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 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 308 229 168
Rank change year-on-year -79 -61 +20
Contract jobs citing XML 415 377 606
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 1.16% 1.47%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.06% 5.12% 6.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 261 315
10th Percentile £331 £363 £375
25th Percentile £400 £425 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £604
90th Percentile £713 £625 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £453 £500
% change year-on-year -6.18% -9.40% -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 11 68
10th Percentile £29.07 £27.00 -
25th Percentile £30.00 £27.05 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £37.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +5.33% -12.79% -38.57%
75th Percentile £46.80 £43.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 £63.75 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £37.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +5.33% -12.79% -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 10,224 7,364 8,876
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.39% 22.60% 21.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,669 4,969 6,075
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £543
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -5.99% -1.36%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £663
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 154 260
10th Percentile £29.72 £30.08 £22.73
25th Percentile £49.20 £38.16 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -12.00%
75th Percentile £75.00 £67.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.71 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.25 £62.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +6.00% +7.20% -0.87%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -53 340 £501 +1.62% 101
UK excluding London -93 181 £425 -6.18% 59
London -55 167 £550 +4.76% 44
Work from Home -59 129 £518 +9.05% 47
South East -58 58 £500 +5.26% 18
North of England -75 46 £390 -13.33% 8
Midlands -27 38 £416 -10.48% 14
North West -51 37 £383 -15.00% 5
West Midlands -38 30 £415 -17.00% 11
Scotland -14 15 £437 -18.27% 4
South West -34 14 £550 +46.67% 11
Yorkshire -50 9 £400 -23.81% 3
East Midlands -7 8 £471 +50.08% 3
East of England -26 8 £450 -18.18% 4
Northern Ireland -3 2 £650 +36.84% 1
Wales -28 2 £635 +69.33% 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 26 (6.27%) Confluence
2 19 (4.58%) SharePoint
3 16 (3.86%) IIS
4 15 (3.61%) Oracle Workflow
5 14 (3.37%) Anypoint
6 10 (2.41%) Mule
7 7 (1.69%) WebLogic
8 5 (1.20%) CMS
8 5 (1.20%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.48%) CICS
9 2 (0.48%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.48%) Mule ESB
9 2 (0.48%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.24%) Apache
10 1 (0.24%) Appian
10 1 (0.24%) JBoss
10 1 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
Applications
1 37 (8.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.65%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.69%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.48%) EngageOne
7 1 (0.24%) FrameMaker
Business Applications
1 18 (4.34%) Oracle EBS
2 14 (3.37%) Oracle Payables
3 12 (2.89%) Oracle Receivables
4 9 (2.17%) NetSuite
5 8 (1.93%) SAP S/4HANA
6 7 (1.69%) Oracle General Ledger
7 6 (1.45%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (1.45%) Maximo
7 6 (1.45%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (1.45%) Oracle FAH
8 5 (1.20%) Elite 3E
8 5 (1.20%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (1.20%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (1.20%) Summit
9 4 (0.96%) Oracle Cash Management
9 4 (0.96%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 4 (0.96%) Oracle ERP
9 4 (0.96%) Oracle Internet Expenses
9 4 (0.96%) Oracle iProcurement
9 4 (0.96%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 90 (21.69%) Azure
2 51 (12.29%) AWS
3 37 (8.92%) Azure DevOps
4 33 (7.95%) Boomi
5 19 (4.58%) GCP
