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 26 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 308 237 178
Rank change year-on-year -71 -59 +14
Contract jobs citing XML 435 382 544
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.17% 1.40%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.72% 4.60% 5.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 289 256 294
10th Percentile £325 £357 £362
25th Percentile £400 £413 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £575 £603
90th Percentile £690 £680 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £453 £500
% change year-on-year -6.18% -9.40% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 26 44
10th Percentile £27.66 £28.50 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £34.75 £42.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.24% -1.16% -38.57%
75th Percentile £42.06 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £44.14 £76.25 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.75 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -18.24% -1.16% -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 11,703 8,298 9,492
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.82% 25.36% 24.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,703 5,617 6,427
10th Percentile £375 £353 £356
25th Percentile £431 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £514 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.14% -6.55% -
75th Percentile £634 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 281 183 208
10th Percentile £29.07 £30.35 £23.80
25th Percentile £45.00 £41.00 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% -12.34% -1.83%
75th Percentile £75.00 £65.13 £70.00
90th Percentile £87.96 £79.74 £74.61
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -12.00% +4.17%

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 26 August 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 26 August 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 26 August 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 -73 353 £500 +0.50% 103
London -40 186 £548 +4.29% 51
UK excluding London -84 180 £425 -6.18% 63
Work from Home -66 139 £525 +15.38% 42
South East -61 54 £402 -15.37% 9
North of England -79 41 £375 -16.67% 12
Midlands -36 35 £415 -3.38% 18
North West -57 33 £383 -15.00% 5
West Midlands -48 25 £408 -12.37% 11
Scotland -7 18 £450 -10.00% 6
South West -41 17 £550 +46.67% 8
East of England -43 10 £480 -12.82% 7
East Midlands -10 9 £494 +57.32% 7
Yorkshire -36 8 £355 -32.38% 5
Northern Ireland -1 3 £650 +36.84% 2
Wales -27 3 £600 +60.00% 1
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 26 (5.98%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.60%) Confluence
3 18 (4.14%) Anypoint
4 16 (3.68%) IIS
5 15 (3.45%) Oracle Workflow
6 13 (2.99%) Mule
7 9 (2.07%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 7 (1.61%) WebSphere
9 5 (1.15%) CMS
9 5 (1.15%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.92%) Apache
11 3 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
11 3 (0.69%) MQSeries
12 2 (0.46%) CICS
12 2 (0.46%) Oracle Service Bus
13 1 (0.23%) JBoss
13 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
13 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
13 1 (0.23%) Oracle Self-Service HR
13 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 37 (8.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.76%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (1.38%) MS Visio
4 5 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.69%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.46%) Windchill
7 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.23%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 22 (5.06%) Oracle EBS
2 16 (3.68%) NetSuite
3 15 (3.45%) Oracle Payables
4 12 (2.76%) Oracle Receivables
5 8 (1.84%) Oracle General Ledger
5 8 (1.84%) SAP S/4HANA
6 7 (1.61%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (1.38%) Maximo
7 6 (1.38%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (1.38%) Oracle FAH
8 5 (1.15%) Elite 3E
8 5 (1.15%) Oracle Financials
8 5 (1.15%) SAP FI
9 4 (0.92%) Oracle E-Business Tax
9 4 (0.92%) Oracle Internet Expenses
