%) SAP MDG
6 4 (0.52%) Temenos T24
7 3 (0.39%) Dynamics AX
7 3 (0.39%) SAP MM
7 3 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 2 (0.26%) BambooHR
8 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
8 2 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.26%) Sage X3
8 2 (0.26%) Sprinklr
9 1 (0.13%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 90 (11.73%) Azure
2 56 (7.30%) AWS
3 48 (6.26%) Power Platform
4 46 (6.00%) GCP
5 22 (2.87%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (2.87%) Dynamics 365
6 20 (2.61%) GitHub
6 20 (2.61%) Snowflake
7 15 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
7 15 (1.96%) SaaS
8 14 (1.83%) GitHub Actions
9 13 (1.69%) Figma
10 12 (1.56%) Google Workspace
11 11 (1.43%) Cloud Run
12 10 (1.30%) Entra ID
12 10 (1.30%) Miro
13 9 (1.17%) OCI
14 8 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
14 8 (1.04%) dbt
14 8 (1.04%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.61%) RFID
2 14 (1.83%) NFC
2 14 (1.83%) Wireless
3 10 (1.30%) Firewall
3 10 (1.30%) VPN
3 10 (1.30%) WAN
4 6 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (0.65%) LAN
6 4 (0.52%) BGP
6 4 (0.52%) Cisco Nexus
6 4 (0.52%) EIGRP
6 4 (0.52%) OSPF
6 4 (0.52%) VoIP
7 3 (0.39%) MPLS
8 2 (0.26%) SAN
8 2 (0.26%) WLAN
9 1 (0.13%) FTP
9 1 (0.13%) HTTPS
9 1 (0.13%) Network Security
9 1 (0.13%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (5.22%) Power BI
2 22 (2.87%) BigQuery
3 20 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
4 15 (1.96%) Metadata
5 14 (1.83%) Tableau
6 13 (1.69%) SQL Server
7 11 (1.43%) Data Lake
8 10 (1.30%) MySQL
9 7 (0.91%) Data Vault
10 6 (0.78%) Delta Lake
10 6 (0.78%) PostgreSQL
11 5 (0.65%) MongoDB
11 5 (0.65%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (0.65%) Snowflake Schema
12 4 (0.52%) Redis
12 4 (0.52%) Relational Database
12 4 (0.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 3 (0.39%) OLAP
13 3 (0.39%) Oracle OLAP
13 3 (0.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 72 (9.39%) JIRA
2 12 (1.56%) Git
2 12 (1.56%) Jenkins
3 10 (1.30%) GitLab
4 5 (0.65%) ERwin
5 4 (0.52%) MLflow
5 4 (0.52%) Selenium
6 3 (0.39%) Maven
6 3 (0.39%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.26%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.26%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.26%) JMeter
7 2 (0.26%) JUnit
7 2 (0.26%) Mockito
7 2 (0.26%) PowerDesigner
7 2 (0.26%) Xcode
8 1 (0.13%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.13%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio
General
1 261 (34.03%) Social Skills
2 170 (22.16%) Finance
3 75 (9.78%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (9.00%) Banking
5 59 (7.69%) Marketing
6 35 (4.56%) Public Sector
7 33 (4.30%) Manufacturing
7 33 (4.30%) Organisational Skills
8 31 (4.04%) Retail Banking
9 28 (3.65%) Corporate Banking
10 27 (3.52%) Investment Banking
11 25 (3.26%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (2.74%) Documentation Skills
13 19 (2.48%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (2.35%) Legal
15 12 (1.56%) Telecoms
16 11 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 8 (1.04%) Financial Institution
18 7 (0.91%) Pharmaceutical
18 7 (0.91%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 129 (16.82%) Analyst
2 102 (13.30%) Project Manager
3 87 (11.34%) Senior
4 84 (10.95%) Architect
5 68 (8.87%) Lead
6 62 (8.08%) Business Analyst
7 41 (5.35%) Senior Manager
8 36 (4.69%) Solutions Architect
9 32 (4.17%) Consultant
10 24 (3.13%) Technical Manager
11 22 (2.87%) Senior Project Manager
12 21 (2.74%) Developer
13 18 (2.35%) Product Manager
13 18 (2.35%) Programme Manager
14 15 (1.96%) Data Engineer
15 14 (1.83%) Designer
15 14 (1.83%) E-Commerce Manager
15 14 (1.83%) Service Manager
16 13 (1.69%) IT Manager
16 13 (1.69%) SAP Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (2.87%) REST
2 19 (2.48%) VML
3 15 (1.96%) Middleware
3 15 (1.96%) Spring
4 14 (1.83%) PySpark
4 14 (1.83%) React
5 13 (1.69%) Spring Boot
6 10 (1.30%) scikit-learn
7 9 (1.17%) .NET
7 9 (1.17%) AngularJS
8 8 (1.04%) HTML
8 8 (1.04%) PyTorch
9 7 (0.91%) FastAPI
9 7 (0.91%) Node.js
9 7 (0.91%) OpenTelemetry
9 7 (0.91%) XML
10 6 (0.78%) CSS
10 6 (0.78%) JSON
10 6 (0.78%) Kafka
10 6 (0.78%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 43 (5.61%) Product Ownership
2 31 (4.04%) Driving Licence
3 28 (3.65%) EPoS
