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 30 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 94 86
Rank change year-on-year -27 -8 +5
Contract jobs citing Retail 977 790 1,074
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.07% 2.70% 2.46%
As % of the General category 3.80% 4.28% 4.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 588 426 602
10th Percentile £206 £301 £300
25th Percentile £380 £413 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £509
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +3.19% -3.10%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £729 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 20 86
10th Percentile £13.34 £15.12 £11.44
25th Percentile £16.10 £16.30 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £32.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.38% +100.00% -19.23%
75th Percentile £35.65 £58.31 £21.37
90th Percentile £46.25 £87.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.18 £16.30 £15.90
% change year-on-year +11.50% +2.52% -19.74%

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 25,716 18,460 25,387
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.50% 63.17% 58.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,865 11,792 16,033
10th Percentile £305 £300 £270
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £496
% change year-on-year - -4.23% -0.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,644 793 1,939
10th Percentile £13.72 £14.20 £12.78
25th Percentile £17.59 £18.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £29.02 £28.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.64% -6.67% -14.29%
75th Percentile £60.06 £56.00 £51.91
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £28.13
% change year-on-year +2.47% -10.58% -7.91%

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 30 April 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 30 April 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 30 April 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 -21 892 £500 -4.76% 926
London -21 480 £525 -4.55% 296
UK excluding London -17 422 £475 -5.00% 748
Work from Home -55 238 £500 -2.44% 306
North of England -38 125 £500 +11.11% 186
South East -18 115 £375 -26.83% 243
Midlands -32 84 £495 -1.00% 130
North West -6 73 £500 - 115
East of England -16 49 £520 -5.45% 103
Yorkshire -47 47 £513 +38.51% 54
East Midlands -3 45 £495 -1.00% 71
West Midlands -47 39 £500 +11.11% 59
South West -21 24 £319 -25.44% 69
Scotland +4 22 £450 -14.89% 27
North East -15 5 £206 -72.50% 21
Northern Ireland +3 2 £190 -44.48% 8
Wales -13 1 £190 +29.52% 19

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 39 (3.99%) Confluence
2 18 (1.84%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 10 (1.02%) CMS
5 8 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.51%) SAS
7 4 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.20%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.20%) Magnolia
9 1 (0.10%) CICS
9 1 (0.10%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.10%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.10%) WordPress
Applications
1 32 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.94%) Microsoft Project
3 16 (1.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (1.33%) Chatbot
4 13 (1.33%) Microsoft Office
5 11 (1.13%) MS Visio
6 8 (0.82%) Photoshop
7 6 (0.61%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.31%) InDesign
9 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.20%) Trello
9 2 (0.20%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.10%) 3ds Max
10 1 (0.10%) Adobe After Effects
10 1 (0.10%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.10%) Maya
10 1 (0.10%) PlantUML
10 1 (0.10%) SOLIDWORKS
10 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 22 (2.25%) Shopify
2 18 (1.84%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (1.33%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.82%) Oracle Retail
5 7 (0.72%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 7 (0.72%) SAP Retail
6 6 (0.61%) Finacle
7 5 (0.51%) Oracle EBS
8 4 (0.41%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.41%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.41%) Temenos T24
9 3 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
9 3 (0.31%) SAP Payroll
9 3 (0.31%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 2 (0.20%) BambooHR
10 2 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.20%) Sage X3
