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 21 August 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 151 180 191
Rank change year-on-year +29 +11 -30
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 1,015 516 518
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.90% 1.57% 1.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.05% 1.72% 1.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 683 372 303
10th Percentile £362 £304 £301
25th Percentile £406 £375 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -6.86%
75th Percentile £538 £555 £574
90th Percentile £588 £613 £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 35 21 44
10th Percentile £25.70 £22.75 £37.20
25th Percentile £32.50 £34.48 £51.30
Median hourly rate £35.00 £45.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -22.22% -21.53% -0.68%
75th Percentile £57.12 £55.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £64.20 £69.65 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £50.84 £57.35
% change year-on-year -31.15% -11.36% -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 49,522 29,914 36,178
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.26% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,686 18,901 23,122
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,509 1,556 1,977
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.30 £19.59
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +14.67%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 +33 883 £471 -0.79% 192
UK excluding London +52 458 £475 +8.57% 116
London +14 440 £468 -6.50% 99
Work from Home +1 252 £459 +2.00% 90
North of England -12 145 £473 +8.00% 31
Midlands +6 87 £425 +0.12% 17
West Midlands +5 85 £425 -0.93% 12
South West -4 68 £430 -14.00% 22
South East -26 67 £518 +23.21% 33
Yorkshire -6 56 £475 +20.25% 13
North East -8 46 £433 -3.89% 5
East of England +22 45 £500 +5.26% 3
Scotland +5 43 £550 +37.50% 6
North West -40 42 £442 +1.03% 13
Wales -18 8 £425 +38.89% 2
East Midlands -20 2 - - 5

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 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 (32.22%) User Experience
2 318 (31.33%) Service Design
3 260 (25.62%) Agile
4 245 (24.14%) UX Design
5 211 (20.79%) Accessibility
6 201 (19.80%) Security Cleared
7 196 (19.31%) Figma
8 185 (18.23%) User Research
9 172 (16.95%) Interaction Design
10 167 (16.45%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 159 (15.67%) SC Cleared
12 128 (12.61%) Prototyping
12 128 (12.61%) Stakeholder Management
13 124 (12.22%) Workshop Facilitation
14 112 (11.03%) Journey Map
15 103 (10.15%) AI
16 88 (8.67%) Wireframes
17 87 (8.57%) Adobe
18 79 (7.78%) Problem-Solving
18 79 (7.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 67 (6.60%) WCAG
20 65 (6.40%) BPSS Clearance
21 57 (5.62%) Continuous Improvement
21 57 (5.62%) Degree
22 56 (5.52%) Customer Experience
23 53 (5.22%) Collaborative Working
24 51 (5.02%) Adobe Creative Suite
25 49 (4.83%) Generative AI
26 48 (4.73%) Analytics
26 48 (4.73%) Design Thinking

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 (1.87%) CMS
2 8 (0.79%) Confluence
3 7 (0.69%) Moodle
4 5 (0.49%) Drupal
4 5 (0.49%) LiveCycle
4 5 (0.49%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.39%) CICS
5 4 (0.39%) WordPress
6 3 (0.30%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.20%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
7 2 (0.20%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.099%) Kentico
Applications
1 51 (5.02%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 34 (3.35%) Sketch
3 31 (3.05%) Photoshop
4 30 (2.96%) Adobe Illustrator
5 25 (2.46%) Adobe After Effects
6 11 (1.08%) Adobe XD
7 10 (0.99%) InDesign
7 10 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 8 (0.79%) AutoCAD
