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 26 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 109 108 81
Rank change year-on-year -1 -27 +14
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,094 721 1,090
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.25% 2.52% 2.56%
As % of the General category 4.20% 3.99% 4.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 639 374 605
10th Percentile £244 £313 £276
25th Percentile £412 £413 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% +5.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 22 88
10th Percentile £13.14 £15.25 £11.56
25th Percentile £15.82 £16.30 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £30.25 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.58% +89.06% -19.23%
75th Percentile £22.63 £64.44 £21.37
90th Percentile £43.75 £87.50 £21.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £16.30 £15.90
% change year-on-year +7.36% +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 26,031 18,083 24,665
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 53.62% 63.22% 57.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,818 11,497 15,556
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £772
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +3.58% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,703 775 1,958
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.56 £12.75
25th Percentile £17.69 £16.84 £15.47
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.40 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.49% -8.67% -7.69%
75th Percentile £60.00 £54.50 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £66.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.00 £24.28 £28.00
% change year-on-year +19.46% -13.30% -0.25%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 -4 1,000 £525 - 1,368
London -5 554 £539 -3.75% 542
UK excluding London +4 458 £495 -1.00% 945
Work from Home -27 260 £500 -3.85% 529
North of England -31 131 £510 +7.37% 270
South East -2 130 £475 -5.00% 273
Midlands -18 91 £495 +6.45% 156
North West +4 80 £510 +4.62% 149
East Midlands 0 53 £495 -1.00% 79
East of England -9 50 £523 -0.33% 107
Yorkshire -50 49 £513 +38.51% 107
West Midlands -45 38 £500 +12.68% 77
South West -15 31 £333 -33.50% 87
Scotland +3 21 £500 -6.10% 46
Northern Ireland +2 2 £190 -44.48% 16
Wales -12 2 £190 +29.52% 22
North East -23 2 £190 -74.67% 18

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 (3.47%) Confluence
2 15 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.01%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 9 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
4 9 (0.82%) CMS
5 4 (0.37%) SAS
6 3 (0.27%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.18%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.18%) CICS
7 2 (0.18%) Magnolia
8 1 (0.091%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.091%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 30 (2.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 22 (2.01%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.74%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (1.19%) Chatbot
6 11 (1.01%) MS Visio
7 10 (0.91%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.73%) Adobe Illustrator
9 5 (0.46%) InDesign
10 4 (0.37%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 2 (0.18%) Notion
11 2 (0.18%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.091%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.091%) Adobe After Effects
12 1 (0.091%) Adobe XD
12 1 (0.091%) Maya
12 1 (0.091%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.091%) SOLIDWORKS
12 1 (0.091%) Spreadsheet
12 1 (0.091%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (1.83%) Shopify
2 19 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
3 10 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.73%) SAP Retail
5 7 (0.64%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 6 (0.55%) Finacle
6 6 (0.55%) Oracle Retail
6 6 (0.55%) SAP CRM
7 5 (0.46%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.46%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.46%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.37%) Magento
9 3 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
10 2 (0.18%) BambooHR
10 2 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
10 2 (0.18%) Sage X3
