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 2 May 2026.

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

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 127 172 173
Rank change year-on-year +45 +1 -39
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 967 474 638
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.04% 1.62% 1.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.21% 1.75% 1.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 719 358 386
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £401 £360 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £459 £494
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -7.05% -5.95%
75th Percentile £547 £550 £567
90th Percentile £603 £606 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £409 £463
% change year-on-year +16.14% -11.57% -4.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 7 49
10th Percentile £24.50 £22.75 £29.25
25th Percentile £27.76 £26.38 £45.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £30.40 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +15.13% -46.99% +24.00%
75th Percentile £57.25 £48.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £68.00 £59.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £30.40 £57.35
% change year-on-year +15.13% -46.99% -11.77%

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 43,667 27,136 40,368
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.52% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,936 17,712 26,266
10th Percentile £315 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.82% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +3.16% -3.55% -1.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,813 1,033 2,668
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.14 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -19.49% -19.95%
75th Percentile £66.00 £62.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £28.00 £39.50
% change year-on-year +62.36% -29.11% -6.91%

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 2 May 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 2 May 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 2 May 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 +52 807 £475 +3.94% 295
UK excluding London +50 415 £475 +16.14% 186
London +11 407 £450 -1.74% 134
Work from Home +39 284 £464 +3.06% 116
North of England +6 129 £457 +13.98% 60
Midlands -11 76 £418 +3.09% 34
South East -1 74 £525 +6.06% 40
West Midlands -8 70 £425 -2.02% 26
South West +5 55 £425 -10.53% 25
North West -13 51 £405 +0.37% 32
East of England +4 41 £500 +5.26% 21
Yorkshire -24 40 £500 +25.00% 16
North East +4 38 £454 +3.77% 13
Scotland +1 38 £550 +17.33% 4
Wales -8 8 £513 +67.77% 6
East Midlands -32 6 £402 +24.69% 8

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 2 May 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.

1 313 (32.37%) Service Design
2 301 (31.13%) User Experience
3 262 (27.09%) Agile
4 237 (24.51%) UX Design
5 234 (24.20%) User Research
6 220 (22.75%) Accessibility
7 207 (21.41%) Security Cleared
8 204 (21.10%) Figma
9 172 (17.79%) Interaction Design
10 170 (17.58%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 163 (16.86%) SC Cleared
12 148 (15.31%) Prototyping
13 132 (13.65%) Workshop Facilitation
14 125 (12.93%) Journey Map
15 101 (10.44%) Wireframes
16 87 (9.00%) AI
17 81 (8.38%) Adobe
18 78 (8.07%) Stakeholder Management
18 78 (8.07%) Usability Testing
18 78 (8.07%) WCAG
19 75 (7.76%) Problem-Solving
20 66 (6.83%) Analytics
21 64 (6.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
22 63 (6.51%) Design Thinking
23 60 (6.20%) Storytelling
24 58 (6.00%) Roadmaps
25 57 (5.89%) Continuous Improvement
26 56 (5.79%) Collaborative Working
27 55 (5.69%) Inclusive Design
28 54 (5.58%) Degree

