XML Contract Job Trends

XML
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring XML skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 306 229 166
Rank change year-on-year -77 -63 +20
Contract jobs citing XML 429 396 575
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.80% 1.20% 1.48%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.23% 5.34% 6.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 283 268 296
10th Percentile £327 £357 £363
25th Percentile £401 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -11.11%
75th Percentile £616 £565 £600
90th Percentile £700 £627 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £427 £450 £484
% change year-on-year -5.11% -6.98% -8.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 22 67
10th Percentile £28.13 £27.01 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £41.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.82% -3.49% -38.57%
75th Percentile £43.00 £43.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £49.34 £61.75 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £41.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -4.82% -3.49% -38.57%

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
UK

XML falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 10,137 7,412 8,581
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.98% 22.51% 22.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,603 4,984 5,799
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £412 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £638 £630 £663
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 171 241
10th Percentile £28.11 £30.00 £22.50
25th Percentile £41.33 £41.00 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £81.01 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £58.91
% change year-on-year +13.04% -2.39% +0.16%

XML
Job Vacancy Trend

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

XML job vacancy trend in the UK

XML
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing XML

XML
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing XML over the 6 months to 11 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing XML

XML
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing XML over the 6 months to 11 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
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 XML within the UK over the 6 months to 11 August 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 -84 352 £500 +5.26% 136
UK excluding London -94 182 £427 -5.11% 85
London -62 180 £544 +3.57% 73
Work from Home -64 137 £500 +10.38% 58
South East -63 58 £460 -3.16% 24
North of England -85 42 £390 -13.33% 15
Midlands -36 37 £416 -3.08% 16
North West -49 34 £390 -13.33% 8
West Midlands -43 27 £411 -11.56% 6
Scotland -7 17 £444 -10.53% 7
South West -34 15 £550 +46.67% 9
East Midlands -5 9 £494 +57.32% 10
East of England -35 9 £450 -18.18% 6
Yorkshire -43 8 £399 -24.05% 6
Northern Ireland +3 3 £650 +36.84% 3
Wales -25 3 £600 +60.00% 2

