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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 299 220 165
Rank change year-on-year -79 -55 +24
Contract jobs citing XML 428 391 575
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.80% 1.19% 1.48%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.23% 5.28% 6.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 284 263 296
10th Percentile £325 £357 £363
25th Percentile £400 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -10.91%
75th Percentile £614 £550 £600
90th Percentile £700 £636 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £450 £484
% change year-on-year -5.56% -6.98% -8.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 24 67
10th Percentile £28.13 £27.03 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £42.00 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.95% -2.33% -38.57%
75th Percentile £43.00 £43.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £49.34 £57.75 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £42.00 £43.00
% change year-on-year -5.95% -2.33% -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 10,110 7,404 8,582
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 18.94% 22.46% 22.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,592 4,974 5,801
10th Percentile £363 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £501 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.90% -9.00% -
75th Percentile £638 £631 £663
90th Percentile £738 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +6.61% -6.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 262 173 241
10th Percentile £28.04 £29.40 £22.50
25th Percentile £41.28 £40.75 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% -1.82% -8.33%
75th Percentile £73.00 £67.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £81.01 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £58.91
% change year-on-year +18.18% -6.63% +0.54%

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 August 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 August 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 12 August 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 -81 351 £488 +2.63% 284
UK excluding London -104 182 £425 -5.56% 147
London -45 180 £540 +2.86% 179
Work from Home -60 137 £500 +10.38% 106
South East -58 56 £460 -3.16% 41
North of England -82 42 £390 -13.33% 31
Midlands -33 37 £416 -3.08% 21
North West -57 34 £390 -13.33% 16
West Midlands -34 27 £411 -11.56% 10
Scotland -2 17 £444 -10.53% 16
South West -37 17 £550 +46.67% 15
East Midlands -2 9 £494 +57.32% 11
East of England -35 9 £450 -18.18% 8
Yorkshire -41 8 £399 -24.05% 12
Northern Ireland +4 3 £650 +36.84% 8
Wales -25 3 £600 +60.00% 4

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 23 (5.37%) Confluence
2 21 (4.91%) SharePoint
3 18 (4.21%) Anypoint
4 16 (3.74%) IIS
5 14 (3.27%) Oracle Workflow
6 13 (3.04%) Mule
7 6 (1.40%) WebSphere
8 5 (1.17%) CMS
8 5 (1.17%) WebLogic
9 4 (0.93%) Apache
9 4 (0.93%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 3 (0.70%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.47%) CICS
11 2 (0.47%) MQSeries
12 1 (0.23%) JBoss
12 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
12 1 (0.23%) Oracle Self-Service HR
12 1 (0.23%) Oracle Service Bus
12 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 40 (9.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (2.57%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.40%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.70%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.23%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 22 (5.14%) Oracle EBS
2 15 (3.50%) NetSuite
3 14 (3.27%) Oracle Payables
4 12 (2.80%) Oracle Receivables
5 9 (2.10%) SAP S/4HANA
6 8 (1.87%) Oracle General Ledger
7 7 (1.64%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (1.40%) Maximo
8 6 (1.40%) Oracle Assets
8 6 (1.40%) Oracle FAH
9 5 (1.17%) Elite 3E
9 5 (1.17%) Oracle Financials
10 4 (0.93%) Oracle E-Business Tax
10 4 (0.93%) Oracle ERP
10 4 (0.93%) Oracle Internet Expenses
10 4 (0.93%) Oracle iProcurement
10 4 (0.93%) SAP FI
10 4 (0.93%) Summit
