User Research Contracts in England

User Research
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring User Research skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited User Research over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 291 293 202
Rank change year-on-year +2 -91 -23
Contract jobs citing User Research 202 269 669
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.83% 0.72% 1.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.91% 0.84% 1.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 145 187 526
10th Percentile £328 £363 £406
25th Percentile £400 £431 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £499 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.27% - +4.76%
75th Percentile £575 £675 £625
90th Percentile £650 - £675
UK median daily rate £495 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -7.99% +2.48% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £89.68 £25.25 -
Median hourly rate £93.08 £25.50 -
Median % change year-on-year +265.02% - -
75th Percentile £96.49 £25.75 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £93.08 £25.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year +265.02% -43.33% +80.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
England

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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 22,202 32,193 45,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 91.16% 86.56% 90.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,534 21,105 31,969
10th Percentile £310 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £765
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 921 2,246 1,592
10th Percentile £14.42 £12.92 £10.87
25th Percentile £18.20 £16.01 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
% change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%

User Research
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing User Research as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for User Research in England

User Research
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing User Research in England.

Daily rate trend for User Research in England

User Research
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Research in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for User Research in England

User Research
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing User Research in England.

Hourly rate trend for User Research in England

User Research
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 User Research within the England region over the 6 months to 1 May 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 +19 139 £500 -5.88% 227
North of England -5 28 £400 -3.03% 46
South West +52 12 £575 -8.00% 13
North West +1 11 £400 +10.34% 30
Midlands +27 9 £463 +2.78% 15
Yorkshire -1 9 £400 -15.79% 7
South East +46 8 £588 +20.51% 35
North East +1 8 £375 -38.14% 9
West Midlands +17 7 £550 +22.22% 8
East of England - 3 £450 - 2
East Midlands - 2 £318 - 6
User Research
UK

