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

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 282 230 195
Rank change year-on-year -52 -35 +1
Contract jobs citing XML 395 336 552
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.93% 1.14% 1.23%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.28% 4.97% 6.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 247 224 329
10th Percentile £350 £327 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £540
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -7.41% -1.82%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £613
90th Percentile £693 £650 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £511
% change year-on-year - -11.98% +2.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 4 48
10th Percentile £40.75 £22.73 -
25th Percentile £46.25 £25.54 £43.75
Median hourly rate £47.50 £60.13 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -21.00% +26.59% -33.33%
75th Percentile £54.13 £93.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 - £60.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £24.83 £47.50
% change year-on-year +91.30% -47.73% -32.14%

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 9,229 6,756 9,082
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.75% 22.85% 20.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,171 4,490 6,316
10th Percentile £358 £361 £336
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -7.08%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £498
% change year-on-year - +0.50% -2.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 230 94 222
10th Percentile £35.00 £26.25 £20.77
25th Percentile £52.50 £39.75 £39.94
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +28.28% -25.62%
75th Percentile £73.09 £68.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £81.88 £75.00
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 10 March 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 10 March 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 10 March 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 -13 359 £475 -9.52% 185
UK excluding London -43 176 £450 - 172
London -27 170 £525 -1.87% 35
Work from Home -37 111 £450 -3.43% 93
North of England -35 62 £400 -12.51% 38
South East -20 61 £500 +29.53% 39
North West -5 52 £400 -10.61% 27
Midlands -47 33 £445 -21.52% 25
West Midlands -46 27 £440 -22.40% 16
East of England -22 13 £675 - 20
Yorkshire -57 10 £463 -18.43% 9
South West -24 6 £475 +2.70% 23
East Midlands -26 6 £525 +46.65% 9
Scotland -10 5 £500 +6.38% 20

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 (5.82%) WebLogic
2 21 (5.32%) Confluence
3 18 (4.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 12 (3.04%) Apache
5 10 (2.53%) WebSphere
6 9 (2.28%) JBoss
7 6 (1.52%) Anypoint
7 6 (1.52%) Appian
7 6 (1.52%) Oracle Workflow
8 5 (1.27%) Mule
9 4 (1.01%) MQSeries
9 4 (1.01%) Oracle Service Bus
10 3 (0.76%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.51%) BizTalk Server
11 2 (0.51%) CMS
11 2 (0.51%) Documentum
11 2 (0.51%) Mule ESB
11 2 (0.51%) Oracle Self-Service HR
11 2 (0.51%) SharePoint
12 1 (0.25%) Tomcat
Applications
1 29 (7.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.27%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.01%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.51%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.51%) EngageOne
6 1 (0.25%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.25%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 11 (2.78%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (2.28%) SAP Payroll
3 8 (2.03%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.77%) BusinessWorks
4 7 (1.77%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (1.77%) Oracle Receivables
4 7 (1.77%) SAP HCM
5 6 (1.52%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 5 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (1.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (1.27%) Payment Gateway
7 4 (1.01%) Maximo
7 4 (1.01%) Oracle 11i
7 4 (1.01%) Oracle General Ledger
8 3 (0.76%) Oracle Assets
8 3 (0.76%) Oracle Cash Management
8 3 (0.76%) Workday HCM