XML
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 23 (5.36%) Confluence
2 20 (4.66%) SharePoint
3 18 (4.20%) Anypoint
4 16 (3.73%) IIS
5 15 (3.50%) Oracle Workflow
6 13 (3.03%) Mule
7 6 (1.40%) WebSphere
8 5 (1.17%) CMS
8 5 (1.17%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.70%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.70%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 2 (0.47%) Apache
10 2 (0.47%) CICS
10 2 (0.47%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.47%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 1 (0.23%) JBoss
11 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.23%) Oracle Service Bus
11 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 40 (9.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.56%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.40%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.23%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 22 (5.13%) Oracle EBS
2 15 (3.50%) NetSuite
2 15 (3.50%) Oracle Payables
3 13 (3.03%) Oracle Receivables
4 9 (2.10%) SAP S/4HANA
5 8 (1.86%) Oracle General Ledger
6 7 (1.63%) Dynamics CRM
6 7 (1.63%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (1.40%) Maximo
7 6 (1.40%) Oracle FAH
8 5 (1.17%) Elite 3E
8 5 (1.17%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.93%) Oracle Cash Management
9 4 (0.93%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 4 (0.93%) Oracle ERP
9 4 (0.93%) Oracle Internet Expenses
9 4 (0.93%) Oracle iProcurement
9 4 (0.93%) SAP FI
9 4 (0.93%) Summit
10 3 (0.70%) Findur
Cloud Services
1 106 (24.71%) Azure
2 53 (12.35%) AWS
3 46 (10.72%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (9.32%) Boomi
5 27 (6.29%) GCP
6 20 (4.66%) AtomSphere
7 19 (4.43%) GitHub
8 18 (4.20%) Azure Service Bus
9 17 (3.96%) SaaS
10 15 (3.50%) Entra ID
10 15 (3.50%) Serverless
11 14 (3.26%) Azure Logic Apps
11 14 (3.26%) Power Platform
12 10 (2.33%) Azure Data Factory
12 10 (2.33%) Azure Functions
12 10 (2.33%) IaaS
12 10 (2.33%) iPaaS
12 10 (2.33%) PaaS
13 9 (2.10%) Dynamics 365
13 9 (2.10%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 27 (6.29%) HTTP
2 8 (1.86%) FTP
3 7 (1.63%) SSL
4 6 (1.40%) TCP/IP
5 4 (0.93%) Network Security
6 2 (0.47%) 3GPP
6 2 (0.47%) DNS
6 2 (0.47%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.47%) Internet
6 2 (0.47%) Intranet
6 2 (0.47%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.47%) WAN
6 2 (0.47%) Wireless
7 1 (0.23%) Bluetooth
7 1 (0.23%) NAS
7 1 (0.23%) NFC
7 1 (0.23%) RTCP
7 1 (0.23%) RTP
7 1 (0.23%) SAN
7 1 (0.23%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (12.59%) SQL Server
2 37 (8.62%) Relational Database
3 20 (4.66%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (4.43%) RDBMS
5 18 (4.20%) Oracle Database
6 17 (3.96%) Oracle Reports
7 15 (3.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 13 (3.03%) MongoDB
8 13 (3.03%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 12 (2.80%) Metadata
10 11 (2.56%) NoSQL
11 10 (2.33%) Data Warehouse
11 10 (2.33%) MS Access
11 10 (2.33%) Power BI
11 10 (2.33%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 8 (1.86%) MySQL
13 6 (1.40%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (1.40%) Data Lake
13 6 (1.40%) DataStage
14 4 (0.93%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 52 (12.12%) Git
2 42 (9.79%) JIRA
3 25 (5.83%) Postman
4 21 (4.90%) Jenkins
4 21 (4.90%) Team Foundation Server
5 20 (4.66%) Visual Studio
6 15 (3.50%) Oracle Forms
6 15 (3.50%) Selenium
7 12 (2.80%) Maven
8 9 (2.10%) GitLab
8 9 (2.10%) Gradle
8 9 (2.10%) JMeter
8 9 (2.10%) SoapUI
9 6 (1.40%) JDeveloper
9 6 (1.40%) WebDriver
10 5 (1.17%) Cypress.io
10 5 (1.17%) Eclipse
10 5 (1.17%) REST Assured
10 5 (1.17%) Subversion
11 4 (0.93%) Newman
General
1 140 (32.63%) Social Skills
2 95 (22.14%) Finance
3 90 (20.98%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (10.02%) Public Sector
5 37 (8.62%) Banking
6 12 (2.80%) Manufacturing
6 12 (2.80%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (2.80%) Telecoms
7 10 (2.33%) Legal
8 9 (2.10%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.86%) General Ledger
9 8 (1.86%) Investment Banking
9 8 (1.86%) Publishing
9 8 (1.86%) Retail
10 6 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.17%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.93%) Aerospace
12 4 (0.93%) Front Office
12 4 (0.93%) Military
Job Titles
1 130 (30.30%) Developer
2 60 (13.99%) Consultant
3 46 (10.72%) Senior
4 43 (10.02%) Analyst
5 36 (8.39%) Architect
6 30 (6.99%) Implementation Consultant
7 26 (6.06%) Lead
8 20 (4.66%) Business Analyst
8 20 (4.66%) Senior Developer
9 18 (4.20%) Software Developer
10 16 (3.73%) Data Engineer
11 13 (3.03%) C# Developer
11 13 (3.03%) Payroll Consultant
11 13 (3.03%) Software Engineer
12 12 (2.80%) Integration Specialist
12 12 (2.80%) Oracle Developer
12 12 (2.80%) Technical Consultant
