Designer Contract Job Trends

Designer
UK

The median Designer daily rate in the UK is £478, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 182 158 194
Rank change year-on-year -24 +36 -50
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 569 562 590
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.55% 1.64% 1.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.70% 1.77% 1.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 415 358 414
10th Percentile £325 £312 £306
25th Percentile £400 £382 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £486 £494
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -1.52% -5.95%
75th Percentile £575 £583 £575
90th Percentile £638 £650 £622
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 8 16
10th Percentile £23.64 £30.43 £33.50
25th Percentile £29.97 £31.23 £45.16
Median hourly rate £54.75 £33.52 £50.95
Median % change year-on-year +63.34% -34.21% +8.17%
75th Percentile £66.27 £55.31 £66.44
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £70.04
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.50 £33.52 £50.95
% change year-on-year +65.57% -34.21% +24.27%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 33,513 31,718 41,239
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 92.78% 93.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,192 19,534 27,738
10th Percentile £290 £300 £288
25th Percentile £404 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £644
90th Percentile £720 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £489 £500
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,975 999 1,468
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £15.14
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.22 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.50 £34.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% -23.60% +48.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.84 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £72.55 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +80.76%

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 19 December 2025.

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 19 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Designer in the UK

Designer
Top 17 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 19 December 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
England -39 470 £475 -4.04% 324
London +1 270 £500 +5.26% 65
UK excluding London -43 207 £450 -10.00% 316
Work from Home -46 177 £463 +2.78% 208
North of England -30 73 £425 -10.53% 87
South East -52 42 £538 +5.91% 79
North West -14 37 £404 -1.34% 41
Midlands -46 30 £425 -19.14% 49
South West -7 28 £600 - 33
West Midlands -35 27 £425 -26.17% 27
Yorkshire -39 24 £531 +6.25% 34
Scotland -9 18 £456 +3.81% 20
North East -1 12 £450 - 13
East of England -17 10 £425 -12.82% 45
Wales - 6 £400 - 3
East Midlands -21 3 £386 -3.44% 18
Northern Ireland -6 2 £625 +12.61% 4

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 December 2025, 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.

1 227 (39.89%) User Experience
2 194 (34.09%) Service Design
3 175 (30.76%) Figma
4 174 (30.58%) UX Design
5 162 (28.47%) Agile
6 155 (27.24%) Accessibility
7 151 (26.54%) User Research
8 119 (20.91%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 104 (18.28%) Security Cleared
10 103 (18.10%) Prototyping
11 90 (15.82%) SC Cleared
12 86 (15.11%) Workshop Facilitation
13 85 (14.94%) Interaction Design
14 82 (14.41%) Journey Map
15 78 (13.71%) Usability Testing
16 76 (13.36%) Adobe
16 76 (13.36%) Wireframes
17 59 (10.37%) Problem-Solving
18 58 (10.19%) Design Thinking
19 48 (8.44%) Inclusive Design
20 46 (8.08%) Sketch
21 45 (7.91%) Analytics
21 45 (7.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
22 43 (7.56%) HTML
23 42 (7.38%) Microsoft
23 42 (7.38%) Storytelling
24 41 (7.21%) Degree
24 41 (7.21%) Stakeholder Management
24 41 (7.21%) WCAG
25 40 (7.03%) AI