10 2 (0.18%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.18%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 109 (9.96%) Azure
2 84 (7.68%) AWS
3 61 (5.58%) GCP
4 48 (4.39%) Power Platform
5 35 (3.20%) Snowflake
6 24 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
6 24 (2.19%) GitHub
7 19 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (1.65%) Microsoft 365
9 17 (1.55%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 16 (1.46%) GitHub Actions
11 15 (1.37%) Entra ID
11 15 (1.37%) Figma
12 13 (1.19%) SaaS
13 12 (1.10%) BigCommerce
14 11 (1.01%) Azure Data Factory
14 11 (1.01%) Cloud Run
14 11 (1.01%) Google Workspace
15 10 (0.91%) Miro
16 9 (0.82%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.37%) WAN
2 14 (1.28%) Firewall
2 14 (1.28%) VPN
3 12 (1.10%) ATM
4 9 (0.82%) Wireless
5 8 (0.73%) Network Security
5 8 (0.73%) RFID
5 8 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (0.64%) Cisco Nexus
6 7 (0.64%) LAN
7 6 (0.55%) BGP
7 6 (0.55%) OSPF
8 5 (0.46%) Cisco Firepower
8 5 (0.46%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.37%) Cisco ASA
9 4 (0.37%) EIGRP
9 4 (0.37%) MPLS
9 4 (0.37%) VSAN
10 3 (0.27%) Broadband
10 3 (0.27%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (4.02%) Power BI
2 28 (2.56%) BigQuery
3 18 (1.65%) Data Warehouse
4 14 (1.28%) MySQL
4 14 (1.28%) SQL Server
5 11 (1.01%) Tableau
6 10 (0.91%) Data Lake
6 10 (0.91%) Metadata
7 7 (0.64%) NoSQL
7 7 (0.64%) Relational Database
8 6 (0.55%) Data Vault
8 6 (0.55%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.46%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (0.37%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.37%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.37%) Semantic Layer
11 3 (0.27%) Looker
11 3 (0.27%) OLAP
11 3 (0.27%) Oracle OLAP
Development Applications
1 76 (6.95%) JIRA
2 22 (2.01%) Git
3 16 (1.46%) Jenkins
4 11 (1.01%) GitLab
5 4 (0.37%) JMeter
5 4 (0.37%) Maven
5 4 (0.37%) Subversion
6 3 (0.27%) ERwin
6 3 (0.27%) Selenium
6 3 (0.27%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.18%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.18%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.18%) Gatling
7 2 (0.18%) git-flow
7 2 (0.18%) Hudson
7 2 (0.18%) MLflow
7 2 (0.18%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.091%) HP UFT
8 1 (0.091%) Toad
General
1 312 (28.52%) Social Skills
2 268 (24.50%) Finance
3 106 (9.69%) Analytical Skills
4 102 (9.32%) Banking
5 63 (5.76%) Marketing
6 54 (4.94%) Retail Banking
7 47 (4.30%) Manufacturing
7 47 (4.30%) Organisational Skills
8 44 (4.02%) Investment Banking
9 40 (3.66%) Corporate Banking
10 27 (2.47%) Public Sector
10 27 (2.47%) Telecoms
11 25 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
12 21 (1.92%) Legal
12 21 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
14 15 (1.37%) Advertising
15 14 (1.28%) French Language
16 13 (1.19%) Back Office
16 13 (1.19%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 165 (15.08%) Architect
2 163 (14.90%) Analyst
3 135 (12.34%) Senior
4 114 (10.42%) Project Manager
5 97 (8.87%) Business Analyst
6 81 (7.40%) Lead
7 68 (6.22%) Solutions Architect
8 59 (5.39%) Senior Manager
9 42 (3.84%) Technical Manager
10 37 (3.38%) Developer
11 36 (3.29%) Designer
12 33 (3.02%) Senior Project Manager
13 32 (2.93%) Consultant
14 31 (2.83%) Enterprise Architect
15 30 (2.74%) Product Manager
16 27 (2.47%) Data Architect
17 24 (2.19%) Service Manager
18 23 (2.10%) Data Engineer
19 21 (1.92%) Programme Manager
20 19 (1.74%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (3.02%) Middleware
2 30 (2.74%) REST
3 28 (2.56%) VML
4 25 (2.29%) React
5 23 (2.10%) Spring
6 18 (1.65%) Node.js
7 17 (1.55%) Spring Boot
8 14 (1.28%) AngularJS
9 13 (1.19%) Kafka
10 11 (1.01%) RESTful
11 10 (0.91%) CSS
12 8 (0.73%) OpenTelemetry
12 8 (0.73%) PySpark
13 7 (0.64%) .NET
13 7 (0.64%) HTML
13 7 (0.64%) LangChain
13 7 (0.64%) MACH
13 7 (0.64%) OAuth2
13 7 (0.64%) OpenID
13 7 (0.64%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 72 (6.58%) Product Ownership
2 41 (3.75%) EPoS
3 39 (3.56%) Driving Licence
4 32 (2.93%) Cloud Native
5 30 (2.74%) FMCG
6 27 (2.47%) Onboarding
7 22 (2.01%) Data Centre
8 21 (1.92%) Mainframe
9 19 (1.74%) Data Structures
9 19 (1.74%) Management Information System
10 17 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
11 16 (1.46%) Mobile App
12 13 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
