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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 323 247 169
Rank change year-on-year -76 -78 +18
Contract jobs citing XML 370 329 626
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.73% 1.09% 1.44%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.73% 4.75% 6.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 219 331
10th Percentile £350 £387 £400
25th Percentile £409 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £485 £525
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% -7.62% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £576 £619
90th Percentile £700 £632 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £427 £468 £510
% change year-on-year -8.76% -8.24% +0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 8 69
10th Percentile £29.07 £25.16 -
25th Percentile £29.92 £27.00 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £29.88 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.20% -30.51% -38.57%
75th Percentile £44.90 £55.00 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 £90.25 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £29.88 £43.00
% change year-on-year +32.20% -30.51% -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 9,924 6,922 9,273
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.50% 22.88% 21.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,524 4,712 6,362
10th Percentile £363 £355 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £514 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.14% -4.37% -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 279 137 279
10th Percentile £30.00 £29.18 £22.50
25th Percentile £51.25 £37.80 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -15.38%
75th Percentile £75.00 £68.00 £69.38
90th Percentile £85.43 £81.01 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £58.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% +7.76% -10.08%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -72 320 £525 +7.69% 82
UK excluding London -89 168 £427 -8.76% 68
London -54 151 £550 +0.92% 30
Work from Home -51 114 £500 +5.26% 42
South East -46 54 £513 +7.89% 25
North of England -64 49 £390 -13.33% 7
North West -44 40 £375 -16.67% 5
Midlands -45 30 £425 -15.00% 12
West Midlands -45 22 £425 -22.73% 4
South West -27 13 £575 +21.05% 11
East of England -25 11 £450 -18.18% 6
Yorkshire -43 9 £463 -9.76% 2
East Midlands -4 8 £471 +50.08% 8
Scotland -15 7 £425 -23.90% 5
Northern Ireland -2 2 £650 +36.84% 1
Wales -22 2 £635 +61.27% 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 22 (5.95%) Confluence
2 13 (3.51%) SharePoint
3 12 (3.24%) Anypoint
4 10 (2.70%) IIS
5 8 (2.16%) Mule
5 8 (2.16%) Oracle Workflow
5 8 (2.16%) WebSphere
6 5 (1.35%) CMS
6 5 (1.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 5 (1.35%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.81%) Oracle Self-Service HR
8 2 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.54%) Appian
8 2 (0.54%) CICS
8 2 (0.54%) MQSeries
8 2 (0.54%) Mule ESB
9 1 (0.27%) Apache
9 1 (0.27%) BizTalk Server
9 1 (0.27%) JBoss
9 1 (0.27%) Tomcat
Applications
1 31 (8.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.62%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.54%) EngageOne
4 2 (0.54%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (2.43%) Oracle Payables
1 9 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.89%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.89%) Oracle Receivables
2 7 (1.89%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 6 (1.62%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.62%) Maximo
3 6 (1.62%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.62%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 6 (1.62%) Summit
4 5 (1.35%) Elite 3E
4 5 (1.35%) NetSuite
4 5 (1.35%) Oracle Cash Management
4 5 (1.35%) Oracle General Ledger
5 4 (1.08%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (1.08%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.81%) Findur
6 3 (0.81%) Oracle Assets
7 2 (0.54%) Oracle Retail
7 2 (0.54%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 76 (20.54%) Azure