9 2 (0.51%) NEC Housing
9 2 (0.51%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 2 (0.51%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 81 (20.51%) Azure
2 64 (16.20%) AWS
3 28 (7.09%) OCI
4 23 (5.82%) GCP
4 23 (5.82%) Power Platform
4 23 (5.82%) SaaS
5 22 (5.57%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (4.81%) GitHub
7 18 (4.56%) Cloud Computing
8 16 (4.05%) PaaS
8 16 (4.05%) Serverless
9 15 (3.80%) Boomi
10 14 (3.54%) IaaS
11 12 (3.04%) Apigee
11 12 (3.04%) Azure Data Factory
12 11 (2.78%) Tricentis Tosca
13 10 (2.53%) Dynamics 365
13 10 (2.53%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (2.03%) Kong
14 8 (2.03%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 29 (7.34%) HTTP
2 18 (4.56%) HTTPS
3 8 (2.03%) Firewall
4 6 (1.52%) 3GPP
4 6 (1.52%) FTP
5 4 (1.01%) RTCP
5 4 (1.01%) RTP
5 4 (1.01%) SSL
5 4 (1.01%) XCAP
6 3 (0.76%) NFC
6 3 (0.76%) PPP
7 2 (0.51%) 5G
7 2 (0.51%) BGP
7 2 (0.51%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 2 (0.51%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 2 (0.51%) FIX Connectivity
7 2 (0.51%) MPLS
7 2 (0.51%) VPN
8 1 (0.25%) DNS
8 1 (0.25%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (11.14%) Relational Database
2 40 (10.13%) SQL Server
3 26 (6.58%) MongoDB
4 25 (6.33%) Data Warehouse
4 25 (6.33%) PostgreSQL
5 19 (4.81%) RDBMS
6 18 (4.56%) NoSQL
7 17 (4.30%) Oracle Reports
7 17 (4.30%) Power BI
8 13 (3.29%) Oracle Database
9 11 (2.78%) Data Lake
9 11 (2.78%) Metadata
10 10 (2.53%) MySQL
10 10 (2.53%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 9 (2.28%) DataStage
12 7 (1.77%) DB2
13 6 (1.52%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (1.52%) Tableau
14 5 (1.27%) Amazon Redshift
14 5 (1.27%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 53 (13.42%) JIRA
2 50 (12.66%) Git
3 48 (12.15%) Postman
4 29 (7.34%) Jenkins
5 26 (6.58%) Selenium
6 23 (5.82%) JUnit
7 18 (4.56%) Cucumber
8 16 (4.05%) Eclipse
9 14 (3.54%) SoapUI
10 12 (3.04%) Maven
11 9 (2.28%) IntelliJ
11 9 (2.28%) SpecFlow
11 9 (2.28%) TestRail
11 9 (2.28%) Zephyr
12 8 (2.03%) GitLab
13 7 (1.77%) Toad
14 6 (1.52%) Subversion
15 5 (1.27%) MSTest
15 5 (1.27%) SonarQube
16 4 (1.01%) Robot Framework
General
1 123 (31.14%) Social Skills
2 80 (20.25%) Finance
3 72 (18.23%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (9.37%) Public Sector
5 36 (9.11%) Banking
6 21 (5.32%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (2.53%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.28%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (2.28%) Legal
9 7 (1.77%) Retail
10 6 (1.52%) Financial Institution
10 6 (1.52%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.52%) Telecoms
11 5 (1.27%) Military
12 4 (1.01%) Aerospace
12 4 (1.01%) General Ledger
12 4 (1.01%) Private Banking
12 4 (1.01%) Publishing
13 3 (0.76%) Back Office
13 3 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 111 (28.10%) Developer
2 57 (14.43%) Consultant
3 54 (13.67%) Analyst
4 29 (7.34%) Implementation Consultant
5 26 (6.58%) Business Analyst
6 25 (6.33%) Senior
7 20 (5.06%) Architect
7 20 (5.06%) Lead
7 20 (5.06%) Software Engineer
8 16 (4.05%) Data Engineer
9 15 (3.80%) DBA
10 12 (3.04%) Integration Developer
10 12 (3.04%) Tester
11 10 (2.53%) Integration Specialist
11 10 (2.53%) Java Developer
11 10 (2.53%) Payroll Consultant
12 9 (2.28%) PostgreSQL DBA
12 9 (2.28%) SAP Consultant
12 9 (2.28%) Solutions Architect
12 9 (2.28%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 205 (51.90%) JSON
2 129 (32.66%) REST
2 129 (32.66%) SOAP
3 53 (13.42%) Web Services
4 41 (10.38%) OAuth
5 40 (10.13%) XSLT
6 35 (8.86%) HTML
7 30 (7.59%) .NET
8 29 (7.34%) JWT
8 29 (7.34%) Oracle Fusion
9 25 (6.33%) Middleware
9 25 (6.33%) RESTful
10 22 (5.57%) JMS
10 22 (5.57%) XSD
11 20 (5.06%) Kafka
11 20 (5.06%) Swagger
12 19 (4.81%) CSS
12 19 (4.81%) J2EE
12 19 (4.81%) Spring
13 15 (3.80%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.30%) Data Structures
2 12 (3.04%) Management Information System
2 12 (3.04%) Public Cloud
3 11 (2.78%) Product Ownership
3 11 (2.78%) Replication
4 10 (2.53%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (2.03%) Onboarding
