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 17 April 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 169 167
Rank change year-on-year +36 -2 -27
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 902 486 643
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.96% 1.66% 1.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.13% 1.79% 1.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 358 386
10th Percentile £350 £300 £325
25th Percentile £400 £360 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £457 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.03% -3.79% -9.52%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £573
90th Percentile £638 £613 £624
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £420 £464
% change year-on-year +13.23% -9.54% -6.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 8 54
10th Percentile £26.31 £27.83 £33.78
25th Percentile £28.47 £30.30 £45.05
Median hourly rate £35.00 £40.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -13.58% -29.38% +20.74%
75th Percentile £55.04 £55.31 £61.30
90th Percentile £70.80 £75.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £33.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year +4.48% -41.59% -11.77%

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 42,439 27,180 40,683
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.23% 92.60% 92.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,345 17,830 26,590
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,678 986 2,604
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.71 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.79 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.20% -12.02% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.59 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.08 £75.38 £72.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 £29.53 £35.00
% change year-on-year +45.64% -15.64% -17.38%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 17 April 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 +33 743 £475 +3.94% 313
London +11 382 £475 +3.94% 125
UK excluding London +32 379 £475 +13.23% 213
Work from Home +36 276 £459 +3.20% 127
North of England -9 120 £450 +12.50% 72
South East -3 74 £525 +5.00% 40
Midlands -32 62 £404 -0.28% 35
West Midlands -23 55 £410 -11.35% 28
North West -6 51 £402 +0.50% 36
South West -1 47 £425 -7.31% 26
Scotland +2 37 £538 +18.13% 9
East of England +2 37 £500 +5.26% 25
North East +5 35 £450 +12.50% 19
Yorkshire -38 34 £513 +28.13% 18
Wales -10 8 £513 +67.77% 9
East Midlands -27 7 £401 +26.30% 7

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 April 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.

1 299 (33.15%) Service Design
2 283 (31.37%) User Experience
3 243 (26.94%) Agile
4 224 (24.83%) UX Design
5 221 (24.50%) User Research
6 203 (22.51%) Accessibility
7 202 (22.39%) Figma
8 198 (21.95%) Security Cleared
9 167 (18.51%) Interaction Design
10 165 (18.29%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
11 159 (17.63%) SC Cleared
12 146 (16.19%) Prototyping
13 127 (14.08%) Workshop Facilitation
14 123 (13.64%) Journey Map
15 100 (11.09%) Wireframes
16 84 (9.31%) AI
17 79 (8.76%) Usability Testing
18 77 (8.54%) Adobe
18 77 (8.54%) Stakeholder Management
19 74 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
20 68 (7.54%) WCAG
21 66 (7.32%) Analytics
22 61 (6.76%) Roadmaps
23 60 (6.65%) Design Thinking
24 58 (6.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
24 58 (6.43%) Storytelling
25 54 (5.99%) Continuous Improvement
26 53 (5.88%) Inclusive Design
27 52 (5.76%) Degree
28 50 (5.54%) Collaborative Working

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 (2.22%) CMS
2 10 (1.11%) CICS
2 10 (1.11%) Confluence
3 7 (0.78%) Appian
4 5 (0.55%) Camunda
4 5 (0.55%) LiveCycle
5 4 (0.44%) Moodle
