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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 125 94
Rank change year-on-year +34 -31 +11
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,631 744 905
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.97% 2.26% 2.41%
As % of the General category 5.25% 3.57% 4.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 955 419 467
10th Percentile £312 £293 £281
25th Percentile £450 £425 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -
75th Percentile £661 £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 133 63 16
10th Percentile £12.76 £15.25 £13.31
25th Percentile £13.45 £15.37 £15.75
Median hourly rate £14.50 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -11.23% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £19.50 £25.72
90th Percentile £42.75 £25.15 £57.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.81 £16.34 £16.00
% change year-on-year -15.46% +2.09% -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 31,090 20,816 22,001
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.61% 63.21% 58.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,051 12,970 12,980
10th Percentile £313 £275 £280
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £648
90th Percentile £740 £738 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £477
% change year-on-year +5.26% -0.42% -4.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,784 1,246 924
10th Percentile £13.48 £13.51 £14.81
25th Percentile £16.01 £16.19 £17.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £25.01 £32.14
Median % change year-on-year +9.98% -22.20% +11.79%
75th Percentile £53.75 £45.00 £59.96
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £21.39 £30.00
% change year-on-year +28.56% -28.70% +11.11%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 13 October 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 +37 1,491 £550 +4.76% 2,268
London +46 831 £575 +4.55% 1,202
UK excluding London +10 679 £525 +5.00% 1,092
Work from Home +15 355 £550 - 957
North of England -8 186 £550 +10.00% 317
Midlands +34 165 £513 +19.05% 240
South East -11 159 £575 +4.55% 253
North West +4 116 £550 +10.00% 170
East Midlands +18 89 £500 +19.40% 114
East of England +17 83 £538 -2.27% 107
West Midlands +7 75 £550 +20.55% 126
Yorkshire -36 52 £475 -19.15% 125
South West -15 51 £500 +177.78% 92
Scotland -19 25 £180 -64.00% 64
North East -26 18 £525 +288.89% 23
Wales -12 7 £180 -71.20% 25
Northern Ireland +7 4 £191 - 17

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 52 (3.19%) Confluence
2 27 (1.66%) CMS
3 20 (1.23%) SharePoint
4 19 (1.16%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (0.25%) Apache
6 4 (0.25%) SAS
6 4 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
6 4 (0.25%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.18%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.12%) Mule
8 2 (0.12%) WordPress
9 1 (0.061%) CICS
9 1 (0.061%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.061%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.061%) Mendix
9 1 (0.061%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.061%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 78 (4.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 57 (3.49%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (1.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (0.86%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 13 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
6 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
6 11 (0.67%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.43%) Photoshop
8 6 (0.37%) Adobe Illustrator
8 6 (0.37%) CPLEX
9 5 (0.31%) InDesign
10 4 (0.25%) Notion
11 1 (0.061%) 3ds Max
11 1 (0.061%) AutoCAD
11 1 (0.061%) Chatbot
11 1 (0.061%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.061%) Revit
11 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
11 1 (0.061%) SOLIDWORKS
11 1 (0.061%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 63 (3.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.72%) Shopify
3 15 (0.92%) SAP Retail
4 13 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
5 11 (0.67%) SAP CRM
6 9 (0.55%) Magento
6 9 (0.55%) Oracle Retail
7 6 (0.37%) NetSuite
7 6 (0.37%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.31%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.31%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
