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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 321 251 164
Rank change year-on-year -70 -87 +28
Contract jobs citing XML 362 323 627
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 1.08% 1.44%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.65% 4.72% 6.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 227 217 332
10th Percentile £350 £396 £400
25th Percentile £411 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £488 £525
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -7.14% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £577 £619
90th Percentile £705 £633 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £433 £468 £513
% change year-on-year -7.43% -8.68% -0.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 6 69
10th Percentile £29.07 £23.93 -
25th Percentile £29.92 £27.00 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £27.38 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.27% -36.33% -38.57%
75th Percentile £44.90 £73.67 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 £91.25 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £24.83 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.08% -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 9,906 6,847 9,257
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.51% 22.85% 21.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,501 4,666 6,357
10th Percentile £363 £356 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -4.65% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 283 133 280
10th Percentile £30.10 £29.11 £22.45
25th Percentile £51.25 £39.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -15.38%
75th Percentile £74.63 £68.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.01 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £57.13
% change year-on-year +4.00% +9.41% -11.43%

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 23 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 23 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Top 16 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 23 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 -72 313 £525 +7.69% 76
UK excluding London -75 166 £433 -7.43% 65
London -67 147 £550 +0.92% 27
Work from Home -43 107 £500 +5.26% 39
South East -49 53 £525 +10.53% 24
North of England -70 49 £390 -13.33% 10
North West -39 41 £383 -15.00% 6
Midlands -35 28 £425 -15.00% 9
West Midlands -46 20 £425 -22.73% 2
South West -26 13 £575 +21.05% 8
East of England -22 11 £450 -18.18% 6
East Midlands -12 8 £471 +50.08% 7
Scotland -18 8 £425 -23.90% 5
Yorkshire -49 8 £431 -15.85% 3
Northern Ireland -5 2 £650 +36.84% 2
Wales -21 2 £635 +53.94% 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 21 (5.80%) Confluence
2 12 (3.31%) Anypoint
3 11 (3.04%) SharePoint
4 8 (2.21%) IIS
4 8 (2.21%) Mule
4 8 (2.21%) Oracle Workflow
5 7 (1.93%) WebSphere
6 6 (1.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 5 (1.38%) CMS
7 5 (1.38%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.83%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 2 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.55%) Appian
9 2 (0.55%) CICS
9 2 (0.55%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.55%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.28%) Apache
10 1 (0.28%) BizTalk Server
10 1 (0.28%) JBoss
10 1 (0.28%) Tomcat
Applications
1 31 (8.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.66%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.55%) EngageOne
5 2 (0.55%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (2.49%) Oracle Payables
1 9 (2.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.93%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.93%) Oracle Receivables
2 7 (1.93%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 6 (1.66%) Maximo
3 6 (1.66%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.66%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 6 (1.66%) Summit
4 5 (1.38%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (1.38%) Elite 3E
4 5 (1.38%) NetSuite
4 5 (1.38%) Oracle Cash Management
4 5 (1.38%) Oracle General Ledger
5 4 (1.10%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (1.10%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.83%) Findur
