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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 299 245 177
Rank change year-on-year -54 -68 +18
Contract jobs citing XML 444 369 543
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.12% 1.41%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.75% 4.37% 5.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 313 244 300
10th Percentile £326 £343 £339
25th Percentile £405 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £493 £510
Median % change year-on-year +1.52% -3.43% -7.27%
75th Percentile £603 £575 £618
90th Percentile £698 £688 £676
UK excluding London median daily rate £438 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -7.89% -5.00% -4.76%
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 11,845 8,450 9,555
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.71% 25.60% 24.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,776 5,680 6,380
10th Percentile £375 £355 £357
25th Percentile £435 £413 £436
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £634 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +6.32% -5.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 293 183 187
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £25.60
25th Percentile £49.00 £41.00 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £52.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +23.81% -14.77% -1.44%
75th Percentile £76.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £74.50 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +22.73% -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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -89 349 £488 -2.50% 200
London -32 193 £538 +2.38% 108
UK excluding London -98 171 £438 -7.89% 112
Work from Home -58 146 £525 +7.69% 288
South East -54 46 £460 -3.16% 36
Midlands -28 41 £415 -3.49% 21
West Midlands -31 33 £410 -11.83% 15
North of England -86 30 £375 -19.18% 13
North West -60 22 £375 -16.67% 6
Scotland -12 20 £450 -10.00% 15
South West -36 19 £550 +46.67% 15
East of England -41 10 £480 -1.64% 7
Yorkshire -43 8 £378 -31.36% 6
East Midlands -14 7 £494 +82.96% 6
Northern Ireland +5 3 £650 +59.51% 2
Wales -29 3 £600 +60.00% 3
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 32 (7.21%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.50%) Confluence
3 17 (3.83%) Anypoint
3 17 (3.83%) Oracle Workflow
4 16 (3.60%) IIS
5 13 (2.93%) Mule
6 10 (2.25%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 7 (1.58%) WebSphere
8 6 (1.35%) Apache
9 5 (1.13%) WebLogic
10 3 (0.68%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.68%) CMS
10 3 (0.68%) MQSeries
10 3 (0.68%) Oracle Service Bus
11 2 (0.45%) CICS
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 13 (2.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.58%) MS Visio
4 6 (1.35%) 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 (4.95%) Oracle EBS
2 16 (3.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (3.60%) NetSuite
2 16 (3.60%) Oracle Payables
3 13 (2.93%) Oracle Receivables
4 10 (2.25%) SAP S/4HANA
5 9 (2.03%) Oracle General Ledger
6 7 (1.58%) Oracle Assets
6 7 (1.58%) Oracle FAH
7 6 (1.35%) Maximo
7 6 (1.35%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (1.13%) Elite 3E
8 5 (1.13%) FLEXCUBE
8 5 (1.13%) SAP FI
8 5 (1.13%) Workday HCM
9 4 (0.90%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 4 (0.90%) Oracle Internet Expenses
9 4 (0.90%) Oracle iProcurement
10 3 (0.68%) SAP CO
10 3 (0.68%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 117 (26.35%) Azure
2 61 (13.74%) AWS
3 54 (12.16%) Azure DevOps
4 44 (9.91%) Boomi
5 30 (6.76%) GCP
6 21 (4.73%) AtomSphere
6 21 (4.73%) Power Platform
