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 17 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 315 236 194
Rank change year-on-year -79 -42 -8
Contract jobs citing XML 466 386 482
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.84% 1.16% 1.29%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.86% 4.44% 5.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 332 253 274
10th Percentile £325 £336 £259
25th Percentile £404 £415 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.09%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £575
90th Percentile £688 £695 £635
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £463
% change year-on-year -5.26% +2.70% -11.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 25 21
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £29.07 £43.00 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.40% - -11.74%
75th Percentile £41.75 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £45.66 £92.50 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.07 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -31.60% -1.16% -11.74%

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.

6 months to
17 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 12,071 8,691 9,255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.84% 26.10% 24.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,932 5,750 5,984
10th Percentile £375 £358 £356
25th Percentile £438 £413 £425
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 £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 304 189 163
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.20 £25.44
25th Percentile £49.75 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £51.44 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.36% -20.86% +10.11%
75th Percentile £77.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.24 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +22.25% -15.38% +13.04%

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 17 October 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 17 October 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 17 October 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 -94 362 £479 -4.20% 235
London -68 190 £538 +2.38% 121
UK excluding London -94 180 £450 -5.26% 116
Work from Home -57 158 £519 +6.46% 94
South East -53 50 £460 -3.16% 39
Midlands -13 46 £415 -3.26% 15
West Midlands -16 40 £410 -4.43% 12
North of England -85 24 £380 -27.62% 24
South West -29 23 £545 +45.33% 7
Scotland -10 21 £450 -5.26% 10
North West -58 15 £349 -28.43% 14
East of England -44 12 £525 +7.69% 12
Yorkshire -28 9 £380 -45.71% 7
East Midlands -10 5 £494 +82.96% 3
Wales -22 3 £600 +60.00% 7
Northern Ireland - 3 £650 - 2
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -

XML Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1JSON52.4%244
2REST40.8%190
3SOAP35.6%166
4Web Services20.4%95
5.NET19.5%91
6Middleware18.0%84
7XSLT13.7%64
8HTML10.9%51
9Kafka10.1%47
10OAuth9.4%44
11RESTful8.2%38
12CSS6.2%29
12Swagger6.2%29
14.NET Framework6.0%28
15OAuth25.8%27
16EDI4.9%23
17JWT4.7%22
18OpenAPI4.5%21
19Spring4.1%19
19Spring Boot4.1%19