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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 122 93
Rank change year-on-year +38 -29 +4
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,618 765 924
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.99% 2.34% 2.41%
As % of the General category 5.38% 3.67% 4.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 931 405 499
10th Percentile £325 £287 £274
25th Percentile £456 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £675 £638 £625
90th Percentile £738 £737 £705
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 131 64 39
10th Percentile £12.76 - £12.15
25th Percentile £13.50 £15.25 £14.63
Median hourly rate £15.24 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -6.70% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £20.72 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £25.15 £31.85
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 30,059 20,818 22,215
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.53% 63.69% 57.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,649 12,901 13,405
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 2,459 1,196 1,125
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.69
25th Percentile £16.38 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £29.96 £25.15 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.13% -32.03% +34.55%
75th Percentile £53.87 £48.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.25 £70.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £21.30 £37.00
% change year-on-year +40.85% -42.43% +42.31%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +29 1,488 £550 +5.77% 3,628
London +45 833 £573 +4.09% 1,970
UK excluding London +10 674 £525 +5.00% 1,908
Work from Home +4 360 £525 +5.00% 1,541
North of England -16 197 £550 +10.00% 557
South East +11 169 £575 +4.55% 474
Midlands +32 152 £550 +29.41% 377
North West +4 122 £550 +10.00% 311
East Midlands +18 86 £500 +14.68% 186
East of England +10 79 £550 +4.76% 179
West Midlands -1 65 £575 +35.29% 191
Yorkshire -35 57 £500 - 194
South West -33 47 £350 +11.03% 166
Scotland -12 24 £385 -24.93% 120
North East -27 18 £525 +18.64% 57
Wales -12 4 - - 44
Northern Ireland +6 3 £203 - 28

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 51 (3.15%) Confluence
2 22 (1.36%) CMS
3 14 (0.87%) Apache Airflow
3 14 (0.87%) SharePoint
4 8 (0.49%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 5 (0.31%) SAS
6 4 (0.25%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.19%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.12%) Apache
8 2 (0.12%) CICS
8 2 (0.12%) Mule
8 2 (0.12%) WordPress
9 1 (0.062%) Mendix
9 1 (0.062%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.062%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 68 (4.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (2.97%) Microsoft Office
3 23 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (0.99%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 13 (0.80%) Microsoft Project
6 12 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
7 10 (0.62%) Photoshop
8 9 (0.56%) Adobe Illustrator
9 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
10 7 (0.43%) InDesign
11 6 (0.37%) CPLEX
12 5 (0.31%) Chatbot
13 4 (0.25%) Notion
14 1 (0.062%) 3ds Max
14 1 (0.062%) PlantUML
14 1 (0.062%) Siemens NX
14 1 (0.062%) SOLIDWORKS
14 1 (0.062%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 54 (3.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.67%) Shopify
3 15 (0.93%) SAP Retail
4 11 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
5 10 (0.62%) Oracle Retail
5 10 (0.62%) SAP CRM
6 8 (0.49%) Magento
7 6 (0.37%) 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
8 5 (0.31%) Workday HCM
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
Cloud Services
1 208 (12.86%) Azure
2 145 (8.96%) AWS
3 79 (4.88%) Power Platform
4 74 (4.57%) GCP
5 56 (3.46%) Snowflake
6 45 (2.78%) GitHub
7 36 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
8 33 (2.04%) Entra ID
9 28 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
10 27 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
11 25 (1.55%) SaaS
11 25 (1.55%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
12 20 (1.24%) Figma
13 19 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