5 4 (0.44%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.33%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.22%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.22%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.11%) Drupal
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 48 (5.32%) Sketch
2 30 (3.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 29 (3.22%) Adobe XD
4 21 (2.33%) InVision
5 20 (2.22%) Photoshop
6 17 (1.88%) Adobe Illustrator
7 13 (1.44%) Adobe After Effects
8 12 (1.33%) Chatbot
8 12 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 10 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
10 8 (0.89%) InDesign
11 7 (0.78%) CINEMA 4D
12 6 (0.67%) Zeplin
13 5 (0.55%) Adobe Premiere
14 4 (0.44%) MS Visio
14 4 (0.44%) Trello
15 3 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
15 3 (0.33%) UserZoom
16 2 (0.22%) Blender
17 1 (0.11%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 7 (0.78%) SAP ERP
2 5 (0.55%) Dynamics GP
2 5 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.44%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (0.22%) Oracle BRM
5 1 (0.11%) Oracle CRM
5 1 (0.11%) Shopify
5 1 (0.11%) SmartPlant
Cloud Services
1 202 (22.39%) Figma
2 26 (2.88%) AWS
3 23 (2.55%) SaaS
4 17 (1.88%) Azure
5 13 (1.44%) Miro
6 10 (1.11%) Power Platform
7 8 (0.89%) Adobe Creative Cloud
8 4 (0.44%) Copilot Studio
8 4 (0.44%) GCP
8 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Copilot
8 4 (0.44%) PowerApps
9 3 (0.33%) ChatGPT
9 3 (0.33%) dbt
9 3 (0.33%) Google Workspace
10 2 (0.22%) Asana
10 2 (0.22%) AWS KMS
10 2 (0.22%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (0.22%) Contentful
10 2 (0.22%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (0.22%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 23 (2.55%) Firewall
2 17 (1.88%) Wi-Fi
3 13 (1.44%) Network Security
4 10 (1.11%) IPsec
5 9 (1.00%) Broadband
6 6 (0.67%) 5G
6 6 (0.67%) Diameter Protocol
7 5 (0.55%) SMS
8 4 (0.44%) VLAN
8 4 (0.44%) VPN
9 3 (0.33%) 3G
9 3 (0.33%) 3GPP
9 3 (0.33%) 4G
9 3 (0.33%) HTTP
9 3 (0.33%) IPv4
9 3 (0.33%) IPv6
9 3 (0.33%) LTE
9 3 (0.33%) TCP/IP
10 2 (0.22%) 2G
10 2 (0.22%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.11%) DataStage
2 8 (0.89%) Metadata
3 5 (0.55%) Power BI
4 4 (0.44%) Oracle ODI
5 3 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
6 2 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
6 2 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.22%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.22%) Data Vault
6 2 (0.22%) MySQL
6 2 (0.22%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.22%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.22%) Tableau
7 1 (0.11%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.11%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.11%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 26 (2.88%) JIRA
2 24 (2.66%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.33%) Git
4 1 (0.11%) Balsamiq
4 1 (0.11%) GitLab
4 1 (0.11%) Postman
4 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
General
1 210 (23.28%) Public Sector
2 184 (20.40%) Social Skills
3 125 (13.86%) Finance
4 64 (7.10%) Banking
5 33 (3.66%) Marketing
6 26 (2.88%) Analytical Skills
7 25 (2.77%) Influencing Skills
7 25 (2.77%) Retail
8 19 (2.11%) Legal
8 19 (2.11%) Publishing
9 17 (1.88%) Telecoms
10 15 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
11 14 (1.55%) Pharmaceutical
12 11 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 10 (1.11%) Manufacturing
14 8 (0.89%) Billing
15 7 (0.78%) Local Government
15 7 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
15 7 (0.78%) Retail Banking
16 6 (0.67%) Advertising
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (4.77%) HTML
2 32 (3.55%) CSS
3 13 (1.44%) Middleware
4 8 (0.89%) REST
5 6 (0.67%) SOAP
6 5 (0.55%) .NET
6 5 (0.55%) Framer.js
6 5 (0.55%) Web Services
7 4 (0.44%) Lightning Web Components
