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 8 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 312 244 166
Rank change year-on-year -68 -78 +32
Contract jobs citing XML 360 319 639
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.73% 1.09% 1.47%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.71% 4.76% 6.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 213 220 340
10th Percentile £360 £362 £400
25th Percentile £415 £430 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £534
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -11.05% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £619
90th Percentile £686 £638 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £455 £523
% change year-on-year -1.10% -13.04% +4.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 6 70
10th Percentile £29.37 £23.93 -
25th Percentile £33.63 £27.00 -
Median hourly rate £46.80 £27.38 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.93% -36.33% -38.57%
75th Percentile £48.75 £73.67 £51.25
90th Percentile £55.20 £91.25 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.80 £24.83 £43.00
% change year-on-year +88.48% -42.26% -39.65%

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 9,715 6,700 9,173
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.63% 22.89% 21.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,381 4,575 6,342
10th Percentile £363 £358 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £535
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -2.80% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 285 121 262
10th Percentile £31.62 £29.25 £22.05
25th Percentile £52.50 £41.60 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £48.97
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +27.64% -24.67%
75th Percentile £73.46 £68.75 £67.75
90th Percentile £81.15 £81.35 £74.49
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 8 June 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 8 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Top 15 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 8 June 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 -63 319 £525 +10.53% 117
UK excluding London -77 165 £450 -1.10% 83
London -52 150 £550 +4.76% 50
Work from Home -67 95 £460 -3.16% 70
South East -45 61 £525 +10.53% 33
North of England -67 50 £397 -11.81% 14
North West -33 43 £393 -12.78% 6
Midlands -37 26 £425 -15.00% 10
West Midlands -47 18 £425 -22.73% 5
South West -20 13 £600 +29.73% 11
East of England -20 9 £450 -18.18% 5
East Midlands -20 8 £471 +50.08% 5
Yorkshire -54 7 £463 -9.76% 7
Scotland -19 5 £469 -5.49% 6
Northern Ireland -6 1 - - 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 18 (5.00%) Confluence
2 12 (3.33%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 10 (2.78%) SharePoint
4 9 (2.50%) Anypoint
4 9 (2.50%) WebSphere
5 8 (2.22%) IIS
5 8 (2.22%) Oracle Workflow
6 7 (1.94%) WebLogic
7 5 (1.39%) CMS
7 5 (1.39%) Mule
8 4 (1.11%) Oracle Service Bus
9 3 (0.83%) Mule ESB
9 3 (0.83%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 2 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
10 2 (0.56%) Appian
10 2 (0.56%) CICS
10 2 (0.56%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.56%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.28%) Apache
11 1 (0.28%) JBoss
Applications
1 31 (8.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.67%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.56%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.56%) EngageOne
4 2 (0.56%) FrameMaker
4 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Office
5 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (3.33%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (2.50%) Oracle Payables
2 9 (2.50%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (1.94%) Oracle Receivables
3 7 (1.94%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 6 (1.67%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 6 (1.67%) Summit
5 5 (1.39%) Maximo
5 5 (1.39%) Oracle Cash Management
5 5 (1.39%) Oracle General Ledger
5 5 (1.39%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
6 4 (1.11%) Oracle EBS
