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 February 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 164 156 164
Rank change year-on-year -8 +8 -16
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 685 525 646
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.69% 1.71% 1.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.84% 1.84% 1.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 512 350 427
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £400 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £464 £495
Median % change year-on-year +2.48% -6.36% -5.71%
75th Percentile £556 £575 £571
90th Percentile £638 £650 £606
UK excluding London median daily rate £454 £450 £470
% change year-on-year +0.89% -4.26% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 9 12
10th Percentile £23.40 £30.32 £15.50
25th Percentile £29.16 £31.50 £37.63
Median hourly rate £50.72 £33.54 £47.61
Median % change year-on-year +51.22% -29.55% +14.02%
75th Percentile £64.10 £48.75 £53.21
90th Percentile £69.20 £75.00 £68.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £53.00 £33.52 £45.21
% change year-on-year +58.11% -25.86% +8.29%

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 37,174 28,501 41,310
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.66% 92.92% 93.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,390 17,648 27,150
10th Percentile £305 £288 £275
25th Percentile £406 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +0.53% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,257 809 2,323
10th Percentile £14.57 £16.25 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.82 £21.46 £16.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £34.11 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.05% -2.54% -9.09%
75th Percentile £61.84 £63.75 £61.25
90th Percentile £72.52 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £35.58
% change year-on-year -8.92% -8.64% +1.64%

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 February 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 February 2026.

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 18 February 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 -17 543 £470 -1.16% 218
London +7 314 £475 +1.33% 116
UK excluding London -35 253 £454 +0.89% 137
Work from Home -10 214 £475 +5.56% 154
North of England -21 92 £430 +6.17% 31
North West -1 51 £402 +0.50% 22
South East -32 47 £500 -9.09% 49
Scotland +6 37 £450 +1.35% 3
South West -15 30 £530 +10.42% 21
Yorkshire -45 30 £513 +12.33%
Midlands -59 28 £400 -1.23% 23
West Midlands -52 23 £400 -14.67% 21
North East -9 11 £454 +0.89% 9
East of England -22 11 £425 -12.82% 11
Wales +4 8 £506 +114.51% 1
East Midlands -23 5 £401 +0.25% 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £625 -

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 February 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.

1 253 (36.93%) User Experience
2 233 (34.01%) Service Design
3 212 (30.95%) Agile
4 204 (29.78%) UX Design
5 201 (29.34%) Figma
6 192 (28.03%) Accessibility
7 182 (26.57%) User Research
8 147 (21.46%) Prototyping
9 145 (21.17%) Security Cleared
10 140 (20.44%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 116 (16.93%) Interaction Design
11 116 (16.93%) SC Cleared
12 104 (15.18%) Journey Map
13 103 (15.04%) Workshop Facilitation
14 100 (14.60%) Wireframes
15 93 (13.58%) Usability Testing
16 78 (11.39%) Adobe
17 72 (10.51%) Problem-Solving
18 63 (9.20%) Analytics
19 61 (8.91%) WCAG
20 60 (8.76%) Inclusive Design
21 57 (8.32%) Design Thinking
21 57 (8.32%) Stakeholder Management
22 55 (8.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
23 54 (7.88%) AI
24 53 (7.74%) Sketch
25 52 (7.59%) Continuous Improvement
26 50 (7.30%) Storytelling
27 46 (6.72%) Degree
27 46 (6.72%) HTML

