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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 304 226 170
Rank change year-on-year -78 -56 +25
Contract jobs citing XML 437 383 544
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.17% 1.40%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.73% 4.62% 5.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 292 254 294
10th Percentile £325 £352 £363
25th Percentile £402 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £575 £606
90th Percentile £688 £679 £684
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £453 £500
% change year-on-year -6.18% -9.40% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 26 44
10th Percentile £27.66 £28.50 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £34.75 £42.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.24% -1.16% -38.57%
75th Percentile £42.06 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £44.14 £76.25 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.75 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -18.24% -1.16% -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 11,706 8,290 9,488
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.80% 25.31% 24.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,705 5,607 6,426
10th Percentile £375 £354 £356
25th Percentile £431 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £633 £626 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +6.21% -5.00% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 281 182 205
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.30 £23.80
25th Percentile £45.00 £40.88 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £53.25 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +22.07% -13.56% -2.22%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.96 £78.33 £74.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -12.00% +4.17%

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 27 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 27 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Top 17 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 27 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 -71 353 £494 -0.75% 288
London -36 190 £540 +2.86% 173
UK excluding London -99 176 £425 -6.18% 158
Work from Home -53 144 £520 +14.79% 120
South East -48 52 £402 -15.37% 37
Midlands -35 37 £415 -3.38% 27
North of England -80 37 £375 -16.67% 27
North West -57 29 £375 -16.67% 15
West Midlands -37 27 £410 -11.83% 15
Scotland -5 18 £450 -10.00% 22
South West -39 17 £550 +46.67% 20
East of England -41 10 £480 -12.82% 13
East Midlands -10 9 £494 +57.32% 12
Yorkshire -47 8 £355 -32.38% 8
Northern Ireland -1 3 £650 +36.84% 7
Wales -27 3 £600 +60.00% 6
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -

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 28 (6.41%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.58%) Confluence
3 18 (4.12%) Anypoint
4 16 (3.66%) IIS
5 15 (3.43%) Oracle Workflow
6 13 (2.97%) Mule
7 9 (2.06%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 7 (1.60%) WebSphere
9 5 (1.14%) CMS
9 5 (1.14%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.92%) Apache
11 3 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.69%) MQSeries
12 2 (0.46%) CICS
12 2 (0.46%) Oracle Service Bus
13 1 (0.23%) JBoss
13 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
13 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
13 1 (0.23%) Oracle Self-Service HR
13 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 34 (7.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.75%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.37%) MS Visio
4 5 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.69%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.46%) Windchill
7 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.23%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 22 (5.03%) Oracle EBS
2 16 (3.66%) NetSuite
3 15 (3.43%) Oracle Payables
4 12 (2.75%) Oracle Receivables
5 9 (2.06%) Dynamics CRM
6 8 (1.83%) Oracle General Ledger
6 8 (1.83%) SAP S/4HANA
7 6 (1.37%) Maximo
7 6 (1.37%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (1.37%) Oracle FAH
8 5 (1.14%) Elite 3E