8 8 (0.79%) Chatbot
9 7 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
9 7 (0.69%) Revit
10 6 (0.59%) Final Cut Pro
11 4 (0.39%) SOLIDWORKS
12 3 (0.30%) InVision
12 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
13 2 (0.20%) Adobe Premiere
13 2 (0.20%) CINEMA 4D
13 2 (0.20%) Navisworks
14 1 (0.099%) Adobe Captivate
Business Applications
1 4 (0.39%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.099%) Dynamics NAV
2 1 (0.099%) Eloqua
2 1 (0.099%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.099%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 196 (19.31%) Figma
2 31 (3.05%) Azure
3 27 (2.66%) AWS
4 26 (2.56%) SaaS
5 19 (1.87%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (1.67%) Microsoft Copilot
7 15 (1.48%) Miro
8 13 (1.28%) Power Platform
9 6 (0.59%) GCP
10 5 (0.49%) Dynamics 365
11 4 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Cloud
11 4 (0.39%) Azure AI
11 4 (0.39%) Canva
11 4 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
11 4 (0.39%) Google Analytics
11 4 (0.39%) PowerApps
12 3 (0.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 3 (0.30%) Entra ID
12 3 (0.30%) GitHub
13 2 (0.20%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 23 (2.27%) Wi-Fi
2 20 (1.97%) Firewall
3 17 (1.67%) 5G
4 16 (1.58%) 4G
4 16 (1.58%) Diameter Protocol
5 14 (1.38%) 3G
6 13 (1.28%) Broadband
7 12 (1.18%) 2G
7 12 (1.18%) IPsec
7 12 (1.18%) SIGTRAN
7 12 (1.18%) SS7
8 8 (0.79%) Network Security
9 7 (0.69%) BGP
9 7 (0.69%) HTTP
10 6 (0.59%) OSPF
11 4 (0.39%) Ethernet
12 3 (0.30%) EIGRP
12 3 (0.30%) LTE
12 3 (0.30%) VPN
12 3 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (1.38%) Metadata
2 8 (0.79%) 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 (0.30%) QlikView
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%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.20%) Delta Lake
5 2 (0.20%) Electronic Patient Records
5 2 (0.20%) MySQL
5 2 (0.20%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.099%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.099%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.099%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 10 (0.99%) JIRA
2 6 (0.59%) Claude Code
3 3 (0.30%) Git
4 2 (0.20%) ER Studio
4 2 (0.20%) ERwin
5 1 (0.099%) Axure RP
5 1 (0.099%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.099%) Dreamweaver
5 1 (0.099%) Subversion
General
1 203 (20.00%) Social Skills
2 186 (18.33%) Public Sector
3 128 (12.61%) Finance
4 59 (5.81%) Banking
5 46 (4.53%) Retail
6 43 (4.24%) Marketing
7 41 (4.04%) Analytical Skills
8 39 (3.84%) Telecoms
9 26 (2.56%) Automotive
10 23 (2.27%) Publishing
11 22 (2.17%) Legal
12 21 (2.07%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (2.07%) Manufacturing
13 13 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 11 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
15 10 (0.99%) Military
16 9 (0.89%) Games
16 9 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.89%) Retail Banking
17 8 (0.79%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (2.96%) HTML
2 21 (2.07%) CSS
3 13 (1.28%) REST
4 9 (0.89%) SOAP
4 9 (0.89%) Web Services
5 6 (0.59%) React
6 5 (0.49%) Terraform
7 4 (0.39%) Ajax
7 4 (0.39%) AngularJS
7 4 (0.39%) Middleware
7 4 (0.39%) React Native
7 4 (0.39%) XML
8 3 (0.30%) CSS3
8 3 (0.30%) HTML5
8 3 (0.30%) PySpark
9 2 (0.20%) AWS CDK
9 2 (0.20%) Framer.js
9 2 (0.20%) Kafka
9 2 (0.20%) Semantic HTML
9 2 (0.20%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 48 (4.73%) Mobile App
2 47 (4.63%) Product Ownership
3 34 (3.35%) Onboarding
4 29 (2.86%) Animation
5 28 (2.76%) Graphic Design
6 27 (2.66%) NHS
7 25 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
8 16 (1.58%) Cloud Native
9 15 (1.48%) CMDB
10 12 (1.18%) AI Agents
10 12 (1.18%) IoT