9 4 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.25%) SAP CAR
9 4 (0.25%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 219 (13.43%) Azure
2 151 (9.26%) AWS
3 78 (4.78%) Power Platform
4 75 (4.60%) GCP
5 54 (3.31%) Snowflake
6 51 (3.13%) GitHub
7 39 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
8 33 (2.02%) Entra ID
9 30 (1.84%) GitHub Actions
10 28 (1.72%) SaaS
11 26 (1.59%) dbt
12 24 (1.47%) Azure Data Factory
12 24 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
12 24 (1.47%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 20 (1.23%) Figma
14 19 (1.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 16 (0.98%) Microsoft 365
15 16 (0.98%) OCI
16 12 (0.74%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 11 (0.67%) Algolia
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.29%) WAN
2 19 (1.16%) Firewall
3 16 (0.98%) ATM
4 14 (0.86%) Network Security
4 14 (0.86%) VPN
5 13 (0.80%) LAN
5 13 (0.80%) Wireless
6 12 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (0.55%) Structured Cabling
8 7 (0.43%) BGP
8 7 (0.43%) Internet
8 7 (0.43%) IPsec
8 7 (0.43%) OSPF
9 6 (0.37%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 6 (0.37%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.37%) VLAN
10 5 (0.31%) DNS
10 5 (0.31%) SMS
11 4 (0.25%) Broadband
11 4 (0.25%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (4.66%) Power BI
2 58 (3.56%) Data Warehouse
3 34 (2.08%) Data Lake
4 27 (1.66%) BigQuery
5 23 (1.41%) SQL Server
6 22 (1.35%) Metadata
6 22 (1.35%) Tableau
7 19 (1.16%) MongoDB
8 18 (1.10%) NoSQL
9 16 (0.98%) PostgreSQL
10 15 (0.92%) Relational Database
10 15 (0.92%) SAP BW
11 14 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
11 14 (0.86%) MySQL
11 14 (0.86%) SAP HANA
12 12 (0.74%) Power Query
13 11 (0.67%) Redis
13 11 (0.67%) Star Schema
14 10 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 9 (0.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 75 (4.60%) JIRA
2 24 (1.47%) Git
3 23 (1.41%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.49%) Subversion
5 7 (0.43%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.31%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.31%) JMeter
7 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.25%) GitLab
8 3 (0.18%) Hudson
8 3 (0.18%) Postman
9 2 (0.12%) git-flow
9 2 (0.12%) LSMW
9 2 (0.12%) MLflow
9 2 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.12%) Pylint
9 2 (0.12%) Selenium
9 2 (0.12%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 464 (28.45%) Social Skills
2 363 (22.26%) Finance
3 155 (9.50%) Analytical Skills
4 142 (8.71%) Marketing
5 117 (7.17%) Banking
6 115 (7.05%) Manufacturing
7 74 (4.54%) Organisational Skills
8 58 (3.56%) Retail Banking
9 38 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (2.27%) Corporate Banking
11 36 (2.21%) Investment Banking
12 33 (2.02%) Public Sector
13 32 (1.96%) Advertising
14 26 (1.59%) Legal
15 25 (1.53%) Telecoms
16 19 (1.16%) French Language
17 16 (0.98%) Back Office
17 16 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 15 (0.92%) Automotive
18 15 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 247 (15.14%) Architect
2 233 (14.29%) Analyst
3 169 (10.36%) Senior
4 144 (8.83%) Solutions Architect
5 132 (8.09%) Business Analyst
6 116 (7.11%) Lead
6 116 (7.11%) Project Manager
7 86 (5.27%) Developer
8 61 (3.74%) Consultant
9 55 (3.37%) Product Manager
10 50 (3.07%) Data Analyst
11 46 (2.82%) Designer
12 43 (2.64%) Supply Chain Architect
13 41 (2.51%) Senior Manager
14 35 (2.15%) EPoS Engineer
14 35 (2.15%) Service Manager
15 34 (2.08%) Senior Developer
15 34 (2.08%) Service Transition Manager
15 34 (2.08%) Transition Manager
16 32 (1.96%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (4.41%) REST
2 48 (2.94%) Terraform
3 42 (2.58%) Kafka
4 40 (2.45%) React
5 30 (1.84%) Node.js
5 30 (1.84%) Spring
6 26 (1.59%) Spring Boot
7 24 (1.47%) RESTful
8 23 (1.41%) Django
8 23 (1.41%) Middleware
8 23 (1.41%) SOAP
9 20 (1.23%) Next.js
10 18 (1.10%) MACH
10 18 (1.10%) SAP Fiori
11 16 (0.98%) .NET
11 16 (0.98%) HTML
12 14 (0.86%) VML
13 13 (0.80%) SAPUI5
14 11 (0.67%) CSS
14 11 (0.67%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 83 (5.09%) Product Ownership
2 82 (5.03%) EPoS
3 72 (4.41%) FMCG
4 64 (3.92%) Driving Licence
5 59 (3.62%) Onboarding
6 51 (3.13%) Cloud Native
7 37 (2.27%) Management Information System
8 34 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
9 31 (1.90%) Mobile App
