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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 119 96
Rank change year-on-year +32 -23 +5
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,641 761 904
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.99% 2.30% 2.36%
As % of the General category 5.35% 3.63% 4.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 956 406 480
10th Percentile £325 £300 £284
25th Percentile £456 £425 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -
75th Percentile £675 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 66 29
10th Percentile £12.76 £15.25 £12.15
25th Percentile £13.45 £15.31 £16.00
Median hourly rate £15.04 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -7.93% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £19.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £25.15 £42.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.81 £16.34 £16.30
% change year-on-year -15.46% +0.21% -17.72%

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 30,691 20,987 22,323
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.94% 63.45% 58.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,938 13,037 13,227
10th Percentile £313 £275 £281
25th Percentile £419 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,607 1,219 1,051
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.73
25th Percentile £16.25 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £29.01 £25.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.35% -28.14% +27.27%
75th Percentile £53.95 £47.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.50 £21.40 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.85% -38.86% +29.63%

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 26 September 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 26 September 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 26 September 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 +35 1,506 £550 +4.76% 4,088
London +42 836 £575 +4.55% 2,043
UK excluding London +13 685 £525 +5.00% 2,274
Work from Home +14 368 £550 +4.76% 1,643
North of England -11 197 £550 +10.00% 624
South East -7 167 £575 +4.55% 578
Midlands +38 161 £550 +29.41% 436
North West +18 124 £550 +10.00% 349
East Midlands +20 92 £500 +17.86% 194
East of England 0 77 £550 -6.38% 219
West Midlands +3 68 £575 +35.29% 242
Yorkshire -43 55 £500 - 230
South West -18 53 £428 +35.71% 200
Scotland -15 24 £261 -48.99% 135
North East -25 18 £525 +288.89% 50
Wales -10 4 - - 71
Northern Ireland +2 3 £203 - 59

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 53 (3.23%) Confluence
2 21 (1.28%) CMS
3 19 (1.16%) SharePoint
4 18 (1.10%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.55%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 5 (0.30%) SAS
7 4 (0.24%) Apache
7 4 (0.24%) Apache Spark
7 4 (0.24%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.12%) CICS
9 2 (0.12%) Mule
9 2 (0.12%) WordPress
10 1 (0.061%) Mendix
10 1 (0.061%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.061%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 76 (4.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 51 (3.11%) Microsoft Office
3 27 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (0.91%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 12 (0.73%) Spreadsheet
6 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
6 11 (0.67%) MS Visio
7 9 (0.55%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.49%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.37%) CPLEX
9 6 (0.37%) InDesign
10 4 (0.24%) Notion
11 3 (0.18%) Chatbot
12 1 (0.061%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.061%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
12 1 (0.061%) SOLIDWORKS
12 1 (0.061%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 57 (3.47%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.65%) Shopify
3 15 (0.91%) SAP Retail
4 14 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
5 10 (0.61%) Oracle Retail
5 10 (0.61%) SAP CRM
6 8 (0.49%) Magento
7 6 (0.37%) NetSuite
7 6 (0.37%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.30%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.30%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.30%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.24%) Dynamics NAV
9 4 (0.24%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.18%) SAP ERP
10 3 (0.18%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 217 (13.22%) Azure
2 156 (9.51%) AWS
