User Research Contract Job Trends in the City of London

User Research
Central London > City of London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the City of London requiring User Research skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 7 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 103 115
Rank change year-on-year +14 +12 +11
Contract jobs citing User Research 45 16 11
As % of all contract jobs in the City of London 1.95% 0.92% 0.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.30% 0.98% 0.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 11 4
10th Percentile £395 £450 £497
25th Percentile £413 £451 £507
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £485 £573
Median % change year-on-year -2.06% -15.28% +14.50%
75th Percentile £569 £526 £632
90th Percentile £638 £638 £635
Central London median daily rate £475 £485 £573
% change year-on-year -2.06% -15.28% +14.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £50.72 - -
Median hourly rate £51.44 - -
75th Percentile £52.16 - -
90th Percentile - - -
Central London median hourly rate £51.44 - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
City of London

User Research falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the City of London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,959 1,628 1,982
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London 85.06% 93.30% 90.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,330 1,027 1,403
10th Percentile £363 £354 £363
25th Percentile £450 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £570
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +0.88% -5.00%
75th Percentile £675 £686 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £825
Central London median daily rate £550 £565 £550
% change year-on-year -2.65% +2.73% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 12 11
10th Percentile £17.99 £22.00 £19.92
25th Percentile £18.75 £24.00 £20.22
Median hourly rate £29.78 £29.58 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.70% +18.30% -28.57%
75th Percentile £49.78 £45.00 £40.00
90th Percentile £59.72 £62.25 £41.84
Central London median hourly rate £26.11 £29.07 £27.81
% change year-on-year -10.18% +4.53% -20.54%

User Research
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing User Research relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

User Research job vacancy trend in the City of London

User Research
Daily Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing User Research.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing User Research

User Research
Daily Rate Histogram in the City of London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Research in the City of London over the 6 months to 7 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for User Research in the City of London

User Research
Hourly Rate Trend in the City of London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing User Research.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the City of London citing User Research

User Research
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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 3 (6.67%) CMS
2 1 (2.22%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (2.22%) Adobe XD
1 1 (2.22%) Sketch
Cloud Services
1 6 (13.33%) SaaS
2 4 (8.89%) Figma
3 3 (6.67%) Azure
3 3 (6.67%) ChatGPT
4 2 (4.44%) Anthropic Claude
4 2 (4.44%) Power Platform
5 1 (2.22%) Amazon Bedrock
5 1 (2.22%) AWS
5 1 (2.22%) Azure AI
5 1 (2.22%) GCP
5 1 (2.22%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (2.22%) Vertex AI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.22%) Power BI
General
1 15 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 13 (28.89%) Public Sector
3 6 (13.33%) Finance
4 5 (11.11%) Publishing
5 3 (6.67%) Banking
6 2 (4.44%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (4.44%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (4.44%) Local Government
6 2 (4.44%) Marketing
6 2 (4.44%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (2.22%) Military
Job Titles
1 21 (46.67%) User Researcher
2 14 (31.11%) Designer
3 10 (22.22%) Senior
4 6 (13.33%) UX Designer
5 5 (11.11%) Content Designer
5 5 (11.11%) Senior User Researcher
6 3 (6.67%) Product Designer
6 3 (6.67%) Senior Designer
7 2 (4.44%) Analyst
7 2 (4.44%) Business Analyst
7 2 (4.44%) Data Scientist
7 2 (4.44%) Developer
7 2 (4.44%) Lead
7 2 (4.44%) Product Owner
7 2 (4.44%) Senior Analyst
7 2 (4.44%) Senior Business Analyst
7 2 (4.44%) Senior Content Designer
8 1 (2.22%) Artificial Intelligence Developer
8 1 (2.22%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 1 (2.22%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.22%) .NET
1 1 (2.22%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 5 (11.11%) Product Ownership
2 2 (4.44%) Greenfield Project
2 2 (4.44%) Management Information System
2 2 (4.44%) Marketing Technology
2 2 (4.44%) NHS
3 1 (2.22%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (2.22%) Clustering
3 1 (2.22%) Low-Code
3 1 (2.22%) Mobile App
3 1 (2.22%) Security Posture
3 1 (2.22%) Taxonomies
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (37.78%) Agile
2 13 (28.89%) AI
3 12 (26.67%) Analytics
3 12 (26.67%) Usability Testing
4 9 (20.00%) Actionable Insight
4 9 (20.00%) Prototyping
4 9 (20.00%) User Experience
4 9 (20.00%) UX Design
5 8 (17.78%) Journey Map
6 7 (15.56%) Decision-Making
7 6 (13.33%) Interaction Design
7 6 (13.33%) Qualitative Research
7 6 (13.33%) Quantitative Research
7 6 (13.33%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 6 (13.33%) Wireframes
8 5 (11.11%) Strategic Thinking
9 4 (8.89%) Content Strategy
9 4 (8.89%) Service Design
9 4 (8.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 4 (8.89%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 1 (2.22%) C#
1 1 (2.22%) Python
Qualifications
1 14 (31.11%) SC Cleared
1 14 (31.11%) Security Cleared
2 3 (6.67%) BPSS Clearance
2 3 (6.67%) Degree
3 2 (4.44%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (2.22%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (24.44%) Accessibility
2 3 (6.67%) WCAG
Vendors
1 3 (6.67%) Salesforce
2 1 (2.22%) Adobe
2 1 (2.22%) Foundry
2 1 (2.22%) Microsoft