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 30 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 329 239 170
Rank change year-on-year -90 -69 +19
Contract jobs citing XML 371 333 619
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.72% 1.09% 1.43%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.70% 4.79% 6.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 230 223 328
10th Percentile £341 £386 £386
25th Percentile £409 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £488 £523
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -6.70% -5.00%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £619
90th Percentile £689 £629 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £429 £470 £505
% change year-on-year -8.72% -6.93% -1.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 8 69
10th Percentile £29.07 £25.16 -
25th Percentile £29.92 £27.00 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £29.88 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.20% -30.51% -38.57%
75th Percentile £44.90 £55.00 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 £90.25 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £29.88 £43.00
% change year-on-year +32.20% -30.51% -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 10,014 6,956 9,253
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.51% 22.73% 21.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,566 4,715 6,337
10th Percentile £363 £355 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £514 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.14% -4.37% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 278 141 282
10th Percentile £30.00 £27.50 £22.53
25th Percentile £51.25 £35.00 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -15.38%
75th Percentile £74.82 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.01 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +4.00% +7.20% -6.72%

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 30 June 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 -60 320 £525 +5.26% 73
UK excluding London -78 168 £429 -8.72% 60
London -76 152 £550 +0.92% 25
Work from Home -44 113 £520 +9.47% 36
South East -54 54 £513 +7.89% 21
North of England -75 48 £391 -13.06% 7
North West -48 39 £390 -13.33% 5
Midlands -42 30 £425 -15.00% 13
West Midlands -42 22 £425 -22.73% 5
South West -23 13 £575 +21.05% 10
East of England -23 11 £450 -18.18% 4
Yorkshire -48 9 £463 -9.76% 2
East Midlands -11 8 £471 +50.08% 8
Scotland -16 8 £425 -23.90% 4
Northern Ireland -3 2 £650 +36.84% 2
Wales -22 2 £635 +61.27% 1

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 (6.20%) Confluence
2 13 (3.50%) SharePoint
3 12 (3.23%) Anypoint
4 10 (2.70%) IIS
5 8 (2.16%) Mule
5 8 (2.16%) Oracle Workflow
6 6 (1.62%) WebSphere
7 5 (1.35%) CMS
7 5 (1.35%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.81%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 3 (0.81%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.54%) Appian
9 2 (0.54%) CICS
9 2 (0.54%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.54%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.27%) Apache
10 1 (0.27%) BizTalk Server
10 1 (0.27%) JBoss
10 1 (0.27%) Tomcat
Applications
1 31 (8.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.89%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.54%) EngageOne
5 2 (0.54%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (2.16%) Oracle Payables
3 7 (1.89%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (1.62%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (1.62%) Maximo
4 6 (1.62%) Oracle ERP
4 6 (1.62%) Oracle Receivables
4 6 (1.62%) Summit
5 5 (1.35%) Elite 3E
5 5 (1.35%) NetSuite
5 5 (1.35%) Oracle Cash Management
5 5 (1.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 4 (1.08%) Oracle General Ledger
6 4 (1.08%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 4 (1.08%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (1.08%) Workday HCM
7 3 (0.81%) Findur
7 3 (0.81%) Oracle Assets
8 2 (0.54%) SAP FI
8 2 (0.54%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 79 (21.29%) Azure
2 45 (12.13%) AWS
