Designer Contract Job Trends

Designer
UK

The median Designer daily rate in the UK is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 July 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 169 172
Rank change year-on-year +37 +3 -33
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 1,036 512 609
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.99% 1.61% 1.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.15% 1.75% 1.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 387 348
10th Percentile £356 £300 £321
25th Percentile £406 £360 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £459 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -8.21% -4.76%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £574
90th Percentile £588 £600 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £440 £475
% change year-on-year +7.95% -7.37% -0.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 17 47
10th Percentile £22.73 £21.85 £35.05
25th Percentile £29.19 £34.48 £47.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £36.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -6.88% -36.36% +32.60%
75th Percentile £49.38 £52.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £62.40 £58.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £49.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year -30.63% -14.56% -7.87%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 UK with a recognized job title 48,135 29,273 40,238
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.98% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,133 18,680 25,890
10th Percentile £325 £287 £285
25th Percentile £417 £400 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,254 1,329 2,797
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.75 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.44 £16.65
Median hourly rate £42.59 £26.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.03% -29.47% -12.79%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +76.94% -37.13% +1.14%

Designer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Designer job vacancy trend in the UK

Designer
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the UK

Designer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Designer over the 6 months to 7 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Designer in the UK

Designer
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the UK

Designer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Designer over the 6 months to 7 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Designer in the UK

Designer
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Designer within the UK over the 6 months to 7 July 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
England +42 882 £475 +4.86% 278
UK excluding London +47 458 £475 +7.95% 142
London +10 440 £464 -2.42% 167
Work from Home +23 279 £475 +5.56% 146
North of England +4 154 £459 +4.91% 49
Midlands +14 96 £425 +0.12% 13
West Midlands +5 90 £425 -0.93% 7
South East -24 65 £525 +19.32% 37
Yorkshire -6 59 £475 +18.75% 14
North West -23 56 £425 -2.86% 20
South West +2 54 £425 -10.53% 14
East of England +9 44 £500 +5.26% 6
Scotland -7 44 £550 +15.79% 16
North East -14 39 £420 -9.19% 15
East Midlands -13 6 £402 +24.69% 6
Wales -22 5 £625 +104.42% 6

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 7 July 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 featuring Designer in the job title.

1 333 (32.14%) User Experience
2 330 (31.85%) Service Design
3 261 (25.19%) UX Design
4 257 (24.81%) Agile
5 222 (21.43%) Accessibility
6 220 (21.24%) Security Cleared
7 214 (20.66%) User Research
8 211 (20.37%) Figma
9 181 (17.47%) SC Cleared
10 177 (17.08%) Interaction Design
11 164 (15.83%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 141 (13.61%) Prototyping
13 123 (11.87%) Journey Map
14 117 (11.29%) Workshop Facilitation
15 100 (9.65%) AI
16 99 (9.56%) Wireframes
17 92 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
18 83 (8.01%) Adobe
19 75 (7.24%) WCAG
20 74 (7.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
21 67 (6.47%) Degree
22 64 (6.18%) Analytics
23 62 (5.98%) Continuous Improvement
24 61 (5.89%) Problem-Solving
25 60 (5.79%) Inclusive Design
26 57 (5.50%) Roadmaps
27 56 (5.41%) Collaborative Working
27 56 (5.41%) Customer Experience
28 55 (5.31%) BPSS Clearance
29 54 (5.21%) Usability Testing

