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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 323 238 170
Rank change year-on-year -85 -68 +17
Contract jobs citing XML 371 342 619
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.72% 1.11% 1.43%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.70% 4.88% 6.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 230 328
10th Percentile £341 £375 £386
25th Percentile £409 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £485 £523
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% -7.18% -5.00%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £619
90th Percentile £690 £626 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £429 £466 £505
% change year-on-year -7.94% -7.72% -0.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 9 69
10th Percentile £29.07 £25.77 -
25th Percentile £29.92 £27.00 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £32.00 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +23.44% -25.58% -38.57%
75th Percentile £44.90 £63.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 £89.75 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.50 £29.88 £43.00
% change year-on-year +32.20% -30.51% -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 10,036 7,006 9,256
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.53% 22.78% 21.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,579 4,748 6,340
10th Percentile £363 £352 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -4.65% -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 281 143 282
10th Percentile £30.00 £27.81 £22.53
25th Percentile £51.25 £36.40 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% - -15.38%
75th Percentile £74.26 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.81 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year +4.00% +7.20% -6.72%

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 1 July 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 1 July 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 1 July 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 -69 319 £525 +7.69% 116
UK excluding London -80 169 £429 -7.94% 74
London -68 150 £550 +2.82% 50
Work from Home -50 113 £520 +9.47% 54
South East -55 54 £513 +7.89% 27
North of England -74 49 £391 -13.06% 15
North West -41 40 £390 -13.33% 10
Midlands -40 30 £425 -15.00% 11
West Midlands -39 22 £425 -22.73% 4
South West -24 13 £575 +21.05% 12
East of England -18 11 £450 -18.18% 6
Yorkshire -46 9 £463 -9.76% 4
East Midlands -7 8 £471 +50.08% 7
Scotland -10 8 £425 -23.90% 2
Northern Ireland -3 2 £650 +36.84% 2
Wales -22 2 £635 +61.27% 1

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 (6.20%) Confluence
2 13 (3.50%) SharePoint
3 12 (3.23%) Anypoint
4 10 (2.70%) IIS
5 8 (2.16%) Mule
6 7 (1.89%) Oracle Workflow
7 5 (1.35%) CMS
7 5 (1.35%) WebLogic
7 5 (1.35%) WebSphere
8 3 (0.81%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 2 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.54%) Appian
9 2 (0.54%) CICS
9 2 (0.54%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.54%) Mule ESB
9 2 (0.54%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 1 (0.27%) Apache
10 1 (0.27%) BizTalk Server
10 1 (0.27%) JBoss
10 1 (0.27%) Tomcat
Applications
1 31 (8.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.89%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.54%) EngageOne
5 2 (0.54%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.89%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (1.62%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.62%) Maximo
3 6 (1.62%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (1.62%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (1.62%) Summit
4 5 (1.35%) Elite 3E
4 5 (1.35%) NetSuite
4 5 (1.35%) Oracle Cash Management
5 4 (1.08%) Oracle Receivables
5 4 (1.08%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 4 (1.08%) Payment Gateway
