Designer Contract Job Trends

Designer
UK

The median Designer daily rate in the UK is £470, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 October 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 181 180 171
Rank change year-on-year -1 -9 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 874 531 545
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.60% 1.61% 1.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.74% 1.78% 1.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 554 376 338
10th Percentile £363 £317 £300
25th Percentile £405 £405 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% - -7.32%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £575
90th Percentile £588 £628 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £447 £500
% change year-on-year +3.47% -10.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 25 4
10th Percentile £26.50 £21.40 £30.76
25th Percentile £33.99 £34.48 £31.23
Median hourly rate £39.00 £47.50 £33.27
Median % change year-on-year -17.89% +42.77% -39.18%
75th Percentile £62.00 £63.75 £38.06
90th Percentile £62.80 £69.65 £44.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £53.84 £32.21
% change year-on-year -27.56% +67.15% -41.12%

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 50,217 29,909 35,127
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.02% 90.83% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,441 18,891 21,218
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,086 1,644 1,451
10th Percentile £14.31 £13.75 £15.00
25th Percentile £19.34 £17.30 £20.30
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -39.05% -8.30%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.18 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £25.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +66.84% -41.18% -4.49%

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 12 October 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 12 October 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 12 October 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 +1 759 £464 -1.38% 892
London -13 415 £475 -4.04% 538
UK excluding London +16 364 £463 +3.47% 392
Work from Home -19 205 £450 -4.05% 436
North of England -15 129 £475 +8.57% 115
Midlands +10 76 £425 +0.12% 48
West Midlands +7 74 £425 +1.19% 38
Yorkshire +8 62 £475 +0.26% 40
South West +2 56 £430 -28.33% 45
Scotland -1 42 £550 +20.55% 41
North West -54 38 £506 +15.71% 59
South East -63 35 £500 +8.11% 85
North East -18 28 £420 -6.67% 17
East of England -8 21 £410 -0.61% 25
Wales -14 6 £375 -36.17% 18
East Midlands -14 2 £575 +22.99% 10

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 12 October 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.

