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 16 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 271 237 213
Rank change year-on-year -34 -24 -14
Contract jobs citing XML 394 332 493
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.08% 1.10%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.45% 4.81% 5.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 261 214 320
10th Percentile £350 £324 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £506 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.99% -7.95% -
75th Percentile £638 £599 £627
90th Percentile £713 £661 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £518
% change year-on-year - -13.04% +3.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 2 26
10th Percentile £40.85 - £42.50
25th Percentile £43.00 £91.25 -
Median hourly rate £47.50 £92.50 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year -48.65% +89.86% -32.80%
75th Percentile £48.75 £93.75 £51.93
90th Percentile £77.10 - £75.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 - £48.72
% change year-on-year - - -27.82%

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 8,855 6,902 9,263
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.20% 22.50% 20.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,927 4,447 6,511
10th Percentile £358 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £533 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.92% -0.11% -7.13%
75th Percentile £623 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 215 84 190
10th Percentile £35.00 £25.55 £22.75
25th Percentile £51.13 £39.06 £44.70
Median hourly rate £64.00 £62.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.40% +13.64% -15.38%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.19 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £78.08 £76.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year - +18.18% -15.38%

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 16 February 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 16 February 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 16 February 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 -8 353 £481 -8.38% 107
London -32 185 £525 -1.87% 29
UK excluding London -33 150 £450 - 88
Work from Home -2 134 £480 +1.05% 52
North of England -35 55 £402 -23.43% 19
North West -4 44 £401 -10.30% 13
South East -28 40 £475 +25.25% 33
Midlands -35 30 £445 -21.52% 18
West Midlands -33 26 £440 -22.40% 15
East of England -8 17 £675 - 9
Yorkshire -56 11 £531 -6.31% 4
South West -19 7 £438 -5.41% 7
Scotland -5 5 £500 +8.70% 6
East Midlands -18 4 £525 +16.67% 3

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 (5.84%) WebLogic
2 18 (4.57%) Confluence
2 18 (4.57%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 12 (3.05%) Apache
4 10 (2.54%) WebSphere
5 9 (2.28%) JBoss
6 8 (2.03%) Appian
7 7 (1.78%) MQSeries
7 7 (1.78%) Oracle Workflow
8 5 (1.27%) Anypoint
8 5 (1.27%) Mule
9 4 (1.02%) Oracle Service Bus
10 3 (0.76%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.76%) Documentum
11 2 (0.51%) BizTalk Server
11 2 (0.51%) Mule ESB
11 2 (0.51%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.51%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.25%) Alfresco
12 1 (0.25%) CMS
Applications
1 6 (1.52%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.02%) FrameMaker
3 4 (1.02%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.51%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.51%) EngageOne
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.25%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.25%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 9 (2.28%) Oracle ERP
1 9 (2.28%) SAP Payroll
2 7 (1.78%) BusinessWorks
2 7 (1.78%) Oracle Payables
2 7 (1.78%) Oracle Receivables
2 7 (1.78%) SAP HCM
2 7 (1.78%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (1.52%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 5 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (1.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 5 (1.27%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (1.02%) Maximo
5 4 (1.02%) Oracle 11i
5 4 (1.02%) Oracle General Ledger
