Designer Contract Job Trends

Designer
UK

The median Designer daily rate in the UK is £488, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 March 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 157 168 167
Rank change year-on-year +11 -1 -22
Contract jobs requiring a Designer 767 495 632
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.78% 1.69% 1.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.93% 1.81% 1.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 586 351 402
10th Percentile £345 £300 £325
25th Percentile £400 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £465
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% +2.15% -11.43%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £550
90th Percentile £638 £638 £606
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £455 £450
% change year-on-year +3.08% +1.11% -8.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 8 22
10th Percentile £22.73 £30.28 £15.50
25th Percentile £27.74 £31.23 £38.81
Median hourly rate £50.72 £40.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +25.23% -19.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £61.81 £55.31 £61.30
90th Percentile £77.00 £75.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £33.50 £47.61
% change year-on-year +49.25% -29.63% -9.32%

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 39,673 27,289 41,313
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.94% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,785 17,711 27,109
10th Percentile £313 £300 £272
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.11%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,471 884 2,499
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.98
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.04 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.71 £33.00 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +8.21% +0.32% -22.60%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.41 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.70
% change year-on-year +7.69% -0.60% -19.44%

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 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 17 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 17 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 -4 613 £475 - 313
London +15 343 £475 - 149
UK excluding London -11 287 £469 +3.08% 203
Work from Home +8 240 £475 +3.54% 159
North of England -14 102 £425 +6.25% 46
South East -21 59 £531 -3.44% 69
North West -4 49 £401 +0.25% 29
Midlands -43 41 £401 -1.11% 32
Scotland +6 36 £450 -4.00% 7
West Midlands -51 36 £400 -15.79% 20
Yorkshire -39 33 £513 +28.13% 9
South West -15 30 £505 +5.76% 22
North East +1 20 £375 -16.67% 8
East of England -22 15 £454 -5.42% 25
Wales -2 8 £513 +117.16% 5
East Midlands -32 5 £401 +6.08% 12

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 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.

1 270 (35.20%) Service Design
2 252 (32.86%) User Experience
3 218 (28.42%) Agile
4 204 (26.60%) User Research
5 199 (25.95%) UX Design
6 195 (25.42%) Accessibility
7 189 (24.64%) Figma
8 182 (23.73%) Security Cleared
9 148 (19.30%) Prototyping
10 147 (19.17%) SC Cleared
11 146 (19.04%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 139 (18.12%) Interaction Design
13 115 (14.99%) Workshop Facilitation
14 112 (14.60%) Journey Map
15 91 (11.86%) Wireframes
16 80 (10.43%) Usability Testing
17 77 (10.04%) Adobe
18 70 (9.13%) Problem-Solving
19 65 (8.47%) AI
19 65 (8.47%) Analytics
19 65 (8.47%) WCAG
20 63 (8.21%) Inclusive Design
21 60 (7.82%) Design Thinking
21 60 (7.82%) Stakeholder Management
22 56 (7.30%) Storytelling
23 53 (6.91%) Roadmaps
23 53 (6.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
24 47 (6.13%) Sketch
25 46 (6.00%) Degree
25 46 (6.00%) UX Research

