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

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 275 227 203
Rank change year-on-year -48 -24 -9
Contract jobs citing XML 388 343 515
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 1.14% 1.16%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.30% 5.00% 5.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 257 222 316
10th Percentile £350 £324 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £613 £588 £617
90th Percentile £702 £650 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £513
% change year-on-year - -12.20% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 3 49
10th Percentile £41.30 £39.93 -
25th Percentile £46.25 £59.18 £43.75
Median hourly rate £47.50 £92.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -48.65% +94.74% -32.14%
75th Percentile £59.50 £93.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £79.30 - £59.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £27.76 £47.50
% change year-on-year +71.11% -41.56% -29.63%

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 9,013 6,863 9,188
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.00% 22.72% 20.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,042 4,455 6,433
10th Percentile £358 £359 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -1.69% -7.13%
75th Percentile £620 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 216 88 219
10th Percentile £35.00 £25.95 £22.35
25th Percentile £52.50 £38.44 £42.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +28.28% -25.05%
75th Percentile £74.26 £67.63 £66.25
90th Percentile £81.25 £80.30 £75.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £48.72
% change year-on-year - +33.42% -25.05%

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 24 February 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 24 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Top 14 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 24 February 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 -16 345 £475 -9.52% 129
London -32 185 £525 -1.87% 34
UK excluding London -45 146 £450 - 112
Work from Home -14 126 £475 - 59
North of England -49 53 £402 -13.73% 27
North West -15 41 £400 -10.71% 22
South East -30 40 £475 +20.87% 46
Midlands -39 31 £445 -21.52% 16
West Midlands -41 27 £440 -22.40% 14
East of England -9 15 £675 - 7
Yorkshire -53 12 £463 -18.43% 4
South West -17 6 £475 +2.70% 10
Scotland -5 5 £500 +6.38% 7
East Midlands - 4 £525 - 2

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 (5.93%) WebLogic
2 20 (5.15%) Confluence
3 18 (4.64%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 12 (3.09%) Apache
5 10 (2.58%) WebSphere
6 9 (2.32%) JBoss
7 7 (1.80%) Appian
7 7 (1.80%) MQSeries
7 7 (1.80%) Oracle Workflow
8 5 (1.29%) Anypoint
8 5 (1.29%) Mule
9 4 (1.03%) Oracle Service Bus
10 3 (0.77%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.77%) Documentum
11 2 (0.52%) BizTalk Server
11 2 (0.52%) Mule ESB
11 2 (0.52%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.52%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.26%) Alfresco
12 1 (0.26%) CMS
Applications
1 6 (1.55%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.03%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.52%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.52%) EngageOne
5 2 (0.52%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.26%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 11 (2.84%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (2.32%) SAP Payroll
3 8 (2.06%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.80%) BusinessWorks
4 7 (1.80%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (1.80%) Oracle Receivables
4 7 (1.80%) SAP HCM
5 6 (1.55%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (1.29%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (1.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (1.29%) Payment Gateway
7 4 (1.03%) Maximo
7 4 (1.03%) Oracle 11i
7 4 (1.03%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (1.03%) Workday HCM
8 3 (0.77%) Oracle Assets
8 3 (0.77%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.77%) Salesforce CRM
9 2 (0.52%) NEC Housing
