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

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 262 180
Rank change year-on-year -26 -82 +31
Contract jobs citing XML 394 286 579
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 0.98% 1.32%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.14% 4.32% 6.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 201 349
10th Percentile £350 £350 £400
25th Percentile £398 £409 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -13.64% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £630
90th Percentile £689 £650 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £513
% change year-on-year - -12.20% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 4 43
10th Percentile £31.08 £22.73 -
25th Percentile £44.88 £25.54 £43.00
Median hourly rate £47.50 £60.13 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.00% +33.62% -35.71%
75th Percentile £51.44 £93.75 £51.25
90th Percentile £59.50 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £24.83 £45.00
% change year-on-year +91.30% -44.82% -36.84%

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 9,511 6,623 8,925
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 20.78% 22.66% 20.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,333 4,544 6,234
10th Percentile £358 £363 £334
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.10% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £729 £775 £751
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £495 £500
% change year-on-year +1.11% -1.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 101 178
10th Percentile £35.00 £26.25 £19.43
25th Percentile £52.50 £43.50 £32.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +1.56% +38.59% -28.95%
75th Percentile £71.62 £68.75 £62.85
90th Percentile £81.00 £84.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year - +36.84% -24.00%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 +12 362 £478 +0.63% 111
UK excluding London -41 184 £450 - 104
London -30 169 £545 +3.81% 32
Work from Home -39 103 £453 -2.90% 58
North of England -35 68 £394 -12.31% 24
South East -25 64 £500 +18.34% 27
North West -2 57 £391 -12.62% 15
Midlands -43 31 £450 -18.18% 17
West Midlands -48 23 £450 -18.18% 6
East of England -20 13 £675 - 10
Yorkshire -46 11 £450 -23.40% 7
East Midlands -33 8 £525 +46.65% 11
South West -27 6 £548 +46.00% 11
Scotland -7 5 £500 +1.21% 10

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 19 (4.82%) WebLogic
2 17 (4.31%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 15 (3.81%) Confluence
4 11 (2.79%) WebSphere
5 7 (1.78%) Apache
5 7 (1.78%) Oracle Workflow
6 6 (1.52%) Anypoint
7 5 (1.27%) JBoss
7 5 (1.27%) Mule
8 4 (1.02%) CMS
8 4 (1.02%) Oracle Service Bus
9 3 (0.76%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.76%) Mule ESB
9 3 (0.76%) Oracle Self-Service HR
10 2 (0.51%) Appian
10 2 (0.51%) Documentum
10 2 (0.51%) MQSeries
10 2 (0.51%) SharePoint
10 2 (0.51%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.25%) SAS
Applications
1 33 (8.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.27%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.02%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.51%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.51%) EngageOne
4 2 (0.51%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.25%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 12 (3.05%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (2.28%) SAP Payroll
3 8 (2.03%) Oracle Payables
3 8 (2.03%) Oracle Receivables
3 8 (2.03%) SAP S/4HANA
4 7 (1.78%) BusinessWorks
4 7 (1.78%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 7 (1.78%) SAP HCM
5 6 (1.52%) Maximo
5 6 (1.52%) Summit
6 5 (1.27%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (1.27%) Oracle General Ledger
6 5 (1.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (1.27%) Payment Gateway
7 4 (1.02%) Oracle 11i
7 4 (1.02%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (1.02%) Oracle Cash Management
7 4 (1.02%) Workday HCM
8 3 (0.76%) Findur
9 2 (0.51%) SAP FI
