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

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 90 103
Rank change year-on-year -62 +13 -21
Contract jobs citing Retail 729 866 962
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.86% 2.78% 2.15%
As % of the General category 3.15% 4.48% 3.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 434 448 559
10th Percentile £207 £263 £263
25th Percentile £381 £407 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -6.54%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £732 £755 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £491 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.75% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 13 43
10th Percentile £12.95 £16.63 £11.00
25th Percentile £16.17 £18.13 £11.95
Median hourly rate £16.34 £32.50 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -49.74% +71.05% -4.09%
75th Percentile £19.50 £48.75 £20.75
90th Percentile £24.38 £75.50 £22.69
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.34 £18.13 £14.62
% change year-on-year -9.90% +24.05% -26.22%

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 23,123 19,316 26,286
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 59.05% 61.99% 58.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,503 11,563 17,041
10th Percentile £290 £281 £265
25th Percentile £401 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £528
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.47% -4.09%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £731 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £481 £500
% change year-on-year -1.14% -3.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,416 617 1,618
10th Percentile £13.70 £15.62 £13.00
25th Percentile £16.33 £20.12 £15.00
Median hourly rate £22.80 £29.00 £25.61
Median % change year-on-year -21.38% +13.26% -0.41%
75th Percentile £48.75 £55.25 £55.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.80 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.50 £27.00 £24.65
% change year-on-year -20.37% +9.53% +6.48%

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 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 6 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 6 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 -54 666 £500 -4.76% 1,139
London -39 363 £550 -0.23% 372
UK excluding London -65 310 £491 -1.75% 888
Work from Home -77 184 £500 -9.09% 404
South East -32 88 £518 -5.77% 283
North of England -50 74 £500 +11.11% 213
Midlands -49 68 £463 -7.50% 177
East Midlands -11 44 £495 -1.00% 95
Yorkshire -47 39 £506 +26.56% 74
East of England -26 36 £533 -3.18% 108
North West -28 33 £500 +11.11% 126
West Midlands -55 23 £275 -47.62% 82
Scotland +1 20 £450 -12.20% 34
South West -10 19 £213 -42.95% 76
Wales -4 3 £625 +328.52% 21
North East -15 3 £213 -64.58% 14
Northern Ireland -5 2 - - 7

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 34 (4.66%) Confluence
2 18 (2.47%) CMS
3 16 (2.19%) SharePoint
4 9 (1.23%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (1.10%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 5 (0.69%) Jupyter
7 4 (0.55%) Camunda
7 4 (0.55%) WordPress
8 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
9 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.27%) Magnolia
9 2 (0.27%) SAS
10 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.14%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 22 (3.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.51%) Microsoft Project
3 10 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (1.37%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.82%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.41%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.27%) Adobe Illustrator
6 2 (0.27%) Trello
7 1 (0.14%) 3ds Max
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.14%) InDesign
7 1 (0.14%) Maya
7 1 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.14%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 21 (2.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (1.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (1.65%) SAP Retail
2 12 (1.65%) Shopify
3 7 (0.96%) Oracle Retail
4 6 (0.82%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 6 (0.82%) Payment Gateway
5 5 (0.69%) SAP Payroll
6 4 (0.55%) Dynamics AX
