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

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 244 181
Rank change year-on-year -66 -63 +14
Contract jobs citing XML 441 371 530
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.14% 1.38%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 3.76% 4.38% 5.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 247 287
10th Percentile £325 £338 £321
25th Percentile £413 £413 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £575 £599
90th Percentile £700 £688 £656
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 26 44
10th Percentile £28.60 £30.63 -
25th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £29.54 £42.75 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.91% -0.58% -38.57%
75th Percentile £41.75 £43.75 -
90th Percentile £43.38 £91.88 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.54 £42.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year -30.51% -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 11,740 8,473 9,536
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 21.60% 25.94% 24.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,723 5,664 6,299
10th Percentile £375 £355 £356
25th Percentile £438 £413 £434
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £638 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £734 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -2.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 299 186 190
10th Percentile £29.07 £31.25 £25.60
25th Percentile £50.00 £41.25 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £54.35 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +19.60% -11.77% -1.44%
75th Percentile £76.00 £65.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £72.25 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +17.39% -11.54% +8.33%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -79 344 £488 -2.50% 408
London -51 187 £538 +2.38% 248
UK excluding London -99 169 £450 -5.26% 190
Work from Home -57 148 £525 +8.53% 159
South East -58 46 £460 -3.16% 57
Midlands -26 42 £418 -2.79% 28
West Midlands -29 35 £415 -3.49% 19
North of England -78 26 £378 -24.50% 36
Scotland -15 20 £450 -10.00% 24
South West -35 18 £575 +53.33% 17
North West -60 18 £395 -16.76% 24
East of England -45 12 £509 +4.41% 17
Yorkshire -38 8 £378 -31.36% 8
East Midlands -12 6 £494 +82.96% 9
Wales -25 3 £600 +60.00% 7
Northern Ireland - 3 £650 - 5
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 (7.71%) SharePoint
2 20 (4.54%) Confluence
3 16 (3.63%) Anypoint
3 16 (3.63%) IIS
3 16 (3.63%) Oracle Workflow
4 13 (2.95%) Mule
5 10 (2.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 7 (1.59%) WebSphere
7 6 (1.36%) Apache
8 5 (1.13%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.68%) Apache Airflow
9 3 (0.68%) MQSeries
9 3 (0.68%) Oracle Service Bus
10 2 (0.45%) CICS
10 2 (0.45%) CMS
11 1 (0.23%) JBoss
11 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
11 1 (0.23%) Mule ESB
11 1 (0.23%) Tomcat
Applications
1 13 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.59%) MS Visio
4 6 (1.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.36%) Windchill
5 3 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.23%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.23%) LaTeX
Business Applications
1 23 (5.22%) Oracle EBS
2 18 (4.08%) Dynamics CRM
3 17 (3.85%) NetSuite
4 15 (3.40%) Oracle Payables
5 12 (2.72%) Oracle Receivables
6 11 (2.49%) SAP S/4HANA
7 8 (1.81%) Oracle General Ledger
8 7 (1.59%) Oracle FAH
9 6 (1.36%) Maximo
9 6 (1.36%) Oracle Assets
9 6 (1.36%) Oracle Financials
9 6 (1.36%) SAP FI
10 5 (1.13%) Elite 3E
10 5 (1.13%) FLEXCUBE
10 5 (1.13%) Workday HCM
11 4 (0.91%) Oracle E-Business Tax
11 4 (0.91%) Oracle Internet Expenses
11 4 (0.91%) Oracle iProcurement
11 4 (0.91%) SAP CO
11 4 (0.91%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 120 (27.21%) Azure
2 62 (14.06%) AWS