6 3 (0.83%) Oracle Assets
7 2 (0.55%) Fidessa
7 2 (0.55%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 73 (20.17%) Azure
2 45 (12.43%) AWS
3 24 (6.63%) Boomi
4 23 (6.35%) Azure DevOps
5 18 (4.97%) Power Platform
6 16 (4.42%) GitHub
7 15 (4.14%) GCP
7 15 (4.14%) OCI
8 14 (3.87%) SaaS
9 13 (3.59%) Azure Data Factory
9 13 (3.59%) Serverless
10 9 (2.49%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 9 (2.49%) IaaS
10 9 (2.49%) PaaS
11 8 (2.21%) Azure Functions
11 8 (2.21%) Azure Logic Apps
11 8 (2.21%) Dynamics 365
11 8 (2.21%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (1.93%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 7 (1.93%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.14%) HTTP
2 8 (2.21%) FTP
3 6 (1.66%) 3GPP
4 4 (1.10%) RTCP
4 4 (1.10%) RTP
4 4 (1.10%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.10%) XCAP
5 2 (0.55%) DNS
5 2 (0.55%) FIX Connectivity
5 2 (0.55%) HTTPS
5 2 (0.55%) SSL
6 1 (0.28%) AMQP
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%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (11.05%) SQL Server
2 32 (8.84%) Relational Database
3 19 (5.25%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (5.25%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (4.97%) RDBMS
5 17 (4.70%) Oracle Database
6 15 (4.14%) NoSQL
7 14 (3.87%) MongoDB
7 14 (3.87%) Power BI
7 14 (3.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 13 (3.59%) Data Lake
9 12 (3.31%) Metadata
9 12 (3.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 10 (2.76%) MySQL
10 10 (2.76%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (1.38%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (1.38%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 4 (1.10%) DataStage
12 4 (1.10%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 3 (0.83%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 33 (9.12%) Git
2 32 (8.84%) JIRA
3 26 (7.18%) Postman
4 10 (2.76%) GitLab
5 9 (2.49%) Maven
6 8 (2.21%) SoapUI
6 8 (2.21%) Team Foundation Server
6 8 (2.21%) Visual Studio
7 7 (1.93%) Jenkins
8 5 (1.38%) Eclipse
8 5 (1.38%) Subversion
9 4 (1.10%) Gradle
9 4 (1.10%) JMeter
9 4 (1.10%) JUnit
9 4 (1.10%) Selenium
10 3 (0.83%) ClearCase
10 3 (0.83%) MSTest
10 3 (0.83%) Newman
10 3 (0.83%) Oracle Forms
10 3 (0.83%) REST Assured
General
1 122 (33.70%) Social Skills
2 78 (21.55%) Finance
3 72 (19.89%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (10.77%) Banking
5 31 (8.56%) Public Sector
6 13 (3.59%) Investment Banking
7 11 (3.04%) Legal
7 11 (3.04%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (2.49%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (2.21%) Publishing
9 8 (2.21%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.93%) General Ledger
10 7 (1.93%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.93%) Military
11 5 (1.38%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.38%) Front Office
11 5 (1.38%) Marketing
11 5 (1.38%) Retail
12 4 (1.10%) Advertising
12 4 (1.10%) Billing
Job Titles
1 97 (26.80%) Developer
2 57 (15.75%) Consultant
3 44 (12.15%) Analyst
4 30 (8.29%) Implementation Consultant
5 29 (8.01%) Senior
6 27 (7.46%) Architect
6 27 (7.46%) Business Analyst
7 22 (6.08%) Data Engineer
8 15 (4.14%) Lead
9 14 (3.87%) C# Developer
10 13 (3.59%) Payroll Consultant
11 11 (3.04%) DBA
12 10 (2.76%) Integration Specialist
12 10 (2.76%) Senior Developer
12 10 (2.76%) Software Engineer
13 9 (2.49%) Integration Engineer
13 9 (2.49%) Technical Consultant
14 8 (2.21%) Applications Developer
14 8 (2.21%) Technical Analyst
14 8 (2.21%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 169 (46.69%) JSON
2 116 (32.04%) REST
3 103 (28.45%) SOAP
4 51 (14.09%) Middleware
5 48 (13.26%) Web Services
6 44 (12.15%) .NET
7 35 (9.67%) XSLT
8 25 (6.91%) OAuth
9 24 (6.63%) HTML
10 20 (5.52%) JWT
10 20 (5.52%) Oracle Fusion
11 19 (5.25%) EDI
11 19 (5.25%) Swagger
12 18 (4.97%) Kafka
12 18 (4.97%) RESTful
13 17 (4.70%) CSS
14 14 (3.87%) .NET Framework
14 14 (3.87%) OpenAPI
15 13 (3.59%) XSD
16 12 (3.31%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 14 (3.87%) Product Ownership
2 12 (3.31%) Data Structures
3 9 (2.49%) Data Protection Act