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 (2.92%) CMS
2 18 (2.63%) Confluence
3 8 (1.17%) Appian
4 6 (0.88%) Camunda
4 6 (0.88%) CICS
5 3 (0.44%) OpenStack
5 3 (0.44%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.29%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.29%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.15%) LiveCycle
Applications
1 53 (7.74%) Sketch
2 36 (5.26%) Adobe XD
3 23 (3.36%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 21 (3.07%) Photoshop
5 20 (2.92%) InVision
6 19 (2.77%) Adobe Illustrator
7 13 (1.90%) Adobe After Effects
8 11 (1.61%) InDesign
9 10 (1.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 8 (1.17%) Zeplin
11 7 (1.02%) Chatbot
11 7 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
12 5 (0.73%) Microsoft Office
12 5 (0.73%) MS Visio
13 4 (0.58%) Adobe Captivate
13 4 (0.58%) Adobe Premiere
13 4 (0.58%) CINEMA 4D
14 3 (0.44%) Spreadsheet
14 3 (0.44%) Trello
15 2 (0.29%) Blender
Business Applications
1 7 (1.02%) SAP ERP
2 5 (0.73%) Dynamics GP
2 5 (0.73%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.44%) Oracle BRM
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle CRM
4 1 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.15%) Shopify
4 1 (0.15%) SmartPlant
4 1 (0.15%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 201 (29.34%) Figma
2 19 (2.77%) AWS
3 18 (2.63%) Miro
3 18 (2.63%) SaaS
4 11 (1.61%) Adobe Creative Cloud
4 11 (1.61%) Power Platform
5 9 (1.31%) Azure
6 5 (0.73%) PowerApps
7 4 (0.58%) ChatGPT
7 4 (0.58%) Copilot Studio
7 4 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
8 3 (0.44%) Google Analytics
8 3 (0.44%) Google Workspace
8 3 (0.44%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.29%) Asana
9 2 (0.29%) Contentful
9 2 (0.29%) Dynamics 365
9 2 (0.29%) Lucidchart
9 2 (0.29%) Microsoft 365
9 2 (0.29%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.31%) Firewall
2 7 (1.02%) Network Security
3 6 (0.88%) SMS
4 4 (0.58%) LAN
5 3 (0.44%) BGP
5 3 (0.44%) Broadband
5 3 (0.44%) GPRS
5 3 (0.44%) GSM
5 3 (0.44%) IPv4
5 3 (0.44%) IPv6
5 3 (0.44%) MPLS
5 3 (0.44%) OSPF
5 3 (0.44%) SNMP
5 3 (0.44%) TACACS
5 3 (0.44%) TCP/IP
5 3 (0.44%) VLAN
5 3 (0.44%) VPN
5 3 (0.44%) WAN
5 3 (0.44%) Wireless
6 2 (0.29%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.88%) DataStage
2 4 (0.58%) Power BI
3 3 (0.44%) Metadata
4 1 (0.15%) BigQuery
4 1 (0.15%) Electronic Patient Records
4 1 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 33 (4.82%) JIRA
2 29 (4.23%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.44%) Git
4 2 (0.29%) Balsamiq
4 2 (0.29%) GitLab
5 1 (0.15%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.15%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.15%) Postman
5 1 (0.15%) SoapUI
General
1 185 (27.01%) Social Skills
2 159 (23.21%) Public Sector
3 110 (16.06%) Finance
4 58 (8.47%) Banking
5 28 (4.09%) Marketing
6 23 (3.36%) Analytical Skills
7 15 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
8 14 (2.04%) Publishing
8 14 (2.04%) Retail
9 13 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
10 11 (1.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (1.61%) Pharmaceutical
10 11 (1.61%) Telecoms
11 10 (1.46%) Billing
11 10 (1.46%) Legal
12 7 (1.02%) Advertising
12 7 (1.02%) Local Government
12 7 (1.02%) Manufacturing
13 6 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (0.58%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (6.72%) HTML
2 40 (5.84%) CSS
3 9 (1.31%) Middleware
4 6 (0.88%) Framer.js
5 5 (0.73%) .NET
5 5 (0.73%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.73%) React
6 4 (0.58%) Lightning Web Components
