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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 309 234 179
Rank change year-on-year -75 -55 +17
Contract jobs citing XML 441 378 528
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.15% 1.39%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.72% 4.53% 5.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 253 290
10th Percentile £325 £351 £325
25th Percentile £405 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £575 £619
90th Percentile £700 £688 £689
UK excluding London median daily rate £433 £455 £500
% change year-on-year -4.84% -9.00% -5.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 26 44
10th Percentile £28.13 £30.63 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £30.00 £42.75 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.82% -0.58% -38.57%
75th Percentile £41.75 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £43.76 £91.88 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -29.41% -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 11,852 8,341 9,421
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.76% 25.47% 24.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,779 5,612 6,310
10th Percentile £375 £355 £357
25th Percentile £435 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £633 £626 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £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 291 181 188
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £25.60
25th Percentile £46.53 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £67.00 £52.50 £61.80
Median % change year-on-year +27.62% -15.05% -1.12%
75th Percentile £76.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £75.00 £74.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +23.64% -15.38% +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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -84 348 £488 -2.01% 297
London -46 194 £540 +2.86% 181
UK excluding London -104 169 £433 -4.84% 153
Work from Home -67 149 £525 +9.38% 382
South East -65 45 £460 -3.16% 47
Midlands -30 39 £415 -3.49% 27
North of England -82 32 £375 -16.67% 20
West Midlands -30 31 £410 -11.83% 17
North West -66 23 £375 -16.67% 11
Scotland -14 20 £450 -10.00% 19
South West -43 18 £550 +46.67% 16
East of England -43 10 £480 -1.64% 11
Yorkshire -32 9 £375 -31.82% 6
East Midlands -12 7 £494 +82.96% 10
Northern Ireland +5 3 £650 +59.51% 11
Wales -29 3 £600 +60.00% 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 30 (6.80%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.54%) Confluence
3 17 (3.85%) Anypoint
3 17 (3.85%) Oracle Workflow
4 16 (3.63%) IIS
5 13 (2.95%) Mule
6 9 (2.04%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 7 (1.59%) WebSphere
8 6 (1.36%) Apache
9 5 (1.13%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.68%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.68%) CMS
10 3 (0.68%) MQSeries
11 2 (0.45%) CICS
11 2 (0.45%) Oracle Service Bus
12 1 (0.23%) JBoss
12 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
12 1 (0.23%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 17 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.59%) MS Visio
4 6 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.45%) Windchill
7 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.23%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 22 (4.99%) Oracle EBS
2 16 (3.63%) NetSuite
2 16 (3.63%) Oracle Payables
3 14 (3.17%) Dynamics CRM
4 13 (2.95%) Oracle Receivables
5 10 (2.27%) SAP S/4HANA
6 9 (2.04%) Oracle General Ledger
7 7 (1.59%) Oracle Assets
7 7 (1.59%) Oracle FAH
8 6 (1.36%) Maximo
8 6 (1.36%) Oracle Financials
9 5 (1.13%) Elite 3E
9 5 (1.13%) FLEXCUBE
9 5 (1.13%) SAP FI
9 5 (1.13%) Workday HCM
10 4 (0.91%) Oracle E-Business Tax
10 4 (0.91%) Oracle Internet Expenses
10 4 (0.91%) Oracle iProcurement
10 4 (0.91%) Summit
11 3 (0.68%) SAP CO
Cloud Services
1 115 (26.08%) Azure