2 45 (12.16%) AWS
3 26 (7.03%) Azure DevOps
4 25 (6.76%) Boomi
5 18 (4.86%) Power Platform
6 16 (4.32%) GitHub
7 15 (4.05%) GCP
7 15 (4.05%) OCI
8 14 (3.78%) SaaS
8 14 (3.78%) Serverless
9 13 (3.51%) Azure Data Factory
10 9 (2.43%) Azure Functions
10 9 (2.43%) Azure Logic Apps
10 9 (2.43%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 9 (2.43%) Dynamics 365
10 9 (2.43%) IaaS
10 9 (2.43%) PaaS
11 8 (2.16%) AtomSphere
11 8 (2.16%) Azure Service Bus
11 8 (2.16%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 15 (4.05%) HTTP
2 8 (2.16%) FTP
3 6 (1.62%) 3GPP
4 4 (1.08%) RTCP
4 4 (1.08%) RTP
4 4 (1.08%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.08%) XCAP
5 3 (0.81%) SSL
6 2 (0.54%) DNS
6 2 (0.54%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.54%) Internet
6 2 (0.54%) Intranet
7 1 (0.27%) AMQP
7 1 (0.27%) FIX Connectivity
7 1 (0.27%) NAS
7 1 (0.27%) Network Security
7 1 (0.27%) SAN
7 1 (0.27%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (11.62%) SQL Server
2 35 (9.46%) Relational Database
3 20 (5.41%) RDBMS
4 19 (5.14%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (4.86%) PostgreSQL
6 16 (4.32%) NoSQL
6 16 (4.32%) Oracle Database
7 15 (4.05%) MongoDB
7 15 (4.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 14 (3.78%) Power BI
9 12 (3.24%) Data Lake
9 12 (3.24%) Metadata
9 12 (3.24%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 10 (2.70%) MySQL
10 10 (2.70%) Oracle Reports
11 5 (1.35%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (1.35%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 4 (1.08%) DataStage
12 4 (1.08%) MS Access
12 4 (1.08%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 36 (9.73%) Git
2 33 (8.92%) JIRA
3 29 (7.84%) Postman
4 10 (2.70%) GitLab
4 10 (2.70%) Jenkins
5 9 (2.43%) Maven
5 9 (2.43%) SoapUI
5 9 (2.43%) Team Foundation Server
6 8 (2.16%) Visual Studio
7 6 (1.62%) JMeter
7 6 (1.62%) Selenium
8 5 (1.35%) Eclipse
8 5 (1.35%) Subversion
9 4 (1.08%) Bitbucket
9 4 (1.08%) Cypress.io
9 4 (1.08%) Gradle
9 4 (1.08%) JUnit
9 4 (1.08%) REST Assured
9 4 (1.08%) TeamCity
10 3 (0.81%) Newman
General
1 125 (33.78%) Social Skills
2 81 (21.89%) Finance
3 77 (20.81%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (10.54%) Banking
5 31 (8.38%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.24%) Legal
6 12 (3.24%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (2.97%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.43%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (2.16%) Manufacturing
9 8 (2.16%) Publishing
9 8 (2.16%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.89%) General Ledger
10 7 (1.89%) Military
11 5 (1.35%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.35%) Marketing
11 5 (1.35%) Retail
12 4 (1.08%) Advertising
12 4 (1.08%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 101 (27.30%) Developer
2 58 (15.68%) Consultant
3 48 (12.97%) Analyst
4 30 (8.11%) Implementation Consultant
5 29 (7.84%) Business Analyst
6 28 (7.57%) Senior
7 26 (7.03%) Architect
8 22 (5.95%) Data Engineer
9 16 (4.32%) Lead
10 15 (4.05%) C# Developer
11 13 (3.51%) Payroll Consultant
12 11 (2.97%) Senior Developer
13 10 (2.70%) DBA
13 10 (2.70%) Integration Specialist
13 10 (2.70%) Software Engineer
13 10 (2.70%) Technical Consultant
14 9 (2.43%) Integration Developer
14 9 (2.43%) Integration Engineer
15 8 (2.16%) Technical Business Analyst
15 8 (2.16%) Workflow Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (47.57%) JSON
2 119 (32.16%) REST
3 105 (28.38%) SOAP
4 52 (14.05%) Middleware
5 51 (13.78%) Web Services
6 47 (12.70%) .NET
7 38 (10.27%) XSLT
8 27 (7.30%) OAuth
9 25 (6.76%) HTML
10 20 (5.41%) EDI
10 20 (5.41%) JWT
10 20 (5.41%) Oracle Fusion
11 19 (5.14%) Kafka
11 19 (5.14%) Swagger
12 18 (4.86%) CSS
12 18 (4.86%) RESTful
13 15 (4.05%) .NET Framework
14 14 (3.78%) ASP.NET
14 14 (3.78%) OAuth2
14 14 (3.78%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 14 (3.78%) Product Ownership
2 13 (3.51%) Data Structures
3 11 (2.97%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (2.43%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 8 (2.16%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (2.16%) Derivative
