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 4 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 299 253 163
Rank change year-on-year -46 -90 +54
Contract jobs citing XML 360 300 643
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 1.02% 1.49%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.83% 4.50% 7.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 217 206 352
10th Percentile £350 £359 £408
25th Percentile £400 £417 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £540
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -12.04% -
75th Percentile £613 £588 £625
90th Percentile £688 £653 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £523
% change year-on-year - -13.88% +4.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 74
10th Percentile £31.45 £23.93 -
25th Percentile £40.75 £27.00 -
Median hourly rate £47.50 £27.38 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.48% -36.33% -40.69%
75th Percentile £48.75 £77.42 £51.25
90th Percentile £57.35 £93.75 £83.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £24.83 £43.00
% change year-on-year +91.30% -42.26% -40.69%

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 9,393 6,673 8,885
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.91% 22.78% 20.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,213 4,570 6,171
10th Percentile £358 £363 £338
25th Percentile £415 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £788 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 114 238
10th Percentile £35.00 £27.22 £21.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £50.00 £40.08
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £46.84
Median % change year-on-year - +38.77% -27.94%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.70 £82.70 £74.61
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year - +36.84% -24.00%

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 4 May 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 4 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Top 14 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 4 May 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 -29 324 £500 +5.26% 85
UK excluding London -65 165 £450 - 61
London -26 155 £550 +4.76% 32
Work from Home -39 95 £475 +0.26% 48
North of England -43 61 £394 -12.50% 18
South East -38 58 £513 +19.88% 23
North West -19 54 £393 -12.39% 11
Midlands -59 22 £468 -15.00% 7
West Midlands -55 14 £461 -18.00% 4
East of England -30 10 £625 +28.21% 3
East Midlands -26 8 £525 +46.65% 3
South West -29 8 £575 +53.33% 7
Yorkshire -46 7 £431 -21.59% 7
Scotland -20 6 £500 +1.21% 3

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 15 (4.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 14 (3.89%) Confluence
3 10 (2.78%) Anypoint
4 9 (2.50%) WebLogic
4 9 (2.50%) WebSphere
5 7 (1.94%) Oracle Workflow
6 5 (1.39%) CMS
6 5 (1.39%) IIS
6 5 (1.39%) Mule
6 5 (1.39%) SharePoint
7 4 (1.11%) Oracle Service Bus
8 3 (0.83%) Apache
8 3 (0.83%) Mule ESB
8 3 (0.83%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 2 (0.56%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.56%) Appian
9 2 (0.56%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.28%) CICS
10 1 (0.28%) SAS
Applications
1 33 (9.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.39%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.56%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.56%) EngageOne
5 2 (0.56%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.28%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 12 (3.33%) Oracle ERP
2 8 (2.22%) Oracle Payables
2 8 (2.22%) Oracle Receivables
2 8 (2.22%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (1.94%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 7 (1.94%) SAP Payroll
4 6 (1.67%) Maximo
4 6 (1.67%) Summit
5 5 (1.39%) Oracle General Ledger
5 5 (1.39%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 5 (1.39%) Payment Gateway
5 5 (1.39%) SAP HCM
6 4 (1.11%) BusinessWorks
6 4 (1.11%) Oracle 11i
6 4 (1.11%) Oracle Assets
6 4 (1.11%) Oracle Cash Management
6 4 (1.11%) Workday HCM
7 3 (0.83%) Findur
8 2 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
8 2 (0.56%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 72 (20.00%) Azure
