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

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 125 96
Rank change year-on-year +35 -29 +5
Contract jobs citing Retail 1,622 747 913
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.97% 2.26% 2.41%
As % of the General category 5.26% 3.57% 4.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 948 421 473
10th Percentile £313 £296 £277
25th Percentile £450 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% - -
75th Percentile £663 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 133 63 19
10th Percentile £12.76 £15.25 £13.88
25th Percentile £13.45 £15.37 £16.00
Median hourly rate £14.50 £16.34 £16.30
Median % change year-on-year -11.23% +0.21% -17.72%
75th Percentile £22.50 £19.50 £21.37
90th Percentile £42.75 £25.15 £56.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £13.81 £16.34 £16.15
% change year-on-year -15.46% +1.15% -18.48%

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 30,829 20,953 22,228
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.50% 63.27% 58.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,891 13,047 13,125
10th Percentile £313 £275 £280
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
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 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £478
% change year-on-year +5.26% -0.52% -4.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,755 1,251 947
10th Percentile £13.45 £13.51 £14.89
25th Percentile £16.01 £16.17 £17.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £25.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -23.08% +9.24%
75th Percentile £53.75 £45.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £21.39 £31.31
% change year-on-year +28.56% -31.68% +15.26%

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 11 October 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 11 October 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 11 October 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 +35 1,482 £550 +4.76% 4,653
London +46 826 £575 +4.55% 2,331
UK excluding London +10 675 £525 +5.00% 2,465
Work from Home +16 353 £550 - 1,798
North of England -17 187 £538 +7.50% 722
Midlands +32 163 £525 +21.95% 454
South East -5 159 £581 +5.68% 594
North West +10 117 £550 +10.00% 400
East Midlands +20 89 £500 +19.40% 217
East of England +14 81 £544 -1.14% 261
West Midlands +6 73 £563 +23.29% 236
Yorkshire -30 52 £475 -19.15% 266
South West -12 50 £475 +163.89% 214
Scotland -17 25 £180 -64.00% 165
North East -24 18 £525 +288.89% 65
Wales -9 7 £180 -71.20% 57
Northern Ireland +6 4 £191 - 47

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 (3.14%) Confluence
2 26 (1.60%) CMS
3 20 (1.23%) SharePoint
4 19 (1.17%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (0.25%) Apache
6 4 (0.25%) SAS
6 4 (0.25%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.18%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.18%) Sitecore CMS
8 2 (0.12%) Mule
8 2 (0.12%) WordPress
9 1 (0.062%) CICS
9 1 (0.062%) HCL Notes
9 1 (0.062%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.062%) Mendix
9 1 (0.062%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.062%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 78 (4.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 57 (3.51%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (0.86%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 13 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
6 11 (0.68%) MS Visio
7 10 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
8 7 (0.43%) Photoshop
9 6 (0.37%) Adobe Illustrator
9 6 (0.37%) CPLEX
10 5 (0.31%) InDesign
11 4 (0.25%) Notion
12 1 (0.062%) 3ds Max
12 1 (0.062%) Chatbot
12 1 (0.062%) PlantUML
12 1 (0.062%) Siemens NX
12 1 (0.062%) SOLIDWORKS
12 1 (0.062%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 62 (3.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.73%) Shopify
3 15 (0.92%) SAP Retail
4 13 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
5 11 (0.68%) SAP CRM
6 9 (0.55%) Magento
6 9 (0.55%) Oracle Retail
7 6 (0.37%) NetSuite
7 6 (0.37%) SAP MM
8 5 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.31%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.31%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.25%) Dynamics NAV
9 4 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.25%) SAP CAR