Designer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 20 (1.93%) CMS
2 10 (0.97%) CICS
3 9 (0.87%) Confluence
4 6 (0.58%) Moodle
5 5 (0.48%) LiveCycle
5 5 (0.48%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.39%) Drupal
6 4 (0.39%) WordPress
7 3 (0.29%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.19%) Headless CMS
8 2 (0.19%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
8 2 (0.19%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.097%) Kentico
Applications
1 41 (3.96%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 36 (3.47%) Sketch
3 35 (3.38%) Photoshop
4 33 (3.19%) Adobe Illustrator
5 28 (2.70%) Adobe After Effects
6 12 (1.16%) Chatbot
7 10 (0.97%) Adobe XD
7 10 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 9 (0.87%) InDesign
9 8 (0.77%) Microsoft Excel
10 6 (0.58%) Final Cut Pro
11 5 (0.48%) AutoCAD
11 5 (0.48%) CINEMA 4D
11 5 (0.48%) SOLIDWORKS
12 4 (0.39%) Adobe Premiere
12 4 (0.39%) InVision
12 4 (0.39%) Revit
13 3 (0.29%) MS Visio
14 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
14 2 (0.19%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 4 (0.39%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.19%) Shopify
3 1 (0.097%) Eloqua
3 1 (0.097%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 211 (20.37%) Figma
2 28 (2.70%) SaaS
3 23 (2.22%) AWS
3 23 (2.22%) Azure
4 19 (1.83%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (1.64%) Microsoft Copilot
6 12 (1.16%) Miro
7 9 (0.87%) Power Platform
8 8 (0.77%) Adobe Creative Cloud
9 4 (0.39%) Azure AI
9 4 (0.39%) Canva
9 4 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
9 4 (0.39%) GCP
9 4 (0.39%) PowerApps
10 3 (0.29%) ChatGPT
10 3 (0.29%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.19%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 2 (0.19%) Google Workspace
11 2 (0.19%) Power Automate
11 2 (0.19%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 23 (2.22%) Firewall
2 20 (1.93%) Wi-Fi
3 12 (1.16%) Network Security
4 11 (1.06%) IPsec
5 10 (0.97%) Broadband
6 9 (0.87%) 5G
7 8 (0.77%) Diameter Protocol
8 7 (0.68%) 4G
9 6 (0.58%) 3G
10 4 (0.39%) 2G
10 4 (0.39%) SIGTRAN
10 4 (0.39%) SS7
11 3 (0.29%) 3GPP
11 3 (0.29%) BGP
11 3 (0.29%) Ethernet
11 3 (0.29%) HTTP
11 3 (0.29%) Internet
11 3 (0.29%) LTE
11 3 (0.29%) VLAN
11 3 (0.29%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.06%) Metadata
2 10 (0.97%) DataStage
3 4 (0.39%) Oracle ODI
3 4 (0.39%) Power BI
4 3 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
5 2 (0.19%) Amazon Aurora
5 2 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.19%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.19%) Data Vault
5 2 (0.19%) MySQL
5 2 (0.19%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.19%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.097%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.097%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.097%) Pinecone
6 1 (0.097%) Qlik Sense
6 1 (0.097%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 14 (1.35%) JIRA
2 4 (0.39%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.29%) Claude Code
4 2 (0.19%) Git
5 1 (0.097%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.097%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.097%) Subversion
General
1 220 (21.24%) Public Sector
2 202 (19.50%) Social Skills
3 126 (12.16%) Finance
4 47 (4.54%) Banking
5 46 (4.44%) Retail
6 44 (4.25%) Marketing
7 29 (2.80%) Influencing Skills
8 28 (2.70%) Telecoms
9 26 (2.51%) Automotive
10 24 (2.32%) Legal
11 20 (1.93%) Publishing
12 19 (1.83%) Analytical Skills
12 19 (1.83%) Manufacturing
13 11 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
14 10 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 8 (0.77%) Local Government
15 8 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
16 6 (0.58%) Games
16 6 (0.58%) Military
16 6 (0.58%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (2.90%) HTML
2 21 (2.03%) CSS
3 13 (1.25%) Middleware
4 8 (0.77%) REST
5 5 (0.48%) React
5 5 (0.48%) SOAP
5 5 (0.48%) Web Services
6 3 (0.29%) Lightning Web Components
6 3 (0.29%) React Native
6 3 (0.29%) Semantic HTML
6 3 (0.29%) Visualforce
7 2 (0.19%) AngularJS
7 2 (0.19%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.19%) CSS3
7 2 (0.19%) HTML5
7 2 (0.19%) JSON
7 2 (0.19%) Kafka