2 60 (13.61%) AWS
3 53 (12.02%) Azure DevOps
4 44 (9.98%) Boomi
5 29 (6.58%) GCP
6 21 (4.76%) AtomSphere
6 21 (4.76%) GitHub
7 20 (4.54%) Azure Service Bus
7 20 (4.54%) Power Platform
8 18 (4.08%) Azure Logic Apps
8 18 (4.08%) Entra ID
9 16 (3.63%) SaaS
10 15 (3.40%) Dynamics 365
11 14 (3.17%) Azure Functions
11 14 (3.17%) Serverless
12 13 (2.95%) Power Automate
13 12 (2.72%) iPaaS
14 10 (2.27%) GitHub Actions
14 10 (2.27%) PowerApps
15 9 (2.04%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 31 (7.03%) HTTP
2 9 (2.04%) FTP
3 7 (1.59%) SSL
4 6 (1.36%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.13%) Network Security
6 3 (0.68%) 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 (0.23%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.23%) Firewall
8 1 (0.23%) NAS
8 1 (0.23%) NFC
8 1 (0.23%) SAN
8 1 (0.23%) VPN
8 1 (0.23%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (13.61%) SQL Server
2 40 (9.07%) Relational Database
3 25 (5.67%) Oracle Database
4 21 (4.76%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.85%) Oracle Reports
6 15 (3.40%) RDBMS
7 14 (3.17%) Metadata
7 14 (3.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 13 (2.95%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 11 (2.49%) MS Access
9 11 (2.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 10 (2.27%) MySQL
11 9 (2.04%) MongoDB
12 8 (1.81%) Data Warehouse
12 8 (1.81%) NoSQL
12 8 (1.81%) Power BI
13 7 (1.59%) DataStage
13 7 (1.59%) Tableau
14 6 (1.36%) Data Lake
14 6 (1.36%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 59 (13.38%) Git
2 45 (10.20%) JIRA
3 26 (5.90%) Postman
4 24 (5.44%) Jenkins
5 22 (4.99%) Team Foundation Server
5 22 (4.99%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.31%) Oracle Forms
6 19 (4.31%) Selenium
7 11 (2.49%) JMeter
8 10 (2.27%) GitLab
8 10 (2.27%) Gradle
9 9 (2.04%) Maven
9 9 (2.04%) SoapUI
10 8 (1.81%) eggPlant
10 8 (1.81%) SonarQube
10 8 (1.81%) WebDriver
11 6 (1.36%) JDeveloper
11 6 (1.36%) LoadRunner
12 5 (1.13%) Cucumber
12 5 (1.13%) Cypress.io
General
1 146 (33.11%) Social Skills
2 106 (24.04%) Finance
3 103 (23.36%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (11.34%) Public Sector
5 44 (9.98%) Banking
6 12 (2.72%) Legal
6 12 (2.72%) Manufacturing
6 12 (2.72%) Telecoms
7 10 (2.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 10 (2.27%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (2.04%) General Ledger
8 9 (2.04%) Law
9 8 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.81%) Investment Banking
9 8 (1.81%) Publishing
9 8 (1.81%) Retail
10 6 (1.36%) Police
11 4 (0.91%) Advertising
11 4 (0.91%) Aerospace
11 4 (0.91%) Billing
Job Titles
1 145 (32.88%) Developer
2 56 (12.70%) Senior
3 46 (10.43%) Architect
4 44 (9.98%) Analyst
5 39 (8.84%) Consultant
6 30 (6.80%) Lead
7 26 (5.90%) Senior Developer
8 24 (5.44%) Data Engineer
9 22 (4.99%) Software Developer
10 19 (4.31%) Business Analyst
11 16 (3.63%) Solutions Architect
12 15 (3.40%) Integration Developer
13 13 (2.95%) C# Developer
13 13 (2.95%) Software Engineer
14 12 (2.72%) Lead Developer
14 12 (2.72%) Oracle Developer
14 12 (2.72%) Technical Consultant
14 12 (2.72%) Test Analyst
15 10 (2.27%) .NET Developer
15 10 (2.27%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 226 (51.25%) JSON
2 171 (38.78%) REST
3 150 (34.01%) SOAP
4 87 (19.73%) .NET
5 77 (17.46%) Middleware
6 76 (17.23%) Web Services
7 54 (12.24%) XSLT
8 42 (9.52%) HTML
8 42 (9.52%) OAuth
9 40 (9.07%) Kafka
10 27 (6.12%) .NET Framework
10 27 (6.12%) OAuth2
11 26 (5.90%) EDI
11 26 (5.90%) RESTful
12 25 (5.67%) JWT
13 24 (5.44%) CSS
14 22 (4.99%) Swagger
15 18 (4.08%) OpenAPI
16 16 (3.63%) RabbitMQ
16 16 (3.63%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.76%) Enterprise Software
2 20 (4.54%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.31%) Product Ownership
4 18 (4.08%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 17 (3.85%) Data Structures
6 16 (3.63%) Cloud Native