5 4 (1.02%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.76%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.76%) Oracle Cash Management
6 3 (0.76%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.51%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.51%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 88 (22.34%) Azure
2 67 (17.01%) AWS
3 27 (6.85%) OCI
4 26 (6.60%) Power Platform
5 22 (5.58%) Azure DevOps
5 22 (5.58%) SaaS
6 21 (5.33%) GCP
7 19 (4.82%) GitHub
8 18 (4.57%) Cloud Computing
9 15 (3.81%) PaaS
10 14 (3.55%) Boomi
10 14 (3.55%) Dynamics 365
10 14 (3.55%) Serverless
11 13 (3.30%) Apigee
11 13 (3.30%) IaaS
11 13 (3.30%) Tricentis Tosca
12 11 (2.79%) Azure Data Factory
12 11 (2.79%) Azure Logic Apps
13 10 (2.54%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (2.03%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 34 (8.63%) HTTPS
2 29 (7.36%) HTTP
3 10 (2.54%) Firewall
3 10 (2.54%) SSL
4 5 (1.27%) 3GPP
5 4 (1.02%) FTP
5 4 (1.02%) RTCP
5 4 (1.02%) RTP
5 4 (1.02%) XCAP
6 3 (0.76%) NFC
6 3 (0.76%) PPP
7 2 (0.51%) 5G
7 2 (0.51%) BGP
7 2 (0.51%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 2 (0.51%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 2 (0.51%) FIX Connectivity
7 2 (0.51%) MPLS
7 2 (0.51%) VPN
8 1 (0.25%) Network Security
8 1 (0.25%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (10.66%) SQL Server
2 40 (10.15%) Relational Database
3 25 (6.35%) Data Warehouse
4 23 (5.84%) MongoDB
5 21 (5.33%) PostgreSQL
6 17 (4.31%) Power BI
7 15 (3.81%) Oracle Database
7 15 (3.81%) RDBMS
8 14 (3.55%) NoSQL
8 14 (3.55%) Oracle Reports
9 13 (3.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 12 (3.05%) Data Lake
10 12 (3.05%) Metadata
11 10 (2.54%) MySQL
12 9 (2.28%) DataStage
13 8 (2.03%) Apache Cassandra
14 7 (1.78%) DB2
15 6 (1.52%) Amazon Redshift
15 6 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 6 (1.52%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 50 (12.69%) JIRA
2 48 (12.18%) Git
2 48 (12.18%) Postman
3 31 (7.87%) Jenkins
4 27 (6.85%) Selenium
5 22 (5.58%) JUnit
6 20 (5.08%) Cucumber
7 14 (3.55%) Eclipse
8 12 (3.05%) SoapUI
9 10 (2.54%) Maven
10 9 (2.28%) GitLab
10 9 (2.28%) IntelliJ
10 9 (2.28%) SpecFlow
10 9 (2.28%) TestRail
10 9 (2.28%) Zephyr
11 7 (1.78%) SonarQube
11 7 (1.78%) Toad
12 6 (1.52%) Robot Framework
13 5 (1.27%) Bitbucket
13 5 (1.27%) MSTest
General
1 134 (34.01%) Social Skills
2 88 (22.34%) Finance
3 72 (18.27%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (10.15%) Public Sector
5 39 (9.90%) Banking
6 21 (5.33%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (2.79%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.28%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (2.03%) Legal
9 8 (2.03%) Private Banking
9 8 (2.03%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.78%) Financial Institution
10 7 (1.78%) Publishing
10 7 (1.78%) Retail
11 6 (1.52%) Military
12 5 (1.27%) Aerospace
12 5 (1.27%) Manufacturing
13 4 (1.02%) Back Office
13 4 (1.02%) General Ledger
13 4 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 132 (33.50%) Developer
2 60 (15.23%) Analyst
3 33 (8.38%) Consultant
4 29 (7.36%) Senior
5 26 (6.60%) Business Analyst
6 21 (5.33%) Architect
7 19 (4.82%) Lead
7 19 (4.82%) Software Engineer
8 18 (4.57%) Data Engineer
9 17 (4.31%) Integration Developer
10 15 (3.81%) webMethods Developer
11 12 (3.05%) Tester
12 11 (2.79%) DBA
12 11 (2.79%) Java Developer
12 11 (2.79%) SAP Consultant
13 10 (2.54%) Administrator
13 10 (2.54%) Senior Developer
13 10 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
14 9 (2.28%) Integration Specialist
14 9 (2.28%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 219 (55.58%) JSON
2 139 (35.28%) SOAP
3 137 (34.77%) REST
4 49 (12.44%) Web Services
4 49 (12.44%) XSLT
5 48 (12.18%) OAuth
6 33 (8.38%) HTML
7 31 (7.87%) .NET
8 29 (7.36%) JMS
9 28 (7.11%) JWT
9 28 (7.11%) Oracle Fusion
10 25 (6.35%) Middleware
11 24 (6.09%) RESTful
12 22 (5.58%) XSD
13 20 (5.08%) Spring
13 20 (5.08%) Swagger
14 19 (4.82%) J2EE
15 17 (4.31%) CSS
15 17 (4.31%) Kafka
16 16 (4.06%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 18 (4.57%) Data Structures
2 12 (3.05%) Management Information System
2 12 (3.05%) Replication
3 11 (2.79%) Public Cloud