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 17 (2.22%) CMS
2 14 (1.83%) Confluence
3 8 (1.04%) Appian
3 8 (1.04%) CICS
4 6 (0.78%) Camunda
5 3 (0.39%) Moodle
5 3 (0.39%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.26%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.26%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.13%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 47 (6.13%) Sketch
2 33 (4.30%) Adobe XD
3 25 (3.26%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 22 (2.87%) Photoshop
5 20 (2.61%) InVision
6 19 (2.48%) Adobe Illustrator
7 14 (1.83%) Adobe After Effects
8 11 (1.43%) InDesign
9 10 (1.30%) Chatbot
10 8 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
11 6 (0.78%) CINEMA 4D
11 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Excel
11 6 (0.78%) Zeplin
12 5 (0.65%) Adobe Premiere
13 4 (0.52%) Adobe Captivate
13 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
13 4 (0.52%) MS Visio
14 3 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
14 3 (0.39%) Trello
15 2 (0.26%) Blender
Business Applications
1 7 (0.91%) SAP ERP
2 5 (0.65%) Dynamics GP
2 5 (0.65%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.39%) Oracle BRM
3 3 (0.39%) 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
1 189 (24.64%) Figma
2 19 (2.48%) SaaS
3 17 (2.22%) AWS
4 14 (1.83%) Miro
5 12 (1.56%) Power Platform
6 10 (1.30%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 8 (1.04%) Azure
8 5 (0.65%) PowerApps
9 4 (0.52%) ChatGPT
9 4 (0.52%) Copilot Studio
9 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Copilot
10 3 (0.39%) Google Analytics
10 3 (0.39%) Google Workspace
10 3 (0.39%) Microsoft 365
11 2 (0.26%) Asana
11 2 (0.26%) Contentful
11 2 (0.26%) Dynamics 365
11 2 (0.26%) Google Gemini
11 2 (0.26%) Power Automate
12 1 (0.13%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.09%) Firewall
2 10 (1.30%) Network Security
3 7 (0.91%) Broadband
4 6 (0.78%) SMS
5 5 (0.65%) IPsec
5 5 (0.65%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.39%) 5G
6 3 (0.39%) GPRS
6 3 (0.39%) GSM
6 3 (0.39%) IPv4
6 3 (0.39%) IPv6
6 3 (0.39%) TCP/IP
6 3 (0.39%) VLAN
6 3 (0.39%) VPN
7 2 (0.26%) 4G
7 2 (0.26%) Internet
8 1 (0.13%) 2G
8 1 (0.13%) 3G
8 1 (0.13%) Reverse Proxy
8 1 (0.13%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.04%) DataStage
2 5 (0.65%) Power BI
3 3 (0.39%) Electronic Patient Records
3 3 (0.39%) Metadata
3 3 (0.39%) Oracle ODI
4 1 (0.13%) BigQuery
4 1 (0.13%) Pinecone
4 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 28 (3.65%) Axure RP
1 28 (3.65%) JIRA
2 3 (0.39%) Git
3 2 (0.26%) Balsamiq
4 1 (0.13%) Dreamweaver
4 1 (0.13%) GitLab
4 1 (0.13%) Postman
4 1 (0.13%) SoapUI
General
1 192 (25.03%) Public Sector
2 171 (22.29%) Social Skills
3 120 (15.65%) Finance
4 61 (7.95%) Banking
5 29 (3.78%) Marketing
6 22 (2.87%) Analytical Skills
6 22 (2.87%) Influencing Skills
7 15 (1.96%) Publishing
8 14 (1.83%) Presentation Skills
8 14 (1.83%) Retail
9 12 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.56%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.30%) Billing
10 10 (1.30%) Legal
10 10 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
11 7 (0.91%) Advertising
12 6 (0.78%) Local Government
12 6 (0.78%) Retail Banking
13 5 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.65%) Wearables
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (5.87%) HTML
2 38 (4.95%) CSS
3 11 (1.43%) Middleware
4 6 (0.78%) Framer.js
5 5 (0.65%) .NET
6 4 (0.52%) AngularJS
6 4 (0.52%) Lightning Web Components
6 4 (0.52%) REST
6 4 (0.52%) SOAP
7 3 (0.39%) HTML5
7 3 (0.39%) React
7 3 (0.39%) Visualforce
