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

 6 months to
1 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 299 235 181
Rank change year-on-year -64 -54 +11
Contract jobs citing XML 435 384 542
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.17% 1.40%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.72% 4.61% 5.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 298 256 298
10th Percentile £322 £353 £325
25th Percentile £402 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £602 £575 £606
90th Percentile £688 £678 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £453 £484
% change year-on-year -6.18% -6.36% -8.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 27 44
10th Percentile £27.66 £28.80 -
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 £91.25 £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 11,695 8,332 9,493
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.80% 25.44% 24.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,693 5,628 6,415
10th Percentile £375 £355 £356
25th Percentile £433 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £630 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £780
UK excluding London median daily rate £501 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.37% -5.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 283 185 196
10th Percentile £29.26 £30.45 £26.30
25th Percentile £45.63 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% -12.34% -1.44%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £89.75 £79.48 £74.68
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +22.73% -15.38% +8.33%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -85 348 £488 -1.02% 288
London -41 190 £538 +2.38% 165
UK excluding London -95 171 £425 -6.18% 160
Work from Home -46 144 £525 +10.53% 123
South East -57 48 £402 -15.37% 42
Midlands -35 38 £415 -3.49% 28
North of England -81 35 £375 -16.67% 30
West Midlands -35 29 £410 -11.83% 17
North West -68 27 £375 -16.67% 16
Scotland -10 18 £450 -10.00% 17
South West -35 17 £550 +46.67% 19
East of England -43 10 £480 -1.64% 11
East Midlands -10 8 £494 +82.96% 11
Yorkshire -35 8 £355 -33.95% 11
Northern Ireland +5 3 £650 +47.31% 8
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 (6.44%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.60%) Confluence
3 17 (3.91%) Anypoint
3 17 (3.91%) Oracle Workflow
4 16 (3.68%) IIS
5 13 (2.99%) Mule
6 9 (2.07%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 7 (1.61%) WebSphere
8 5 (1.15%) WebLogic
9 4 (0.92%) Apache
9 4 (0.92%) CMS
10 3 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.69%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.46%) CICS
11 2 (0.46%) Oracle Service Bus
12 1 (0.23%) JBoss
12 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
12 1 (0.23%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 29 (6.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.76%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.38%) MS Visio
4 5 (1.15%) 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 (5.06%) Oracle EBS
2 16 (3.68%) NetSuite
3 15 (3.45%) Oracle Payables
4 12 (2.76%) Dynamics CRM
4 12 (2.76%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (1.84%) Oracle General Ledger
5 8 (1.84%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (1.38%) Maximo
6 6 (1.38%) Oracle Assets
6 6 (1.38%) Oracle FAH
7 5 (1.15%) Elite 3E
7 5 (1.15%) Oracle Financials
7 5 (1.15%) SAP FI
8 4 (0.92%) FLEXCUBE
8 4 (0.92%) Oracle E-Business Tax
8 4 (0.92%) Oracle Internet Expenses
8 4 (0.92%) Oracle iProcurement
8 4 (0.92%) Summit
9 3 (0.69%) Findur
9 3 (0.69%) SAP CO
Cloud Services
1 110 (25.29%) Azure
2 57 (13.10%) AWS
