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 21 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 229 251 193
Rank change year-on-year +22 -58 +5
Contract jobs citing XML 427 372 610
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.19% 1.02% 1.32%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 5.22% 4.70% 5.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 286 232 385
10th Percentile £341 £203 £362
25th Percentile £400 £400 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.70% -9.09% -2.87%
75th Percentile £586 £575 £625
90th Percentile £698 £630 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £528
% change year-on-year +5.56% -14.69% +5.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 0 36
10th Percentile £31.25 - £45.88
25th Percentile £40.75 - -
Median hourly rate £43.00 - £48.72
75th Percentile £43.75 - £70.00
90th Percentile £92.50 - £78.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.75 - £48.72
% change year-on-year - - +3.68%

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 8,185 7,916 10,275
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.82% 21.70% 22.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,431 5,001 7,327
10th Percentile £350 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.64% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 198 114 190
10th Percentile £29.70 £22.00 £36.19
25th Percentile £42.50 £35.25 £46.18
Median hourly rate £55.00 £62.50 £55.25
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +13.12% -14.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £74.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £54.78
% change year-on-year -3.85% +18.66% -15.72%

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 21 November 2025.

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 21 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Top 15 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 21 November 2025. 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 +1 360 £483 -3.40% 199
UK excluding London +17 187 £475 +5.56% 127
London -32 174 £525 - 88
Work from Home +19 168 £478 -3.54% 118
North of England -28 42 £481 -12.50% 29
South East -15 41 £475 +61.02% 38
East of England +25 38 £550 - 15
North West +2 33 £450 +1.12% 18
Midlands -31 28 £429 -14.20% 28
West Midlands -24 25 £429 -23.60% 12
South West +12 18 £375 -20.00% 14
Wales +7 14 £301 +47.48%
Scotland -3 10 £500 +27.88% 6
Yorkshire -41 9 £650 +14.64% 7
East Midlands -13 3 - - 15

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 29 (6.79%) WebLogic
2 21 (4.92%) Apache
3 19 (4.45%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 14 (3.28%) Anypoint
4 14 (3.28%) MQSeries
5 12 (2.81%) Confluence
5 12 (2.81%) Mule
5 12 (2.81%) WebSphere
6 11 (2.58%) IIS
6 11 (2.58%) JBoss
7 10 (2.34%) Oracle Service Bus
8 7 (1.64%) Appian
8 7 (1.64%) nginx
9 4 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
9 4 (0.94%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.70%) Alfresco
10 3 (0.70%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.70%) Documentum
10 3 (0.70%) Mule ESB
10 3 (0.70%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 18 (4.22%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (2.58%) FrameMaker
3 10 (2.34%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (0.94%) Siemens NX
5 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.23%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 11 (2.58%) Maximo
1 11 (2.58%) Oracle BPM
2 7 (1.64%) SAP HCM
2 7 (1.64%) SAP Payroll
3 5 (1.17%) BusinessWorks
4 4 (0.94%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.94%) Salesforce CRM
4 4 (0.94%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.94%) Teamcenter
5 3 (0.70%) Oracle 11i
5 3 (0.70%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.47%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.47%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.47%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.47%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.47%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle Cash Management
