Designer Contract Job Trends

Designer
UK

The median Designer daily rate in the UK is £480, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 March 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 154 166 168
Rank change year-on-year +12 +2 -27
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 780 491 627
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.79% 1.68% 1.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.95% 1.81% 1.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 597 348 394
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £400 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £465
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% +2.15% -11.43%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £555
90th Percentile £625 £638 £606
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +4.22% - -8.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 8 26
10th Percentile £22.45 £30.28 £15.50
25th Percentile £27.03 £31.23 £39.94
Median hourly rate £50.00 £40.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year +23.46% -19.80% +12.22%
75th Percentile £56.00 £55.31 £61.30
90th Percentile £79.00 £75.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £33.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year +49.25% -41.59% +9.24%

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 39,980 27,191 41,155
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 92.93% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,004 17,726 26,995
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £410 £406 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £521 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,473 892 2,490
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.01 £16.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.77% - -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.99
90th Percentile £76.25 £77.10 £71.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £32.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +12.50% -1.54% -19.92%

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 20 March 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 20 March 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 20 March 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 +11 624 £475 +2.70% 287
London +18 342 £475 +3.32% 128
UK excluding London -4 297 £469 +4.22% 187
Work from Home +7 246 £475 +4.40% 180
North of England -19 105 £425 +6.25% 54
South East -31 63 £525 -4.55% 56
North West -8 48 £401 +0.25% 38
Midlands -51 41 £401 -0.50% 22
Scotland +2 36 £450 -2.70% 8
West Midlands -50 36 £400 -14.67% 17
Yorkshire -42 34 £513 +28.13% 5
South West -13 33 £550 +14.58% 19
North East 0 23 £388 -8.82% 11
East of England -14 15 £454 -5.42% 26
Wales -2 8 £513 +117.16% 3
East Midlands -37 5 £401 +6.08% 5

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 20 March 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.

1 277 (35.51%) Service Design
2 253 (32.44%) User Experience
3 223 (28.59%) Agile
4 206 (26.41%) User Research
5 200 (25.64%) UX Design
6 199 (25.51%) Accessibility
7 188 (24.10%) Figma
8 184 (23.59%) Security Cleared
9 150 (19.23%) SC Cleared
10 148 (18.97%) Prototyping
11 147 (18.85%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 140 (17.95%) Interaction Design
13 116 (14.87%) Workshop Facilitation
14 114 (14.62%) Journey Map
15 89 (11.41%) Wireframes
16 79 (10.13%) Usability Testing
17 75 (9.62%) Adobe
18 70 (8.97%) AI
18 70 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
19 68 (8.72%) WCAG
20 65 (8.33%) Analytics
21 63 (8.08%) Stakeholder Management
22 62 (7.95%) Inclusive Design
23 59 (7.56%) Design Thinking
24 57 (7.31%) Storytelling
25 54 (6.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
26 53 (6.79%) Roadmaps
27 47 (6.03%) Degree
28 46 (5.90%) UX Research
29 45 (5.77%) Sketch

