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 22 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 300 233 178
Rank change year-on-year -67 -55 +20
Contract jobs citing XML 445 368 522
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.82% 1.13% 1.37%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.77% 4.36% 5.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 244 282
10th Percentile £325 £337 £324
25th Percentile £413 £414 £426
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.09%
75th Percentile £603 £575 £599
90th Percentile £700 £688 £656
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 26 44
10th Percentile £28.60 £30.63 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £29.54 £42.75 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.91% -0.58% -38.57%
75th Percentile £41.75 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £43.38 £91.88 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.54 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -30.51% -1.16% -36.30%

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 11,819 8,433 9,440
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.66% 25.97% 24.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,774 5,630 6,231
10th Percentile £375 £354 £356
25th Percentile £438 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £725 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £504 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +6.00% -5.00% -2.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 297 186 190
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £25.60
25th Percentile £50.00 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.35 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +19.60% -11.77% +2.67%
75th Percentile £76.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £72.25 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +17.39% -11.54% +10.11%

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 22 September 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 22 September 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 22 September 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 -98 348 £488 -2.50% 248
London -42 189 £538 +2.38% 128
UK excluding London -95 171 £450 -5.26% 146
Work from Home -54 148 £525 +8.53% 121
South East -57 47 £460 -3.16% 40
Midlands -30 42 £418 -2.79% 20
West Midlands -31 35 £415 -3.49% 14
North of England -77 27 £378 -24.50% 26
Scotland -12 20 £450 -10.00% 19
South West -33 18 £575 +53.33% 13
North West -61 18 £395 -16.76% 18
East of England -50 12 £509 +4.41% 14
Yorkshire -41 9 £378 -37.08% 4
East Midlands -12 6 £494 +82.96% 6
Wales -22 3 £600 +60.00% 6
Northern Ireland - 3 £650 - 9
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 34 (7.64%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.49%) Confluence
3 16 (3.60%) Anypoint
3 16 (3.60%) IIS
3 16 (3.60%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (2.92%) Mule
5 10 (2.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 7 (1.57%) WebSphere
7 6 (1.35%) Apache
8 5 (1.12%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.67%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.67%) MQSeries
9 3 (0.67%) Oracle Service Bus
10 2 (0.45%) CICS
10 2 (0.45%) CMS
11 1 (0.22%) JBoss
11 1 (0.22%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.22%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.22%) ThingWorx
11 1 (0.22%) Tomcat
Applications
1 13 (2.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.80%) MS Visio
4 7 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.57%) Windchill
5 3 (0.67%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.22%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.22%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 23 (5.17%) Oracle EBS
2 18 (4.04%) Dynamics CRM
3 17 (3.82%) NetSuite
4 15 (3.37%) Oracle Payables
5 12 (2.70%) Oracle Receivables
6 11 (2.47%) SAP S/4HANA
7 8 (1.80%) Oracle General Ledger
8 7 (1.57%) Oracle FAH
9 6 (1.35%) Maximo
9 6 (1.35%) Oracle Assets
9 6 (1.35%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (1.35%) SAP FI
9 6 (1.35%) Workday HCM
10 5 (1.12%) Elite 3E
10 5 (1.12%) FLEXCUBE
11 4 (0.90%) Oracle E-Business Tax