3 51 (11.72%) Azure DevOps
4 41 (9.43%) Boomi
5 28 (6.44%) GCP
6 21 (4.83%) GitHub
7 20 (4.60%) AtomSphere
8 19 (4.37%) Azure Service Bus
9 18 (4.14%) Power Platform
10 17 (3.91%) Azure Logic Apps
11 16 (3.68%) Entra ID
11 16 (3.68%) SaaS
12 13 (2.99%) Dynamics 365
13 12 (2.76%) Azure Functions
13 12 (2.76%) Serverless
14 11 (2.53%) Power Automate
15 10 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
15 10 (2.30%) iPaaS
15 10 (2.30%) PowerApps
16 9 (2.07%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 30 (6.90%) HTTP
2 8 (1.84%) FTP
3 7 (1.61%) SSL
4 6 (1.38%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.15%) 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%) 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 56 (12.87%) SQL Server
2 40 (9.20%) Relational Database
3 24 (5.52%) Oracle Database
4 21 (4.83%) PostgreSQL
5 16 (3.68%) Oracle Reports
6 15 (3.45%) RDBMS
7 13 (2.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 12 (2.76%) Metadata
8 12 (2.76%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 11 (2.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 10 (2.30%) MS Access
10 10 (2.30%) MySQL
11 9 (2.07%) MongoDB
12 8 (1.84%) Data Warehouse
12 8 (1.84%) NoSQL
12 8 (1.84%) Power BI
13 7 (1.61%) DataStage
13 7 (1.61%) Tableau
14 5 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
15 4 (0.92%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 56 (12.87%) Git
2 44 (10.11%) JIRA
3 25 (5.75%) Postman
4 24 (5.52%) Jenkins
5 22 (5.06%) Team Foundation Server
5 22 (5.06%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.37%) Selenium
7 18 (4.14%) Oracle Forms
8 11 (2.53%) JMeter
9 10 (2.30%) GitLab
9 10 (2.30%) Gradle
10 9 (2.07%) Maven
10 9 (2.07%) SoapUI
11 8 (1.84%) eggPlant
11 8 (1.84%) SonarQube
11 8 (1.84%) WebDriver
12 6 (1.38%) JDeveloper
12 6 (1.38%) LoadRunner
13 5 (1.15%) Cucumber
13 5 (1.15%) Cypress.io
General
1 143 (32.87%) Social Skills
2 100 (22.99%) Finance
3 99 (22.76%) Analytical Skills
4 48 (11.03%) Public Sector
5 41 (9.43%) Banking
6 12 (2.76%) Manufacturing
6 12 (2.76%) Telecoms
7 11 (2.53%) Legal
8 10 (2.30%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.84%) General Ledger
9 8 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.84%) Investment Banking
9 8 (1.84%) Law
9 8 (1.84%) Publishing
9 8 (1.84%) Retail
10 5 (1.15%) Marketing
10 5 (1.15%) Police
11 4 (0.92%) Advertising
11 4 (0.92%) Billing
Job Titles
1 139 (31.95%) Developer
2 55 (12.64%) Senior
3 48 (11.03%) Consultant
4 43 (9.89%) Analyst
4 43 (9.89%) Architect
5 29 (6.67%) Lead
6 25 (5.75%) Senior Developer
7 23 (5.29%) Data Engineer
8 22 (5.06%) Software Developer
9 19 (4.37%) Implementation Consultant
10 18 (4.14%) Business Analyst
11 15 (3.45%) Solutions Architect
12 13 (2.99%) C# Developer
12 13 (2.99%) Integration Developer
12 13 (2.99%) Software Engineer
13 12 (2.76%) Oracle Developer
13 12 (2.76%) Technical Consultant
13 12 (2.76%) Test Analyst
14 11 (2.53%) Lead Developer
15 10 (2.30%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 217 (49.89%) JSON
2 162 (37.24%) REST
3 144 (33.10%) SOAP
4 83 (19.08%) .NET
5 74 (17.01%) Middleware
6 71 (16.32%) Web Services
7 50 (11.49%) XSLT
8 42 (9.66%) HTML
9 40 (9.20%) OAuth
10 38 (8.74%) Kafka
11 26 (5.98%) .NET Framework
11 26 (5.98%) OAuth2
12 25 (5.75%) EDI
13 24 (5.52%) CSS
13 24 (5.52%) JWT
13 24 (5.52%) RESTful
14 19 (4.37%) Swagger
15 16 (3.68%) OpenAPI
15 16 (3.68%) XSD
16 15 (3.45%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 20 (4.60%) Legacy Systems
2 19 (4.37%) Enterprise Software
2 19 (4.37%) Product Ownership
3 17 (3.91%) Data Structures
3 17 (3.91%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 15 (3.45%) Cloud Native