7 14 (3.17%) Distributed Systems
8 11 (2.49%) Management Information System
8 11 (2.49%) Onboarding
8 11 (2.49%) Replication
9 9 (2.04%) Legacy Applications
9 9 (2.04%) LIMS
9 9 (2.04%) Taxonomies
10 8 (1.81%) CMDB
10 8 (1.81%) PKI
11 7 (1.59%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 7 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
12 6 (1.36%) Algorithms
12 6 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 34 (7.71%) Linux
2 32 (7.26%) Windows
3 26 (5.90%) Unix
4 10 (2.27%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.68%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Android
7 1 (0.23%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (30.39%) Problem-Solving
2 105 (23.81%) Agile
3 99 (22.45%) DevOps
4 98 (22.22%) CI/CD
5 85 (19.27%) Validation
6 64 (14.51%) Integration Patterns
7 62 (14.06%) Workflow
8 60 (13.61%) Test Automation
9 57 (12.93%) Stakeholder Management
10 54 (12.24%) Data Modelling
10 54 (12.24%) Migration
11 50 (11.34%) Event-Driven
12 48 (10.88%) Continuous Improvement
13 46 (10.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 44 (9.98%) ERP
15 42 (9.52%) Scrum
16 40 (9.07%) User Acceptance Testing
17 39 (8.84%) API Management
17 39 (8.84%) Data Mapping
18 37 (8.39%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 183 (41.50%) SQL
2 101 (22.90%) Java
3 86 (19.50%) JavaScript
4 79 (17.91%) C#
5 78 (17.69%) Python
6 38 (8.62%) PL/SQL
7 24 (5.44%) VB.NET
8 23 (5.22%) PowerShell
8 23 (5.22%) VBA
9 21 (4.76%) Groovy
9 21 (4.76%) T-SQL
10 19 (4.31%) C++
11 18 (4.08%) VB
12 17 (3.85%) VB6
13 15 (3.40%) XPath
14 9 (2.04%) TypeScript
15 7 (1.59%) ABAP
15 7 (1.59%) Bicep
15 7 (1.59%) Shell Script
16 6 (1.36%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 127 (28.80%) Security Cleared
2 103 (23.36%) SC Cleared
3 39 (8.84%) Degree
4 22 (4.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.63%) ISTQB
6 14 (3.17%) DV Cleared
7 11 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 8 (1.81%) ISEB
9 7 (1.59%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.36%) DBS Check
11 5 (1.13%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.13%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.91%) Azure Certification
13 3 (0.68%) Master's Degree
14 2 (0.45%) CISSP
14 2 (0.45%) GIAC
14 2 (0.45%) SSCP
15 1 (0.23%) CEH
15 1 (0.23%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (8.16%) QA
2 25 (5.67%) Data Quality
3 20 (4.54%) ISO 20022
4 13 (2.95%) Accessibility
5 11 (2.49%) GDPR
6 10 (2.27%) WCAG
7 9 (2.04%) GMP
8 8 (1.81%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 8 (1.81%) GxP
8 8 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 17025
9 6 (1.36%) HL7
9 6 (1.36%) SLA
10 5 (1.13%) GRC
11 4 (0.91%) ISO 15022
12 3 (0.68%) SEPA
13 2 (0.45%) NCSC
14 1 (0.23%) COREP
14 1 (0.23%) NIST
14 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
14 1 (0.23%) PSD2
System Software
1 16 (3.63%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.49%) Docker
3 5 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.45%) RACF
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (3.40%) Ansible
1 15 (3.40%) Single Sign-On
2 12 (2.72%) Kubernetes
3 5 (1.13%) Control-M
3 5 (1.13%) HP Fortify
4 3 (0.68%) QRadar
4 3 (0.68%) vRealize Orchestrator
4 3 (0.68%) WMI
5 2 (0.45%) CloudHub
6 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
6 1 (0.23%) Grafana
6 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.23%) Kibana
6 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 137 (31.07%) Oracle
2 109 (24.72%) Microsoft
3 47 (10.66%) SAP
4 42 (9.52%) IBM
5 38 (8.62%) MuleSoft
6 32 (7.26%) ServiceNow
7 30 (6.80%) Salesforce
8 24 (5.44%) Google
9 23 (5.22%) Workday
10 13 (2.95%) Okta
11 11 (2.49%) Databricks
11 11 (2.49%) Informatica
12 10 (2.27%) webMethods
13 9 (2.04%) TIBCO
14 8 (1.81%) BeyondTrust
14 8 (1.81%) WSO2
15 5 (1.13%) Intapp
15 5 (1.13%) Kronos
15 5 (1.13%) VMware
16 4 (0.91%) InterSystems