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 25 May 2026.

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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 179 168
Rank change year-on-year +59 -11 -35
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 1,002 452 611
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.07% 1.57% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.24% 1.70% 1.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 725 340 359
10th Percentile £350 £299 £325
25th Percentile £401 £360 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £461 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.10% -3.01% -9.09%
75th Percentile £540 £550 £556
90th Percentile £600 £601 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £423 £450
% change year-on-year +12.43% -6.11% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 11 49
10th Percentile £21.93 £22.75 £29.25
25th Percentile £30.30 £30.20 £45.00
Median hourly rate £33.99 £45.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -24.47% -21.53% +20.74%
75th Percentile £48.75 £50.63 £61.30
90th Percentile £61.00 £54.01 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £47.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year -27.68% -18.05% -10.04%

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 44,687 26,578 39,544
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.30% 92.29% 92.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,302 17,300 25,745
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
75th Percentile £618 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,943 1,012 2,737
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.82
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.97 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.98% -23.38% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.13 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £26.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +65.90% -34.16% -5.88%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 +60 841 £465 +1.75% 225
UK excluding London +57 447 £475 +12.43% 114
London +24 414 £438 -6.42% 132
Work from Home +54 286 £460 +2.11% 101
North of England +1 135 £459 +14.18% 44
Midlands +13 95 £425 +3.66% 15
West Midlands +7 89 £425 -2.58% 11
South East -16 69 £510 +12.71% 25
South West +8 54 £425 -10.53% 11
North West -10 54 £402 - 23
East of England +10 46 £454 -4.42% 9
Scotland +7 44 £550 +15.79% 1
Yorkshire -33 43 £500 +25.00% 15
North East -3 38 £445 -6.32% 6
Wales -12 8 £513 +67.63% 4
East Midlands -21 6 £402 +24.69% 4

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 25 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.

1 318 (31.74%) User Experience
2 316 (31.54%) Service Design
3 261 (26.05%) Agile
4 251 (25.05%) UX Design
5 221 (22.06%) User Research
6 219 (21.86%) Security Cleared
7 215 (21.46%) Accessibility
8 212 (21.16%) Figma
9 179 (17.86%) Interaction Design
10 174 (17.37%) SC Cleared
11 161 (16.07%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 146 (14.57%) Prototyping
13 121 (12.08%) Workshop Facilitation
14 118 (11.78%) Journey Map
15 98 (9.78%) Wireframes
16 87 (8.68%) AI
17 85 (8.48%) Adobe
18 80 (7.98%) Stakeholder Management
19 73 (7.29%) WCAG
20 69 (6.89%) Usability Testing
21 65 (6.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
22 61 (6.09%) Problem-Solving
23 60 (5.99%) Analytics
23 60 (5.99%) Degree
23 60 (5.99%) Roadmaps
24 58 (5.79%) Collaborative Working
24 58 (5.79%) Continuous Improvement
24 58 (5.79%) Inclusive Design
25 52 (5.19%) Design Thinking
26 50 (4.99%) Design Patterns

