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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 298 241 177
Rank change year-on-year -57 -64 +19
Contract jobs citing XML 454 376 520
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.83% 1.15% 1.36%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.86% 4.41% 5.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 315 247 274
10th Percentile £325 £338 £319
25th Percentile £405 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.09%
75th Percentile £608 £582 £585
90th Percentile £700 £691 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 26 44
10th Percentile - £30.63 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £30.00 £42.75 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.82% -0.58% -35.82%
75th Percentile £42.38 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £46.80 £91.88 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -29.41% -1.16% -11.74%

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 11,754 8,517 9,448
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.61% 25.95% 24.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,733 5,676 6,164
10th Percentile £375 £353 £356
25th Percentile £438 £413 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £725 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -4.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 187 189
10th Percentile £28.64 £31.25 £25.56
25th Percentile £49.00 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.70 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.83% -12.48% +4.17%
75th Percentile £77.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £70.80 £74.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.47 £58.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year +14.84% -9.62% +10.11%

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 28 September 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 28 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for XML in the UK

XML
Top 17 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 28 September 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 -75 357 £486 -2.75% 255
London -47 193 £538 +2.38% 127
UK excluding London -86 174 £450 -5.26% 142
Work from Home -49 151 £525 +8.53% 107
South East -51 48 £460 -3.16% 40
Midlands -22 42 £418 -2.68% 23
West Midlands -27 35 £415 -3.38% 16
North of England -74 29 £381 -23.80% 28
Scotland -15 20 £450 -5.26% 17
South West -33 18 £575 +53.33% 14
North West -66 18 £416 -12.46% 14
East of England -40 12 £509 +4.41% 14
Yorkshire -34 11 £380 -41.54% 11
East Midlands -13 6 £494 +82.96% 7
Wales -27 3 £600 +60.00% 5
Northern Ireland - 3 £650 - 4
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -

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 34 (7.49%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.41%) Confluence
3 16 (3.52%) Anypoint
3 16 (3.52%) IIS
3 16 (3.52%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (2.86%) Mule
5 10 (2.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 7 (1.54%) WebSphere
7 6 (1.32%) Apache
8 5 (1.10%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.66%) MQSeries
9 3 (0.66%) Oracle Service Bus
10 2 (0.44%) CICS
10 2 (0.44%) CMS
11 1 (0.22%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.22%) JBoss
11 1 (0.22%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.22%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.22%) Tomcat
Applications
1 13 (2.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.64%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.76%) MS Visio
3 8 (1.76%) Windchill
4 7 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.22%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.22%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 23 (5.07%) Oracle EBS
2 18 (3.96%) Dynamics CRM
3 17 (3.74%) NetSuite
4 15 (3.30%) Oracle Payables
5 12 (2.64%) Oracle Receivables
6 11 (2.42%) SAP S/4HANA
7 8 (1.76%) Oracle General Ledger
8 7 (1.54%) Oracle FAH
8 7 (1.54%) Workday HCM
9 6 (1.32%) Maximo
9 6 (1.32%) Oracle Assets
9 6 (1.32%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (1.32%) SAP FI
10 5 (1.10%) Elite 3E
10 5 (1.10%) FLEXCUBE
11 4 (0.88%) Oracle E-Business Tax
