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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 98 83
Rank change year-on-year -10 -15 +11
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,118 739 1,086
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.27% 2.56% 2.53%
As % of the General category 4.22% 4.04% 4.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 654 377 601
10th Percentile £244 £313 £275
25th Percentile £404 £413 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £505
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +2.97% -6.05%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £625
90th Percentile £738 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 24 89
10th Percentile £13.18 £15.25 £11.63
25th Percentile £15.77 £16.04 £12.15
Median hourly rate £21.00 £27.08 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.44% +69.22% -21.59%
75th Percentile £22.90 £58.31 £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 26,471 18,293 24,727
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 53.86% 63.36% 57.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,041 11,592 15,561
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 £756 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.58% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,748 810 1,973
10th Percentile £13.72 £13.50 £12.78
25th Percentile £17.67 £16.95 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.85 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.72% -7.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £60.00 £55.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £66.74
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.00 £24.34 £28.00
% change year-on-year +19.15% -13.07% +0.57%

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 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 30 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 30 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 -3 1,024 £520 -0.95% 1,184
London +3 567 £538 -2.27% 436
UK excluding London -3 468 £500 - 890
Work from Home -37 265 £500 - 441
South East -10 136 £475 -5.00% 286
North of England -39 132 £511 +2.25% 248
Midlands -22 92 £495 +10.00% 147
North West -11 81 £538 +7.50% 137
East Midlands -1 54 £495 +6.74% 72
East of England -5 51 £509 -3.05% 92
Yorkshire -59 48 £506 +12.50% 95
West Midlands -54 38 £529 +20.88% 75
South West -21 32 £326 -34.75% 74
Scotland +4 21 £500 -3.15% 37
North East -24 3 £173 -76.98% 20
Northern Ireland +5 2 £190 -44.48% 17
Wales -14 2 £190 +29.52% 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 (3.40%) Confluence
2 14 (1.25%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.16%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 12 (1.07%) CMS
5 11 (0.98%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.36%) SAS
7 3 (0.27%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.18%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.18%) CICS
9 1 (0.089%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.089%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 30 (2.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 23 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.70%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (1.16%) Chatbot
6 11 (0.98%) MS Visio
7 10 (0.89%) Photoshop
8 8 (0.72%) Adobe Illustrator
9 5 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 5 (0.45%) InDesign
10 3 (0.27%) Notion
11 2 (0.18%) UserZoom
12 1 (0.089%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.089%) Adobe After Effects
12 1 (0.089%) Adobe XD
12 1 (0.089%) Maya
12 1 (0.089%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.089%) SOLIDWORKS
12 1 (0.089%) Spreadsheet
12 1 (0.089%) Trello
Business Applications
1 22 (1.97%) Shopify
2 20 (1.79%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
4 8 (0.72%) SAP Retail
5 7 (0.63%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 7 (0.63%) SAP CRM
6 6 (0.54%) Finacle
6 6 (0.54%) Oracle Retail
7 5 (0.45%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.45%) Oracle EBS
7 5 (0.45%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.36%) Magento
9 3 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
9 3 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
10 2 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.18%) Sage X3
