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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 87 119 91
Rank change year-on-year +32 -28 +10
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,588 750 959
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.96% 2.29% 2.47%
As % of the General category 5.39% 3.60% 4.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 923 395 534
10th Percentile £316 £300 £300
25th Percentile £456 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% +2.50% -5.66%
75th Percentile £663 £635 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £703
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 44 57
10th Percentile £12.76 £14.50 £12.15
25th Percentile £13.51 £15.25 £12.50
Median hourly rate £17.02 £16.30 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year +4.40% - -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £25.15 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £36.43 £22.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £14.36 £15.96 £16.00
% change year-on-year -10.03% -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 29,481 20,839 22,293
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.04% 63.50% 57.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,497 12,935 13,967
10th Percentile £313 £275 £292
25th Percentile £415 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £626 £650
90th Percentile £738 £746 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,248 1,152 1,327
10th Percentile £13.98 £13.25 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.25 £16.86
Median hourly rate £31.50 £25.15 £38.07
Median % change year-on-year +25.25% -33.94% +38.44%
75th Percentile £56.30 £50.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £79.13 £71.48 £70.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +44.53% -41.92% +52.48%

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 19 August 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 19 August 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 19 August 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 +34 1,457 £550 +4.76% 2,180
London +48 830 £568 +3.18% 1,003
UK excluding London +14 644 £525 +5.00% 1,464
Work from Home +3 347 £525 +5.00% 781
North of England -22 190 £550 +10.00% 420
South East +5 177 £525 -4.55% 392
Midlands +24 134 £500 +14.68% 278
North West +1 120 £575 +15.00% 233
East Midlands +14 76 £500 +14.68% 145
East of England +13 69 £550 +4.76% 138
West Midlands -17 57 £575 +31.43% 133
Yorkshire -44 53 £500 - 151
South West -33 44 £400 +12.68% 111
Scotland -1 24 £301 -42.63% 110
North East -27 17 £525 +18.64% 41
Wales -13 4 - - 38
Northern Ireland +8 3 £203 -63.18% 16

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 48 (3.02%) Confluence
2 18 (1.13%) CMS
3 12 (0.76%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 12 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
4 9 (0.57%) SharePoint
5 6 (0.38%) SAS
6 4 (0.25%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.13%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.13%) CICS
8 2 (0.13%) Mule
9 1 (0.063%) Apache
9 1 (0.063%) Mendix
9 1 (0.063%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.063%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 53 (3.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 37 (2.33%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (1.01%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 13 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
6 9 (0.57%) Chatbot
6 9 (0.57%) Photoshop
7 8 (0.50%) Adobe Illustrator
7 8 (0.50%) MS Visio
8 7 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
9 6 (0.38%) InDesign
10 4 (0.25%) CPLEX
10 4 (0.25%) Notion
11 1 (0.063%) PlantUML
11 1 (0.063%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 47 (2.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.76%) Shopify
3 12 (0.76%) 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 ERP
10 3 (0.19%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.19%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.19%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 192 (12.09%) Azure
2 146 (9.19%) AWS
3 75 (4.72%) Power Platform
4 69 (4.35%) GCP
5 54 (3.40%) Snowflake
6 42 (2.64%) GitHub
7 33 (2.08%) Entra ID
8 32 (2.02%) Azure DevOps
9 27 (1.70%) GitHub Actions