10 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
10 2 (0.20%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.20%) Sprinklr
Cloud Services
1 92 (9.42%) Azure
2 68 (6.96%) AWS
3 56 (5.73%) GCP
4 52 (5.32%) Power Platform
5 28 (2.87%) Snowflake
6 27 (2.76%) Dynamics 365
7 20 (2.05%) GitHub
8 19 (1.94%) Microsoft 365
9 18 (1.84%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (1.74%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
11 16 (1.64%) SaaS
12 14 (1.43%) Entra ID
13 13 (1.33%) BigCommerce
13 13 (1.33%) Figma
13 13 (1.33%) Google Workspace
14 12 (1.23%) GitHub Actions
15 11 (1.13%) Cloud Run
15 11 (1.13%) Miro
16 10 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
17 8 (0.82%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.74%) VPN
2 16 (1.64%) RFID
3 14 (1.43%) Firewall
4 13 (1.33%) WAN
5 12 (1.23%) Wireless
6 8 (0.82%) NFC
7 7 (0.72%) LAN
8 6 (0.61%) BGP
8 6 (0.61%) Cisco Nexus
8 6 (0.61%) OSPF
8 6 (0.61%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (0.41%) EIGRP
9 4 (0.41%) VoIP
10 3 (0.31%) Cisco Firepower
10 3 (0.31%) MPLS
10 3 (0.31%) Network Security
10 3 (0.31%) SD-WAN
10 3 (0.31%) WLAN
11 2 (0.20%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 2 (0.20%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (4.71%) Power BI
2 25 (2.56%) BigQuery
3 17 (1.74%) Data Warehouse
4 14 (1.43%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.23%) MySQL
5 12 (1.23%) Tableau
6 10 (1.02%) Metadata
7 8 (0.82%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.72%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.61%) Data Vault
9 6 (0.61%) NoSQL
9 6 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
10 4 (0.41%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.41%) Snowflake Schema
11 3 (0.31%) Big Data
11 3 (0.31%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.31%) MongoDB
11 3 (0.31%) OLAP
11 3 (0.31%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.31%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 74 (7.57%) JIRA
2 15 (1.54%) Git
3 11 (1.13%) GitLab
4 9 (0.92%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.51%) ERwin
6 4 (0.41%) Maven
7 3 (0.31%) Selenium
7 3 (0.31%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.20%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.20%) Hudson
8 2 (0.20%) MLflow
8 2 (0.20%) PowerDesigner
8 2 (0.20%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.10%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.10%) HP UFT
9 1 (0.10%) JMeter
9 1 (0.10%) Mockito
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle APEX
9 1 (0.10%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.10%) Toad
General
1 302 (30.91%) Social Skills
2 242 (24.77%) Finance
3 108 (11.05%) Analytical Skills
4 86 (8.80%) Banking
5 55 (5.63%) Marketing
6 45 (4.61%) Manufacturing
7 41 (4.20%) Organisational Skills
8 38 (3.89%) Retail Banking
9 32 (3.28%) Investment Banking
10 30 (3.07%) Corporate Banking
11 29 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
11 29 (2.97%) Public Sector
12 26 (2.66%) Presentation Skills
13 25 (2.56%) Influencing Skills
14 23 (2.35%) Telecoms
15 17 (1.74%) Legal
16 14 (1.43%) Back Office
17 10 (1.02%) Pharmaceutical
17 10 (1.02%) Private Banking
18 8 (0.82%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 163 (16.68%) Analyst
2 137 (14.02%) Architect
3 120 (12.28%) Senior
4 110 (11.26%) Project Manager
5 97 (9.93%) Business Analyst
6 75 (7.68%) Lead
7 49 (5.02%) Senior Manager
7 49 (5.02%) Solutions Architect
8 37 (3.79%) Consultant
9 34 (3.48%) Technical Manager
10 30 (3.07%) Designer
10 30 (3.07%) Developer
11 26 (2.66%) Enterprise Architect
11 26 (2.66%) Senior Project Manager
12 24 (2.46%) Data Architect
13 22 (2.25%) Programme Manager
14 19 (1.94%) Product Manager
15 17 (1.74%) Data Analyst
15 17 (1.74%) Senior Analyst
16 16 (1.64%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.07%) Middleware
2 28 (2.87%) VML
3 27 (2.76%) REST
4 19 (1.94%) React
4 19 (1.94%) Spring
5 14 (1.43%) Node.js
6 13 (1.33%) Spring Boot
7 12 (1.23%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.02%) CSS
8 10 (1.02%) PySpark
9 9 (0.92%) Kafka
10 7 (0.72%) HTML
10 7 (0.72%) LangChain
10 7 (0.72%) SOAP
11 6 (0.61%) jQuery
11 6 (0.61%) JSON
11 6 (0.61%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.51%) .NET
12 5 (0.51%) OAuth
12 5 (0.51%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 64 (6.55%) Product Ownership
2 33 (3.38%) Driving Licence