13 11 (2.56%) Integration Developer
13 11 (2.56%) MuleSoft Developer
13 11 (2.56%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 211 (49.18%) JSON
2 159 (37.06%) REST
3 133 (31.00%) SOAP
4 69 (16.08%) .NET
5 65 (15.15%) Middleware
6 58 (13.52%) Web Services
7 44 (10.26%) XSLT
8 39 (9.09%) OAuth
9 37 (8.62%) Kafka
10 33 (7.69%) HTML
11 27 (6.29%) OAuth2
12 25 (5.83%) JWT
13 24 (5.59%) .NET Framework
14 23 (5.36%) RESTful
15 22 (5.13%) EDI
16 21 (4.90%) CSS
17 19 (4.43%) Swagger
18 16 (3.73%) OpenAPI
19 15 (3.50%) ASP.NET
19 15 (3.50%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 22 (5.13%) Product Ownership
2 19 (4.43%) Legacy Systems
3 17 (3.96%) Enterprise Software
4 16 (3.73%) Data Structures
5 14 (3.26%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.03%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 11 (2.56%) Onboarding
7 11 (2.56%) Replication
8 10 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
9 8 (1.86%) CMDB
9 8 (1.86%) Legacy Applications
9 8 (1.86%) PKI
10 7 (1.63%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 6 (1.40%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (1.40%) Management Information System
11 6 (1.40%) Public Cloud
11 6 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.40%) Taxonomies
12 5 (1.17%) Algorithms
12 5 (1.17%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 31 (7.23%) Linux
2 29 (6.76%) Windows
3 22 (5.13%) Unix
4 7 (1.63%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.47%) Android
6 2 (0.47%) VMS
6 2 (0.47%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (27.51%) Problem-Solving
2 97 (22.61%) DevOps
3 94 (21.91%) Agile
4 92 (21.45%) CI/CD
5 75 (17.48%) Validation
6 66 (15.38%) Workflow
7 57 (13.29%) Integration Patterns
8 53 (12.35%) Migration
9 51 (11.89%) Data Modelling
10 46 (10.72%) Stakeholder Management
10 46 (10.72%) Test Automation
11 43 (10.02%) Event-Driven
12 40 (9.32%) Data Mapping
12 40 (9.32%) ERP
12 40 (9.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 38 (8.86%) Scrum
13 38 (8.86%) User Acceptance Testing
14 35 (8.16%) API Management
15 33 (7.69%) Continuous Improvement
15 33 (7.69%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 191 (44.52%) SQL
2 80 (18.65%) Java
3 74 (17.25%) JavaScript
4 69 (16.08%) Python
5 65 (15.15%) C#
6 47 (10.96%) T-SQL
7 35 (8.16%) PL/SQL
8 23 (5.36%) PowerShell
9 22 (5.13%) VBA
10 21 (4.90%) Groovy
11 19 (4.43%) C++
12 18 (4.20%) VB.NET
13 17 (3.96%) VB
14 16 (3.73%) VB6
15 14 (3.26%) XPath
16 8 (1.86%) Bicep
17 7 (1.63%) DataWeave
18 6 (1.40%) R
18 6 (1.40%) Shell Script
18 6 (1.40%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 115 (26.81%) Security Cleared
2 91 (21.21%) SC Cleared
3 28 (6.53%) Degree
4 17 (3.96%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (3.26%) ISTQB
6 11 (2.56%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.33%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 9 (2.10%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (1.40%) DBS Check
9 6 (1.40%) ISEB
10 4 (0.93%) TOGAF Certification
11 3 (0.70%) Azure Certification
12 2 (0.47%) AWS Certification
12 2 (0.47%) CISSP
12 2 (0.47%) GIAC
12 2 (0.47%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.47%) SSCP
13 1 (0.23%) CEH
13 1 (0.23%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (7.46%) QA
2 22 (5.13%) Data Quality
3 15 (3.50%) ISO 20022
4 8 (1.86%) Accessibility
4 8 (1.86%) GDPR
5 6 (1.40%) GMP
5 6 (1.40%) SLA
6 5 (1.17%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 5 (1.17%) GxP
6 5 (1.17%) HL7
6 5 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 17025
6 5 (1.17%) WCAG
7 4 (0.93%) GRC
8 3 (0.70%) ISO 15022
9 1 (0.23%) DICOM
9 1 (0.23%) IFRS
9 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.23%) NIST
9 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.23%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 13 (3.03%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.56%) Docker
3 4 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.47%) RACF
4 2 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 14 (3.26%) Ansible
2 13 (3.03%) Kubernetes
3 12 (2.80%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (1.86%) Terraform
5 3 (0.70%) QRadar
5 3 (0.70%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 3 (0.70%) WMI
6 2 (0.47%) CloudHub
6 2 (0.47%) Grafana
6 2 (0.47%) HP Fortify
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.23%) Control-M
7 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 124 (28.90%) Oracle
2 98 (22.84%) Microsoft
3 37 (8.62%) SAP
4 35 (8.16%) MuleSoft
5 34 (7.93%) ServiceNow
6 31 (7.23%) IBM
7 28 (6.53%) Salesforce
8 18 (4.20%) Google
9 17 (3.96%) Workday
10 10 (2.33%) Databricks
10 10 (2.33%) Okta
10 10 (2.33%) webMethods
11 8 (1.86%) Informatica
12 6 (1.40%) TIBCO
13 5 (1.17%) BeyondTrust
13 5 (1.17%) Dell
13 5 (1.17%) Intapp
13 5 (1.17%) Kronos
13 5 (1.17%) WSO2
14 4 (0.93%) Atlassian