11 4 (0.88%) Oracle Internet Expenses
11 4 (0.88%) Oracle iProcurement
11 4 (0.88%) SAP CO
11 4 (0.88%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 129 (28.41%) Azure
2 68 (14.98%) AWS
3 55 (12.11%) Azure DevOps
4 47 (10.35%) Boomi
5 35 (7.71%) GCP
6 26 (5.73%) Power Platform
7 22 (4.85%) AtomSphere
8 21 (4.63%) Azure Service Bus
8 21 (4.63%) Dynamics 365
9 19 (4.19%) Azure Functions
9 19 (4.19%) Entra ID
9 19 (4.19%) GitHub
9 19 (4.19%) Power Automate
9 19 (4.19%) Serverless
10 17 (3.74%) Azure Logic Apps
10 17 (3.74%) SaaS
11 15 (3.30%) iPaaS
12 12 (2.64%) PowerApps
13 8 (1.76%) Azure Data Factory
13 8 (1.76%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 35 (7.71%) HTTP
2 10 (2.20%) FTP
3 7 (1.54%) SSL
4 6 (1.32%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.10%) Network Security
6 3 (0.66%) Wireless
7 2 (0.44%) DNS
7 2 (0.44%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.44%) Internet
7 2 (0.44%) Intranet
7 2 (0.44%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.44%) WAN
7 2 (0.44%) X.509
8 1 (0.22%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.22%) Firewall
8 1 (0.22%) MQTT
8 1 (0.22%) NAS
8 1 (0.22%) NFC
8 1 (0.22%) SAN
8 1 (0.22%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (14.10%) SQL Server
2 38 (8.37%) Relational Database
3 26 (5.73%) Oracle Database
4 25 (5.51%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.74%) Oracle Reports
6 16 (3.52%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 13 (2.86%) MySQL
8 12 (2.64%) MS Access
8 12 (2.64%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 11 (2.42%) Metadata
9 11 (2.42%) RDBMS
9 11 (2.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 10 (2.20%) MongoDB
11 7 (1.54%) Data Lake
11 7 (1.54%) NoSQL
11 7 (1.54%) Power BI
11 7 (1.54%) Tableau
12 6 (1.32%) Data Warehouse
12 6 (1.32%) Parquet
13 5 (1.10%) DataStage
Development Applications
1 71 (15.64%) Git
2 46 (10.13%) JIRA
3 28 (6.17%) Jenkins
4 25 (5.51%) Team Foundation Server
5 24 (5.29%) Postman
6 23 (5.07%) Visual Studio
7 18 (3.96%) Oracle Forms
7 18 (3.96%) Selenium
8 12 (2.64%) Gradle
9 11 (2.42%) Maven
10 10 (2.20%) JMeter
10 10 (2.20%) SonarQube
11 9 (1.98%) eggPlant
12 8 (1.76%) GitLab
12 8 (1.76%) SoapUI
12 8 (1.76%) WebDriver
13 7 (1.54%) Cucumber
14 6 (1.32%) JDeveloper
14 6 (1.32%) JUnit
14 6 (1.32%) LoadRunner
General
1 151 (33.26%) Social Skills
2 109 (24.01%) Finance
3 101 (22.25%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (12.11%) Public Sector
5 44 (9.69%) Banking
6 16 (3.52%) Manufacturing
7 15 (3.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 12 (2.64%) Telecoms
9 11 (2.42%) Law
10 9 (1.98%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (1.98%) Publishing
11 8 (1.76%) General Ledger
11 8 (1.76%) Legal
11 8 (1.76%) Retail
12 6 (1.32%) Aerospace
12 6 (1.32%) Financial Institution
12 6 (1.32%) Investment Banking
12 6 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.32%) Police
13 5 (1.10%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 161 (35.46%) Developer
2 58 (12.78%) Senior
3 46 (10.13%) Architect
4 39 (8.59%) Consultant
5 37 (8.15%) Analyst
6 35 (7.71%) Lead
7 27 (5.95%) Senior Developer
8 23 (5.07%) Data Engineer
8 23 (5.07%) Software Developer
9 17 (3.74%) Solutions Architect
10 16 (3.52%) Integration Developer
10 16 (3.52%) Lead Developer
11 15 (3.30%) Business Analyst
12 13 (2.86%) C# Developer
12 13 (2.86%) Dynamics 365 Developer
12 13 (2.86%) Software Engineer
12 13 (2.86%) Technical Consultant
13 12 (2.64%) Test Analyst
14 11 (2.42%) .NET Developer
14 11 (2.42%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 239 (52.64%) JSON
2 186 (40.97%) REST
3 163 (35.90%) SOAP
4 88 (19.38%) .NET
5 85 (18.72%) Web Services
6 83 (18.28%) Middleware
7 61 (13.44%) XSLT
8 47 (10.35%) HTML
9 44 (9.69%) Kafka
10 43 (9.47%) OAuth
11 31 (6.83%) RESTful
12 28 (6.17%) .NET Framework
13 27 (5.95%) OAuth2
14 26 (5.73%) CSS
15 24 (5.29%) EDI
16 23 (5.07%) JWT
16 23 (5.07%) Swagger
17 19 (4.19%) OpenAPI
18 18 (3.96%) XSD
19 17 (3.74%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 25 (5.51%) Enterprise Software
2 20 (4.41%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.19%) Product Ownership
