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 23 July 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 184 173
Rank change year-on-year +51 -11 -22
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 1,061 516 592
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.01% 1.58% 1.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.17% 1.72% 1.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 383 355
10th Percentile £358 £304 £325
25th Percentile £406 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £459 £488
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -5.86% -7.14%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £575
90th Percentile £588 £610 £642
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £438 £488
% change year-on-year +8.57% -10.26% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 17 46
10th Percentile £22.46 £21.85 £37.50
25th Percentile £28.09 £34.48 £49.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £36.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -6.88% -36.36% +9.24%
75th Percentile £47.50 £52.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £63.80 £58.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £49.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year -30.63% -14.56% -8.24%

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 48,822 29,919 38,227
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.59% 91.60% 93.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,449 19,032 24,743
10th Percentile £325 £285 £298
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.05%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £730 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,293 1,436 2,397
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +73.72% -37.63% -7.70%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +78.93% -40.82% +6.78%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 +41 907 £473 +2.96% 240
London +17 462 £464 -2.42% 155
UK excluding London +61 461 £475 +8.57% 107
Work from Home +25 283 £475 +5.56% 119
North of England -2 150 £464 +6.06% 32
Midlands +6 92 £425 +0.12% 8
West Midlands +4 89 £425 -0.93% 3
South East -25 67 £510 +17.92% 29
South West +3 59 £425 -15.00% 22
Yorkshire -12 53 £475 +20.25% 10
North West -31 52 £459 +4.91% 17
Scotland +14 47 £550 +15.79% 7
North East -12 45 £420 -6.67% 5
East of England +13 44 £500 +5.26% 4
Wales -19 7 £600 +96.25% 2
East Midlands -13 3 £581 +80.43% 5

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 23 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.

1 344 (32.42%) User Experience
2 334 (31.48%) Service Design
3 270 (25.45%) Agile
4 265 (24.98%) UX Design
5 228 (21.49%) Accessibility
6 224 (21.11%) Security Cleared
7 216 (20.36%) User Research
8 215 (20.26%) Figma
9 186 (17.53%) Interaction Design
10 184 (17.34%) SC Cleared
11 174 (16.40%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 148 (13.95%) Prototyping
13 124 (11.69%) Workshop Facilitation
14 121 (11.40%) Journey Map
15 111 (10.46%) Stakeholder Management
16 106 (9.99%) AI
17 105 (9.90%) Wireframes
18 92 (8.67%) Adobe
19 81 (7.63%) WCAG
20 75 (7.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
21 74 (6.97%) Problem-Solving
22 64 (6.03%) Degree
22 64 (6.03%) Inclusive Design
23 60 (5.66%) Continuous Improvement
24 59 (5.56%) BPSS Clearance
25 58 (5.47%) Design Thinking
25 58 (5.47%) Roadmaps
26 57 (5.37%) Analytics
26 57 (5.37%) Usability Testing
27 55 (5.18%) Customer Experience

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 21 (1.98%) CMS
2 10 (0.94%) CICS
3 6 (0.57%) Confluence
3 6 (0.57%) Moodle
4 5 (0.47%) Drupal
4 5 (0.47%) LiveCycle
4 5 (0.47%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.38%) WordPress
6 3 (0.28%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.19%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.19%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
7 2 (0.19%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.094%) Kentico
Applications
