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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 111 79
Rank change year-on-year +17 -32 +16
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,436 794 1,112
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.71% 2.44% 2.64%
As % of the General category 4.95% 3.88% 4.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 871 408 621
10th Percentile £304 £300 £300
25th Percentile £419 £410 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £513 £515
Median % change year-on-year +4.88% -0.49% -2.83%
75th Percentile £656 £635 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £514 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.75% - -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 94 43 79
10th Percentile £13.10 - £12.15
25th Percentile £15.24 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £21.00 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +28.83% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £30.88 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £75.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.92 £15.96 £16.00
% change year-on-year +6.02% -0.25% -19.23%

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 29,030 20,484 24,110
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.87% 62.93% 57.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,339 12,845 15,110
10th Percentile £313 £280 £280
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £488
% change year-on-year +6.61% -3.94% -2.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,028 1,056 1,756
10th Percentile £14.02 £13.30 £13.12
25th Percentile £18.38 £16.25 £16.06
Median hourly rate £33.00 £26.21 £33.97
Median % change year-on-year +25.91% -22.83% +11.21%
75th Percentile £62.00 £51.93 £55.00
90th Percentile £81.05 £71.38 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £22.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year +46.67% -31.95% +26.01%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +15 1,311 £550 +4.76% 1,025
London +29 765 £550 - 380
UK excluding London +6 564 £514 +2.75% 758
Work from Home -23 314 £500 - 362
South East +20 169 £525 -7.49% 238
North of England -20 166 £550 +10.00% 202
North West -3 109 £575 +15.00% 106
Midlands -7 104 £500 +17.65% 146
East of England +12 60 £550 +10.00% 95
East Midlands +6 54 £488 +18.18% 82
West Midlands -28 50 £613 +36.11% 63
Yorkshire -39 49 £506 -3.57% 77
South West -39 34 £325 -8.59% 67
Scotland -3 23 £470 -8.39% 22
North East -29 8 £155 -81.17% 22
Northern Ireland +5 5 £196 -64.32% 10
Wales -15 3 £190 +29.52% 13

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 37 (2.58%) Confluence
2 19 (1.32%) CMS
3 15 (1.04%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 11 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.49%) SharePoint
6 6 (0.42%) SAS
7 4 (0.28%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.14%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.14%) CICS
9 2 (0.14%) Mule
10 1 (0.070%) Apache
10 1 (0.070%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 42 (2.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 31 (2.16%) Microsoft Office
3 22 (1.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 18 (1.25%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (0.91%) Chatbot
6 12 (0.84%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 10 (0.70%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.63%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.42%) InDesign
10 4 (0.28%) MS Visio
11 3 (0.21%) Notion
11 3 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
12 2 (0.14%) CPLEX
12 2 (0.14%) UserZoom
13 1 (0.070%) 3ds Max
13 1 (0.070%) Maya
13 1 (0.070%) PlantUML
13 1 (0.070%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 39 (2.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.88%) Shopify
3 13 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.70%) Oracle Retail
4 10 (0.70%) SAP CRM
5 8 (0.56%) Magento
6 6 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
6 6 (0.42%) SAP Retail
7 5 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.35%) Payment Gateway
7 5 (0.35%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.35%) SAP SD
8 4 (0.28%) NetSuite
9 3 (0.21%) Finacle
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.21%) SAP CAR
9 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.14%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 173 (12.05%) Azure