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle FAH
7 1 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 104 (24.36%) Azure
2 72 (16.86%) AWS
3 34 (7.96%) Azure DevOps
3 34 (7.96%) GitHub
4 20 (4.68%) GCP
4 20 (4.68%) Power Platform
5 17 (3.98%) Serverless
6 16 (3.75%) SaaS
7 14 (3.28%) Azure Logic Apps
7 14 (3.28%) Power Automate
7 14 (3.28%) Tricentis Tosca
8 12 (2.81%) SuccessFactors
9 11 (2.58%) Amazon S3
9 11 (2.58%) Cloud Computing
10 10 (2.34%) AWS Lambda
11 9 (2.11%) Boomi
11 9 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
11 9 (2.11%) Nutanix
12 7 (1.64%) Amazon EventBridge
12 7 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 33 (7.73%) HTTPS
2 28 (6.56%) HTTP
3 11 (2.58%) Firewall
4 10 (2.34%) SSL
5 8 (1.87%) NFC
5 8 (1.87%) PPP
6 7 (1.64%) AMQP
6 7 (1.64%) DSL
7 4 (0.94%) VPN
8 3 (0.70%) BGP
8 3 (0.70%) MPLS
9 2 (0.47%) DNS
9 2 (0.47%) Ethernet VPN
9 2 (0.47%) FTP
9 2 (0.47%) LAN
10 1 (0.23%) 5G
10 1 (0.23%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 1 (0.23%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 1 (0.23%) NAS
10 1 (0.23%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (13.11%) SQL Server
2 55 (12.88%) Relational Database
3 19 (4.45%) MongoDB
4 17 (3.98%) MySQL
4 17 (3.98%) PostgreSQL
5 16 (3.75%) Data Warehouse
5 16 (3.75%) Oracle Database
6 13 (3.04%) DB2
7 11 (2.58%) DataStage
7 11 (2.58%) Power BI
8 9 (2.11%) Amazon RDS
8 9 (2.11%) Amazon Redshift
8 9 (2.11%) Big Data
8 9 (2.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 8 (1.87%) Amazon QuickSight
9 8 (1.87%) Apache Cassandra
9 8 (1.87%) Metadata
10 7 (1.64%) Elasticsearch
11 6 (1.41%) MariaDB
11 6 (1.41%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 68 (15.93%) Git
2 59 (13.82%) JIRA
3 40 (9.37%) Jenkins
4 31 (7.26%) Postman
5 27 (6.32%) Selenium
6 25 (5.85%) JUnit
7 22 (5.15%) Cucumber
8 21 (4.92%) GitLab
9 19 (4.45%) Eclipse
10 11 (2.58%) IntelliJ
10 11 (2.58%) SoapUI
11 10 (2.34%) Maven
12 9 (2.11%) Browser DevTools
12 9 (2.11%) Firebug
12 9 (2.11%) PVCS
13 8 (1.87%) SonarQube
13 8 (1.87%) Valgrind
14 7 (1.64%) SpecFlow
14 7 (1.64%) TestRail
14 7 (1.64%) Toad
General
1 139 (32.55%) Social Skills
2 80 (18.74%) Finance
3 78 (18.27%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (9.60%) Public Sector
5 39 (9.13%) Banking
6 14 (3.28%) Publishing
7 13 (3.04%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (2.58%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.58%) Telecoms
9 10 (2.34%) Aerospace
9 10 (2.34%) Back Office
10 9 (2.11%) Investment Banking
10 9 (2.11%) Manufacturing
11 8 (1.87%) Private Banking
12 6 (1.41%) Digital Healthcare
12 6 (1.41%) Financial Institution
12 6 (1.41%) Retail
13 5 (1.17%) Automotive
13 5 (1.17%) Front Office
14 4 (0.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 146 (34.19%) Developer
2 61 (14.29%) Analyst
3 48 (11.24%) Consultant
4 44 (10.30%) Senior
5 25 (5.85%) Software Engineer
6 23 (5.39%) Business Analyst
7 18 (4.22%) Architect
7 18 (4.22%) Data Engineer
7 18 (4.22%) Integration Developer
8 16 (3.75%) Java Developer
8 16 (3.75%) Lead
8 16 (3.75%) Support Engineer
8 16 (3.75%) webMethods Developer
9 14 (3.28%) Author
9 14 (3.28%) Senior Developer
9 14 (3.28%) Technical Author
10 13 (3.04%) Applications Engineer
10 13 (3.04%) Tester
11 11 (2.58%) SAP Consultant
11 11 (2.58%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 224 (52.46%) JSON
2 156 (36.53%) SOAP
3 144 (33.72%) REST
4 57 (13.35%) Web Services
5 51 (11.94%) OAuth
6 50 (11.71%) HTML
7 38 (8.90%) RESTful
8 34 (7.96%) Spring
9 33 (7.73%) JMS
9 33 (7.73%) XSLT
10 31 (7.26%) OAuth2
11 28 (6.56%) XSD
12 25 (5.85%) .NET
13 24 (5.62%) Swagger
14 23 (5.39%) Kafka
15 22 (5.15%) Hibernate
16 21 (4.92%) CSS
17 20 (4.68%) J2EE
18 18 (4.22%) AngularJS
18 18 (4.22%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 23 (5.39%) Cloud Native
2 20 (4.68%) Virtual Team
3 16 (3.75%) Replication
4 14 (3.28%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (2.81%) Data Protection Act
6 11 (2.58%) Data Structures
6 11 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
