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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 277 225 200
Rank change year-on-year -52 -25 -2
Contract jobs citing XML 399 345 521
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 1.13% 1.17%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.34% 4.95% 5.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 227 320
10th Percentile £350 £325 £374
25th Percentile £400 £400 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £600 £588 £613
90th Percentile £701 £653 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £513
% change year-on-year - -12.20% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 3 49
10th Percentile £41.30 £39.93 -
25th Percentile £46.25 £59.18 £43.75
Median hourly rate £47.50 £92.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -48.65% +94.74% -34.48%
75th Percentile £59.50 £93.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £79.30 - £59.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £27.76 £47.50
% change year-on-year +71.11% -41.56% -32.14%

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 9,188 6,966 9,193
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.06% 22.76% 20.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,137 4,544 6,420
10th Percentile £358 £360 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -2.10% -1.69% -7.13%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 232 91 224
10th Percentile £35.03 £26.25 £20.95
25th Percentile £52.50 £38.88 £40.23
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +28.28% -25.05%
75th Percentile £73.46 £68.00 £65.31
90th Percentile £81.00 £81.01 £76.07
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £48.72
% change year-on-year - +33.42% -25.05%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -20 358 £475 -7.32% 109
London -30 183 £525 -1.87% 29
UK excluding London -56 161 £450 - 91
Work from Home -25 124 £470 +0.43% 54
North of England -41 58 £401 -13.26% 23
South East -26 49 £488 +26.30% 35
North West -14 47 £400 -10.66% 17
Midlands -37 32 £445 -21.52% 15
West Midlands -35 27 £440 -22.40% 13
East of England -12 15 £675 - 6
Yorkshire -61 11 £463 -18.43% 4
South West -24 6 £475 +2.70% 8
Scotland -8 5 £500 +6.38% 5
East Midlands -17 5 £525 +46.65% 2

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 (5.76%) WebLogic
2 21 (5.26%) Confluence
3 18 (4.51%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 12 (3.01%) Apache
5 10 (2.51%) WebSphere
6 9 (2.26%) JBoss
7 7 (1.75%) Appian
7 7 (1.75%) MQSeries
8 6 (1.50%) Oracle Workflow
9 5 (1.25%) Anypoint
9 5 (1.25%) Mule
10 4 (1.00%) Oracle Service Bus
11 3 (0.75%) Apache Spark
12 2 (0.50%) BizTalk Server
12 2 (0.50%) Documentum
12 2 (0.50%) Mule ESB
12 2 (0.50%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 2 (0.50%) SharePoint
13 1 (0.25%) CMS
13 1 (0.25%) SAS
Applications
1 14 (3.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.25%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.00%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.50%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.50%) EngageOne
6 1 (0.25%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.25%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 11 (2.76%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (2.26%) SAP Payroll
3 8 (2.01%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.75%) BusinessWorks
4 7 (1.75%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (1.75%) Oracle Receivables
4 7 (1.75%) SAP HCM
5 6 (1.50%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (1.25%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (1.25%) Payment Gateway
7 4 (1.00%) Maximo
7 4 (1.00%) Oracle 11i
7 4 (1.00%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (1.00%) Workday HCM
8 3 (0.75%) Oracle Assets
8 3 (0.75%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.75%) Salesforce CRM
9 2 (0.50%) NEC Housing
9 2 (0.50%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 89 (22.31%) Azure
2 65 (16.29%) AWS
3 28 (7.02%) OCI
4 26 (6.52%) Power Platform
