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 21 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 301 294 196
Rank change year-on-year -7 -98 -13
Contract jobs citing User Research 193 252 658
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.80% 0.69% 1.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.87% 0.80% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 136 176 519
10th Percentile £327 £363 £410
25th Percentile £401 £459 £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 - £666
UK median daily rate £490 £539 £525
% change year-on-year -9.13% +2.71% -
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% +76.47%

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 22,114 31,426 43,648
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 91.28% 86.34% 90.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,436 20,611 30,630
10th Percentile £306 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +1.85%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £765
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 963 2,247 1,533
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.92 £10.63
25th Percentile £18.13 £16.00 £16.13
Median hourly rate £28.41 £36.50 £36.54
Median % change year-on-year -22.16% -0.11% +46.16%
75th Percentile £62.24 £60.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £27.64 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -24.27% +1.39% +40.19%

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 21 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 21 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 +29 134 £500 -6.98% 261
North of England -4 25 £400 +6.67% 105
South West +42 11 £575 -23.33% 28
North West -6 10 £408 +12.41% 54
South East +44 9 £550 +22.22% 109
Midlands +20 8 £436 -3.06% 52
Yorkshire +4 8 £400 -20.00% 35
North East -3 7 £288 -52.58% 16
West Midlands +12 6 £506 +12.50% 32
East of England - 3 £450 - 28
East Midlands - 2 £318 - 18
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 (6.22%) Confluence
2 3 (1.55%) CMS
2 3 (1.55%) nginx
3 1 (0.52%) Apache
3 1 (0.52%) Moodle
Applications
1 20 (10.36%) Sketch
2 16 (8.29%) Adobe XD
3 6 (3.11%) InVision
4 5 (2.59%) Autodesk Smoke
4 5 (2.59%) Trello
5 2 (1.04%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (1.04%) UserZoom
6 1 (0.52%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.52%) SPSS
6 1 (0.52%) Stata
6 1 (0.52%) UXPin
6 1 (0.52%) Zeplin
Cloud Services
1 53 (27.46%) Figma
2 11 (5.70%) SaaS
3 10 (5.18%) AWS
4 8 (4.15%) Miro
5 6 (3.11%) Google Analytics
6 5 (2.59%) Power Platform
7 3 (1.55%) Azure
7 3 (1.55%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (1.55%) Slack
8 2 (1.04%) GitHub
8 2 (1.04%) Serverless
9 1 (0.52%) Adobe Creative Cloud
9 1 (0.52%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 1 (0.52%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.52%) Entra ID
9 1 (0.52%) GCP
9 1 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.52%) Google Tag Manager
9 1 (0.52%) Sentry
Communications & Networking
1 2 (1.04%) WebEx
2 1 (0.52%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.07%) Power BI
2 2 (1.04%) Mixpanel
2 2 (1.04%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.04%) Tableau
3 1 (0.52%) DTS
3 1 (0.52%) Flink
3 1 (0.52%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.52%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 17 (8.81%) JIRA
2 12 (6.22%) Axure RP
3 4 (2.07%) Git
4 2 (1.04%) Balsamiq
4 2 (1.04%) GitLab
4 2 (1.04%) Postman
5 1 (0.52%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.52%) Selenium
5 1 (0.52%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.52%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 57 (29.53%) Social Skills
2 40 (20.73%) Public Sector
3 29 (15.03%) Finance
4 21 (10.88%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (7.25%) Marketing
6 12 (6.22%) Presentation Skills
7 9 (4.66%) Banking
8 8 (4.15%) Retail
9 6 (3.11%) Digital Health
9 6 (3.11%) Legal
