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 14 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 282 236 191
Rank change year-on-year -46 -45 +7
Contract jobs citing XML 405 333 552
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.94% 1.13% 1.24%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.33% 4.97% 6.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 223 330
10th Percentile £350 £326 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £485 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.06% -10.19% -1.82%
75th Percentile £594 £588 £613
90th Percentile £688 £655 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £449 £511
% change year-on-year +0.22% -12.18% +2.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 4 48
10th Percentile £40.75 £22.73 -
25th Percentile £46.25 £25.54 £43.75
Median hourly rate £47.50 £60.13 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.00% +26.59% -34.48%
75th Percentile £54.13 £93.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 - £60.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £24.83 £47.50
% change year-on-year +91.30% -47.73% -32.14%

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 9,364 6,695 8,996
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.69% 22.69% 20.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,242 4,482 6,268
10th Percentile £358 £363 £335
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -6.67%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £495
% change year-on-year - +1.01% -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 241 96 214
10th Percentile £35.00 £26.25 £20.77
25th Percentile £52.50 £40.75 £39.92
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +28.28% -25.05%
75th Percentile £73.46 £68.75 £64.69
90th Percentile £81.00 £83.48 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £48.72
% change year-on-year - +33.42% -25.05%

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 14 March 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 14 March 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 14 March 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 -2 369 £475 -5.00% 132
UK excluding London -26 182 £450 +0.22% 123
London -47 174 £525 - 44
Work from Home -33 115 £450 - 64
North of England -35 65 £400 -10.61% 23
South East -26 64 £500 +17.86% 29
North West -8 54 £400 -10.51% 19
Midlands -29 33 £445 -6.48% 20
West Midlands -41 27 £440 -20.00% 13
East of England -17 13 £675 - 11
Yorkshire -49 11 £456 -29.81% 3
East Midlands -25 6 £525 +46.65% 7
South West -25 6 £475 +26.67% 19
Scotland -6 5 £500 +6.38% 18

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 (5.68%) WebLogic
2 21 (5.19%) Confluence
3 18 (4.44%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 12 (2.96%) Apache
5 10 (2.47%) WebSphere
6 9 (2.22%) JBoss
7 7 (1.73%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (1.48%) Anypoint
9 5 (1.23%) Appian
9 5 (1.23%) Mule
10 4 (0.99%) MQSeries
10 4 (0.99%) Oracle Service Bus
11 3 (0.74%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.74%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 2 (0.49%) BizTalk Server
12 2 (0.49%) CMS
12 2 (0.49%) Documentum
12 2 (0.49%) Mule ESB
12 2 (0.49%) SharePoint
13 1 (0.25%) SAS
Applications
1 33 (8.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.99%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.49%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.49%) EngageOne
6 1 (0.25%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.25%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 12 (2.96%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (2.22%) SAP Payroll
3 8 (1.98%) Oracle Payables
3 8 (1.98%) Oracle Receivables
3 8 (1.98%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.73%) BusinessWorks
4 7 (1.73%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 7 (1.73%) SAP HCM
5 5 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
5 5 (1.23%) Oracle General Ledger
5 5 (1.23%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 5 (1.23%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (0.99%) Maximo
6 4 (0.99%) Oracle 11i