9 4 (0.25%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.18%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 217 (13.38%) Azure
2 151 (9.31%) AWS
3 78 (4.81%) Power Platform
4 75 (4.62%) GCP
5 54 (3.33%) Snowflake
6 51 (3.14%) GitHub
7 38 (2.34%) Azure DevOps
8 33 (2.03%) Entra ID
9 30 (1.85%) GitHub Actions
10 28 (1.73%) SaaS
11 26 (1.60%) dbt
12 24 (1.48%) Azure Data Factory
12 24 (1.48%) Dynamics 365
12 24 (1.48%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
13 20 (1.23%) Figma
14 19 (1.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 16 (0.99%) Microsoft 365
15 16 (0.99%) OCI
16 12 (0.74%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 11 (0.68%) Algolia
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.29%) WAN
2 19 (1.17%) Firewall
3 16 (0.99%) ATM
4 14 (0.86%) Network Security
4 14 (0.86%) VPN
5 13 (0.80%) LAN
5 13 (0.80%) Wireless
6 12 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
7 8 (0.49%) Structured Cabling
8 7 (0.43%) BGP
8 7 (0.43%) Internet
8 7 (0.43%) IPsec
8 7 (0.43%) OSPF
9 6 (0.37%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 6 (0.37%) SD-WAN
9 6 (0.37%) VLAN
10 5 (0.31%) DNS
10 5 (0.31%) SMS
11 4 (0.25%) Broadband
11 4 (0.25%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (4.69%) Power BI
2 58 (3.58%) Data Warehouse
3 34 (2.10%) Data Lake
4 27 (1.66%) BigQuery
5 23 (1.42%) SQL Server
6 22 (1.36%) Metadata
6 22 (1.36%) Tableau
7 19 (1.17%) MongoDB
8 18 (1.11%) NoSQL
9 16 (0.99%) PostgreSQL
10 15 (0.92%) Relational Database
10 15 (0.92%) SAP BW
11 14 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
11 14 (0.86%) MySQL
11 14 (0.86%) SAP HANA
12 12 (0.74%) Power Query
13 11 (0.68%) Redis
13 11 (0.68%) Star Schema
14 10 (0.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 9 (0.55%) Couchbase
Development Applications
1 74 (4.56%) JIRA
2 24 (1.48%) Git
3 23 (1.42%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.49%) Subversion
5 7 (0.43%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.31%) Cypress.io
6 5 (0.31%) JMeter
7 4 (0.25%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.25%) GitLab
8 3 (0.18%) Hudson
8 3 (0.18%) Postman
9 2 (0.12%) git-flow
9 2 (0.12%) LSMW
9 2 (0.12%) MLflow
9 2 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.12%) Pylint
9 2 (0.12%) Selenium
9 2 (0.12%) Terragrunt
9 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 464 (28.61%) Social Skills
2 361 (22.26%) Finance
3 156 (9.62%) Analytical Skills
4 141 (8.69%) Marketing
5 116 (7.15%) Manufacturing
6 115 (7.09%) Banking
7 74 (4.56%) Organisational Skills
8 58 (3.58%) Retail Banking
9 38 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (2.28%) Corporate Banking
11 36 (2.22%) Investment Banking
12 33 (2.03%) Public Sector
13 32 (1.97%) Advertising
14 26 (1.60%) Legal
15 24 (1.48%) Telecoms
16 20 (1.23%) French Language
17 16 (0.99%) Back Office
17 16 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 16 (0.99%) Spanish Language
18 15 (0.92%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 248 (15.29%) Architect
2 233 (14.36%) Analyst
3 170 (10.48%) Senior
4 142 (8.75%) Solutions Architect
5 132 (8.14%) Business Analyst
6 115 (7.09%) Lead
6 115 (7.09%) Project Manager
7 86 (5.30%) Developer
8 60 (3.70%) Consultant
9 54 (3.33%) Product Manager
10 50 (3.08%) Data Analyst
11 45 (2.77%) Designer
12 42 (2.59%) Supply Chain Architect
13 41 (2.53%) Senior Manager
14 35 (2.16%) Service Manager
15 34 (2.10%) Senior Developer
15 34 (2.10%) Service Transition Manager
15 34 (2.10%) Transition Manager
16 32 (1.97%) Data Engineer
16 32 (1.97%) EPoS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (4.44%) REST
2 48 (2.96%) Terraform
3 42 (2.59%) Kafka
4 41 (2.53%) React
5 30 (1.85%) Node.js
5 30 (1.85%) Spring
6 26 (1.60%) Spring Boot
7 24 (1.48%) RESTful
8 23 (1.42%) Django
8 23 (1.42%) Middleware
8 23 (1.42%) SOAP
9 19 (1.17%) MACH
9 19 (1.17%) Next.js
10 18 (1.11%) SAP Fiori
11 16 (0.99%) HTML
12 15 (0.92%) .NET
13 14 (0.86%) VML
14 13 (0.80%) SAPUI5
15 11 (0.68%) CSS
15 11 (0.68%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 82 (5.06%) Product Ownership
2 79 (4.87%) EPoS
3 72 (4.44%) FMCG
4 61 (3.76%) Driving Licence
5 59 (3.64%) Onboarding
6 51 (3.14%) Cloud Native
7 36 (2.22%) Management Information System
8 34 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
9 31 (1.91%) Mobile App
10 30 (1.85%) Marketing Technology
11 28 (1.73%) Greenfield Project