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 22 (2.20%) CMS
2 11 (1.10%) Confluence
3 10 (1.00%) CICS
4 6 (0.60%) SharePoint
5 5 (0.50%) LiveCycle
6 4 (0.40%) Appian
6 4 (0.40%) Drupal
6 4 (0.40%) Moodle
7 3 (0.30%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.20%) Camunda
8 2 (0.20%) Headless CMS
8 2 (0.20%) Umbraco
8 2 (0.20%) WordPress
9 1 (0.100%) Kentico
9 1 (0.100%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 42 (4.19%) Sketch
2 36 (3.59%) Photoshop
3 33 (3.29%) Adobe Illustrator
4 32 (3.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 27 (2.69%) Adobe After Effects
6 21 (2.10%) Adobe XD
7 14 (1.40%) InVision
8 12 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 11 (1.10%) Chatbot
10 10 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
11 8 (0.80%) InDesign
12 6 (0.60%) CINEMA 4D
13 5 (0.50%) Adobe Premiere
13 5 (0.50%) AutoCAD
13 5 (0.50%) MS Visio
13 5 (0.50%) SOLIDWORKS
14 4 (0.40%) Revit
15 3 (0.30%) Trello
15 3 (0.30%) Zeplin
16 2 (0.20%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 4 (0.40%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.20%) Shopify
3 1 (0.100%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.100%) Eloqua
3 1 (0.100%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.100%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.100%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 212 (21.16%) Figma
2 27 (2.69%) AWS
3 22 (2.20%) SaaS
4 16 (1.60%) Azure
5 10 (1.00%) Miro
6 8 (0.80%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 6 (0.60%) Power Platform
8 4 (0.40%) GCP
8 4 (0.40%) Microsoft 365
9 3 (0.30%) Canva
9 3 (0.30%) Dynamics 365
10 2 (0.20%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.20%) AWS KMS
10 2 (0.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (0.20%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (0.20%) ChatGPT
10 2 (0.20%) dbt
10 2 (0.20%) PowerApps
10 2 (0.20%) Serverless
10 2 (0.20%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 25 (2.50%) Firewall
2 20 (2.00%) Wi-Fi
3 14 (1.40%) Network Security
4 11 (1.10%) IPsec
5 9 (0.90%) Broadband
6 6 (0.60%) 5G
6 6 (0.60%) Diameter Protocol
7 5 (0.50%) VLAN
7 5 (0.50%) VPN
8 3 (0.30%) 3GPP
8 3 (0.30%) 4G
8 3 (0.30%) BGP
8 3 (0.30%) DNS
8 3 (0.30%) Ethernet
8 3 (0.30%) HTTP
8 3 (0.30%) Intranet
8 3 (0.30%) IPv4
8 3 (0.30%) IPv6
8 3 (0.30%) LTE
8 3 (0.30%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.10%) Metadata
2 10 (1.00%) DataStage
3 4 (0.40%) Oracle ODI
4 3 (0.30%) Electronic Patient Records
4 3 (0.30%) Power BI
5 2 (0.20%) Amazon Aurora
5 2 (0.20%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.20%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.20%) Data Vault
5 2 (0.20%) MySQL
5 2 (0.20%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.100%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.100%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.100%) Pinecone
6 1 (0.100%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 22 (2.20%) JIRA
2 16 (1.60%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.30%) Git
4 1 (0.100%) Balsamiq
4 1 (0.100%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.100%) Dreamweaver
4 1 (0.100%) GitLab
4 1 (0.100%) Postman
4 1 (0.100%) SoapUI
4 1 (0.100%) Subversion
General
1 215 (21.46%) Public Sector
2 192 (19.16%) Social Skills
3 121 (12.08%) Finance
4 59 (5.89%) Banking
5 41 (4.09%) Marketing
6 35 (3.49%) Retail
7 27 (2.69%) Telecoms
8 25 (2.50%) Automotive
9 24 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
10 22 (2.20%) Analytical Skills
10 22 (2.20%) Legal
11 21 (2.10%) Manufacturing
12 19 (1.90%) Publishing
13 16 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
14 13 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
15 11 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (1.00%) Local Government
17 8 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
18 7 (0.70%) Aerospace
18 7 (0.70%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (4.09%) HTML
2 29 (2.89%) CSS
3 13 (1.30%) Middleware
4 8 (0.80%) REST
5 6 (0.60%) React
5 6 (0.60%) SOAP
6 5 (0.50%) Web Services
7 3 (0.30%) CSS3
7 3 (0.30%) Framer.js
