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

6 months to
5 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 121 91
Rank change year-on-year +34 -30 +10
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,599 764 922
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.96% 2.35% 2.43%
As % of the General category 5.36% 3.69% 4.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 927 401 505
10th Percentile £325 £281 £291
25th Percentile £456 £413 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £666 £638 £625
90th Percentile £738 £738 £703
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 62 41
10th Percentile £12.76 - £12.15
25th Percentile £13.51 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £15.92 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -2.54% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £19.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £25.15 £30.12
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.86 £16.34 £16.00
% change year-on-year -15.18% +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 29,820 20,685 21,873
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.26% 63.59% 57.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,611 12,817 13,410
10th Percentile £313 £275 £288
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 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,319 1,170 1,158
10th Percentile £13.70 £13.50 £14.50
25th Percentile £16.76 £16.08 £17.25
Median hourly rate £30.73 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +22.19% -32.93% +36.36%
75th Percentile £55.00 £50.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £68.75 £70.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.46 £21.47 £38.12
% change year-on-year +46.56% -43.69% +46.90%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 +25 1,471 £550 +7.32% 2,997
London +44 833 £569 +3.41% 1,530
UK excluding London +10 656 £525 +5.00% 1,730
Work from Home +2 348 £525 +5.00% 1,114
North of England -21 194 £550 +10.00% 500
South East +3 172 £550 - 432
Midlands +22 143 £513 +19.05% 322
North West -1 119 £550 +10.00% 289
East Midlands +16 82 £500 +14.68% 154
East of England +12 71 £600 +14.29% 169
West Midlands -8 60 £550 +29.41% 168
Yorkshire -44 57 £500 - 169
South West -25 46 £375 +19.05% 161
Scotland -22 24 £402 -23.43% 110
North East -27 18 £525 +18.64% 46
Wales -15 4 - - 36
Northern Ireland +6 3 £203 - 37

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 (3.25%) Confluence
2 21 (1.31%) CMS
3 14 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
4 12 (0.75%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.56%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 5 (0.31%) SAS
7 4 (0.25%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.19%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.13%) Apache
9 2 (0.13%) CICS
9 2 (0.13%) Mule
10 1 (0.063%) Mendix
10 1 (0.063%) Microsoft Exchange
10 1 (0.063%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 59 (3.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 45 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.00%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 15 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
6 11 (0.69%) Spreadsheet
7 10 (0.63%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.56%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.50%) MS Visio
10 7 (0.44%) InDesign
11 6 (0.38%) CPLEX
12 5 (0.31%) Chatbot
13 4 (0.25%) Notion
14 1 (0.063%) 3ds Max
14 1 (0.063%) PlantUML
14 1 (0.063%) Siemens NX
14 1 (0.063%) SOLIDWORKS
14 1 (0.063%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 51 (3.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.81%) Shopify
3 15 (0.94%) SAP Retail
4 11 (0.69%) Dynamics CRM
5 10 (0.63%) Oracle Retail
5 10 (0.63%) SAP CRM
6 8 (0.50%) Magento
7 6 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
8 5 (0.31%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.31%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.25%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.19%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.19%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.19%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.19%) Workday HCM
11 2 (0.13%) SAP Forecasting and Replenishment
Cloud Services
1 204 (12.76%) Azure
2 145 (9.07%) AWS
3 80 (5.00%) Power Platform
4 72 (4.50%) GCP
5 55 (3.44%) Snowflake
6 42 (2.63%) GitHub
7 35 (2.19%) Azure DevOps
8 33 (2.06%) Entra ID