11 28 (1.73%) Smartphone
12 24 (1.48%) Data Centre
13 22 (1.36%) Data Structures
14 21 (1.29%) Distributed Systems
14 21 (1.29%) Operational Technology
15 17 (1.05%) AI Agents
15 17 (1.05%) Credit Risk
16 16 (0.99%) Mainframe
16 16 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 51 (3.14%) Windows
2 17 (1.05%) Linux
3 12 (0.74%) Android
4 9 (0.55%) Unix
5 7 (0.43%) Apple iOS
5 7 (0.43%) macOS
6 6 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.37%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.25%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.18%) zOS
9 2 (0.12%) Debian
10 1 (0.062%) OS/2
10 1 (0.062%) SUSE
10 1 (0.062%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.062%) VMS
10 1 (0.062%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 426 (26.26%) Stakeholder Management
2 367 (22.63%) Agile
3 264 (16.28%) E-Commerce
4 189 (11.65%) Logistics
4 189 (11.65%) Migration
5 187 (11.53%) Analytics
6 169 (10.42%) AI
7 163 (10.05%) Problem-Solving
8 160 (9.86%) Roadmaps
9 148 (9.12%) Decision-Making
10 137 (8.45%) CRM
11 136 (8.38%) Customer Experience
12 133 (8.20%) Continuous Improvement
13 129 (7.95%) CI/CD
14 123 (7.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 120 (7.40%) Customer Service
16 113 (6.97%) DevOps
17 111 (6.84%) Data Modelling
18 109 (6.72%) Business Intelligence
19 105 (6.47%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 160 (9.86%) SQL
2 118 (7.27%) Python
3 52 (3.21%) Java
4 34 (2.10%) TypeScript
5 28 (1.73%) JavaScript
6 14 (0.86%) ABAP
7 12 (0.74%) C#
7 12 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 10 (0.62%) R
9 9 (0.55%) Apex Code
9 9 (0.55%) Bash
10 7 (0.43%) PL/SQL
10 7 (0.43%) PowerShell
10 7 (0.43%) SOQL
11 5 (0.31%) Groovy
11 5 (0.31%) Shell Script
11 5 (0.31%) SOSL
12 4 (0.25%) Bicep
12 4 (0.25%) T-SQL
13 3 (0.18%) Scala
Qualifications
1 63 (3.88%) Degree
2 30 (1.85%) Security Cleared
3 22 (1.36%) PMP
4 14 (0.86%) ITIL Certification
5 11 (0.68%) PMI Certification
6 9 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (0.55%) DBS Check
6 9 (0.55%) SC Cleared
7 8 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (0.37%) CISSP
9 5 (0.31%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (0.31%) CISM
9 5 (0.31%) City & Guilds
9 5 (0.31%) Six Sigma Green Belt
10 4 (0.25%) SAP Certification
11 3 (0.18%) APMG
11 3 (0.18%) CCNP
11 3 (0.18%) CCSE
11 3 (0.18%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 3 (0.18%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (5.43%) Data Quality
2 76 (4.69%) QA
3 28 (1.73%) GDPR
4 26 (1.60%) PMO
5 24 (1.48%) Accessibility
6 13 (0.80%) PCI DSS
7 10 (0.62%) SLA
8 6 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.31%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 5 (0.31%) NIST
9 5 (0.31%) WCAG
10 4 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.18%) PSD2
12 2 (0.12%) GAAP
12 2 (0.12%) GRC
12 2 (0.12%) IFRS
13 1 (0.062%) APQC
13 1 (0.062%) IASME
13 1 (0.062%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.062%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 34 (2.10%) Docker
2 24 (1.48%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.31%) Firmware
6 4 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.062%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.062%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (2.53%) Kubernetes
2 10 (0.62%) Ansible
2 10 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (0.43%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
4 5 (0.31%) FortiGate
4 5 (0.31%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (0.25%) Bosun
6 3 (0.18%) Kubeflow
6 3 (0.18%) SCCM
7 2 (0.12%) AirWatch
7 2 (0.12%) CloudHub
7 2 (0.12%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.12%) logstash
7 2 (0.12%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.062%) Argo
8 1 (0.062%) CSIRT
8 1 (0.062%) Grafana
8 1 (0.062%) Nagios
8 1 (0.062%) vMotion
8 1 (0.062%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 162 (9.99%) Microsoft
2 141 (8.69%) SAP
3 86 (5.30%) Salesforce
4 77 (4.75%) Databricks
5 68 (4.19%) Oracle
6 56 (3.45%) Google
7 33 (2.03%) Adobe
8 31 (1.91%) MuleSoft
9 23 (1.42%) Zscaler
10 20 (1.23%) IBM
11 19 (1.17%) Cisco
12 18 (1.11%) Workday
13 13 (0.80%) New Relic
14 12 (0.74%) Apple
14 12 (0.74%) ServiceNow
14 12 (0.74%) Splunk
15 11 (0.68%) Braze
16 10 (0.62%) Fortinet
16 10 (0.62%) Informatica
16 10 (0.62%) JDA