3 81 (4.94%) Power Platform
4 78 (4.75%) GCP
5 56 (3.41%) Snowflake
6 48 (2.93%) GitHub
7 37 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
8 36 (2.19%) Entra ID
9 30 (1.83%) GitHub Actions
10 28 (1.71%) Dynamics 365
11 27 (1.65%) SaaS
12 25 (1.52%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 24 (1.46%) dbt
14 20 (1.22%) Azure Data Factory
14 20 (1.22%) Figma
15 17 (1.04%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 15 (0.91%) Microsoft 365
16 15 (0.91%) OCI
17 12 (0.73%) Salesforce Service Cloud
18 11 (0.67%) Algolia
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.34%) WAN
2 21 (1.28%) Firewall
3 16 (0.98%) ATM
3 16 (0.98%) VPN
4 14 (0.85%) Network Security
5 13 (0.79%) LAN
5 13 (0.79%) Wireless
6 12 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.49%) Structured Cabling
8 7 (0.43%) BGP
8 7 (0.43%) Internet
8 7 (0.43%) IPsec
8 7 (0.43%) OSPF
8 7 (0.43%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.37%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 6 (0.37%) VLAN
10 5 (0.30%) DNS
11 4 (0.24%) Broadband
11 4 (0.24%) Cisco Firepower
11 4 (0.24%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (4.94%) Power BI
2 57 (3.47%) Data Warehouse
3 31 (1.89%) Data Lake
4 29 (1.77%) BigQuery
5 25 (1.52%) Metadata
6 22 (1.34%) Tableau
7 21 (1.28%) SQL Server
8 19 (1.16%) MongoDB
9 18 (1.10%) NoSQL
10 15 (0.91%) PostgreSQL
11 14 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
11 14 (0.85%) Relational Database
12 13 (0.79%) MySQL
12 13 (0.79%) SAP HANA
13 12 (0.73%) Power Query
13 12 (0.73%) SAP BW
14 11 (0.67%) Redis
14 11 (0.67%) Star Schema
15 10 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 9 (0.55%) Couchbase
Development Applications
1 80 (4.88%) JIRA
2 24 (1.46%) Git
3 22 (1.34%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.49%) Subversion
5 7 (0.43%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.30%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.30%) Hudson
6 5 (0.30%) JMeter
7 4 (0.24%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.24%) GitLab
8 3 (0.18%) Postman
9 2 (0.12%) git-flow
9 2 (0.12%) MLflow
9 2 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.12%) Selenium
9 2 (0.12%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.12%) webpack
10 1 (0.061%) MSI
10 1 (0.061%) Toad
General
1 469 (28.58%) Social Skills
2 372 (22.67%) Finance
3 164 (9.99%) Analytical Skills
4 134 (8.17%) Marketing
5 120 (7.31%) Banking
6 112 (6.83%) Manufacturing
7 69 (4.20%) Organisational Skills
8 63 (3.84%) Retail Banking
9 42 (2.56%) Corporate Banking
10 41 (2.50%) Investment Banking
11 39 (2.38%) Influencing Skills
12 35 (2.13%) Public Sector
13 28 (1.71%) Advertising
13 28 (1.71%) Telecoms
14 27 (1.65%) Legal
15 21 (1.28%) French Language
16 20 (1.22%) Presentation Skills
17 19 (1.16%) Back Office
18 17 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 17 (1.04%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 272 (16.58%) Architect
2 234 (14.26%) Analyst
3 176 (10.73%) Senior
4 151 (9.20%) Solutions Architect
5 137 (8.35%) Business Analyst
6 121 (7.37%) Project Manager
7 117 (7.13%) Lead
8 86 (5.24%) Developer
9 57 (3.47%) Consultant
10 54 (3.29%) Product Manager
11 48 (2.93%) Data Analyst
11 48 (2.93%) Designer
12 43 (2.62%) Senior Manager
13 42 (2.56%) Supply Chain Architect
14 35 (2.13%) Service Manager
15 34 (2.07%) Senior Developer
15 34 (2.07%) Service Transition Manager
15 34 (2.07%) Transition Manager
16 33 (2.01%) Enterprise Architect
17 32 (1.95%) Data Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (4.20%) REST
2 49 (2.99%) Terraform
3 43 (2.62%) React
4 42 (2.56%) Kafka
5 30 (1.83%) Node.js
6 29 (1.77%) Spring
7 26 (1.58%) Spring Boot
8 24 (1.46%) Middleware
9 23 (1.40%) RESTful
10 22 (1.34%) Django
10 22 (1.34%) SOAP
11 21 (1.28%) MACH
12 19 (1.16%) VML
13 16 (0.98%) Next.js
13 16 (0.98%) SAP Fiori
14 15 (0.91%) HTML
15 12 (0.73%) OAuth
15 12 (0.73%) SAPUI5
16 11 (0.67%) CSS
17 10 (0.61%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 83 (5.06%) Product Ownership
2 72 (4.39%) FMCG
3 64 (3.90%) EPoS
4 57 (3.47%) Onboarding
5 52 (3.17%) Cloud Native
6 42 (2.56%) Driving Licence
7 34 (2.07%) Legacy Systems
8 33 (2.01%) Management Information System
9 30 (1.83%) Mobile App
10 29 (1.77%) Marketing Technology
11 28 (1.71%) Greenfield Project
12 25 (1.52%) Data Centre
13 24 (1.46%) Data Structures
14 21 (1.28%) Distributed Systems
14 21 (1.28%) Operational Technology
15 20 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
