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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 249 234 200
Rank change year-on-year -15 -34 +8
Contract jobs citing XML 407 323 500
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.09% 1.03% 1.15%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 4.91% 4.64% 5.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 262 203 331
10th Percentile £350 £254 £381
25th Percentile £400 £400 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £638 £588 £613
90th Percentile £715 £655 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £445 £534
% change year-on-year +1.12% -16.59% +7.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 1 30
10th Percentile £40.75 - £39.75
25th Percentile £41.25 £91.25 -
Median hourly rate £43.00 £92.50 £48.72
Median % change year-on-year -53.51% +89.86% -32.80%
75th Percentile £48.75 £93.75 £54.37
90th Percentile £88.25 - £71.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 - £48.72
% change year-on-year - - -18.80%

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 8,287 6,960 9,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.23% 22.25% 21.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,513 4,420 6,600
10th Percentile £356 £356 £355
25th Percentile £413 £425 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.12% -2.27% -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 206 90 180
10th Percentile £33.00 £22.00 £27.66
25th Percentile £46.00 £35.44 £46.18
Median hourly rate £61.50 £62.50 £54.78
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% +14.09% -15.72%
75th Percentile £68.00 £65.56 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £75.22 £77.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.75 £65.00 £54.78
% change year-on-year -3.46% +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 20 January 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 20 January 2026.

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 20 January 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 +16 361 £475 -5.00% 105
London -16 188 £525 -1.87% 26
UK excluding London +1 162 £450 +1.12% 99
Work from Home +22 151 £475 +7.34% 48
North of England -29 52 £425 -19.05% 20
North West +2 42 £402 -9.66% 12
South East -27 37 £438 +25.00% 33
East of England +11 31 £581 - 14
Midlands -31 24 £429 -24.34% 11
West Midlands -23 21 £429 -24.34% 4
Scotland +5 10 £500 +11.11% 7
South West +1 10 £400 -9.86% 12
Yorkshire -50 10 £600 +5.82% 7
East Midlands -26 3 - - 7
Wales -11 2 - - 4

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 23 (5.65%) WebLogic
2 21 (5.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 14 (3.44%) Apache
4 13 (3.19%) Confluence
5 10 (2.46%) JBoss
5 10 (2.46%) WebSphere
6 8 (1.97%) Appian
7 7 (1.72%) Anypoint
7 7 (1.72%) MQSeries
7 7 (1.72%) Mule
7 7 (1.72%) nginx
7 7 (1.72%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (1.47%) Oracle Service Bus
9 5 (1.23%) Tomcat
10 4 (0.98%) Mule ESB
11 3 (0.74%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.74%) Documentum
12 2 (0.49%) BizTalk Server
13 1 (0.25%) Alfresco
13 1 (0.25%) CMS
Applications
1 12 (2.95%) FrameMaker
2 11 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.49%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.25%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.25%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.25%) SPSS
Business Applications
1 8 (1.97%) Oracle ERP
1 8 (1.97%) SAP Payroll
2 7 (1.72%) BusinessWorks
2 7 (1.72%) SAP HCM
3 6 (1.47%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (1.47%) Oracle Receivables
3 6 (1.47%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 5 (1.23%) Oracle General Ledger
4 5 (1.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 5 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
5 4 (0.98%) Maximo
5 4 (0.98%) Oracle 11i
6 3 (0.74%) Oracle BPM
6 3 (0.74%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle Assets