9 2 (0.52%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 90 (23.20%) Azure
2 66 (17.01%) AWS
3 29 (7.47%) OCI
4 26 (6.70%) Power Platform
5 23 (5.93%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (5.67%) GCP
6 22 (5.67%) SaaS
7 19 (4.90%) GitHub
8 18 (4.64%) Cloud Computing
9 17 (4.38%) PaaS
10 15 (3.87%) Boomi
10 15 (3.87%) IaaS
11 14 (3.61%) Dynamics 365
11 14 (3.61%) Serverless
12 12 (3.09%) Apigee
12 12 (3.09%) Azure Data Factory
12 12 (3.09%) Tricentis Tosca
13 10 (2.58%) Azure Logic Apps
13 10 (2.58%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (2.06%) iPaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (7.47%) HTTP
2 27 (6.96%) HTTPS
3 10 (2.58%) Firewall
4 7 (1.80%) SSL
5 6 (1.55%) 3GPP
5 6 (1.55%) FTP
6 4 (1.03%) RTCP
6 4 (1.03%) RTP
6 4 (1.03%) XCAP
7 3 (0.77%) NFC
7 3 (0.77%) PPP
8 2 (0.52%) 5G
8 2 (0.52%) BGP
8 2 (0.52%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 2 (0.52%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 2 (0.52%) FIX Connectivity
8 2 (0.52%) MPLS
8 2 (0.52%) VPN
9 1 (0.26%) Network Security
9 1 (0.26%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (11.08%) SQL Server
2 40 (10.31%) Relational Database
3 25 (6.44%) Data Warehouse
4 23 (5.93%) MongoDB
5 21 (5.41%) PostgreSQL
6 17 (4.38%) Power BI
7 15 (3.87%) Oracle Database
7 15 (3.87%) RDBMS
8 14 (3.61%) NoSQL
8 14 (3.61%) Oracle Reports
9 12 (3.09%) Data Lake
9 12 (3.09%) Metadata
9 12 (3.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 10 (2.58%) MySQL
11 9 (2.32%) DataStage
12 7 (1.80%) DB2
13 6 (1.55%) Apache Cassandra
13 6 (1.55%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (1.55%) Tableau
14 5 (1.29%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 52 (13.40%) JIRA
2 50 (12.89%) Postman
3 49 (12.63%) Git
4 31 (7.99%) Jenkins
5 27 (6.96%) Selenium
6 22 (5.67%) JUnit
7 19 (4.90%) Cucumber
8 15 (3.87%) Eclipse
9 14 (3.61%) SoapUI
10 11 (2.84%) Maven
11 9 (2.32%) IntelliJ
11 9 (2.32%) SpecFlow
11 9 (2.32%) TestRail
11 9 (2.32%) Zephyr
12 8 (2.06%) GitLab
13 7 (1.80%) Toad
14 6 (1.55%) SonarQube
15 5 (1.29%) MSTest
15 5 (1.29%) Robot Framework
15 5 (1.29%) Subversion
General
1 132 (34.02%) Social Skills
2 85 (21.91%) Finance
3 72 (18.56%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (10.05%) Banking
5 38 (9.79%) Public Sector
6 21 (5.41%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (2.84%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
9 8 (2.06%) Legal
9 8 (2.06%) Private Banking
10 7 (1.80%) Financial Institution
10 7 (1.80%) Retail
10 7 (1.80%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.55%) Military
12 5 (1.29%) Aerospace
12 5 (1.29%) Publishing
13 4 (1.03%) Back Office
13 4 (1.03%) General Ledger
13 4 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 127 (32.73%) Developer
2 58 (14.95%) Analyst
3 33 (8.51%) Consultant
4 29 (7.47%) Senior
5 26 (6.70%) Business Analyst
6 21 (5.41%) Architect
7 20 (5.15%) Lead
7 20 (5.15%) Software Engineer
8 17 (4.38%) Data Engineer
9 16 (4.12%) Integration Developer
10 12 (3.09%) Tester
11 11 (2.84%) DBA
11 11 (2.84%) Integration Specialist
11 11 (2.84%) Java Developer
11 11 (2.84%) SAP Consultant
11 11 (2.84%) webMethods Developer
12 10 (2.58%) Administrator
12 10 (2.58%) Senior Developer
12 10 (2.58%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (2.32%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 214 (55.15%) JSON
2 137 (35.31%) REST
3 134 (34.54%) SOAP
4 51 (13.14%) Web Services
5 48 (12.37%) XSLT
6 46 (11.86%) OAuth
7 33 (8.51%) HTML
8 32 (8.25%) .NET
9 30 (7.73%) JWT
9 30 (7.73%) Oracle Fusion
10 26 (6.70%) Middleware
11 25 (6.44%) JMS
12 23 (5.93%) RESTful
13 22 (5.67%) XSD
14 20 (5.15%) Spring
15 19 (4.90%) J2EE
15 19 (4.90%) Swagger
16 17 (4.38%) CSS
17 16 (4.12%) Hibernate
17 16 (4.12%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 18 (4.64%) Data Structures
2 13 (3.35%) Public Cloud
3 12 (3.09%) Management Information System
3 12 (3.09%) Replication
4 10 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.32%) Onboarding
6 8 (2.06%) AS400
6 8 (2.06%) Product Ownership
6 8 (2.06%) Virtual Team
7 7 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (1.80%) Fixed Income
8 6 (1.55%) Algorithms