7 20 (4.50%) Azure Service Bus
7 20 (4.50%) GitHub
8 18 (4.05%) Azure Logic Apps
8 18 (4.05%) Entra ID
9 17 (3.83%) Dynamics 365
10 16 (3.60%) Azure Functions
10 16 (3.60%) SaaS
10 16 (3.60%) Serverless
11 15 (3.38%) Power Automate
12 12 (2.70%) iPaaS
13 10 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (2.03%) Amazon S3
14 9 (2.03%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 31 (6.98%) HTTP
2 9 (2.03%) FTP
3 7 (1.58%) SSL
4 6 (1.35%) 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 57 (12.84%) SQL Server
2 40 (9.01%) Relational Database
3 25 (5.63%) Oracle Database
4 22 (4.95%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.83%) Oracle Reports
6 14 (3.15%) RDBMS
6 14 (3.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 13 (2.93%) Metadata
7 13 (2.93%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 12 (2.70%) MS Access
9 11 (2.48%) MySQL
9 11 (2.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 10 (2.25%) MongoDB
11 8 (1.80%) Data Warehouse
11 8 (1.80%) NoSQL
12 7 (1.58%) DataStage
12 7 (1.58%) Power BI
12 7 (1.58%) Tableau
13 6 (1.35%) Data Lake
14 5 (1.13%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 61 (13.74%) Git
2 45 (10.14%) JIRA
3 26 (5.86%) Jenkins
4 25 (5.63%) Postman
5 22 (4.95%) Team Foundation Server
5 22 (4.95%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.28%) Oracle Forms
6 19 (4.28%) Selenium
7 11 (2.48%) Gradle
7 11 (2.48%) JMeter
8 10 (2.25%) GitLab
8 10 (2.25%) Maven
9 9 (2.03%) 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 (1.13%) Cypress.io
General
1 148 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 103 (23.20%) Finance
3 100 (22.52%) Analytical Skills
4 52 (11.71%) Public Sector
5 43 (9.68%) Banking
6 13 (2.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (2.70%) Manufacturing
7 12 (2.70%) Telecoms
8 9 (2.03%) General Ledger
8 9 (2.03%) Law
8 9 (2.03%) Publishing
9 8 (1.80%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.80%) Legal
9 8 (1.80%) Retail
10 7 (1.58%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.58%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.35%) Police
12 5 (1.13%) Aerospace
13 4 (0.90%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.90%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 149 (33.56%) Developer
2 57 (12.84%) Senior
3 46 (10.36%) Architect
4 42 (9.46%) Analyst
5 35 (7.88%) Consultant
6 31 (6.98%) Lead
7 27 (6.08%) Senior Developer
8 23 (5.18%) Data Engineer
9 22 (4.95%) Software Developer
10 17 (3.83%) Business Analyst
11 16 (3.60%) Solutions Architect
12 14 (3.15%) Integration Developer
13 13 (2.93%) C# Developer
13 13 (2.93%) Lead Developer
13 13 (2.93%) Software Engineer
14 12 (2.70%) Technical Consultant
14 12 (2.70%) Test Analyst
15 11 (2.48%) Oracle Developer
16 10 (2.25%) .NET Developer
16 10 (2.25%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 229 (51.58%) JSON
2 173 (38.96%) REST
3 152 (34.23%) SOAP
4 87 (19.59%) .NET
5 78 (17.57%) Web Services
6 77 (17.34%) Middleware
7 56 (12.61%) XSLT
8 44 (9.91%) HTML
9 42 (9.46%) OAuth
10 41 (9.23%) Kafka
11 28 (6.31%) OAuth2
12 27 (6.08%) .NET Framework
12 27 (6.08%) RESTful
13 26 (5.86%) CSS
13 26 (5.86%) EDI
14 24 (5.41%) JWT
15 22 (4.95%) Swagger
16 18 (4.05%) OpenAPI
17 17 (3.83%) XSD
18 16 (3.60%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.73%) Enterprise Software
2 20 (4.50%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.28%) Product Ownership
4 18 (4.05%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 17 (3.83%) Data Structures
6 16 (3.60%) Cloud Native
7 15 (3.38%) Distributed Systems
8 13 (2.93%) Management Information System
9 11 (2.48%) Onboarding
9 11 (2.48%) Replication
9 11 (2.48%) Taxonomies