6 4 (1.11%) Workday HCM
7 3 (0.83%) Findur
7 3 (0.83%) Oracle Assets
8 2 (0.56%) Elite 3E
8 2 (0.56%) NEC Housing
8 2 (0.56%) SAP Payroll
8 2 (0.56%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 68 (18.89%) Azure
2 39 (10.83%) AWS
3 23 (6.39%) OCI
4 21 (5.83%) Azure DevOps
5 19 (5.28%) Boomi
6 17 (4.72%) Power Platform
7 15 (4.17%) GitHub
7 15 (4.17%) PaaS
8 14 (3.89%) SaaS
9 13 (3.61%) IaaS
9 13 (3.61%) Serverless
10 12 (3.33%) Azure Data Factory
10 12 (3.33%) GCP
11 9 (2.50%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 8 (2.22%) Azure Functions
12 8 (2.22%) Dynamics 365
12 8 (2.22%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.94%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 7 (1.94%) Azure Service Bus
13 7 (1.94%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.17%) HTTP
2 7 (1.94%) FTP
3 6 (1.67%) 3GPP
4 4 (1.11%) RTCP
4 4 (1.11%) RTP
4 4 (1.11%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.11%) XCAP
5 2 (0.56%) DNS
5 2 (0.56%) FIX Connectivity
5 2 (0.56%) HTTPS
5 2 (0.56%) SSL
6 1 (0.28%) AMQP
6 1 (0.28%) Firewall
6 1 (0.28%) Internet
6 1 (0.28%) Intranet
6 1 (0.28%) NAS
6 1 (0.28%) Network Security
6 1 (0.28%) SAN
6 1 (0.28%) SMS
6 1 (0.28%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (10.28%) SQL Server
2 33 (9.17%) Relational Database
3 23 (6.39%) Data Warehouse
4 19 (5.28%) RDBMS
5 17 (4.72%) Oracle Database
5 17 (4.72%) PostgreSQL
6 15 (4.17%) NoSQL
7 13 (3.61%) MongoDB
7 13 (3.61%) Power BI
7 13 (3.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 11 (3.06%) Data Lake
9 10 (2.78%) Metadata
9 10 (2.78%) MySQL
9 10 (2.78%) Oracle Reports
10 9 (2.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 5 (1.39%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (1.39%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 4 (1.11%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 3 (0.83%) DataStage
13 3 (0.83%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 36 (10.00%) Postman
2 31 (8.61%) Git
3 27 (7.50%) JIRA
4 13 (3.61%) SoapUI
5 10 (2.78%) GitLab
6 8 (2.22%) Maven
6 8 (2.22%) Team Foundation Server
6 8 (2.22%) Visual Studio
7 6 (1.67%) Jenkins
8 5 (1.39%) Eclipse
9 4 (1.11%) JMeter
9 4 (1.11%) JUnit
9 4 (1.11%) Subversion
10 3 (0.83%) ClearCase
10 3 (0.83%) Gradle
10 3 (0.83%) MSTest
10 3 (0.83%) Newman
10 3 (0.83%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.56%) ER Studio
11 2 (0.56%) Gatling
General
1 118 (32.78%) Social Skills
2 75 (20.83%) Finance
3 67 (18.61%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (11.11%) Banking
5 25 (6.94%) Public Sector
6 13 (3.61%) Investment Banking
7 12 (3.33%) Documentation Skills
7 12 (3.33%) Legal
8 11 (3.06%) Organisational Skills
9 8 (2.22%) Military
9 8 (2.22%) Publishing
9 8 (2.22%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.94%) General Ledger
11 5 (1.39%) Front Office
11 5 (1.39%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.39%) Marketing
12 4 (1.11%) Advertising
12 4 (1.11%) Billing
12 4 (1.11%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.83%) Retail
Job Titles
1 84 (23.33%) Developer
2 59 (16.39%) Consultant
3 45 (12.50%) Analyst
4 30 (8.33%) Implementation Consultant
5 27 (7.50%) Business Analyst
6 24 (6.67%) Senior
7 22 (6.11%) Architect
8 20 (5.56%) Data Engineer
9 19 (5.28%) Lead
10 15 (4.17%) Software Engineer
11 14 (3.89%) C# Developer
11 14 (3.89%) Integration Specialist
12 13 (3.61%) Payroll Consultant
13 9 (2.50%) Cloud Specialist
13 9 (2.50%) DBA
13 9 (2.50%) Integration Engineer
13 9 (2.50%) Oracle Specialist
13 9 (2.50%) Technical Consultant
14 8 (2.22%) Applications Developer
14 8 (2.22%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 164 (45.56%) JSON
2 104 (28.89%) REST
3 102 (28.33%) SOAP
4 50 (13.89%) Web Services
5 43 (11.94%) Middleware
6 39 (10.83%) .NET
7 38 (10.56%) XSLT
8 31 (8.61%) OAuth
9 29 (8.06%) Oracle Fusion
10 26 (7.22%) HTML
11 24 (6.67%) JWT
12 21 (5.83%) RESTful
12 21 (5.83%) Swagger
13 18 (5.00%) CSS
13 18 (5.00%) Kafka
13 18 (5.00%) XSD
14 15 (4.17%) EDI
15 14 (3.89%) .NET Framework
15 14 (3.89%) OpenAPI
16 13 (3.61%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.17%) Product Ownership