11 3 (0.70%) Findur
11 3 (0.70%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 105 (24.53%) Azure
2 53 (12.38%) AWS
3 46 (10.75%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (9.35%) Boomi
5 27 (6.31%) GCP
6 20 (4.67%) AtomSphere
7 19 (4.44%) GitHub
8 18 (4.21%) Azure Service Bus
9 17 (3.97%) SaaS
10 15 (3.50%) Entra ID
10 15 (3.50%) Serverless
11 14 (3.27%) Azure Logic Apps
12 13 (3.04%) Power Platform
13 10 (2.34%) Azure Functions
13 10 (2.34%) IaaS
13 10 (2.34%) iPaaS
13 10 (2.34%) PaaS
14 9 (2.10%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (2.10%) Dynamics 365
14 9 (2.10%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 27 (6.31%) HTTP
2 8 (1.87%) FTP
3 7 (1.64%) SSL
4 6 (1.40%) TCP/IP
5 4 (0.93%) Network Security
6 2 (0.47%) 3GPP
6 2 (0.47%) DNS
6 2 (0.47%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.47%) Internet
6 2 (0.47%) Intranet
6 2 (0.47%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.47%) WAN
6 2 (0.47%) Wireless
7 1 (0.23%) Bluetooth
7 1 (0.23%) NAS
7 1 (0.23%) NFC
7 1 (0.23%) RTCP
7 1 (0.23%) RTP
7 1 (0.23%) SAN
7 1 (0.23%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (12.62%) SQL Server
2 38 (8.88%) Relational Database
3 20 (4.67%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (4.44%) Oracle Database
4 19 (4.44%) RDBMS
5 17 (3.97%) Oracle Reports
6 14 (3.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 13 (3.04%) MongoDB
8 12 (2.80%) Metadata
8 12 (2.80%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 11 (2.57%) NoSQL
10 10 (2.34%) MS Access
11 9 (2.10%) Data Warehouse
11 9 (2.10%) MySQL
11 9 (2.10%) Power BI
11 9 (2.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 6 (1.40%) DataStage
13 5 (1.17%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (1.17%) Data Lake
13 5 (1.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (11.92%) Git
2 42 (9.81%) JIRA
3 26 (6.07%) Postman
4 21 (4.91%) Jenkins
4 21 (4.91%) Team Foundation Server
4 21 (4.91%) Visual Studio
5 15 (3.50%) Oracle Forms
5 15 (3.50%) Selenium
6 10 (2.34%) JMeter
6 10 (2.34%) Maven
6 10 (2.34%) SoapUI
7 9 (2.10%) GitLab
7 9 (2.10%) Gradle
8 6 (1.40%) JDeveloper
8 6 (1.40%) WebDriver
9 5 (1.17%) Cypress.io
9 5 (1.17%) REST Assured
10 4 (0.93%) Newman
10 4 (0.93%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.93%) TeamCity
General
1 137 (32.01%) Social Skills
2 94 (21.96%) Finance
3 90 (21.03%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (9.81%) Public Sector
5 37 (8.64%) Banking
6 12 (2.80%) Manufacturing
6 12 (2.80%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (2.80%) Telecoms
7 11 (2.57%) Legal
8 9 (2.10%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (1.87%) Investment Banking
9 8 (1.87%) Publishing
9 8 (1.87%) Retail
10 7 (1.64%) General Ledger
11 6 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.17%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.93%) Advertising
13 4 (0.93%) Aerospace
13 4 (0.93%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 130 (30.37%) Developer
2 61 (14.25%) Consultant
3 48 (11.21%) Senior
4 42 (9.81%) Analyst
5 36 (8.41%) Architect
6 31 (7.24%) Implementation Consultant
7 26 (6.07%) Lead
8 21 (4.91%) Senior Developer
9 20 (4.67%) Business Analyst
10 18 (4.21%) Software Developer
11 17 (3.97%) Data Engineer
12 13 (3.04%) C# Developer
12 13 (3.04%) Payroll Consultant
12 13 (3.04%) Software Engineer
13 12 (2.80%) Integration Specialist
13 12 (2.80%) Oracle Developer
13 12 (2.80%) Technical Consultant
14 11 (2.57%) Integration Developer
14 11 (2.57%) MuleSoft Developer
14 11 (2.57%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 211 (49.30%) JSON
2 158 (36.92%) REST
3 134 (31.31%) SOAP
4 71 (16.59%) .NET
5 66 (15.42%) Middleware
6 60 (14.02%) Web Services
7 45 (10.51%) XSLT
8 39 (9.11%) OAuth
9 38 (8.88%) Kafka
10 34 (7.94%) HTML
11 27 (6.31%) OAuth2
12 24 (5.61%) .NET Framework
12 24 (5.61%) JWT
13 22 (5.14%) EDI
13 22 (5.14%) RESTful
14 21 (4.91%) CSS
15 19 (4.44%) Swagger
16 16 (3.74%) OpenAPI
17 15 (3.50%) ASP.NET
17 15 (3.50%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.91%) Product Ownership
2 19 (4.44%) Legacy Systems
3 17 (3.97%) Enterprise Software