9 4 (0.92%) Oracle iProcurement
9 4 (0.92%) Summit
10 3 (0.69%) Oracle ERP
10 3 (0.69%) SAP CO
10 3 (0.69%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 104 (23.91%) Azure
2 54 (12.41%) AWS
3 49 (11.26%) Azure DevOps
4 40 (9.20%) Boomi
5 26 (5.98%) GCP
6 20 (4.60%) AtomSphere
6 20 (4.60%) GitHub
7 19 (4.37%) Azure Service Bus
8 16 (3.68%) Entra ID
8 16 (3.68%) SaaS
9 15 (3.45%) Azure Logic Apps
10 14 (3.22%) Power Platform
10 14 (3.22%) Serverless
11 10 (2.30%) Azure Functions
11 10 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (2.07%) iPaaS
13 8 (1.84%) Azure Data Factory
13 8 (1.84%) Dynamics 365
13 8 (1.84%) Power Automate
13 8 (1.84%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (6.21%) HTTP
2 8 (1.84%) FTP
3 7 (1.61%) SSL
4 6 (1.38%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.15%) Network Security
6 3 (0.69%) Wireless
7 2 (0.46%) DNS
7 2 (0.46%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.46%) Internet
7 2 (0.46%) Intranet
7 2 (0.46%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.46%) WAN
8 1 (0.23%) AMQP
8 1 (0.23%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.23%) Firewall
8 1 (0.23%) NAS
8 1 (0.23%) NFC
8 1 (0.23%) SAN
8 1 (0.23%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (11.72%) SQL Server
2 40 (9.20%) Relational Database
3 22 (5.06%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (4.83%) Oracle Database
5 19 (4.37%) RDBMS
6 18 (4.14%) Oracle Reports
7 13 (2.99%) MongoDB
7 13 (2.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 12 (2.76%) Metadata
8 12 (2.76%) NoSQL
8 12 (2.76%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 10 (2.30%) MS Access
10 9 (2.07%) MySQL
11 8 (1.84%) Data Warehouse
11 8 (1.84%) Power BI
11 8 (1.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 7 (1.61%) Tableau
13 6 (1.38%) DataStage
14 5 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
15 4 (0.92%) Db2
Development Applications
1 53 (12.18%) Git
2 44 (10.11%) JIRA
3 24 (5.52%) Postman
4 23 (5.29%) Jenkins
5 21 (4.83%) Team Foundation Server
5 21 (4.83%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.37%) Selenium
7 16 (3.68%) Oracle Forms
8 11 (2.53%) JMeter
9 9 (2.07%) GitLab
9 9 (2.07%) SoapUI
10 8 (1.84%) eggPlant
10 8 (1.84%) Gradle
10 8 (1.84%) Maven
10 8 (1.84%) WebDriver
11 7 (1.61%) SonarQube
12 6 (1.38%) JDeveloper
12 6 (1.38%) LoadRunner
13 5 (1.15%) Cypress.io
13 5 (1.15%) REST Assured
General
1 140 (32.18%) Social Skills
2 103 (23.68%) Finance
3 97 (22.30%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (10.34%) Public Sector
5 41 (9.43%) Banking
6 12 (2.76%) Legal
6 12 (2.76%) Manufacturing
6 12 (2.76%) Telecoms
7 11 (2.53%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.84%) Investment Banking
8 8 (1.84%) Publishing
8 8 (1.84%) Retail
9 7 (1.61%) General Ledger
10 6 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.15%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.15%) Law
11 5 (1.15%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.92%) Advertising
12 4 (0.92%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 132 (30.34%) Developer
2 56 (12.87%) Consultant
3 54 (12.41%) Senior
4 43 (9.89%) Analyst
5 41 (9.43%) Architect
6 27 (6.21%) Implementation Consultant
6 27 (6.21%) Lead
7 24 (5.52%) Senior Developer
8 19 (4.37%) Business Analyst
8 19 (4.37%) Data Engineer
8 19 (4.37%) Software Developer
9 13 (2.99%) C# Developer
9 13 (2.99%) Integration Developer
9 13 (2.99%) Software Engineer
9 13 (2.99%) Solutions Architect
10 12 (2.76%) Oracle Developer
10 12 (2.76%) Technical Consultant
11 11 (2.53%) Integration Architect
11 11 (2.53%) MuleSoft Developer
11 11 (2.53%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 212 (48.74%) JSON
2 156 (35.86%) REST
3 137 (31.49%) SOAP
4 77 (17.70%) .NET
5 72 (16.55%) Middleware
6 66 (15.17%) Web Services
7 48 (11.03%) XSLT
8 41 (9.43%) Kafka
9 40 (9.20%) OAuth
10 39 (8.97%) HTML
11 27 (6.21%) OAuth2
12 24 (5.52%) EDI
12 24 (5.52%) RESTful
13 23 (5.29%) JWT
14 22 (5.06%) .NET Framework
15 21 (4.83%) CSS
16 17 (3.91%) Swagger
17 16 (3.68%) XSD
18 15 (3.45%) RabbitMQ
19 14 (3.22%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.83%) Product Ownership
2 20 (4.60%) Enterprise Software