6 4 (0.55%) Finacle
6 4 (0.55%) ResourceLink
6 4 (0.55%) SAP MDG
6 4 (0.55%) Temenos T24
7 3 (0.41%) NetSuite
7 3 (0.41%) SAP MM
7 3 (0.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 2 (0.27%) BambooHR
8 2 (0.27%) Sage X3
8 2 (0.27%) SAP GTS
8 2 (0.27%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 91 (12.48%) Azure
2 52 (7.13%) AWS
3 46 (6.31%) Power Platform
4 40 (5.49%) GCP
5 24 (3.29%) Dynamics 365
6 21 (2.88%) Azure DevOps
7 18 (2.47%) Snowflake
8 16 (2.19%) GitHub
8 16 (2.19%) Microsoft 365
9 15 (2.06%) SaaS
10 14 (1.92%) Figma
11 11 (1.51%) GitHub Actions
11 11 (1.51%) OCI
11 11 (1.51%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
12 9 (1.23%) Power Automate
13 8 (1.10%) dbt
13 8 (1.10%) Entra ID
13 8 (1.10%) SuccessFactors
13 8 (1.10%) Vertex AI
14 7 (0.96%) BigCommerce
Communications & Networking
1 21 (2.88%) RFID
2 18 (2.47%) NFC
2 18 (2.47%) Wireless
3 12 (1.65%) Firewall
4 10 (1.37%) VPN
5 8 (1.10%) WAN
6 6 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (0.55%) BGP
7 4 (0.55%) Cisco Nexus
7 4 (0.55%) EIGRP
7 4 (0.55%) LAN
7 4 (0.55%) OSPF
7 4 (0.55%) VoIP
8 2 (0.27%) MPLS
8 2 (0.27%) SAN
8 2 (0.27%) WLAN
9 1 (0.14%) FTP
9 1 (0.14%) HTTPS
9 1 (0.14%) SMS
9 1 (0.14%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (5.21%) Power BI
2 21 (2.88%) BigQuery
3 20 (2.74%) Data Warehouse
4 15 (2.06%) Metadata
4 15 (2.06%) SQL Server
5 13 (1.78%) Tableau
6 8 (1.10%) Data Lake
6 8 (1.10%) MySQL
7 7 (0.96%) Data Vault
8 6 (0.82%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.69%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.69%) Oracle Reports
9 5 (0.69%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.69%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (0.55%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.55%) Power Query
10 4 (0.55%) Redis
10 4 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 3 (0.41%) OLAP
11 3 (0.41%) Oracle OLAP
Development Applications
1 72 (9.88%) JIRA
2 13 (1.78%) Jenkins
3 10 (1.37%) GitLab
4 8 (1.10%) Git
5 5 (0.69%) ERwin
5 5 (0.69%) Selenium
6 4 (0.55%) Storybook
7 3 (0.41%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.27%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.27%) Cucumber
8 2 (0.27%) JMeter
8 2 (0.27%) JUnit
8 2 (0.27%) MLflow
8 2 (0.27%) Mockito
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.27%) Postman
8 2 (0.27%) PowerDesigner
8 2 (0.27%) SoapUI
8 2 (0.27%) Xcode
8 2 (0.27%) Zephyr
General
1 260 (35.67%) Social Skills
2 153 (20.99%) Finance
3 78 (10.70%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (8.64%) Banking
5 54 (7.41%) Marketing
6 42 (5.76%) Organisational Skills
7 38 (5.21%) Public Sector
8 37 (5.08%) Manufacturing
9 28 (3.84%) Retail Banking
10 25 (3.43%) Corporate Banking
10 25 (3.43%) Influencing Skills
11 23 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
12 22 (3.02%) Investment Banking
13 20 (2.74%) Legal
14 18 (2.47%) Presentation Skills
15 13 (1.78%) Telecoms
16 11 (1.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 6 (0.82%) Financial Institution
17 6 (0.82%) Publishing
18 5 (0.69%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 135 (18.52%) Analyst
2 95 (13.03%) Project Manager
3 76 (10.43%) Senior
4 74 (10.15%) Architect
5 62 (8.50%) Business Analyst
5 62 (8.50%) Lead
6 38 (5.21%) Senior Manager
7 34 (4.66%) Solutions Architect
8 30 (4.12%) Consultant
9 24 (3.29%) Technical Manager
10 22 (3.02%) Developer
11 21 (2.88%) Product Manager
12 19 (2.61%) Programme Manager
12 19 (2.61%) Senior Project Manager
13 15 (2.06%) E-Commerce Manager
14 14 (1.92%) Support Analyst
15 13 (1.78%) Help Desk Analyst
15 13 (1.78%) SAP Consultant
16 12 (1.65%) Data Engineer
16 12 (1.65%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.16%) React
2 19 (2.61%) VML
3 16 (2.19%) REST
4 15 (2.06%) Node.js
5 12 (1.65%) PySpark
6 11 (1.51%) HTML
7 9 (1.23%) AngularJS
8 8 (1.10%) .NET
8 8 (1.10%) Middleware
8 8 (1.10%) Spring
8 8 (1.10%) Spring Boot
9 7 (0.96%) CSS
9 7 (0.96%) FastAPI
9 7 (0.96%) Kafka
9 7 (0.96%) OpenTelemetry
9 7 (0.96%) scikit-learn
9 7 (0.96%) XML
10 6 (0.82%) JSON
10 6 (0.82%) Next.js
10 6 (0.82%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.08%) Product Ownership
2 26 (3.57%) Legacy Systems
3 25 (3.43%) EPoS
4 24 (3.29%) Self-Motivation
5 22 (3.02%) Onboarding
6 19 (2.61%) FMCG