7 7 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
7 7 (1.77%) Fixed Income
8 6 (1.52%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.52%) CMDB
8 6 (1.52%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 5 (1.27%) Digital Wallet
9 5 (1.27%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 5 (1.27%) Low-Code
9 5 (1.27%) Virtual Team
10 4 (1.01%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.01%) AS400
10 4 (1.01%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 43 (10.89%) Linux
2 30 (7.59%) Unix
3 16 (4.05%) Windows
4 5 (1.27%) AIX
4 5 (1.27%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.01%) Android
6 1 (0.25%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.25%) VMS
6 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (35.95%) Agile
2 113 (28.61%) DevOps
3 100 (25.32%) Problem-Solving
4 76 (19.24%) CI/CD
5 56 (14.18%) Validation
6 48 (12.15%) Data Modelling
6 48 (12.15%) ERP
7 46 (11.65%) Scrum
8 42 (10.63%) ETL
8 42 (10.63%) Migration
9 41 (10.38%) Integration Patterns
10 37 (9.37%) Microservices
10 37 (9.37%) Requirements Gathering
11 36 (9.11%) Software Engineering
11 36 (9.11%) Test Automation
12 35 (8.86%) Mentoring
13 33 (8.35%) SDLC
14 32 (8.10%) Stakeholder Management
14 32 (8.10%) Workflow
15 31 (7.85%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 156 (39.49%) SQL
2 101 (25.57%) Java
3 58 (14.68%) C#
4 57 (14.43%) Python
5 48 (12.15%) JavaScript
6 35 (8.86%) T-SQL
7 17 (4.30%) PL/SQL
7 17 (4.30%) PowerShell
8 16 (4.05%) XPath
9 9 (2.28%) Scala
9 9 (2.28%) Shell Script
10 8 (2.03%) ABAP
10 8 (2.03%) Groovy
11 7 (1.77%) C++
11 7 (1.77%) Korn
12 6 (1.52%) Kotlin
13 5 (1.27%) Perl
14 4 (1.01%) Bicep
14 4 (1.01%) RPG
15 3 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 98 (24.81%) Security Cleared
2 72 (18.23%) SC Cleared
3 39 (9.87%) Degree
4 22 (5.57%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (3.54%) BPSS Clearance
6 12 (3.04%) ISTQB
7 10 (2.53%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 7 (1.77%) AWS Certification
9 6 (1.52%) ISEB
10 5 (1.27%) CCNP
10 5 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.27%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.27%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.27%) PMP
11 4 (1.01%) Azure Certification
11 4 (1.01%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.51%) CCNA
12 2 (0.51%) HNC
12 2 (0.51%) OCP
12 2 (0.51%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (6.84%) QA
2 15 (3.80%) Data Quality
3 8 (2.03%) GDPR
4 6 (1.52%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.27%) PSD2
6 4 (1.01%) GAAP
7 3 (0.76%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.76%) FATCA
7 3 (0.76%) ISO 8583
7 3 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.51%) Basel III
8 2 (0.51%) HL7
8 2 (0.51%) IFRS
8 2 (0.51%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.51%) IFRS 9
8 2 (0.51%) SEPA
9 1 (0.25%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 1 (0.25%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.25%) GxP
9 1 (0.25%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 30 (7.59%) Docker
2 3 (0.76%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.25%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 13 (3.29%) Kubernetes
2 10 (2.53%) Ansible
2 10 (2.53%) Puppet
3 7 (1.77%) Control-M
3 7 (1.77%) TIBCO Hawk
4 5 (1.27%) logstash
5 4 (1.01%) Kibana
6 2 (0.51%) CloudHub
6 2 (0.51%) Fluentd
6 2 (0.51%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.51%) Grafana
6 2 (0.51%) ITRS Geneos
6 2 (0.51%) QRadar
6 2 (0.51%) Terraform
7 1 (0.25%) CEMLI
7 1 (0.25%) Docker Swarm
7 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.25%) Podman
7 1 (0.25%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 105 (26.58%) Oracle
2 39 (9.87%) Microsoft
3 38 (9.62%) SAP
4 31 (7.85%) IBM
5 22 (5.57%) webMethods
6 18 (4.56%) MuleSoft
7 15 (3.80%) Workday
8 14 (3.54%) ServiceNow
9 11 (2.78%) Informatica
9 11 (2.78%) Splunk
10 9 (2.28%) TIBCO
11 8 (2.03%) Google
11 8 (2.03%) Pega
11 8 (2.03%) Talend
12 7 (1.77%) BEA
12 7 (1.77%) Red Hat
12 7 (1.77%) Software AG
13 6 (1.52%) Cisco
14 5 (1.27%) Computacenter
14 5 (1.27%) Dell