Designer Contract Job Trends in England

Designer
UK > England

The median Designer daily rate in England is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 191 154 198
Rank change year-on-year -37 +44 -49
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 474 478 475
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.51% 1.65% 1.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.65% 1.78% 1.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 342 295 323
10th Percentile £313 £306 £308
25th Percentile £400 £363 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £586 £575
90th Percentile £638 £650 £622
UK median daily rate £475 £486 £500
% change year-on-year -2.31% -2.75% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 8 16
10th Percentile £24.10 £30.43 £33.50
25th Percentile £32.24 £31.23 £45.16
Median hourly rate £55.00 £33.52 £50.95
Median % change year-on-year +64.08% -34.21% -0.10%
75th Percentile £67.39 £55.31 £66.44
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £70.04
UK median hourly rate £54.75 £33.52 £50.95
% change year-on-year +63.34% -34.21% -0.10%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 28,730 26,847 34,730
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.24% 92.95% 93.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,314 16,727 23,863
10th Percentile £293 £300 £288
25th Percentile £405 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -3.24% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,773 846 1,347
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.83 £15.25
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.25 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.30 £35.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.86% -22.22% +40.63%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £33.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -24.93% -25.56% +50.00%

Designer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Designer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Designer job vacancy trend in England

Designer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in England

Designer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Designer in England over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Designer in England

Designer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in England

Designer
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Designer in England over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Designer in England

Designer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Designer within the England region over the 6 months to 20 December 2025. 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
London +6 274 £500 +5.26% 55
North of England -27 74 £425 -10.53% 48
South East -50 41 £525 +4.22% 39
North West -10 38 £404 -1.34% 27
Midlands -42 30 £425 -19.14% 10
South West -4 28 £600 - 20
West Midlands -32 27 £425 -26.17% 8
Yorkshire -47 24 £531 +6.25% 12
North East -3 12 £450 - 10
East of England -19 10 £425 -12.82% 12
East Midlands -22 3 £386 -3.44% 2
Designer
UK

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 20 December 2025, Designer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Designer in the job title.

1 191 (40.30%) User Experience
2 156 (32.91%) Figma
3 142 (29.96%) Service Design
3 142 (29.96%) UX Design
4 123 (25.95%) Accessibility
5 122 (25.74%) Agile
6 113 (23.84%) User Research
7 91 (19.20%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 86 (18.14%) Prototyping
9 78 (16.46%) Security Cleared
10 73 (15.40%) Interaction Design
11 66 (13.92%) Journey Map
12 65 (13.71%) SC Cleared
12 65 (13.71%) Wireframes
13 64 (13.50%) Adobe
14 57 (12.03%) Workshop Facilitation
15 53 (11.18%) Usability Testing
16 43 (9.07%) Design Thinking
16 43 (9.07%) Problem-Solving
17 42 (8.86%) Microsoft
18 37 (7.81%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
18 37 (7.81%) Sketch
18 37 (7.81%) Storytelling
19 35 (7.38%) AI
19 35 (7.38%) Inclusive Design
20 33 (6.96%) Analytics
20 33 (6.96%) Continuous Improvement
21 32 (6.75%) Stakeholder Management
22 31 (6.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
23 29 (6.12%) Collaborative Working