8 3 (0.33%) AngularJS
8 3 (0.33%) JSON
8 3 (0.33%) OAuth
8 3 (0.33%) React
8 3 (0.33%) Semantic HTML
8 3 (0.33%) Visualforce
9 2 (0.22%) CSS3
9 2 (0.22%) HTML5
9 2 (0.22%) OpenID
9 2 (0.22%) RESTful
9 2 (0.22%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 51 (5.65%) Product Ownership
2 40 (4.43%) Mobile App
3 26 (2.88%) Onboarding
4 18 (2.00%) NHS
5 15 (1.66%) Mainframe
6 14 (1.55%) Data Centre
6 14 (1.55%) IoT
7 13 (1.44%) AI Agents
8 12 (1.33%) Cloud Native
8 12 (1.33%) Graphic Design
9 11 (1.22%) Animation
10 10 (1.11%) BYOD
10 10 (1.11%) VSAM
11 9 (1.00%) Data Protection Act
11 9 (1.00%) Management Information System
11 9 (1.00%) Taxonomies
12 8 (0.89%) CMDB
12 8 (0.89%) e-Learning
12 8 (0.89%) Motion Graphics
13 6 (0.67%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.33%) Unix
2 10 (1.11%) AIX
2 10 (1.11%) Linux
2 10 (1.11%) Solaris
3 6 (0.67%) Android
4 5 (0.55%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.11%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 299 (33.15%) Service Design
2 283 (31.37%) User Experience
3 243 (26.94%) Agile
4 224 (24.83%) UX Design
5 221 (24.50%) User Research
6 167 (18.51%) Interaction Design
7 165 (18.29%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 146 (16.19%) Prototyping
9 127 (14.08%) Workshop Facilitation
10 123 (13.64%) Journey Map
11 100 (11.09%) Wireframes
12 84 (9.31%) AI
13 79 (8.76%) Usability Testing
14 77 (8.54%) Stakeholder Management
15 74 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
16 66 (7.32%) Analytics
17 61 (6.76%) Roadmaps
18 60 (6.65%) Design Thinking
19 58 (6.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 58 (6.43%) Storytelling
Programming Languages
1 13 (1.44%) Python
2 10 (1.11%) COBOL
2 10 (1.11%) JavaScript
3 8 (0.89%) SQL
4 3 (0.33%) Apex Code
4 3 (0.33%) Java
4 3 (0.33%) Korn
4 3 (0.33%) SOQL
5 2 (0.22%) Bash
5 2 (0.22%) PL/SQL
5 2 (0.22%) PowerShell
5 2 (0.22%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 198 (21.95%) Security Cleared
2 159 (17.63%) SC Cleared
3 52 (5.76%) Degree
4 35 (3.88%) DV Cleared
5 34 (3.77%) BPSS Clearance
6 9 (1.00%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (0.89%) CCNP
8 5 (0.55%) CISSP
8 5 (0.55%) Master's Degree
8 5 (0.55%) SAP Certification
9 4 (0.44%) CISM
9 4 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (0.44%) TOGAF Certification
10 3 (0.33%) CCNA
10 3 (0.33%) JNCIS
11 2 (0.22%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.11%) CEH
12 1 (0.11%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.11%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 203 (22.51%) Accessibility
2 68 (7.54%) WCAG
3 9 (1.00%) GDPR
4 8 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 8 (0.89%) NCSC
5 7 (0.78%) Government Security Classifications
6 6 (0.67%) NIST
7 5 (0.55%) Data Quality
7 5 (0.55%) GMP
7 5 (0.55%) GxP
8 4 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.44%) QA
9 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.33%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.11%) HL7
10 1 (0.11%) SLA
System Software
1 4 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (0.22%) IAG
2 2 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.11%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.11%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 3 (0.33%) Kubernetes
1 3 (0.33%) Nagios
1 3 (0.33%) Terraform
2 1 (0.11%) Ansible
2 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
2 1 (0.11%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 77 (8.54%) Adobe
2 27 (2.99%) Microsoft
3 17 (1.88%) ServiceNow
4 15 (1.66%) Oracle
5 11 (1.22%) SAP
6 10 (1.11%) IBM
6 10 (1.11%) Salesforce
6 10 (1.11%) VMware
7 9 (1.00%) Cisco
8 6 (0.67%) Google
8 6 (0.67%) Juniper
8 6 (0.67%) Pega
8 6 (0.67%) Sage
9 5 (0.55%) BiZZdesign
9 5 (0.55%) Ericsson
9 5 (0.55%) Nokia
10 4 (0.44%) F5
11 3 (0.33%) Huawei
11 3 (0.33%) MuleSoft
11 3 (0.33%) SolarWinds