16 19 (1.16%) AI Agents
16 19 (1.16%) Mainframe
16 19 (1.16%) Smartphone
17 17 (1.04%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 52 (3.17%) Windows
2 17 (1.04%) Linux
3 12 (0.73%) Android
4 8 (0.49%) Unix
5 7 (0.43%) Apple iOS
5 7 (0.43%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.37%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.24%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.18%) zOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
9 2 (0.12%) Windows Server
10 1 (0.061%) OS/2
10 1 (0.061%) SUSE
10 1 (0.061%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.061%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 432 (26.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 372 (22.67%) Agile
3 251 (15.30%) E-Commerce
4 192 (11.70%) Migration
5 190 (11.58%) Analytics
6 188 (11.46%) Logistics
7 178 (10.85%) Problem-Solving
8 172 (10.48%) AI
9 167 (10.18%) Roadmaps
10 150 (9.14%) Decision-Making
11 137 (8.35%) Customer Experience
12 136 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
13 135 (8.23%) CRM
14 131 (7.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 125 (7.62%) CI/CD
16 116 (7.07%) Customer Service
17 114 (6.95%) Business Intelligence
17 114 (6.95%) Project Management
18 110 (6.70%) DevOps
19 106 (6.46%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 152 (9.26%) SQL
2 113 (6.89%) Python
3 51 (3.11%) Java
4 36 (2.19%) TypeScript
5 26 (1.58%) JavaScript
6 13 (0.79%) ABAP
7 12 (0.73%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 10 (0.61%) C#
8 10 (0.61%) R
9 9 (0.55%) Apex Code
9 9 (0.55%) Bash
10 7 (0.43%) PowerShell
10 7 (0.43%) SOQL
11 6 (0.37%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.30%) Groovy
12 5 (0.30%) SOSL
13 4 (0.24%) Bicep
13 4 (0.24%) Scala
13 4 (0.24%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.24%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 61 (3.72%) Degree
2 43 (2.62%) Security Cleared
3 23 (1.40%) PMP
4 21 (1.28%) SC Cleared
5 12 (0.73%) DBS Check
5 12 (0.73%) PMI Certification
6 11 (0.67%) ITIL Certification
7 8 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (0.37%) CISSP
9 5 (0.30%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (0.30%) CISM
9 5 (0.30%) City & Guilds
9 5 (0.30%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.30%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 4 (0.24%) CSPO
11 3 (0.18%) APMG
11 3 (0.18%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.18%) CCSM
11 3 (0.18%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 3 (0.18%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (5.00%) Data Quality
2 74 (4.51%) QA
3 36 (2.19%) GDPR
4 25 (1.52%) PMO
5 24 (1.46%) Accessibility
6 14 (0.85%) PCI DSS
7 10 (0.61%) SLA
8 7 (0.43%) NIST
9 6 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 5 (0.30%) WCAG
11 3 (0.18%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.18%) GRC
11 3 (0.18%) PSD2
12 2 (0.12%) GAAP
12 2 (0.12%) IFRS
12 2 (0.12%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.061%) GxP
13 1 (0.061%) IASME
System Software
1 35 (2.13%) Docker
2 29 (1.77%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.79%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.30%) Firmware
5 5 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.12%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.061%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (2.50%) Kubernetes
2 12 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (0.61%) Ansible
4 7 (0.43%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.37%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.30%) FortiGate
7 4 (0.24%) Bosun
7 4 (0.24%) SCCM
8 2 (0.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.12%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.12%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.12%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.12%) logstash
8 2 (0.12%) PingFederate
8 2 (0.12%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.061%) Argo
9 1 (0.061%) Grafana
9 1 (0.061%) Kubeflow
9 1 (0.061%) vMotion
Vendors
1 161 (9.81%) Microsoft
2 138 (8.41%) SAP
3 92 (5.61%) Salesforce
4 81 (4.94%) Databricks
5 72 (4.39%) Oracle
6 50 (3.05%) Google
7 38 (2.32%) Adobe
8 30 (1.83%) MuleSoft
9 24 (1.46%) Zscaler
10 19 (1.16%) Cisco
11 18 (1.10%) IBM
11 18 (1.10%) Workday
12 16 (0.98%) ServiceNow
13 13 (0.79%) Apple
13 13 (0.79%) New Relic
13 13 (0.79%) Splunk
14 11 (0.67%) Braze
14 11 (0.67%) Fortinet
15 10 (0.61%) IFS
15 10 (0.61%) Palo Alto