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 (3.51%) CMS
2 13 (2.28%) Confluence
3 7 (1.23%) Appian
4 6 (1.05%) Camunda
4 6 (1.05%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.53%) SharePoint
5 3 (0.53%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.35%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.18%) LiveCycle
Applications
1 46 (8.08%) Sketch
2 29 (5.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 27 (4.75%) Adobe XD
4 22 (3.87%) Adobe Illustrator
5 21 (3.69%) Photoshop
6 17 (2.99%) InVision
7 15 (2.64%) InDesign
8 12 (2.11%) Adobe After Effects
9 11 (1.93%) Zeplin
10 10 (1.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 9 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
12 6 (1.05%) Adobe Captivate
13 5 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
14 4 (0.70%) Adobe Premiere
15 3 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
16 2 (0.35%) Blender
16 2 (0.35%) CINEMA 4D
16 2 (0.35%) OmniGraffle
16 2 (0.35%) Trello
16 2 (0.35%) UXPin
Business Applications
1 7 (1.23%) SAP ERP
2 5 (0.88%) Dynamics GP
2 5 (0.88%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.53%) Oracle BRM
4 2 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle CRM
5 1 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.18%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 175 (30.76%) Figma
2 26 (4.57%) Miro
3 22 (3.87%) AWS
4 18 (3.16%) SaaS
5 11 (1.93%) Azure
5 11 (1.93%) Power Platform
6 10 (1.76%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 6 (1.05%) OpenShift
8 5 (0.88%) Google Analytics
8 5 (0.88%) PowerApps
9 4 (0.70%) Canva
9 4 (0.70%) Copilot Studio
9 4 (0.70%) GitHub
9 4 (0.70%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (0.53%) Lucidchart
11 2 (0.35%) Akamai
11 2 (0.35%) GCP
11 2 (0.35%) Heroku
11 2 (0.35%) Microsoft 365
11 2 (0.35%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.76%) LAN
2 8 (1.41%) BGP
2 8 (1.41%) OSPF
2 8 (1.41%) SNMP
3 6 (1.05%) Firewall
3 6 (1.05%) MPLS
3 6 (1.05%) SMS
3 6 (1.05%) TACACS
3 6 (1.05%) WAN
3 6 (1.05%) Wireless
4 5 (0.88%) Cisco Nexus
5 3 (0.53%) Broadband
5 3 (0.53%) GPRS
5 3 (0.53%) GSM
5 3 (0.53%) SD-WAN
5 3 (0.53%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.35%) Cisco ISE
6 2 (0.35%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 2 (0.35%) VPN
6 2 (0.35%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.70%) Metadata
1 4 (0.70%) Power BI
2 1 (0.18%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.18%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (4.75%) JIRA
2 22 (3.87%) Axure RP
3 4 (0.70%) Git
4 3 (0.53%) Balsamiq
4 3 (0.53%) Postman
5 2 (0.35%) GitLab
6 1 (0.18%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.18%) Dreamweaver
6 1 (0.18%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 140 (24.60%) Social Skills
2 104 (18.28%) Public Sector
3 95 (16.70%) Finance
4 64 (11.25%) Banking
5 27 (4.75%) Marketing
6 20 (3.51%) Analytical Skills
7 16 (2.81%) Publishing
8 14 (2.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (2.28%) Legal
10 10 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
11 9 (1.58%) Billing
11 9 (1.58%) Influencing Skills
11 9 (1.58%) Manufacturing
11 9 (1.58%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.23%) Advertising
12 7 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.23%) Retail
13 6 (1.05%) Local Government
13 6 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
14 5 (0.88%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (7.56%) HTML
2 38 (6.68%) CSS
3 8 (1.41%) Framer.js
4 6 (1.05%) .NET
4 6 (1.05%) React
5 5 (0.88%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.70%) HTML5
7 3 (0.53%) CSS3
7 3 (0.53%) Lightning Web Components
7 3 (0.53%) REST
7 3 (0.53%) RESTful
8 2 (0.35%) EDI
8 2 (0.35%) Middleware
8 2 (0.35%) OpenAPI
8 2 (0.35%) Sass
8 2 (0.35%) Swagger
8 2 (0.35%) Web Services
9 1 (0.18%) jQuery
9 1 (0.18%) JSON
9 1 (0.18%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 49 (8.61%) Mobile App
2 27 (4.75%) Product Ownership
3 23 (4.04%) Onboarding
4 14 (2.46%) NHS
5 11 (1.93%) Social Media
6 10 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
6 10 (1.76%) e-Learning
6 10 (1.76%) Graphic Design
7 8 (1.41%) Data Centre
8 6 (1.05%) Animation
8 6 (1.05%) Data Structures
8 6 (1.05%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (0.88%) Blog
9 5 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (0.88%) Learning Management System
9 5 (0.88%) Mainframe
9 5 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
10 4 (0.70%) Low-Code
10 4 (0.70%) Motion Graphics
10 4 (0.70%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.41%) Apple iOS
2 7 (1.23%) Android
3 3 (0.53%) Unix
4 1 (0.18%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.18%) VMS
4 1 (0.18%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 227 (39.89%) User Experience
2 194 (34.09%) Service Design
3 174 (30.58%) UX Design
4 162 (28.47%) Agile
5 151 (26.54%) User Research
6 119 (20.91%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
7 103 (18.10%) Prototyping
8 86 (15.11%) Workshop Facilitation
9 85 (14.94%) Interaction Design
10 82 (14.41%) Journey Map
11 78 (13.71%) Usability Testing
12 76 (13.36%) Wireframes
13 59 (10.37%) Problem-Solving
14 58 (10.19%) Design Thinking
15 48 (8.44%) Inclusive Design
16 45 (7.91%) Analytics
16 45 (7.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 42 (7.38%) Storytelling
18 41 (7.21%) Stakeholder Management
19 40 (7.03%) AI
Programming Languages
1 14 (2.46%) Python
2 11 (1.93%) JavaScript
3 7 (1.23%) SQL
4 3 (0.53%) Java
4 3 (0.53%) PL/SQL
5 2 (0.35%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 104 (18.28%) Security Cleared
2 90 (15.82%) SC Cleared
3 41 (7.21%) Degree
4 19 (3.34%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (1.58%) Cisco Certification
6 7 (1.23%) AWS Certification
6 7 (1.23%) DV Cleared
7 6 (1.05%) CCIE
7 6 (1.05%) JNCIE
8 5 (0.88%) SAP Certification
9 4 (0.70%) HND
9 4 (0.70%) Master's Degree
10 3 (0.53%) CCNP
11 2 (0.35%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.18%) Azure Certification
12 1 (0.18%) CCNA
12 1 (0.18%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.18%) JNCIS
12 1 (0.18%) MCP
12 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 155 (27.24%) Accessibility
2 41 (7.21%) WCAG
3 8 (1.41%) GDPR
4 5 (0.88%) QA
5 4 (0.70%) Data Quality
5 4 (0.70%) ISO 9001
6 3 (0.53%) GMP
6 3 (0.53%) GxP
7 1 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.18%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
1 6 (1.05%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (1.05%) Ansible
1 6 (1.05%) Terraform
2 2 (0.35%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.18%) Nagios
3 1 (0.18%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 76 (13.36%) Adobe
2 42 (7.38%) Microsoft
3 15 (2.64%) Cisco
4 12 (2.11%) Juniper
5 11 (1.93%) Fortinet
5 11 (1.93%) Salesforce
6 10 (1.76%) Google
6 10 (1.76%) Oracle
6 10 (1.76%) SAP
7 9 (1.58%) F5
7 9 (1.58%) ServiceNow
8 7 (1.23%) Pega
9 6 (1.05%) Sage
9 6 (1.05%) VMware
10 5 (0.88%) Cadence
10 5 (0.88%) Hopewiser
11 4 (0.70%) Hotjar
11 4 (0.70%) Mercator
12 3 (0.53%) Amdocs
12 3 (0.53%) OneLogin