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

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 91 91
Rank change year-on-year -48 0 +2
Contract jobs citing Retail 889 799 1,061
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.95% 2.73% 2.42%
As % of the General category 3.49% 4.33% 4.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 553 428 609
10th Percentile £191 £286 £291
25th Percentile £363 £404 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £505
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +3.96% -4.72%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £729 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -7.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 18 78
10th Percentile £12.87 £17.27 £11.13
25th Percentile £14.75 £23.19 £12.15
Median hourly rate £16.50 £33.00 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -50.00% +106.25% -19.23%
75th Percentile £29.19 £64.44 £21.37
90th Percentile £50.05 £87.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.34 £22.50 £15.29
% change year-on-year -27.40% +47.16% -22.82%

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 25,480 18,432 25,531
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.88% 62.99% 58.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,862 11,802 16,206
10th Percentile £304 £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 £643 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,587 738 1,868
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.70 £12.78
25th Percentile £17.23 £18.50 £15.39
Median hourly rate £25.77 £29.00 £26.53
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% +9.31% -24.20%
75th Percentile £59.25 £57.50 £50.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £27.13 £25.25
% change year-on-year -7.83% +7.43% -18.23%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -40 809 £500 -4.76% 1,108
London -27 449 £525 -4.55% 362
UK excluding London -35 369 £463 -7.50% 867
Work from Home -59 219 £500 -4.76% 379
South East -25 113 £416 -22.56% 242
North of England -50 97 £500 +11.11% 224
Midlands -44 76 £495 -1.00% 186
North West -33 47 £500 +5.26% 111
Yorkshire -29 46 £525 +36.36% 91
East Midlands -8 44 £495 -1.00% 118
East of England -24 38 £475 -9.52% 88
West Midlands -57 31 £500 +11.11% 68
Scotland +7 21 £450 -15.49% 41
South West -23 20 £314 -3.46% 84
North East -14 4 £206 -72.50% 25
Northern Ireland -5 2 £190 -44.48% 9
Wales -11 2 £235 +60.19% 22

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 38 (4.27%) Confluence
2 15 (1.69%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.46%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 13 (1.46%) CMS
4 9 (1.01%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.45%) WordPress
6 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.34%) SAS
7 2 (0.22%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.22%) Magnolia
8 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.11%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.11%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 29 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (2.14%) Microsoft Project
3 14 (1.57%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.35%) Chatbot
5 10 (1.12%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.56%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.45%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.34%) InDesign
9 2 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 2 (0.22%) Trello
10 1 (0.11%) 3ds Max
10 1 (0.11%) Adobe After Effects
10 1 (0.11%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.11%) Maya
10 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
10 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
10 1 (0.11%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 20 (2.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (2.02%) Shopify
3 13 (1.46%) Dynamics CRM
3 13 (1.46%) SAP Retail
4 8 (0.90%) Oracle Retail
5 6 (0.67%) Finacle
5 6 (0.67%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (0.56%) SAP Payroll
7 4 (0.45%) ResourceLink
7 4 (0.45%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.45%) Temenos T24
8 3 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
8 3 (0.34%) SAP MM
8 3 (0.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.22%) BambooHR
9 2 (0.22%) NetSuite
9 2 (0.22%) Sage X3