4 23 (3.00%) Onboarding
4 23 (3.00%) Self-Motivation
5 22 (2.87%) Cloud Native
5 22 (2.87%) Legacy Systems
6 20 (2.61%) Management Information System
7 18 (2.35%) FMCG
8 16 (2.09%) Data Structures
9 15 (1.96%) IoT
9 15 (1.96%) Mobile App
10 13 (1.69%) Data Centre
11 10 (1.30%) Mainframe
12 9 (1.17%) Algorithms
12 9 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
12 9 (1.17%) Virtual Team
13 8 (1.04%) Social Media
14 7 (0.91%) Reference Data
15 6 (0.78%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 34 (4.43%) Windows
2 14 (1.83%) Linux
3 8 (1.04%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.65%) Android
5 4 (0.52%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.52%) zOS
6 3 (0.39%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.26%) Unix
8 1 (0.13%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (24.12%) Stakeholder Management
2 173 (22.56%) Agile
3 140 (18.25%) Problem-Solving
4 104 (13.56%) Project Management
5 94 (12.26%) E-Commerce
6 80 (10.43%) Migration
7 79 (10.30%) Analytics
8 76 (9.91%) Roadmaps
9 69 (9.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 65 (8.47%) Continuous Improvement
11 63 (8.21%) Workshop Facilitation
12 59 (7.69%) Customer Experience
13 57 (7.43%) Decision-Making
14 56 (7.30%) AI
14 56 (7.30%) Scrum
15 54 (7.04%) Business Intelligence
16 53 (6.91%) DevOps
17 52 (6.78%) Project Delivery
18 51 (6.65%) Customer Service
19 49 (6.39%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 71 (9.26%) SQL
2 69 (9.00%) Python
3 26 (3.39%) Java
4 16 (2.09%) JavaScript
5 13 (1.69%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.43%) Bash
7 9 (1.17%) Shell Script
7 9 (1.17%) TypeScript
8 8 (1.04%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.91%) C#
10 6 (0.78%) Kotlin
11 5 (0.65%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.39%) VBA
13 2 (0.26%) Google Apps Script
13 2 (0.26%) PHP
13 2 (0.26%) Swift
14 1 (0.13%) Bicep
14 1 (0.13%) CLIST
14 1 (0.13%) JCL
14 1 (0.13%) ProC
Qualifications
1 44 (5.74%) Degree
2 22 (2.87%) PMP
3 18 (2.35%) Security Cleared
4 17 (2.22%) PMI Certification
5 10 (1.30%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.04%) CISSP
6 8 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (0.91%) MBA
7 7 (0.91%) SC Cleared
8 6 (0.78%) APMP
8 6 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.65%) CISM
9 5 (0.65%) CRISC
10 4 (0.52%) CCIE
10 4 (0.52%) CCNP
10 4 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.52%) CSPO
11 3 (0.39%) GIAC
11 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.43%) Data Quality
1 34 (4.43%) QA
2 24 (3.13%) PMO
3 18 (2.35%) GDPR
4 17 (2.22%) Accessibility
5 14 (1.83%) SLA
6 6 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
6 6 (0.78%) PCI DSS
7 5 (0.65%) COBIT
8 3 (0.39%) IFRS
8 3 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.39%) NCSC
8 3 (0.39%) NIST
9 1 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.13%) GRC
9 1 (0.13%) IFRS 9
9 1 (0.13%) MiFID
9 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.13%) Solvency II
9 1 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (2.09%) Docker
2 12 (1.56%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.52%) RACF
4 3 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (0.39%) VMware NSX
5 2 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.13%) Varnish
6 1 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 24 (3.13%) Terraform
2 15 (1.96%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.17%) Grafana
4 7 (0.91%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.78%) Argo
5 6 (0.78%) Istio
6 4 (0.52%) Ansible
7 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (0.39%) SCCM
7 3 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.26%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.13%) Cacti
9 1 (0.13%) Control-M
9 1 (0.13%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.13%) Nmap
9 1 (0.13%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.13%) ZABBIX
9 1 (0.13%) zSecure
Vendors
1 71 (9.26%) Microsoft
2 60 (7.82%) SAP
3 50 (6.52%) Google
4 47 (6.13%) Oracle
5 32 (4.17%) Salesforce
6 27 (3.52%) Databricks
7 21 (2.74%) Adobe
8 13 (1.69%) ServiceNow
9 10 (1.30%) Dell
10 9 (1.17%) Sitecore
10 9 (1.17%) Splunk
11 8 (1.04%) CheckPoint
11 8 (1.04%) Cisco
11 8 (1.04%) Dynatrace
11 8 (1.04%) F5
11 8 (1.04%) HP
11 8 (1.04%) IBM
12 7 (0.91%) Temenos
13 5 (0.65%) Apple
13 5 (0.65%) BMC