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 23 (2.38%) CMS
2 12 (1.24%) Confluence
3 10 (1.03%) CICS
4 5 (0.52%) Appian
4 5 (0.52%) LiveCycle
4 5 (0.52%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.41%) Drupal
5 4 (0.41%) Moodle
6 3 (0.31%) Camunda
6 3 (0.31%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.21%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.21%) Umbraco
7 2 (0.21%) WordPress
8 1 (0.10%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 46 (4.76%) Sketch
2 33 (3.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 28 (2.90%) Adobe XD
4 25 (2.59%) Photoshop
5 21 (2.17%) Adobe Illustrator
6 18 (1.86%) InVision
7 16 (1.65%) Adobe After Effects
8 12 (1.24%) Chatbot
8 12 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 10 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
10 8 (0.83%) InDesign
11 7 (0.72%) CINEMA 4D
12 6 (0.62%) Zeplin
13 5 (0.52%) Adobe Premiere
13 5 (0.52%) AutoCAD
13 5 (0.52%) SOLIDWORKS
14 4 (0.41%) MS Visio
14 4 (0.41%) Revit
14 4 (0.41%) Trello
15 3 (0.31%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 7 (0.72%) SAP ERP
2 5 (0.52%) Dynamics GP
2 5 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.41%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (0.21%) Oracle BRM
4 2 (0.21%) Shopify
5 1 (0.10%) Eloqua
5 1 (0.10%) Oracle CRM
5 1 (0.10%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 204 (21.10%) Figma
2 27 (2.79%) AWS
3 23 (2.38%) SaaS
4 16 (1.65%) Azure
5 10 (1.03%) Miro
6 9 (0.93%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 5 (0.52%) Power Platform
8 4 (0.41%) GCP
9 3 (0.31%) ChatGPT
9 3 (0.31%) Google Workspace
10 2 (0.21%) Asana
10 2 (0.21%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.21%) AWS KMS
10 2 (0.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (0.21%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (0.21%) dbt
10 2 (0.21%) GitHub
10 2 (0.21%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (0.21%) PowerApps
10 2 (0.21%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 24 (2.48%) Firewall
2 19 (1.96%) Wi-Fi
3 13 (1.34%) Network Security
4 11 (1.14%) IPsec
5 10 (1.03%) Broadband
6 6 (0.62%) 5G
6 6 (0.62%) Diameter Protocol
7 5 (0.52%) VLAN
7 5 (0.52%) VPN
8 3 (0.31%) 3G
8 3 (0.31%) 3GPP
8 3 (0.31%) BGP
8 3 (0.31%) DNS
8 3 (0.31%) HTTP
8 3 (0.31%) Internet
8 3 (0.31%) Intranet
8 3 (0.31%) IPv4
8 3 (0.31%) IPv6
8 3 (0.31%) LTE
8 3 (0.31%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.03%) DataStage
1 10 (1.03%) Metadata
2 4 (0.41%) Oracle ODI
3 3 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
4 2 (0.21%) Amazon Aurora
4 2 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.21%) Amazon Redshift
4 2 (0.21%) Data Vault
4 2 (0.21%) MySQL
4 2 (0.21%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.21%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.21%) Power BI
5 1 (0.10%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.10%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.10%) Pinecone
5 1 (0.10%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 25 (2.59%) JIRA
2 22 (2.28%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.31%) Git
4 1 (0.10%) Balsamiq
4 1 (0.10%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.10%) Dreamweaver
4 1 (0.10%) GitLab
4 1 (0.10%) Postman
4 1 (0.10%) SoapUI
4 1 (0.10%) Subversion
General
1 221 (22.85%) Public Sector
2 196 (20.27%) Social Skills
3 126 (13.03%) Finance
4 61 (6.31%) Banking
5 37 (3.83%) Marketing
6 31 (3.21%) Retail
7 26 (2.69%) Analytical Skills
7 26 (2.69%) Influencing Skills
8 24 (2.48%) Legal
9 23 (2.38%) Publishing
10 21 (2.17%) Telecoms
11 16 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (1.55%) Manufacturing
13 14 (1.45%) Pharmaceutical
14 10 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 9 (0.93%) Automotive
15 9 (0.93%) Local Government
15 9 (0.93%) Organisational Skills
16 7 (0.72%) Retail Banking
17 6 (0.62%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.45%) HTML
2 31 (3.21%) CSS
3 13 (1.34%) Middleware
4 8 (0.83%) REST
5 6 (0.62%) React
5 6 (0.62%) SOAP
