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 7 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 305 221 164
Rank change year-on-year -84 -57 +21
Contract jobs citing XML 427 399 581
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.80% 1.21% 1.49%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.20% 5.37% 6.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 280 272 300
10th Percentile £325 £358 £363
25th Percentile £400 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -13.04%
75th Percentile £625 £568 £604
90th Percentile £700 £625 £699
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £450 £488
% change year-on-year -5.56% -7.69% -8.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 22 67
10th Percentile £28.60 £27.01 -
25th Percentile £29.30 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £41.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.82% -3.49% -38.57%
75th Percentile £45.85 £43.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 £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 10,172 7,434 8,558
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.04% 22.62% 21.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,633 5,010 5,809
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £427
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £638 £630 £669
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +6.38% -6.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 169 244
10th Percentile £28.65 £29.85 £22.50
25th Percentile £41.35 £40.75 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.88 £51.25
Median % change year-on-year +18.45% +7.07% -14.58%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £81.01 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £56.25 £57.28
% change year-on-year +15.56% -1.79% -2.24%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -85 350 £500 +5.26% 129
UK excluding London -98 182 £425 -5.56% 79
London -56 177 £548 +4.29% 70
Work from Home -60 137 £500 +9.89% 57
South East -60 57 £460 -3.16% 22
North of England -85 42 £390 -13.33% 13
Midlands -37 39 £415 -3.49% 15
North West -52 34 £390 -13.33% 5
West Midlands -49 29 £408 -18.50% 8
Scotland -6 16 £438 -11.79% 8
South West -32 15 £550 +46.67% 9
East Midlands -8 9 £494 +57.32% 7
East of England -35 9 £450 -18.18% 5
Yorkshire -38 8 £399 -24.05% 7
Northern Ireland +2 3 £650 +36.84% 3
Wales -23 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 (5.39%) Confluence
2 18 (4.22%) Anypoint
2 18 (4.22%) SharePoint
3 16 (3.75%) IIS
4 15 (3.51%) Oracle Workflow
5 14 (3.28%) Mule
6 6 (1.41%) WebSphere
7 5 (1.17%) CMS
7 5 (1.17%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.70%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.47%) Apache
9 2 (0.47%) CICS
9 2 (0.47%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.47%) Mule ESB
9 2 (0.47%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 1 (0.23%) JBoss
10 1 (0.23%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 40 (9.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.58%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (1.17%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.23%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 22 (5.15%) Oracle EBS
2 15 (3.51%) NetSuite
2 15 (3.51%) Oracle Payables
3 13 (3.04%) Oracle Receivables
4 9 (2.11%) SAP S/4HANA
5 8 (1.87%) Oracle General Ledger
6 7 (1.64%) Dynamics CRM
6 7 (1.64%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (1.41%) Maximo
7 6 (1.41%) Oracle FAH
8 5 (1.17%) Elite 3E
8 5 (1.17%) Oracle Financials
9 4 (0.94%) Oracle Cash Management
9 4 (0.94%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 4 (0.94%) Oracle Internet Expenses
9 4 (0.94%) Oracle iProcurement
9 4 (0.94%) Summit
10 3 (0.70%) Findur
10 3 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.70%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 104 (24.36%) Azure
2 52 (12.18%) AWS