7 10 (2.34%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 9 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (2.11%) Onboarding
9 8 (1.87%) AS400
9 8 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
9 8 (1.87%) Smartcard
10 7 (1.64%) Algorithms
10 7 (1.64%) Product Ownership
11 6 (1.41%) Low-Code
11 6 (1.41%) Mobile App
12 5 (1.17%) Clustering
12 5 (1.17%) Derivative
12 5 (1.17%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 43 (10.07%) Linux
2 35 (8.20%) Windows
3 29 (6.79%) Unix
4 9 (2.11%) Windows Server
5 8 (1.87%) Ubuntu
6 3 (0.70%) AIX
6 3 (0.70%) Android
7 2 (0.47%) CentOS
8 1 (0.23%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.23%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 163 (38.17%) Agile
2 148 (34.66%) DevOps
3 104 (24.36%) CI/CD
4 94 (22.01%) Problem-Solving
5 78 (18.27%) Test Automation
6 56 (13.11%) Scrum
7 53 (12.41%) Validation
8 52 (12.18%) Microservices
9 49 (11.48%) Migration
10 47 (11.01%) Deployment Automation
11 44 (10.30%) ETL
12 40 (9.37%) API Management
13 38 (8.90%) Data Modelling
14 37 (8.67%) SDLC
14 37 (8.67%) Software Engineering
15 35 (8.20%) Data Migration
16 34 (7.96%) Computer Science
17 33 (7.73%) Continuous Improvement
17 33 (7.73%) Workflow
18 30 (7.03%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 173 (40.52%) SQL
2 144 (33.72%) Java
3 80 (18.74%) Python
4 79 (18.50%) JavaScript
5 59 (13.82%) C#
6 26 (6.09%) PL/SQL
7 22 (5.15%) PowerShell
8 17 (3.98%) C++
9 16 (3.75%) T-SQL
10 14 (3.28%) XPath
11 11 (2.58%) RPG
12 9 (2.11%) ABAP
12 9 (2.11%) DataWeave
12 9 (2.11%) Scala
13 8 (1.87%) C
13 8 (1.87%) VBA
14 7 (1.64%) Groovy
14 7 (1.64%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.94%) BeanShell
16 3 (0.70%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 114 (26.70%) Security Cleared
2 95 (22.25%) SC Cleared
3 53 (12.41%) Degree
4 29 (6.79%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (3.28%) ISTQB
6 12 (2.81%) HNC
6 12 (2.81%) HND
7 10 (2.34%) BPSS Clearance
7 10 (2.34%) ISEB
7 10 (2.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 9 (2.11%) DV Cleared
9 7 (1.64%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.94%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.70%) CEH
11 3 (0.70%) GIAC
11 3 (0.70%) GWAPT
11 3 (0.70%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.70%) PMP
12 2 (0.47%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (0.47%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (7.96%) QA
2 30 (7.03%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.87%) SEPA
4 4 (0.94%) HL7
5 3 (0.70%) ISO 20022
5 3 (0.70%) SLA
6 2 (0.47%) EMIR
6 2 (0.47%) GAAP
6 2 (0.47%) GDPR
6 2 (0.47%) GxP
7 1 (0.23%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 1 (0.23%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.23%) AIFMD
7 1 (0.23%) DICOM
7 1 (0.23%) GMP
7 1 (0.23%) IFRS
7 1 (0.23%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.23%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 55 (12.88%) Docker
2 3 (0.70%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.23%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 27 (6.32%) Kubernetes
2 19 (4.45%) Ansible
3 11 (2.58%) Control-M
4 9 (2.11%) Puppet
5 8 (1.87%) logstash
5 8 (1.87%) Terraform
6 7 (1.64%) Kibana
7 5 (1.17%) ITRS Geneos
7 5 (1.17%) TIBCO Hawk
8 4 (0.94%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.47%) CloudHub
9 2 (0.47%) Fluentd
9 2 (0.47%) QRadar
9 2 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.23%) CEMLI
10 1 (0.23%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.23%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.23%) Podman
Vendors
1 80 (18.74%) Oracle
2 61 (14.29%) Microsoft
3 52 (12.18%) SAP
4 44 (10.30%) IBM
5 31 (7.26%) webMethods
6 19 (4.45%) MuleSoft
7 18 (4.22%) ServiceNow
8 12 (2.81%) Salesforce
8 12 (2.81%) Software AG
8 12 (2.81%) Splunk
8 12 (2.81%) Workday
9 11 (2.58%) Cisco
10 10 (2.34%) Axway
10 10 (2.34%) TIBCO
11 9 (2.11%) Blue Prism
12 7 (1.64%) Pega
12 7 (1.64%) Veracode
13 5 (1.17%) Databricks
13 5 (1.17%) EMC
13 5 (1.17%) Solace