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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 238 176
Rank change year-on-year -72 -62 +18
Contract jobs citing XML 445 375 541
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.82% 1.14% 1.40%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.78% 4.40% 5.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 314 251 295
10th Percentile £325 £340 £324
25th Percentile £410 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £508
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -3.94% -7.73%
75th Percentile £602 £575 £603
90th Percentile £700 £688 £671
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -5.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 26 44
10th Percentile £28.60 £30.63 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £29.54 £42.75 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.91% -0.58% -38.57%
75th Percentile £41.75 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £43.38 £91.88 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.54 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -30.51% -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 11,775 8,520 9,597
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.64% 25.86% 24.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,736 5,696 6,345
10th Percentile £375 £354 £356
25th Percentile £438 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £734 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +6.26% -5.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 296 187 189
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £25.60
25th Percentile £49.75 £41.42 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.83 £54.70 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +20.35% -11.20% -1.44%
75th Percentile £76.25 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £72.20 £74.57
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +17.39% -11.54% +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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -65 349 £488 -2.50% 313
London -40 189 £538 +2.38% 191
UK excluding London -104 172 £450 -5.26% 143
Work from Home -57 149 £525 +9.38% 135
South East -57 47 £460 -3.16% 43
Midlands -26 42 £418 -2.79% 23
West Midlands -27 35 £415 -3.49% 15
North of England -76 27 £375 -21.05% 25
Scotland -10 20 £450 -10.00% 21
South West -30 19 £550 +46.67% 11
North West -61 19 £375 -17.22% 19
East of England -47 12 £509 +4.41% 12
Yorkshire -36 8 £378 -31.36% 3
East Midlands -13 6 £494 +82.96% 8
Wales -26 3 £600 +60.00% 4
Northern Ireland - 3 £650 - 4
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 34 (7.64%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.49%) Confluence
3 17 (3.82%) Anypoint
4 16 (3.60%) IIS
4 16 (3.60%) Oracle Workflow
5 13 (2.92%) Mule
6 10 (2.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 7 (1.57%) WebSphere
8 6 (1.35%) Apache
9 5 (1.12%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.67%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.67%) MQSeries
10 3 (0.67%) Oracle Service Bus
11 2 (0.45%) CICS
11 2 (0.45%) CMS
12 1 (0.22%) JBoss
12 1 (0.22%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.22%) Mule ESB
12 1 (0.22%) Tomcat
Applications
1 13 (2.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.57%) MS Visio
4 6 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.35%) Windchill
5 3 (0.67%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.22%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.22%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 23 (5.17%) Oracle EBS
2 18 (4.04%) Dynamics CRM
3 17 (3.82%) NetSuite
4 15 (3.37%) Oracle Payables
5 12 (2.70%) Oracle Receivables
6 10 (2.25%) SAP S/4HANA
7 8 (1.80%) Oracle General Ledger
8 7 (1.57%) Oracle FAH
9 6 (1.35%) Maximo
9 6 (1.35%) Oracle Assets
9 6 (1.35%) Oracle Financials
10 5 (1.12%) Elite 3E
10 5 (1.12%) FLEXCUBE
10 5 (1.12%) SAP FI
10 5 (1.12%) Workday HCM
11 4 (0.90%) Oracle E-Business Tax
11 4 (0.90%) Oracle Internet Expenses
11 4 (0.90%) Oracle iProcurement
12 3 (0.67%) Oracle ERP