4 10 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (2.03%) AS400
6 8 (2.03%) Onboarding
6 8 (2.03%) Product Ownership
6 8 (2.03%) Virtual Team
7 7 (1.78%) Algorithms
7 7 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (1.78%) Fixed Income
8 6 (1.52%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.52%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 5 (1.27%) Cloud Native
9 5 (1.27%) CMDB
9 5 (1.27%) Derivative
9 5 (1.27%) Digital Wallet
9 5 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 47 (11.93%) Linux
2 28 (7.11%) Unix
3 16 (4.06%) Windows
4 5 (1.27%) AIX
5 4 (1.02%) Android
5 4 (1.02%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (34.26%) Agile
2 124 (31.47%) DevOps
3 102 (25.89%) Problem-Solving
4 79 (20.05%) CI/CD
5 57 (14.47%) Validation
6 54 (13.71%) ERP
7 50 (12.69%) Test Automation
8 49 (12.44%) ETL
9 48 (12.18%) Scrum
10 47 (11.93%) Migration
11 46 (11.68%) Data Modelling
12 40 (10.15%) Deployment Automation
13 39 (9.90%) Microservices
14 38 (9.64%) Integration Patterns
15 37 (9.39%) Requirements Gathering
16 36 (9.14%) SDLC
16 36 (9.14%) Software Engineering
17 35 (8.88%) Continuous Improvement
18 33 (8.38%) API Management
18 33 (8.38%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 145 (36.80%) SQL
2 109 (27.66%) Java
3 66 (16.75%) C#
4 57 (14.47%) Python
5 50 (12.69%) JavaScript
6 21 (5.33%) PowerShell
7 20 (5.08%) PL/SQL
8 16 (4.06%) XPath
9 11 (2.79%) T-SQL
10 10 (2.54%) Shell Script
11 9 (2.28%) C++
11 9 (2.28%) Scala
12 8 (2.03%) ABAP
12 8 (2.03%) Groovy
12 8 (2.03%) RPG
13 7 (1.78%) Korn
14 6 (1.52%) Kotlin
15 5 (1.27%) Perl
16 4 (1.02%) Bicep
17 3 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 110 (27.92%) Security Cleared
2 87 (22.08%) SC Cleared
3 44 (11.17%) Degree
4 23 (5.84%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (3.81%) BPSS Clearance
6 11 (2.79%) ISTQB
7 9 (2.28%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 7 (1.78%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.52%) Master's Degree
10 5 (1.27%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.27%) CCNP
10 5 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.27%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.27%) ISEB
10 5 (1.27%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.27%) PMP
11 4 (1.02%) HNC
11 4 (1.02%) HND
12 3 (0.76%) CEH
12 3 (0.76%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.09%) QA
2 16 (4.06%) Data Quality
3 7 (1.78%) GDPR
4 6 (1.52%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.27%) PSD2
6 4 (1.02%) GAAP
7 3 (0.76%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.76%) FATCA
7 3 (0.76%) HL7
7 3 (0.76%) ISO 8583
7 3 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.51%) Basel III
8 2 (0.51%) EMIR
8 2 (0.51%) GxP
8 2 (0.51%) IFRS
8 2 (0.51%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.51%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.51%) SEPA
9 1 (0.25%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 1 (0.25%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (8.12%) Docker
2 3 (0.76%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.25%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 12 (3.05%) Ansible
2 11 (2.79%) Kubernetes
3 10 (2.54%) Control-M
3 10 (2.54%) Puppet
4 7 (1.78%) TIBCO Hawk
5 6 (1.52%) logstash
6 5 (1.27%) Kibana
7 3 (0.76%) ITRS Geneos
8 2 (0.51%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.51%) Fluentd
8 2 (0.51%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.51%) QRadar
8 2 (0.51%) Terraform
9 1 (0.25%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.25%) Grafana
9 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.25%) Podman
9 1 (0.25%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.25%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 108 (27.41%) Oracle
2 50 (12.69%) SAP
3 40 (10.15%) Microsoft
4 39 (9.90%) IBM
5 30 (7.61%) webMethods
6 17 (4.31%) MuleSoft
7 16 (4.06%) Workday
8 11 (2.79%) Informatica
8 11 (2.79%) Software AG
9 10 (2.54%) Axway
9 10 (2.54%) Splunk
9 10 (2.54%) TIBCO
10 9 (2.28%) ServiceNow
11 8 (2.03%) Cisco
11 8 (2.03%) Google
11 8 (2.03%) Talend
12 7 (1.78%) BEA
12 7 (1.78%) Red Hat
13 6 (1.52%) Pega
13 6 (1.52%) Salesforce