Designer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 14 (2.95%) CMS
2 11 (2.32%) Confluence
3 7 (1.48%) Appian
4 6 (1.27%) Camunda
4 6 (1.27%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.63%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.42%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.21%) Umbraco
Applications
1 37 (7.81%) Sketch
2 25 (5.27%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 21 (4.43%) Adobe XD
4 19 (4.01%) Adobe Illustrator
4 19 (4.01%) Photoshop
5 13 (2.74%) InDesign
6 12 (2.53%) InVision
7 10 (2.11%) Adobe After Effects
8 9 (1.90%) Microsoft Office
8 9 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 8 (1.69%) Zeplin
10 6 (1.27%) Adobe Captivate
11 5 (1.05%) Microsoft Excel
12 3 (0.63%) Adobe Premiere
12 3 (0.63%) Spreadsheet
12 3 (0.63%) Trello
13 2 (0.42%) Acrobat
13 2 (0.42%) MS Visio
13 2 (0.42%) OmniGraffle
13 2 (0.42%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 3 (0.63%) Oracle BRM
2 2 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.42%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.21%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.21%) Oracle CRM
3 1 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.21%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.21%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 156 (32.91%) Figma
2 22 (4.64%) AWS
2 22 (4.64%) Miro
3 17 (3.59%) SaaS
4 11 (2.32%) Azure
4 11 (2.32%) Power Platform
5 9 (1.90%) Adobe Creative Cloud
6 6 (1.27%) OpenShift
7 5 (1.05%) PowerApps
8 4 (0.84%) Canva
8 4 (0.84%) Copilot Studio
8 4 (0.84%) GitHub
8 4 (0.84%) Google Analytics
8 4 (0.84%) Microsoft Copilot
9 3 (0.63%) Lucidchart
10 2 (0.42%) Akamai
10 2 (0.42%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (0.42%) GCP
10 2 (0.42%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (0.42%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (2.11%) LAN
2 8 (1.69%) BGP
2 8 (1.69%) OSPF
2 8 (1.69%) SNMP
3 6 (1.27%) Firewall
3 6 (1.27%) MPLS
3 6 (1.27%) TACACS
3 6 (1.27%) WAN
3 6 (1.27%) Wireless
4 5 (1.05%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.63%) Broadband
5 3 (0.63%) GPRS
5 3 (0.63%) GSM
5 3 (0.63%) SD-WAN
5 3 (0.63%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.42%) Cisco ISE
6 2 (0.42%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 2 (0.42%) Network Security
6 2 (0.42%) VPN
6 2 (0.42%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.84%) Power BI
2 3 (0.63%) Metadata
3 1 (0.21%) BigQuery
3 1 (0.21%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 23 (4.85%) JIRA
2 17 (3.59%) Axure RP
3 4 (0.84%) Git
4 3 (0.63%) Postman
5 2 (0.42%) Balsamiq
5 2 (0.42%) GitLab
6 1 (0.21%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.21%) Dreamweaver
6 1 (0.21%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 111 (23.42%) Social Skills
2 83 (17.51%) Finance
3 80 (16.88%) Public Sector
4 58 (12.24%) Banking
5 29 (6.12%) Marketing
6 13 (2.74%) Analytical Skills
6 13 (2.74%) Legal
7 12 (2.53%) Publishing
8 11 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.90%) Billing
9 9 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.69%) Retail
11 7 (1.48%) Advertising
11 7 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.48%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.27%) Local Government
12 6 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.05%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (5.70%) HTML
2 23 (4.85%) CSS
3 7 (1.48%) Framer.js
4 6 (1.27%) .NET
5 4 (0.84%) AngularJS
5 4 (0.84%) HTML5
5 4 (0.84%) React
6 3 (0.63%) CSS3
6 3 (0.63%) Lightning Web Components
6 3 (0.63%) REST
7 2 (0.42%) EDI
7 2 (0.42%) Middleware
7 2 (0.42%) OpenAPI
7 2 (0.42%) RESTful
7 2 (0.42%) Sass
7 2 (0.42%) Swagger
7 2 (0.42%) Web Services
8 1 (0.21%) Blazor
8 1 (0.21%) SAP Fiori
8 1 (0.21%) Svelte
Miscellaneous
1 45 (9.49%) Mobile App
2 22 (4.64%) Onboarding
3 19 (4.01%) Product Ownership
4 11 (2.32%) NHS
5 10 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
5 10 (2.11%) Social Media
6 9 (1.90%) e-Learning
7 8 (1.69%) Data Centre
8 7 (1.48%) Graphic Design
9 6 (1.27%) Blog
9 6 (1.27%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
10 5 (1.05%) Learning Management System
10 5 (1.05%) Mainframe
10 5 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
11 4 (0.84%) Animation
11 4 (0.84%) Data Structures
11 4 (0.84%) FPGA
11 4 (0.84%) Motion Graphics
11 4 (0.84%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.48%) Apple iOS
2 6 (1.27%) Android
3 3 (0.63%) Unix
4 1 (0.21%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.21%) VMS
4 1 (0.21%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (40.30%) User Experience
2 142 (29.96%) Service Design
2 142 (29.96%) UX Design
3 122 (25.74%) Agile
4 113 (23.84%) User Research
5 91 (19.20%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 86 (18.14%) Prototyping
7 73 (15.40%) Interaction Design
8 66 (13.92%) Journey Map
9 65 (13.71%) Wireframes
10 57 (12.03%) Workshop Facilitation
11 53 (11.18%) Usability Testing
12 43 (9.07%) Design Thinking
12 43 (9.07%) Problem-Solving
13 37 (7.81%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
13 37 (7.81%) Storytelling
14 35 (7.38%) AI
14 35 (7.38%) Inclusive Design
15 33 (6.96%) Analytics
15 33 (6.96%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 14 (2.95%) Python
2 9 (1.90%) JavaScript
3 7 (1.48%) SQL
4 3 (0.63%) Java
4 3 (0.63%) PL/SQL
5 2 (0.42%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 78 (16.46%) Security Cleared
2 65 (13.71%) SC Cleared
3 26 (5.49%) Degree
4 9 (1.90%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (1.48%) AWS Certification
6 6 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (1.27%) CCIE
6 6 (1.27%) DV Cleared
6 6 (1.27%) JNCIE
7 4 (0.84%) HND
8 3 (0.63%) CCNP
8 3 (0.63%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.21%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.21%) CCNA
10 1 (0.21%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.21%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.21%) MCP
10 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.21%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 123 (25.95%) Accessibility
2 29 (6.12%) WCAG
3 6 (1.27%) GDPR
4 5 (1.05%) QA
5 4 (0.84%) Data Quality
5 4 (0.84%) ISO 9001
6 2 (0.42%) GMP
6 2 (0.42%) GxP
7 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.21%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (1.27%) VMware Infrastructure
1 6 (1.27%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (1.27%) Ansible
1 6 (1.27%) Terraform
2 2 (0.42%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.21%) Nagios
3 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 64 (13.50%) Adobe
2 42 (8.86%) Microsoft
3 15 (3.16%) Cisco
4 12 (2.53%) Juniper
5 11 (2.32%) Fortinet
6 10 (2.11%) Google
6 10 (2.11%) Salesforce
7 9 (1.90%) F5
7 9 (1.90%) Oracle
8 7 (1.48%) ServiceNow
9 6 (1.27%) Pega
9 6 (1.27%) VMware
10 5 (1.05%) Cadence
10 5 (1.05%) Hopewiser
11 3 (0.63%) Amdocs
11 3 (0.63%) Hotjar
11 3 (0.63%) OneLogin
11 3 (0.63%) SAP
11 3 (0.63%) SolarWinds
12 2 (0.42%) Virgin Media