10 2 (0.18%) SAP CAR
10 2 (0.18%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 2 (0.18%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 119 (10.64%) Azure
2 89 (7.96%) AWS
3 65 (5.81%) GCP
4 50 (4.47%) Power Platform
5 38 (3.40%) Snowflake
6 25 (2.24%) GitHub
7 24 (2.15%) Dynamics 365
8 20 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (1.61%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10 17 (1.52%) GitHub Actions
10 17 (1.52%) Microsoft 365
11 16 (1.43%) Figma
12 15 (1.34%) Entra ID
13 14 (1.25%) SaaS
14 12 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
14 12 (1.07%) BigCommerce
15 11 (0.98%) Cloud Run
15 11 (0.98%) dbt
15 11 (0.98%) Google Workspace
16 10 (0.89%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.25%) WAN
2 13 (1.16%) ATM
2 13 (1.16%) Firewall
3 12 (1.07%) VPN
4 9 (0.81%) Network Security
4 9 (0.81%) Wireless
5 8 (0.72%) RFID
6 7 (0.63%) Cisco Nexus
6 7 (0.63%) LAN
6 7 (0.63%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.54%) Cisco Firepower
8 5 (0.45%) BGP
8 5 (0.45%) Cisco ASA
8 5 (0.45%) OSPF
8 5 (0.45%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.45%) VSAN
9 4 (0.36%) MPLS
10 3 (0.27%) Broadband
10 3 (0.27%) EIGRP
10 3 (0.27%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (4.20%) Power BI
2 28 (2.50%) BigQuery
3 20 (1.79%) Data Warehouse
4 15 (1.34%) MySQL
4 15 (1.34%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.07%) Tableau
6 11 (0.98%) Metadata
7 10 (0.89%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.63%) NoSQL
8 7 (0.63%) Relational Database
9 6 (0.54%) Data Vault
9 6 (0.54%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.54%) Snowflake Schema
10 5 (0.45%) PostgreSQL
11 4 (0.36%) Delta Lake
11 4 (0.36%) Looker
11 4 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
12 3 (0.27%) OLAP
12 3 (0.27%) Oracle OLAP
12 3 (0.27%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 76 (6.80%) JIRA
2 22 (1.97%) Git
3 16 (1.43%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.98%) GitLab
5 4 (0.36%) JMeter
5 4 (0.36%) Maven
5 4 (0.36%) Subversion
6 3 (0.27%) ERwin
6 3 (0.27%) Hudson
6 3 (0.27%) Selenium
6 3 (0.27%) Terragrunt
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%) MLflow
7 2 (0.18%) WebDriver
8 1 (0.089%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.089%) Mockito
8 1 (0.089%) Oracle APEX
General
1 323 (28.89%) Social Skills
2 276 (24.69%) Finance
3 111 (9.93%) Analytical Skills
4 104 (9.30%) Banking
5 70 (6.26%) Marketing
6 54 (4.83%) Retail Banking
7 53 (4.74%) Manufacturing
8 51 (4.56%) Organisational Skills
9 44 (3.94%) Investment Banking
10 40 (3.58%) Corporate Banking
11 27 (2.42%) Public Sector
11 27 (2.42%) Telecoms
12 25 (2.24%) Documentation Skills
13 22 (1.97%) Legal
13 22 (1.97%) Presentation Skills
14 20 (1.79%) Influencing Skills
15 17 (1.52%) French Language
16 15 (1.34%) Advertising
17 13 (1.16%) Back Office
17 13 (1.16%) Private Banking
Job Titles
1 168 (15.03%) Architect
2 166 (14.85%) Analyst
3 140 (12.52%) Senior
4 117 (10.47%) Project Manager
5 97 (8.68%) Business Analyst
6 83 (7.42%) Lead
7 72 (6.44%) Solutions Architect
8 60 (5.37%) Senior Manager
9 45 (4.03%) Technical Manager
10 40 (3.58%) Developer
11 38 (3.40%) Designer
12 33 (2.95%) Product Manager
12 33 (2.95%) Senior Project Manager
13 32 (2.86%) Enterprise Architect
14 29 (2.59%) Consultant
15 28 (2.50%) Data Architect
16 27 (2.42%) Data Engineer
17 24 (2.15%) Service Manager
18 22 (1.97%) 2nd Line Support
19 21 (1.88%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (2.95%) Middleware
2 32 (2.86%) REST
3 28 (2.50%) VML
4 26 (2.33%) React
5 24 (2.15%) Spring
6 18 (1.61%) Node.js
6 18 (1.61%) Spring Boot
7 16 (1.43%) Kafka
8 14 (1.25%) AngularJS
8 14 (1.25%) CSS
9 12 (1.07%) RESTful
10 11 (0.98%) HTML
11 9 (0.81%) .NET
12 8 (0.72%) OpenTelemetry
12 8 (0.72%) PySpark
13 7 (0.63%) LangChain
13 7 (0.63%) MACH
13 7 (0.63%) OAuth2
13 7 (0.63%) OpenID
13 7 (0.63%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 73 (6.53%) Product Ownership
2 42 (3.76%) EPoS
3 40 (3.58%) Driving Licence
4 34 (3.04%) FMCG
5 33 (2.95%) Cloud Native
6 32 (2.86%) Onboarding
7 22 (1.97%) Data Centre
8 21 (1.88%) Mainframe
9 19 (1.70%) Data Structures
10 18 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
11 17 (1.52%) Management Information System