1 296 (33.87%) User Experience
2 286 (32.72%) Service Design
3 256 (29.29%) Agile
4 219 (25.06%) UX Design
5 203 (23.23%) Accessibility
6 201 (23.00%) Security Cleared
7 188 (21.51%) User Research
8 176 (20.14%) Figma
9 175 (20.02%) Interaction Design
10 173 (19.79%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 161 (18.42%) SC Cleared
12 139 (15.90%) Stakeholder Management
13 137 (15.68%) Prototyping
14 119 (13.62%) Workshop Facilitation
15 104 (11.90%) Journey Map
16 94 (10.76%) AI
17 87 (9.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 86 (9.84%) Wireframes
19 80 (9.15%) Problem-Solving
20 78 (8.92%) Adobe
21 66 (7.55%) Digital Transformation Programme
21 66 (7.55%) WCAG
22 56 (6.41%) BPSS Clearance
23 55 (6.29%) Inclusive Design
24 53 (6.06%) Usability Testing
25 51 (5.84%) Design Thinking
26 48 (5.49%) Customer Experience
27 46 (5.26%) Collaborative Working
28 45 (5.15%) Analytics
29 44 (5.03%) 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 21 (2.40%) CMS
2 15 (1.72%) Confluence
3 8 (0.92%) WordPress
4 5 (0.57%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.46%) Drupal
6 3 (0.34%) Moodle
7 2 (0.23%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.23%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.11%) Appian
8 1 (0.11%) Kentico
8 1 (0.11%) Mendix
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 42 (4.81%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 28 (3.20%) Photoshop
3 27 (3.09%) Adobe Illustrator
3 27 (3.09%) Sketch
4 24 (2.75%) Adobe After Effects
5 12 (1.37%) Adobe XD
6 11 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 8 (0.92%) AutoCAD
7 8 (0.92%) InDesign
7 8 (0.92%) Microsoft Excel
8 7 (0.80%) Revit
9 6 (0.69%) Final Cut Pro
10 5 (0.57%) SOLIDWORKS
11 3 (0.34%) Chatbot
11 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Office
12 2 (0.23%) Adobe Premiere
12 2 (0.23%) Navisworks
13 1 (0.11%) 3ds Max
13 1 (0.11%) Camtasia
13 1 (0.11%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
1 1 (0.11%) Eloqua
1 1 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
1 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.11%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 176 (20.14%) Figma
2 24 (2.75%) Azure
3 22 (2.52%) Miro
4 19 (2.17%) SaaS
5 18 (2.06%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (1.95%) Microsoft Copilot
7 13 (1.49%) AWS
8 10 (1.14%) Power Platform
9 5 (0.57%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (0.57%) Google Analytics
10 4 (0.46%) Adobe Creative Cloud
10 4 (0.46%) Azure AI
10 4 (0.46%) Canva
10 4 (0.46%) Copilot Studio
10 4 (0.46%) PowerApps
11 3 (0.34%) Adobe Analytics
11 3 (0.34%) Azure Data Factory
11 3 (0.34%) Azure Databricks
12 2 (0.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 2 (0.23%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.60%) 4G
2 12 (1.37%) 3G
3 11 (1.26%) 2G
3 11 (1.26%) 5G
3 11 (1.26%) Diameter Protocol
3 11 (1.26%) SIGTRAN
3 11 (1.26%) SS7
4 7 (0.80%) BGP
5 6 (0.69%) Broadband
5 6 (0.69%) Firewall
5 6 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
6 5 (0.57%) OSPF
6 5 (0.57%) Unified Communications
7 4 (0.46%) Ethernet
7 4 (0.46%) HTTP
8 3 (0.34%) Cisco Nexus
8 3 (0.34%) EIGRP
8 3 (0.34%) HSRP
8 3 (0.34%) LAN
8 3 (0.34%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (0.92%) Metadata
2 6 (0.69%) Power BI
3 4 (0.46%) Delta Lake
3 4 (0.46%) Qlik Sense
4 3 (0.34%) QlikView
4 3 (0.34%) Tableau
5 2 (0.23%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.11%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.11%) Data Mart
6 1 (0.11%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle ODI
6 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 15 (1.72%) JIRA
2 7 (0.80%) Claude Code
3 3 (0.34%) ER Studio
3 3 (0.34%) ERwin
3 3 (0.34%) Git
4 1 (0.11%) Axure RP
4 1 (0.11%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.11%) Dreamweaver
4 1 (0.11%) Subversion
4 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 206 (23.57%) Social Skills
2 189 (21.62%) Public Sector
3 102 (11.67%) Finance
4 45 (5.15%) Retail
5 41 (4.69%) Analytical Skills
6 40 (4.58%) Banking
7 38 (4.35%) Marketing
8 35 (4.00%) Telecoms
9 23 (2.63%) Automotive
10 19 (2.17%) Publishing
11 16 (1.83%) Manufacturing
12 15 (1.72%) Local Government
13 14 (1.60%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (1.49%) Military
