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 18 August 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 179 185
Rank change year-on-year +34 +6 -27
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 1,033 518 522
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.93% 1.58% 1.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.09% 1.73% 1.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 704 373 306
10th Percentile £359 £303 £304
25th Percentile £406 £375 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -7.32%
75th Percentile £538 £550 £574
90th Percentile £588 £610 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £438 £500
% change year-on-year +8.57% -12.50% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 20 45
10th Percentile £25.50 £22.53 £37.35
25th Percentile £32.50 £33.36 £49.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £40.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -14.11% -28.95% -0.68%
75th Percentile £42.19 £55.44 £61.30
90th Percentile £61.00 £69.65 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £52.67 £57.35
% change year-on-year -35.47% -8.16% -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 49,538 30,006 36,016
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.49% 91.28% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,704 18,935 23,189
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,506 1,542 1,988
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.56 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +3.61%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.83 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.02
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.87% +22.28%

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 18 August 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 18 August 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 18 August 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 +36 894 £475 +1.06% 189
UK excluding London +47 457 £475 +8.57% 116
London +10 450 £475 -5.05% 97
Work from Home +17 263 £465 +3.33% 91
North of England -10 152 £470 +7.43% 29
Midlands +3 85 £425 +0.12% 17
West Midlands +9 82 £425 -0.93% 14
South East -36 67 £518 +23.21% 33
South West -2 63 £430 -14.00% 25
Yorkshire -8 59 £475 +20.25% 13
North East -9 49 £420 -6.67% 4
East of England +15 45 £500 +19.40% 1
North West -41 43 £425 -2.86% 12
Scotland +7 42 £550 +17.33% 5
Wales -20 8 £425 +38.89% 1
East Midlands -19 3 £581 +80.43% 3

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 August 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.

1 327 (31.66%) User Experience
2 326 (31.56%) Service Design
3 257 (24.88%) Agile
4 243 (23.52%) UX Design
5 215 (20.81%) Accessibility
5 215 (20.81%) Security Cleared
6 199 (19.26%) User Research
7 194 (18.78%) Figma
8 183 (17.72%) Interaction Design
9 179 (17.33%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
10 176 (17.04%) SC Cleared
11 139 (13.46%) Prototyping
12 133 (12.88%) Workshop Facilitation
13 124 (12.00%) Stakeholder Management
14 117 (11.33%) Journey Map
15 102 (9.87%) AI
16 89 (8.62%) Adobe
16 89 (8.62%) Wireframes
17 79 (7.65%) Problem-Solving
17 79 (7.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 72 (6.97%) WCAG
19 64 (6.20%) BPSS Clearance
20 59 (5.71%) Continuous Improvement
21 58 (5.61%) Inclusive Design
21 58 (5.61%) Roadmaps
22 57 (5.52%) Degree
23 56 (5.42%) Customer Experience
24 53 (5.13%) Design Thinking
25 51 (4.94%) Adobe Creative Suite
25 51 (4.94%) Analytics

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 19 (1.84%) CMS
2 7 (0.68%) Confluence
2 7 (0.68%) Moodle
3 5 (0.48%) Drupal
3 5 (0.48%) LiveCycle
3 5 (0.48%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.39%) CICS
4 4 (0.39%) WordPress
5 3 (0.29%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.19%) Headless CMS
6 2 (0.19%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
6 2 (0.19%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.097%) Kentico
Applications
