Designer Contract Job Trends

Designer
UK

The median Designer daily rate in the UK is £464, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 October 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 168 178 167
Rank change year-on-year +10 -11 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 912 539 543
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.68% 1.63% 1.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.82% 1.80% 1.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 581 388 330
10th Percentile £360 £310 £300
25th Percentile £406 £402 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £464 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% - -7.77%
75th Percentile £537 £575 £569
90th Percentile £588 £625 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £447 £480
% change year-on-year +0.67% -6.88% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 25 12
10th Percentile £27.25 £21.40 £31.70
25th Percentile £33.99 £34.48 £42.14
Median hourly rate £39.00 £47.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -17.89% -17.18% +10.50%
75th Percentile £62.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £62.65 £69.65 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £53.84 £57.35
% change year-on-year -27.56% -6.13% +4.84%

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 50,097 29,975 35,353
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.11% 90.82% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,425 18,913 21,413
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £737 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,996 1,630 1,535
10th Percentile £14.42 £13.75 £14.85
25th Percentile £19.61 £17.26 £20.63
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -40.82% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.00 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.74 £25.04 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.69% -41.77% -2.05%

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 5 October 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 5 October 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 5 October 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 +6 799 £464 -2.42% 967
London -6 427 £470 -5.05% 585
UK excluding London +28 388 £450 +0.67% 436
Work from Home -25 219 £450 -2.70% 462
North of England -19 131 £475 +8.57% 132
Midlands +15 84 £428 -0.35% 54
West Midlands +11 83 £425 +0.12% 43
South West +7 66 £428 -25.65% 57
Yorkshire +6 62 £475 -7.32% 43
Scotland +4 39 £550 +18.92% 47
North West -54 38 £506 +15.71% 69
South East -53 35 £500 +13.64% 90
North East -16 30 £420 -6.67% 21
East of England 0 29 £410 -0.61% 24
Wales -19 6 £375 +17.71% 21
East Midlands -13 1 £575 +22.99% 11

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 October 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.

