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 11 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 253 158
Rank change year-on-year -57 -95 +55
Contract jobs citing XML 349 301 649
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.73% 1.02% 1.51%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.71% 4.51% 7.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 204 354
10th Percentile £357 £359 £407
25th Percentile £402 £415 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £538
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -11.63% -2.27%
75th Percentile £613 £588 £622
90th Percentile £681 £654 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £513
% change year-on-year - -12.20% +1.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 6 72
10th Percentile £32.18 £23.93 -
25th Percentile £38.13 £27.00 -
Median hourly rate £47.50 £27.38 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.48% -36.33% -40.69%
75th Percentile £48.75 £77.42 £51.25
90th Percentile £56.28 £93.75 £84.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £24.83 £43.00
% change year-on-year +91.30% -42.26% -40.69%

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 9,396 6,676 8,921
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.73% 22.70% 20.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,197 4,581 6,181
10th Percentile £360 £363 £350
25th Percentile £415 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year - -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £620 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 269 114 244
10th Percentile £35.00 £29.55 £21.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £50.27 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year - +36.84% -26.92%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.20 £82.70 £74.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year - +36.84% -26.36%

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 11 May 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 11 May 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 11 May 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 -41 313 £500 +5.26% 81
UK excluding London -60 162 £450 - 58
London -33 148 £550 +4.76% 30
Work from Home -49 88 £470 -1.05% 45
North of England -48 61 £397 -11.81% 17
South East -40 58 £513 +19.88% 22
North West -22 54 £393 -12.64% 11
Midlands -53 22 £468 -15.00% 6
West Midlands -54 14 £461 -18.00% 4
South West -28 9 £600 +60.00% 6
East Midlands -27 8 £525 +46.65% 2
Yorkshire -51 7 £431 -21.59% 5
Scotland -8 6 £500 +1.21% 4
East of England -28 6 £438 -10.26% 3

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 15 (4.30%) Confluence
2 13 (3.72%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 8 (2.29%) Anypoint
3 8 (2.29%) Oracle Workflow
4 7 (2.01%) WebLogic
4 7 (2.01%) WebSphere
5 6 (1.72%) SharePoint
6 5 (1.43%) CMS
6 5 (1.43%) IIS
7 4 (1.15%) Mule
7 4 (1.15%) Oracle Service Bus
8 3 (0.86%) Mule ESB
8 3 (0.86%) Oracle Self-Service HR
9 2 (0.57%) Apache
9 2 (0.57%) Appian
9 2 (0.57%) MQSeries
9 2 (0.57%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.29%) BizTalk Server
10 1 (0.29%) CICS
10 1 (0.29%) JBoss
Applications
1 31 (8.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.43%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.86%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.57%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.57%) EngageOne
5 2 (0.57%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 12 (3.44%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (2.58%) Oracle Payables
3 8 (2.29%) Oracle Receivables
3 8 (2.29%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (2.01%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 6 (1.72%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (1.72%) Summit
6 5 (1.43%) Oracle Cash Management
6 5 (1.43%) Oracle General Ledger
6 5 (1.43%) Payment Gateway
7 4 (1.15%) Maximo
7 4 (1.15%) Oracle 11i
7 4 (1.15%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (1.15%) Workday HCM
8 3 (0.86%) Findur
8 3 (0.86%) SAP Payroll
9 2 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
9 2 (0.57%) NEC Housing
9 2 (0.57%) Oracle EBS