7 2 (0.19%) OAuth
7 2 (0.19%) OpenID
7 2 (0.19%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 48 (4.63%) Product Ownership
2 42 (4.05%) Mobile App
3 32 (3.09%) Onboarding
4 28 (2.70%) Animation
5 25 (2.41%) NHS
6 24 (2.32%) Graphic Design
7 19 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
8 17 (1.64%) AI Agents
9 16 (1.54%) Cloud Native
9 16 (1.54%) Data Centre
10 15 (1.45%) IoT
11 12 (1.16%) BYOD
12 10 (0.97%) CMDB
12 10 (0.97%) Mainframe
12 10 (0.97%) Taxonomies
12 10 (0.97%) VSAM
13 9 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
14 8 (0.77%) Data Protection Act
15 7 (0.68%) Management Information System
16 6 (0.58%) Motion Graphics
Operating Systems
1 14 (1.35%) Android
2 13 (1.25%) Apple iOS
3 10 (0.97%) AIX
3 10 (0.97%) Linux
3 10 (0.97%) Solaris
3 10 (0.97%) Unix
4 1 (0.097%) MVS
4 1 (0.097%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 333 (32.14%) User Experience
2 330 (31.85%) Service Design
3 261 (25.19%) UX Design
4 257 (24.81%) Agile
5 214 (20.66%) User Research
6 177 (17.08%) Interaction Design
7 164 (15.83%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 141 (13.61%) Prototyping
9 123 (11.87%) Journey Map
10 117 (11.29%) Workshop Facilitation
11 100 (9.65%) AI
12 99 (9.56%) Wireframes
13 92 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
14 74 (7.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 64 (6.18%) Analytics
16 62 (5.98%) Continuous Improvement
17 61 (5.89%) Problem-Solving
18 60 (5.79%) Inclusive Design
19 57 (5.50%) Roadmaps
20 56 (5.41%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 10 (0.97%) COBOL
2 8 (0.77%) Python
3 7 (0.68%) JavaScript
4 4 (0.39%) Korn
5 3 (0.29%) Apex Code
5 3 (0.29%) Java
5 3 (0.29%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.29%) SOQL
5 3 (0.29%) SQL
6 2 (0.19%) Bash
6 2 (0.19%) Ruby
6 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.097%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 220 (21.24%) Security Cleared
2 181 (17.47%) SC Cleared
3 67 (6.47%) Degree
4 55 (5.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 33 (3.19%) DV Cleared
6 5 (0.48%) CISSP
7 4 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (0.39%) CISM
7 4 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
8 3 (0.29%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.19%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.19%) CCNA
9 2 (0.19%) CCNP
9 2 (0.19%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.097%) CCIE
10 1 (0.097%) CEH
10 1 (0.097%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.097%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.097%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (21.43%) Accessibility
2 75 (7.24%) WCAG
3 9 (0.87%) Data Quality
4 8 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 8 (0.77%) NCSC
5 7 (0.68%) Government Security Classifications
6 6 (0.58%) NIST
7 5 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (0.48%) QA
8 4 (0.39%) GDPR
9 3 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.29%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.19%) GMP
10 2 (0.19%) GxP
10 2 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.097%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 1 (0.097%) HL7
11 1 (0.097%) SLA
11 1 (0.097%) WAI
11 1 (0.097%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 5 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
2 4 (0.39%) IAG
2 4 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.29%) Firmware
4 2 (0.19%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.097%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 4 (0.39%) Terraform
2 3 (0.29%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.19%) Ansible
3 2 (0.19%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.097%) Kibana
4 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.097%) Nagios
4 1 (0.097%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 83 (8.01%) Adobe
2 38 (3.67%) Microsoft
3 14 (1.35%) IBM
3 14 (1.35%) ServiceNow
4 11 (1.06%) Cisco
5 10 (0.97%) VMware
6 8 (0.77%) Google
6 8 (0.77%) Oracle
6 8 (0.77%) Salesforce
7 6 (0.58%) Juniper
8 5 (0.48%) BiZZdesign
8 5 (0.48%) Ericsson
8 5 (0.48%) Nokia
8 5 (0.48%) SAP
9 4 (0.39%) EMC
9 4 (0.39%) Foundry
9 4 (0.39%) Virgin Media
10 3 (0.29%) F5
10 3 (0.29%) Fortinet
10 3 (0.29%) Huawei