3 45 (10.54%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (9.37%) Boomi
5 26 (6.09%) GCP
6 20 (4.68%) AtomSphere
7 19 (4.45%) GitHub
8 18 (4.22%) SaaS
9 17 (3.98%) Azure Service Bus
10 15 (3.51%) Entra ID
10 15 (3.51%) Serverless
11 14 (3.28%) Azure Logic Apps
11 14 (3.28%) Power Platform
12 10 (2.34%) Azure Data Factory
12 10 (2.34%) Azure Functions
12 10 (2.34%) IaaS
12 10 (2.34%) iPaaS
12 10 (2.34%) PaaS
13 9 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
13 9 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 30 (7.03%) HTTP
2 7 (1.64%) SSL
3 6 (1.41%) 3GPP
3 6 (1.41%) FTP
3 6 (1.41%) TCP/IP
4 4 (0.94%) Network Security
4 4 (0.94%) RTCP
4 4 (0.94%) RTP
4 4 (0.94%) XCAP
5 2 (0.47%) DNS
5 2 (0.47%) HTTPS
5 2 (0.47%) Internet
5 2 (0.47%) Intranet
5 2 (0.47%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.47%) WAN
5 2 (0.47%) Wireless
6 1 (0.23%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.23%) NFC
6 1 (0.23%) SAN
6 1 (0.23%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (12.18%) SQL Server
2 36 (8.43%) Relational Database
3 19 (4.45%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (4.45%) RDBMS
4 17 (3.98%) Oracle Database
4 17 (3.98%) Oracle Reports
5 15 (3.51%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 13 (3.04%) MongoDB
6 13 (3.04%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 12 (2.81%) Metadata
8 11 (2.58%) NoSQL
9 10 (2.34%) Data Warehouse
9 10 (2.34%) MS Access
9 10 (2.34%) Power BI
9 10 (2.34%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 8 (1.87%) MySQL
11 6 (1.41%) Azure SQL Database
11 6 (1.41%) Data Lake
11 6 (1.41%) DataStage
12 4 (0.94%) Db2
Development Applications
1 51 (11.94%) Git
2 41 (9.60%) JIRA
3 23 (5.39%) Postman
4 21 (4.92%) Team Foundation Server
5 20 (4.68%) Jenkins
5 20 (4.68%) Visual Studio
6 15 (3.51%) Oracle Forms
6 15 (3.51%) Selenium
7 11 (2.58%) Maven
8 9 (2.11%) Gradle
9 8 (1.87%) GitLab
10 7 (1.64%) JMeter
10 7 (1.64%) SoapUI
11 6 (1.41%) JDeveloper
11 6 (1.41%) REST Assured
11 6 (1.41%) WebDriver
12 5 (1.17%) Cypress.io
12 5 (1.17%) Eclipse
12 5 (1.17%) Subversion
13 4 (0.94%) Cucumber
General
1 136 (31.85%) Social Skills
2 94 (22.01%) Finance
3 86 (20.14%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (9.84%) Public Sector
5 37 (8.67%) Banking
6 13 (3.04%) Telecoms
7 12 (2.81%) Organisational Skills
8 11 (2.58%) Manufacturing
9 9 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.11%) Legal
10 8 (1.87%) General Ledger
10 8 (1.87%) Investment Banking
10 8 (1.87%) Publishing
10 8 (1.87%) Retail
11 6 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.17%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.94%) Aerospace
13 4 (0.94%) Front Office
13 4 (0.94%) Military
Job Titles
1 131 (30.68%) Developer
2 57 (13.35%) Consultant
3 45 (10.54%) Senior
4 43 (10.07%) Analyst
5 36 (8.43%) Architect
6 30 (7.03%) Implementation Consultant
7 25 (5.85%) Lead
8 20 (4.68%) Business Analyst
8 20 (4.68%) Senior Developer
9 18 (4.22%) Software Developer
10 16 (3.75%) Data Engineer
11 15 (3.51%) C# Developer
11 15 (3.51%) Software Engineer
12 13 (3.04%) Payroll Consultant
13 12 (2.81%) Integration Specialist
13 12 (2.81%) Oracle Developer
14 11 (2.58%) Integration Developer
14 11 (2.58%) MuleSoft Developer
14 11 (2.58%) Solutions Architect
14 11 (2.58%) Technical Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 210 (49.18%) JSON
2 157 (36.77%) REST
3 131 (30.68%) SOAP
4 69 (16.16%) .NET
5 64 (14.99%) Middleware
6 56 (13.11%) Web Services
7 42 (9.84%) XSLT
8 38 (8.90%) OAuth
9 35 (8.20%) Kafka
10 32 (7.49%) HTML
11 27 (6.32%) .NET Framework
12 26 (6.09%) OAuth2
13 25 (5.85%) JWT
14 22 (5.15%) EDI
14 22 (5.15%) RESTful
15 21 (4.92%) CSS
16 19 (4.45%) Swagger
17 18 (4.22%) ASP.NET
18 17 (3.98%) XSD
19 16 (3.75%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 22 (5.15%) Product Ownership
2 19 (4.45%) Legacy Systems
3 16 (3.75%) Data Structures