8 5 (1.14%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (1.14%) SAP FI
9 4 (0.92%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 4 (0.92%) Oracle Internet Expenses
9 4 (0.92%) Oracle iProcurement
9 4 (0.92%) Summit
10 3 (0.69%) FLEXCUBE
10 3 (0.69%) SAP CO
10 3 (0.69%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 108 (24.71%) Azure
2 57 (13.04%) AWS
3 51 (11.67%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (9.15%) Boomi
5 28 (6.41%) GCP
6 21 (4.81%) GitHub
7 20 (4.58%) AtomSphere
8 19 (4.35%) Azure Service Bus
9 16 (3.66%) Entra ID
9 16 (3.66%) Power Platform
9 16 (3.66%) SaaS
10 15 (3.43%) Azure Logic Apps
11 13 (2.97%) Serverless
12 12 (2.75%) Azure Functions
13 10 (2.29%) Dynamics 365
13 10 (2.29%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.29%) Power Automate
14 9 (2.06%) Amazon S3
14 9 (2.06%) iPaaS
15 8 (1.83%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (6.41%) HTTP
2 8 (1.83%) FTP
3 7 (1.60%) SSL
4 6 (1.37%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.14%) Network Security
6 3 (0.69%) Wireless
7 2 (0.46%) DNS
7 2 (0.46%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.46%) Internet
7 2 (0.46%) Intranet
7 2 (0.46%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.46%) WAN
8 1 (0.23%) AMQP
8 1 (0.23%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.23%) Firewall
8 1 (0.23%) NAS
8 1 (0.23%) NFC
8 1 (0.23%) SAN
8 1 (0.23%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (12.13%) SQL Server
2 39 (8.92%) Relational Database
3 22 (5.03%) Oracle Database
4 20 (4.58%) PostgreSQL
5 16 (3.66%) RDBMS
6 15 (3.43%) Oracle Reports
7 13 (2.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 12 (2.75%) Metadata
8 12 (2.75%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 10 (2.29%) MongoDB
9 10 (2.29%) MS Access
9 10 (2.29%) MySQL
10 9 (2.06%) Data Warehouse
10 9 (2.06%) NoSQL
11 8 (1.83%) Power BI
11 8 (1.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 7 (1.60%) DataStage
12 7 (1.60%) Tableau
13 5 (1.14%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.92%) Db2
Development Applications
1 57 (13.04%) Git
2 44 (10.07%) JIRA
3 25 (5.72%) Postman
4 24 (5.49%) Jenkins
5 21 (4.81%) Team Foundation Server
5 21 (4.81%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.35%) Selenium
7 16 (3.66%) Oracle Forms
8 11 (2.52%) JMeter
9 10 (2.29%) GitLab
9 10 (2.29%) Gradle
9 10 (2.29%) Maven
10 9 (2.06%) SoapUI
11 8 (1.83%) eggPlant
11 8 (1.83%) SonarQube
11 8 (1.83%) WebDriver
12 6 (1.37%) JDeveloper
12 6 (1.37%) LoadRunner
13 5 (1.14%) Cucumber
13 5 (1.14%) Cypress.io
General
1 144 (32.95%) Social Skills
2 103 (23.57%) Finance
3 100 (22.88%) Analytical Skills
4 48 (10.98%) Public Sector
5 42 (9.61%) Banking
6 12 (2.75%) Legal
6 12 (2.75%) Manufacturing
6 12 (2.75%) Telecoms
7 11 (2.52%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (1.83%) Investment Banking
8 8 (1.83%) Publishing
8 8 (1.83%) Retail
9 7 (1.60%) General Ledger
9 7 (1.60%) Law
10 5 (1.14%) Financial Institution
10 5 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
11 4 (0.92%) Advertising
11 4 (0.92%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 137 (31.35%) Developer
2 55 (12.59%) Senior
3 53 (12.13%) Consultant
4 44 (10.07%) Analyst
5 41 (9.38%) Architect
6 28 (6.41%) Lead
7 25 (5.72%) Senior Developer
8 24 (5.49%) Implementation Consultant
9 22 (5.03%) Data Engineer
10 19 (4.35%) Business Analyst
10 19 (4.35%) Software Developer
11 13 (2.97%) C# Developer
11 13 (2.97%) Integration Developer
11 13 (2.97%) Software Engineer
11 13 (2.97%) Solutions Architect
12 12 (2.75%) Oracle Developer
12 12 (2.75%) Technical Consultant
12 12 (2.75%) Test Analyst
13 11 (2.52%) Integration Architect
13 11 (2.52%) MuleSoft Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 215 (49.20%) JSON
2 158 (36.16%) REST
3 139 (31.81%) SOAP
4 77 (17.62%) .NET
5 72 (16.48%) Middleware
6 67 (15.33%) Web Services
7 50 (11.44%) XSLT
8 40 (9.15%) HTML
8 40 (9.15%) OAuth
9 39 (8.92%) Kafka
10 27 (6.18%) OAuth2
11 26 (5.95%) RESTful
12 24 (5.49%) EDI
13 23 (5.26%) JWT
14 22 (5.03%) .NET Framework
14 22 (5.03%) CSS
15 18 (4.12%) Swagger
16 16 (3.66%) XSD
17 15 (3.43%) OpenAPI
17 15 (3.43%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.81%) Product Ownership