14 18 (1.11%) dbt
15 17 (1.05%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 15 (0.93%) Microsoft 365
16 15 (0.93%) OCI
17 13 (0.80%) Salesforce Service Cloud
18 11 (0.68%) Algolia
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.36%) WAN
2 20 (1.24%) Firewall
3 16 (0.99%) ATM
4 15 (0.93%) VPN
5 14 (0.87%) Network Security
5 14 (0.87%) Wireless
6 13 (0.80%) LAN
7 12 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
8 9 (0.56%) Structured Cabling
9 8 (0.49%) BGP
9 8 (0.49%) IPsec
9 8 (0.49%) OSPF
10 7 (0.43%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 7 (0.43%) Internet
10 7 (0.43%) SD-WAN
10 7 (0.43%) VLAN
11 5 (0.31%) Cisco Firepower
11 5 (0.31%) VSAN
12 4 (0.25%) Cisco Nexus
12 4 (0.25%) RFID
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (4.88%) Power BI
2 51 (3.15%) Data Warehouse
3 32 (1.98%) BigQuery
4 30 (1.85%) Data Lake
5 23 (1.42%) Metadata
6 20 (1.24%) SQL Server
6 20 (1.24%) Tableau
7 18 (1.11%) MongoDB
7 18 (1.11%) NoSQL
8 13 (0.80%) Power Query
9 12 (0.74%) Amazon Redshift
9 12 (0.74%) Relational Database
10 11 (0.68%) MySQL
10 11 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
10 11 (0.68%) Star Schema
11 10 (0.62%) Redis
11 10 (0.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 9 (0.56%) SAP BW
12 9 (0.56%) SAP HANA
13 8 (0.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 79 (4.88%) JIRA
2 24 (1.48%) Git
3 21 (1.30%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.49%) Subversion
5 7 (0.43%) 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 2 (0.12%) git-flow
8 2 (0.12%) MLflow
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.12%) Postman
8 2 (0.12%) Selenium
8 2 (0.12%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.12%) webpack
9 1 (0.062%) Moq
9 1 (0.062%) Zephyr
General
1 464 (28.68%) Social Skills
2 383 (23.67%) Finance
3 169 (10.44%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (7.91%) Banking
4 128 (7.91%) Marketing
5 111 (6.86%) Manufacturing
6 72 (4.45%) Organisational Skills
7 64 (3.96%) Retail Banking
8 43 (2.66%) Corporate Banking
9 42 (2.60%) Investment Banking
10 36 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
11 35 (2.16%) Public Sector
12 30 (1.85%) Telecoms
13 28 (1.73%) Legal
14 27 (1.67%) Advertising
15 23 (1.42%) Presentation Skills
16 22 (1.36%) French Language
17 18 (1.11%) Back Office
17 18 (1.11%) Spanish Language
18 17 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 268 (16.56%) Architect
2 237 (14.65%) Analyst
3 181 (11.19%) Senior
4 150 (9.27%) Solutions Architect
5 138 (8.53%) Business Analyst
6 121 (7.48%) Project Manager
7 119 (7.35%) Lead
8 83 (5.13%) Developer
9 54 (3.34%) Consultant
10 52 (3.21%) Product Manager
11 48 (2.97%) Designer
12 47 (2.90%) Senior Manager
13 46 (2.84%) Data Analyst
14 42 (2.60%) Supply Chain Architect
15 35 (2.16%) Service Manager
16 34 (2.10%) Data Architect
16 34 (2.10%) Enterprise Architect
16 34 (2.10%) Senior Developer
16 34 (2.10%) Service Transition Manager
16 34 (2.10%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (4.08%) REST
2 53 (3.28%) Terraform
3 43 (2.66%) React
4 36 (2.22%) Kafka
5 30 (1.85%) Node.js
6 26 (1.61%) Spring
7 23 (1.42%) Spring Boot
8 22 (1.36%) Middleware
9 21 (1.30%) MACH
10 20 (1.24%) Django
10 20 (1.24%) SOAP
10 20 (1.24%) VML
11 19 (1.17%) RESTful
12 16 (0.99%) HTML
12 16 (0.99%) Next.js
13 12 (0.74%) OAuth
13 12 (0.74%) SAP Fiori
14 11 (0.68%) CSS
14 11 (0.68%) PySpark
15 10 (0.62%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 82 (5.07%) Product Ownership
2 71 (4.39%) FMCG
3 58 (3.58%) Onboarding
4 56 (3.46%) EPoS
5 50 (3.09%) Cloud Native
6 35 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
7 32 (1.98%) Driving Licence
8 30 (1.85%) Management Information System
9 28 (1.73%) Mobile App
10 27 (1.67%) Marketing Technology
11 26 (1.61%) Data Centre
12 25 (1.55%) Data Structures
12 25 (1.55%) Greenfield Project
13 22 (1.36%) Mainframe
13 22 (1.36%) Operational Technology
14 21 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
15 19 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
15 19 (1.17%) Smartphone
16 17 (1.05%) AI Agents
16 17 (1.05%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 52 (3.21%) Windows
2 18 (1.11%) Linux
3 11 (0.68%) Android
4 8 (0.49%) Apple iOS
4 8 (0.49%) Unix