5 4 (1.08%) Workday HCM
6 3 (0.81%) Findur
6 3 (0.81%) Oracle Assets
6 3 (0.81%) Oracle General Ledger
6 3 (0.81%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 2 (0.54%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.54%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 79 (21.29%) Azure
2 46 (12.40%) AWS
3 28 (7.55%) Azure DevOps
4 25 (6.74%) Boomi
5 17 (4.58%) GitHub
5 17 (4.58%) Power Platform
6 16 (4.31%) GCP
7 14 (3.77%) Serverless
8 13 (3.50%) Azure Data Factory
9 11 (2.96%) OCI
9 11 (2.96%) SaaS
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
11 8 (2.16%) Amazon S3
11 8 (2.16%) AtomSphere
11 8 (2.16%) Azure Service Bus
11 8 (2.16%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (1.89%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 16 (4.31%) HTTP
2 8 (2.16%) FTP
3 6 (1.62%) 3GPP
3 6 (1.62%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.08%) RTCP
4 4 (1.08%) RTP
4 4 (1.08%) XCAP
5 3 (0.81%) Network Security
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
6 2 (0.54%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.54%) WAN
6 2 (0.54%) Wireless
7 1 (0.27%) AMQP
7 1 (0.27%) NAS
7 1 (0.27%) SAN
7 1 (0.27%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (10.78%) SQL Server
2 37 (9.97%) Relational Database
3 20 (5.39%) PostgreSQL
3 20 (5.39%) RDBMS
4 17 (4.58%) Data Warehouse
5 16 (4.31%) NoSQL
5 16 (4.31%) Oracle Database
6 15 (4.04%) MongoDB
7 13 (3.50%) Data Lake
7 13 (3.50%) Power BI
7 13 (3.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 12 (3.23%) Metadata
8 12 (3.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (2.70%) MySQL
9 10 (2.70%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (1.35%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (1.35%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 4 (1.08%) DataStage
11 4 (1.08%) MS Access
11 4 (1.08%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 38 (10.24%) Git
2 32 (8.63%) JIRA
3 30 (8.09%) Postman
4 11 (2.96%) Jenkins
5 10 (2.70%) GitLab
6 9 (2.43%) Maven
6 9 (2.43%) SoapUI
6 9 (2.43%) Team Foundation Server
7 8 (2.16%) Visual Studio
8 6 (1.62%) JMeter
8 6 (1.62%) Selenium
9 5 (1.35%) Eclipse
9 5 (1.35%) Subversion
10 4 (1.08%) Bitbucket
10 4 (1.08%) Cypress.io
10 4 (1.08%) Gradle
10 4 (1.08%) JUnit
10 4 (1.08%) Oracle Forms
10 4 (1.08%) REST Assured
10 4 (1.08%) TeamCity
General
1 123 (33.15%) Social Skills
2 77 (20.75%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (19.95%) Finance
4 35 (9.43%) Banking
5 32 (8.63%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (2.96%) Legal
8 10 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.43%) Investment Banking
10 8 (2.16%) Manufacturing
10 8 (2.16%) Publishing
10 8 (2.16%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.89%) Military
11 7 (1.89%) Retail
12 5 (1.35%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.35%) General Ledger
12 5 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.35%) Marketing
13 4 (1.08%) Advertising
13 4 (1.08%) Billing
Job Titles
1 102 (27.49%) Developer
2 58 (15.63%) Consultant
3 45 (12.13%) Analyst
4 30 (8.09%) Implementation Consultant
5 28 (7.55%) Senior
6 27 (7.28%) Business Analyst
7 25 (6.74%) Architect
8 22 (5.93%) Data Engineer
9 14 (3.77%) C# Developer
9 14 (3.77%) Lead
10 13 (3.50%) Payroll Consultant
11 12 (3.23%) Software Engineer
12 11 (2.96%) DBA
12 11 (2.96%) Senior Developer
13 10 (2.70%) Integration Specialist
13 10 (2.70%) Technical Consultant
14 9 (2.43%) Integration Developer
14 9 (2.43%) Integration Engineer
14 9 (2.43%) Software Developer
15 8 (2.16%) Integration Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 180 (48.52%) JSON
2 120 (32.35%) REST
3 106 (28.57%) SOAP
4 52 (14.02%) Web Services
5 51 (13.75%) Middleware
6 49 (13.21%) .NET
7 38 (10.24%) XSLT
8 25 (6.74%) HTML
8 25 (6.74%) OAuth
9 19 (5.12%) Kafka
10 18 (4.85%) CSS
10 18 (4.85%) EDI
10 18 (4.85%) JWT
10 18 (4.85%) RESTful