10 5 (2.59%) Wearables
11 4 (2.07%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (1.55%) Games
12 3 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (1.04%) Corporate Banking
13 2 (1.04%) Investment Banking
13 2 (1.04%) Local Government
13 2 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (1.04%) Police
13 2 (1.04%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 79 (40.93%) Designer
2 35 (18.13%) User Researcher
3 34 (17.62%) UX Designer
4 30 (15.54%) Senior
5 18 (9.33%) Interaction Designer
6 16 (8.29%) Product Designer
6 16 (8.29%) User Experience Researcher
7 15 (7.77%) Senior Designer
8 14 (7.25%) UI Designer
8 14 (7.25%) UI/UX Designer
9 12 (6.22%) Analyst
9 12 (6.22%) Lead
10 10 (5.18%) Developer
11 9 (4.66%) Product Manager
12 8 (4.15%) Data Analyst
12 8 (4.15%) Service Designer
13 7 (3.63%) Business Analyst
13 7 (3.63%) Content Designer
13 7 (3.63%) Senior Product Designer
14 6 (3.11%) Senior UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (14.51%) HTML
2 24 (12.44%) CSS
3 6 (3.11%) React
4 3 (1.55%) OAuth
4 3 (1.55%) OAuth2
5 2 (1.04%) JSON
5 2 (1.04%) Node.js
5 2 (1.04%) OpenAPI
5 2 (1.04%) RESTful
5 2 (1.04%) Swagger
5 2 (1.04%) XML
6 1 (0.52%) .NET Core
6 1 (0.52%) Apache NiFi
6 1 (0.52%) FastAPI
6 1 (0.52%) Framer.js
6 1 (0.52%) GraphQL
6 1 (0.52%) Play Framework
6 1 (0.52%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.52%) Unity (Game Engine)
6 1 (0.52%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 37 (19.17%) Product Ownership
2 12 (6.22%) Mobile App
3 5 (2.59%) IoT
4 4 (2.07%) Analytical Mindset
4 4 (2.07%) Life Science
4 4 (2.07%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (2.07%) Taxonomies
5 3 (1.55%) NHS
6 2 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.04%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.04%) SCADA
6 2 (1.04%) W3C
7 1 (0.52%) 3D Graphics
7 1 (0.52%) Blog
7 1 (0.52%) FMCG
7 1 (0.52%) Learning Management System
7 1 (0.52%) RIA
7 1 (0.52%) Social Media
7 1 (0.52%) VLE
Operating Systems
1 5 (2.59%) Android
1 5 (2.59%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.52%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (58.55%) User Experience
2 85 (44.04%) Agile
3 69 (35.75%) UX Design
4 60 (31.09%) Usability Testing
5 55 (28.50%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 46 (23.83%) Wireframes
7 45 (23.32%) Prototyping
8 43 (22.28%) Interaction Design
9 41 (21.24%) Analytics
10 34 (17.62%) UX Research
11 31 (16.06%) Service Design
12 26 (13.47%) Problem-Solving
13 23 (11.92%) Actionable Insight
14 21 (10.88%) User Stories
15 20 (10.36%) High-Fidelity Prototypes
16 19 (9.84%) Collaborative Working
16 19 (9.84%) Stakeholder Management
17 18 (9.33%) Roadmaps
18 17 (8.81%) Project Management
19 16 (8.29%) Product Strategy
Programming Languages
1 26 (13.47%) JavaScript
2 5 (2.59%) Python
3 3 (1.55%) Java
3 3 (1.55%) SQL
4 1 (0.52%) R
4 1 (0.52%) Ruby
4 1 (0.52%) Scala
4 1 (0.52%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 48 (24.87%) Security Cleared
2 35 (18.13%) SC Cleared
3 14 (7.25%) Degree
4 5 (2.59%) BPSS Clearance
4 5 (2.59%) DV Cleared
4 5 (2.59%) Master's Degree
5 4 (2.07%) PhD
6 1 (0.52%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.52%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (19.17%) Accessibility
2 8 (4.15%) WCAG
3 6 (3.11%) QA
4 4 (2.07%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.52%) GDPR
5 1 (0.52%) PERC
System Software
1 7 (3.63%) Docker
2 1 (0.52%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (1.04%) Kubernetes
1 2 (1.04%) Terraform
2 1 (0.52%) Ansible
2 1 (0.52%) Grafana
2 1 (0.52%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 24 (12.44%) Adobe
2 9 (4.66%) Microsoft
3 4 (2.07%) CA Agile Central
4 3 (1.55%) Palantir
5 2 (1.04%) DataCore
5 2 (1.04%) Google
5 2 (1.04%) Optimizely
5 2 (1.04%) Oracle
5 2 (1.04%) SAP
6 1 (0.52%) Brio
6 1 (0.52%) Databricks
6 1 (0.52%) Foundry
6 1 (0.52%) Hotjar
6 1 (0.52%) IBM
6 1 (0.52%) Salesforce