10 30 (1.84%) Marketing Technology
11 28 (1.72%) Greenfield Project
11 28 (1.72%) Smartphone
12 24 (1.47%) Data Centre
13 22 (1.35%) Data Structures
14 21 (1.29%) Distributed Systems
14 21 (1.29%) Operational Technology
15 17 (1.04%) AI Agents
15 17 (1.04%) Credit Risk
16 16 (0.98%) Data Protection Act
16 16 (0.98%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 50 (3.07%) Windows
2 17 (1.04%) Linux
3 12 (0.74%) Android
4 9 (0.55%) Unix
5 7 (0.43%) Apple iOS
5 7 (0.43%) macOS
6 6 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.37%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.25%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.18%) zOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
10 1 (0.061%) OS/2
10 1 (0.061%) SUSE
10 1 (0.061%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.061%) VMS
10 1 (0.061%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 428 (26.24%) Stakeholder Management
2 369 (22.62%) Agile
3 265 (16.25%) E-Commerce
4 190 (11.65%) Migration
5 189 (11.59%) Logistics
6 187 (11.47%) Analytics
7 168 (10.30%) AI
8 162 (9.93%) Problem-Solving
9 160 (9.81%) Roadmaps
10 149 (9.14%) Decision-Making
11 137 (8.40%) CRM
12 136 (8.34%) Customer Experience
13 133 (8.15%) Continuous Improvement
14 129 (7.91%) CI/CD
15 123 (7.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 119 (7.30%) Customer Service
17 115 (7.05%) DevOps
18 111 (6.81%) Data Modelling
19 109 (6.68%) Business Intelligence
20 107 (6.56%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 159 (9.75%) SQL
2 118 (7.23%) Python
3 52 (3.19%) Java
4 33 (2.02%) TypeScript
5 28 (1.72%) JavaScript
6 14 (0.86%) ABAP
7 12 (0.74%) C#
7 12 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 10 (0.61%) R
9 9 (0.55%) Apex Code
9 9 (0.55%) Bash
10 7 (0.43%) PL/SQL
10 7 (0.43%) PowerShell
10 7 (0.43%) SOQL
11 5 (0.31%) Groovy
11 5 (0.31%) Shell Script
11 5 (0.31%) SOSL
12 4 (0.25%) Bicep
12 4 (0.25%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.18%) Scala
Qualifications
1 65 (3.99%) Degree
2 29 (1.78%) Security Cleared
3 23 (1.41%) PMP
4 14 (0.86%) ITIL Certification
5 12 (0.74%) PMI Certification
6 10 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (0.55%) DBS Check
8 8 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (0.49%) SC Cleared
9 6 (0.37%) CISSP
10 5 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (0.31%) CISM
10 5 (0.31%) City & Guilds
10 5 (0.31%) Six Sigma Green Belt
11 4 (0.25%) AWS Certification
11 4 (0.25%) SAP Certification
12 3 (0.18%) APMG
12 3 (0.18%) CCNP
12 3 (0.18%) CCSE
12 3 (0.18%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (5.40%) Data Quality
2 76 (4.66%) QA
3 28 (1.72%) GDPR
4 26 (1.59%) PMO
5 24 (1.47%) Accessibility
6 13 (0.80%) PCI DSS
7 10 (0.61%) SLA
8 6 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 5 (0.31%) NIST
9 5 (0.31%) WCAG
10 4 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.18%) PSD2
12 2 (0.12%) GAAP
12 2 (0.12%) GRC
12 2 (0.12%) IFRS
13 1 (0.061%) Basel III
13 1 (0.061%) HL7
13 1 (0.061%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.061%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 34 (2.08%) Docker
2 24 (1.47%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.31%) Firmware
6 4 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.061%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.061%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (2.51%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.61%) Ansible
2 10 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.43%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 5 (0.31%) FortiGate
4 5 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (0.25%) Bosun
6 3 (0.18%) Kubeflow
6 3 (0.18%) SCCM
7 2 (0.12%) AirWatch
7 2 (0.12%) CloudHub
7 2 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.12%) logstash
7 2 (0.12%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.061%) Argo
8 1 (0.061%) CSIRT
8 1 (0.061%) Grafana
8 1 (0.061%) Nagios
8 1 (0.061%) vMotion
8 1 (0.061%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 162 (9.93%) Microsoft
2 142 (8.71%) SAP
3 86 (5.27%) Salesforce
4 77 (4.72%) Databricks
5 68 (4.17%) Oracle
6 56 (3.43%) Google
7 33 (2.02%) Adobe
8 31 (1.90%) MuleSoft
9 23 (1.41%) Zscaler
10 20 (1.23%) IBM
11 19 (1.16%) Cisco
12 18 (1.10%) Workday
13 13 (0.80%) New Relic
14 12 (0.74%) Apple
14 12 (0.74%) ServiceNow
14 12 (0.74%) Splunk
15 11 (0.67%) Braze
16 10 (0.61%) Fortinet
16 10 (0.61%) Informatica
16 10 (0.61%) JDA