Insights: Digital talent in UK Retail

The following data has been collected using both Talent primary data and LinkedIn Insights data to provide a summary of the digital labour market across the UK retail sector. If you are looking for any further sector specific insights including salary benchmarking please reach out to a member of the team so that we can tailor results specific to your business needs.

If you have any questions or comments please email marketing@talentinternational.co.uk.

The top locations for hiring digital talent

As you can see demand for IT talent working in the retail sector is high across the board making it difficult to recruit experienced talent. Bristol and the South West is showing itself to be a hidden gem where the availability of qualified and experienced talent is in greater than the demand in comparison to other major cities.

Location Available Talent Av. Monthly Jobs
London 12,919 +3% 210
Manchester 2830 -3% 38
Leeds 2009 20
Bristol 1,710 +2% 37
Leicester 1,166 -2% 13

Hidden Gems

Where are the spots that you should be looking when looking to hire? The following places have seen an increase in talent locating but a drop off in roles, boost your hiring chances by advertising in our latest hidden gem locations:

Location Available Talent
Bristol 1,710
Birmingham 1,166
Glasgow 1,096

Hottest Skills

The most popular skills on the shopping list when it comes to hiring digital talent in the retail space. If you’re hiring for these skills expect some serious competition and focus on that employer brand and overall package to help you stand out from the crowd.

Skill % of total
job posts
Analytics 16%
Technical Support 10%
SQL 7%
Active Directory 5%
Photoshop 4%

Checking out

What retail brands are losing talent from tech teams faster than anyone else? Data based on the count of employee departures from this company divided by the average employee headcount over the past 12 months.

59%

Carzoo

55%

Wilko

37%

Mountain Warehouse

30%

Frasers Group

29%

H&M

Scaling Up

What retail brands are hiring tech talent faster than anyone else? Who are you up against in the race for the best digital talent working in retail? Have a look on their careers pages – what can you offer these candidates that these brands can’t? What new tech projects are they undertaking which could result in the spike in demand…?

Halfords

73 Jobs

River Island

38 Jobs

Tesco

31 Jobs

WH Smith

20 Jobs

TJX Europe

17 Jobs

Shop Lifting

Sectors stealing talent

These are the sectors stealing digital talent from retail and getting away with it! Is there a TA within here tapping up your teams on LinkedIn as we speak?

(figures quote monthly average)

  • stealing 52 candidates

  • stealing 27 candidates

  • stealing 24 candidates

  • stealing 23 candidates

  • stealing 18 candidates

The take back

These are the sectors loosing digital talent to retail. Could your next big hire be hiding in one of these sectors?

(figures quote monthly average)

  • Stealing 48 candidates

  • Stealing 29 candidates

  • Stealing 24 candidates

  • Stealing 24 candidates

  • Stealing 17 candidates

Get a free talent insights report tailored to your team

Are you looking to hire this year? Expanding into a new location or embarking on a new digital transformation project? A free talent insights report can help you make more informed decisions about when, where and how to meet your objectives. Simply provide a brief synopsis of what you’re looking to achieve and our insights team will send you a report with some useful insights that may help you achieve your goals.

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