4 18 (3.96%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 17 (3.74%) Cloud Native
6 16 (3.52%) Data Structures
6 16 (3.52%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (3.52%) Management Information System
6 16 (3.52%) Onboarding
7 13 (2.86%) Taxonomies
8 11 (2.42%) Replication
9 10 (2.20%) CMDB
9 10 (2.20%) Legacy Applications
10 9 (1.98%) LIMS
11 8 (1.76%) PKI
11 8 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
12 7 (1.54%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 7 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.54%) Virtual Team
13 6 (1.32%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 40 (8.81%) Linux
2 32 (7.05%) Windows
3 26 (5.73%) Unix
4 10 (2.20%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.66%) zOS
7 2 (0.44%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.22%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 141 (31.06%) Problem-Solving
2 113 (24.89%) Agile
3 107 (23.57%) DevOps
4 101 (22.25%) CI/CD
5 82 (18.06%) Validation
6 63 (13.88%) Integration Patterns
7 62 (13.66%) Test Automation
8 61 (13.44%) Stakeholder Management
8 61 (13.44%) Workflow
9 59 (13.00%) Data Modelling
10 54 (11.89%) Continuous Improvement
11 52 (11.45%) Migration
12 51 (11.23%) Event-Driven
13 50 (11.01%) ERP
14 47 (10.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 43 (9.47%) Scrum
16 41 (9.03%) Data Mapping
16 41 (9.03%) Technical Leadership
17 40 (8.81%) Software Engineering
17 40 (8.81%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 180 (39.65%) SQL
2 106 (23.35%) Java
3 101 (22.25%) JavaScript
4 85 (18.72%) C#
5 83 (18.28%) Python
6 37 (8.15%) PL/SQL
7 28 (6.17%) PowerShell
8 24 (5.29%) VB.NET
9 23 (5.07%) VBA
10 22 (4.85%) Groovy
11 20 (4.41%) C++
12 19 (4.19%) T-SQL
12 19 (4.19%) VB
13 18 (3.96%) VB6
14 16 (3.52%) XPath
15 13 (2.86%) TypeScript
16 10 (2.20%) Shell Script
17 7 (1.54%) ABAP
17 7 (1.54%) Bicep
17 7 (1.54%) C
Qualifications
1 135 (29.74%) Security Cleared
2 111 (24.45%) SC Cleared
3 49 (10.79%) Degree
4 24 (5.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (3.74%) DV Cleared
6 16 (3.52%) ISTQB
7 14 (3.08%) Computer Science Degree
8 11 (2.42%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 11 (2.42%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (1.76%) ISEB
10 6 (1.32%) Azure Certification
11 5 (1.10%) TOGAF Certification
12 4 (0.88%) Master's Degree
13 3 (0.66%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.44%) CISSP
14 2 (0.44%) DBS Check
14 2 (0.44%) GIAC
14 2 (0.44%) SSCP
15 1 (0.22%) CEH
15 1 (0.22%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (8.37%) QA
2 27 (5.95%) Data Quality
3 20 (4.41%) ISO 20022
4 17 (3.74%) Accessibility
5 14 (3.08%) GDPR
5 14 (3.08%) WCAG
6 9 (1.98%) GMP
7 8 (1.76%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 8 (1.76%) GxP
7 8 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 6 (1.32%) SLA
9 5 (1.10%) GRC
9 5 (1.10%) HL7
10 4 (0.88%) ISO 15022
11 3 (0.66%) SEPA
12 2 (0.44%) NCSC
13 1 (0.22%) IFRS
13 1 (0.22%) NIST
13 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
13 1 (0.22%) PSD2
System Software
1 17 (3.74%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.52%) Docker
3 5 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.44%) RACF
5 1 (0.22%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 18 (3.96%) Kubernetes
2 16 (3.52%) Ansible
2 16 (3.52%) Single Sign-On
3 5 (1.10%) Control-M
3 5 (1.10%) HP Fortify
4 3 (0.66%) QRadar
4 3 (0.66%) vRealize Orchestrator
4 3 (0.66%) WMI
5 2 (0.44%) CloudHub
5 2 (0.44%) Netcool
5 2 (0.44%) Netcool/OMNIbus
5 2 (0.44%) Tivoli
5 2 (0.44%) Tivoli Monitoring
6 1 (0.22%) Apache Ranger
6 1 (0.22%) Grafana
6 1 (0.22%) HP Quality Center
6 1 (0.22%) Kibana
6 1 (0.22%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.22%) vRealize
Vendors
1 135 (29.74%) Oracle
2 115 (25.33%) Microsoft
3 49 (10.79%) SAP
4 47 (10.35%) IBM
5 39 (8.59%) MuleSoft
6 38 (8.37%) ServiceNow
7 31 (6.83%) Salesforce
8 28 (6.17%) Google
9 25 (5.51%) Workday
10 13 (2.86%) Okta
11 12 (2.64%) Databricks
11 12 (2.64%) Informatica
12 10 (2.20%) TIBCO
12 10 (2.20%) webMethods
13 9 (1.98%) WSO2
14 8 (1.76%) BeyondTrust
14 8 (1.76%) PTC
15 5 (1.10%) Intapp
15 5 (1.10%) Kronos
15 5 (1.10%) VMware