User Research
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 12 (5.94%) Confluence
2 4 (1.98%) CMS
2 4 (1.98%) nginx
3 1 (0.50%) Apache
3 1 (0.50%) Moodle
Applications
1 23 (11.39%) Sketch
2 20 (9.90%) Adobe XD
3 7 (3.47%) InVision
4 6 (2.97%) Autodesk Smoke
5 5 (2.48%) Trello
6 3 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
7 2 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
7 2 (0.99%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.99%) UserZoom
8 1 (0.50%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.50%) SPSS
8 1 (0.50%) Stata
8 1 (0.50%) UXPin
8 1 (0.50%) Zeplin
Cloud Services
1 54 (26.73%) Figma
2 14 (6.93%) SaaS
3 11 (5.45%) AWS
4 8 (3.96%) Miro
5 6 (2.97%) Google Analytics
6 4 (1.98%) Power Platform
7 3 (1.49%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (1.49%) Slack
8 2 (0.99%) Azure
8 2 (0.99%) GitHub
8 2 (0.99%) Serverless
9 1 (0.50%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 1 (0.50%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.50%) Entra ID
9 1 (0.50%) GCP
9 1 (0.50%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.50%) Google Tag Manager
9 1 (0.50%) Sentry
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.99%) WebEx
2 1 (0.50%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.49%) Power BI
2 2 (0.99%) Mixpanel
2 2 (0.99%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.50%) DTS
3 1 (0.50%) Flink
3 1 (0.50%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.50%) QGIS
3 1 (0.50%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 16 (7.92%) JIRA
2 13 (6.44%) Axure RP
3 4 (1.98%) Git
4 2 (0.99%) Balsamiq
4 2 (0.99%) GitLab
4 2 (0.99%) Postman
5 1 (0.50%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.50%) Selenium
5 1 (0.50%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.50%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 62 (30.69%) Social Skills
2 48 (23.76%) Public Sector
3 32 (15.84%) Finance
4 22 (10.89%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (6.93%) Marketing
6 11 (5.45%) Presentation Skills
7 8 (3.96%) Banking
8 6 (2.97%) Digital Health
8 6 (2.97%) Retail
8 6 (2.97%) Wearables
9 5 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (2.48%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.49%) Games
10 3 (1.49%) Local Government
10 3 (1.49%) Publishing
11 2 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.99%) Police
12 1 (0.50%) Aviation
12 1 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.50%) Health Technology
Job Titles
1 83 (41.09%) Designer
2 39 (19.31%) User Researcher
3 36 (17.82%) UX Designer
4 30 (14.85%) Senior
5 18 (8.91%) Interaction Designer
5 18 (8.91%) User Experience Researcher
6 16 (7.92%) Product Designer
7 14 (6.93%) Senior Designer
8 13 (6.44%) Analyst
8 13 (6.44%) UI Designer
8 13 (6.44%) UI/UX Designer
9 12 (5.94%) Lead
10 10 (4.95%) Content Designer
10 10 (4.95%) Developer
11 9 (4.46%) Business Analyst
11 9 (4.46%) Product Manager
11 9 (4.46%) Service Designer
12 7 (3.47%) Data Analyst
12 7 (3.47%) Senior Product Designer
13 6 (2.97%) Visual Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (14.36%) HTML
2 26 (12.87%) CSS
3 6 (2.97%) React
4 3 (1.49%) OAuth
4 3 (1.49%) OAuth2
5 2 (0.99%) JSON
5 2 (0.99%) Node.js
5 2 (0.99%) OpenAPI
5 2 (0.99%) RESTful
5 2 (0.99%) Swagger
5 2 (0.99%) XML
6 1 (0.50%) .NET Core
6 1 (0.50%) Apache NiFi
6 1 (0.50%) FastAPI
6 1 (0.50%) Framer.js
6 1 (0.50%) GraphQL
6 1 (0.50%) Play Framework
6 1 (0.50%) React Native
6 1 (0.50%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.50%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 32 (15.84%) Product Ownership
2 11 (5.45%) Mobile App
3 6 (2.97%) IoT
4 5 (2.48%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (1.98%) Life Science
5 4 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (1.98%) Taxonomies
6 3 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.49%) NHS
7 2 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.99%) Management Information System
7 2 (0.99%) SCADA
8 1 (0.50%) 3D Graphics
8 1 (0.50%) Blog
8 1 (0.50%) FMCG
8 1 (0.50%) Freedom of Information
8 1 (0.50%) Learning Management System
8 1 (0.50%) Social Media
8 1 (0.50%) VLE
8 1 (0.50%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 4 (1.98%) Android
1 4 (1.98%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.50%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 119 (58.91%) User Experience
2 91 (45.05%) Agile
3 72 (35.64%) UX Design
4 64 (31.68%) Usability Testing
5 58 (28.71%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 50 (24.75%) Prototyping
7 45 (22.28%) Wireframes
8 43 (21.29%) Interaction Design
9 37 (18.32%) Analytics
10 35 (17.33%) UX Research
11 30 (14.85%) Service Design
12 27 (13.37%) Problem-Solving
13 25 (12.38%) Actionable Insight
13 25 (12.38%) User Stories
14 21 (10.40%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
14 21 (10.40%) Stakeholder Management
15 17 (8.42%) Project Management
16 16 (7.92%) Collaborative Working
16 16 (7.92%) Design Thinking
16 16 (7.92%) Qualitative Research
Programming Languages
1 27 (13.37%) JavaScript
2 4 (1.98%) Python
3 3 (1.49%) Java
4 2 (0.99%) SQL
5 1 (0.50%) R
5 1 (0.50%) Ruby
5 1 (0.50%) Scala
5 1 (0.50%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 48 (23.76%) Security Cleared
2 35 (17.33%) SC Cleared
3 14 (6.93%) Degree
4 5 (2.48%) DV Cleared
5 4 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (1.98%) Master's Degree
5 4 (1.98%) PhD
6 1 (0.50%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (17.33%) Accessibility
2 7 (3.47%) WCAG
3 6 (2.97%) QA
4 5 (2.48%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.50%) GDPR
5 1 (0.50%) PERC
System Software
1 8 (3.96%) Docker
2 1 (0.50%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (0.99%) Kubernetes
1 2 (0.99%) Terraform
2 1 (0.50%) Ansible
2 1 (0.50%) Grafana
2 1 (0.50%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 27 (13.37%) Adobe
2 10 (4.95%) Microsoft
3 3 (1.49%) CA Agile Central
3 3 (1.49%) Palantir
4 2 (0.99%) DataCore
4 2 (0.99%) Google
4 2 (0.99%) Optimizely
4 2 (0.99%) Oracle
4 2 (0.99%) SAP
5 1 (0.50%) Brio
5 1 (0.50%) Databricks
5 1 (0.50%) Foundry
5 1 (0.50%) Hotjar
5 1 (0.50%) IBM
5 1 (0.50%) Salesforce
5 1 (0.50%) ServiceNow