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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 304 225 163
Rank change year-on-year -79 -62 +22
Contract jobs citing XML 417 383 600
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.79% 1.17% 1.51%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.13% 5.17% 6.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 272 263 313
10th Percentile £336 £358 £370
25th Percentile £409 £415 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -11.31%
75th Percentile £625 £574 £600
90th Percentile £700 £623 £699
UK excluding London median daily rate £433 £452 £500
% change year-on-year -4.10% -9.70% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 18 67
10th Percentile £29.07 £27.00 -
25th Percentile £30.00 £30.31 -
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 £49.75 £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 10,100 7,404 8,652
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.22% 22.56% 21.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,594 5,003 5,902
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -8.18% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £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 264 160 247
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.23 £23.38
25th Percentile £44.38 £40.75 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £74.07 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.03 £80.10 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +13.04% -1.37% -0.42%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -74 342 £500 +5.26% 96
UK excluding London -87 185 £433 -4.10% 59
London -50 167 £550 +4.76% 51
Work from Home -64 134 £519 +10.60% 49
South East -56 58 £468 -1.58% 17
Midlands -35 42 £418 -10.22% 13
North of England -80 42 £390 -13.33% 10
North West -57 34 £390 -13.33% 4
West Midlands -41 33 £415 -17.00% 9
Scotland -12 16 £438 -16.67% 4
South West -35 14 £550 +46.67% 10
East Midlands -6 9 £438 +39.49% 4
East of England -29 9 £450 -18.18% 3
Yorkshire -42 8 £399 -24.05% 6
Northern Ireland -4 3 £650 +36.84%
Wales -28 3 £600 +60.00%

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 24 (5.76%) Confluence
2 18 (4.32%) Anypoint
2 18 (4.32%) SharePoint
3 16 (3.84%) IIS
4 15 (3.60%) Oracle Workflow
5 14 (3.36%) Mule
6 5 (1.20%) CMS
6 5 (1.20%) WebLogic
6 5 (1.20%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.48%) Apache
8 2 (0.48%) CICS
8 2 (0.48%) MQSeries
8 2 (0.48%) Mule ESB
8 2 (0.48%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 1 (0.24%) JBoss
9 1 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
Applications
1 37 (8.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.64%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.44%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.24%) EngageOne
5 1 (0.24%) FrameMaker
Business Applications
1 22 (5.28%) Oracle EBS
2 15 (3.60%) NetSuite
2 15 (3.60%) Oracle Payables
3 13 (3.12%) Oracle Receivables
4 8 (1.92%) Oracle General Ledger
5 7 (1.68%) Oracle Assets
6 6 (1.44%) Dynamics CRM
6 6 (1.44%) Maximo
6 6 (1.44%) Oracle FAH
6 6 (1.44%) SAP S/4HANA
7 5 (1.20%) Elite 3E
7 5 (1.20%) Oracle Financials
8 4 (0.96%) Oracle Cash Management
8 4 (0.96%) Oracle E-Business Tax
8 4 (0.96%) Oracle Internet Expenses
8 4 (0.96%) Oracle iProcurement
8 4 (0.96%) Summit
9 3 (0.72%) Findur
9 3 (0.72%) Oracle ERP
9 3 (0.72%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 93 (22.30%) Azure
2 50 (11.99%) AWS
3 37 (8.87%) Boomi
4 36 (8.63%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (5.28%) GCP
6 20 (4.80%) AtomSphere
7 19 (4.56%) GitHub
8 17 (4.08%) SaaS
9 15 (3.60%) Power Platform
10 13 (3.12%) Serverless
11 12 (2.88%) Azure Data Factory
12 11 (2.64%) Entra ID
13 10 (2.40%) Azure Service Bus
13 10 (2.40%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (2.16%) Azure Logic Apps
14 9 (2.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 8 (1.92%) Azure Functions