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle Cash Management
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle FAH
7 2 (0.49%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.49%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 89 (21.87%) Azure
2 71 (17.44%) AWS
3 26 (6.39%) GitHub
3 26 (6.39%) OCI
4 23 (5.65%) Azure DevOps
5 21 (5.16%) GCP
5 21 (5.16%) Power Platform
6 19 (4.67%) Cloud Computing
6 19 (4.67%) SaaS
7 18 (4.42%) Serverless
8 14 (3.44%) PaaS
8 14 (3.44%) Tricentis Tosca
9 13 (3.19%) Apigee
10 12 (2.95%) Azure Logic Apps
10 12 (2.95%) Dynamics 365
10 12 (2.95%) IaaS
11 10 (2.46%) Boomi
11 10 (2.46%) Power Automate
12 9 (2.21%) GitHub Actions
13 8 (1.97%) Kong
Communications & Networking
1 35 (8.60%) HTTPS
2 27 (6.63%) HTTP
3 10 (2.46%) Firewall
3 10 (2.46%) SSL
4 4 (0.98%) NFC
4 4 (0.98%) PPP
5 3 (0.74%) VPN
6 2 (0.49%) 5G
6 2 (0.49%) BGP
6 2 (0.49%) DNS
6 2 (0.49%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 2 (0.49%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 2 (0.49%) FIX Connectivity
6 2 (0.49%) FTP
6 2 (0.49%) MPLS
6 2 (0.49%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.25%) AMQP
7 1 (0.25%) DSL
7 1 (0.25%) Network Security
7 1 (0.25%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (12.78%) Relational Database
2 39 (9.58%) SQL Server
3 22 (5.41%) MongoDB
4 21 (5.16%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (4.91%) PostgreSQL
6 14 (3.44%) Oracle Reports
6 14 (3.44%) RDBMS
7 12 (2.95%) NoSQL
7 12 (2.95%) Oracle Database
7 12 (2.95%) Power BI
8 11 (2.70%) Metadata
9 9 (2.21%) DataStage
9 9 (2.21%) MySQL
9 9 (2.21%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 8 (1.97%) Apache Cassandra
11 7 (1.72%) Big Data
11 7 (1.72%) Data Lake
11 7 (1.72%) DB2
11 7 (1.72%) Elasticsearch
12 6 (1.47%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 55 (13.51%) JIRA
2 50 (12.29%) Git
3 42 (10.32%) Postman
4 33 (8.11%) Jenkins
5 28 (6.88%) Selenium
6 22 (5.41%) Cucumber
6 22 (5.41%) JUnit
7 13 (3.19%) Eclipse
8 11 (2.70%) GitLab
9 10 (2.46%) SoapUI
10 9 (2.21%) IntelliJ
10 9 (2.21%) SpecFlow
10 9 (2.21%) TestRail
10 9 (2.21%) Zephyr
11 8 (1.97%) Maven
11 8 (1.97%) SonarQube
12 7 (1.72%) Robot Framework
12 7 (1.72%) Toad
13 6 (1.47%) Browser DevTools
13 6 (1.47%) Firebug
General
1 137 (33.66%) Social Skills
2 90 (22.11%) Finance
3 64 (15.72%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (12.29%) Public Sector
5 46 (11.30%) Banking
6 17 (4.18%) Publishing
7 15 (3.69%) Documentation Skills
8 13 (3.19%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (2.70%) Investment Banking
9 11 (2.70%) Telecoms
10 10 (2.46%) Aerospace
11 9 (2.21%) Back Office
12 8 (1.97%) Financial Institution
12 8 (1.97%) Legal
12 8 (1.97%) Private Banking
13 7 (1.72%) Manufacturing
14 6 (1.47%) Digital Healthcare
14 6 (1.47%) Retail
15 5 (1.23%) Automotive
15 5 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 131 (32.19%) Developer
2 59 (14.50%) Analyst
3 35 (8.60%) Consultant
4 29 (7.13%) Senior
5 27 (6.63%) Business Analyst
6 26 (6.39%) Lead
7 21 (5.16%) Software Engineer
8 18 (4.42%) Architect
9 16 (3.93%) Author
9 16 (3.93%) Integration Developer
9 16 (3.93%) Technical Author
9 16 (3.93%) webMethods Developer
10 12 (2.95%) Data Engineer
10 12 (2.95%) Java Developer
11 11 (2.70%) DBA
11 11 (2.70%) Tester
12 10 (2.46%) Administrator
12 10 (2.46%) SAP Consultant
12 10 (2.46%) Senior Developer
12 10 (2.46%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 219 (53.81%) JSON
2 141 (34.64%) REST
2 141 (34.64%) SOAP
3 56 (13.76%) OAuth
4 46 (11.30%) Web Services
4 46 (11.30%) XSLT
5 42 (10.32%) HTML
6 33 (8.11%) JMS
7 29 (7.13%) RESTful
8 26 (6.39%) JWT
9 25 (6.14%) Oracle Fusion
9 25 (6.14%) Spring
10 23 (5.65%) Middleware
10 23 (5.65%) OAuth2
11 22 (5.41%) .NET
12 21 (5.16%) J2EE
12 21 (5.16%) XSD
13 19 (4.67%) CSS
14 18 (4.42%) Swagger
15 17 (4.18%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 18 (4.42%) Data Structures
2 15 (3.69%) Cloud Native
3 14 (3.44%) Replication
