Retail Job Trends

Retailing
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Retail in permanent job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Retail over the 6 months leading up to 10 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 67 43
Rank change year-on-year +6 -24 0
Permanent jobs citing Retail 2,280 1,939 3,897
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 3.47% 3.88% 5.24%
As % of the General category 6.13% 5.72% 8.55%
Number of salaries quoted 1,399 995 2,833
10th Percentile £27,707 £31,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £32,000 £41,250 £30,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £55,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +15.79% -20.83%
75th Percentile £67,500 £77,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £97,500 £86,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £40,000 £50,000 £42,288
% change year-on-year -20.00% +18.24% -22.95%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring general skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for general skills 37,218 33,871 45,601
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 56.65% 67.74% 61.37%
Number of salaries quoted 20,126 15,264 33,945
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £45,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,719 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.47% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £75,000 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £105,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £52,500 £47,500
% change year-on-year -14.29% +10.53% -9.52%

Retail
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Retail relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Retail job vacancy trend in the UK

Retail
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Retail.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Retail

Retail
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Retail over the 6 months to 10 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Retail in the UK

Retail
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Retail within the UK over the 6 months to 10 February 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +7 1,992 £50,000 -9.09% 958
UK excluding London -3 1,499 £40,000 -20.00% 802
Work from Home +17 691 £55,000 -4.35% 325
London +47 677 £70,000 +1.82% 287
North of England +5 374 £50,000 -4.76% 174
South East +14 349 £37,500 -34.78% 264
Midlands -18 317 £51,058 +13.46% 169
North West +8 224 £50,000 -4.76% 103
South West +12 177 £35,526 -35.41% 76
East Midlands 0 174 £35,000 -26.32% 85
West Midlands -32 141 £57,500 +35.29% 84
Yorkshire +8 134 £52,500 +23.53% 58
Scotland +30 121 £34,000 -32.00% 28
East of England -17 93 £45,000 -1.64% 94
Wales +28 55 £33,500 -47.86% 20
Northern Ireland -11 20 £37,500 - 9
North East -19 17 £35,750 -20.56% 14
Isle of Man - 2 £32,000 -

