> I'm using XML::Simple to parse some xml..

This is the first error: see XML::Simple needs to go! and the very beginning of the module iself to know why.

Different valid options are on CPAN to safely parse XML: i choosed XML::Twig and I'm happy with it (but still unhappy with XML in itself!)

XML::Twig has a lot of features and tutorials on the author website.

Next times give us a short sample of your data to make it easier to help you.

I'd go with something like

use strict;
use warnings;
use XML::Twig;

my $t= XML::Twig->new(
                   pretty_print => 'indented',
                   twig_handlers  => {           # $_[1] is the elemen
+t
                        'results_link' => sub{ $_[1]->print;}
                   });
my $data =<<EOXML;
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE stats SYSTEM "stats.dtd">
<results_link>https://myserver.com/app/search?q=%7Cloadjob%20scheduler
+_amJ1bGxvdWdoQGRldi1hbWVyaWNhZmlyc3QuY29t_at_1496880600_682%20%7C%20h
+ead%2020%20%7C%20tail%201&amp;earliest=0&amp;latest=now</results_link
+>


EOXML
$t->parse( $data);
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L*