6 4 (0.99%) Oracle Assets
6 4 (0.99%) Oracle Cash Management
7 3 (0.74%) Summit
7 3 (0.74%) Workday HCM
8 2 (0.49%) NEC Housing
8 2 (0.49%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 83 (20.49%) Azure
2 65 (16.05%) AWS
3 29 (7.16%) OCI
4 24 (5.93%) Azure DevOps
4 24 (5.93%) Power Platform
5 23 (5.68%) GCP
5 23 (5.68%) SaaS
6 22 (5.43%) GitHub
7 18 (4.44%) Cloud Computing
8 17 (4.20%) PaaS
9 16 (3.95%) Serverless
10 15 (3.70%) Boomi
10 15 (3.70%) IaaS
11 12 (2.96%) Apigee
11 12 (2.96%) Azure Data Factory
12 11 (2.72%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.47%) Dynamics 365
13 10 (2.47%) Tricentis Tosca
14 8 (1.98%) Kong
14 8 (1.98%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 29 (7.16%) HTTP
2 18 (4.44%) HTTPS
3 8 (1.98%) Firewall
4 6 (1.48%) 3GPP
4 6 (1.48%) FTP
5 4 (0.99%) RTCP
5 4 (0.99%) RTP
5 4 (0.99%) SSL
5 4 (0.99%) XCAP
6 3 (0.74%) NFC
6 3 (0.74%) PPP
7 2 (0.49%) 5G
7 2 (0.49%) BGP
7 2 (0.49%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 2 (0.49%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 2 (0.49%) FIX Connectivity
7 2 (0.49%) MPLS
7 2 (0.49%) VPN
8 1 (0.25%) DNS
8 1 (0.25%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (11.36%) Relational Database
2 45 (11.11%) SQL Server
3 26 (6.42%) Data Warehouse
3 26 (6.42%) MongoDB
4 25 (6.17%) PostgreSQL
5 20 (4.94%) RDBMS
6 18 (4.44%) NoSQL
6 18 (4.44%) Power BI
7 17 (4.20%) Oracle Reports
8 14 (3.46%) Oracle Database
9 12 (2.96%) Metadata
10 11 (2.72%) Data Lake
11 10 (2.47%) DataStage
11 10 (2.47%) MySQL
11 10 (2.47%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 7 (1.73%) DB2
13 6 (1.48%) Amazon Redshift
13 6 (1.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (1.48%) Tableau
14 5 (1.23%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 53 (13.09%) JIRA
2 51 (12.59%) Git
3 49 (12.10%) Postman
4 29 (7.16%) Jenkins
5 25 (6.17%) Selenium
6 23 (5.68%) JUnit
7 17 (4.20%) Cucumber
8 16 (3.95%) Eclipse
9 15 (3.70%) SoapUI
10 12 (2.96%) Maven
11 9 (2.22%) IntelliJ
11 9 (2.22%) SpecFlow
11 9 (2.22%) TestRail
11 9 (2.22%) Zephyr
12 8 (1.98%) GitLab
13 7 (1.73%) Toad
14 6 (1.48%) Subversion
15 5 (1.23%) MSTest
16 4 (0.99%) Bitbucket
16 4 (0.99%) Firebug
General
1 125 (30.86%) Social Skills
2 86 (21.23%) Finance
3 76 (18.77%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (9.38%) Banking
4 38 (9.38%) Public Sector
5 20 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
6 13 (3.21%) Legal
7 11 (2.72%) Investment Banking
8 10 (2.47%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
10 7 (1.73%) Retail
11 6 (1.48%) Financial Institution
11 6 (1.48%) Military
12 5 (1.23%) General Ledger
12 5 (1.23%) Telecoms
13 4 (0.99%) Advertising
13 4 (0.99%) Aerospace
13 4 (0.99%) Private Banking
13 4 (0.99%) Publishing
14 3 (0.74%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 113 (27.90%) Developer
2 61 (15.06%) Consultant
3 57 (14.07%) Analyst
4 33 (8.15%) Implementation Consultant
5 28 (6.91%) Business Analyst
6 26 (6.42%) Senior
7 20 (4.94%) Architect
7 20 (4.94%) Lead
7 20 (4.94%) Software Engineer
8 18 (4.44%) Data Engineer
9 15 (3.70%) DBA
10 13 (3.21%) Integration Developer
10 13 (3.21%) Payroll Consultant
11 12 (2.96%) Tester
12 10 (2.47%) Integration Specialist
12 10 (2.47%) Java Developer
12 10 (2.47%) Technical Analyst
13 9 (2.22%) Oracle Specialist
13 9 (2.22%) SAP Consultant
13 9 (2.22%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 207 (51.11%) JSON
2 130 (32.10%) SOAP
3 129 (31.85%) REST
4 53 (13.09%) Web Services
5 42 (10.37%) OAuth
6 41 (10.12%) XSLT
7 35 (8.64%) HTML
8 31 (7.65%) Oracle Fusion
9 30 (7.41%) .NET
9 30 (7.41%) JWT
10 25 (6.17%) Middleware
10 25 (6.17%) RESTful
11 22 (5.43%) JMS
11 22 (5.43%) XSD
12 20 (4.94%) Kafka
12 20 (4.94%) Swagger
13 19 (4.69%) CSS
13 19 (4.69%) J2EE
13 19 (4.69%) Spring
14 15 (3.70%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.20%) Data Structures
2 13 (3.21%) Public Cloud
3 12 (2.96%) Management Information System
4 11 (2.72%) Product Ownership
4 11 (2.72%) Replication
5 10 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.22%) Legacy Systems
7 8 (1.98%) Fixed Income
7 8 (1.98%) Onboarding