14 11 (1.01%) AI Agents
14 11 (1.01%) Smartphone
15 10 (0.91%) Virtual Team
16 9 (0.82%) CCTV
17 8 (0.73%) Clustering
18 7 (0.64%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 47 (4.30%) Windows
2 22 (2.01%) Linux
3 9 (0.82%) Android
4 7 (0.64%) Unix
4 7 (0.64%) zOS
5 6 (0.55%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.46%) Windows Server
7 3 (0.27%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.27%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.091%) Debian
8 1 (0.091%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.091%) SUSE
8 1 (0.091%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.091%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.091%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 240 (21.94%) Agile
2 225 (20.57%) Stakeholder Management
3 183 (16.73%) Problem-Solving
4 156 (14.26%) E-Commerce
5 134 (12.25%) Migration
6 123 (11.24%) Roadmaps
7 117 (10.69%) Project Management
8 109 (9.96%) Analytics
9 104 (9.51%) Customer Experience
10 91 (8.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 86 (7.86%) ERP
12 82 (7.50%) Continuous Improvement
12 82 (7.50%) Project Delivery
13 81 (7.40%) Change Management
14 80 (7.31%) Decision-Making
15 78 (7.13%) AI
15 78 (7.13%) Scrum
16 76 (6.95%) User Acceptance Testing
17 70 (6.40%) CI/CD
18 67 (6.12%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 78 (7.13%) SQL
2 58 (5.30%) Python
3 35 (3.20%) Java
4 25 (2.29%) JavaScript
5 14 (1.28%) TypeScript
6 10 (0.91%) PowerShell
6 10 (0.91%) Shell Script
7 6 (0.55%) Bash
7 6 (0.55%) C#
7 6 (0.55%) SOQL
8 5 (0.46%) Apex Code
8 5 (0.46%) Kotlin
8 5 (0.46%) SOSL
9 4 (0.37%) Bicep
9 4 (0.37%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.37%) Scala
10 3 (0.27%) PL/SQL
10 3 (0.27%) VBA
11 2 (0.18%) Korn
11 2 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 49 (4.48%) Degree
2 41 (3.75%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.38%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.65%) PMP
5 11 (1.01%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.82%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (0.73%) CISSP
7 8 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (0.64%) APMP
8 7 (0.64%) CCNP
8 7 (0.64%) Cisco Certification
8 7 (0.64%) CSPO
8 7 (0.64%) DBS Check
8 7 (0.64%) Master's Degree
9 5 (0.46%) CISM
9 5 (0.46%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.46%) MBA
10 4 (0.37%) CCSE
10 4 (0.37%) CCSM
10 4 (0.37%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (5.03%) Data Quality
2 54 (4.94%) QA
3 36 (3.29%) GDPR
4 33 (3.02%) PMO
5 15 (1.37%) SLA
6 14 (1.28%) Accessibility
7 10 (0.91%) PCI DSS
8 8 (0.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.46%) NIST
10 3 (0.27%) IFRS
11 2 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.18%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.18%) GRC
11 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.18%) WCAG
12 1 (0.091%) COBIT
12 1 (0.091%) GAAP
12 1 (0.091%) GxP
12 1 (0.091%) ISO 8583
12 1 (0.091%) Solvency II
System Software
1 23 (2.10%) Docker
2 21 (1.92%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (0.46%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.27%) RACF
6 3 (0.27%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 24 (2.19%) Terraform
2 18 (1.65%) Kubernetes
3 8 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (0.64%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
5 6 (0.55%) Argo
5 6 (0.55%) Grafana
5 6 (0.55%) Istio
5 6 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.46%) SCCM
7 3 (0.27%) Ansible
8 2 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.18%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.18%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.18%) MOM
8 2 (0.18%) PingFederate
9 1 (0.091%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.091%) Nagios
9 1 (0.091%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.091%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 91 (8.32%) Microsoft
2 76 (6.95%) SAP
3 65 (5.94%) Oracle
4 50 (4.57%) Salesforce
5 48 (4.39%) Google
6 41 (3.75%) Databricks
7 26 (2.38%) Adobe
8 17 (1.55%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.46%) Cisco
10 15 (1.37%) IFS
11 14 (1.28%) Sitecore
12 12 (1.10%) IBM
13 11 (1.01%) Splunk
14 10 (0.91%) VMware
14 10 (0.91%) Zscaler
15 9 (0.82%) Palo Alto
16 8 (0.73%) CheckPoint
16 8 (0.73%) Fortinet
16 8 (0.73%) MuleSoft
16 8 (0.73%) Workday