11 17 (4.58%) Swagger
12 16 (4.31%) .NET Framework
12 16 (4.31%) Oracle Fusion
13 14 (3.77%) ASP.NET
13 14 (3.77%) OAuth2
13 14 (3.77%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.04%) Data Structures
1 15 (4.04%) Product Ownership
2 11 (2.96%) Legacy Systems
3 8 (2.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 8 (2.16%) Onboarding
4 7 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
4 7 (1.89%) Credit Risk
4 7 (1.89%) Derivative
4 7 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
4 7 (1.89%) Fixed Income
4 7 (1.89%) Market Risk
4 7 (1.89%) Replication
4 7 (1.89%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 6 (1.62%) CMDB
5 6 (1.62%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (1.62%) Hybrid Cloud
5 6 (1.62%) Management Information System
5 6 (1.62%) Public Cloud
6 5 (1.35%) Data Centre
6 5 (1.35%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 21 (5.66%) Linux
1 21 (5.66%) Unix
2 11 (2.96%) Windows
3 3 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 3 (0.81%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.54%) VMS
4 2 (0.54%) zOS
5 1 (0.27%) Android
5 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (26.15%) Problem-Solving
2 93 (25.07%) Agile
3 73 (19.68%) CI/CD
4 71 (19.14%) DevOps
5 54 (14.56%) Workflow
6 52 (14.02%) Validation
7 50 (13.48%) Integration Patterns
8 45 (12.13%) Migration
9 41 (11.05%) Data Modelling
10 40 (10.78%) ERP
11 37 (9.97%) ETL
11 37 (9.97%) Stakeholder Management
12 34 (9.16%) User Acceptance Testing
13 33 (8.89%) Data Mapping
14 32 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 30 (8.09%) Scrum
16 29 (7.82%) Software Engineering
17 26 (7.01%) Performance Tuning
17 26 (7.01%) SDLC
18 25 (6.74%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 165 (44.47%) SQL
2 61 (16.44%) Java
3 54 (14.56%) Python
4 52 (14.02%) C#
5 51 (13.75%) JavaScript
6 42 (11.32%) T-SQL
7 24 (6.47%) PL/SQL
8 15 (4.04%) PowerShell
9 14 (3.77%) C++
10 11 (2.96%) Groovy
10 11 (2.96%) VB.NET
11 10 (2.70%) VB
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%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 86 (23.18%) Security Cleared
2 63 (16.98%) SC Cleared
3 29 (7.82%) Degree
4 10 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
5 9 (2.43%) DV Cleared
6 8 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (1.35%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.35%) DBS Check
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 3 (0.81%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.54%) CISSP
10 2 (0.54%) GIAC
10 2 (0.54%) HNC
10 2 (0.54%) HND
10 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.54%) SSCP
11 1 (0.27%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (6.47%) QA
2 19 (5.12%) Data Quality
3 12 (3.23%) GDPR
4 7 (1.89%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.89%) ISO 20022
5 6 (1.62%) HL7
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%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 2 (0.54%) GAAP
8 2 (0.54%) GMP
8 2 (0.54%) GxP
8 2 (0.54%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.54%) ISO 8583
8 2 (0.54%) SLA
9 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 12 (3.23%) 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 13 (3.50%) Ansible
2 12 (3.23%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.89%) Terraform
4 5 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
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%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.27%) vRealize
Vendors
1 94 (25.34%) Oracle
2 67 (18.06%) Microsoft
3 30 (8.09%) SAP
4 28 (7.55%) ServiceNow
5 26 (7.01%) MuleSoft
6 21 (5.66%) Workday
7 17 (4.58%) IBM
8 15 (4.04%) Salesforce
9 12 (3.23%) Google
10 8 (2.16%) Databricks
11 7 (1.89%) Dell
12 6 (1.62%) Talend
12 6 (1.62%) webMethods
13 5 (1.35%) Informatica
13 5 (1.35%) Intapp
13 5 (1.35%) InterSystems
13 5 (1.35%) Kronos
13 5 (1.35%) Pega
14 4 (1.08%) Okta
14 4 (1.08%) VMware