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 23 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 69 78
Rank change year-on-year -30 +9 -7
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,556 1,242 1,047
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.82% 3.71% 2.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.31% 4.10% 3.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 952 789 620
10th Percentile £313 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £588
90th Percentile £700 £670 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £469
% change year-on-year - -4.05% -1.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 79 55 25
10th Percentile £17.62 £15.50 £27.15
25th Percentile £26.25 £18.97 £30.44
Median hourly rate £42.31 £35.60 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.85% -3.78% -24.10%
75th Percentile £69.25 £51.63 £53.75
90th Percentile £83.40 £63.75 £74.26
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.11 £25.15 £33.54
% change year-on-year +79.36% -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
23 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills 47,025 30,309 32,016
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 85.24% 90.44% 86.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,250 18,893 19,250
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,553 1,929 1,190
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.72 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £35.82 £25.08 £38.75
Median % change year-on-year +42.85% -35.29% -10.23%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £65.25 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.11 £22.27 £39.68
% change year-on-year +57.67% -43.89% -6.64%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -31 1,344 £475 - 2,488
UK excluding London -16 730 £450 - 1,146
London -34 687 £509 +7.05% 1,464
Work from Home -30 404 £495 -1.00% 1,205
North of England -8 278 £425 - 318
North West -27 148 £414 -0.84% 168
Midlands -20 130 £475 +5.56% 165
West Midlands -12 106 £475 -5.00% 113
South East -53 99 £405 -14.74% 243
Scotland -5 91 £525 +14.13% 100
Yorkshire -11 82 £500 +11.11% 98
South West -20 75 £475 -5.00% 112
North East +2 47 £325 -30.67% 52
East of England -14 43 £410 -13.68% 134
East Midlands -20 24 £475 +12.83% 52
Wales 0 17 £425 -1.45% 28
Northern Ireland +5 4 £638 +2.00% 50

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 Design31.6%491
2Agile30.5%475
3Stakeholder Management21.6%336
4AI19.0%296
5Continuous Improvement17.5%272
6Problem-Solving16.3%253
7User Research14.6%227
8Analytics13.3%207
9Stakeholder Engagement12.5%195
10CI/CD11.9%185
11Decision-Making11.6%180
12User-Centered Design (UCD)10.9%169
13Roadmaps10.7%166
14Service Design10.2%159
15Scrum8.4%131
16Workshop Facilitation8.0%125
17Prototyping8.0%124
17Service Management8.0%124
19DevOps7.8%121
20Wireframes7.5%116