User Experience Contract Job Trends

UX
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs citing User Experience skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 100 68 75
Rank change year-on-year -32 +7 -3
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,550 1,260 1,041
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.83% 3.71% 2.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.31% 4.11% 3.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 947 800 619
10th Percentile £310 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -2.82%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £701 £656 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £463
% change year-on-year - -2.70% -2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 57 23
10th Percentile £19.40 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £28.88 £17.69 £30.51
Median hourly rate £53.25 £35.60 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.58% -3.78% -24.10%
75th Percentile £72.50 £52.50 £63.88
90th Percentile £83.60 £66.31 £74.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £59.07 £25.15 £33.54
% change year-on-year +134.86% -25.01% -39.02%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

User Experience falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies citing process or methodology skills.

6 months to
28 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills 46,894 30,677 31,513
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 85.55% 90.44% 86.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,171 19,112 18,944
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £638 £620 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,573 1,962 1,136
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.56 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £35.00 £25.15 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.19% -32.04% -15.60%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.78 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.80 £66.95 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £22.27 £36.00
% change year-on-year +57.20% -38.15% -15.29%

User Experience Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing User Experience relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

User Experience job vacancy trend in the UK

User Experience Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Experience.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Experience

User Experience Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Experience over the 6 months to 28 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for User Experience in the UK

User Experience Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Experience.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing User Experience

User Experience Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution for jobs citing User Experience over the 6 months to 28 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for User Experience in the UK

User Experience Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing User Experience within the UK over the 6 months to 28 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -34 1,342 £475 - 392
UK excluding London -18 722 £450 - 298
London -35 687 £505 +6.32% 164
Work from Home -36 404 £492 -1.60% 176
North of England -13 276 £425 - 59
North West -23 151 £420 +3.35% 38
Midlands -25 129 £470 +4.44% 49
South East -49 108 £405 -14.74% 89
West Midlands -5 106 £475 -4.04% 30
Scotland -7 85 £525 +13.82% 13
Yorkshire -12 78 £488 +8.33% 13
South West -25 73 £475 -5.00% 56
North East +1 46 £325 -30.67% 8
East of England -10 39 £410 -13.68% 29
East Midlands -22 23 £450 +6.89% 19
Wales -1 17 £425 -1.45% 7
Northern Ireland +8 4 £638 +2.00% 2

User Experience Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Processes & Methodologies

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1UX Design31.9%495
2Agile31.2%484
3Stakeholder Management21.9%340
4AI18.8%291
5Continuous Improvement18.1%280
6Problem-Solving16.5%256
7User Research14.8%230
8Analytics13.2%205
9Stakeholder Engagement13.2%204
10CI/CD12.5%194
11Decision-Making11.9%184
12User-Centered Design (UCD)11.5%178
13Roadmaps10.8%168
14Service Design10.6%164
15Scrum8.8%137
16Service Management8.1%125
17Prototyping8.0%124
18Workshop Facilitation7.9%123
19DevOps7.9%122
20Digital Transformation Programme7.5%116