3 9 (2.49%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 9 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
4 8 (2.21%) Derivative
4 8 (2.21%) Fixed Income
4 8 (2.21%) Onboarding
5 7 (1.93%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (1.93%) Credit Risk
5 7 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (1.93%) Management Information System
5 7 (1.93%) Market Risk
5 7 (1.93%) Replication
6 6 (1.66%) CMDB
6 6 (1.66%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (1.66%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.38%) Data Centre
7 5 (1.38%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 4 (1.10%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 19 (5.25%) Linux
1 19 (5.25%) Unix
2 10 (2.76%) Windows
3 3 (0.83%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.55%) VMS
4 2 (0.55%) zOS
5 1 (0.28%) Android
5 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (26.24%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (25.97%) Agile
3 67 (18.51%) CI/CD
4 65 (17.96%) DevOps
5 53 (14.64%) Integration Patterns
6 51 (14.09%) Validation
7 50 (13.81%) Workflow
8 42 (11.60%) ERP
9 41 (11.33%) ETL
9 41 (11.33%) Migration
10 39 (10.77%) Data Modelling
10 39 (10.77%) Stakeholder Management
11 33 (9.12%) Data Mapping
12 30 (8.29%) Scrum
12 30 (8.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 30 (8.29%) User Acceptance Testing
13 26 (7.18%) SDLC
14 25 (6.91%) Data Integration
14 25 (6.91%) Requirements Gathering
14 25 (6.91%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 155 (42.82%) SQL
2 60 (16.57%) Java
3 49 (13.54%) C#
3 49 (13.54%) JavaScript
4 46 (12.71%) Python
5 41 (11.33%) T-SQL
6 21 (5.80%) PL/SQL
7 14 (3.87%) PowerShell
8 10 (2.76%) C++
8 10 (2.76%) Groovy
8 10 (2.76%) VB
9 9 (2.49%) VB.NET
9 9 (2.49%) VB6
10 8 (2.21%) VBA
11 7 (1.93%) XPath
12 5 (1.38%) Bicep
12 5 (1.38%) DataWeave
13 4 (1.10%) ABAP
14 3 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.83%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 82 (22.65%) Security Cleared
2 59 (16.30%) SC Cleared
3 30 (8.29%) Degree
4 12 (3.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (2.49%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.38%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.38%) DBS Check
7 5 (1.38%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.10%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.10%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (0.83%) ISTQB
9 3 (0.83%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 2 (0.55%) CCNP
10 2 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
10 2 (0.55%) HNC
10 2 (0.55%) HND
10 2 (0.55%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.55%) PMI Certification
10 2 (0.55%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.80%) QA
2 18 (4.97%) Data Quality
3 11 (3.04%) GDPR
4 6 (1.66%) Accessibility
4 6 (1.66%) HL7
5 5 (1.38%) ISO 20022
6 4 (1.10%) GAAP
7 3 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.83%) FATCA
7 3 (0.83%) GRC
7 3 (0.83%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.83%) PSD2
7 3 (0.83%) WCAG
8 2 (0.55%) Basel III
8 2 (0.55%) IFRS
8 2 (0.55%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.55%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.55%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.55%) SLA
System Software
1 12 (3.31%) Docker
2 4 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.83%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.83%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.55%) RACF
4 2 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 12 (3.31%) Kubernetes
2 11 (3.04%) Ansible
3 6 (1.66%) Terraform
4 5 (1.38%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (0.83%) Control-M
5 3 (0.83%) vRealize Orchestrator
6 2 (0.55%) Grafana
6 2 (0.55%) WMI
7 1 (0.28%) QRadar
7 1 (0.28%) vRealize
Vendors
1 92 (25.41%) Oracle
2 60 (16.57%) Microsoft
3 33 (9.12%) SAP
4 27 (7.46%) MuleSoft
4 27 (7.46%) ServiceNow
5 25 (6.91%) Workday
6 16 (4.42%) IBM
7 15 (4.14%) Salesforce
8 12 (3.31%) Google
9 9 (2.49%) Informatica
10 8 (2.21%) Databricks
10 8 (2.21%) Pega
11 7 (1.93%) Dell
12 6 (1.66%) Talend
12 6 (1.66%) webMethods
13 5 (1.38%) Intapp
13 5 (1.38%) InterSystems
13 5 (1.38%) Kronos
14 4 (1.10%) Bloomberg
14 4 (1.10%) VMware