15 8 (1.92%) Dynamics 365
15 8 (1.92%) iPaaS
15 8 (1.92%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 28 (6.71%) HTTP
2 7 (1.68%) FTP
2 7 (1.68%) SSL
3 6 (1.44%) 3GPP
3 6 (1.44%) TCP/IP
4 4 (0.96%) Network Security
4 4 (0.96%) RTCP
4 4 (0.96%) RTP
4 4 (0.96%) XCAP
5 2 (0.48%) DNS
5 2 (0.48%) HTTPS
5 2 (0.48%) Internet
5 2 (0.48%) Intranet
5 2 (0.48%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.48%) WAN
5 2 (0.48%) Wireless
6 1 (0.24%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.24%) NFC
6 1 (0.24%) SAN
6 1 (0.24%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (12.95%) SQL Server
2 38 (9.11%) Relational Database
3 19 (4.56%) Oracle Database
3 19 (4.56%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (4.56%) RDBMS
4 18 (4.32%) Oracle Reports
4 18 (4.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 14 (3.36%) MongoDB
6 13 (3.12%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (3.12%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 12 (2.88%) Metadata
7 12 (2.88%) Power BI
8 11 (2.64%) MySQL
8 11 (2.64%) NoSQL
8 11 (2.64%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (2.40%) MS Access
10 9 (2.16%) Data Lake
11 6 (1.44%) DataStage
12 5 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
13 4 (0.96%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 45 (10.79%) Git
2 40 (9.59%) JIRA
3 26 (6.24%) Postman
4 21 (5.04%) Team Foundation Server
5 20 (4.80%) Visual Studio
6 15 (3.60%) Jenkins
6 15 (3.60%) Oracle Forms
7 9 (2.16%) GitLab
8 7 (1.68%) JMeter
8 7 (1.68%) Maven
8 7 (1.68%) Selenium
8 7 (1.68%) SoapUI
9 6 (1.44%) JDeveloper
10 5 (1.20%) Cypress.io
10 5 (1.20%) Eclipse
10 5 (1.20%) Gradle
10 5 (1.20%) JUnit
10 5 (1.20%) REST Assured
10 5 (1.20%) Subversion
11 4 (0.96%) Newman
General
1 133 (31.89%) Social Skills
2 87 (20.86%) Finance
3 84 (20.14%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (9.83%) Public Sector
5 30 (7.19%) Banking
6 13 (3.12%) Telecoms
7 12 (2.88%) Organisational Skills
8 10 (2.40%) Manufacturing
9 9 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.16%) Legal
10 8 (1.92%) General Ledger
10 8 (1.92%) Investment Banking
10 8 (1.92%) Publishing
10 8 (1.92%) Retail
11 6 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.20%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.20%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.96%) Advertising
13 4 (0.96%) Front Office
13 4 (0.96%) Military
Job Titles
1 133 (31.89%) Developer
2 59 (14.15%) Consultant
3 43 (10.31%) Analyst
4 40 (9.59%) Senior
5 32 (7.67%) Architect
6 30 (7.19%) Implementation Consultant
7 22 (5.28%) Lead
8 21 (5.04%) Business Analyst
8 21 (5.04%) Data Engineer
9 19 (4.56%) Senior Developer
10 18 (4.32%) Software Developer
11 15 (3.60%) C# Developer
12 13 (3.12%) Payroll Consultant
13 12 (2.88%) Oracle Developer
13 12 (2.88%) Software Engineer
13 12 (2.88%) Technical Consultant
14 11 (2.64%) MuleSoft Developer
15 10 (2.40%) .NET Developer
15 10 (2.40%) DBA
15 10 (2.40%) Integration Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 206 (49.40%) JSON
2 145 (34.77%) REST
3 129 (30.94%) SOAP
4 67 (16.07%) .NET
5 60 (14.39%) Middleware
6 58 (13.91%) Web Services
7 42 (10.07%) XSLT
8 36 (8.63%) OAuth
9 30 (7.19%) HTML
10 29 (6.95%) .NET Framework
11 26 (6.24%) OAuth2
12 24 (5.76%) Kafka
13 23 (5.52%) JWT
14 22 (5.28%) RESTful
15 21 (5.04%) ASP.NET
16 20 (4.80%) EDI
16 20 (4.80%) Swagger
17 19 (4.56%) CSS
18 16 (3.84%) OpenAPI
19 14 (3.36%) ASP.NET Web API
Miscellaneous
1 19 (4.56%) Product Ownership
2 18 (4.32%) Legacy Systems
3 16 (3.84%) Data Structures
4 11 (2.64%) Enterprise Software
4 11 (2.64%) Replication
5 10 (2.40%) Cloud Native
6 9 (2.16%) Onboarding
7 8 (1.92%) CMDB
7 8 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
7 8 (1.92%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 7 (1.68%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 7 (1.68%) Legacy Applications