5 13 (2.99%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (2.53%) Replication
7 10 (2.30%) Onboarding
8 9 (2.07%) Legacy Applications
8 9 (2.07%) LIMS
8 9 (2.07%) Management Information System
9 8 (1.84%) CMDB
9 8 (1.84%) PKI
9 8 (1.84%) Taxonomies
10 7 (1.61%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 7 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (1.38%) Algorithms
11 6 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
12 5 (1.15%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 34 (7.82%) Linux
2 31 (7.13%) Windows
3 26 (5.98%) Unix
4 10 (2.30%) 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
1 132 (30.34%) Problem-Solving
2 100 (22.99%) Agile
3 96 (22.07%) CI/CD
3 96 (22.07%) DevOps
4 83 (19.08%) Validation
5 64 (14.71%) Workflow
6 59 (13.56%) Integration Patterns
7 58 (13.33%) Test Automation
8 53 (12.18%) Migration
9 52 (11.95%) Stakeholder Management
10 50 (11.49%) Data Modelling
11 47 (10.80%) Event-Driven
12 45 (10.34%) Continuous Improvement
13 44 (10.11%) ERP
14 43 (9.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 41 (9.43%) Scrum
16 39 (8.97%) User Acceptance Testing
17 38 (8.74%) Data Mapping
18 37 (8.51%) API Management
19 36 (8.28%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 190 (43.68%) SQL
2 98 (22.53%) Java
3 83 (19.08%) JavaScript
4 77 (17.70%) Python
5 73 (16.78%) C#
6 36 (8.28%) PL/SQL
7 33 (7.59%) T-SQL
8 23 (5.29%) VB.NET
8 23 (5.29%) VBA
9 21 (4.83%) PowerShell
10 20 (4.60%) Groovy
11 19 (4.37%) C++
12 18 (4.14%) VB
13 17 (3.91%) VB6
14 14 (3.22%) XPath
15 9 (2.07%) TypeScript
16 7 (1.61%) Bicep
16 7 (1.61%) Shell Script
17 6 (1.38%) ABAP
17 6 (1.38%) R
Qualifications
1 121 (27.82%) Security Cleared
2 99 (22.76%) SC Cleared
3 35 (8.05%) Degree
4 19 (4.37%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.68%) ISTQB
6 12 (2.76%) DV Cleared
7 11 (2.53%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.53%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 8 (1.84%) ISEB
9 6 (1.38%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.15%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (0.92%) TOGAF Certification
12 3 (0.69%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.69%) Azure Certification
13 2 (0.46%) CISSP
13 2 (0.46%) GIAC
13 2 (0.46%) Master's Degree
13 2 (0.46%) SSCP
14 1 (0.23%) CEH
14 1 (0.23%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (7.59%) QA
2 23 (5.29%) Data Quality
3 19 (4.37%) ISO 20022
4 11 (2.53%) Accessibility
5 9 (2.07%) GDPR
5 9 (2.07%) GMP
6 8 (1.84%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 8 (1.84%) GxP
6 8 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 17025
6 8 (1.84%) WCAG
7 6 (1.38%) HL7
7 6 (1.38%) SLA
8 4 (0.92%) GRC
8 4 (0.92%) ISO 15022
9 2 (0.46%) SEPA
10 1 (0.23%) COREP
10 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.23%) FINREP
10 1 (0.23%) IFRS
10 1 (0.23%) PMO
System Software
1 14 (3.22%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.53%) Docker
3 5 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.46%) RACF
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (3.45%) Ansible
2 13 (2.99%) Single Sign-On
3 12 (2.76%) Kubernetes
4 5 (1.15%) 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
1 134 (30.80%) Oracle
2 104 (23.91%) Microsoft
3 45 (10.34%) SAP
4 40 (9.20%) IBM
5 36 (8.28%) MuleSoft
6 33 (7.59%) ServiceNow
7 30 (6.90%) Salesforce
8 22 (5.06%) Google
9 21 (4.83%) Workday
10 11 (2.53%) Databricks
10 11 (2.53%) Okta
11 10 (2.30%) Informatica
11 10 (2.30%) webMethods
12 8 (1.84%) TIBCO
13 7 (1.61%) WSO2
14 6 (1.38%) BeyondTrust
15 5 (1.15%) Intapp
15 5 (1.15%) Kronos
15 5 (1.15%) VMware
16 4 (0.92%) InterSystems
334 XML jobs Nationwide