3 28 (7.55%) Azure DevOps
4 25 (6.74%) Boomi
5 17 (4.58%) GitHub
5 17 (4.58%) Power Platform
6 16 (4.31%) GCP
7 14 (3.77%) Serverless
8 13 (3.50%) Azure Data Factory
8 13 (3.50%) OCI
9 12 (3.23%) SaaS
10 9 (2.43%) Azure Functions
10 9 (2.43%) Azure Logic Apps
10 9 (2.43%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 9 (2.43%) Dynamics 365
11 8 (2.16%) AtomSphere
11 8 (2.16%) Azure Service Bus
11 8 (2.16%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (1.89%) IaaS
12 7 (1.89%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.04%) HTTP
2 8 (2.16%) FTP
3 6 (1.62%) 3GPP
4 5 (1.35%) TCP/IP
5 4 (1.08%) RTCP
5 4 (1.08%) RTP
5 4 (1.08%) XCAP
6 3 (0.81%) SSL
7 2 (0.54%) DNS
7 2 (0.54%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.54%) Internet
7 2 (0.54%) Intranet
7 2 (0.54%) Network Security
8 1 (0.27%) AMQP
8 1 (0.27%) FIX Connectivity
8 1 (0.27%) NAS
8 1 (0.27%) SAN
8 1 (0.27%) SD-WAN
8 1 (0.27%) VPN
8 1 (0.27%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (11.05%) SQL Server
2 36 (9.70%) Relational Database
3 20 (5.39%) RDBMS
4 19 (5.12%) PostgreSQL
5 18 (4.85%) Data Warehouse
6 16 (4.31%) NoSQL
6 16 (4.31%) Oracle Database
7 15 (4.04%) MongoDB
8 14 (3.77%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (3.50%) Data Lake
9 13 (3.50%) Power BI
10 12 (3.23%) Metadata
10 12 (3.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 10 (2.70%) MySQL
12 9 (2.43%) Oracle Reports
13 5 (1.35%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (1.35%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 4 (1.08%) DataStage
14 4 (1.08%) MS Access
14 4 (1.08%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 37 (9.97%) Git
2 33 (8.89%) JIRA
3 30 (8.09%) Postman
4 11 (2.96%) Jenkins
5 10 (2.70%) GitLab
6 9 (2.43%) Maven
6 9 (2.43%) SoapUI
6 9 (2.43%) Team Foundation Server
7 8 (2.16%) Visual Studio
8 6 (1.62%) JMeter
8 6 (1.62%) Selenium
9 5 (1.35%) Eclipse
9 5 (1.35%) Subversion
10 4 (1.08%) Bitbucket
10 4 (1.08%) Cypress.io
10 4 (1.08%) Gradle
10 4 (1.08%) JUnit
10 4 (1.08%) REST Assured
10 4 (1.08%) TeamCity
11 3 (0.81%) Newman
General
1 125 (33.69%) Social Skills
2 78 (21.02%) Finance
3 76 (20.49%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (10.24%) Banking
5 31 (8.36%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (2.96%) Investment Banking
7 11 (2.96%) Legal
8 10 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (2.16%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.16%) Publishing
9 8 (2.16%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.89%) Military
11 6 (1.62%) Financial Institution
11 6 (1.62%) General Ledger
11 6 (1.62%) Retail
12 5 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.35%) Marketing
13 4 (1.08%) Billing
13 4 (1.08%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 101 (27.22%) Developer
2 58 (15.63%) Consultant
3 46 (12.40%) Analyst
4 30 (8.09%) Implementation Consultant
5 29 (7.82%) Senior
6 27 (7.28%) Business Analyst
7 26 (7.01%) Architect
8 22 (5.93%) Data Engineer
9 15 (4.04%) Lead
10 14 (3.77%) C# Developer
11 13 (3.50%) Payroll Consultant
12 11 (2.96%) DBA
12 11 (2.96%) Senior Developer
13 10 (2.70%) Integration Specialist
13 10 (2.70%) Software Engineer
13 10 (2.70%) Technical Consultant
14 9 (2.43%) Integration Developer
14 9 (2.43%) Integration Engineer
15 8 (2.16%) Applications Developer
15 8 (2.16%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 178 (47.98%) JSON
2 118 (31.81%) REST
3 105 (28.30%) SOAP
4 51 (13.75%) Web Services
5 50 (13.48%) Middleware
6 48 (12.94%) .NET
7 38 (10.24%) XSLT
8 25 (6.74%) HTML
8 25 (6.74%) OAuth
9 20 (5.39%) EDI
10 19 (5.12%) Kafka
11 18 (4.85%) CSS
11 18 (4.85%) JWT
11 18 (4.85%) Oracle Fusion
11 18 (4.85%) RESTful
12 17 (4.58%) Swagger
13 15 (4.04%) .NET Framework
14 14 (3.77%) ASP.NET
14 14 (3.77%) OAuth2
14 14 (3.77%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.04%) Data Structures
1 15 (4.04%) Product Ownership
2 11 (2.96%) Legacy Systems
3 8 (2.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 8 (2.16%) Onboarding
4 7 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
4 7 (1.89%) Credit Risk
4 7 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