10 25 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
11 23 (1.45%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
12 21 (1.32%) Figma
13 20 (1.26%) SaaS
14 15 (0.94%) Azure Data Factory
14 15 (0.94%) Microsoft 365
15 14 (0.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 12 (0.76%) dbt
17 11 (0.69%) OCI
17 11 (0.69%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 11 (0.69%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.39%) WAN
2 20 (1.26%) Firewall
3 16 (1.01%) ATM
3 16 (1.01%) VPN
3 16 (1.01%) Wireless
4 14 (0.88%) LAN
4 14 (0.88%) Network Security
5 11 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
6 8 (0.50%) BGP
6 8 (0.50%) IPsec
6 8 (0.50%) OSPF
6 8 (0.50%) SD-WAN
7 7 (0.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 7 (0.44%) Structured Cabling
7 7 (0.44%) VLAN
8 6 (0.38%) Cisco Firepower
8 6 (0.38%) VSAN
9 5 (0.31%) Cisco ASA
9 5 (0.31%) Cisco Nexus
9 5 (0.31%) RFID
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (4.66%) Power BI
2 38 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
3 29 (1.83%) BigQuery
4 25 (1.57%) Data Lake
5 20 (1.26%) Metadata
5 20 (1.26%) NoSQL
6 18 (1.13%) MongoDB
7 15 (0.94%) SQL Server
7 15 (0.94%) Tableau
8 14 (0.88%) MySQL
9 12 (0.76%) Amazon Redshift
9 12 (0.76%) Power Query
9 12 (0.76%) Relational Database
10 11 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
11 10 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 9 (0.57%) Redis
13 8 (0.50%) Couchbase
14 7 (0.44%) SAP HANA
14 7 (0.44%) Star Schema
15 6 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 77 (4.85%) JIRA
2 28 (1.76%) Git
3 19 (1.20%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.50%) Subversion
5 7 (0.44%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.31%) GitLab
6 5 (0.31%) JMeter
7 4 (0.25%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.25%) Hudson
8 3 (0.19%) Maven
8 3 (0.19%) MLflow
9 2 (0.13%) git-flow
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.13%) Postman
9 2 (0.13%) Selenium
9 2 (0.13%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) webpack
10 1 (0.063%) Pylint
General
1 441 (27.77%) Social Skills
2 381 (23.99%) Finance
3 165 (10.39%) Analytical Skills
4 132 (8.31%) Banking
5 104 (6.55%) Marketing
6 97 (6.11%) Manufacturing
7 69 (4.35%) Retail Banking
8 63 (3.97%) Organisational Skills
9 48 (3.02%) Investment Banking
10 46 (2.90%) Corporate Banking
11 36 (2.27%) Public Sector
12 31 (1.95%) Influencing Skills
13 30 (1.89%) Telecoms
14 29 (1.83%) Legal
15 28 (1.76%) Advertising
16 23 (1.45%) French Language
16 23 (1.45%) Presentation Skills
17 21 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
18 18 (1.13%) Spanish Language
19 15 (0.94%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 257 (16.18%) Architect
2 235 (14.80%) Analyst
3 181 (11.40%) Senior
4 142 (8.94%) Solutions Architect
5 138 (8.69%) Business Analyst
6 125 (7.87%) Project Manager
7 113 (7.12%) Lead
8 85 (5.35%) Developer
9 51 (3.21%) Consultant
10 49 (3.09%) Product Manager
11 48 (3.02%) Senior Manager
12 46 (2.90%) Designer
13 45 (2.83%) Data Analyst
14 40 (2.52%) Service Manager
15 39 (2.46%) Supply Chain Architect
16 37 (2.33%) Enterprise Architect
16 37 (2.33%) Senior Developer
17 35 (2.20%) Data Architect
17 35 (2.20%) Programme Manager
18 34 (2.14%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (4.28%) REST
2 41 (2.58%) React
3 34 (2.14%) Kafka
4 30 (1.89%) Middleware
5 29 (1.83%) Node.js
5 29 (1.83%) Spring
6 22 (1.39%) Spring Boot
7 21 (1.32%) VML
8 20 (1.26%) Django
8 20 (1.26%) RESTful
9 19 (1.20%) MACH
10 18 (1.13%) SOAP
11 15 (0.94%) HTML
12 14 (0.88%) Next.js
12 14 (0.88%) OAuth
13 13 (0.82%) CSS
14 12 (0.76%) Jakarta EE
15 10 (0.63%) .NET
15 10 (0.63%) Lightning Web Components
15 10 (0.63%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 87 (5.48%) Product Ownership
2 66 (4.16%) FMCG
3 58 (3.65%) EPoS
4 56 (3.53%) Onboarding
5 49 (3.09%) Cloud Native
6 33 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
7 31 (1.95%) Driving Licence
8 30 (1.89%) Data Centre
9 27 (1.70%) Mobile App
10 25 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
11 23 (1.45%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.39%) Mainframe
12 22 (1.39%) Marketing Technology
13 21 (1.32%) Operational Technology
14 19 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
14 19 (1.20%) Smartphone