Cloud Services
1 80 (20.30%) Azure
2 52 (13.20%) AWS
3 29 (7.36%) OCI
4 23 (5.84%) Azure DevOps
4 23 (5.84%) Power Platform
4 23 (5.84%) SaaS
5 22 (5.58%) GCP
5 22 (5.58%) GitHub
6 17 (4.31%) Boomi
6 17 (4.31%) PaaS
7 16 (4.06%) Serverless
8 15 (3.81%) IaaS
9 13 (3.30%) Apigee
9 13 (3.30%) Cloud Computing
9 13 (3.30%) GitHub Actions
10 12 (3.05%) Azure Data Factory
11 10 (2.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 10 (2.54%) Dynamics 365
11 10 (2.54%) SuccessFactors
12 9 (2.28%) Kong
Communications & Networking
1 26 (6.60%) HTTP
2 10 (2.54%) HTTPS
3 7 (1.78%) Firewall
3 7 (1.78%) FTP
4 6 (1.52%) 3GPP
5 4 (1.02%) RTCP
5 4 (1.02%) RTP
5 4 (1.02%) XCAP
6 2 (0.51%) 5G
6 2 (0.51%) BGP
6 2 (0.51%) DNS
6 2 (0.51%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 2 (0.51%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 2 (0.51%) FIX Connectivity
6 2 (0.51%) MPLS
6 2 (0.51%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.51%) VPN
7 1 (0.25%) AMQP
7 1 (0.25%) Network Security
7 1 (0.25%) NFC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (11.42%) Relational Database
2 41 (10.41%) SQL Server
3 23 (5.84%) Data Warehouse
3 23 (5.84%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (5.58%) MongoDB
4 22 (5.58%) RDBMS
5 20 (5.08%) NoSQL
6 18 (4.57%) Power BI
7 17 (4.31%) Oracle Reports
8 15 (3.81%) Metadata
9 12 (3.05%) Oracle Database
10 11 (2.79%) Data Lake
11 9 (2.28%) DataStage
11 9 (2.28%) MySQL
11 9 (2.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 8 (2.03%) DB2
13 6 (1.52%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (1.27%) Big Data
14 5 (1.27%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 5 (1.27%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 48 (12.18%) Postman
2 44 (11.17%) JIRA
3 41 (10.41%) Git
4 19 (4.82%) Jenkins
5 16 (4.06%) JUnit
6 15 (3.81%) SoapUI
7 14 (3.55%) Selenium
8 12 (3.05%) Cucumber
8 12 (3.05%) Maven
9 10 (2.54%) Eclipse
10 9 (2.28%) SpecFlow
10 9 (2.28%) TestRail
10 9 (2.28%) Zephyr
11 7 (1.78%) Toad
12 6 (1.52%) GitLab
12 6 (1.52%) Subversion
13 5 (1.27%) MSTest
14 4 (1.02%) IntelliJ
15 3 (0.76%) Ant
15 3 (0.76%) Oracle Forms
General
1 122 (30.96%) Social Skills
2 80 (20.30%) Finance
3 75 (19.04%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (9.39%) Public Sector
5 35 (8.88%) Banking
6 18 (4.57%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (3.30%) Investment Banking
8 12 (3.05%) Legal
9 10 (2.54%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.52%) Military
11 5 (1.27%) General Ledger
11 5 (1.27%) Retail
12 4 (1.02%) Advertising
12 4 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.02%) Publishing
13 3 (0.76%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.76%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.76%) Marketing
14 2 (0.51%) Front Office
14 2 (0.51%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 95 (24.11%) Developer
2 67 (17.01%) Consultant
3 52 (13.20%) Analyst
4 33 (8.38%) Implementation Consultant
5 27 (6.85%) Business Analyst
6 23 (5.84%) Architect
6 23 (5.84%) Lead
7 22 (5.58%) Senior
8 18 (4.57%) Data Engineer
9 17 (4.31%) Software Engineer
10 15 (3.81%) DBA
11 13 (3.30%) Payroll Consultant
12 12 (3.05%) Integration Developer
13 10 (2.54%) Integration Specialist
13 10 (2.54%) Java Developer
13 10 (2.54%) SAP Consultant
13 10 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
13 10 (2.54%) Technical Analyst
13 10 (2.54%) Tester
14 9 (2.28%) PostgreSQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 193 (48.98%) JSON
2 121 (30.71%) SOAP
3 120 (30.46%) REST
4 56 (14.21%) Web Services
5 41 (10.41%) XSLT
6 40 (10.15%) OAuth
7 33 (8.38%) JWT
8 31 (7.87%) .NET
8 31 (7.87%) Oracle Fusion
9 30 (7.61%) Middleware
10 26 (6.60%) HTML
11 25 (6.35%) RESTful
12 23 (5.84%) Kafka
13 22 (5.58%) Swagger
14 21 (5.33%) XSD
15 18 (4.57%) JMS
16 17 (4.31%) CSS
16 17 (4.31%) EDI
17 16 (4.06%) OAuth2
17 16 (4.06%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 17 (4.31%) Data Structures
2 13 (3.30%) Product Ownership
2 13 (3.30%) Public Cloud
3 12 (3.05%) Management Information System