4 13 (3.04%) Cloud Native
4 13 (3.04%) Enterprise Software
4 13 (3.04%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 11 (2.58%) Onboarding
5 11 (2.58%) Replication
6 10 (2.34%) Distributed Systems
7 8 (1.87%) CMDB
7 8 (1.87%) Legacy Applications
8 7 (1.64%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 7 (1.64%) PKI
9 6 (1.41%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (1.41%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.41%) Public Cloud
9 6 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.41%) Taxonomies
10 5 (1.17%) Algorithms
10 5 (1.17%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 29 (6.79%) Linux
1 29 (6.79%) Windows
2 20 (4.68%) Unix
3 7 (1.64%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.47%) Android
5 2 (0.47%) VMS
5 2 (0.47%) zOS
6 1 (0.23%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (26.23%) Problem-Solving
2 97 (22.72%) Agile
3 95 (22.25%) CI/CD
3 95 (22.25%) DevOps
4 74 (17.33%) Validation
5 66 (15.46%) Workflow
6 57 (13.35%) Integration Patterns
7 53 (12.41%) Migration
8 50 (11.71%) Data Modelling
9 43 (10.07%) Stakeholder Management
10 42 (9.84%) Event-Driven
10 42 (9.84%) Test Automation
11 40 (9.37%) Data Mapping
11 40 (9.37%) ERP
11 40 (9.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 37 (8.67%) Scrum
12 37 (8.67%) User Acceptance Testing
13 36 (8.43%) Software Engineering
14 35 (8.20%) API Management
15 32 (7.49%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 188 (44.03%) SQL
2 78 (18.27%) Java
3 71 (16.63%) JavaScript
4 68 (15.93%) C#
5 67 (15.69%) Python
6 47 (11.01%) T-SQL
7 36 (8.43%) PL/SQL
8 22 (5.15%) PowerShell
8 22 (5.15%) VBA
9 21 (4.92%) Groovy
10 19 (4.45%) C++
11 18 (4.22%) VB.NET
12 17 (3.98%) VB
13 16 (3.75%) VB6
14 14 (3.28%) XPath
15 8 (1.87%) Bicep
16 7 (1.64%) DataWeave
17 6 (1.41%) R
17 6 (1.41%) Shell Script
17 6 (1.41%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 112 (26.23%) Security Cleared
2 88 (20.61%) SC Cleared
3 27 (6.32%) Degree
4 17 (3.98%) BPSS Clearance
5 13 (3.04%) ISTQB
6 11 (2.58%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 8 (1.87%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (1.41%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.17%) ISEB
11 4 (0.94%) TOGAF Certification
12 3 (0.70%) Azure Certification
13 2 (0.47%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.47%) CISSP
13 2 (0.47%) GIAC
13 2 (0.47%) Master's Degree
13 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.47%) SSCP
14 1 (0.23%) CEH
14 1 (0.23%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (7.26%) QA
2 21 (4.92%) Data Quality
3 15 (3.51%) ISO 20022
4 8 (1.87%) Accessibility
4 8 (1.87%) GDPR
5 6 (1.41%) GMP
5 6 (1.41%) 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 (0.94%) GRC
8 3 (0.70%) ISO 15022
9 1 (0.23%) COREP
9 1 (0.23%) DICOM
9 1 (0.23%) FINREP
9 1 (0.23%) NIST
9 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.23%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 12 (2.81%) Active Directory
2 10 (2.34%) Docker
3 4 (0.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.47%) RACF
4 2 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 14 (3.28%) Ansible
2 12 (2.81%) Kubernetes
2 12 (2.81%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (1.87%) Terraform
4 3 (0.70%) QRadar
4 3 (0.70%) vRealize Orchestrator
4 3 (0.70%) WMI
5 2 (0.47%) CloudHub
5 2 (0.47%) Grafana
6 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
6 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 122 (28.57%) Oracle
2 97 (22.72%) Microsoft
3 35 (8.20%) MuleSoft
4 34 (7.96%) SAP
4 34 (7.96%) ServiceNow
5 29 (6.79%) IBM
6 28 (6.56%) Salesforce
7 18 (4.22%) Google
8 16 (3.75%) Workday
9 10 (2.34%) Databricks
9 10 (2.34%) Okta
9 10 (2.34%) webMethods
10 8 (1.87%) Informatica
11 6 (1.41%) TIBCO
12 5 (1.17%) BeyondTrust
12 5 (1.17%) Dell
12 5 (1.17%) Intapp
12 5 (1.17%) Kronos
12 5 (1.17%) WSO2
13 4 (0.94%) Splunk