Designer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Designer
England > South East

The median Designer daily rate in the South East is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 June 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 128 88
Rank change year-on-year -17 -40 +74
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 68 24 111
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.13% 0.81% 1.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.23% 0.89% 2.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 59 22 43
10th Percentile £453 £314 £200
25th Percentile - £350 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £453 £527
Median % change year-on-year +10.50% -14.06% +5.30%
75th Percentile £547 £588 £625
90th Percentile £575 £675 £661
England median daily rate £460 £457 £495
% change year-on-year +0.55% -7.68% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 40
10th Percentile £28.40 £45.22 £45.00
25th Percentile £32.00 £49.29 £53.40
Median hourly rate £38.50 £57.33 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -32.84% -0.04% -8.24%
75th Percentile £44.50 £64.11 £61.30
90th Percentile £47.80 £67.44 -
England median hourly rate £33.99 £36.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -6.88% -36.36% +28.88%

All Contract IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 the South East with a recognized job title 5,508 2,690 5,199
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.62% 91.12% 92.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,365 1,796 3,066
10th Percentile £303 £223 £234
25th Percentile £413 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - -
75th Percentile £610 £600 £625
90th Percentile £700 £656 £688
England median daily rate £519 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +0.78% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 549 173 532
10th Percentile £15.08 £14.20 £12.88
25th Percentile £24.25 £16.95 £18.35
Median hourly rate £50.49 £32.50 £48.20
Median % change year-on-year +55.34% -32.57% -3.60%
75th Percentile £80.20 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £45.78 £29.33 £38.00
% change year-on-year +56.09% -22.82% -15.56%

Designer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Designer job vacancy trend in the South East

Designer
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the South East

Designer
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Designer in the South East over the 6 months to 6 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Designer in the South East

Designer
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the South East

Designer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Designer in the South East over the 6 months to 6 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Designer in the South East

Designer
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Designer within the South East region over the 6 months to 6 June 2026. 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
Thames Valley -12 47 £525 +44.83% 9
Buckinghamshire -12 32 £531 -3.44% 1
Berkshire -24 15 £500 +42.86% 6
Hampshire -22 13 £500 -13.98% 3
Surrey - 3 £405 - 4
West Sussex - 1 £425 - 2
Home Counties - 1 £550 -
Designer
England

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 6 June 2026, 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 South East region featuring Designer in the job title.

1 43 (63.24%) Service Design
2 37 (54.41%) Security Cleared
3 26 (38.24%) SC Cleared
4 24 (35.29%) DV Cleared
5 14 (20.59%) Agile
5 14 (20.59%) ITIL
6 13 (19.12%) Network Design
7 11 (16.18%) AI
8 10 (14.71%) ITSM
8 10 (14.71%) Service Management
9 9 (13.24%) User Experience
10 8 (11.76%) Continuous Improvement
10 8 (11.76%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 8 (11.76%) NCSC
10 8 (11.76%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 7 (10.29%) Cloud Security
11 7 (10.29%) Collaborative Working
11 7 (10.29%) Government Security Classifications
11 7 (10.29%) Lean Six Sigma
11 7 (10.29%) SIAM
11 7 (10.29%) Six Sigma
11 7 (10.29%) Technical Architecture
11 7 (10.29%) TOGAF
12 6 (8.82%) Coaching
12 6 (8.82%) Degree
12 6 (8.82%) Enterprise Architecture
12 6 (8.82%) UX Design
12 6 (8.82%) Workshop Facilitation
13 5 (7.35%) Accessibility
13 5 (7.35%) Business Continuity

Designer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 1 (1.47%) LiveCycle
1 1 (1.47%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (4.41%) MS Visio
2 2 (2.94%) InVision
2 2 (2.94%) Sketch
3 1 (1.47%) Adobe Illustrator
3 1 (1.47%) MicroStation
3 1 (1.47%) OmniGraffle
3 1 (1.47%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 4 (5.88%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (1.47%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 5 (7.35%) Figma
2 1 (1.47%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (1.47%) Power Automate
2 1 (1.47%) Power Platform
2 1 (1.47%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (4.41%) Diameter Protocol
1 3 (4.41%) Firewall
1 3 (4.41%) IPv4
1 3 (4.41%) IPv6
1 3 (4.41%) Network Security
1 3 (4.41%) TCP/IP
1 3 (4.41%) VLAN
1 3 (4.41%) VPN
2 2 (2.94%) 2G
2 2 (2.94%) 3G
2 2 (2.94%) 4G
2 2 (2.94%) 5G
2 2 (2.94%) Broadband
2 2 (2.94%) DNS
2 2 (2.94%) SIGTRAN
2 2 (2.94%) SS7
3 1 (1.47%) BGP
3 1 (1.47%) DHCP
3 1 (1.47%) Internet
3 1 (1.47%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.88%) Oracle ODI
2 3 (4.41%) Electronic Patient Records
3 1 (1.47%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (1.47%) Axure RP
General
1 13 (19.12%) Social Skills
2 9 (13.24%) Telecoms
3 7 (10.29%) Public Sector
4 5 (7.35%) Finance
5 4 (5.88%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (4.41%) Legal
7 1 (1.47%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.47%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.47%) CSS
1 1 (1.47%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (19.12%) Product Ownership
2 6 (8.82%) Onboarding
3 4 (5.88%) Data Centre
4 3 (4.41%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.47%) Greenfield Project
5 1 (1.47%) LIMS
5 1 (1.47%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.47%) NHS
5 1 (1.47%) Operational Technology
5 1 (1.47%) PACS
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (63.24%) Service Design
2 14 (20.59%) Agile
2 14 (20.59%) ITIL
3 13 (19.12%) Network Design
4 11 (16.18%) AI
5 10 (14.71%) ITSM
5 10 (14.71%) Service Management
6 9 (13.24%) User Experience
7 8 (11.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 8 (11.76%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 7 (10.29%) Cloud Security
8 7 (10.29%) Collaborative Working
8 7 (10.29%) Lean Six Sigma
8 7 (10.29%) SIAM
8 7 (10.29%) Six Sigma
8 7 (10.29%) Technical Architecture
8 7 (10.29%) TOGAF
9 6 (8.82%) Coaching
9 6 (8.82%) Enterprise Architecture
9 6 (8.82%) UX Design
Programming Languages
1 1 (1.47%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 37 (54.41%) Security Cleared
2 26 (38.24%) SC Cleared
3 24 (35.29%) DV Cleared
4 6 (8.82%) Degree
5 4 (5.88%) Cisco Certification
6 3 (4.41%) CCNA
6 3 (4.41%) CCNP
6 3 (4.41%) JNCIS
7 2 (2.94%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.47%) CCIE
8 1 (1.47%) JNCIE
8 1 (1.47%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (11.76%) ISO/IEC 20000
1 8 (11.76%) NCSC
2 7 (10.29%) Government Security Classifications
3 5 (7.35%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.47%) HL7
4 1 (1.47%) SLA
4 1 (1.47%) WCAG
Systems Management
1 3 (4.41%) Nagios
Vendors
1 5 (7.35%) Cisco
1 5 (7.35%) Juniper
2 4 (5.88%) Oracle
2 4 (5.88%) Virgin Media
3 3 (4.41%) F5
3 3 (4.41%) SolarWinds
4 2 (2.94%) Ericsson
4 2 (2.94%) Nokia
5 1 (1.47%) Microsoft