1 49 (4.62%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 39 (3.68%) Sketch
3 36 (3.39%) Photoshop
4 34 (3.20%) Adobe Illustrator
5 29 (2.73%) Adobe After Effects
6 14 (1.32%) Adobe XD
7 11 (1.04%) Chatbot
7 11 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 10 (0.94%) InDesign
9 8 (0.75%) Microsoft Excel
10 6 (0.57%) Final Cut Pro
11 5 (0.47%) Adobe Premiere
11 5 (0.47%) AutoCAD
11 5 (0.47%) CINEMA 4D
11 5 (0.47%) SOLIDWORKS
12 4 (0.38%) Revit
13 3 (0.28%) InVision
13 3 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
14 2 (0.19%) MS Visio
14 2 (0.19%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 4 (0.38%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.19%) Shopify
3 1 (0.094%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.094%) Eloqua
3 1 (0.094%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 215 (20.26%) Figma
2 31 (2.92%) SaaS
3 30 (2.83%) Azure
4 26 (2.45%) AWS
5 19 (1.79%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (1.60%) Microsoft Copilot
7 13 (1.23%) Miro
8 11 (1.04%) Power Platform
9 5 (0.47%) Adobe Creative Cloud
9 5 (0.47%) GCP
10 4 (0.38%) Azure AI
10 4 (0.38%) Canva
10 4 (0.38%) Copilot Studio
10 4 (0.38%) Dynamics 365
10 4 (0.38%) PowerApps
11 3 (0.28%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 3 (0.28%) ChatGPT
11 3 (0.28%) Entra ID
11 3 (0.28%) GitHub
11 3 (0.28%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.36%) Firewall
2 22 (2.07%) Wi-Fi
3 14 (1.32%) 5G
4 13 (1.23%) 4G
4 13 (1.23%) Diameter Protocol
5 12 (1.13%) Broadband
5 12 (1.13%) IPsec
6 11 (1.04%) 3G
7 9 (0.85%) 2G
7 9 (0.85%) Network Security
7 9 (0.85%) SIGTRAN
7 9 (0.85%) SS7
8 6 (0.57%) BGP
8 6 (0.57%) HTTP
9 5 (0.47%) OSPF
10 4 (0.38%) Ethernet
11 3 (0.28%) Internet
11 3 (0.28%) LTE
11 3 (0.28%) VLAN
11 3 (0.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.23%) Metadata
2 10 (0.94%) DataStage
3 6 (0.57%) Power BI
4 4 (0.38%) Oracle ODI
5 3 (0.28%) Electronic Patient Records
6 2 (0.19%) Amazon Aurora
6 2 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.19%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.19%) Data Vault
6 2 (0.19%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.19%) MySQL
6 2 (0.19%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.19%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.19%) Qlik Sense
6 2 (0.19%) Tableau
7 1 (0.094%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.094%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.094%) Pinecone
7 1 (0.094%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 11 (1.04%) JIRA
2 4 (0.38%) Claude Code
3 3 (0.28%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.28%) Git
4 2 (0.19%) ER Studio
4 2 (0.19%) ERwin
5 1 (0.094%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.094%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.094%) Subversion
General
1 223 (21.02%) Social Skills
2 217 (20.45%) Public Sector
3 133 (12.54%) Finance
4 52 (4.90%) Banking
4 52 (4.90%) Retail
5 43 (4.05%) Marketing
6 36 (3.39%) Analytical Skills
7 35 (3.30%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.73%) Influencing Skills
9 26 (2.45%) Automotive
10 23 (2.17%) Legal
11 22 (2.07%) Publishing
12 19 (1.79%) Manufacturing
13 12 (1.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 11 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
15 9 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
16 8 (0.75%) Local Government
16 8 (0.75%) Military
16 8 (0.75%) Retail Banking
17 7 (0.66%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (3.02%) HTML
2 24 (2.26%) CSS
3 12 (1.13%) REST
4 10 (0.94%) Middleware
5 8 (0.75%) SOAP
5 8 (0.75%) Web Services
6 6 (0.57%) React
7 4 (0.38%) AngularJS
7 4 (0.38%) React Native
8 3 (0.28%) Ajax
8 3 (0.28%) CSS3
8 3 (0.28%) HTML5
8 3 (0.28%) PySpark
8 3 (0.28%) XML
9 2 (0.19%) AWS CDK
9 2 (0.19%) Framer.js
9 2 (0.19%) JSON
9 2 (0.19%) Kafka
9 2 (0.19%) OAuth
9 2 (0.19%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 48 (4.52%) Mobile App
2 45 (4.24%) Product Ownership