9 27 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
10 26 (1.63%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 25 (1.56%) GitHub Actions
12 23 (1.44%) SaaS
13 20 (1.25%) Figma
14 19 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
15 17 (1.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 17 (1.06%) dbt
16 15 (0.94%) Microsoft 365
17 13 (0.81%) OCI
17 13 (0.81%) Salesforce Service Cloud
18 11 (0.69%) Algolia
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.44%) WAN
2 20 (1.25%) Firewall
3 16 (1.00%) ATM
3 16 (1.00%) Wireless
4 15 (0.94%) LAN
4 15 (0.94%) Network Security
4 15 (0.94%) VPN
5 12 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (0.50%) BGP
6 8 (0.50%) IPsec
6 8 (0.50%) OSPF
6 8 (0.50%) SD-WAN
6 8 (0.50%) Structured Cabling
7 7 (0.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 7 (0.44%) VLAN
8 6 (0.38%) Cisco Firepower
8 6 (0.38%) Internet
8 6 (0.38%) VSAN
9 5 (0.31%) Cisco ASA
9 5 (0.31%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (5.00%) Power BI
2 49 (3.06%) Data Warehouse
3 33 (2.06%) BigQuery
4 30 (1.88%) Data Lake
5 23 (1.44%) Metadata
6 20 (1.25%) NoSQL
6 20 (1.25%) SQL Server
6 20 (1.25%) Tableau
7 18 (1.13%) MongoDB
8 13 (0.81%) Power Query
9 12 (0.75%) Amazon Redshift
9 12 (0.75%) Relational Database
10 11 (0.69%) MySQL
10 11 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
10 11 (0.69%) Star Schema
11 10 (0.63%) Redis
11 10 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 8 (0.50%) Couchbase
12 8 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 7 (0.44%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 81 (5.07%) JIRA
2 27 (1.69%) Git
3 19 (1.19%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.50%) Subversion
5 7 (0.44%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.31%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.31%) Hudson
6 5 (0.31%) JMeter
7 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.25%) GitLab
8 3 (0.19%) Selenium
9 2 (0.13%) git-flow
9 2 (0.13%) MLflow
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.13%) Postman
9 2 (0.13%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) webpack
10 1 (0.063%) HP UFT
10 1 (0.063%) Toad
General
1 446 (27.89%) Social Skills
2 382 (23.89%) Finance
3 166 (10.38%) Analytical Skills
4 133 (8.32%) Banking
5 117 (7.32%) Marketing
6 105 (6.57%) Manufacturing
7 67 (4.19%) Retail Banking
8 66 (4.13%) Organisational Skills
9 43 (2.69%) Corporate Banking
9 43 (2.69%) Investment Banking
10 36 (2.25%) Public Sector
11 32 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
12 30 (1.88%) Telecoms
13 27 (1.69%) Advertising
13 27 (1.69%) Legal
14 24 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
15 23 (1.44%) French Language
16 19 (1.19%) Back Office
17 18 (1.13%) Documentation Skills
17 18 (1.13%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 262 (16.39%) Architect
2 236 (14.76%) Analyst
3 182 (11.38%) Senior
4 145 (9.07%) Solutions Architect
5 135 (8.44%) Business Analyst
6 125 (7.82%) Project Manager
7 116 (7.25%) Lead
8 86 (5.38%) Developer
9 54 (3.38%) Consultant
10 51 (3.19%) Product Manager
11 48 (3.00%) Designer
12 47 (2.94%) Senior Manager
13 44 (2.75%) Data Analyst
14 41 (2.56%) Supply Chain Architect
15 36 (2.25%) Senior Developer
15 36 (2.25%) Service Manager
16 35 (2.19%) Data Architect
17 34 (2.13%) Enterprise Architect
17 34 (2.13%) Technical Manager
17 34 (2.13%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (4.19%) REST
2 52 (3.25%) Terraform
3 43 (2.69%) React
4 35 (2.19%) Kafka
5 31 (1.94%) Node.js
6 27 (1.69%) Spring
7 25 (1.56%) Middleware
8 23 (1.44%) Spring Boot
9 21 (1.31%) MACH
9 21 (1.31%) VML
10 20 (1.25%) Django
10 20 (1.25%) RESTful
10 20 (1.25%) SOAP
11 16 (1.00%) Next.js
12 15 (0.94%) HTML
13 12 (0.75%) Lightning Web Components
13 12 (0.75%) OAuth
14 10 (0.63%) CSS
14 10 (0.63%) PySpark
14 10 (0.63%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 84 (5.25%) Product Ownership
2 68 (4.25%) FMCG
3 57 (3.56%) EPoS
3 57 (3.56%) Onboarding
4 47 (2.94%) Cloud Native
5 36 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
6 28 (1.75%) Data Centre
6 28 (1.75%) Mobile App
7 27 (1.69%) Marketing Technology
8 26 (1.63%) Driving Licence
9 25 (1.56%) Data Structures
10 24 (1.50%) Greenfield Project
10 24 (1.50%) Management Information System
11 22 (1.38%) Mainframe
11 22 (1.38%) Operational Technology
12 19 (1.19%) Distributed Systems
12 19 (1.19%) Smartphone
13 18 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