4 16 (3.74%) Data Structures
5 14 (3.27%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.04%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 11 (2.57%) Onboarding
7 11 (2.57%) Replication
8 10 (2.34%) Distributed Systems
9 8 (1.87%) CMDB
9 8 (1.87%) Legacy Applications
9 8 (1.87%) PKI
10 7 (1.64%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 6 (1.40%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (1.40%) Management Information System
11 6 (1.40%) Public Cloud
11 6 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.40%) Taxonomies
12 5 (1.17%) Algorithms
12 5 (1.17%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 30 (7.01%) Linux
2 29 (6.78%) Windows
3 23 (5.37%) Unix
4 7 (1.64%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.47%) VMS
6 2 (0.47%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Android
7 1 (0.23%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (27.34%) Problem-Solving
2 97 (22.66%) DevOps
3 93 (21.73%) Agile
4 91 (21.26%) CI/CD
5 74 (17.29%) Validation
6 64 (14.95%) Workflow
7 57 (13.32%) Integration Patterns
8 51 (11.92%) Migration
9 50 (11.68%) Data Modelling
10 47 (10.98%) Test Automation
11 45 (10.51%) Stakeholder Management
12 43 (10.05%) Event-Driven
13 40 (9.35%) Data Mapping
13 40 (9.35%) ERP
13 40 (9.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 38 (8.88%) User Acceptance Testing
15 37 (8.64%) Scrum
16 35 (8.18%) API Management
17 34 (7.94%) Continuous Improvement
18 33 (7.71%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 188 (43.93%) SQL
2 81 (18.93%) Java
3 75 (17.52%) JavaScript
4 71 (16.59%) Python
5 65 (15.19%) C#
6 46 (10.75%) T-SQL
7 34 (7.94%) PL/SQL
8 22 (5.14%) PowerShell
8 22 (5.14%) VBA
9 21 (4.91%) Groovy
10 19 (4.44%) C++
10 19 (4.44%) VB.NET
11 17 (3.97%) VB
12 16 (3.74%) VB6
13 14 (3.27%) XPath
14 7 (1.64%) Bicep
14 7 (1.64%) DataWeave
15 6 (1.40%) R
15 6 (1.40%) Shell Script
15 6 (1.40%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 113 (26.40%) Security Cleared
2 89 (20.79%) SC Cleared
3 28 (6.54%) Degree
4 17 (3.97%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (3.27%) ISTQB
6 11 (2.57%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 9 (2.10%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (1.40%) DBS Check
9 6 (1.40%) ISEB
10 4 (0.93%) TOGAF Certification
11 3 (0.70%) Azure Certification
12 2 (0.47%) AWS Certification
12 2 (0.47%) CISSP
12 2 (0.47%) GIAC
12 2 (0.47%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (0.47%) SSCP
13 1 (0.23%) CISM
13 1 (0.23%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (7.24%) QA
2 22 (5.14%) Data Quality
3 15 (3.50%) ISO 20022
4 8 (1.87%) Accessibility
4 8 (1.87%) GDPR
5 6 (1.40%) GMP
5 6 (1.40%) SLA
6 5 (1.17%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 5 (1.17%) GxP
6 5 (1.17%) HL7
6 5 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 17025
6 5 (1.17%) WCAG
7 4 (0.93%) GRC
8 3 (0.70%) ISO 15022
9 1 (0.23%) DICOM
9 1 (0.23%) IFRS
9 1 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.23%) NIST
9 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.23%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 13 (3.04%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.57%) Docker
3 4 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.47%) RACF
4 2 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 14 (3.27%) Ansible
2 13 (3.04%) Kubernetes
3 12 (2.80%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (1.87%) Terraform
5 3 (0.70%) HP Fortify
5 3 (0.70%) QRadar
5 3 (0.70%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 3 (0.70%) WMI
6 2 (0.47%) CloudHub
6 2 (0.47%) Control-M
6 2 (0.47%) Grafana
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
7 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 125 (29.21%) Oracle
2 98 (22.90%) Microsoft
3 39 (9.11%) SAP
4 36 (8.41%) MuleSoft
5 34 (7.94%) ServiceNow
6 32 (7.48%) IBM
7 29 (6.78%) Salesforce
8 18 (4.21%) Google
9 17 (3.97%) Workday
10 12 (2.80%) Databricks
11 10 (2.34%) Okta
11 10 (2.34%) webMethods
12 8 (1.87%) Informatica
13 6 (1.40%) TIBCO
14 5 (1.17%) BeyondTrust
14 5 (1.17%) Dell
14 5 (1.17%) Intapp
14 5 (1.17%) Kronos
14 5 (1.17%) WSO2
15 4 (0.93%) Splunk