5 23 (5.76%) Azure DevOps
5 23 (5.76%) GCP
5 23 (5.76%) SaaS
6 20 (5.01%) GitHub
7 18 (4.51%) Cloud Computing
7 18 (4.51%) Serverless
8 16 (4.01%) PaaS
9 15 (3.76%) Boomi
10 14 (3.51%) Dynamics 365
10 14 (3.51%) IaaS
11 12 (3.01%) Apigee
11 12 (3.01%) Azure Data Factory
11 12 (3.01%) Tricentis Tosca
12 11 (2.76%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.51%) Azure Logic Apps
14 8 (2.01%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 29 (7.27%) HTTP
2 21 (5.26%) HTTPS
3 9 (2.26%) Firewall
4 6 (1.50%) 3GPP
4 6 (1.50%) FTP
5 5 (1.25%) SSL
6 4 (1.00%) RTCP
6 4 (1.00%) RTP
6 4 (1.00%) XCAP
7 3 (0.75%) NFC
7 3 (0.75%) PPP
8 2 (0.50%) 5G
8 2 (0.50%) BGP
8 2 (0.50%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 2 (0.50%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 2 (0.50%) FIX Connectivity
8 2 (0.50%) MPLS
8 2 (0.50%) VPN
9 1 (0.25%) DNS
9 1 (0.25%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (11.03%) Relational Database
2 43 (10.78%) SQL Server
3 27 (6.77%) MongoDB
4 26 (6.52%) Data Warehouse
5 25 (6.27%) PostgreSQL
6 19 (4.76%) RDBMS
7 18 (4.51%) NoSQL
7 18 (4.51%) Oracle Reports
8 17 (4.26%) Power BI
9 15 (3.76%) Oracle Database
10 12 (3.01%) Data Lake
10 12 (3.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 11 (2.76%) Metadata
12 10 (2.51%) MySQL
13 9 (2.26%) DataStage
14 7 (1.75%) DB2
15 6 (1.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 6 (1.50%) Tableau
16 5 (1.25%) Amazon Redshift
16 5 (1.25%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 53 (13.28%) JIRA
2 50 (12.53%) Git
2 50 (12.53%) Postman
3 31 (7.77%) Jenkins
4 27 (6.77%) Selenium
5 23 (5.76%) JUnit
6 19 (4.76%) Cucumber
7 15 (3.76%) Eclipse
8 14 (3.51%) SoapUI
9 12 (3.01%) Maven
10 9 (2.26%) GitLab
10 9 (2.26%) IntelliJ
10 9 (2.26%) SpecFlow
10 9 (2.26%) TestRail
10 9 (2.26%) Zephyr
11 7 (1.75%) Toad
12 6 (1.50%) SonarQube
13 5 (1.25%) MSTest
13 5 (1.25%) Robot Framework
13 5 (1.25%) Subversion
General
1 129 (32.33%) Social Skills
2 91 (22.81%) Finance
3 75 (18.80%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (10.28%) Banking
5 38 (9.52%) Public Sector
6 21 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (2.76%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (2.01%) Financial Institution
9 8 (2.01%) Legal
9 8 (2.01%) Private Banking
10 7 (1.75%) Retail
10 7 (1.75%) Telecoms
11 5 (1.25%) Military
11 5 (1.25%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (1.00%) Aerospace
12 4 (1.00%) General Ledger
12 4 (1.00%) Publishing
13 3 (0.75%) Back Office
13 3 (0.75%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 123 (30.83%) Developer
2 57 (14.29%) Analyst
3 44 (11.03%) Consultant
4 29 (7.27%) Senior
5 25 (6.27%) Business Analyst
6 21 (5.26%) Architect
7 20 (5.01%) Lead
7 20 (5.01%) Software Engineer
8 17 (4.26%) Data Engineer
9 16 (4.01%) Integration Developer
10 15 (3.76%) DBA
11 13 (3.26%) Implementation Consultant
12 12 (3.01%) Tester
13 11 (2.76%) Integration Specialist
13 11 (2.76%) Java Developer
13 11 (2.76%) SAP Consultant
14 10 (2.51%) Senior Developer
14 10 (2.51%) Solutions Architect
15 9 (2.26%) Oracle Specialist
15 9 (2.26%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 218 (54.64%) JSON
2 139 (34.84%) REST
3 134 (33.58%) SOAP
4 53 (13.28%) Web Services
5 47 (11.78%) XSLT
6 44 (11.03%) OAuth
7 34 (8.52%) HTML
8 31 (7.77%) .NET
9 29 (7.27%) JWT
9 29 (7.27%) Oracle Fusion
10 27 (6.77%) Middleware
11 24 (6.02%) RESTful
12 22 (5.51%) JMS
12 22 (5.51%) XSD
13 21 (5.26%) Kafka
14 20 (5.01%) Spring
14 20 (5.01%) Swagger
15 19 (4.76%) J2EE
16 18 (4.51%) CSS
17 16 (4.01%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 18 (4.51%) Data Structures
2 12 (3.01%) Management Information System
2 12 (3.01%) Public Cloud
2 12 (3.01%) Replication
3 10 (2.51%) Enterprise Software
3 10 (2.51%) Product Ownership
4 9 (2.26%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (2.26%) Onboarding
5 8 (2.01%) AS400
5 8 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (2.01%) Virtual Team
6 7 (1.75%) Cloud Native
6 7 (1.75%) Fixed Income