3 53 (12.02%) Azure DevOps
4 46 (10.43%) Boomi
5 32 (7.26%) GCP
6 23 (5.22%) Power Platform
7 22 (4.99%) AtomSphere
8 21 (4.76%) Azure Service Bus
9 19 (4.31%) Dynamics 365
9 19 (4.31%) Entra ID
10 18 (4.08%) Azure Functions
10 18 (4.08%) Azure Logic Apps
10 18 (4.08%) Serverless
11 17 (3.85%) Power Automate
11 17 (3.85%) SaaS
12 15 (3.40%) GitHub
13 14 (3.17%) iPaaS
14 9 (2.04%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (2.04%) PowerApps
15 8 (1.81%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 34 (7.71%) HTTP
2 9 (2.04%) FTP
3 7 (1.59%) SSL
4 6 (1.36%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.13%) Network Security
6 3 (0.68%) Wireless
7 2 (0.45%) DNS
7 2 (0.45%) HTTPS
7 2 (0.45%) Internet
7 2 (0.45%) Intranet
7 2 (0.45%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.45%) WAN
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
8 1 (0.23%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (13.15%) SQL Server
2 35 (7.94%) Relational Database
3 25 (5.67%) Oracle Database
4 22 (4.99%) PostgreSQL
5 17 (3.85%) Oracle Reports
6 14 (3.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 12 (2.72%) MS Access
7 12 (2.72%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 11 (2.49%) Metadata
8 11 (2.49%) RDBMS
8 11 (2.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (2.27%) MySQL
10 9 (2.04%) MongoDB
11 8 (1.81%) NoSQL
12 7 (1.59%) Data Lake
12 7 (1.59%) Power BI
12 7 (1.59%) Tableau
13 6 (1.36%) Data Warehouse
14 5 (1.13%) DataStage
14 5 (1.13%) GIS
Development Applications
1 66 (14.97%) Git
2 45 (10.20%) JIRA
3 26 (5.90%) Jenkins
4 24 (5.44%) Postman
5 22 (4.99%) Team Foundation Server
5 22 (4.99%) Visual Studio
6 19 (4.31%) Selenium
7 18 (4.08%) Oracle Forms
8 11 (2.49%) Gradle
9 10 (2.27%) JMeter
9 10 (2.27%) Maven
10 9 (2.04%) SonarQube
11 8 (1.81%) eggPlant
11 8 (1.81%) GitLab
11 8 (1.81%) SoapUI
11 8 (1.81%) WebDriver
12 6 (1.36%) Cucumber
12 6 (1.36%) JDeveloper
12 6 (1.36%) LoadRunner
13 5 (1.13%) JUnit
General
1 149 (33.79%) Social Skills
2 106 (24.04%) Finance
3 98 (22.22%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (12.47%) Public Sector
5 41 (9.30%) Banking
6 15 (3.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 14 (3.17%) Manufacturing
8 12 (2.72%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (2.04%) Law
9 9 (2.04%) Publishing
10 8 (1.81%) General Ledger
10 8 (1.81%) Legal
10 8 (1.81%) Retail
11 6 (1.36%) Investment Banking
11 6 (1.36%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (1.36%) Police
12 5 (1.13%) Aerospace
12 5 (1.13%) Billing
12 5 (1.13%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 153 (34.69%) Developer
2 58 (13.15%) Senior
3 46 (10.43%) Architect
4 37 (8.39%) Analyst
4 37 (8.39%) Consultant
5 31 (7.03%) Lead
6 27 (6.12%) Senior Developer
7 22 (4.99%) Data Engineer
7 22 (4.99%) Software Developer
8 17 (3.85%) Solutions Architect
9 16 (3.63%) Integration Developer
10 15 (3.40%) Business Analyst
10 15 (3.40%) Lead Developer
11 13 (2.95%) C# Developer
11 13 (2.95%) Software Engineer
11 13 (2.95%) Technical Consultant
12 12 (2.72%) Test Analyst
13 11 (2.49%) Dynamics 365 Developer
13 11 (2.49%) Integration Specialist
14 10 (2.27%) Lead Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 230 (52.15%) JSON
2 176 (39.91%) REST
3 156 (35.37%) SOAP
4 87 (19.73%) .NET
5 80 (18.14%) Web Services
6 79 (17.91%) Middleware
7 58 (13.15%) XSLT
8 43 (9.75%) OAuth
9 42 (9.52%) HTML
10 41 (9.30%) Kafka
11 27 (6.12%) .NET Framework
11 27 (6.12%) OAuth2
11 27 (6.12%) RESTful
12 24 (5.44%) JWT
13 23 (5.22%) CSS
13 23 (5.22%) EDI
14 22 (4.99%) Swagger
15 18 (4.08%) OpenAPI
16 17 (3.85%) RabbitMQ
16 17 (3.85%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 24 (5.44%) Enterprise Software
2 20 (4.54%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.31%) Product Ownership
4 18 (4.08%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 17 (3.85%) Cloud Native
6 16 (3.63%) Data Structures