1 307 (33.66%) User Experience
2 295 (32.35%) Service Design
3 265 (29.06%) Agile
4 229 (25.11%) UX Design
5 212 (23.25%) Accessibility
6 206 (22.59%) Security Cleared
7 196 (21.49%) User Research
8 184 (20.18%) Figma
9 183 (20.07%) Interaction Design
10 180 (19.74%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 165 (18.09%) SC Cleared
12 140 (15.35%) Prototyping
13 137 (15.02%) Stakeholder Management
14 124 (13.60%) Workshop Facilitation
15 112 (12.28%) Journey Map
16 99 (10.86%) AI
17 89 (9.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 89 (9.76%) Wireframes
18 82 (8.99%) Problem-Solving
19 80 (8.77%) Adobe
20 69 (7.57%) WCAG
21 66 (7.24%) Digital Transformation Programme
22 59 (6.47%) BPSS Clearance
23 56 (6.14%) Usability Testing
24 55 (6.03%) Collaborative Working
24 55 (6.03%) Inclusive Design
25 52 (5.70%) Design Thinking
26 47 (5.15%) Continuous Improvement
27 46 (5.04%) Degree
28 45 (4.93%) 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 22 (2.41%) CMS
2 13 (1.43%) Confluence
3 8 (0.88%) WordPress
4 6 (0.66%) SharePoint
5 5 (0.55%) Drupal
5 5 (0.55%) LiveCycle
6 3 (0.33%) Moodle
7 2 (0.22%) Headless CMS
7 2 (0.22%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.11%) Appian
8 1 (0.11%) Kentico
8 1 (0.11%) Mendix
8 1 (0.11%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 44 (4.82%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 30 (3.29%) Photoshop
3 29 (3.18%) Adobe Illustrator
3 29 (3.18%) Sketch
4 25 (2.74%) Adobe After Effects
5 12 (1.32%) Adobe XD
5 12 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 9 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
7 8 (0.88%) AutoCAD
7 8 (0.88%) InDesign
8 7 (0.77%) Revit
9 6 (0.66%) Final Cut Pro
10 5 (0.55%) SOLIDWORKS
11 3 (0.33%) Chatbot
11 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
12 2 (0.22%) Adobe Premiere
12 2 (0.22%) Navisworks
13 1 (0.11%) 3ds Max
13 1 (0.11%) Camtasia
13 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 1 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
1 1 (0.11%) Eloqua
1 1 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
1 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.11%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 184 (20.18%) Figma
2 27 (2.96%) Azure
3 22 (2.41%) Miro
4 21 (2.30%) SaaS
5 18 (1.97%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (1.86%) AWS
6 17 (1.86%) Microsoft Copilot
7 10 (1.10%) Power Platform
8 5 (0.55%) Dynamics 365
9 4 (0.44%) Adobe Creative Cloud
9 4 (0.44%) Azure AI
9 4 (0.44%) Canva
9 4 (0.44%) Copilot Studio
9 4 (0.44%) Google Analytics
9 4 (0.44%) PowerApps
10 3 (0.33%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (0.33%) Azure Databricks
11 2 (0.22%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 2 (0.22%) Entra ID
11 2 (0.22%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.54%) 4G
2 12 (1.32%) 3G
2 12 (1.32%) 5G
2 12 (1.32%) Diameter Protocol
2 12 (1.32%) Wi-Fi
3 11 (1.21%) 2G
3 11 (1.21%) SIGTRAN
3 11 (1.21%) SS7
4 7 (0.77%) BGP
4 7 (0.77%) Broadband
4 7 (0.77%) Firewall
5 5 (0.55%) HTTP
5 5 (0.55%) OSPF
6 4 (0.44%) Ethernet
7 3 (0.33%) Cisco Nexus
7 3 (0.33%) EIGRP
7 3 (0.33%) IPsec
7 3 (0.33%) LAN
7 3 (0.33%) Network Security
7 3 (0.33%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (0.88%) Metadata
2 6 (0.66%) Power BI
3 4 (0.44%) Delta Lake
3 4 (0.44%) Qlik Sense
4 3 (0.33%) QlikView
4 3 (0.33%) Tableau
5 2 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.11%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.11%) Data Mart
6 1 (0.11%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle ODI
6 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 13 (1.43%) JIRA
2 7 (0.77%) Claude Code
3 3 (0.33%) ER Studio
3 3 (0.33%) ERwin
3 3 (0.33%) Git
4 1 (0.11%) Axure RP
4 1 (0.11%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.11%) Dreamweaver
4 1 (0.11%) Subversion
4 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 213 (23.36%) Social Skills
2 189 (20.72%) Public Sector
3 105 (11.51%) Finance
4 49 (5.37%) Retail
5 42 (4.61%) Analytical Skills
6 41 (4.50%) Banking
7 39 (4.28%) Marketing
8 32 (3.51%) Telecoms
9 26 (2.85%) Automotive
10 21 (2.30%) Publishing
11 20 (2.19%) Manufacturing
12 18 (1.97%) Legal
13 15 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
13 15 (1.64%) Local Government