9 2 (0.57%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 71 (20.34%) Azure
2 43 (12.32%) AWS
3 28 (8.02%) OCI
4 20 (5.73%) Azure DevOps
5 18 (5.16%) GCP
5 18 (5.16%) SaaS
6 17 (4.87%) PaaS
6 17 (4.87%) Serverless
7 16 (4.58%) Power Platform
8 15 (4.30%) IaaS
9 12 (3.44%) Boomi
9 12 (3.44%) GitHub
10 11 (3.15%) Azure Data Factory
11 10 (2.87%) Apigee
11 10 (2.87%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 9 (2.58%) Cloud Computing
13 8 (2.29%) Kong
14 7 (2.01%) Azure Functions
14 7 (2.01%) Azure Service Bus
14 7 (2.01%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 23 (6.59%) HTTP
2 8 (2.29%) FTP
3 6 (1.72%) 3GPP
4 5 (1.43%) Firewall
5 4 (1.15%) HTTPS
5 4 (1.15%) RTCP
5 4 (1.15%) RTP
5 4 (1.15%) TCP/IP
5 4 (1.15%) XCAP
6 3 (0.86%) DNS
7 2 (0.57%) FIX Connectivity
7 2 (0.57%) Network Security
7 2 (0.57%) SSL
7 2 (0.57%) VPN
8 1 (0.29%) AMQP
8 1 (0.29%) BGP
8 1 (0.29%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 1 (0.29%) MPLS
8 1 (0.29%) NAS
8 1 (0.29%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (11.17%) Relational Database
2 30 (8.60%) SQL Server
3 24 (6.88%) PostgreSQL
4 23 (6.59%) RDBMS
5 20 (5.73%) NoSQL
6 19 (5.44%) Data Warehouse
7 18 (5.16%) MongoDB
8 17 (4.87%) Oracle Reports
9 16 (4.58%) Oracle Database
10 14 (4.01%) Power BI
11 11 (3.15%) Data Lake
12 9 (2.58%) Metadata
12 9 (2.58%) MySQL
12 9 (2.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 6 (1.72%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 5 (1.43%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (1.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 4 (1.15%) DataStage
15 4 (1.15%) SQL Server Analysis Services
16 3 (0.86%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 35 (10.03%) Postman
2 31 (8.88%) Git
3 27 (7.74%) JIRA
4 14 (4.01%) SoapUI
5 10 (2.87%) Jenkins
6 9 (2.58%) Maven
7 8 (2.29%) GitLab
7 8 (2.29%) JUnit
8 5 (1.43%) Eclipse
9 4 (1.15%) Cucumber
9 4 (1.15%) Selenium
9 4 (1.15%) Subversion
10 3 (0.86%) Ant
10 3 (0.86%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.86%) ClearCase
10 3 (0.86%) Firebug
10 3 (0.86%) Hudson
10 3 (0.86%) JMeter
10 3 (0.86%) MSTest
10 3 (0.86%) REST Assured
General
1 113 (32.38%) Social Skills
2 78 (22.35%) Finance
3 66 (18.91%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (10.89%) Banking
5 26 (7.45%) Public Sector
6 14 (4.01%) Investment Banking
7 13 (3.72%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (3.15%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (2.87%) Legal
10 7 (2.01%) Military
10 7 (2.01%) Publishing
10 7 (2.01%) Telecoms
11 6 (1.72%) General Ledger
12 4 (1.15%) Advertising
12 4 (1.15%) Billing
12 4 (1.15%) Front Office
13 3 (0.86%) Back Office
13 3 (0.86%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.86%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 78 (22.35%) Developer
2 64 (18.34%) Consultant
3 42 (12.03%) Analyst
4 33 (9.46%) Implementation Consultant
5 26 (7.45%) Business Analyst
6 21 (6.02%) Senior
7 19 (5.44%) Architect
8 18 (5.16%) Lead
9 16 (4.58%) Software Engineer
10 15 (4.30%) DBA
11 13 (3.72%) Payroll Consultant
12 12 (3.44%) Data Engineer
13 10 (2.87%) C# Developer
13 10 (2.87%) Integration Engineer
13 10 (2.87%) Integration Specialist
14 9 (2.58%) Cloud Specialist
14 9 (2.58%) Oracle Specialist
14 9 (2.58%) PostgreSQL DBA
14 9 (2.58%) Senior Developer
15 8 (2.29%) Applications Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 163 (46.70%) JSON
2 100 (28.65%) REST
3 95 (27.22%) SOAP
4 46 (13.18%) Web Services
5 36 (10.32%) OAuth
6 35 (10.03%) Middleware
7 34 (9.74%) XSLT
8 30 (8.60%) .NET
8 30 (8.60%) Oracle Fusion
9 29 (8.31%) JWT
10 26 (7.45%) HTML
11 25 (7.16%) Kafka
12 23 (6.59%) Swagger
13 20 (5.73%) RESTful
14 19 (5.44%) CSS
15 16 (4.58%) OpenAPI
15 16 (4.58%) XSD
16 15 (4.30%) EDI
17 14 (4.01%) OAuth2
17 14 (4.01%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (4.30%) Data Structures
2 14 (4.01%) Product Ownership
3 12 (3.44%) Public Cloud
4 10 (2.87%) Management Information System
5 8 (2.29%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (2.29%) Fixed Income
6 7 (2.01%) Derivative
6 7 (2.01%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 6 (1.72%) Credit Risk
7 6 (1.72%) Market Risk