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 37 (1.62%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.27%) CMS
3 16 (0.70%) Confluence
3 16 (0.70%) Jupyter
3 16 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (0.31%) SAS
5 6 (0.26%) WordPress
6 5 (0.22%) Headless CMS
7 4 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.18%) ColdFusion
7 4 (0.18%) Skype for Business
8 3 (0.13%) Moodle
8 3 (0.13%) Umbraco
9 2 (0.088%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.088%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.088%) Drupal
10 1 (0.044%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.044%) IIS
10 1 (0.044%) PowerFactory
Applications
1 94 (4.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 88 (3.86%) Microsoft Office
3 78 (3.42%) Chatbot
4 38 (1.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 24 (1.05%) MS Visio
6 14 (0.61%) Photoshop
7 13 (0.57%) Maya
8 9 (0.39%) AutoCAD
9 8 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
10 7 (0.31%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 5 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
12 4 (0.18%) 3ds Max
12 4 (0.18%) Adobe After Effects
13 3 (0.13%) Adobe Premiere
13 3 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
14 2 (0.088%) Adobe Illustrator
14 2 (0.088%) CINEMA 4D
14 2 (0.088%) InDesign
15 1 (0.044%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 35 (1.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (1.45%) Dynamics CRM
3 26 (1.14%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.92%) Shopify
5 11 (0.48%) Oracle Payables
5 11 (0.48%) SAP MM
6 10 (0.44%) Oracle Cash Management
7 9 (0.39%) Oracle Receivables
7 9 (0.39%) SAP Retail
8 8 (0.35%) Oracle Assets
8 8 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
8 8 (0.35%) Oracle EBS R12
9 7 (0.31%) Magento
10 5 (0.22%) SAP CO
10 5 (0.22%) SAP FI
10 5 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
10 5 (0.22%) SAP IBP
11 4 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
11 4 (0.18%) SAP CAR
11 4 (0.18%) SAP CX
Cloud Services
1 265 (11.62%) SaaS
2 237 (10.39%) Azure
3 234 (10.26%) AWS
4 102 (4.47%) GCP
5 93 (4.08%) Microsoft 365
6 83 (3.64%) Power Platform
7 47 (2.06%) Amazon EKS
8 36 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
9 35 (1.54%) GitHub
10 23 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
11 21 (0.92%) Amazon SageMaker
11 21 (0.92%) Azure AI
11 21 (0.92%) Vertex AI
12 20 (0.88%) Entra ID
13 19 (0.83%) Cloud Computing
13 19 (0.83%) Google Analytics
13 19 (0.83%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
14 16 (0.70%) Boomi
15 14 (0.61%) Mimecast
16 13 (0.57%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 50 (2.19%) Firewall
2 43 (1.89%) WAN
3 37 (1.62%) LAN
4 34 (1.49%) Remote Desktop
5 29 (1.27%) VPN
5 29 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
6 23 (1.01%) Broadband
7 22 (0.96%) SD-WAN
8 21 (0.92%) Wireless
9 20 (0.88%) DNS
9 20 (0.88%) TCP/IP
10 19 (0.83%) VLAN
11 18 (0.79%) DHCP
12 16 (0.70%) WebEx
13 15 (0.66%) Network Security
14 11 (0.48%) BGP
15 10 (0.44%) Internet
16 6 (0.26%) Cisco Wireless
17 5 (0.22%) WLAN
18 4 (0.18%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (3.07%) Power BI
2 44 (1.93%) Tableau
3 36 (1.58%) Data Lake
4 28 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
5 27 (1.18%) SQL Server
6 23 (1.01%) Relational Database
7 19 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
8 16 (0.70%) Metadata
9 11 (0.48%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
9 11 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
10 10 (0.44%) BigQuery
10 10 (0.44%) Data Mining
10 10 (0.44%) MySQL
10 10 (0.44%) NoSQL
11 8 (0.35%) Data Vault
11 8 (0.35%) Looker
12 7 (0.31%) BusinessObjects
13 6 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.26%) SAP BW
14 5 (0.22%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 41 (1.80%) TeamCity
2 31 (1.36%) JIRA
3 26 (1.14%) Git
4 23 (1.01%) Visual Studio Code
5 9 (0.39%) Visual Studio
6 7 (0.31%) Burp Suite
6 7 (0.31%) Metasploit
7 6 (0.26%) Cypress.io
7 6 (0.26%) Selenium
8 5 (0.22%) Axure RP
9 4 (0.18%) ER Studio
9 4 (0.18%) ERwin
9 4 (0.18%) PowerDesigner
10 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
10 3 (0.13%) Jenkins
11 2 (0.088%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.088%) Crashlytics
11 2 (0.088%) GitLab
11 2 (0.088%) JMeter
11 2 (0.088%) webpack
General
1 699 (30.66%) Finance
2 654 (28.68%) Social Skills
3 302 (13.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 284 (12.46%) Analytical Skills
5 274 (12.02%) Marketing
6 261 (11.45%) Banking
7 231 (10.13%) Manufacturing
8 145 (6.36%) Law
9 130 (5.70%) Legal
10 96 (4.21%) Back Office
10 96 (4.21%) Financial Institution
11 66 (2.89%) Organisational Skills
12 62 (2.72%) Public Sector
13 58 (2.54%) Games
13 58 (2.54%) Pharmaceutical
14 54 (2.37%) Automotive
15 50 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
16 44 (1.93%) Telecoms
17 36 (1.58%) German Language
18 32 (1.40%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 305 (13.38%) Senior
2 191 (8.38%) Analyst
3 166 (7.28%) Lead
4 120 (5.26%) Account Manager
5 111 (4.87%) Architect
5 111 (4.87%) Business Manager
6 99 (4.34%) Senior Manager
7 97 (4.25%) Development Manager
8 94 (4.12%) Developer
9 76 (3.33%) Business Development Manager
10 72 (3.16%) Trainer
11 68 (2.98%) Sales Manager
12 67 (2.94%) Support Analyst
13 66 (2.89%) Consultant
14 64 (2.81%) IT Support
15 61 (2.68%) Account Executive