2 135 (9.40%) AWS
3 76 (5.29%) GCP
4 66 (4.60%) Power Platform
5 51 (3.55%) Snowflake
6 36 (2.51%) GitHub
7 29 (2.02%) Entra ID
8 25 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
9 24 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
9 24 (1.67%) GitHub Actions
10 22 (1.53%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 21 (1.46%) Figma
12 17 (1.18%) SaaS
13 13 (0.91%) Azure Data Factory
14 12 (0.84%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 12 (0.84%) dbt
15 11 (0.77%) Google Workspace
15 11 (0.77%) Microsoft 365
15 11 (0.77%) Salesforce Service Cloud
16 10 (0.70%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.11%) ATM
1 16 (1.11%) Firewall
2 15 (1.04%) Wireless
3 14 (0.97%) VPN
3 14 (0.97%) WAN
4 13 (0.91%) Network Security
5 9 (0.63%) RFID
6 8 (0.56%) BGP
6 8 (0.56%) IPsec
6 8 (0.56%) LAN
6 8 (0.56%) OSPF
6 8 (0.56%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (0.49%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 7 (0.49%) VLAN
8 6 (0.42%) Cisco Firepower
8 6 (0.42%) SD-WAN
9 5 (0.35%) Cisco ASA
9 5 (0.35%) Cisco Nexus
9 5 (0.35%) VSAN
10 4 (0.28%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (4.46%) Power BI
2 31 (2.16%) BigQuery
3 26 (1.81%) Data Warehouse
4 19 (1.32%) Data Lake
5 18 (1.25%) Metadata
6 17 (1.18%) MySQL
6 17 (1.18%) Tableau
7 16 (1.11%) NoSQL
8 12 (0.84%) Relational Database
8 12 (0.84%) SQL Server
9 8 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (0.56%) MongoDB
9 8 (0.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 7 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
10 7 (0.49%) Power Query
10 7 (0.49%) SAP HANA
11 6 (0.42%) Couchbase
11 6 (0.42%) Looker
11 6 (0.42%) Semantic Layer
12 4 (0.28%) Redis
Development Applications
1 70 (4.87%) JIRA
2 33 (2.30%) Git
3 20 (1.39%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.56%) Subversion
5 5 (0.35%) Claude Code
5 5 (0.35%) GitLab
6 4 (0.28%) Cypress.io
6 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.28%) Maven
7 3 (0.21%) Hudson
7 3 (0.21%) JMeter
7 3 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
7 3 (0.21%) Selenium
8 2 (0.14%) git-flow
8 2 (0.14%) MLflow
8 2 (0.14%) Postman
8 2 (0.14%) WebDriver
8 2 (0.14%) webpack
9 1 (0.070%) Gatling
9 1 (0.070%) IBM UrbanCode
General
1 399 (27.79%) Social Skills
2 330 (22.98%) Finance
3 133 (9.26%) Analytical Skills
4 120 (8.36%) Banking
5 92 (6.41%) Marketing
6 79 (5.50%) Manufacturing
7 63 (4.39%) Retail Banking
8 60 (4.18%) Organisational Skills
9 48 (3.34%) Investment Banking
10 46 (3.20%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (1.88%) Influencing Skills
12 26 (1.81%) Public Sector
13 25 (1.74%) Legal
13 25 (1.74%) Telecoms
14 23 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
14 23 (1.60%) French Language
15 21 (1.46%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (1.25%) Advertising
16 18 (1.25%) Spanish Language
17 15 (1.04%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 234 (16.30%) Architect
2 202 (14.07%) Analyst
3 175 (12.19%) Senior
4 130 (9.05%) Project Manager
5 121 (8.43%) Solutions Architect
6 116 (8.08%) Business Analyst
7 104 (7.24%) Lead
8 71 (4.94%) Developer
9 61 (4.25%) Senior Manager
10 49 (3.41%) Designer
11 45 (3.13%) Product Manager
12 39 (2.72%) Consultant
13 38 (2.65%) Technical Manager
14 37 (2.58%) Enterprise Architect
15 35 (2.44%) Data Analyst
16 34 (2.37%) Data Architect
16 34 (2.37%) Programme Manager
16 34 (2.37%) Senior Project Manager
17 31 (2.16%) Service Manager
18 30 (2.09%) Supply Chain Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (4.67%) REST
2 38 (2.65%) React
3 37 (2.58%) Middleware
4 28 (1.95%) Spring
5 27 (1.88%) Kafka
6 25 (1.74%) Node.js
7 21 (1.46%) VML
8 20 (1.39%) Spring Boot
9 18 (1.25%) Django
9 18 (1.25%) HTML
9 18 (1.25%) RESTful
10 17 (1.18%) CSS
10 17 (1.18%) SOAP
11 14 (0.97%) MACH
11 14 (0.97%) OAuth
12 13 (0.91%) J2EE
13 11 (0.77%) .NET
14 10 (0.70%) JSON
15 9 (0.63%) SAP Fiori
15 9 (0.63%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 83 (5.78%) Product Ownership
2 61 (4.25%) FMCG
3 52 (3.62%) EPoS
4 47 (3.27%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.92%) Driving Licence
6 41 (2.86%) Cloud Native
7 29 (2.02%) Legacy Systems
8 28 (1.95%) Mobile App
9 26 (1.81%) Data Centre
10 22 (1.53%) Data Structures
10 22 (1.53%) Marketing Technology
11 21 (1.46%) Greenfield Project