9 2 (0.22%) Sprinklr
10 1 (0.11%) SAP ERP
10 1 (0.11%) SAP SRM
Cloud Services
1 91 (10.24%) Azure
2 58 (6.52%) Power Platform
3 56 (6.30%) AWS
4 54 (6.07%) GCP
5 27 (3.04%) Dynamics 365
6 24 (2.70%) Snowflake
7 22 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
8 19 (2.14%) GitHub
8 19 (2.14%) Microsoft 365
9 15 (1.69%) SaaS
10 12 (1.35%) Entra ID
10 12 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (1.35%) Google Workspace
11 11 (1.24%) BigCommerce
11 11 (1.24%) Cloud Run
11 11 (1.24%) Figma
12 10 (1.12%) Miro
12 10 (1.12%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 9 (1.01%) SuccessFactors
14 8 (0.90%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.91%) VPN
2 16 (1.80%) RFID
3 12 (1.35%) Firewall
3 12 (1.35%) WAN
4 11 (1.24%) Wireless
5 8 (0.90%) NFC
6 7 (0.79%) LAN
7 6 (0.67%) Cisco Nexus
7 6 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (0.56%) BGP
8 5 (0.56%) OSPF
9 4 (0.45%) EIGRP
9 4 (0.45%) VoIP
10 3 (0.34%) Cisco Firepower
10 3 (0.34%) MPLS
10 3 (0.34%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.22%) Cisco ASA
11 2 (0.22%) Network Security
11 2 (0.22%) SSL
11 2 (0.22%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (5.62%) Power BI
2 26 (2.92%) BigQuery
3 15 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
4 13 (1.46%) SQL Server
4 13 (1.46%) Tableau
5 12 (1.35%) MySQL
6 10 (1.12%) Metadata
7 7 (0.79%) Data Vault
8 6 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.56%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.56%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.56%) Relational Database
10 4 (0.45%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.45%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.34%) Looker
11 3 (0.34%) OLAP
11 3 (0.34%) Oracle OLAP
11 3 (0.34%) SAP BW
11 3 (0.34%) Snowflake Schema
11 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 72 (8.10%) JIRA
2 14 (1.57%) Git
3 10 (1.12%) GitLab
4 9 (1.01%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.56%) ERwin
6 4 (0.45%) Maven
7 3 (0.34%) Selenium
7 3 (0.34%) Terragrunt
8 2 (0.22%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.22%) MLflow
8 2 (0.22%) PowerDesigner
8 2 (0.22%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.11%) Gatling
9 1 (0.11%) HP UFT
9 1 (0.11%) JMeter
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.11%) Xcode
9 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 302 (33.97%) Social Skills
2 217 (24.41%) Finance
3 101 (11.36%) Analytical Skills
4 80 (9.00%) Banking
5 60 (6.75%) Marketing
6 41 (4.61%) Organisational Skills
7 39 (4.39%) Manufacturing
8 37 (4.16%) Public Sector
9 33 (3.71%) Retail Banking
10 31 (3.49%) Investment Banking
11 29 (3.26%) Corporate Banking
12 28 (3.15%) Documentation Skills
13 25 (2.81%) Presentation Skills
14 24 (2.70%) Influencing Skills
15 14 (1.57%) Legal
16 13 (1.46%) Telecoms
17 10 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
18 9 (1.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 8 (0.90%) Private Banking
20 7 (0.79%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 158 (17.77%) Analyst
2 111 (12.49%) Architect
2 111 (12.49%) Project Manager
3 105 (11.81%) Senior
4 88 (9.90%) Business Analyst
5 71 (7.99%) Lead
6 44 (4.95%) Senior Manager
7 42 (4.72%) Solutions Architect
8 40 (4.50%) Consultant
9 33 (3.71%) Technical Manager
10 23 (2.59%) Senior Project Manager
11 22 (2.47%) Data Architect
11 22 (2.47%) Developer
12 21 (2.36%) Enterprise Architect
12 21 (2.36%) Programme Manager
13 19 (2.14%) Data Analyst
14 18 (2.02%) Designer
14 18 (2.02%) Service Manager
15 17 (1.91%) IT Manager
16 15 (1.69%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (2.92%) Middleware
2 25 (2.81%) VML
3 23 (2.59%) REST
4 17 (1.91%) Spring
5 14 (1.57%) React
6 12 (1.35%) AngularJS
6 12 (1.35%) Spring Boot
7 11 (1.24%) PySpark
8 9 (1.01%) CSS
8 9 (1.01%) HTML
9 8 (0.90%) .NET
9 8 (0.90%) Node.js
10 7 (0.79%) scikit-learn
11 6 (0.67%) jQuery
11 6 (0.67%) JSON
11 6 (0.67%) Kafka
11 6 (0.67%) LangChain
11 6 (0.67%) OpenTelemetry
12 5 (0.56%) OAuth
12 5 (0.56%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 57 (6.41%) Product Ownership
2 35 (3.94%) Driving Licence
3 27 (3.04%) Self-Motivation
4 26 (2.92%) Cloud Native
5 24 (2.70%) EPoS
6 23 (2.59%) Onboarding
7 21 (2.36%) Data Centre
7 21 (2.36%) FMCG
7 21 (2.36%) Management Information System