8 7 (1.73%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.48%) Cloud Native
9 6 (1.48%) CMDB
9 6 (1.48%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 6 (1.48%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 5 (1.23%) Derivative
10 5 (1.23%) Digital Wallet
10 5 (1.23%) Low-Code
11 4 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (0.99%) AS400
11 4 (0.99%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 43 (10.62%) Linux
2 31 (7.65%) Unix
3 16 (3.95%) Windows
4 5 (1.23%) AIX
4 5 (1.23%) Ubuntu
5 4 (0.99%) Android
6 1 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.25%) VMS
6 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 141 (34.81%) Agile
2 115 (28.40%) DevOps
3 101 (24.94%) Problem-Solving
4 77 (19.01%) CI/CD
5 58 (14.32%) Validation
6 49 (12.10%) Data Modelling
6 49 (12.10%) ERP
7 47 (11.60%) Migration
8 45 (11.11%) Scrum
9 43 (10.62%) ETL
10 41 (10.12%) Integration Patterns
11 39 (9.63%) Requirements Gathering
12 37 (9.14%) Microservices
12 37 (9.14%) Test Automation
13 36 (8.89%) Software Engineering
14 35 (8.64%) Mentoring
15 34 (8.40%) SDLC
16 33 (8.15%) Workflow
17 32 (7.90%) Stakeholder Management
18 31 (7.65%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 165 (40.74%) SQL
2 101 (24.94%) Java
3 58 (14.32%) C#
4 57 (14.07%) Python
5 47 (11.60%) JavaScript
6 39 (9.63%) T-SQL
7 18 (4.44%) PL/SQL
8 17 (4.20%) PowerShell
9 16 (3.95%) XPath
10 9 (2.22%) Scala
10 9 (2.22%) Shell Script
11 8 (1.98%) ABAP
11 8 (1.98%) Groovy
12 7 (1.73%) C++
12 7 (1.73%) Korn
13 6 (1.48%) Kotlin
14 5 (1.23%) Perl
15 4 (0.99%) Bicep
15 4 (0.99%) RPG
16 3 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 101 (24.94%) Security Cleared
2 74 (18.27%) SC Cleared
3 39 (9.63%) Degree
4 22 (5.43%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (3.46%) BPSS Clearance
6 12 (2.96%) ISTQB
7 10 (2.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 8 (1.98%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.48%) ISEB
10 5 (1.23%) CCNP
10 5 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.23%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.23%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.23%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.23%) PMP
11 4 (0.99%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.99%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.49%) CCNA
12 2 (0.49%) OCP
12 2 (0.49%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (6.67%) QA
2 16 (3.95%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.98%) GDPR
4 6 (1.48%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.23%) PSD2
6 4 (0.99%) GAAP
7 3 (0.74%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.74%) FATCA
7 3 (0.74%) ISO 8583
7 3 (0.74%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.49%) Basel III
8 2 (0.49%) HL7
8 2 (0.49%) IFRS
8 2 (0.49%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.49%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.49%) SEPA
9 1 (0.25%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 1 (0.25%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.25%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 29 (7.16%) Docker
2 3 (0.74%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.25%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 13 (3.21%) Kubernetes
2 10 (2.47%) Puppet
3 9 (2.22%) Ansible
4 7 (1.73%) Control-M
4 7 (1.73%) TIBCO Hawk
5 5 (1.23%) logstash
6 4 (0.99%) Kibana
7 2 (0.49%) CloudHub
7 2 (0.49%) Fluentd
7 2 (0.49%) FortiGate
7 2 (0.49%) Grafana
7 2 (0.49%) ITRS Geneos
7 2 (0.49%) QRadar
7 2 (0.49%) Terraform
8 1 (0.25%) CEMLI
8 1 (0.25%) Docker Swarm
8 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.25%) Podman
8 1 (0.25%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 108 (26.67%) Oracle
2 44 (10.86%) Microsoft
3 38 (9.38%) SAP
4 32 (7.90%) IBM
5 22 (5.43%) webMethods
6 18 (4.44%) MuleSoft
7 15 (3.70%) Workday
8 14 (3.46%) ServiceNow
9 11 (2.72%) Informatica
9 11 (2.72%) Splunk
10 9 (2.22%) TIBCO
11 8 (1.98%) Google
11 8 (1.98%) Pega
11 8 (1.98%) Talend
12 7 (1.73%) BEA
12 7 (1.73%) Red Hat
12 7 (1.73%) Software AG
13 5 (1.23%) Cisco
13 5 (1.23%) Computacenter
13 5 (1.23%) Dell