11 21 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
12 20 (1.39%) Operational Technology
13 17 (1.18%) Mainframe
14 15 (1.04%) AI Agents
14 15 (1.04%) IoT
15 12 (0.84%) Graphic Design
15 12 (0.84%) Management Information System
16 11 (0.77%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 51 (3.55%) Windows
2 24 (1.67%) Linux
3 12 (0.84%) Unix
4 10 (0.70%) Android
5 7 (0.49%) zOS
6 6 (0.42%) Apple iOS
6 6 (0.42%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.42%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.35%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.35%) Windows Server
8 2 (0.14%) Debian
9 1 (0.070%) SUSE
9 1 (0.070%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.070%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 352 (24.51%) Agile
2 350 (24.37%) Stakeholder Management
3 226 (15.74%) E-Commerce
4 198 (13.79%) Problem-Solving
5 179 (12.47%) Migration
6 177 (12.33%) Roadmaps
7 153 (10.65%) Analytics
8 144 (10.03%) AI
9 142 (9.89%) Customer Experience
10 128 (8.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 115 (8.01%) Project Management
12 113 (7.87%) Decision-Making
13 112 (7.80%) CI/CD
14 109 (7.59%) Continuous Improvement
15 106 (7.38%) CRM
15 106 (7.38%) Project Delivery
16 103 (7.17%) ERP
16 103 (7.17%) Logistics
17 99 (6.89%) User Acceptance Testing
18 92 (6.41%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 121 (8.43%) SQL
2 94 (6.55%) Python
3 54 (3.76%) Java
4 30 (2.09%) JavaScript
5 28 (1.95%) TypeScript
6 11 (0.77%) C#
7 9 (0.63%) PowerShell
8 8 (0.56%) ABAP
9 7 (0.49%) Apex Code
9 7 (0.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 7 (0.49%) PL/SQL
9 7 (0.49%) SOQL
10 6 (0.42%) Bash
10 6 (0.42%) Bicep
10 6 (0.42%) Kotlin
10 6 (0.42%) R
10 6 (0.42%) Scala
11 5 (0.35%) Groovy
11 5 (0.35%) Shell Script
11 5 (0.35%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 63 (4.39%) Degree
2 38 (2.65%) Security Cleared
3 23 (1.60%) SC Cleared
4 22 (1.53%) PMP
5 13 (0.91%) DBS Check
6 12 (0.84%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (0.70%) CISSP
8 9 (0.63%) PMI Certification
9 7 (0.49%) CISM
9 7 (0.49%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (0.42%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (0.42%) ITIL Certification
11 5 (0.35%) CCNP
11 5 (0.35%) CCSE
11 5 (0.35%) CCSM
11 5 (0.35%) CSPO
12 4 (0.28%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.28%) City & Guilds
13 3 (0.21%) CRISC
13 3 (0.21%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (5.08%) QA
2 63 (4.39%) Data Quality
3 43 (2.99%) GDPR
4 31 (2.16%) PMO
5 23 (1.60%) Accessibility
6 17 (1.18%) PCI DSS
7 14 (0.97%) SLA
8 9 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.49%) NIST
10 4 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.21%) GAAP
11 3 (0.21%) IFRS
11 3 (0.21%) PSD2
11 3 (0.21%) WCAG
12 2 (0.14%) GRC
12 2 (0.14%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.070%) GxP
13 1 (0.070%) NCSC
System Software
1 33 (2.30%) Active Directory
2 32 (2.23%) Docker
3 12 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
4 7 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (0.49%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.28%) Firmware
7 2 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 42 (2.92%) Terraform
2 32 (2.23%) Kubernetes
3 14 (0.97%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 11 (0.77%) Ansible
5 6 (0.42%) FortiGate
5 6 (0.42%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.35%) Grafana
7 4 (0.28%) SCCM
8 2 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.14%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.14%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.14%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.14%) MOM
8 2 (0.14%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.070%) Argo
9 1 (0.070%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.070%) Istio
9 1 (0.070%) Nagios
9 1 (0.070%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 112 (7.80%) Microsoft
2 102 (7.10%) SAP
3 74 (5.15%) Oracle
4 64 (4.46%) Salesforce
5 57 (3.97%) Databricks
6 48 (3.34%) Google
7 36 (2.51%) Adobe
8 23 (1.60%) Zscaler
9 20 (1.39%) MuleSoft
10 19 (1.32%) ServiceNow
11 16 (1.11%) Cisco
12 14 (0.97%) IBM
12 14 (0.97%) IFS
12 14 (0.97%) Splunk
12 14 (0.97%) Workday
13 13 (0.91%) Fortinet
13 13 (0.91%) Palo Alto
14 12 (0.84%) VMware
15 10 (0.70%) Braze
15 10 (0.70%) Informatica