7 6 (1.50%) Algorithms
7 6 (1.50%) CMDB
7 6 (1.50%) Low-Code
7 6 (1.50%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 5 (1.25%) Derivative
8 5 (1.25%) Digital Wallet
8 5 (1.25%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 44 (11.03%) Linux
2 30 (7.52%) Unix
3 16 (4.01%) Windows
4 5 (1.25%) AIX
4 5 (1.25%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.00%) Android
6 1 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.25%) VMS
6 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (36.09%) Agile
2 119 (29.82%) DevOps
3 103 (25.81%) Problem-Solving
4 79 (19.80%) CI/CD
5 57 (14.29%) Validation
6 54 (13.53%) ERP
7 50 (12.53%) Scrum
8 49 (12.28%) Data Modelling
9 48 (12.03%) ETL
10 44 (11.03%) Migration
11 40 (10.03%) Integration Patterns
12 39 (9.77%) Test Automation
13 38 (9.52%) Microservices
14 37 (9.27%) Requirements Gathering
14 37 (9.27%) Software Engineering
15 34 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
15 34 (8.52%) Mentoring
15 34 (8.52%) SDLC
16 33 (8.27%) Stakeholder Management
17 31 (7.77%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 152 (38.10%) SQL
2 108 (27.07%) Java
3 66 (16.54%) C#
4 58 (14.54%) Python
5 51 (12.78%) JavaScript
6 22 (5.51%) PowerShell
7 20 (5.01%) T-SQL
8 19 (4.76%) PL/SQL
9 16 (4.01%) XPath
10 10 (2.51%) Shell Script
11 9 (2.26%) Scala
12 8 (2.01%) ABAP
12 8 (2.01%) C++
12 8 (2.01%) Groovy
12 8 (2.01%) RPG
13 7 (1.75%) Korn
14 6 (1.50%) Kotlin
15 5 (1.25%) Perl
16 4 (1.00%) Bicep
17 3 (0.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 101 (25.31%) Security Cleared
2 75 (18.80%) SC Cleared
3 39 (9.77%) Degree
4 22 (5.51%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (3.51%) BPSS Clearance
6 12 (3.01%) ISTQB
7 10 (2.51%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 7 (1.75%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.50%) ISEB
10 5 (1.25%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.25%) CCNP
10 5 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.25%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.25%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.25%) PMP
11 4 (1.00%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.50%) CCNA
12 2 (0.50%) CEH
12 2 (0.50%) GIAC
12 2 (0.50%) GWAPT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (7.02%) QA
2 16 (4.01%) Data Quality
3 8 (2.01%) GDPR
4 6 (1.50%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.25%) PSD2
6 4 (1.00%) GAAP
7 3 (0.75%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.75%) FATCA
7 3 (0.75%) ISO 8583
7 3 (0.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.50%) Basel III
8 2 (0.50%) HL7
8 2 (0.50%) IFRS
8 2 (0.50%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.50%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.50%) SEPA
9 1 (0.25%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 1 (0.25%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.25%) EMIR
9 1 (0.25%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 32 (8.02%) Docker
2 3 (0.75%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.25%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 14 (3.51%) Kubernetes
2 11 (2.76%) Ansible
3 10 (2.51%) Control-M
3 10 (2.51%) Puppet
4 7 (1.75%) TIBCO Hawk
5 6 (1.50%) logstash
6 5 (1.25%) Kibana
7 3 (0.75%) ITRS Geneos
8 2 (0.50%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.50%) Fluentd
8 2 (0.50%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.50%) Grafana
8 2 (0.50%) QRadar
8 2 (0.50%) Terraform
9 1 (0.25%) CEMLI
9 1 (0.25%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.25%) Podman
9 1 (0.25%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 112 (28.07%) Oracle
2 43 (10.78%) Microsoft
2 43 (10.78%) SAP
3 35 (8.77%) IBM
4 23 (5.76%) webMethods
5 17 (4.26%) MuleSoft
6 16 (4.01%) Workday
7 13 (3.26%) ServiceNow
8 11 (2.76%) Informatica
8 11 (2.76%) Splunk
9 10 (2.51%) TIBCO
10 8 (2.01%) Google
10 8 (2.01%) Pega
10 8 (2.01%) Talend
11 7 (1.75%) BEA
11 7 (1.75%) Cisco
11 7 (1.75%) Red Hat
11 7 (1.75%) Software AG
12 6 (1.50%) Salesforce
13 5 (1.25%) Ariba