14 17 (1.06%) AI Agents
14 17 (1.06%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 50 (3.13%) Windows
2 19 (1.19%) Linux
3 11 (0.69%) Android
4 8 (0.50%) Apple iOS
4 8 (0.50%) Unix
5 6 (0.38%) Mac OS
5 6 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.38%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.31%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.19%) zOS
8 2 (0.13%) Debian
8 2 (0.13%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.063%) SUSE
9 1 (0.063%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.063%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 418 (26.14%) Stakeholder Management
2 381 (23.83%) Agile
3 244 (15.26%) E-Commerce
4 195 (12.20%) Migration
5 188 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
6 185 (11.57%) Analytics
7 180 (11.26%) Logistics
8 173 (10.82%) AI
9 170 (10.63%) Roadmaps
10 138 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 137 (8.57%) Customer Experience
12 133 (8.32%) Decision-Making
13 131 (8.19%) Continuous Improvement
14 123 (7.69%) CI/CD
15 120 (7.50%) Project Management
16 117 (7.32%) CRM
17 116 (7.25%) Business Intelligence
18 108 (6.75%) DevOps
18 108 (6.75%) User Acceptance Testing
19 100 (6.25%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 143 (8.94%) SQL
2 111 (6.94%) Python
3 51 (3.19%) Java
4 36 (2.25%) TypeScript
5 27 (1.69%) JavaScript
6 13 (0.81%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 11 (0.69%) Apex Code
8 10 (0.63%) C#
8 10 (0.63%) R
9 9 (0.56%) ABAP
9 9 (0.56%) Bash
9 9 (0.56%) SOQL
10 7 (0.44%) PowerShell
10 7 (0.44%) SOSL
11 6 (0.38%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.38%) Scala
12 5 (0.31%) Groovy
13 4 (0.25%) Bicep
13 4 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.25%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 64 (4.00%) Degree
2 46 (2.88%) Security Cleared
3 23 (1.44%) PMP
4 21 (1.31%) SC Cleared
5 13 (0.81%) DBS Check
6 12 (0.75%) PMI Certification
7 8 (0.50%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (0.44%) Cisco Certification
8 7 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
9 6 (0.38%) CISSP
9 6 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (0.31%) CCNP
10 5 (0.31%) CCSE
10 5 (0.31%) CCSM
10 5 (0.31%) CISM
10 5 (0.31%) CSPO
10 5 (0.31%) Six Sigma Green Belt
11 4 (0.25%) City & Guilds
12 3 (0.19%) Master's Degree
12 3 (0.19%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (4.82%) Data Quality
2 74 (4.63%) QA
3 35 (2.19%) GDPR
4 24 (1.50%) PMO
5 23 (1.44%) Accessibility
6 14 (0.88%) PCI DSS
7 12 (0.75%) SLA
8 7 (0.44%) NIST
9 6 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 5 (0.31%) WCAG
11 4 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.19%) GRC
12 3 (0.19%) PSD2
13 2 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 2 (0.13%) GAAP
13 2 (0.13%) IFRS
13 2 (0.13%) ISO 8583
13 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 1 (0.063%) GxP
14 1 (0.063%) IASME
System Software
1 35 (2.19%) Docker
2 29 (1.81%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.81%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.31%) Firmware
5 5 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.19%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.063%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 39 (2.44%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.69%) Ansible
3 10 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.44%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.38%) FortiGate
6 5 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.25%) SCCM
8 3 (0.19%) Bosun
9 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.13%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.13%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.13%) CloudHub
9 2 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.13%) logstash
9 2 (0.13%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.063%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.063%) Nagios
10 1 (0.063%) vMotion
10 1 (0.063%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 148 (9.26%) Microsoft
2 127 (7.94%) SAP
3 87 (5.44%) Salesforce
4 81 (5.07%) Databricks
5 71 (4.44%) Oracle
6 44 (2.75%) Google
7 39 (2.44%) Adobe
8 25 (1.56%) MuleSoft
8 25 (1.56%) Zscaler
9 17 (1.06%) Cisco
9 17 (1.06%) Workday
10 16 (1.00%) ServiceNow
11 14 (0.88%) Fortinet
12 13 (0.81%) Apple
12 13 (0.81%) IBM
12 13 (0.81%) Palo Alto
12 13 (0.81%) VMware
13 11 (0.69%) IFS
13 11 (0.69%) New Relic
13 11 (0.69%) Splunk