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

6 months to
30 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 68 77
Rank change year-on-year -35 +9 -3
Contract jobs citing User Experience 1,526 1,274 1,046
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.78% 3.72% 2.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.25% 4.12% 3.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 938 813 621
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 £708 £659 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £463
% change year-on-year - -2.70% -2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 58 24
10th Percentile £19.40 £15.50 £30.00
25th Percentile £28.88 £18.33 £30.55
Median hourly rate £53.25 £35.60 £39.46
Median % change year-on-year +49.58% -9.77% -19.07%
75th Percentile £72.50 £52.06 £58.81
90th Percentile £83.60 £65.67 £74.31
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
30 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills 46,919 30,911 31,623
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 85.59% 90.32% 86.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,147 19,277 19,029
10th Percentile £325 £295 £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 £619 £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 3,650 1,982 1,134
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.50 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £25.15 £36.08
Median % change year-on-year +39.17% -30.30% -17.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.79 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.10 £65.93 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £22.32 £35.00
% change year-on-year +52.32% -36.24% -17.65%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -36 1,324 £475 - 383
UK excluding London -23 712 £450 - 292
London -39 676 £505 +6.32% 168
Work from Home -31 398 £495 -1.00% 160
North of England -11 272 £425 - 59
North West -22 150 £420 +0.60% 38
Midlands -26 128 £465 +3.33% 40
South East -51 111 £403 -15.26% 87
West Midlands -11 107 £470 -4.08% 23
Scotland -3 82 £531 +15.18% 12
Yorkshire -23 75 £475 +5.56% 13
South West -15 69 £475 -5.00% 56
North East +4 46 £325 -27.78% 8
East of England -14 38 £410 -13.68% 28
East Midlands -32 21 £450 +5.88% 17
Wales -1 17 £425 -1.45% 8
Northern Ireland +7 4 £638 +2.00% 5

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 Design31.8%485
2Agile31.1%474
3Stakeholder Management22.3%341
4AI18.9%289
5Continuous Improvement18.0%274
6Problem-Solving16.6%254
7User Research14.9%227
8Analytics13.4%205
9Stakeholder Engagement13.1%200
10CI/CD12.5%191
11Decision-Making11.9%181
12User-Centered Design (UCD)11.2%171
13Roadmaps10.7%163
14Service Design10.5%160
15Scrum8.8%134
16Prototyping8.3%127
17Service Management8.3%126
18Workshop Facilitation8.1%124
19DevOps8.1%123
20Digital Transformation Programme7.7%118