8 6 (1.55%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.55%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.55%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 5 (1.29%) CMDB
9 5 (1.29%) Derivative
9 5 (1.29%) Digital Wallet
9 5 (1.29%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 46 (11.86%) Linux
2 30 (7.73%) Unix
3 16 (4.12%) Windows
4 5 (1.29%) AIX
4 5 (1.29%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.03%) Android
6 1 (0.26%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.26%) VMS
6 1 (0.26%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (35.31%) Agile
2 120 (30.93%) DevOps
3 101 (26.03%) Problem-Solving
4 78 (20.10%) CI/CD
5 56 (14.43%) Validation
6 55 (14.18%) ERP
7 48 (12.37%) Scrum
8 47 (12.11%) Data Modelling
8 47 (12.11%) ETL
9 46 (11.86%) Migration
10 43 (11.08%) Test Automation
11 39 (10.05%) Microservices
12 38 (9.79%) Integration Patterns
13 37 (9.54%) Requirements Gathering
13 37 (9.54%) Software Engineering
14 35 (9.02%) SDLC
15 34 (8.76%) Continuous Improvement
15 34 (8.76%) Deployment Automation
15 34 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
16 31 (7.99%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 144 (37.11%) SQL
2 107 (27.58%) Java
3 67 (17.27%) C#
4 56 (14.43%) Python
5 48 (12.37%) JavaScript
6 21 (5.41%) PowerShell
7 19 (4.90%) PL/SQL
8 16 (4.12%) XPath
9 11 (2.84%) T-SQL
10 10 (2.58%) Shell Script
11 9 (2.32%) Scala
12 8 (2.06%) ABAP
12 8 (2.06%) C++
12 8 (2.06%) Groovy
12 8 (2.06%) RPG
13 7 (1.80%) Korn
14 6 (1.55%) Kotlin
15 5 (1.29%) Perl
16 4 (1.03%) Bicep
17 3 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 104 (26.80%) Security Cleared
2 79 (20.36%) SC Cleared
3 41 (10.57%) Degree
4 22 (5.67%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (3.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 12 (3.09%) ISTQB
7 10 (2.58%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 7 (1.80%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.55%) ISEB
10 5 (1.29%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.29%) CCNP
10 5 (1.29%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.29%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.29%) Master's Degree
10 5 (1.29%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.29%) PMP
11 3 (0.77%) CEH
11 3 (0.77%) GIAC
11 3 (0.77%) GWAPT
12 2 (0.52%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.19%) QA
2 16 (4.12%) Data Quality
3 8 (2.06%) GDPR
4 6 (1.55%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.29%) PSD2
6 4 (1.03%) GAAP
7 3 (0.77%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.77%) FATCA
7 3 (0.77%) ISO 8583
7 3 (0.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.52%) Basel III
8 2 (0.52%) HL7
8 2 (0.52%) IFRS
8 2 (0.52%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.52%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.52%) SEPA
9 1 (0.26%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 1 (0.26%) EMIR
9 1 (0.26%) GxP
9 1 (0.26%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (8.25%) Docker
2 3 (0.77%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.26%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 14 (3.61%) Kubernetes
2 11 (2.84%) Ansible
3 10 (2.58%) Control-M
3 10 (2.58%) Puppet
4 7 (1.80%) TIBCO Hawk
5 6 (1.55%) logstash
6 5 (1.29%) Kibana
7 3 (0.77%) ITRS Geneos
8 2 (0.52%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.52%) Fluentd
8 2 (0.52%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.52%) Grafana
8 2 (0.52%) QRadar
8 2 (0.52%) Terraform
9 1 (0.26%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.26%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.26%) Podman
9 1 (0.26%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.26%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 109 (28.09%) Oracle
2 46 (11.86%) SAP
3 40 (10.31%) Microsoft
4 37 (9.54%) IBM
5 26 (6.70%) webMethods
6 17 (4.38%) MuleSoft
7 16 (4.12%) Workday
8 11 (2.84%) Informatica
8 11 (2.84%) Splunk
9 10 (2.58%) ServiceNow
9 10 (2.58%) TIBCO
10 9 (2.32%) Software AG
11 8 (2.06%) Google
11 8 (2.06%) Talend
12 7 (1.80%) Axway
12 7 (1.80%) BEA
12 7 (1.80%) Cisco
12 7 (1.80%) Red Hat
13 6 (1.55%) Pega
13 6 (1.55%) Salesforce