5 8 (2.16%) Onboarding
6 7 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
6 7 (1.89%) Credit Risk
6 7 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (1.89%) Fixed Income
6 7 (1.89%) Management Information System
6 7 (1.89%) Market Risk
6 7 (1.89%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 6 (1.62%) CMDB
7 6 (1.62%) Hybrid Cloud
7 6 (1.62%) Public Cloud
7 6 (1.62%) Replication
8 5 (1.35%) Cloud Native
8 5 (1.35%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 21 (5.68%) Linux
2 20 (5.41%) Unix
3 11 (2.97%) Windows
4 3 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.81%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.54%) VMS
5 2 (0.54%) zOS
6 1 (0.27%) Android
6 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (26.22%) Problem-Solving
2 96 (25.95%) Agile
3 71 (19.19%) CI/CD
4 70 (18.92%) DevOps
5 54 (14.59%) Integration Patterns
6 52 (14.05%) Validation
7 50 (13.51%) Workflow
8 44 (11.89%) Migration
9 43 (11.62%) ERP
10 42 (11.35%) Stakeholder Management
11 41 (11.08%) Data Modelling
12 40 (10.81%) ETL
13 34 (9.19%) Data Mapping
14 33 (8.92%) User Acceptance Testing
15 32 (8.65%) Scrum
15 32 (8.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 27 (7.30%) SDLC
17 25 (6.76%) Microservices
17 25 (6.76%) Requirements Gathering
17 25 (6.76%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 165 (44.59%) SQL
2 61 (16.49%) Java
3 52 (14.05%) JavaScript
4 51 (13.78%) C#
5 49 (13.24%) Python
6 42 (11.35%) T-SQL
7 25 (6.76%) PL/SQL
8 15 (4.05%) PowerShell
9 12 (3.24%) C++
10 11 (2.97%) Groovy
11 10 (2.70%) VB
11 10 (2.70%) VB.NET
12 9 (2.43%) VB6
12 9 (2.43%) VBA
13 8 (2.16%) XPath
14 6 (1.62%) Bicep
15 5 (1.35%) DataWeave
16 4 (1.08%) ABAP
16 4 (1.08%) C
17 3 (0.81%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 85 (22.97%) Security Cleared
2 62 (16.76%) SC Cleared
3 30 (8.11%) Degree
4 12 (3.24%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (2.97%) Computer Science Degree
6 9 (2.43%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.35%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.35%) DBS Check
7 5 (1.35%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.08%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.08%) ISTQB
8 4 (1.08%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 4 (1.08%) TOGAF Certification
9 2 (0.54%) CISSP
9 2 (0.54%) GIAC
9 2 (0.54%) HNC
9 2 (0.54%) HND
9 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.54%) PMI Certification
9 2 (0.54%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.22%) QA
2 19 (5.14%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.24%) GDPR
4 7 (1.89%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.89%) ISO 20022
5 6 (1.62%) HL7
6 4 (1.08%) GAAP
6 4 (1.08%) WCAG
7 3 (0.81%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.81%) FATCA
7 3 (0.81%) GRC
7 3 (0.81%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.81%) PSD2
8 2 (0.54%) Basel III
8 2 (0.54%) IFRS
8 2 (0.54%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.54%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.54%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.54%) SLA
System Software
1 12 (3.24%) Docker
2 4 (1.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.81%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.81%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.54%) RACF
4 2 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.27%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 12 (3.24%) Kubernetes
2 10 (2.70%) Ansible
3 7 (1.89%) Terraform
4 5 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (0.81%) Control-M
5 3 (0.81%) vRealize Orchestrator
6 2 (0.54%) Grafana
6 2 (0.54%) QRadar
6 2 (0.54%) WMI
7 1 (0.27%) vRealize
Vendors
1 96 (25.95%) Oracle
2 64 (17.30%) Microsoft
3 34 (9.19%) SAP
4 27 (7.30%) MuleSoft
4 27 (7.30%) ServiceNow
5 25 (6.76%) Workday
6 18 (4.86%) IBM
7 15 (4.05%) Salesforce
8 11 (2.97%) Google
9 8 (2.16%) Databricks
10 7 (1.89%) Dell
10 7 (1.89%) Informatica
11 6 (1.62%) Pega
11 6 (1.62%) webMethods
12 5 (1.35%) Intapp
12 5 (1.35%) InterSystems
12 5 (1.35%) Kronos
12 5 (1.35%) Talend
13 4 (1.08%) Okta
13 4 (1.08%) VMware