5 6 (0.37%) Mac OS
5 6 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (0.37%) Ubuntu
6 5 (0.31%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.19%) zOS
8 2 (0.12%) Debian
8 2 (0.12%) Windows Server
9 1 (0.062%) OS/2
9 1 (0.062%) SUSE
9 1 (0.062%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.062%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 422 (26.08%) Stakeholder Management
2 372 (22.99%) Agile
3 245 (15.14%) E-Commerce
4 194 (11.99%) Migration
5 187 (11.56%) Analytics
6 186 (11.50%) Problem-Solving
7 185 (11.43%) Logistics
8 175 (10.82%) AI
9 174 (10.75%) Roadmaps
10 142 (8.78%) Customer Experience
10 142 (8.78%) Decision-Making
11 137 (8.47%) Continuous Improvement
12 134 (8.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 127 (7.85%) CRM
14 122 (7.54%) CI/CD
15 117 (7.23%) Project Management
16 115 (7.11%) Business Intelligence
17 112 (6.92%) Customer Service
18 106 (6.55%) DevOps
18 106 (6.55%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 145 (8.96%) SQL
2 110 (6.80%) Python
3 49 (3.03%) Java
4 35 (2.16%) TypeScript
5 25 (1.55%) JavaScript
6 13 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 11 (0.68%) ABAP
8 10 (0.62%) C#
8 10 (0.62%) R
9 9 (0.56%) Apex Code
9 9 (0.56%) Bash
10 7 (0.43%) PowerShell
10 7 (0.43%) SOQL
11 6 (0.37%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.31%) Groovy
12 5 (0.31%) Scala
12 5 (0.31%) SOSL
13 4 (0.25%) Bicep
13 4 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.25%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 60 (3.71%) Degree
2 45 (2.78%) Security Cleared
3 23 (1.42%) PMP
4 21 (1.30%) SC Cleared
5 12 (0.74%) DBS Check
5 12 (0.74%) PMI Certification
6 10 (0.62%) ITIL Certification
7 8 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (0.37%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.37%) CISSP
8 6 (0.37%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (0.31%) CISM
9 5 (0.31%) City & Guilds
9 5 (0.31%) CSPO
9 5 (0.31%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 4 (0.25%) CCNP
10 4 (0.25%) CCSE
10 4 (0.25%) CCSM
11 3 (0.19%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.19%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (4.88%) Data Quality
2 73 (4.51%) QA
3 36 (2.22%) GDPR
4 25 (1.55%) PMO
5 23 (1.42%) Accessibility
6 14 (0.87%) PCI DSS
7 11 (0.68%) SLA
8 7 (0.43%) NIST
9 6 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 5 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.31%) WCAG
11 3 (0.19%) GRC
11 3 (0.19%) PSD2
12 2 (0.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.12%) GAAP
12 2 (0.12%) IFRS
12 2 (0.12%) ISO 8583
12 2 (0.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 1 (0.062%) GxP
13 1 (0.062%) HL7
System Software
1 33 (2.04%) Docker
2 29 (1.79%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
4 7 (0.43%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.31%) Firmware
5 5 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.12%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.062%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 38 (2.35%) Kubernetes
2 11 (0.68%) Ansible
3 10 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (0.43%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.37%) FortiGate
6 5 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.25%) SCCM
8 3 (0.19%) Bosun
9 2 (0.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.12%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.12%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.12%) CloudHub
9 2 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.12%) logstash
9 2 (0.12%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.12%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.062%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.062%) Nagios
10 1 (0.062%) vMotion
10 1 (0.062%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 152 (9.39%) Microsoft
2 133 (8.22%) SAP
3 90 (5.56%) Salesforce
4 81 (5.01%) Databricks
5 72 (4.45%) Oracle
6 46 (2.84%) Google
7 38 (2.35%) Adobe
8 28 (1.73%) MuleSoft
9 25 (1.55%) Zscaler
10 19 (1.17%) Cisco
10 19 (1.17%) Workday
11 16 (0.99%) IBM
11 16 (0.99%) ServiceNow
12 13 (0.80%) Apple
12 13 (0.80%) Fortinet
13 12 (0.74%) Palo Alto
14 11 (0.68%) Braze
14 11 (0.68%) New Relic
14 11 (0.68%) Splunk
14 11 (0.68%) VMware