2 45 (12.50%) AWS
3 28 (7.78%) OCI
4 19 (5.28%) Power Platform
5 18 (5.00%) Azure DevOps
5 18 (5.00%) GCP
5 18 (5.00%) SaaS
6 17 (4.72%) PaaS
7 15 (4.17%) IaaS
7 15 (4.17%) Serverless
8 14 (3.89%) Boomi
8 14 (3.89%) GitHub
9 11 (3.06%) Apigee
10 10 (2.78%) Azure Data Factory
10 10 (2.78%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 9 (2.50%) Cloud Computing
11 9 (2.50%) Kong
12 8 (2.22%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (2.22%) SuccessFactors
13 7 (1.94%) Azure API Management
Communications & Networking
1 25 (6.94%) HTTP
2 8 (2.22%) FTP
3 6 (1.67%) 3GPP
3 6 (1.67%) Firewall
3 6 (1.67%) HTTPS
4 4 (1.11%) RTCP
4 4 (1.11%) RTP
4 4 (1.11%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.11%) XCAP
5 3 (0.83%) DNS
6 2 (0.56%) FIX Connectivity
6 2 (0.56%) Network Security
6 2 (0.56%) VPN
7 1 (0.28%) AMQP
7 1 (0.28%) BGP
7 1 (0.28%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 1 (0.28%) MPLS
7 1 (0.28%) NAS
7 1 (0.28%) SAN
7 1 (0.28%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (11.39%) Relational Database
2 33 (9.17%) SQL Server
3 25 (6.94%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (6.11%) RDBMS
5 20 (5.56%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (5.56%) NoSQL
6 18 (5.00%) MongoDB
7 17 (4.72%) Power BI
8 16 (4.44%) Oracle Reports
9 14 (3.89%) Oracle Database
10 12 (3.33%) Metadata
11 11 (3.06%) Data Lake
12 10 (2.78%) MySQL
12 10 (2.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (1.39%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (1.39%) DataStage
13 5 (1.39%) DB2
13 5 (1.39%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 5 (1.39%) SQL Server Reporting Services
14 4 (1.11%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 37 (10.28%) Postman
2 32 (8.89%) Git
3 30 (8.33%) JIRA
4 14 (3.89%) SoapUI
5 12 (3.33%) Jenkins
6 10 (2.78%) Maven
7 8 (2.22%) GitLab
7 8 (2.22%) JUnit
8 6 (1.67%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.39%) Eclipse
9 5 (1.39%) Selenium
9 5 (1.39%) Subversion
10 4 (1.11%) SpecFlow
10 4 (1.11%) TestRail
10 4 (1.11%) Zephyr
11 3 (0.83%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.83%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.83%) Hudson
11 3 (0.83%) MSTest
11 3 (0.83%) REST Assured
General
1 117 (32.50%) Social Skills
2 76 (21.11%) Finance
3 75 (20.83%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (10.56%) Banking
5 27 (7.50%) Public Sector
6 14 (3.89%) Investment Banking
7 13 (3.61%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (3.06%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (2.78%) Legal
10 7 (1.94%) Publishing
10 7 (1.94%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.67%) Military
12 5 (1.39%) General Ledger
13 4 (1.11%) Advertising
13 4 (1.11%) Billing
13 4 (1.11%) Front Office
14 3 (0.83%) Back Office
14 3 (0.83%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.83%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 83 (23.06%) Developer
2 66 (18.33%) Consultant
3 44 (12.22%) Analyst
4 33 (9.17%) Implementation Consultant
5 27 (7.50%) Business Analyst
6 20 (5.56%) Architect
7 19 (5.28%) Lead
7 19 (5.28%) Senior
8 16 (4.44%) Software Engineer
9 15 (4.17%) DBA
10 13 (3.61%) Payroll Consultant
11 12 (3.33%) Data Engineer
12 10 (2.78%) C# Developer
12 10 (2.78%) Integration Specialist
13 9 (2.50%) Applications Developer
13 9 (2.50%) Cloud Specialist
13 9 (2.50%) Oracle Specialist
13 9 (2.50%) PostgreSQL DBA
13 9 (2.50%) Senior Developer
13 9 (2.50%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 172 (47.78%) JSON
2 104 (28.89%) REST
3 102 (28.33%) SOAP
4 50 (13.89%) Web Services
5 37 (10.28%) OAuth
6 36 (10.00%) XSLT
7 34 (9.44%) Middleware
8 30 (8.33%) JWT
8 30 (8.33%) Oracle Fusion
9 27 (7.50%) .NET
10 25 (6.94%) HTML
10 25 (6.94%) Kafka
11 24 (6.67%) Swagger
12 20 (5.56%) RESTful
13 19 (5.28%) CSS
14 18 (5.00%) XSD
15 17 (4.72%) OpenAPI
16 16 (4.44%) EDI
17 14 (3.89%) OAuth2
17 14 (3.89%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.17%) Data Structures
2 14 (3.89%) Product Ownership
3 12 (3.33%) Public Cloud
4 11 (3.06%) Management Information System
5 10 (2.78%) Replication
6 8 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (2.22%) Fixed Income