8 7 (1.68%) PKI
9 6 (1.44%) Algorithms
9 6 (1.44%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (1.44%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.44%) Taxonomies
10 5 (1.20%) Credit Risk
10 5 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.20%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 26 (6.24%) Windows
2 23 (5.52%) Linux
2 23 (5.52%) Unix
3 7 (1.68%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.48%) Android
5 2 (0.48%) VMS
5 2 (0.48%) zOS
6 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (26.14%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (22.54%) Agile
3 83 (19.90%) DevOps
4 82 (19.66%) CI/CD
5 64 (15.35%) Workflow
6 60 (14.39%) Validation
7 53 (12.71%) Integration Patterns
8 50 (11.99%) Data Modelling
9 48 (11.51%) Migration
10 39 (9.35%) ERP
10 39 (9.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 38 (9.11%) Stakeholder Management
12 37 (8.87%) Data Mapping
13 36 (8.63%) Scrum
14 35 (8.39%) Event-Driven
14 35 (8.39%) User Acceptance Testing
15 34 (8.15%) Software Engineering
16 33 (7.91%) API Management
17 32 (7.67%) Continuous Improvement
17 32 (7.67%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 184 (44.12%) SQL
2 70 (16.79%) C#
2 70 (16.79%) Java
3 61 (14.63%) JavaScript
4 58 (13.91%) Python
5 49 (11.75%) T-SQL
6 36 (8.63%) PL/SQL
7 26 (6.24%) PowerShell
8 22 (5.28%) VBA
9 21 (5.04%) Groovy
10 18 (4.32%) VB.NET
11 17 (4.08%) VB
12 16 (3.84%) C++
12 16 (3.84%) VB6
13 14 (3.36%) XPath
14 8 (1.92%) Shell Script
15 7 (1.68%) DataWeave
16 6 (1.44%) Bicep
16 6 (1.44%) R
16 6 (1.44%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 104 (24.94%) Security Cleared
2 81 (19.42%) SC Cleared
3 26 (6.24%) Degree
4 17 (4.08%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (2.64%) DV Cleared
6 9 (2.16%) ISTQB
6 9 (2.16%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 7 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (1.20%) DBS Check
8 5 (1.20%) ISEB
9 4 (0.96%) Azure Certification
9 4 (0.96%) TOGAF Certification
10 2 (0.48%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.48%) CISSP
10 2 (0.48%) GIAC
10 2 (0.48%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.48%) SSCP
11 1 (0.24%) CEH
11 1 (0.24%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (7.43%) QA
2 19 (4.56%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.92%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.92%) GDPR
3 8 (1.92%) ISO 20022
4 6 (1.44%) GMP
4 6 (1.44%) HL7
4 6 (1.44%) SLA
5 5 (1.20%) 21 CFR Part 11
5 5 (1.20%) GxP
5 5 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 17025
5 5 (1.20%) WCAG
6 4 (0.96%) GRC
7 3 (0.72%) FATCA
8 2 (0.48%) ISO 15022
9 1 (0.24%) COREP
9 1 (0.24%) FINREP
9 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.24%) NIST
9 1 (0.24%) NIST 800
System Software
1 12 (2.88%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.64%) Docker
3 4 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.48%) RACF
4 2 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.24%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 14 (3.36%) Ansible
2 12 (2.88%) Single Sign-On
3 11 (2.64%) Kubernetes
4 8 (1.92%) Terraform
5 3 (0.72%) QRadar
5 3 (0.72%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 3 (0.72%) WMI
6 2 (0.48%) CloudHub
6 2 (0.48%) Grafana
7 1 (0.24%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.24%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.24%) vRealize
Vendors
1 120 (28.78%) Oracle
2 90 (21.58%) Microsoft
3 32 (7.67%) MuleSoft
4 31 (7.43%) ServiceNow
5 30 (7.19%) SAP
6 28 (6.71%) Salesforce
7 24 (5.76%) IBM
8 17 (4.08%) Workday
9 16 (3.84%) Google
10 10 (2.40%) Okta
11 9 (2.16%) Databricks
11 9 (2.16%) webMethods
12 6 (1.44%) Informatica
13 5 (1.20%) BeyondTrust
13 5 (1.20%) Dell
13 5 (1.20%) Intapp
13 5 (1.20%) Kronos
13 5 (1.20%) Talend
14 4 (0.96%) Pega
14 4 (0.96%) Splunk