4 11 (2.70%) Data Protection Act
5 10 (2.46%) Public Cloud
5 10 (2.46%) Virtual Team
6 9 (2.21%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
7 8 (1.97%) Algorithms
7 8 (1.97%) AS400
7 8 (1.97%) Distributed Systems
7 8 (1.97%) Management Information System
7 8 (1.97%) Onboarding
7 8 (1.97%) Product Ownership
8 7 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.47%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 5 (1.23%) CMDB
10 5 (1.23%) Fixed Income
10 5 (1.23%) Low-Code
11 4 (0.98%) iSeries
Operating Systems
1 47 (11.55%) Linux
2 25 (6.14%) Unix
3 19 (4.67%) Windows
4 5 (1.23%) AIX
4 5 (1.23%) Ubuntu
5 3 (0.74%) Android
6 2 (0.49%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.25%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.25%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (35.38%) Agile
2 139 (34.15%) DevOps
3 93 (22.85%) Problem-Solving
4 85 (20.88%) CI/CD
5 58 (14.25%) Test Automation
6 57 (14.00%) Validation
7 50 (12.29%) ERP
7 50 (12.29%) Migration
8 49 (12.04%) Microservices
9 48 (11.79%) Deployment Automation
10 47 (11.55%) Scrum
11 45 (11.06%) Data Modelling
11 45 (11.06%) ETL
12 39 (9.58%) Computer Science
13 37 (9.09%) Data Migration
14 35 (8.60%) API Management
15 34 (8.35%) SDLC
15 34 (8.35%) Software Engineering
16 31 (7.62%) Continuous Improvement
16 31 (7.62%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 145 (35.63%) SQL
2 119 (29.24%) Java
3 66 (16.22%) Python
4 58 (14.25%) C#
5 57 (14.00%) JavaScript
6 23 (5.65%) PL/SQL
7 19 (4.67%) PowerShell
8 17 (4.18%) XPath
9 10 (2.46%) C++
10 9 (2.21%) Scala
11 8 (1.97%) RPG
11 8 (1.97%) Shell Script
12 7 (1.72%) ABAP
12 7 (1.72%) Korn
12 7 (1.72%) T-SQL
13 6 (1.47%) Groovy
14 5 (1.23%) Perl
15 4 (0.98%) BeanShell
15 4 (0.98%) Kotlin
16 3 (0.74%) DataWeave
Qualifications
1 109 (26.78%) Security Cleared
2 85 (20.88%) SC Cleared
3 58 (14.25%) Degree
4 32 (7.86%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (3.69%) BPSS Clearance
6 14 (3.44%) HNC
6 14 (3.44%) HND
7 11 (2.70%) ISTQB
8 9 (2.21%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 6 (1.47%) PMI Certification
10 5 (1.23%) CCNP
10 5 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (1.23%) DV Cleared
10 5 (1.23%) ISEB
10 5 (1.23%) Master's Degree
10 5 (1.23%) PMP
11 4 (0.98%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.74%) CEH
12 3 (0.74%) GIAC
12 3 (0.74%) GWAPT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (6.14%) QA
2 21 (5.16%) Data Quality
3 5 (1.23%) GAAP
3 5 (1.23%) GDPR
4 3 (0.74%) IFRS
4 3 (0.74%) PCI DSS
4 3 (0.74%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.49%) Basel III
5 2 (0.49%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 2 (0.49%) EMIR
5 2 (0.49%) GxP
5 2 (0.49%) IFRS 17
5 2 (0.49%) IFRS 9
5 2 (0.49%) PSD2
5 2 (0.49%) SEPA
6 1 (0.25%) AIFMD
6 1 (0.25%) DICOM
6 1 (0.25%) HL7
6 1 (0.25%) ISO 8583
6 1 (0.25%) SLA
System Software
1 44 (10.81%) Docker
2 3 (0.74%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 16 (3.93%) Kubernetes
2 14 (3.44%) Ansible
3 10 (2.46%) Control-M
3 10 (2.46%) Puppet
4 8 (1.97%) logstash
5 7 (1.72%) Kibana
5 7 (1.72%) TIBCO Hawk
6 5 (1.23%) ITRS Geneos
7 3 (0.74%) CloudHub
7 3 (0.74%) Terraform
8 2 (0.49%) Fluentd
8 2 (0.49%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.49%) QRadar
9 1 (0.25%) CEMLI
9 1 (0.25%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.25%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.25%) Podman
9 1 (0.25%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.25%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 100 (24.57%) Oracle
2 52 (12.78%) SAP
3 41 (10.07%) Microsoft
4 40 (9.83%) IBM
5 31 (7.62%) webMethods
6 16 (3.93%) MuleSoft
6 16 (3.93%) Workday
7 13 (3.19%) Splunk
8 12 (2.95%) Pega
8 12 (2.95%) ServiceNow
8 12 (2.95%) Software AG
8 12 (2.95%) TIBCO
9 11 (2.70%) Informatica
10 10 (2.46%) Axway
11 9 (2.21%) Cisco
12 8 (1.97%) Google
12 8 (1.97%) Red Hat
13 7 (1.72%) BEA
13 7 (1.72%) Salesforce
13 7 (1.72%) Veracode