3 34 (3.20%) Onboarding
4 29 (2.73%) Animation
5 27 (2.54%) Graphic Design
6 24 (2.26%) NHS
7 23 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
8 16 (1.51%) Cloud Native
9 15 (1.41%) AI Agents
9 15 (1.41%) Data Centre
9 15 (1.41%) IoT
10 14 (1.32%) CMDB
11 12 (1.13%) BYOD
11 12 (1.13%) Greenfield Project
12 11 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
13 10 (0.94%) Mainframe
13 10 (0.94%) VSAM
14 9 (0.85%) Social Media
15 8 (0.75%) Taxonomies
16 7 (0.66%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 16 (1.51%) Android
2 15 (1.41%) Apple iOS
3 10 (0.94%) AIX
3 10 (0.94%) Linux
3 10 (0.94%) Solaris
3 10 (0.94%) Unix
4 1 (0.094%) MVS
4 1 (0.094%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 344 (32.42%) User Experience
2 334 (31.48%) Service Design
3 270 (25.45%) Agile
4 265 (24.98%) UX Design
5 216 (20.36%) User Research
6 186 (17.53%) Interaction Design
7 174 (16.40%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 148 (13.95%) Prototyping
9 124 (11.69%) Workshop Facilitation
10 121 (11.40%) Journey Map
11 111 (10.46%) Stakeholder Management
12 106 (9.99%) AI
13 105 (9.90%) Wireframes
14 75 (7.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 74 (6.97%) Problem-Solving
16 64 (6.03%) Inclusive Design
17 60 (5.66%) Continuous Improvement
18 58 (5.47%) Design Thinking
18 58 (5.47%) Roadmaps
19 57 (5.37%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 10 (0.94%) COBOL
2 9 (0.85%) JavaScript
2 9 (0.85%) Python
3 7 (0.66%) SQL
4 4 (0.38%) Korn
5 3 (0.28%) Java
5 3 (0.28%) PowerShell
6 2 (0.19%) Bash
6 2 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (0.19%) Ruby
6 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 224 (21.11%) Security Cleared
2 184 (17.34%) SC Cleared
3 64 (6.03%) Degree
4 59 (5.56%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (2.54%) DV Cleared
6 4 (0.38%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (0.28%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.19%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.19%) CISSP
8 2 (0.19%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.19%) TOGAF Certification
9 1 (0.094%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.094%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.094%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.094%) CEH
9 1 (0.094%) CISM
9 1 (0.094%) JNCIE
9 1 (0.094%) JNCIP
9 1 (0.094%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.094%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 228 (21.49%) Accessibility
2 81 (7.63%) WCAG
3 12 (1.13%) Data Quality
4 8 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 8 (0.75%) NCSC
5 7 (0.66%) Government Security Classifications
6 5 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.38%) GDPR
7 4 (0.38%) QA
8 3 (0.28%) NIST
8 3 (0.28%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.19%) GMP
9 2 (0.19%) GRC
9 2 (0.19%) GxP
9 2 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.094%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.094%) HL7
10 1 (0.094%) SLA
10 1 (0.094%) WAI
10 1 (0.094%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 6 (0.57%) IAG
2 5 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.28%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.28%) Firmware
5 1 (0.094%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 5 (0.47%) Terraform
2 3 (0.28%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.19%) Ansible
3 2 (0.19%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.094%) Kibana
4 1 (0.094%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.094%) SCCM
Vendors
1 92 (8.67%) Adobe
2 40 (3.77%) Microsoft
3 19 (1.79%) ServiceNow
4 17 (1.60%) IBM
5 13 (1.23%) Cisco
6 11 (1.04%) Google
7 10 (0.94%) VMware
8 8 (0.75%) Oracle
9 7 (0.66%) SAP
10 6 (0.57%) Databricks
10 6 (0.57%) Ericsson
10 6 (0.57%) Juniper
11 5 (0.47%) EMC
11 5 (0.47%) Nokia
11 5 (0.47%) Salesforce
12 4 (0.38%) Foundry
12 4 (0.38%) Virgin Media
13 3 (0.28%) F5
13 3 (0.28%) Openreach
13 3 (0.28%) Zscaler