6 18 (4.34%) GitHub
7 17 (4.10%) Power Platform
8 16 (3.86%) SaaS
9 15 (3.61%) AtomSphere
10 13 (3.13%) Serverless
11 12 (2.89%) Azure Data Factory
12 11 (2.65%) Entra ID
13 9 (2.17%) Azure Logic Apps
13 9 (2.17%) Azure Service Bus
13 9 (2.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 9 (2.17%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (1.93%) Amazon S3
14 8 (1.93%) Azure Functions
14 8 (1.93%) Dynamics 365
14 8 (1.93%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 26 (6.27%) HTTP
2 8 (1.93%) FTP
3 6 (1.45%) 3GPP
3 6 (1.45%) TCP/IP
4 5 (1.20%) SSL
5 4 (0.96%) Network Security
5 4 (0.96%) RTCP
5 4 (0.96%) RTP
5 4 (0.96%) XCAP
6 2 (0.48%) DNS
6 2 (0.48%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.48%) Internet
6 2 (0.48%) Intranet
6 2 (0.48%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.48%) WAN
6 2 (0.48%) Wireless
7 1 (0.24%) Bluetooth
7 1 (0.24%) NFC
7 1 (0.24%) SAN
7 1 (0.24%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (13.25%) SQL Server
2 38 (9.16%) Relational Database
3 20 (4.82%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (4.58%) Oracle Database
4 19 (4.58%) RDBMS
4 19 (4.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 16 (3.86%) Oracle Reports
6 14 (3.37%) Data Warehouse
6 14 (3.37%) MongoDB
7 13 (3.13%) Metadata
7 13 (3.13%) NoSQL
7 13 (3.13%) Power BI
8 11 (2.65%) MySQL
8 11 (2.65%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 11 (2.65%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (2.41%) Data Lake
9 10 (2.41%) MS Access
10 6 (1.45%) DataStage
11 5 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
12 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 44 (10.60%) Git
2 40 (9.64%) JIRA
3 30 (7.23%) Postman
4 19 (4.58%) Team Foundation Server
5 18 (4.34%) Visual Studio
6 16 (3.86%) Jenkins
7 15 (3.61%) Oracle Forms
8 9 (2.17%) GitLab
9 8 (1.93%) SoapUI
10 7 (1.69%) Maven
10 7 (1.69%) Selenium
11 6 (1.45%) JDeveloper
11 6 (1.45%) JMeter
12 5 (1.20%) Cypress.io
12 5 (1.20%) Eclipse
12 5 (1.20%) Gradle
12 5 (1.20%) JUnit
12 5 (1.20%) Subversion
13 4 (0.96%) REST Assured
13 4 (0.96%) TeamCity
General
1 134 (32.29%) Social Skills
2 89 (21.45%) Analytical Skills
3 87 (20.96%) Finance
4 37 (8.92%) Public Sector
5 34 (8.19%) Banking
6 12 (2.89%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (2.89%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (2.89%) Telecoms
7 10 (2.41%) Manufacturing
8 9 (2.17%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.17%) Legal
9 8 (1.93%) Publishing
9 8 (1.93%) Retail
10 7 (1.69%) General Ledger
11 6 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.20%) Military
12 5 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.96%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.96%) Front Office
13 4 (0.96%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 128 (30.84%) Developer
2 59 (14.22%) Consultant
3 47 (11.33%) Analyst
4 37 (8.92%) Senior
5 33 (7.95%) Architect
6 30 (7.23%) Implementation Consultant
7 24 (5.78%) Business Analyst
8 22 (5.30%) Lead
9 21 (5.06%) Data Engineer
10 18 (4.34%) Senior Developer
10 18 (4.34%) Software Developer
11 16 (3.86%) C# Developer
12 13 (3.13%) Payroll Consultant
13 12 (2.89%) Software Engineer
13 12 (2.89%) Technical Consultant
14 11 (2.65%) Integration Developer
14 11 (2.65%) Oracle Developer
15 10 (2.41%) .NET Developer
15 10 (2.41%) DBA
16 9 (2.17%) Applications Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 200 (48.19%) JSON
2 139 (33.49%) REST
3 124 (29.88%) SOAP
4 67 (16.14%) .NET
5 60 (14.46%) Web Services
6 58 (13.98%) Middleware
7 43 (10.36%) XSLT
8 29 (6.99%) HTML
8 29 (6.99%) OAuth
9 28 (6.75%) .NET Framework
10 24 (5.78%) Kafka
11 23 (5.54%) RESTful
12 22 (5.30%) Swagger
13 21 (5.06%) ASP.NET
14 19 (4.58%) EDI
15 18 (4.34%) CSS
15 18 (4.34%) OAuth2
16 17 (4.10%) JWT
17 15 (3.61%) OpenAPI
18 14 (3.37%) ASP.NET Web API
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.10%) Legacy Systems
2 16 (3.86%) Data Structures
3 15 (3.61%) Product Ownership
4 11 (2.65%) Replication
5 10 (2.41%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.41%) Onboarding