7 7 (1.94%) Derivative
7 7 (1.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 7 (1.94%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.67%) Credit Risk
8 6 (1.67%) Market Risk
8 6 (1.67%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 5 (1.39%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.39%) Cloud Native
9 5 (1.39%) Data Centre
9 5 (1.39%) Digital Wallet
10 4 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.11%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 32 (8.89%) Linux
2 22 (6.11%) Unix
3 13 (3.61%) Windows
4 5 (1.39%) AIX
5 2 (0.56%) Android
5 2 (0.56%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.56%) VMS
6 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.28%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.28%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (28.61%) Agile
2 91 (25.28%) Problem-Solving
3 76 (21.11%) DevOps
4 50 (13.89%) CI/CD
5 46 (12.78%) Integration Patterns
6 44 (12.22%) ERP
6 44 (12.22%) Validation
7 43 (11.94%) Data Modelling
8 37 (10.28%) Migration
9 36 (10.00%) Workflow
10 34 (9.44%) Requirements Gathering
11 32 (8.89%) ETL
11 32 (8.89%) Stakeholder Management
12 29 (8.06%) SDLC
12 29 (8.06%) Unit Testing
13 27 (7.50%) Computer Science
14 26 (7.22%) Microservices
14 26 (7.22%) Software Engineering
15 25 (6.94%) API Management
15 25 (6.94%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 140 (38.89%) SQL
2 59 (16.39%) Java
3 49 (13.61%) Python
4 44 (12.22%) C#
5 36 (10.00%) JavaScript
6 32 (8.89%) T-SQL
7 18 (5.00%) PL/SQL
8 11 (3.06%) PowerShell
9 9 (2.50%) XPath
10 8 (2.22%) C++
10 8 (2.22%) Shell Script
11 7 (1.94%) ABAP
11 7 (1.94%) Korn
12 6 (1.67%) DataWeave
13 5 (1.39%) Perl
14 4 (1.11%) Bicep
14 4 (1.11%) Groovy
14 4 (1.11%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 2 (0.56%) R
Qualifications
1 88 (24.44%) Security Cleared
2 61 (16.94%) SC Cleared
3 38 (10.56%) Degree
4 20 (5.56%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (1.39%) AWS Certification
6 5 (1.39%) DBS Check
6 5 (1.39%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.11%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.11%) CCNP
7 4 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (1.11%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.56%) HNC
8 2 (0.56%) HND
8 2 (0.56%) ISTQB
8 2 (0.56%) PMI Certification
8 2 (0.56%) PMP
9 1 (0.28%) CISM
9 1 (0.28%) GIAC
9 1 (0.28%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (5.00%) QA
2 11 (3.06%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.50%) GDPR
4 5 (1.39%) HL7
4 5 (1.39%) PCI DSS
4 5 (1.39%) PSD2
5 4 (1.11%) GAAP
6 3 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 3 (0.83%) FATCA
6 3 (0.83%) ISO 8583
6 3 (0.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 2 (0.56%) Basel III
7 2 (0.56%) IFRS
7 2 (0.56%) IFRS 17
7 2 (0.56%) IFRS 9
7 2 (0.56%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.56%) SEPA
7 2 (0.56%) SLA
8 1 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 1 (0.28%) GxP
System Software
1 16 (4.44%) Docker
2 4 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.83%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.28%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.28%) RACF
Systems Management
1 14 (3.89%) Kubernetes
2 7 (1.94%) Ansible
3 4 (1.11%) Control-M
3 4 (1.11%) TIBCO Hawk
4 3 (0.83%) Grafana
4 3 (0.83%) logstash
4 3 (0.83%) QRadar
4 3 (0.83%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 2 (0.56%) CloudHub
5 2 (0.56%) Fluentd
5 2 (0.56%) Terraform
6 1 (0.28%) CEMLI
6 1 (0.28%) Docker Swarm
6 1 (0.28%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.28%) Kibana
6 1 (0.28%) Podman
6 1 (0.28%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.28%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.28%) Puppet
6 1 (0.28%) vRealize
Vendors
1 103 (28.61%) Oracle
2 42 (11.67%) Microsoft
3 31 (8.61%) SAP
4 23 (6.39%) MuleSoft
5 21 (5.83%) IBM
6 19 (5.28%) ServiceNow
6 19 (5.28%) Workday
7 11 (3.06%) Informatica
8 9 (2.50%) Red Hat
9 8 (2.22%) Google
9 8 (2.22%) Pega
9 8 (2.22%) Splunk
9 8 (2.22%) webMethods
10 7 (1.94%) Databricks
10 7 (1.94%) Dell
11 6 (1.67%) Salesforce
11 6 (1.67%) Talend
12 5 (1.39%) Bloomberg
12 5 (1.39%) TIBCO
13 4 (1.11%) Charles River