3 19 (4.37%) Legacy Systems
4 17 (3.91%) Data Structures
5 15 (3.45%) Cloud Native
5 15 (3.45%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 11 (2.53%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (2.53%) Replication
7 10 (2.30%) Onboarding
8 9 (2.07%) CMDB
8 9 (2.07%) Legacy Applications
9 8 (1.84%) PKI
10 7 (1.61%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 7 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (1.38%) Algorithms
11 6 (1.38%) LIMS
11 6 (1.38%) Management Information System
11 6 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.38%) Taxonomies
12 5 (1.15%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 35 (8.05%) Linux
2 29 (6.67%) Windows
3 26 (5.98%) Unix
4 8 (1.84%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.46%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Android
7 1 (0.23%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (29.20%) Problem-Solving
2 99 (22.76%) Agile
2 99 (22.76%) DevOps
3 94 (21.61%) CI/CD
4 78 (17.93%) Validation
5 65 (14.94%) Workflow
6 58 (13.33%) Integration Patterns
7 55 (12.64%) Test Automation
8 50 (11.49%) Stakeholder Management
9 49 (11.26%) Data Modelling
9 49 (11.26%) Migration
10 45 (10.34%) Event-Driven
11 42 (9.66%) ERP
11 42 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 41 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
13 40 (9.20%) Scrum
13 40 (9.20%) User Acceptance Testing
14 39 (8.97%) Data Mapping
15 36 (8.28%) API Management
16 34 (7.82%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 190 (43.68%) SQL
2 94 (21.61%) Java
3 78 (17.93%) JavaScript
4 76 (17.47%) Python
5 65 (14.94%) C#
6 41 (9.43%) T-SQL
7 35 (8.05%) PL/SQL
8 23 (5.29%) VB.NET
9 22 (5.06%) PowerShell
9 22 (5.06%) VBA
10 20 (4.60%) Groovy
11 19 (4.37%) C++
12 17 (3.91%) VB
13 16 (3.68%) VB6
14 14 (3.22%) XPath
15 7 (1.61%) Bicep
15 7 (1.61%) DataWeave
15 7 (1.61%) Shell Script
16 6 (1.38%) R
16 6 (1.38%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 117 (26.90%) Security Cleared
2 95 (21.84%) SC Cleared
3 32 (7.36%) Degree
4 18 (4.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.68%) ISTQB
6 11 (2.53%) DV Cleared
6 11 (2.53%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 10 (2.30%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (1.84%) ISEB
9 6 (1.38%) DBS Check
10 3 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.69%) TOGAF Certification
11 2 (0.46%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.46%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.46%) CISSP
11 2 (0.46%) GIAC
11 2 (0.46%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.46%) SSCP
12 1 (0.23%) CEH
12 1 (0.23%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (7.59%) QA
2 21 (4.83%) Data Quality
3 17 (3.91%) ISO 20022
4 9 (2.07%) Accessibility
5 7 (1.61%) GDPR
5 7 (1.61%) GMP
6 6 (1.38%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 6 (1.38%) GxP
6 6 (1.38%) HL7
6 6 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 17025
6 6 (1.38%) SLA
6 6 (1.38%) WCAG
7 4 (0.92%) GRC
7 4 (0.92%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.23%) DICOM
8 1 (0.23%) IFRS
8 1 (0.23%) NIST
8 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.23%) PMO
System Software
1 14 (3.22%) Active Directory
2 10 (2.30%) Docker
3 5 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.46%) RACF
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (3.45%) Ansible
2 13 (2.99%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (2.30%) Kubernetes
4 5 (1.15%) HP Fortify
5 4 (0.92%) Control-M
6 3 (0.69%) QRadar
6 3 (0.69%) vRealize Orchestrator
6 3 (0.69%) WMI
7 2 (0.46%) CloudHub
8 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
8 1 (0.23%) Grafana
8 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 132 (30.34%) Oracle
2 101 (23.22%) Microsoft
3 45 (10.34%) SAP
4 39 (8.97%) IBM
5 36 (8.28%) MuleSoft
6 34 (7.82%) ServiceNow
7 30 (6.90%) Salesforce
8 21 (4.83%) Workday
9 20 (4.60%) Google
10 11 (2.53%) Databricks
10 11 (2.53%) Okta
11 10 (2.30%) webMethods
12 9 (2.07%) Informatica
13 7 (1.61%) TIBCO
14 6 (1.38%) BeyondTrust
14 6 (1.38%) WSO2
15 5 (1.15%) Intapp
15 5 (1.15%) Kronos
15 5 (1.15%) VMware
16 4 (0.92%) InterSystems