6 19 (2.61%) Management Information System
7 18 (2.47%) IoT
8 17 (2.33%) Cloud Native
9 16 (2.19%) Driving Licence
10 15 (2.06%) Data Structures
11 13 (1.78%) Data Centre
12 11 (1.51%) Mobile App
13 9 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
14 8 (1.10%) Algorithms
14 8 (1.10%) Social Media
15 7 (0.96%) Mainframe
16 6 (0.82%) CMDB
16 6 (0.82%) Reference Data
16 6 (0.82%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 37 (5.08%) Windows
2 12 (1.65%) Linux
3 8 (1.10%) Mac OS
4 6 (0.82%) Android
5 5 (0.69%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.41%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.27%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.14%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.14%) VMS
8 1 (0.14%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 182 (24.97%) Agile
1 182 (24.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 125 (17.15%) Problem-Solving
3 99 (13.58%) Project Management
4 87 (11.93%) E-Commerce
5 79 (10.84%) Analytics
6 77 (10.56%) Migration
7 70 (9.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 66 (9.05%) Continuous Improvement
8 66 (9.05%) Roadmaps
9 59 (8.09%) Workshop Facilitation
10 57 (7.82%) Scrum
11 53 (7.27%) Decision-Making
12 52 (7.13%) AI
12 52 (7.13%) Project Delivery
13 51 (7.00%) Business Intelligence
14 49 (6.72%) DevOps
15 48 (6.58%) Data Modelling
16 45 (6.17%) CRM
16 45 (6.17%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 70 (9.60%) SQL
2 61 (8.37%) Python
3 20 (2.74%) Java
4 15 (2.06%) JavaScript
5 12 (1.65%) PowerShell
6 11 (1.51%) Bash
7 9 (1.23%) Shell Script
7 9 (1.23%) TypeScript
8 8 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.82%) C#
10 5 (0.69%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.41%) VBA
12 2 (0.27%) PHP
12 2 (0.27%) Swift
13 1 (0.14%) ABAP
13 1 (0.14%) CLIST
13 1 (0.14%) JCL
13 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.14%) REXX
13 1 (0.14%) VB
Qualifications
1 40 (5.49%) Degree
2 23 (3.16%) PMP
3 19 (2.61%) Security Cleared
4 17 (2.33%) PMI Certification
5 10 (1.37%) Master's Degree
6 8 (1.10%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.96%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (0.96%) MBA
7 7 (0.96%) SC Cleared
8 6 (0.82%) APMP
8 6 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.69%) CISSP
10 4 (0.55%) CCIE
10 4 (0.55%) CCNP
10 4 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.55%) CISM
10 4 (0.55%) CRISC
10 4 (0.55%) CSPO
11 3 (0.41%) GIAC
11 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (4.25%) QA
2 29 (3.98%) Data Quality
3 22 (3.02%) PMO
4 16 (2.19%) GDPR
5 15 (2.06%) Accessibility
6 13 (1.78%) SLA
7 6 (0.82%) COBIT
8 5 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.41%) IFRS
9 3 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.41%) NCSC
9 3 (0.41%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.27%) NIST
11 1 (0.14%) IFRS 9
11 1 (0.14%) MiFID
11 1 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.14%) Solvency II
11 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 12 (1.65%) Docker
2 10 (1.37%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.55%) RACF
4 3 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (0.41%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.14%) Varnish
5 1 (0.14%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 23 (3.16%) Terraform
2 12 (1.65%) Kubernetes
3 6 (0.82%) Ansible
3 6 (0.82%) Argo
3 6 (0.82%) Istio
4 4 (0.55%) Grafana
4 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
5 3 (0.41%) SCCM
5 3 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.27%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 1 (0.14%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.14%) Cacti
7 1 (0.14%) Control-M
7 1 (0.14%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.14%) Nmap
7 1 (0.14%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.14%) ZABBIX
7 1 (0.14%) zSecure
Vendors
1 76 (10.43%) Microsoft
2 60 (8.23%) SAP
3 48 (6.58%) Oracle
4 40 (5.49%) Salesforce
5 37 (5.08%) Google
6 21 (2.88%) Adobe
6 21 (2.88%) Databricks
7 12 (1.65%) Dell
7 12 (1.65%) ServiceNow
8 10 (1.37%) CheckPoint
8 10 (1.37%) F5
8 10 (1.37%) HP
9 9 (1.23%) Dynatrace
10 8 (1.10%) Cisco
10 8 (1.10%) Sitecore
11 6 (0.82%) Apple
11 6 (0.82%) BMC
11 6 (0.82%) Temenos
12 5 (0.69%) IBM
12 5 (0.69%) MicroStrategy