12 3 (0.67%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 120 (26.97%) Azure
2 63 (14.16%) AWS
3 53 (11.91%) Azure DevOps
4 46 (10.34%) Boomi
5 32 (7.19%) GCP
6 23 (5.17%) Power Platform
7 22 (4.94%) AtomSphere
8 21 (4.72%) Azure Service Bus
9 19 (4.27%) Dynamics 365
9 19 (4.27%) Entra ID
10 18 (4.04%) Azure Functions
10 18 (4.04%) Azure Logic Apps
10 18 (4.04%) Serverless
11 17 (3.82%) Power Automate
11 17 (3.82%) SaaS
12 16 (3.60%) GitHub
13 14 (3.15%) iPaaS
14 9 (2.02%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (2.02%) PowerApps
15 8 (1.80%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 34 (7.64%) HTTP
2 9 (2.02%) FTP
3 7 (1.57%) SSL
4 6 (1.35%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.12%) Network Security
6 3 (0.67%) Wireless
7 2 (0.45%) DNS
7 2 (0.45%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.45%) Internet
7 2 (0.45%) Intranet
7 2 (0.45%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.45%) WAN
8 1 (0.22%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.22%) Firewall
8 1 (0.22%) NAS
8 1 (0.22%) NFC
8 1 (0.22%) SAN
8 1 (0.22%) VPN
8 1 (0.22%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (13.03%) SQL Server
2 37 (8.31%) Relational Database
3 25 (5.62%) Oracle Database
4 22 (4.94%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.82%) Oracle Reports
6 14 (3.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 12 (2.70%) MS Access
7 12 (2.70%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 12 (2.70%) RDBMS
8 11 (2.47%) Metadata
8 11 (2.47%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (2.25%) MongoDB
9 10 (2.25%) MySQL
10 9 (2.02%) NoSQL
11 7 (1.57%) Data Lake
11 7 (1.57%) Data Warehouse
11 7 (1.57%) Power BI
11 7 (1.57%) Tableau
12 6 (1.35%) DataStage
13 5 (1.12%) GIS
Development Applications
1 66 (14.83%) Git
2 44 (9.89%) JIRA
3 26 (5.84%) Jenkins
4 25 (5.62%) Postman
5 22 (4.94%) Team Foundation Server
5 22 (4.94%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.27%) Oracle Forms
6 19 (4.27%) Selenium
7 11 (2.47%) Gradle
7 11 (2.47%) JMeter
8 10 (2.25%) Maven
9 9 (2.02%) GitLab
9 9 (2.02%) SonarQube
10 8 (1.80%) eggPlant
10 8 (1.80%) SoapUI
10 8 (1.80%) WebDriver
11 6 (1.35%) Cucumber
11 6 (1.35%) JDeveloper
11 6 (1.35%) LoadRunner
12 5 (1.12%) JUnit
General
1 150 (33.71%) Social Skills
2 105 (23.60%) Finance
3 99 (22.25%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (12.36%) Public Sector
5 41 (9.21%) Banking
6 15 (3.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (3.15%) Manufacturing
8 12 (2.70%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.02%) Law
9 9 (2.02%) Publishing
10 8 (1.80%) General Ledger
10 8 (1.80%) Legal
10 8 (1.80%) Retail
11 6 (1.35%) Investment Banking
11 6 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.35%) Police
12 5 (1.12%) Aerospace
12 5 (1.12%) Billing
12 5 (1.12%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 154 (34.61%) Developer
2 58 (13.03%) Senior
3 47 (10.56%) Architect
4 38 (8.54%) Analyst
5 37 (8.31%) Consultant
6 32 (7.19%) Lead
7 27 (6.07%) Senior Developer
8 23 (5.17%) Data Engineer
9 22 (4.94%) Software Developer
10 17 (3.82%) Solutions Architect
11 16 (3.60%) Integration Developer
12 15 (3.37%) Business Analyst
12 15 (3.37%) Lead Developer
13 13 (2.92%) C# Developer
13 13 (2.92%) Software Engineer
13 13 (2.92%) Technical Consultant
14 12 (2.70%) Test Analyst
15 11 (2.47%) Dynamics 365 Developer
16 10 (2.25%) Integration Architect
16 10 (2.25%) Oracle Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 233 (52.36%) JSON
2 178 (40.00%) REST
3 157 (35.28%) SOAP
4 87 (19.55%) .NET
5 81 (18.20%) Web Services
6 79 (17.75%) Middleware
7 58 (13.03%) XSLT
8 44 (9.89%) OAuth
9 43 (9.66%) HTML
10 42 (9.44%) Kafka
11 28 (6.29%) OAuth2
12 27 (6.07%) .NET Framework
12 27 (6.07%) RESTful
13 25 (5.62%) JWT
14 24 (5.39%) CSS
14 24 (5.39%) EDI
15 23 (5.17%) Swagger
16 19 (4.27%) OpenAPI
17 17 (3.82%) RabbitMQ
17 17 (3.82%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 24 (5.39%) Enterprise Software
2 20 (4.49%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.27%) Product Ownership