1 51 (4.94%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 36 (3.48%) Sketch
3 32 (3.10%) Photoshop
4 31 (3.00%) Adobe Illustrator
5 26 (2.52%) Adobe After Effects
6 12 (1.16%) Adobe XD
7 10 (0.97%) InDesign
7 10 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 8 (0.77%) AutoCAD
8 8 (0.77%) Chatbot
9 7 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
9 7 (0.68%) Revit
10 6 (0.58%) Final Cut Pro
11 4 (0.39%) SOLIDWORKS
12 3 (0.29%) Adobe Premiere
12 3 (0.29%) CINEMA 4D
12 3 (0.29%) InVision
12 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
13 2 (0.19%) Navisworks
14 1 (0.097%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 4 (0.39%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.097%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.097%) Eloqua
2 1 (0.097%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.097%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 194 (18.78%) Figma
2 31 (3.00%) Azure
3 27 (2.61%) AWS
4 26 (2.52%) SaaS
5 19 (1.84%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (1.65%) Microsoft Copilot
7 14 (1.36%) Miro
8 13 (1.26%) Power Platform
9 6 (0.58%) GCP
10 4 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Cloud
10 4 (0.39%) Azure AI
10 4 (0.39%) Canva
10 4 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
10 4 (0.39%) Dynamics 365
10 4 (0.39%) Google Analytics
10 4 (0.39%) PowerApps
11 3 (0.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 3 (0.29%) Entra ID
11 3 (0.29%) GitHub
12 2 (0.19%) Adobe Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 23 (2.23%) Wi-Fi
2 20 (1.94%) Firewall
3 17 (1.65%) 5G
4 16 (1.55%) 4G
4 16 (1.55%) Diameter Protocol
5 14 (1.36%) 3G
6 13 (1.26%) Broadband
7 12 (1.16%) 2G
7 12 (1.16%) IPsec
7 12 (1.16%) SIGTRAN
7 12 (1.16%) SS7
8 8 (0.77%) Network Security
9 7 (0.68%) BGP
9 7 (0.68%) HTTP
10 6 (0.58%) OSPF
11 4 (0.39%) Ethernet
12 3 (0.29%) 3GPP
12 3 (0.29%) DNS
12 3 (0.29%) LAN
12 3 (0.29%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.26%) Metadata
2 8 (0.77%) Power BI
3 4 (0.39%) DataStage
3 4 (0.39%) Oracle ODI
3 4 (0.39%) Qlik Sense
3 4 (0.39%) Tableau
4 3 (0.29%) QlikView
5 2 (0.19%) Amazon Aurora
5 2 (0.19%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.19%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.19%) Data Vault
5 2 (0.19%) Delta Lake
5 2 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
5 2 (0.19%) MySQL
5 2 (0.19%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.19%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.097%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.097%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.097%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 9 (0.87%) JIRA
2 6 (0.58%) Claude Code
3 3 (0.29%) Git
4 2 (0.19%) ER Studio
4 2 (0.19%) ERwin
5 1 (0.097%) Axure RP
5 1 (0.097%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.097%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.097%) Subversion
General
1 205 (19.85%) Public Sector
2 198 (19.17%) Social Skills
3 130 (12.58%) Finance
4 61 (5.91%) Banking
5 46 (4.45%) Retail
6 43 (4.16%) Marketing
7 41 (3.97%) Analytical Skills
8 39 (3.78%) Telecoms
9 26 (2.52%) Automotive
10 23 (2.23%) Publishing
11 22 (2.13%) Legal
12 21 (2.03%) Manufacturing
13 20 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 10 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
16 9 (0.87%) Games
16 9 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.87%) Retail Banking
17 8 (0.77%) Local Government
17 8 (0.77%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (2.90%) HTML
2 21 (2.03%) CSS
3 13 (1.26%) REST
4 9 (0.87%) SOAP
4 9 (0.87%) Web Services
5 6 (0.58%) React
6 4 (0.39%) Ajax
6 4 (0.39%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.39%) Middleware
6 4 (0.39%) React Native
6 4 (0.39%) XML
7 3 (0.29%) CSS3
7 3 (0.29%) HTML5
7 3 (0.29%) PySpark
8 2 (0.19%) AWS CDK
8 2 (0.19%) Framer.js
8 2 (0.19%) OAuth
8 2 (0.19%) SAML
8 2 (0.19%) Semantic HTML
8 2 (0.19%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 48 (4.65%) Mobile App
2 46 (4.45%) Product Ownership