4 11 (2.79%) Replication
5 9 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
5 9 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (2.03%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (2.03%) Derivative
6 8 (2.03%) Fixed Income
6 8 (2.03%) Onboarding
7 6 (1.52%) Credit Risk
7 6 (1.52%) Market Risk
8 5 (1.27%) Algorithms
8 5 (1.27%) Digital Wallet
8 5 (1.27%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 4 (1.02%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.02%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.02%) Low-Code
9 4 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 33 (8.38%) Linux
2 27 (6.85%) Unix
3 16 (4.06%) Windows
4 5 (1.27%) AIX
5 3 (0.76%) Android
5 3 (0.76%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.51%) VMS
7 1 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (31.22%) Agile
2 99 (25.13%) Problem-Solving
3 96 (24.37%) DevOps
4 63 (15.99%) CI/CD
5 57 (14.47%) Validation
6 49 (12.44%) Data Modelling
6 49 (12.44%) ERP
7 46 (11.68%) Integration Patterns
8 45 (11.42%) Migration
9 40 (10.15%) Requirements Gathering
10 39 (9.90%) ETL
11 35 (8.88%) SDLC
11 35 (8.88%) Workflow
12 32 (8.12%) Microservices
13 31 (7.87%) Computer Science
13 31 (7.87%) Scrum
13 31 (7.87%) Stakeholder Management
14 30 (7.61%) Software Engineering
14 30 (7.61%) Unit Testing
15 29 (7.36%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 157 (39.85%) SQL
2 87 (22.08%) Java
3 55 (13.96%) C#
4 52 (13.20%) Python
5 40 (10.15%) JavaScript
6 38 (9.64%) T-SQL
7 19 (4.82%) PL/SQL
8 16 (4.06%) XPath
9 12 (3.05%) PowerShell
10 9 (2.28%) Shell Script
11 8 (2.03%) ABAP
11 8 (2.03%) Groovy
12 7 (1.78%) Korn
13 5 (1.27%) C++
13 5 (1.27%) Kotlin
13 5 (1.27%) Perl
14 4 (1.02%) Bicep
14 4 (1.02%) Scala
15 3 (0.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 2 (0.51%) DataWeave
Qualifications
1 98 (24.87%) Security Cleared
2 69 (17.51%) SC Cleared
3 39 (9.90%) Degree
4 22 (5.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 13 (3.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (2.03%) ISTQB
7 7 (1.78%) AWS Certification
7 7 (1.78%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 6 (1.52%) ISEB
9 5 (1.27%) CCNP
9 5 (1.27%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (1.27%) DBS Check
10 4 (1.02%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.02%) DV Cleared
10 4 (1.02%) Master's Degree
10 4 (1.02%) PMI Certification
10 4 (1.02%) PMP
11 2 (0.51%) CCNA
11 2 (0.51%) OCP
11 2 (0.51%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.33%) QA
2 15 (3.81%) Data Quality
3 9 (2.28%) GDPR
4 6 (1.52%) PCI DSS
5 5 (1.27%) PSD2
6 4 (1.02%) GAAP
7 3 (0.76%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.76%) FATCA
7 3 (0.76%) HL7
7 3 (0.76%) ISO 8583
7 3 (0.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.51%) Basel III
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%) GxP
9 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 1 (0.25%) SLA
System Software
1 23 (5.84%) Docker
2 3 (0.76%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.51%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.25%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 14 (3.55%) Kubernetes
2 7 (1.78%) Ansible
2 7 (1.78%) TIBCO Hawk
3 5 (1.27%) Puppet
4 4 (1.02%) Control-M
5 3 (0.76%) Grafana
5 3 (0.76%) logstash
6 2 (0.51%) CloudHub
6 2 (0.51%) Fluentd
6 2 (0.51%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.51%) Kibana
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%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.25%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.25%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 111 (28.17%) Oracle
2 44 (11.17%) Microsoft
3 42 (10.66%) SAP
4 28 (7.11%) IBM
5 18 (4.57%) MuleSoft
6 17 (4.31%) Workday
7 16 (4.06%) ServiceNow
7 16 (4.06%) webMethods
8 11 (2.79%) Informatica
8 11 (2.79%) Splunk
9 9 (2.28%) Google
10 8 (2.03%) Pega
10 8 (2.03%) TIBCO
11 7 (1.78%) BEA
11 7 (1.78%) Databricks
11 7 (1.78%) Dell
11 7 (1.78%) Red Hat
11 7 (1.78%) Talend
12 5 (1.27%) Computacenter
12 5 (1.27%) Software AG