3 32 (3.28%) Cloud Native
4 29 (2.97%) EPoS
5 26 (2.66%) Onboarding
6 25 (2.56%) Self-Motivation
7 23 (2.35%) Management Information System
8 22 (2.25%) Data Centre
9 20 (2.05%) Data Structures
9 20 (2.05%) FMCG
9 20 (2.05%) Mainframe
10 16 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.54%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.13%) Greenfield Project
13 10 (1.02%) IoT
13 10 (1.02%) Virtual Team
14 9 (0.92%) AI Agents
15 8 (0.82%) Clustering
15 8 (0.82%) Reference Data
16 7 (0.72%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 39 (3.99%) Windows
2 19 (1.94%) Linux
3 7 (0.72%) Mac OS
3 7 (0.72%) zOS
4 6 (0.61%) Unix
5 5 (0.51%) Android
5 5 (0.51%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.20%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.10%) VMS
7 1 (0.10%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 216 (22.11%) Stakeholder Management
2 214 (21.90%) Agile
3 185 (18.94%) Problem-Solving
4 135 (13.82%) E-Commerce
5 125 (12.79%) Migration
6 115 (11.77%) Roadmaps
7 114 (11.67%) Project Management
8 97 (9.93%) Analytics
9 94 (9.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 90 (9.21%) Customer Experience
11 86 (8.80%) ERP
12 83 (8.50%) AI
13 76 (7.78%) Project Delivery
13 76 (7.78%) Workshop Facilitation
14 73 (7.47%) Continuous Improvement
15 72 (7.37%) Change Management
16 71 (7.27%) Decision-Making
17 70 (7.16%) Scrum
18 65 (6.65%) User Acceptance Testing
19 61 (6.24%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 74 (7.57%) SQL
2 62 (6.35%) Python
3 31 (3.17%) Java
4 22 (2.25%) JavaScript
5 13 (1.33%) PowerShell
6 10 (1.02%) Shell Script
7 9 (0.92%) TypeScript
8 8 (0.82%) Bash
9 6 (0.61%) Kusto Query Language
10 5 (0.51%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.51%) Kotlin
10 5 (0.51%) PL/SQL
10 5 (0.51%) SOQL
10 5 (0.51%) SOSL
11 4 (0.41%) C#
11 4 (0.41%) Scala
11 4 (0.41%) VBA
12 2 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 2 (0.20%) Korn
12 2 (0.20%) R
Qualifications
1 47 (4.81%) Degree
2 35 (3.58%) Security Cleared
3 24 (2.46%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.84%) PMP
5 14 (1.43%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.92%) CSPO
7 8 (0.82%) BPSS Clearance
8 7 (0.72%) APMP
8 7 (0.72%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.61%) CCNP
9 6 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (0.61%) CISSP
9 6 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (0.51%) MBA
11 4 (0.41%) CCIE
11 4 (0.41%) DBS Check
12 3 (0.31%) Azure Certification
12 3 (0.31%) CISM
12 3 (0.31%) CRISC
12 3 (0.31%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (5.42%) QA
2 51 (5.22%) Data Quality
3 37 (3.79%) GDPR
4 30 (3.07%) PMO
5 19 (1.94%) SLA
6 14 (1.43%) Accessibility
7 10 (1.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (0.92%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.51%) NIST
10 4 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.41%) IFRS
11 3 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.20%) GRC
12 2 (0.20%) WCAG
13 1 (0.10%) COBIT
13 1 (0.10%) GxP
13 1 (0.10%) IFRS 9
13 1 (0.10%) NCSC
13 1 (0.10%) Solvency II
System Software
1 22 (2.25%) Active Directory
2 18 (1.84%) Docker
3 5 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.51%) VMware NSX
4 4 (0.41%) RACF
4 4 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.10%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 22 (2.25%) Terraform
2 14 (1.43%) Kubernetes
3 9 (0.92%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (0.72%) Grafana
5 7 (0.72%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 6 (0.61%) Argo
6 6 (0.61%) Istio
7 5 (0.51%) SCCM
8 3 (0.31%) Ansible
9 2 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.20%) CA Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.20%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.20%) MOM
9 2 (0.20%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.20%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.10%) Cacti
10 1 (0.10%) Control-M
10 1 (0.10%) Nagios
Vendors
1 82 (8.39%) Microsoft
2 72 (7.37%) SAP
3 61 (6.24%) Oracle
4 53 (5.42%) Salesforce
5 50 (5.12%) Google
6 38 (3.89%) Databricks
7 27 (2.76%) Adobe
8 19 (1.94%) ServiceNow
9 15 (1.54%) Sitecore
10 14 (1.43%) Cisco
10 14 (1.43%) IFS
11 11 (1.13%) IBM
12 10 (1.02%) VMware
13 9 (0.92%) Palo Alto
14 8 (0.82%) Splunk
14 8 (0.82%) Temenos
14 8 (0.82%) Workday
14 8 (0.82%) Zscaler
15 7 (0.72%) CheckPoint
16 6 (0.61%) GoldenSource