14 13 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 13 (1.43%) Military
15 10 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
16 8 (0.88%) Games
17 6 (0.66%) Investment Banking
17 6 (0.66%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (2.63%) HTML
2 18 (1.97%) CSS
3 7 (0.77%) React
4 6 (0.66%) REST
5 5 (0.55%) React Native
6 4 (0.44%) Ajax
6 4 (0.44%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.44%) PySpark
6 4 (0.44%) SOAP
6 4 (0.44%) Web Services
6 4 (0.44%) XML
7 3 (0.33%) CSS3
7 3 (0.33%) HTML5
7 3 (0.33%) Terraform
8 2 (0.22%) Framer.js
8 2 (0.22%) Vue
8 2 (0.22%) YAML
9 1 (0.11%) Microformats
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Fusion
9 1 (0.11%) V-Ray
Miscellaneous
1 48 (5.26%) Mobile App
2 31 (3.40%) Product Ownership
3 30 (3.29%) Animation
4 25 (2.74%) NHS
5 23 (2.52%) Self-Motivation
6 22 (2.41%) Graphic Design
7 21 (2.30%) Onboarding
8 11 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
9 10 (1.10%) Cloud Native
9 10 (1.10%) Social Media
10 9 (0.99%) AI Agents
10 9 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
10 9 (0.99%) e-Learning
11 8 (0.88%) CMDB
11 8 (0.88%) Management Information System
12 7 (0.77%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (0.77%) Taxonomies
13 5 (0.55%) Data Centre
13 5 (0.55%) Learning Management System
14 4 (0.44%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 15 (1.64%) Android
2 14 (1.54%) Apple iOS
3 2 (0.22%) Windows
4 1 (0.11%) Linux
4 1 (0.11%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.11%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 307 (33.66%) User Experience
2 295 (32.35%) Service Design
3 265 (29.06%) Agile
4 229 (25.11%) UX Design
5 196 (21.49%) User Research
6 183 (20.07%) Interaction Design
7 180 (19.74%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 140 (15.35%) Prototyping
9 137 (15.02%) Stakeholder Management
10 124 (13.60%) Workshop Facilitation
11 112 (12.28%) Journey Map
12 99 (10.86%) AI
13 89 (9.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 89 (9.76%) Wireframes
14 82 (8.99%) Problem-Solving
15 66 (7.24%) Digital Transformation Programme
16 56 (6.14%) Usability Testing
17 55 (6.03%) Collaborative Working
17 55 (6.03%) Inclusive Design
18 52 (5.70%) Design Thinking
Programming Languages
1 9 (0.99%) SQL
2 6 (0.66%) JavaScript
3 3 (0.33%) Java
3 3 (0.33%) Python
4 2 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
4 2 (0.22%) TypeScript
5 1 (0.11%) Korn
5 1 (0.11%) PL/SQL
5 1 (0.11%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.11%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 206 (22.59%) Security Cleared
2 165 (18.09%) SC Cleared
3 59 (6.47%) BPSS Clearance
4 46 (5.04%) Degree
5 9 (0.99%) DV Cleared
6 6 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (0.22%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.22%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.11%) CCIE
8 1 (0.11%) CCNA
8 1 (0.11%) CCNP
8 1 (0.11%) CISM
8 1 (0.11%) CISSP
8 1 (0.11%) JNCIE
8 1 (0.11%) JNCIP
8 1 (0.11%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 212 (23.25%) Accessibility
2 69 (7.57%) WCAG
3 12 (1.32%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.55%) QA
5 4 (0.44%) GxP
6 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.22%) GMP
7 2 (0.22%) GRC
7 2 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 1 (0.11%) GDPR
8 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.11%) WAI
8 1 (0.11%) WAI-ARIA
System Software
1 5 (0.55%) IAG
2 4 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.22%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.22%) Firmware
4 1 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.11%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 2 (0.22%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.11%) Ansible
2 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
2 1 (0.11%) Kibana
2 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (0.11%) SCCM
Vendors
1 80 (8.77%) Adobe
2 39 (4.28%) Microsoft
3 24 (2.63%) ServiceNow
4 11 (1.21%) Cisco
5 9 (0.99%) Google
6 8 (0.88%) IBM
7 6 (0.66%) SAP
8 5 (0.55%) Databricks
9 4 (0.44%) EMC
9 4 (0.44%) Foundry
9 4 (0.44%) Oracle
9 4 (0.44%) Salesforce
10 3 (0.33%) BMC
10 3 (0.33%) BT
10 3 (0.33%) Ericsson
10 3 (0.33%) Juniper
10 3 (0.33%) Openreach
10 3 (0.33%) SolarWinds
10 3 (0.33%) Virgin Media
11 2 (0.22%) F5