6 16 (3.63%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (3.63%) Management Information System
7 13 (2.95%) Onboarding
7 13 (2.95%) Taxonomies
8 11 (2.49%) Replication
9 10 (2.27%) CMDB
9 10 (2.27%) Legacy Applications
10 9 (2.04%) LIMS
11 8 (1.81%) PKI
12 7 (1.59%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 7 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.59%) Virtual Team
13 6 (1.36%) AI Agents
13 6 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 35 (7.94%) Linux
2 32 (7.26%) Windows
3 24 (5.44%) Unix
4 10 (2.27%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.68%) zOS
7 1 (0.23%) Android
7 1 (0.23%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.23%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 136 (30.84%) Problem-Solving
2 108 (24.49%) Agile
3 101 (22.90%) DevOps
4 97 (22.00%) CI/CD
5 82 (18.59%) Validation
6 64 (14.51%) Integration Patterns
7 60 (13.61%) Stakeholder Management
8 59 (13.38%) Workflow
9 58 (13.15%) Data Modelling
9 58 (13.15%) Test Automation
10 52 (11.79%) Continuous Improvement
11 51 (11.56%) Event-Driven
12 50 (11.34%) Migration
13 48 (10.88%) ERP
14 47 (10.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 43 (9.75%) Scrum
16 40 (9.07%) Data Mapping
16 40 (9.07%) Software Engineering
17 39 (8.84%) Technical Leadership
17 39 (8.84%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 170 (38.55%) SQL
2 103 (23.36%) Java
3 91 (20.63%) JavaScript
4 84 (19.05%) C#
5 81 (18.37%) Python
6 37 (8.39%) PL/SQL
7 24 (5.44%) PowerShell
7 24 (5.44%) VB.NET
8 23 (5.22%) VBA
9 22 (4.99%) Groovy
10 20 (4.54%) C++
11 18 (4.08%) VB
12 17 (3.85%) T-SQL
12 17 (3.85%) VB6
13 15 (3.40%) XPath
14 9 (2.04%) TypeScript
15 7 (1.59%) ABAP
15 7 (1.59%) Bicep
15 7 (1.59%) Shell Script
16 6 (1.36%) DataWeave
Qualifications
1 131 (29.71%) Security Cleared
2 107 (24.26%) SC Cleared
3 48 (10.88%) Degree
4 24 (5.44%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.63%) DV Cleared
5 16 (3.63%) ISTQB
6 13 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (2.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 11 (2.49%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (1.81%) ISEB
9 6 (1.36%) Azure Certification
10 5 (1.13%) TOGAF Certification
11 4 (0.91%) Master's Degree
12 3 (0.68%) AWS Certification
13 2 (0.45%) CISSP
13 2 (0.45%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.45%) GIAC
13 2 (0.45%) SSCP
14 1 (0.23%) CISM
14 1 (0.23%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (8.16%) QA
2 26 (5.90%) Data Quality
3 20 (4.54%) ISO 20022
4 17 (3.85%) Accessibility
5 14 (3.17%) GDPR
5 14 (3.17%) WCAG
6 9 (2.04%) GMP
7 8 (1.81%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 8 (1.81%) GxP
7 8 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 6 (1.36%) SLA
9 5 (1.13%) GRC
9 5 (1.13%) HL7
10 4 (0.91%) ISO 15022
11 3 (0.68%) SEPA
12 2 (0.45%) NCSC
13 1 (0.23%) IFRS
13 1 (0.23%) NIST
13 1 (0.23%) NIST 800
13 1 (0.23%) PSD2
System Software
1 17 (3.85%) Active Directory
2 15 (3.40%) Docker
3 5 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.45%) RACF
5 1 (0.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 16 (3.63%) Ansible
1 16 (3.63%) Kubernetes
1 16 (3.63%) Single Sign-On
2 5 (1.13%) Control-M
2 5 (1.13%) HP Fortify
3 3 (0.68%) QRadar
3 3 (0.68%) vRealize Orchestrator
3 3 (0.68%) WMI
4 2 (0.45%) CloudHub
5 1 (0.23%) Apache Ranger
5 1 (0.23%) Grafana
5 1 (0.23%) HP Quality Center
5 1 (0.23%) Kibana
5 1 (0.23%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 134 (30.39%) Oracle
2 111 (25.17%) Microsoft
3 49 (11.11%) SAP
4 44 (9.98%) IBM
5 38 (8.62%) MuleSoft
6 36 (8.16%) ServiceNow
7 31 (7.03%) Salesforce
8 26 (5.90%) Google
9 23 (5.22%) Workday
10 13 (2.95%) Okta
11 12 (2.72%) Informatica
12 11 (2.49%) Databricks
13 10 (2.27%) TIBCO
13 10 (2.27%) webMethods
14 9 (2.04%) WSO2
15 8 (1.81%) BeyondTrust
16 6 (1.36%) PTC
17 5 (1.13%) Intapp
17 5 (1.13%) Kronos
17 5 (1.13%) VMware