3 35 (3.39%) Onboarding
4 30 (2.90%) Animation
5 28 (2.71%) Graphic Design
6 27 (2.61%) NHS
7 25 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
8 15 (1.45%) Cloud Native
8 15 (1.45%) CMDB
9 13 (1.26%) IoT
10 12 (1.16%) AI Agents
11 11 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
11 11 (1.06%) Social Media
12 10 (0.97%) Data Centre
12 10 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (0.77%) Management Information System
14 7 (0.68%) Taxonomies
15 6 (0.58%) BYOD
16 5 (0.48%) e-Learning
16 5 (0.48%) Motion Graphics
Operating Systems
1 16 (1.55%) Android
2 15 (1.45%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.39%) AIX
3 4 (0.39%) Linux
3 4 (0.39%) Solaris
3 4 (0.39%) Unix
4 1 (0.097%) MVS
4 1 (0.097%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 327 (31.66%) User Experience
2 326 (31.56%) Service Design
3 257 (24.88%) Agile
4 243 (23.52%) UX Design
5 199 (19.26%) User Research
6 183 (17.72%) Interaction Design
7 179 (17.33%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 139 (13.46%) Prototyping
9 133 (12.88%) Workshop Facilitation
10 124 (12.00%) Stakeholder Management
11 117 (11.33%) Journey Map
12 102 (9.87%) AI
13 89 (8.62%) Wireframes
14 79 (7.65%) Problem-Solving
14 79 (7.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 59 (5.71%) Continuous Improvement
16 58 (5.61%) Inclusive Design
16 58 (5.61%) Roadmaps
17 56 (5.42%) Customer Experience
18 53 (5.13%) Design Thinking
Programming Languages
1 10 (0.97%) Python
2 9 (0.87%) SQL
3 8 (0.77%) JavaScript
4 4 (0.39%) COBOL
4 4 (0.39%) Java
5 3 (0.29%) PowerShell
6 2 (0.19%) Bash
6 2 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (0.19%) Ruby
6 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.097%) Korn
Qualifications
1 215 (20.81%) Security Cleared
2 176 (17.04%) SC Cleared
3 64 (6.20%) BPSS Clearance
4 57 (5.52%) Degree
5 25 (2.42%) DV Cleared
6 4 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (0.29%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.19%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.19%) CISSP
9 1 (0.097%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.097%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.097%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.097%) CCIE
9 1 (0.097%) CCNP
9 1 (0.097%) CEH
9 1 (0.097%) CISM
9 1 (0.097%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.097%) JNCIE
9 1 (0.097%) JNCIP
9 1 (0.097%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 215 (20.81%) Accessibility
2 72 (6.97%) WCAG
3 14 (1.36%) Data Quality
4 8 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 8 (0.77%) NCSC
5 7 (0.68%) Government Security Classifications
6 5 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.39%) GDPR
7 4 (0.39%) QA
8 3 (0.29%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.19%) GMP
9 2 (0.19%) GRC
9 2 (0.19%) GxP
9 2 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.19%) NIST
10 1 (0.097%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.097%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.097%) SLA
10 1 (0.097%) WAI
10 1 (0.097%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 6 (0.58%) IAG
2 4 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (0.29%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.29%) Firmware
4 2 (0.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.097%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 5 (0.48%) Terraform
2 4 (0.39%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.19%) Ansible
3 2 (0.19%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.097%) Kibana
4 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.097%) SCCM
Vendors
1 89 (8.62%) Adobe
2 39 (3.78%) Microsoft
3 27 (2.61%) ServiceNow
4 15 (1.45%) Cisco
5 12 (1.16%) IBM
6 9 (0.87%) Google
7 8 (0.77%) Oracle
8 7 (0.68%) SAP
9 6 (0.58%) Databricks
9 6 (0.58%) Ericsson
9 6 (0.58%) Juniper
10 5 (0.48%) EMC
10 5 (0.48%) Nokia
11 4 (0.39%) Foundry
11 4 (0.39%) Virgin Media
11 4 (0.39%) VMware
12 3 (0.29%) F5
12 3 (0.29%) Openreach
12 3 (0.29%) SolarWinds
12 3 (0.29%) Zscaler