15 12 (1.37%) Legal
16 11 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 8 (0.92%) Games
17 8 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
18 6 (0.69%) Investment Banking
18 6 (0.69%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (2.29%) HTML
2 18 (2.06%) CSS
3 7 (0.80%) React
4 6 (0.69%) REST
5 5 (0.57%) React Native
6 4 (0.46%) Ajax
6 4 (0.46%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.46%) PySpark
6 4 (0.46%) SOAP
6 4 (0.46%) Web Services
6 4 (0.46%) XML
7 3 (0.34%) CSS3
7 3 (0.34%) HTML5
7 3 (0.34%) Terraform
8 2 (0.23%) Framer.js
8 2 (0.23%) Vue
8 2 (0.23%) YAML
9 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Graph
9 1 (0.11%) OOCSS
9 1 (0.11%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 47 (5.38%) Mobile App
2 31 (3.55%) Product Ownership
3 28 (3.20%) Animation
4 25 (2.86%) NHS
5 23 (2.63%) Self-Motivation
6 22 (2.52%) Graphic Design
7 18 (2.06%) Onboarding
8 10 (1.14%) e-Learning
8 10 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
8 10 (1.14%) Social Media
9 9 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
9 9 (1.03%) Management Information System
10 8 (0.92%) AI Agents
11 7 (0.80%) Cloud Native
11 7 (0.80%) CMDB
11 7 (0.80%) Legacy Systems
11 7 (0.80%) Taxonomies
12 6 (0.69%) Learning Management System
13 5 (0.57%) Data Centre
14 4 (0.46%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 14 (1.60%) Android
2 13 (1.49%) Apple iOS
3 2 (0.23%) Windows
4 1 (0.11%) Linux
4 1 (0.11%) macOS
4 1 (0.11%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 296 (33.87%) User Experience
2 286 (32.72%) Service Design
3 256 (29.29%) Agile
4 219 (25.06%) UX Design
5 188 (21.51%) User Research
6 175 (20.02%) Interaction Design
7 173 (19.79%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 139 (15.90%) Stakeholder Management
9 137 (15.68%) Prototyping
10 119 (13.62%) Workshop Facilitation
11 104 (11.90%) Journey Map
12 94 (10.76%) AI
13 87 (9.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 86 (9.84%) Wireframes
15 80 (9.15%) Problem-Solving
16 66 (7.55%) Digital Transformation Programme
17 55 (6.29%) Inclusive Design
18 53 (6.06%) Usability Testing
19 51 (5.84%) Design Thinking
20 48 (5.49%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 9 (1.03%) SQL
2 6 (0.69%) JavaScript
3 3 (0.34%) Java
3 3 (0.34%) Python
4 2 (0.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 2 (0.23%) TypeScript
5 1 (0.11%) Korn
5 1 (0.11%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.11%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 201 (23.00%) Security Cleared
2 161 (18.42%) SC Cleared
3 56 (6.41%) BPSS Clearance
4 44 (5.03%) Degree
5 8 (0.92%) DV Cleared
6 6 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (0.23%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.11%) CCIE
8 1 (0.11%) CCNA
8 1 (0.11%) CCNP
8 1 (0.11%) CISM
8 1 (0.11%) CISSP
8 1 (0.11%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.11%) JNCIE
8 1 (0.11%) JNCIP
8 1 (0.11%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 203 (23.23%) Accessibility
2 66 (7.55%) WCAG
3 12 (1.37%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.57%) QA
5 3 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (0.23%) GRC
6 2 (0.23%) GxP
6 2 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (0.11%) GDPR
7 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.11%) WAI
7 1 (0.11%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 4 (0.46%) IAG
2 3 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.23%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.23%) Firmware
4 1 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.11%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 1 (0.11%) Ansible
1 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
1 1 (0.11%) Kibana
1 1 (0.11%) Kubernetes
1 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Intune
1 1 (0.11%) SCCM
Vendors
1 78 (8.92%) Adobe
2 38 (4.35%) Microsoft
3 22 (2.52%) ServiceNow
4 10 (1.14%) Cisco
4 10 (1.14%) Google
5 8 (0.92%) IBM
6 5 (0.57%) Databricks
7 4 (0.46%) EMC
7 4 (0.46%) Foundry
7 4 (0.46%) Oracle
7 4 (0.46%) Salesforce
7 4 (0.46%) SAP
8 3 (0.34%) BMC
8 3 (0.34%) BT
8 3 (0.34%) Juniper
8 3 (0.34%) Openreach
8 3 (0.34%) SolarWinds
8 3 (0.34%) Virgin Media
9 2 (0.23%) Synthesia
9 2 (0.23%) Zscaler