4 18 (4.04%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 17 (3.82%) Cloud Native
5 17 (3.82%) Data Structures
6 16 (3.60%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (3.60%) Management Information System
7 13 (2.92%) Onboarding
7 13 (2.92%) Taxonomies
8 11 (2.47%) Replication
9 10 (2.25%) CMDB
9 10 (2.25%) Legacy Applications
10 9 (2.02%) LIMS
11 8 (1.80%) PKI
12 7 (1.57%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 7 (1.57%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.57%) Virtual Team
13 6 (1.35%) AI Agents
13 6 (1.35%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 35 (7.87%) Linux
2 32 (7.19%) Windows
3 24 (5.39%) Unix
4 10 (2.25%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.67%) zOS
7 1 (0.22%) Android
7 1 (0.22%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.22%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (30.56%) Problem-Solving
2 108 (24.27%) Agile
3 101 (22.70%) DevOps
4 99 (22.25%) CI/CD
5 83 (18.65%) Validation
6 66 (14.83%) Integration Patterns
7 60 (13.48%) Data Modelling
7 60 (13.48%) Stakeholder Management
8 59 (13.26%) Workflow
9 58 (13.03%) Test Automation
10 52 (11.69%) Continuous Improvement
10 52 (11.69%) Event-Driven
11 51 (11.46%) Migration
12 49 (11.01%) ERP
13 47 (10.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 43 (9.66%) Scrum
15 40 (8.99%) API Management
15 40 (8.99%) Data Mapping
15 40 (8.99%) Software Engineering
16 39 (8.76%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 173 (38.88%) SQL
2 105 (23.60%) Java
3 92 (20.67%) JavaScript
4 84 (18.88%) C#
5 81 (18.20%) Python
6 37 (8.31%) PL/SQL
7 24 (5.39%) PowerShell
7 24 (5.39%) VB.NET
8 23 (5.17%) VBA
9 22 (4.94%) Groovy
10 20 (4.49%) C++
11 18 (4.04%) VB
12 17 (3.82%) T-SQL
12 17 (3.82%) VB6
13 15 (3.37%) XPath
14 9 (2.02%) TypeScript
15 7 (1.57%) ABAP
15 7 (1.57%) Bicep
15 7 (1.57%) Shell Script
16 6 (1.35%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 134 (30.11%) Security Cleared
2 109 (24.49%) SC Cleared
3 48 (10.79%) Degree
4 24 (5.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.60%) DV Cleared
5 16 (3.60%) ISTQB
6 13 (2.92%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 11 (2.47%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (1.80%) ISEB
9 6 (1.35%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.12%) TOGAF Certification
11 4 (0.90%) AWS Certification
11 4 (0.90%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.45%) CISSP
12 2 (0.45%) DBS Check
12 2 (0.45%) GIAC
12 2 (0.45%) SSCP
13 1 (0.22%) CEH
13 1 (0.22%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (8.09%) QA
2 27 (6.07%) Data Quality
3 20 (4.49%) ISO 20022
4 17 (3.82%) Accessibility
5 14 (3.15%) GDPR
5 14 (3.15%) WCAG
6 9 (2.02%) GMP
7 8 (1.80%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 8 (1.80%) GxP
7 8 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 6 (1.35%) HL7
8 6 (1.35%) SLA
9 5 (1.12%) GRC
10 4 (0.90%) ISO 15022
11 3 (0.67%) SEPA
12 2 (0.45%) NCSC
13 1 (0.22%) IFRS
13 1 (0.22%) NIST
13 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
13 1 (0.22%) PSD2
System Software
1 17 (3.82%) Active Directory
2 15 (3.37%) Docker
3 5 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.45%) RACF
5 1 (0.22%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 16 (3.60%) Ansible
1 16 (3.60%) Kubernetes
1 16 (3.60%) Single Sign-On
2 5 (1.12%) Control-M
2 5 (1.12%) HP Fortify
3 3 (0.67%) QRadar
3 3 (0.67%) vRealize Orchestrator
3 3 (0.67%) WMI
4 2 (0.45%) CloudHub
5 1 (0.22%) Apache Ranger
5 1 (0.22%) Grafana
5 1 (0.22%) HP Quality Center
5 1 (0.22%) Kibana
5 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.22%) vRealize
Vendors
1 135 (30.34%) Oracle
2 111 (24.94%) Microsoft
3 49 (11.01%) SAP
4 44 (9.89%) IBM
5 39 (8.76%) MuleSoft
6 35 (7.87%) ServiceNow
7 31 (6.97%) Salesforce
8 26 (5.84%) Google
9 23 (5.17%) Workday
10 13 (2.92%) Okta
11 12 (2.70%) Informatica
12 11 (2.47%) Databricks
13 10 (2.25%) TIBCO
13 10 (2.25%) webMethods
14 9 (2.02%) WSO2
15 8 (1.80%) BeyondTrust
16 6 (1.35%) PTC
17 5 (1.12%) Intapp
17 5 (1.12%) Kronos
17 5 (1.12%) VMware