6 9 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (1.93%) Cloud Native
7 8 (1.93%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 8 (1.93%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 7 (1.69%) CMDB
8 7 (1.69%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (1.69%) Legacy Applications
9 6 (1.45%) Credit Risk
9 6 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.45%) Derivative
9 6 (1.45%) Fixed Income
9 6 (1.45%) Market Risk
9 6 (1.45%) PKI
9 6 (1.45%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 25 (6.02%) Windows
2 24 (5.78%) Unix
3 23 (5.54%) Linux
4 7 (1.69%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.48%) Android
6 2 (0.48%) VMS
6 2 (0.48%) zOS
7 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (26.27%) Problem-Solving
2 98 (23.61%) Agile
3 79 (19.04%) DevOps
4 77 (18.55%) CI/CD
5 65 (15.66%) Workflow
6 59 (14.22%) Validation
7 52 (12.53%) Migration
8 51 (12.29%) Data Modelling
9 50 (12.05%) Integration Patterns
10 40 (9.64%) Stakeholder Management
11 38 (9.16%) ERP
11 38 (9.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 37 (8.92%) Data Mapping
13 36 (8.67%) User Acceptance Testing
14 34 (8.19%) Scrum
15 33 (7.95%) Software Engineering
16 32 (7.71%) Event-Driven
17 30 (7.23%) ETL
18 29 (6.99%) Continuous Improvement
19 28 (6.75%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 186 (44.82%) SQL
2 70 (16.87%) C#
3 64 (15.42%) Java
4 57 (13.73%) Python
5 56 (13.49%) JavaScript
6 49 (11.81%) T-SQL
7 36 (8.67%) PL/SQL
8 25 (6.02%) PowerShell
9 20 (4.82%) VBA
10 18 (4.34%) VB.NET
11 17 (4.10%) Groovy
12 16 (3.86%) C++
13 15 (3.61%) VB
14 14 (3.37%) VB6
14 14 (3.37%) XPath
15 8 (1.93%) Shell Script
16 7 (1.69%) DataWeave
17 6 (1.45%) Bicep
17 6 (1.45%) R
17 6 (1.45%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 97 (23.37%) Security Cleared
2 76 (18.31%) SC Cleared
3 30 (7.23%) Degree
4 17 (4.10%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.93%) DV Cleared
6 8 (1.93%) ISTQB
6 8 (1.93%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 5 (1.20%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.20%) Azure Certification
7 5 (1.20%) DBS Check
8 4 (0.96%) ISEB
8 4 (0.96%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (0.72%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.48%) CISSP
10 2 (0.48%) GIAC
10 2 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.48%) SSCP
11 1 (0.24%) CISM
11 1 (0.24%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (6.99%) QA
2 18 (4.34%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.17%) GDPR
4 8 (1.93%) Accessibility
4 8 (1.93%) ISO 20022
5 7 (1.69%) SLA
6 6 (1.45%) GMP
6 6 (1.45%) HL7
7 5 (1.20%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 5 (1.20%) GxP
7 5 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 5 (1.20%) WCAG
8 4 (0.96%) GRC
9 3 (0.72%) FATCA
9 3 (0.72%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.72%) PSD2
10 2 (0.48%) ISO 15022
10 2 (0.48%) ISO 8583
11 1 (0.24%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.24%) SEPA
System Software
1 11 (2.65%) Active Directory
1 11 (2.65%) Docker
2 4 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.72%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.48%) RACF
4 2 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.24%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 14 (3.37%) Ansible
2 11 (2.65%) Kubernetes
2 11 (2.65%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (1.93%) Terraform
4 3 (0.72%) QRadar
4 3 (0.72%) vRealize Orchestrator
4 3 (0.72%) WMI
5 2 (0.48%) CloudHub
5 2 (0.48%) Grafana
6 1 (0.24%) Apache Ranger
6 1 (0.24%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.24%) vRealize
Vendors
1 119 (28.67%) Oracle
2 85 (20.48%) Microsoft
3 30 (7.23%) SAP
3 30 (7.23%) ServiceNow
4 28 (6.75%) MuleSoft
5 23 (5.54%) IBM
6 18 (4.34%) Salesforce
6 18 (4.34%) Workday
7 14 (3.37%) Google
8 10 (2.41%) Okta
9 8 (1.93%) Databricks
9 8 (1.93%) webMethods
10 7 (1.69%) Dell
11 5 (1.20%) BeyondTrust
11 5 (1.20%) Guidewire
11 5 (1.20%) Informatica
11 5 (1.20%) Intapp
11 5 (1.20%) InterSystems
11 5 (1.20%) Kronos
11 5 (1.20%) Talend