11 4 (0.90%) Oracle Internet Expenses
11 4 (0.90%) Oracle iProcurement
11 4 (0.90%) SAP CO
11 4 (0.90%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 122 (27.42%) Azure
2 64 (14.38%) AWS
3 54 (12.13%) Azure DevOps
4 46 (10.34%) Boomi
5 33 (7.42%) GCP
6 23 (5.17%) Power Platform
7 22 (4.94%) AtomSphere
8 21 (4.72%) Azure Service Bus
9 19 (4.27%) Dynamics 365
9 19 (4.27%) Entra ID
10 18 (4.04%) Azure Functions
10 18 (4.04%) Azure Logic Apps
10 18 (4.04%) Serverless
11 17 (3.82%) Power Automate
11 17 (3.82%) SaaS
12 16 (3.60%) GitHub
13 14 (3.15%) iPaaS
14 9 (2.02%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (2.02%) PowerApps
15 8 (1.80%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 34 (7.64%) HTTP
2 10 (2.25%) FTP
3 7 (1.57%) SSL
4 6 (1.35%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.12%) Network Security
6 3 (0.67%) Wireless
7 2 (0.45%) DNS
7 2 (0.45%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.45%) Internet
7 2 (0.45%) Intranet
7 2 (0.45%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.45%) WAN
8 1 (0.22%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.22%) Firewall
8 1 (0.22%) MQTT
8 1 (0.22%) NAS
8 1 (0.22%) NFC
8 1 (0.22%) SAN
8 1 (0.22%) VPN
8 1 (0.22%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (13.26%) SQL Server
2 36 (8.09%) Relational Database
3 25 (5.62%) Oracle Database
4 23 (5.17%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.82%) Oracle Reports
6 14 (3.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 12 (2.70%) MS Access
7 12 (2.70%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 11 (2.47%) Metadata
8 11 (2.47%) MySQL
8 11 (2.47%) RDBMS
8 11 (2.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (2.25%) MongoDB
10 8 (1.80%) NoSQL
11 7 (1.57%) Data Lake
11 7 (1.57%) Power BI
11 7 (1.57%) Tableau
12 6 (1.35%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (1.12%) DataStage
13 5 (1.12%) GIS
Development Applications
1 68 (15.28%) Git
2 46 (10.34%) JIRA
3 28 (6.29%) Jenkins
4 24 (5.39%) Postman
5 22 (4.94%) Team Foundation Server
5 22 (4.94%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.27%) Selenium
7 18 (4.04%) Oracle Forms
8 12 (2.70%) Gradle
9 11 (2.47%) Maven
10 10 (2.25%) JMeter
10 10 (2.25%) SonarQube
11 9 (2.02%) eggPlant
12 8 (1.80%) GitLab
12 8 (1.80%) SoapUI
12 8 (1.80%) WebDriver
13 7 (1.57%) Cucumber
14 6 (1.35%) JDeveloper
14 6 (1.35%) JUnit
14 6 (1.35%) LoadRunner
General
1 150 (33.71%) Social Skills
2 106 (23.82%) Finance
3 99 (22.25%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (12.36%) Public Sector
5 42 (9.44%) Banking
6 15 (3.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 15 (3.37%) Manufacturing
7 12 (2.70%) Telecoms
8 10 (2.25%) Law
9 9 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.02%) Publishing
10 8 (1.80%) General Ledger
10 8 (1.80%) Legal
10 8 (1.80%) Retail
11 6 (1.35%) Aerospace
11 6 (1.35%) Investment Banking
11 6 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.35%) Police
12 5 (1.12%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.12%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 154 (34.61%) Developer
2 58 (13.03%) Senior
3 46 (10.34%) Architect
4 38 (8.54%) Analyst
4 38 (8.54%) Consultant
5 32 (7.19%) Lead
6 27 (6.07%) Senior Developer
7 22 (4.94%) Data Engineer
7 22 (4.94%) Software Developer
8 17 (3.82%) Solutions Architect
9 16 (3.60%) Integration Developer
10 15 (3.37%) Business Analyst
10 15 (3.37%) Lead Developer
11 13 (2.92%) C# Developer
11 13 (2.92%) Software Engineer
11 13 (2.92%) Technical Consultant
12 12 (2.70%) Test Analyst
13 11 (2.47%) Dynamics 365 Developer
13 11 (2.47%) Integration Specialist
13 11 (2.47%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 232 (52.13%) JSON
2 178 (40.00%) REST
3 157 (35.28%) SOAP
4 87 (19.55%) .NET
5 82 (18.43%) Web Services
6 79 (17.75%) Middleware
7 59 (13.26%) XSLT
8 43 (9.66%) HTML
8 43 (9.66%) OAuth
9 42 (9.44%) Kafka
10 28 (6.29%) RESTful
11 27 (6.07%) .NET Framework
11 27 (6.07%) OAuth2
12 24 (5.39%) CSS
12 24 (5.39%) EDI
12 24 (5.39%) JWT
13 22 (4.94%) Swagger
14 18 (4.04%) OpenAPI
15 17 (3.82%) RabbitMQ
15 17 (3.82%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 24 (5.39%) Enterprise Software