2 10 (2.78%) Public Cloud
3 9 (2.50%) Data Protection Act
3 9 (2.50%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 8 (2.22%) Data Structures
4 8 (2.22%) Fixed Income
5 7 (1.94%) Credit Risk
5 7 (1.94%) Derivative
5 7 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
5 7 (1.94%) Market Risk
6 6 (1.67%) Management Information System
6 6 (1.67%) Onboarding
6 6 (1.67%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 5 (1.39%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.39%) Data Centre
7 5 (1.39%) Digital Wallet
7 5 (1.39%) Replication
8 4 (1.11%) Algorithms
8 4 (1.11%) Cloud Native
8 4 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 26 (7.22%) Linux
2 18 (5.00%) Unix
3 8 (2.22%) Windows
4 2 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.56%) VMS
4 2 (0.56%) zOS
5 1 (0.28%) Android
5 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.28%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (25.83%) Agile
2 87 (24.17%) Problem-Solving
3 69 (19.17%) DevOps
4 54 (15.00%) CI/CD
5 50 (13.89%) Validation
6 49 (13.61%) Integration Patterns
7 47 (13.06%) ERP
8 42 (11.67%) Migration
9 41 (11.39%) Workflow
10 38 (10.56%) Data Modelling
11 36 (10.00%) ETL
12 33 (9.17%) Stakeholder Management
13 29 (8.06%) User Acceptance Testing
14 28 (7.78%) Unit Testing
15 27 (7.50%) Data Mapping
15 27 (7.50%) Scrum
15 27 (7.50%) Software Engineering
16 26 (7.22%) Requirements Gathering
16 26 (7.22%) SDLC
17 24 (6.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 149 (41.39%) SQL
2 54 (15.00%) Java
3 51 (14.17%) C#
4 47 (13.06%) Python
5 41 (11.39%) JavaScript
6 37 (10.28%) T-SQL
7 21 (5.83%) PL/SQL
8 11 (3.06%) PowerShell
9 10 (2.78%) VB
10 9 (2.50%) C++
10 9 (2.50%) VB6
11 8 (2.22%) VBA
12 6 (1.67%) Groovy
12 6 (1.67%) XPath
13 5 (1.39%) DataWeave
13 5 (1.39%) VB.NET
14 4 (1.11%) Bicep
15 3 (0.83%) ABAP
15 3 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 3 (0.83%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 85 (23.61%) Security Cleared
2 61 (16.94%) SC Cleared
3 32 (8.89%) Degree
4 13 (3.61%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (2.22%) DV Cleared
6 5 (1.39%) AWS Certification
6 5 (1.39%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.11%) Azure Certification
7 4 (1.11%) DBS Check
7 4 (1.11%) TOGAF Certification
8 3 (0.83%) CCNP
8 3 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (0.83%) ISTQB
9 2 (0.56%) HNC
9 2 (0.56%) HND
9 2 (0.56%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.56%) PMI Certification
9 2 (0.56%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.83%) QA
2 14 (3.89%) Data Quality
3 10 (2.78%) GDPR
4 6 (1.67%) HL7
5 5 (1.39%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.39%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.39%) PSD2
6 4 (1.11%) GAAP
7 3 (0.83%) Accessibility
7 3 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.83%) FATCA
7 3 (0.83%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.56%) Basel III
8 2 (0.56%) IFRS
8 2 (0.56%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.56%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.56%) SLA
8 2 (0.56%) WCAG
9 1 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
System Software
1 12 (3.33%) Docker
2 4 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.83%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.56%) RACF
4 2 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.28%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 10 (2.78%) Kubernetes
2 6 (1.67%) Ansible
2 6 (1.67%) Terraform
3 5 (1.39%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (1.11%) Control-M
5 3 (0.83%) vRealize Orchestrator
6 2 (0.56%) Grafana
6 2 (0.56%) TIBCO Hawk
7 1 (0.28%) CloudHub
7 1 (0.28%) QRadar
7 1 (0.28%) vRealize
Vendors
1 99 (27.50%) Oracle
2 55 (15.28%) Microsoft
3 30 (8.33%) SAP
4 25 (6.94%) Workday
5 23 (6.39%) MuleSoft
6 21 (5.83%) ServiceNow
7 13 (3.61%) IBM
8 9 (2.50%) Databricks
9 8 (2.22%) Google
9 8 (2.22%) Informatica
9 8 (2.22%) Pega
9 8 (2.22%) Red Hat
9 8 (2.22%) Salesforce
10 7 (1.94%) Dell
11 6 (1.67%) webMethods
12 5 (1.39%) InterSystems
13 4 (1.11%) Bloomberg
13 4 (1.11%) Charles River
13 4 (1.11%) Citrix
13 4 (1.11%) Talend