4 7 (1.89%) Derivative
4 7 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
4 7 (1.89%) Fixed Income
4 7 (1.89%) Management Information System
4 7 (1.89%) Market Risk
4 7 (1.89%) Replication
4 7 (1.89%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 6 (1.62%) CMDB
5 6 (1.62%) Hybrid Cloud
5 6 (1.62%) Public Cloud
6 5 (1.35%) Cloud Native
6 5 (1.35%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 21 (5.66%) Linux
1 21 (5.66%) Unix
2 11 (2.96%) Windows
3 3 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.54%) VMS
4 2 (0.54%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.54%) zOS
5 1 (0.27%) Android
5 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (25.88%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (25.34%) Agile
3 72 (19.41%) CI/CD
4 71 (19.14%) DevOps
5 52 (14.02%) Workflow
6 51 (13.75%) Integration Patterns
6 51 (13.75%) Validation
7 44 (11.86%) Migration
8 41 (11.05%) Data Modelling
8 41 (11.05%) ERP
9 39 (10.51%) ETL
9 39 (10.51%) Stakeholder Management
10 34 (9.16%) Data Mapping
10 34 (9.16%) User Acceptance Testing
11 32 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 31 (8.36%) Scrum
13 26 (7.01%) SDLC
13 26 (7.01%) Software Engineering
14 25 (6.74%) Technical Leadership
14 25 (6.74%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 164 (44.20%) SQL
2 62 (16.71%) Java
3 52 (14.02%) JavaScript
4 51 (13.75%) C#
4 51 (13.75%) Python
5 42 (11.32%) T-SQL
6 24 (6.47%) PL/SQL
7 15 (4.04%) PowerShell
8 12 (3.23%) C++
9 11 (2.96%) Groovy
9 11 (2.96%) VB.NET
10 10 (2.70%) VB
11 9 (2.43%) VB6
11 9 (2.43%) VBA
12 8 (2.16%) XPath
13 6 (1.62%) Bicep
14 5 (1.35%) DataWeave
15 4 (1.08%) ABAP
15 4 (1.08%) C
16 3 (0.81%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 85 (22.91%) Security Cleared
2 62 (16.71%) SC Cleared
3 28 (7.55%) Degree
4 10 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (2.43%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (2.43%) DV Cleared
6 5 (1.35%) AWS Certification
6 5 (1.35%) DBS Check
7 4 (1.08%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.08%) ISTQB
7 4 (1.08%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 4 (1.08%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.08%) TOGAF Certification
8 2 (0.54%) CISSP
8 2 (0.54%) GIAC
8 2 (0.54%) HNC
8 2 (0.54%) HND
8 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.54%) SSCP
9 1 (0.27%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.47%) QA
2 19 (5.12%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.23%) GDPR
4 7 (1.89%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.89%) ISO 20022
5 6 (1.62%) HL7
6 4 (1.08%) WCAG
7 3 (0.81%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.81%) FATCA
7 3 (0.81%) GAAP
7 3 (0.81%) GRC
7 3 (0.81%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.81%) PSD2
8 2 (0.54%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.54%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.54%) SLA
9 1 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.27%) IFRS
9 1 (0.27%) IFRS 9
9 1 (0.27%) SEPA
System Software
1 12 (3.23%) Docker
2 4 (1.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.81%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.81%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.54%) RACF
4 2 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.27%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 12 (3.23%) Ansible
1 12 (3.23%) Kubernetes
2 7 (1.89%) Terraform
3 5 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (0.81%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 2 (0.54%) Grafana
5 2 (0.54%) QRadar
5 2 (0.54%) WMI
6 1 (0.27%) Control-M
6 1 (0.27%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.27%) vRealize
Vendors
1 95 (25.61%) Oracle
2 65 (17.52%) Microsoft
3 32 (8.63%) SAP
4 27 (7.28%) ServiceNow
5 25 (6.74%) MuleSoft
6 23 (6.20%) Workday
7 17 (4.58%) IBM
8 15 (4.04%) Salesforce
9 12 (3.23%) Google
10 8 (2.16%) Databricks
11 7 (1.89%) Dell
12 6 (1.62%) Informatica
12 6 (1.62%) Pega
12 6 (1.62%) Talend
12 6 (1.62%) webMethods
13 5 (1.35%) Intapp
13 5 (1.35%) InterSystems
13 5 (1.35%) Kronos
14 4 (1.08%) Okta
14 4 (1.08%) VMware