2 20 (4.49%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.27%) Product Ownership
4 18 (4.04%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 17 (3.82%) Cloud Native
6 16 (3.60%) Data Structures
6 16 (3.60%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (3.60%) Management Information System
7 14 (3.15%) Onboarding
8 13 (2.92%) Taxonomies
9 11 (2.47%) Replication
10 10 (2.25%) CMDB
10 10 (2.25%) Legacy Applications
11 9 (2.02%) LIMS
12 8 (1.80%) PKI
13 7 (1.57%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 7 (1.57%) Hybrid Cloud
13 7 (1.57%) Virtual Team
14 6 (1.35%) AI Agents
14 6 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 36 (8.09%) Linux
2 32 (7.19%) Windows
3 25 (5.62%) Unix
4 10 (2.25%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.67%) zOS
7 2 (0.45%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.22%) Android
8 1 (0.22%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (31.24%) Problem-Solving
2 109 (24.49%) Agile
3 103 (23.15%) DevOps
4 99 (22.25%) CI/CD
5 82 (18.43%) Validation
6 64 (14.38%) Integration Patterns
7 60 (13.48%) Test Automation
8 59 (13.26%) Stakeholder Management
8 59 (13.26%) Workflow
9 58 (13.03%) Data Modelling
10 52 (11.69%) Continuous Improvement
11 51 (11.46%) Event-Driven
12 50 (11.24%) Migration
13 49 (11.01%) ERP
14 47 (10.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 43 (9.66%) Scrum
16 40 (8.99%) Data Mapping
16 40 (8.99%) Software Engineering
17 39 (8.76%) API Management
17 39 (8.76%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 172 (38.65%) SQL
2 105 (23.60%) Java
3 93 (20.90%) JavaScript
4 84 (18.88%) C#
5 81 (18.20%) Python
6 37 (8.31%) PL/SQL
7 25 (5.62%) PowerShell
8 24 (5.39%) VB.NET
9 23 (5.17%) VBA
10 22 (4.94%) Groovy
11 20 (4.49%) C++
12 18 (4.04%) VB
13 17 (3.82%) T-SQL
13 17 (3.82%) VB6
14 15 (3.37%) XPath
15 10 (2.25%) TypeScript
16 7 (1.57%) ABAP
16 7 (1.57%) Bicep
16 7 (1.57%) Shell Script
17 6 (1.35%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 133 (29.89%) Security Cleared
2 109 (24.49%) SC Cleared
3 49 (11.01%) Degree
4 24 (5.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (3.82%) DV Cleared
6 16 (3.60%) ISTQB
7 14 (3.15%) Computer Science Degree
8 11 (2.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 11 (2.47%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (1.80%) ISEB
10 6 (1.35%) Azure Certification
11 5 (1.12%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.90%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.67%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.45%) CISSP
14 2 (0.45%) DBS Check
14 2 (0.45%) GIAC
14 2 (0.45%) SSCP
15 1 (0.22%) CEH
15 1 (0.22%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (8.31%) QA
2 27 (6.07%) Data Quality
3 20 (4.49%) ISO 20022
4 17 (3.82%) Accessibility
5 14 (3.15%) GDPR
5 14 (3.15%) WCAG
6 9 (2.02%) GMP
7 8 (1.80%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 8 (1.80%) GxP
7 8 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 6 (1.35%) SLA
9 5 (1.12%) GRC
9 5 (1.12%) HL7
10 4 (0.90%) ISO 15022
11 3 (0.67%) SEPA
12 2 (0.45%) NCSC
13 1 (0.22%) IFRS
13 1 (0.22%) NIST
13 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
13 1 (0.22%) PSD2
System Software
1 17 (3.82%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.60%) Docker
3 5 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.45%) RACF
5 1 (0.22%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 17 (3.82%) Kubernetes
2 16 (3.60%) Ansible
2 16 (3.60%) Single Sign-On
3 5 (1.12%) Control-M
3 5 (1.12%) HP Fortify
4 3 (0.67%) QRadar
4 3 (0.67%) vRealize Orchestrator
4 3 (0.67%) WMI
5 2 (0.45%) CloudHub
6 1 (0.22%) Apache Ranger
6 1 (0.22%) Grafana
6 1 (0.22%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.22%) Kibana
6 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.22%) vRealize
Vendors
1 134 (30.11%) Oracle
2 111 (24.94%) Microsoft
3 48 (10.79%) SAP
4 44 (9.89%) IBM
5 38 (8.54%) MuleSoft
6 36 (8.09%) ServiceNow
7 31 (6.97%) Salesforce
8 27 (6.07%) Google
9 24 (5.39%) Workday
10 13 (2.92%) Okta
11 12 (2.70%) Informatica
12 11 (2.47%) Databricks
13 10 (2.25%) TIBCO
13 10 (2.25%) webMethods
14 9 (2.02%) WSO2
15 8 (1.80%) BeyondTrust
16 7 (1.57%) PTC
17 5 (1.12%) Intapp
17 5 (1.12%) Kronos
17 5 (1.12%) VMware