15 18 (1.13%) AI Agents
15 18 (1.13%) Management Information System
16 16 (1.01%) Distributed Systems
16 16 (1.01%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 57 (3.59%) Windows
2 22 (1.39%) Linux
3 11 (0.69%) Android
3 11 (0.69%) Unix
4 8 (0.50%) Apple iOS
5 7 (0.44%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.38%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.31%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.31%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.25%) zOS
9 2 (0.13%) Debian
10 1 (0.063%) SUSE
10 1 (0.063%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.063%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 397 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 378 (23.80%) Agile
3 240 (15.11%) E-Commerce
4 202 (12.72%) Problem-Solving
5 190 (11.96%) Migration
6 175 (11.02%) Roadmaps
7 173 (10.89%) Analytics
8 169 (10.64%) AI
9 163 (10.26%) Logistics
10 140 (8.82%) Customer Experience
11 137 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 131 (8.25%) Decision-Making
13 128 (8.06%) Continuous Improvement
14 122 (7.68%) CI/CD
15 120 (7.56%) Project Management
16 114 (7.18%) CRM
17 109 (6.86%) ERP
18 107 (6.74%) Business Intelligence
18 107 (6.74%) DevOps
18 107 (6.74%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 140 (8.82%) SQL
2 107 (6.74%) Python
3 54 (3.40%) Java
4 33 (2.08%) TypeScript
5 30 (1.89%) JavaScript
6 12 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (0.63%) C#
7 10 (0.63%) PowerShell
8 9 (0.57%) ABAP
8 9 (0.57%) Apex Code
8 9 (0.57%) SOQL
9 8 (0.50%) Bash
10 7 (0.44%) R
10 7 (0.44%) SOSL
11 6 (0.38%) Bicep
11 6 (0.38%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.38%) Scala
12 5 (0.31%) Groovy
13 4 (0.25%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.19%) Korn
Qualifications
1 64 (4.03%) Degree
2 45 (2.83%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.39%) PMP
3 22 (1.39%) SC Cleared
4 13 (0.82%) DBS Check
5 12 (0.76%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
8 6 (0.38%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.38%) CISSP
9 5 (0.31%) CCNP
9 5 (0.31%) CCSE
9 5 (0.31%) CCSM
9 5 (0.31%) CISM
9 5 (0.31%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.31%) CSPO
9 5 (0.31%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 4 (0.25%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.25%) City & Guilds
11 3 (0.19%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (4.85%) QA
2 76 (4.79%) Data Quality
3 42 (2.64%) GDPR
4 25 (1.57%) PMO
5 22 (1.39%) Accessibility
6 15 (0.94%) PCI DSS
6 15 (0.94%) SLA
7 8 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.38%) NIST
9 5 (0.31%) WCAG
10 4 (0.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.19%) GAAP
11 3 (0.19%) GRC
11 3 (0.19%) IFRS
11 3 (0.19%) PSD2
12 2 (0.13%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.063%) GxP
13 1 (0.063%) IASME
System Software
1 39 (2.46%) Docker
2 33 (2.08%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.31%) Firmware
6 5 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.19%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.063%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 53 (3.34%) Terraform
2 42 (2.64%) Kubernetes
3 11 (0.69%) Ansible
4 10 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
5 9 (0.57%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 8 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (0.38%) FortiGate
8 4 (0.25%) SCCM
9 3 (0.19%) Bosun
10 2 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.13%) AirWatch
10 2 (0.13%) CA Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.13%) CloudHub
10 2 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
10 2 (0.13%) logstash
10 2 (0.13%) MOM
10 2 (0.13%) PingFederate
10 2 (0.13%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.063%) Nagios
11 1 (0.063%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 139 (8.75%) Microsoft
2 120 (7.56%) SAP
3 79 (4.97%) Salesforce
4 76 (4.79%) Oracle
5 73 (4.60%) Databricks
6 45 (2.83%) Google
7 38 (2.39%) Adobe
8 24 (1.51%) Zscaler
9 20 (1.26%) MuleSoft
10 18 (1.13%) Workday
11 17 (1.07%) ServiceNow
12 16 (1.01%) Cisco
13 14 (0.88%) IFS
14 13 (0.82%) Fortinet
14 13 (0.82%) IBM
14 13 (0.82%) Palo Alto
14 13 (0.82%) VMware
15 11 (0.69%) Apple
15 11 (0.69%) Informatica
15 11 (0.69%) New Relic