7 3 (0.30%) HTML5
7 3 (0.30%) JSON
7 3 (0.30%) Lightning Web Components
7 3 (0.30%) OAuth
7 3 (0.30%) Semantic HTML
7 3 (0.30%) Visualforce
8 2 (0.20%) AngularJS
8 2 (0.20%) AWS CDK
8 2 (0.20%) Kafka
8 2 (0.20%) RESTful
8 2 (0.20%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 55 (5.49%) Product Ownership
2 35 (3.49%) Mobile App
3 26 (2.59%) NHS
3 26 (2.59%) Onboarding
4 25 (2.50%) Animation
5 19 (1.90%) Graphic Design
6 17 (1.70%) Data Centre
7 15 (1.50%) Cloud Native
7 15 (1.50%) IoT
8 13 (1.30%) AI Agents
9 12 (1.20%) Taxonomies
10 11 (1.10%) BYOD
10 11 (1.10%) Mainframe
11 10 (1.00%) Management Information System
11 10 (1.00%) VSAM
12 8 (0.80%) CMDB
12 8 (0.80%) Data Protection Act
13 7 (0.70%) Motion Graphics
14 6 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
15 5 (0.50%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 11 (1.10%) Android
2 10 (1.00%) AIX
2 10 (1.00%) Apple iOS
2 10 (1.00%) Linux
2 10 (1.00%) Solaris
2 10 (1.00%) Unix
3 1 (0.100%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 318 (31.74%) User Experience
2 316 (31.54%) Service Design
3 261 (26.05%) Agile
4 251 (25.05%) UX Design
5 221 (22.06%) User Research
6 179 (17.86%) Interaction Design
7 161 (16.07%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 146 (14.57%) Prototyping
9 121 (12.08%) Workshop Facilitation
10 118 (11.78%) Journey Map
11 98 (9.78%) Wireframes
12 87 (8.68%) AI
13 80 (7.98%) Stakeholder Management
14 69 (6.89%) Usability Testing
15 65 (6.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 61 (6.09%) Problem-Solving
17 60 (5.99%) Analytics
17 60 (5.99%) Roadmaps
18 58 (5.79%) Continuous Improvement
18 58 (5.79%) Inclusive Design
Programming Languages
1 10 (1.00%) COBOL
1 10 (1.00%) Python
2 9 (0.90%) JavaScript
3 4 (0.40%) Korn
4 3 (0.30%) Apex Code
4 3 (0.30%) Java
4 3 (0.30%) SOQL
4 3 (0.30%) SQL
5 2 (0.20%) Bash
5 2 (0.20%) PowerShell
5 2 (0.20%) Ruby
5 2 (0.20%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.100%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 219 (21.86%) Security Cleared
2 174 (17.37%) SC Cleared
3 60 (5.99%) Degree
4 47 (4.69%) BPSS Clearance
5 38 (3.79%) DV Cleared
6 11 (1.10%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (0.90%) CCNP
8 5 (0.50%) CISSP
9 4 (0.40%) CCNA
9 4 (0.40%) CISM
9 4 (0.40%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (0.40%) Master's Degree
9 4 (0.40%) TOGAF Certification
10 3 (0.30%) JNCIS
11 2 (0.20%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.100%) CEH
12 1 (0.100%) JNCIE
12 1 (0.100%) JNCIP
12 1 (0.100%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.100%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 215 (21.46%) Accessibility
2 73 (7.29%) WCAG
3 8 (0.80%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 8 (0.80%) NCSC
4 7 (0.70%) Government Security Classifications
5 6 (0.60%) GDPR
5 6 (0.60%) NIST
6 5 (0.50%) Data Quality
6 5 (0.50%) GMP
6 5 (0.50%) GxP
7 4 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.40%) QA
8 3 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.30%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.100%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.100%) HL7
9 1 (0.100%) SLA
9 1 (0.100%) WAI
9 1 (0.100%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 4 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
1 4 (0.40%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (0.20%) Firmware
2 2 (0.20%) IAG
3 1 (0.100%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (0.40%) Terraform
2 3 (0.30%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.30%) Nagios
3 2 (0.20%) Ansible
3 2 (0.20%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.100%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 85 (8.48%) Adobe
2 24 (2.40%) Microsoft
3 16 (1.60%) ServiceNow
4 13 (1.30%) Cisco
5 10 (1.00%) IBM
5 10 (1.00%) VMware
6 9 (0.90%) Oracle
7 8 (0.80%) Google
7 8 (0.80%) Juniper
7 8 (0.80%) Salesforce
8 5 (0.50%) BiZZdesign
8 5 (0.50%) Ericsson
8 5 (0.50%) F5
8 5 (0.50%) Nokia
9 4 (0.40%) SAP
9 4 (0.40%) Virgin Media
10 3 (0.30%) Databricks
10 3 (0.30%) Huawei
10 3 (0.30%) MuleSoft
10 3 (0.30%) SolarWinds