6 5 (0.52%) .NET
6 5 (0.52%) Web Services
7 4 (0.41%) Lightning Web Components
8 3 (0.31%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.31%) CSS3
8 3 (0.31%) Framer.js
8 3 (0.31%) HTML5
8 3 (0.31%) JSON
8 3 (0.31%) OAuth
8 3 (0.31%) Semantic HTML
8 3 (0.31%) Visualforce
9 2 (0.21%) Kafka
9 2 (0.21%) RESTful
9 2 (0.21%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 55 (5.69%) Product Ownership
2 39 (4.03%) Mobile App
3 26 (2.69%) Onboarding
4 21 (2.17%) NHS
5 16 (1.65%) Data Centre
6 15 (1.55%) IoT
6 15 (1.55%) Mainframe
7 14 (1.45%) Animation
7 14 (1.45%) Cloud Native
7 14 (1.45%) Graphic Design
8 13 (1.34%) AI Agents
9 12 (1.24%) Taxonomies
10 11 (1.14%) BYOD
11 10 (1.03%) Management Information System
11 10 (1.03%) VSAM
12 8 (0.83%) CMDB
12 8 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
12 8 (0.83%) Motion Graphics
13 7 (0.72%) e-Learning
14 5 (0.52%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.24%) Unix
2 10 (1.03%) AIX
2 10 (1.03%) Linux
2 10 (1.03%) Solaris
3 7 (0.72%) Android
4 6 (0.62%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.10%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 313 (32.37%) Service Design
2 301 (31.13%) User Experience
3 262 (27.09%) Agile
4 237 (24.51%) UX Design
5 234 (24.20%) User Research
6 172 (17.79%) Interaction Design
7 170 (17.58%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 148 (15.31%) Prototyping
9 132 (13.65%) Workshop Facilitation
10 125 (12.93%) Journey Map
11 101 (10.44%) Wireframes
12 87 (9.00%) AI
13 78 (8.07%) Stakeholder Management
13 78 (8.07%) Usability Testing
14 75 (7.76%) Problem-Solving
15 66 (6.83%) Analytics
16 64 (6.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 63 (6.51%) Design Thinking
18 60 (6.20%) Storytelling
19 58 (6.00%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 11 (1.14%) JavaScript
1 11 (1.14%) Python
2 10 (1.03%) COBOL
3 5 (0.52%) Java
3 5 (0.52%) SQL
4 3 (0.31%) Apex Code
4 3 (0.31%) Korn
4 3 (0.31%) SOQL
5 2 (0.21%) Bash
5 2 (0.21%) PL/SQL
5 2 (0.21%) PowerShell
5 2 (0.21%) Ruby
6 1 (0.10%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 207 (21.41%) Security Cleared
2 163 (16.86%) SC Cleared
3 54 (5.58%) Degree
4 39 (4.03%) DV Cleared
5 38 (3.93%) BPSS Clearance
6 10 (1.03%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (0.83%) CCNP
8 5 (0.52%) CISSP
8 5 (0.52%) Master's Degree
8 5 (0.52%) SAP Certification
9 4 (0.41%) CISM
9 4 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (0.41%) TOGAF Certification
10 3 (0.31%) CCNA
10 3 (0.31%) JNCIS
11 2 (0.21%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.10%) CCIE
12 1 (0.10%) JNCIP
12 1 (0.10%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.10%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 220 (22.75%) Accessibility
2 78 (8.07%) WCAG
3 8 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 8 (0.83%) NCSC
4 7 (0.72%) GDPR
4 7 (0.72%) Government Security Classifications
5 6 (0.62%) NIST
6 5 (0.52%) Data Quality
6 5 (0.52%) GMP
6 5 (0.52%) GxP
6 5 (0.52%) QA
7 4 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.31%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.10%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.10%) HL7
9 1 (0.10%) SLA
9 1 (0.10%) WAI
9 1 (0.10%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 4 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.21%) Firmware
3 2 (0.21%) IAG
4 1 (0.10%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (0.41%) Terraform
2 3 (0.31%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.31%) Nagios
3 2 (0.21%) Ansible
3 2 (0.21%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.10%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 81 (8.38%) Adobe
2 23 (2.38%) Microsoft
3 16 (1.65%) ServiceNow
4 15 (1.55%) Oracle
5 11 (1.14%) Cisco
5 11 (1.14%) SAP
6 10 (1.03%) IBM
6 10 (1.03%) Salesforce
6 10 (1.03%) VMware
7 8 (0.83%) Juniper
8 6 (0.62%) Google
8 6 (0.62%) Sage
9 5 (0.52%) BiZZdesign
9 5 (0.52%) Ericsson
9 5 (0.52%) F5
9 5 (0.52%) Nokia
10 3 (0.31%) Databricks
10 3 (0.31%) MuleSoft
10 3 (0.31%) Pega
10 3 (0.31%) SolarWinds