7 3 (0.44%) HTML5
7 3 (0.44%) RESTful
7 3 (0.44%) Visualforce
8 2 (0.29%) CSS3
8 2 (0.29%) Sass
9 1 (0.15%) A2A Protocol
9 1 (0.15%) JWT
9 1 (0.15%) Model Context Protocol
9 1 (0.15%) REST
9 1 (0.15%) SAP Fiori
9 1 (0.15%) V-Ray
9 1 (0.15%) WebGL
Miscellaneous
1 41 (5.99%) Product Ownership
2 40 (5.84%) Mobile App
3 18 (2.63%) Onboarding
4 16 (2.34%) NHS
5 12 (1.75%) Data Centre
6 11 (1.61%) AI Agents
6 11 (1.61%) Mainframe
7 10 (1.46%) Graphic Design
8 9 (1.31%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (1.31%) e-Learning
8 9 (1.31%) Taxonomies
9 7 (1.02%) Animation
9 7 (1.02%) Digital Media
9 7 (1.02%) Management Information System
9 7 (1.02%) Social Media
10 6 (0.88%) BYOD
10 6 (0.88%) Data Structures
10 6 (0.88%) Motion Graphics
10 6 (0.88%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 6 (0.88%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.31%) Unix
2 6 (0.88%) AIX
2 6 (0.88%) Android
2 6 (0.88%) Linux
2 6 (0.88%) Solaris
3 5 (0.73%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.15%) VMS
4 1 (0.15%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 253 (36.93%) User Experience
2 233 (34.01%) Service Design
3 212 (30.95%) Agile
4 204 (29.78%) UX Design
5 182 (26.57%) User Research
6 147 (21.46%) Prototyping
7 140 (20.44%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 116 (16.93%) Interaction Design
9 104 (15.18%) Journey Map
10 103 (15.04%) Workshop Facilitation
11 100 (14.60%) Wireframes
12 93 (13.58%) Usability Testing
13 72 (10.51%) Problem-Solving
14 63 (9.20%) Analytics
15 60 (8.76%) Inclusive Design
16 57 (8.32%) Design Thinking
16 57 (8.32%) Stakeholder Management
17 55 (8.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 54 (7.88%) AI
19 52 (7.59%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 11 (1.61%) Python
2 9 (1.31%) JavaScript
3 7 (1.02%) SQL
4 6 (0.88%) COBOL
5 3 (0.44%) Apex Code
5 3 (0.44%) Java
5 3 (0.44%) Korn
5 3 (0.44%) PL/SQL
5 3 (0.44%) SOQL
6 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 145 (21.17%) Security Cleared
2 116 (16.93%) SC Cleared
3 46 (6.72%) Degree
4 25 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (2.19%) DV Cleared
6 12 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (1.31%) CCNP
8 5 (0.73%) Master's Degree
8 5 (0.73%) SAP Certification
9 4 (0.58%) CISM
9 4 (0.58%) CISSP
9 4 (0.58%) TOGAF Certification
10 3 (0.44%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.44%) CCIE
10 3 (0.44%) CCNA
10 3 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.44%) JNCIE
10 3 (0.44%) JNCIS
11 2 (0.29%) HND
12 1 (0.15%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 192 (28.03%) Accessibility
2 61 (8.91%) WCAG
3 8 (1.17%) GDPR
4 6 (0.88%) QA
5 4 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (0.58%) NIST
6 3 (0.44%) GMP
6 3 (0.44%) GxP
7 2 (0.29%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.15%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.15%) HL7
8 1 (0.15%) SLA
System Software
1 5 (0.73%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (0.44%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.15%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (0.44%) Ansible
1 3 (0.44%) Nagios
1 3 (0.44%) Terraform
2 1 (0.15%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 78 (11.39%) Adobe
2 35 (5.11%) Microsoft
3 9 (1.31%) Cisco
3 9 (1.31%) Google
3 9 (1.31%) Juniper
3 9 (1.31%) Oracle
3 9 (1.31%) SAP
3 9 (1.31%) ServiceNow
3 9 (1.31%) VMware
4 8 (1.17%) Salesforce
5 7 (1.02%) Pega
6 6 (0.88%) F5
6 6 (0.88%) IBM
6 6 (0.88%) Sage
7 5 (0.73%) BiZZdesign
8 3 (0.44%) Amdocs
8 3 (0.44%) Cadence
8 3 (0.44%) Fortinet
8 3 (0.44%) Hopewiser
8 3 (0.44%) SolarWinds