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 (2.44%) CMS
2 14 (1.79%) Confluence
3 8 (1.03%) Appian
3 8 (1.03%) CICS
4 6 (0.77%) Camunda
5 4 (0.51%) Moodle
6 3 (0.38%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.26%) SharePoint
7 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.13%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 45 (5.77%) Sketch
2 32 (4.10%) Adobe XD
3 25 (3.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 21 (2.69%) Photoshop
5 20 (2.56%) InVision
6 18 (2.31%) Adobe Illustrator
7 14 (1.79%) Adobe After Effects
8 10 (1.28%) Chatbot
8 10 (1.28%) InDesign
9 8 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
10 6 (0.77%) CINEMA 4D
10 6 (0.77%) Microsoft Excel
10 6 (0.77%) Zeplin
11 5 (0.64%) Adobe Premiere
12 4 (0.51%) Adobe Captivate
12 4 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
12 4 (0.51%) MS Visio
13 3 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
13 3 (0.38%) Trello
14 2 (0.26%) Blender
Business Applications
1 7 (0.90%) SAP ERP
2 5 (0.64%) Dynamics GP
2 5 (0.64%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.38%) Oracle BRM
3 3 (0.38%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle CRM
4 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.13%) Shopify
4 1 (0.13%) SmartPlant
4 1 (0.13%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 188 (24.10%) Figma
2 19 (2.44%) SaaS
3 17 (2.18%) AWS
4 14 (1.79%) Miro
5 12 (1.54%) Power Platform
6 9 (1.15%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 8 (1.03%) Azure
8 5 (0.64%) PowerApps
9 4 (0.51%) ChatGPT
9 4 (0.51%) Copilot Studio
9 4 (0.51%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (0.38%) Google Analytics
10 3 (0.38%) Google Workspace
10 3 (0.38%) Microsoft 365
11 2 (0.26%) Asana
11 2 (0.26%) Contentful
11 2 (0.26%) dbt
11 2 (0.26%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.26%) Google Gemini
11 2 (0.26%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.05%) Firewall
2 10 (1.28%) Network Security
3 7 (0.90%) Broadband
4 6 (0.77%) SMS
5 5 (0.64%) IPsec
5 5 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (0.51%) 5G
7 3 (0.38%) 4G
7 3 (0.38%) GPRS
7 3 (0.38%) GSM
7 3 (0.38%) IPv4
7 3 (0.38%) IPv6
7 3 (0.38%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.38%) VLAN
7 3 (0.38%) VPN
8 2 (0.26%) 2G
8 2 (0.26%) 3G
8 2 (0.26%) Diameter Protocol
8 2 (0.26%) Internet
9 1 (0.13%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.03%) DataStage
2 5 (0.64%) Power BI
3 3 (0.38%) Electronic Patient Records
3 3 (0.38%) Metadata
3 3 (0.38%) Oracle ODI
4 1 (0.13%) BigQuery
4 1 (0.13%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.13%) Pinecone
4 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 28 (3.59%) JIRA
2 27 (3.46%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.38%) Git
4 2 (0.26%) Balsamiq
5 1 (0.13%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.13%) GitLab
5 1 (0.13%) Postman
5 1 (0.13%) SoapUI
General
1 198 (25.38%) Public Sector
2 172 (22.05%) Social Skills
3 121 (15.51%) Finance
4 63 (8.08%) Banking
5 28 (3.59%) Marketing
6 23 (2.95%) Analytical Skills
7 22 (2.82%) Influencing Skills
8 16 (2.05%) Publishing
9 14 (1.79%) Retail
10 13 (1.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 13 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
10 13 (1.67%) Telecoms
11 11 (1.41%) Legal
12 10 (1.28%) Billing
12 10 (1.28%) Pharmaceutical
13 7 (0.90%) Advertising
14 6 (0.77%) Local Government
14 6 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (0.77%) Retail Banking
15 5 (0.64%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 44 (5.64%) HTML
2 37 (4.74%) CSS
3 11 (1.41%) Middleware
4 6 (0.77%) Framer.js
5 5 (0.64%) .NET