10 9 (2.03%) CMDB
10 9 (2.03%) Legacy Applications
10 9 (2.03%) LIMS
11 8 (1.80%) PKI
12 7 (1.58%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (1.35%) Algorithms
13 6 (1.35%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 6 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
13 6 (1.35%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 36 (8.11%) Linux
2 32 (7.21%) Windows
3 26 (5.86%) Unix
4 10 (2.25%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.68%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Android
7 1 (0.23%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.23%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (30.63%) Problem-Solving
2 108 (24.32%) Agile
3 101 (22.75%) CI/CD
3 101 (22.75%) DevOps
4 84 (18.92%) Validation
5 64 (14.41%) Integration Patterns
6 61 (13.74%) Test Automation
6 61 (13.74%) Workflow
7 59 (13.29%) Stakeholder Management
8 56 (12.61%) Data Modelling
9 50 (11.26%) Continuous Improvement
9 50 (11.26%) Event-Driven
9 50 (11.26%) Migration
10 46 (10.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 44 (9.91%) ERP
12 42 (9.46%) Scrum
13 40 (9.01%) User Acceptance Testing
14 39 (8.78%) API Management
14 39 (8.78%) Software Engineering
15 38 (8.56%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 181 (40.77%) SQL
2 102 (22.97%) Java
3 90 (20.27%) JavaScript
4 81 (18.24%) C#
5 79 (17.79%) Python
6 38 (8.56%) PL/SQL
7 24 (5.41%) VB.NET
8 23 (5.18%) PowerShell
8 23 (5.18%) VBA
9 21 (4.73%) Groovy
10 20 (4.50%) C++
11 18 (4.05%) VB
12 17 (3.83%) T-SQL
12 17 (3.83%) VB6
13 15 (3.38%) XPath
14 9 (2.03%) TypeScript
15 7 (1.58%) ABAP
15 7 (1.58%) Bicep
15 7 (1.58%) Shell Script
16 6 (1.35%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 132 (29.73%) Security Cleared
2 108 (24.32%) SC Cleared
3 44 (9.91%) Degree
4 23 (5.18%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.60%) DV Cleared
5 16 (3.60%) ISTQB
6 12 (2.70%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 9 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (1.80%) ISEB
10 5 (1.13%) AWS Certification
10 5 (1.13%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.13%) TOGAF 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 (0.23%) CEH
13 1 (0.23%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (8.33%) QA
2 26 (5.86%) Data Quality
3 20 (4.50%) ISO 20022
4 15 (3.38%) Accessibility
5 13 (2.93%) GDPR
6 12 (2.70%) WCAG
7 9 (2.03%) GMP
8 8 (1.80%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 8 (1.80%) GxP
8 8 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 17025
9 6 (1.35%) HL7
9 6 (1.35%) SLA
10 5 (1.13%) GRC
11 4 (0.90%) ISO 15022
12 3 (0.68%) SEPA
13 2 (0.45%) NCSC
14 1 (0.23%) IFRS
14 1 (0.23%) NIST
14 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
14 1 (0.23%) PSD2
System Software
1 16 (3.60%) Active Directory
2 13 (2.93%) 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 16 (3.60%) Ansible
2 15 (3.38%) Single Sign-On
3 14 (3.15%) Kubernetes
4 5 (1.13%) Control-M
4 5 (1.13%) HP Fortify
5 3 (0.68%) QRadar
5 3 (0.68%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 3 (0.68%) WMI
6 2 (0.45%) CloudHub
6 2 (0.45%) Grafana
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.23%) Kibana
7 1 (0.23%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 137 (30.86%) Oracle
2 108 (24.32%) Microsoft
3 47 (10.59%) SAP
4 42 (9.46%) IBM
5 38 (8.56%) MuleSoft
6 33 (7.43%) ServiceNow
7 30 (6.76%) Salesforce
8 26 (5.86%) Google
9 23 (5.18%) Workday
10 13 (2.93%) Okta
11 11 (2.48%) Informatica
12 10 (2.25%) Databricks
12 10 (2.25%) webMethods
13 9 (2.03%) TIBCO
14 8 (1.80%) BeyondTrust
14 8 (1.80%) WSO2
15 5 (1.13%) Intapp
15 5 (1.13%) Kronos
15 5 (1.13%) VMware
16 4 (0.90%) InterSystems