7 6 (1.72%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.72%) Replication
7 6 (1.72%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 5 (1.43%) Algorithms
8 5 (1.43%) Data Centre
8 5 (1.43%) Digital Wallet
9 4 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (1.15%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.15%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 31 (8.88%) Linux
2 21 (6.02%) Unix
3 13 (3.72%) Windows
4 5 (1.43%) AIX
5 2 (0.57%) Android
5 2 (0.57%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.57%) VMS
6 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.29%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.29%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (29.51%) Agile
2 89 (25.50%) Problem-Solving
3 75 (21.49%) DevOps
4 49 (14.04%) CI/CD
5 45 (12.89%) Integration Patterns
6 44 (12.61%) ERP
7 39 (11.17%) Validation
8 37 (10.60%) Workflow
9 36 (10.32%) Migration
10 35 (10.03%) Data Modelling
11 31 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
12 29 (8.31%) ETL
12 29 (8.31%) Requirements Gathering
12 29 (8.31%) Unit Testing
13 27 (7.74%) Mentoring
13 27 (7.74%) SDLC
14 26 (7.45%) Scrum
15 25 (7.16%) Software Engineering
15 25 (7.16%) User Acceptance Testing
16 24 (6.88%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 139 (39.83%) SQL
2 57 (16.33%) Java
3 47 (13.47%) Python
4 45 (12.89%) C#
5 37 (10.60%) JavaScript
6 32 (9.17%) T-SQL
7 19 (5.44%) PL/SQL
8 11 (3.15%) PowerShell
9 7 (2.01%) C++
9 7 (2.01%) Korn
9 7 (2.01%) Shell Script
10 5 (1.43%) DataWeave
10 5 (1.43%) Groovy
10 5 (1.43%) Perl
10 5 (1.43%) XPath
11 4 (1.15%) ABAP
11 4 (1.15%) Bicep
11 4 (1.15%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.86%) VB
12 3 (0.86%) VB6
Qualifications
1 85 (24.36%) Security Cleared
2 59 (16.91%) SC Cleared
3 36 (10.32%) Degree
4 18 (5.16%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (3.15%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (1.72%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.43%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.43%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.15%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.15%) CCNP
8 4 (1.15%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (1.15%) DBS Check
9 3 (0.86%) TOGAF Certification
10 2 (0.57%) HNC
10 2 (0.57%) HND
10 2 (0.57%) ISTQB
10 2 (0.57%) PMI Certification
10 2 (0.57%) PMP
11 1 (0.29%) CISM
11 1 (0.29%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (4.87%) QA
2 9 (2.58%) Data Quality
2 9 (2.58%) GDPR
3 5 (1.43%) HL7
3 5 (1.43%) PCI DSS
3 5 (1.43%) PSD2
4 4 (1.15%) GAAP
5 3 (0.86%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 3 (0.86%) FATCA
5 3 (0.86%) ISO 8583
5 3 (0.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.57%) Basel III
6 2 (0.57%) IFRS
6 2 (0.57%) IFRS 17
6 2 (0.57%) IFRS 9
6 2 (0.57%) ISO 20022
6 2 (0.57%) SEPA
6 2 (0.57%) SLA
7 1 (0.29%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 1 (0.29%) GxP
System Software
1 16 (4.58%) Docker
2 4 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.86%) Oracle RAC
4 2 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.29%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.29%) RACF
Systems Management
1 14 (4.01%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.01%) Ansible
3 4 (1.15%) Control-M
3 4 (1.15%) Terraform
4 3 (0.86%) Grafana
4 3 (0.86%) logstash
4 3 (0.86%) QRadar
4 3 (0.86%) vRealize Orchestrator
5 2 (0.57%) Fluentd
5 2 (0.57%) TIBCO Hawk
6 1 (0.29%) CEMLI
6 1 (0.29%) CloudHub
6 1 (0.29%) Docker Swarm
6 1 (0.29%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.29%) Kibana
6 1 (0.29%) Podman
6 1 (0.29%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.29%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.29%) Puppet
6 1 (0.29%) vRealize
Vendors
1 101 (28.94%) Oracle
2 41 (11.75%) Microsoft
3 25 (7.16%) SAP
4 21 (6.02%) Workday
5 20 (5.73%) ServiceNow
6 19 (5.44%) MuleSoft
7 16 (4.58%) IBM
8 9 (2.58%) Google
8 9 (2.58%) Informatica
8 9 (2.58%) Red Hat
9 8 (2.29%) Pega
9 8 (2.29%) Splunk
10 7 (2.01%) Dell
11 6 (1.72%) Databricks
11 6 (1.72%) webMethods
12 5 (1.43%) Bloomberg
12 5 (1.43%) Salesforce
12 5 (1.43%) Talend
13 4 (1.15%) Charles River
13 4 (1.15%) InterSystems