12 16 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
12 16 (1.43%) Mobile App
13 12 (1.07%) AI Agents
13 12 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
14 11 (0.98%) Smartphone
15 10 (0.89%) Virtual Team
16 9 (0.81%) CCTV
17 8 (0.72%) Clustering
18 7 (0.63%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 48 (4.29%) Windows
2 22 (1.97%) Linux
3 9 (0.81%) Android
4 7 (0.63%) Unix
4 7 (0.63%) zOS
5 5 (0.45%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.36%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.27%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.27%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.089%) Debian
8 1 (0.089%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.089%) SUSE
8 1 (0.089%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.089%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.089%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 250 (22.36%) Agile
2 234 (20.93%) Stakeholder Management
3 187 (16.73%) Problem-Solving
4 164 (14.67%) E-Commerce
5 135 (12.08%) Migration
6 130 (11.63%) Roadmaps
7 120 (10.73%) Project Management
8 112 (10.02%) Analytics
9 110 (9.84%) Customer Experience
10 93 (8.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 86 (7.69%) ERP
12 84 (7.51%) Continuous Improvement
12 84 (7.51%) Project Delivery
13 83 (7.42%) Change Management
14 82 (7.33%) Decision-Making
15 80 (7.16%) Scrum
16 78 (6.98%) AI
17 74 (6.62%) CI/CD
17 74 (6.62%) User Acceptance Testing
18 72 (6.44%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 85 (7.60%) SQL
2 60 (5.37%) Python
3 34 (3.04%) Java
4 24 (2.15%) JavaScript
5 15 (1.34%) TypeScript
6 10 (0.89%) Shell Script
7 9 (0.81%) PowerShell
8 8 (0.72%) C#
9 6 (0.54%) Kotlin
9 6 (0.54%) SOQL
10 5 (0.45%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.45%) Bash
10 5 (0.45%) SOSL
11 4 (0.36%) Bicep
11 4 (0.36%) PL/SQL
11 4 (0.36%) Scala
12 3 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.27%) R
12 3 (0.27%) VBA
13 2 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 50 (4.47%) Degree
2 40 (3.58%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.33%) SC Cleared
4 18 (1.61%) PMP
5 11 (0.98%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.81%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (0.81%) CISSP
6 9 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (0.81%) DBS Check
7 7 (0.63%) APMP
7 7 (0.63%) CCNP
7 7 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (0.63%) CSPO
7 7 (0.63%) Master's Degree
8 6 (0.54%) CISM
9 5 (0.45%) CCSE
9 5 (0.45%) CCSM
9 5 (0.45%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (0.45%) MBA
10 4 (0.36%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (5.19%) QA
2 57 (5.10%) Data Quality
3 36 (3.22%) GDPR
4 33 (2.95%) PMO
5 16 (1.43%) Accessibility
5 16 (1.43%) SLA
6 11 (0.98%) PCI DSS
7 8 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.45%) NIST
9 2 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (0.18%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.18%) GRC
9 2 (0.18%) IFRS
9 2 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.18%) WCAG
10 1 (0.089%) COBIT
10 1 (0.089%) GAAP
10 1 (0.089%) GxP
10 1 (0.089%) ISO 8583
10 1 (0.089%) PSD2
System Software
1 23 (2.06%) Docker
2 21 (1.88%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.54%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.27%) RACF
6 3 (0.27%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 25 (2.24%) Terraform
2 19 (1.70%) Kubernetes
3 11 (0.98%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 7 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (0.54%) Argo
5 6 (0.54%) Grafana
5 6 (0.54%) Istio
5 6 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.45%) 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 (0.089%) Nagios
9 1 (0.089%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.089%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 94 (8.41%) Microsoft
2 76 (6.80%) SAP
3 66 (5.90%) Oracle
4 53 (4.74%) Salesforce
5 51 (4.56%) Google
6 42 (3.76%) Databricks
7 29 (2.59%) Adobe
8 19 (1.70%) ServiceNow
9 16 (1.43%) Cisco
10 15 (1.34%) IFS
11 14 (1.25%) Sitecore
12 12 (1.07%) IBM
13 11 (0.98%) Splunk
13 11 (0.98%) VMware
14 10 (0.89%) Palo Alto
14 10 (0.89%) Zscaler
15 9 (0.81%) Fortinet
16 8 (0.72%) CheckPoint
16 8 (0.72%) MuleSoft
16 8 (0.72%) Temenos