11 11 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
11 11 (1.08%) Social Media
12 10 (0.99%) Data Centre
12 10 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
12 10 (0.99%) Management Information System
13 7 (0.69%) Taxonomies
14 6 (0.59%) BYOD
14 6 (0.59%) e-Learning
15 5 (0.49%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 16 (1.58%) Android
2 15 (1.48%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.39%) AIX
3 4 (0.39%) Linux
3 4 (0.39%) Solaris
3 4 (0.39%) Unix
4 1 (0.099%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 327 (32.22%) User Experience
2 318 (31.33%) Service Design
3 260 (25.62%) Agile
4 245 (24.14%) UX Design
5 185 (18.23%) User Research
6 172 (16.95%) Interaction Design
7 167 (16.45%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 128 (12.61%) Prototyping
8 128 (12.61%) Stakeholder Management
9 124 (12.22%) Workshop Facilitation
10 112 (11.03%) Journey Map
11 103 (10.15%) AI
12 88 (8.67%) Wireframes
13 79 (7.78%) Problem-Solving
13 79 (7.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 57 (5.62%) Continuous Improvement
15 56 (5.52%) Customer Experience
16 53 (5.22%) Collaborative Working
17 49 (4.83%) Generative AI
18 48 (4.73%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 10 (0.99%) Python
1 10 (0.99%) SQL
2 8 (0.79%) JavaScript
3 4 (0.39%) COBOL
3 4 (0.39%) Java
4 3 (0.30%) PowerShell
5 2 (0.20%) Bash
5 2 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 2 (0.20%) Ruby
5 2 (0.20%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.099%) Korn
Qualifications
1 201 (19.80%) Security Cleared
2 159 (15.67%) SC Cleared
3 65 (6.40%) BPSS Clearance
4 57 (5.62%) Degree
5 26 (2.56%) DV Cleared
6 4 (0.39%) ITIL Certification
7 3 (0.30%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.20%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.20%) CISSP
9 1 (0.099%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (0.099%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.099%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.099%) CCIE
9 1 (0.099%) CCNP
9 1 (0.099%) CEH
9 1 (0.099%) CISM
9 1 (0.099%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.099%) JNCIE
9 1 (0.099%) JNCIP
9 1 (0.099%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 211 (20.79%) Accessibility
2 67 (6.60%) WCAG
3 15 (1.48%) Data Quality
4 8 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 8 (0.79%) NCSC
5 7 (0.69%) Government Security Classifications
6 5 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.39%) GDPR
7 4 (0.39%) QA
8 3 (0.30%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.20%) GMP
9 2 (0.20%) GRC
9 2 (0.20%) GxP
9 2 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (0.20%) NIST
10 1 (0.099%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.099%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.099%) SLA
10 1 (0.099%) WAI
10 1 (0.099%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 6 (0.59%) IAG
2 4 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (0.30%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.30%) Firmware
4 2 (0.20%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.099%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 4 (0.39%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.20%) Ansible
2 2 (0.20%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.099%) Kibana
3 1 (0.099%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.099%) SCCM
Vendors
1 87 (8.57%) Adobe
2 40 (3.94%) Microsoft
3 28 (2.76%) ServiceNow
4 15 (1.48%) Cisco
5 12 (1.18%) IBM
6 9 (0.89%) Google
7 8 (0.79%) Oracle
8 7 (0.69%) Databricks
8 7 (0.69%) SAP
9 6 (0.59%) Ericsson
9 6 (0.59%) Juniper
10 5 (0.49%) EMC
10 5 (0.49%) Nokia
11 4 (0.39%) Foundry
11 4 (0.39%) Virgin Media
11 4 (0.39%) VMware
12 3 (0.30%) F5
12 3 (0.30%) Openreach
12 3 (0.30%) SolarWinds
12 3 (0.30%) Zscaler