8 17 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
8 17 (1.91%) Mainframe
9 15 (1.69%) Data Structures
10 14 (1.57%) Mobile App
11 9 (1.01%) IoT
11 9 (1.01%) Virtual Team
12 8 (0.90%) Algorithms
12 8 (0.90%) Reference Data
13 7 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
13 7 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
13 7 (0.79%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 38 (4.27%) Windows
2 19 (2.14%) Linux
3 9 (1.01%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.56%) Android
4 5 (0.56%) zOS
5 4 (0.45%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.45%) Unix
5 4 (0.45%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.11%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.11%) VMS
6 1 (0.11%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (23.17%) Stakeholder Management
2 197 (22.16%) Agile
3 173 (19.46%) Problem-Solving
4 115 (12.94%) E-Commerce
5 106 (11.92%) Migration
5 106 (11.92%) Project Management
6 95 (10.69%) Analytics
7 94 (10.57%) Roadmaps
8 91 (10.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 81 (9.11%) Customer Experience
10 74 (8.32%) ERP
11 73 (8.21%) Continuous Improvement
12 72 (8.10%) AI
12 72 (8.10%) Project Delivery
12 72 (8.10%) Workshop Facilitation
13 69 (7.76%) Change Management
14 67 (7.54%) Scrum
15 65 (7.31%) Decision-Making
16 64 (7.20%) Business Intelligence
17 62 (6.97%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 71 (7.99%) SQL
2 61 (6.86%) Python
3 29 (3.26%) Java
4 19 (2.14%) JavaScript
5 14 (1.57%) PowerShell
6 9 (1.01%) Bash
6 9 (1.01%) Shell Script
7 8 (0.90%) Kusto Query Language
8 7 (0.79%) C#
9 6 (0.67%) TypeScript
10 5 (0.56%) Kotlin
11 4 (0.45%) VBA
12 3 (0.34%) Apex Code
12 3 (0.34%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.34%) Scala
12 3 (0.34%) SOQL
12 3 (0.34%) SOSL
13 2 (0.22%) Bicep
13 2 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.22%) R
Qualifications
1 48 (5.40%) Degree
2 32 (3.60%) Security Cleared
3 21 (2.36%) PMP
4 19 (2.14%) SC Cleared
5 16 (1.80%) PMI Certification
6 8 (0.90%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (0.79%) APMP
7 7 (0.79%) CISSP
7 7 (0.79%) CSPO
7 7 (0.79%) Master's Degree
8 6 (0.67%) CCNP
8 6 (0.67%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (0.67%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (0.67%) MBA
9 4 (0.45%) CCIE
9 4 (0.45%) CISM
9 4 (0.45%) CRISC
10 3 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
10 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.34%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (5.17%) Data Quality
1 46 (5.17%) QA
2 30 (3.37%) PMO
3 29 (3.26%) GDPR
4 19 (2.14%) SLA
5 13 (1.46%) Accessibility
6 8 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (0.67%) PCI DSS
8 5 (0.56%) NIST
9 4 (0.45%) IFRS
10 3 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.22%) GRC
11 2 (0.22%) NCSC
12 1 (0.11%) GAAP
12 1 (0.11%) IFRS 9
12 1 (0.11%) ISO 8583
12 1 (0.11%) Solvency II
12 1 (0.11%) WCAG
System Software
1 18 (2.02%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.57%) Docker
3 5 (0.56%) VMware NSX
4 4 (0.45%) RACF
5 3 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.11%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 20 (2.25%) Terraform
2 12 (1.35%) Kubernetes
3 7 (0.79%) Grafana
3 7 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (0.79%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 6 (0.67%) Argo
4 6 (0.67%) Istio
4 6 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.45%) SCCM
6 2 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.22%) CA Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (0.22%) MOM
6 2 (0.22%) PingFederate
7 1 (0.11%) Ansible
7 1 (0.11%) Control-M
7 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.11%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.11%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.11%) zSecure
Vendors
1 83 (9.34%) Microsoft
2 70 (7.87%) SAP
3 52 (5.85%) Google
4 50 (5.62%) Oracle
5 39 (4.39%) Salesforce
6 36 (4.05%) Databricks
7 27 (3.04%) Adobe
8 19 (2.14%) ServiceNow
9 14 (1.57%) Sitecore
10 12 (1.35%) Cisco
11 10 (1.12%) IFS
12 9 (1.01%) IBM
13 8 (0.90%) Palo Alto
13 8 (0.90%) Splunk
13 8 (0.90%) Temenos
13 8 (0.90%) VMware
14 7 (0.79%) CheckPoint
14 7 (0.79%) Workday
14 7 (0.79%) Zscaler
15 6 (0.67%) GoldenSource