6 4 (0.51%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.51%) Lightning Web Components
6 4 (0.51%) REST
6 4 (0.51%) SOAP
7 3 (0.38%) HTML5
7 3 (0.38%) React
7 3 (0.38%) Semantic HTML
7 3 (0.38%) Visualforce
7 3 (0.38%) Web Services
8 2 (0.26%) CSS3
8 2 (0.26%) RESTful
8 2 (0.26%) Sass
9 1 (0.13%) SAP Fiori
9 1 (0.13%) V-Ray
9 1 (0.13%) WebGL
Miscellaneous
1 45 (5.77%) Product Ownership
2 36 (4.62%) Mobile App
3 21 (2.69%) Onboarding
4 17 (2.18%) NHS
5 13 (1.67%) AI Agents
5 13 (1.67%) Mainframe
6 11 (1.41%) Data Centre
7 10 (1.28%) Graphic Design
8 9 (1.15%) Animation
8 9 (1.15%) IoT
8 9 (1.15%) Management Information System
8 9 (1.15%) Taxonomies
9 8 (1.03%) BYOD
9 8 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
9 8 (1.03%) e-Learning
9 8 (1.03%) VSAM
10 7 (0.90%) Social Media
11 6 (0.77%) Team-Oriented Environment
12 5 (0.64%) Data Structures
12 5 (0.64%) Motion Graphics
Operating Systems
1 11 (1.41%) Unix
2 8 (1.03%) AIX
2 8 (1.03%) Linux
2 8 (1.03%) Solaris
3 4 (0.51%) Android
4 3 (0.38%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.13%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 277 (35.51%) Service Design
2 253 (32.44%) User Experience
3 223 (28.59%) Agile
4 206 (26.41%) User Research
5 200 (25.64%) UX Design
6 148 (18.97%) Prototyping
7 147 (18.85%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 140 (17.95%) Interaction Design
9 116 (14.87%) Workshop Facilitation
10 114 (14.62%) Journey Map
11 89 (11.41%) Wireframes
12 79 (10.13%) Usability Testing
13 70 (8.97%) AI
13 70 (8.97%) Problem-Solving
14 65 (8.33%) Analytics
15 63 (8.08%) Stakeholder Management
16 62 (7.95%) Inclusive Design
17 59 (7.56%) Design Thinking
18 57 (7.31%) Storytelling
19 54 (6.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 10 (1.28%) JavaScript
1 10 (1.28%) Python
2 8 (1.03%) COBOL
3 7 (0.90%) SQL
4 3 (0.38%) Apex Code
4 3 (0.38%) Java
4 3 (0.38%) Korn
4 3 (0.38%) PL/SQL
4 3 (0.38%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 184 (23.59%) Security Cleared
2 150 (19.23%) SC Cleared
3 47 (6.03%) Degree
4 28 (3.59%) DV Cleared
5 27 (3.46%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (1.03%) CCNP
6 8 (1.03%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (0.64%) Master's Degree
7 5 (0.64%) SAP Certification
8 4 (0.51%) CISM
8 4 (0.51%) CISSP
8 4 (0.51%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (0.38%) CCNA
9 3 (0.38%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.38%) JNCIS
10 2 (0.26%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.13%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.13%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 199 (25.51%) Accessibility
2 68 (8.72%) WCAG
3 8 (1.03%) GDPR
3 8 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 8 (1.03%) NCSC
4 7 (0.90%) Government Security Classifications
5 5 (0.64%) QA
6 4 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
6 4 (0.51%) NIST
7 3 (0.38%) GMP
7 3 (0.38%) GxP
8 2 (0.26%) SLA
9 1 (0.13%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.13%) HL7
System Software
1 2 (0.26%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.13%) Firmware
2 1 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (0.38%) Nagios
2 1 (0.13%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.13%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 75 (9.62%) Adobe
2 31 (3.97%) Microsoft
3 13 (1.67%) Oracle
3 13 (1.67%) ServiceNow
4 10 (1.28%) Salesforce
5 8 (1.03%) Google
5 8 (1.03%) IBM
5 8 (1.03%) SAP
5 8 (1.03%) VMware
6 7 (0.90%) Pega
7 6 (0.77%) Cisco
7 6 (0.77%) Sage
8 5 (0.64%) BiZZdesign
8 5 (0.64%) Juniper
9 3 (0.38%) F5
9 3 (0.38%) SolarWinds
10 2 (0.26%) Cadence
10 2 (0.26%) Foundry
10 2 (0.26%) MuleSoft
10 2 (0.26%) Palo Alto