2 20 (4.58%) Enterprise Software
2 20 (4.58%) Legacy Systems
3 17 (3.89%) Data Structures
4 16 (3.66%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 15 (3.43%) Cloud Native
6 12 (2.75%) Distributed Systems
7 11 (2.52%) Replication
8 10 (2.29%) Onboarding
9 9 (2.06%) CMDB
9 9 (2.06%) Legacy Applications
10 8 (1.83%) Management Information System
10 8 (1.83%) PKI
10 8 (1.83%) Taxonomies
11 7 (1.60%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 7 (1.60%) Hybrid Cloud
12 6 (1.37%) Algorithms
12 6 (1.37%) LIMS
12 6 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.14%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 35 (8.01%) Linux
2 29 (6.64%) Windows
3 26 (5.95%) Unix
4 8 (1.83%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.46%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Android
7 1 (0.23%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (29.98%) Problem-Solving
2 102 (23.34%) Agile
3 99 (22.65%) DevOps
4 97 (22.20%) CI/CD
5 80 (18.31%) Validation
6 65 (14.87%) Workflow
7 59 (13.50%) Integration Patterns
8 57 (13.04%) Test Automation
9 51 (11.67%) Data Modelling
9 51 (11.67%) Migration
9 51 (11.67%) Stakeholder Management
10 46 (10.53%) Event-Driven
11 44 (10.07%) Continuous Improvement
12 42 (9.61%) ERP
12 42 (9.61%) Scrum
12 42 (9.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 40 (9.15%) User Acceptance Testing
14 39 (8.92%) Data Mapping
15 36 (8.24%) API Management
16 35 (8.01%) Data Transformation
Programming Languages
1 190 (43.48%) SQL
2 98 (22.43%) Java
3 81 (18.54%) JavaScript
4 78 (17.85%) Python
5 67 (15.33%) C#
6 38 (8.70%) T-SQL
7 35 (8.01%) PL/SQL
8 23 (5.26%) VB.NET
9 22 (5.03%) PowerShell
9 22 (5.03%) VBA
10 20 (4.58%) Groovy
11 19 (4.35%) C++
12 17 (3.89%) VB
13 16 (3.66%) VB6
14 14 (3.20%) XPath
15 7 (1.60%) Bicep
15 7 (1.60%) DataWeave
15 7 (1.60%) Shell Script
16 6 (1.37%) R
16 6 (1.37%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 120 (27.46%) Security Cleared
2 98 (22.43%) SC Cleared
3 34 (7.78%) Degree
4 18 (4.12%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.66%) ISTQB
6 12 (2.75%) DV Cleared
7 11 (2.52%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.52%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 8 (1.83%) ISEB
9 6 (1.37%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.14%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (0.69%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.69%) Azure Certification
11 3 (0.69%) TOGAF Certification
12 2 (0.46%) CISSP
12 2 (0.46%) GIAC
12 2 (0.46%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.46%) SSCP
13 1 (0.23%) CISM
13 1 (0.23%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (7.78%) QA
2 22 (5.03%) Data Quality
3 18 (4.12%) ISO 20022
4 11 (2.52%) Accessibility
5 9 (2.06%) GDPR
6 8 (1.83%) WCAG
7 7 (1.60%) GMP
8 6 (1.37%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 6 (1.37%) GxP
8 6 (1.37%) HL7
8 6 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 6 (1.37%) SLA
9 4 (0.92%) GRC
9 4 (0.92%) ISO 15022
10 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.23%) IFRS
10 1 (0.23%) NIST
10 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.23%) PMO
10 1 (0.23%) PSD2
System Software
1 14 (3.20%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.52%) Docker
3 5 (1.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.46%) RACF
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (3.43%) Ansible
2 13 (2.97%) Single Sign-On
3 12 (2.75%) Kubernetes
4 5 (1.14%) HP Fortify
5 4 (0.92%) Control-M
6 3 (0.69%) QRadar
6 3 (0.69%) vRealize Orchestrator
6 3 (0.69%) WMI
7 2 (0.46%) CloudHub
8 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
8 1 (0.23%) Grafana
8 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.23%) Kibana
8 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 130 (29.75%) Oracle
2 101 (23.11%) Microsoft
3 45 (10.30%) SAP
4 39 (8.92%) IBM
5 36 (8.24%) MuleSoft
6 34 (7.78%) ServiceNow
7 30 (6.86%) Salesforce
8 21 (4.81%) Google
8 21 (4.81%) Workday
9 11 (2.52%) Databricks
9 11 (2.52%) Okta
10 10 (2.29%) webMethods
11 9 (2.06%) Informatica
12 7 (1.60%) TIBCO
13 6 (1.37%) BeyondTrust
13 6 (1.37%) WSO2
14 5 (1.14%) Intapp
14 5 (1.14%) Kronos
14 5 (1.14%) VMware
15 4 (0.92%) InterSystems