16 59 (2.59%) 2nd Line Support
17 51 (2.24%) Sales Account Manager
18 50 (2.19%) Software Engineer
19 48 (2.11%) Senior Account Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (1.97%) React
2 36 (1.58%) REST
3 30 (1.32%) RESTful
4 29 (1.27%) CSS
4 29 (1.27%) HTML
5 27 (1.18%) JSON
6 26 (1.14%) EDI
7 23 (1.01%) .NET
8 20 (0.88%) Hugging Face
9 18 (0.79%) NumPy
9 18 (0.79%) Pandas
9 18 (0.79%) scikit-learn
10 16 (0.70%) GraphQL
10 16 (0.70%) Matplotlib
10 16 (0.70%) Streamlit
11 15 (0.66%) Node.js
12 12 (0.53%) AngularJS
13 10 (0.44%) Next.js
13 10 (0.44%) PySpark
13 10 (0.44%) Razor View Engine
Miscellaneous
1 189 (8.29%) Onboarding
2 131 (5.75%) Driving Licence
3 96 (4.21%) Cloud Native
4 90 (3.95%) FMCG
5 73 (3.20%) Self-Motivation
6 63 (2.76%) Product Ownership
7 58 (2.54%) Management Information System
8 55 (2.41%) Analytical Mindset
9 48 (2.11%) Mobile App
10 42 (1.84%) EPoS
10 42 (1.84%) Security Posture
11 41 (1.80%) Blog
12 36 (1.58%) Mobile Computing
13 35 (1.54%) Enterprise Software
14 27 (1.18%) Social Media
15 26 (1.14%) Life Science
16 25 (1.10%) Distributed Systems
17 24 (1.05%) Algorithms
17 24 (1.05%) Digital Signage
18 23 (1.01%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 98 (4.30%) Windows
2 43 (1.89%) Windows Server
3 40 (1.75%) Linux
4 22 (0.96%) Apple iOS
5 17 (0.75%) Android
6 10 (0.44%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.35%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.18%) Debian
8 4 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (0.13%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.13%) Windows XP
10 2 (0.088%) Unix
11 1 (0.044%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.044%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 385 (16.89%) Problem-Solving
2 372 (16.32%) Customer Service
3 307 (13.46%) Continuous Improvement
4 242 (10.61%) B2B
5 221 (9.69%) AI
6 209 (9.17%) Customer Experience
7 197 (8.64%) Analytics
8 194 (8.51%) Agile
9 193 (8.46%) Logistics
10 184 (8.07%) Business Development
10 184 (8.07%) CRM
11 180 (7.89%) Decision-Making
12 172 (7.54%) E-Commerce
13 171 (7.50%) ERP
14 168 (7.37%) Mentoring
15 164 (7.19%) Roadmaps
16 144 (6.32%) Project Management
17 142 (6.23%) Coaching
18 129 (5.66%) Stakeholder Management
19 127 (5.57%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 174 (7.63%) SQL
2 118 (5.18%) Python
3 90 (3.95%) Java
4 59 (2.59%) C#
5 48 (2.11%) PowerShell
6 44 (1.93%) JavaScript
7 28 (1.23%) TypeScript
8 23 (1.01%) Go
9 20 (0.88%) VBA
10 16 (0.70%) PL/SQL
11 12 (0.53%) Bash
12 11 (0.48%) C++
13 8 (0.35%) C
13 8 (0.35%) R
14 6 (0.26%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.18%) Scala
16 3 (0.13%) ABAP
16 3 (0.13%) Apex Code
17 2 (0.088%) ActionScript
17 2 (0.088%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 327 (14.34%) Degree
2 59 (2.59%) CISSP
3 58 (2.54%) Computer Science Degree
4 48 (2.11%) Master's Degree
5 37 (1.62%) CISM
6 32 (1.40%) AWS Certification
7 31 (1.36%) Security Cleared
8 27 (1.18%) SC Cleared
9 19 (0.83%) ACCA
9 19 (0.83%) Azure Certification
9 19 (0.83%) CIMA
9 19 (0.83%) CompTIA Security+
10 17 (0.75%) Cisco Certification
10 17 (0.75%) DBS Check
11 16 (0.70%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 16 (0.70%) Microsoft Certification
11 16 (0.70%) OSCP
12 15 (0.66%) CREST Certified
13 14 (0.61%) CRISC
14 13 (0.57%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 122 (5.35%) GDPR
2 111 (4.87%) QA
3 74 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 48 (2.11%) PCI DSS
5 40 (1.75%) NIST
6 36 (1.58%) SLA
7 28 (1.23%) SOC 2
8 26 (1.14%) Accessibility
9 25 (1.10%) EU AI Act
9 25 (1.10%) PSD2
10 21 (0.92%) HIPAA
10 21 (0.92%) Solvency II
11 20 (0.88%) GRC
12 19 (0.83%) Actionable Recommendations
13 18 (0.79%) Data Quality
14 14 (0.61%) PMO
15 10 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 19770
15 10 (0.44%) NIST 800
16 9 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
17 8 (0.35%) GMP
System Software
1 81 (3.55%) Active Directory
2 32 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (1.14%) Hyper-V
4 22 (0.96%) Docker
5 13 (0.57%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
7 5 (0.22%) vSphere
8 4 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.18%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.088%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.044%) HDFS
10 1 (0.044%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 84 (3.68%) Terraform
2 74 (3.25%) Kubernetes
3 41 (1.80%) Grafana
4 14 (0.61%) Ansible
5 7 (0.31%) Nmap
6 6 (0.26%) ZABBIX
7 5 (0.22%) Prometheus
7 5 (0.22%) Proxmox
8 4 (0.18%) Autotask
8 4 (0.18%) Cilium
8 4 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (0.18%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (0.18%) Nagios
9 3 (0.13%) CASB
9 3 (0.13%) SCCM
9 3 (0.13%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
9 3 (0.13%) vCenter Server
10 2 (0.088%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.044%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.044%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 279 (12.24%) Microsoft
2 126 (5.53%) SAP
3 99 (4.34%) Salesforce
4 88 (3.86%) Google
5 67 (2.94%) BT
6 62 (2.72%) PayPal
7 51 (2.24%) Oracle
8 47 (2.06%) Cisco
9 46 (2.02%) VMware
10 42 (1.84%) Adobe
11 33 (1.45%) Databricks
12 30 (1.32%) HubSpot
13 25 (1.10%) MuleSoft
14 23 (1.01%) Meraki
14 23 (1.01%) Veeam
15 19 (0.83%) ServiceNow
16 17 (0.75%) Dell
17 14 (0.61%) Blue Prism
18 13 (0.57%) IBM
18 13 (0.57%) Ruckus Wireless