7 3 (0.39%) Web Services
8 2 (0.26%) CSS3
8 2 (0.26%) RESTful
8 2 (0.26%) Sass
8 2 (0.26%) Semantic HTML
9 1 (0.13%) HTML5 Canvas
9 1 (0.13%) Unity (Game Engine)
9 1 (0.13%) Unity DI Container
Miscellaneous
1 41 (5.35%) Product Ownership
2 37 (4.82%) Mobile App
3 19 (2.48%) Onboarding
4 14 (1.83%) NHS
5 13 (1.69%) Mainframe
6 11 (1.43%) AI Agents
6 11 (1.43%) Data Centre
7 9 (1.17%) Animation
7 9 (1.17%) Graphic Design
7 9 (1.17%) IoT
7 9 (1.17%) Management Information System
7 9 (1.17%) Taxonomies
8 8 (1.04%) BYOD
8 8 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (1.04%) e-Learning
8 8 (1.04%) VSAM
9 7 (0.91%) Social Media
10 6 (0.78%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 5 (0.65%) Digital Media
11 5 (0.65%) Motion Graphics
Operating Systems
1 11 (1.43%) Unix
2 8 (1.04%) AIX
2 8 (1.04%) Linux
2 8 (1.04%) Solaris
3 5 (0.65%) Android
4 4 (0.52%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.13%) MVS
5 1 (0.13%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 270 (35.20%) Service Design
2 252 (32.86%) User Experience
3 218 (28.42%) Agile
4 204 (26.60%) User Research
5 199 (25.95%) UX Design
6 148 (19.30%) Prototyping
7 146 (19.04%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 139 (18.12%) Interaction Design
9 115 (14.99%) Workshop Facilitation
10 112 (14.60%) Journey Map
11 91 (11.86%) Wireframes
12 80 (10.43%) Usability Testing
13 70 (9.13%) Problem-Solving
14 65 (8.47%) AI
14 65 (8.47%) Analytics
15 63 (8.21%) Inclusive Design
16 60 (7.82%) Design Thinking
16 60 (7.82%) Stakeholder Management
17 56 (7.30%) Storytelling
18 53 (6.91%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 10 (1.30%) JavaScript
2 9 (1.17%) Python
3 8 (1.04%) COBOL
4 7 (0.91%) SQL
5 3 (0.39%) Apex Code
5 3 (0.39%) Java
5 3 (0.39%) Korn
5 3 (0.39%) PL/SQL
5 3 (0.39%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 182 (23.73%) Security Cleared
2 147 (19.17%) SC Cleared
3 46 (6.00%) Degree
4 28 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 27 (3.52%) DV Cleared
6 8 (1.04%) CCNP
6 8 (1.04%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (0.65%) Master's Degree
7 5 (0.65%) SAP Certification
8 4 (0.52%) CISM
8 4 (0.52%) CISSP
8 4 (0.52%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (0.39%) CCNA
9 3 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.39%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.13%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.13%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.13%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 195 (25.42%) Accessibility
2 65 (8.47%) WCAG
3 8 (1.04%) GDPR
4 5 (0.65%) Government Security Classifications
4 5 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 20000
4 5 (0.65%) NCSC
4 5 (0.65%) QA
5 4 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (0.52%) NIST
6 3 (0.39%) GMP
6 3 (0.39%) GxP
7 1 (0.13%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.13%) HL7
7 1 (0.13%) SLA
System Software
1 2 (0.26%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.13%) Firmware
2 1 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (0.39%) Nagios
2 1 (0.13%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.13%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 77 (10.04%) Adobe
2 31 (4.04%) Microsoft
3 13 (1.69%) Oracle
3 13 (1.69%) ServiceNow
4 10 (1.30%) Salesforce
5 9 (1.17%) Google
6 8 (1.04%) IBM
6 8 (1.04%) SAP
6 8 (1.04%) VMware
7 7 (0.91%) Pega
8 6 (0.78%) Cisco
8 6 (0.78%) Sage
9 5 (0.65%) BiZZdesign
9 5 (0.65%) Juniper
10 3 (0.39%) F5
10 3 (0.39%) SolarWinds
11 2 (0.26%) Atlassian
11 2 (0.26%) Cadence
11 2 (0.26%) Foundry
11 2 (0.26%) Hotjar