Java Contract Job Trends in the South East

Java
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Java skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 89 36 49
Rank change year-on-year -53 +13 -3
Contract jobs citing Java 164 180 185
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.48% 5.13% 4.07%
As % of the Programming Languages category 12.87% 19.48% 16.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 108 127 140
10th Percentile £242 £204 £358
25th Percentile £338 £300 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -14.29% -
75th Percentile £603 £561 £646
90th Percentile £750 £600 £675
England median daily rate £525 £520 £600
% change year-on-year +0.96% -13.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 10 4
10th Percentile £41.38 £49.63 £36.68
25th Percentile £55.00 - £50.06
Median hourly rate £70.00 £50.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.00% -16.67% -9.43%
75th Percentile - £53.75 £65.31
90th Percentile - £55.00 £70.38
England median hourly rate £70.00 £50.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +40.00% -28.57% +7.69%

All Programming Languages
South East

Java falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 1,274 924 1,147
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 19.28% 26.32% 25.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 803 638 760
10th Percentile £303 £275 £325
25th Percentile £406 £380 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +4.20% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £603 £575 £613
90th Percentile £688 £625 £657
England median daily rate £525 £515 £550
% change year-on-year +1.94% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 100 33 58
10th Percentile £20.88 £50.00 £27.00
25th Percentile £38.25 £52.50 £48.31
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £69.69
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -21.08% +26.70%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £74.97
90th Percentile £77.50 - £75.75
England median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +13.04% -11.54% -

Java
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Java relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Java job vacancy trend in the South East

Java
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Java.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Java

Java
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Java in the South East over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Java in the South East

Java
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Java.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Java

Java
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Java in the South East over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Java in the South East

Java
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Java within the South East region over the 6 months to 25 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
West Sussex +11 48 £324 -24.68% 17
Thames Valley -73 38 £525 +16.67% 73
Surrey -18 37 £511 +146.39% 18
Hampshire -44 36 £650 +11.11% 42
Berkshire -65 22 £444 -1.39% 37
Oxfordshire -19 9 £530 - 27
Buckinghamshire -31 7 £370 +13.69% 9
East Sussex -2 1 £600 +100.00% 14
Middlesex -20 1 - - 2
Sussex - 1 £600 -
Java
England

Java
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 7 (4.27%) Apache Spark
1 7 (4.27%) Documentum
2 4 (2.44%) NetWeaver
2 4 (2.44%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.22%) SAP EP
4 1 (0.61%) Apache
4 1 (0.61%) Confluence
4 1 (0.61%) IIS
4 1 (0.61%) OpenEdge
4 1 (0.61%) WebLogic
4 1 (0.61%) WebSphere
Applications
1 3 (1.83%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.61%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (2.44%) SAP PSCD
2 2 (1.22%) SAP CRM
2 2 (1.22%) SAP ERP
2 2 (1.22%) SAP FI-CA
2 2 (1.22%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.61%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 44 (26.83%) Azure
2 41 (25.00%) AWS
3 25 (15.24%) OpenShift
4 23 (14.02%) GCP
5 16 (9.76%) GitHub
6 12 (7.32%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (4.88%) GitHub Actions
8 6 (3.66%) Amazon S3
8 6 (3.66%) Power Platform
9 5 (3.05%) Amazon ECS
9 5 (3.05%) AWS Lambda
9 5 (3.05%) Serverless
10 4 (2.44%) Snowflake
11 3 (1.83%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (1.83%) SaaS
11 3 (1.83%) Sauce Labs
12 2 (1.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 2 (1.22%) Amazon SQS
12 2 (1.22%) AWS CodePipeline
12 2 (1.22%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 5 (3.05%) HTTPS
2 3 (1.83%) Wireshark
3 1 (0.61%) Broadband
3 1 (0.61%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (10.98%) Relational Database
2 17 (10.37%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (9.76%) NoSQL
4 12 (7.32%) MySQL
5 8 (4.88%) Couchbase
6 7 (4.27%) Big Data
6 7 (4.27%) SQL Server
7 6 (3.66%) Power BI
8 5 (3.05%) Apache Cassandra
8 5 (3.05%) Data Lake
8 5 (3.05%) Data Warehouse
8 5 (3.05%) DynamoDB
9 4 (2.44%) Metadata
10 3 (1.83%) BigQuery
10 3 (1.83%) MongoDB
11 2 (1.22%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
12 1 (0.61%) Db2
12 1 (0.61%) Hadoop
12 1 (0.61%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 33 (20.12%) Git
2 18 (10.98%) SonarQube
3 17 (10.37%) Jenkins
4 11 (6.71%) JUnit
5 10 (6.10%) JIRA
6 7 (4.27%) Gradle
6 7 (4.27%) Maven
6 7 (4.27%) Selenium
7 6 (3.66%) GitLab
8 5 (3.05%) Bitbucket
8 5 (3.05%) REST Assured
9 4 (2.44%) Visual Studio
9 4 (2.44%) WebDriver
10 3 (1.83%) Cucumber
10 3 (1.83%) Eclipse
10 3 (1.83%) JMeter
10 3 (1.83%) Rational DOORS
10 3 (1.83%) SpecFlow
10 3 (1.83%) TeamCity
10 3 (1.83%) Xcode
General
1 33 (20.12%) Social Skills
2 27 (16.46%) Finance
3 10 (6.10%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (4.88%) Banking
5 6 (3.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.44%) Aerospace
7 3 (1.83%) Military
8 2 (1.22%) Advertising
8 2 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.22%) Public Sector
9 1 (0.61%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.61%) German Language
9 1 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.61%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 56 (34.15%) Developer
2 35 (21.34%) Java Developer
3 27 (16.46%) Senior
4 22 (13.41%) Architect
4 22 (13.41%) Java Engineer
5 14 (8.54%) Software Engineer
6 13 (7.93%) Technical Architect
7 10 (6.10%) Senior Developer
8 9 (5.49%) Software Developer
9 8 (4.88%) Senior Java Developer
10 7 (4.27%) Analyst
10 7 (4.27%) Consultant
10 7 (4.27%) Documentum Architect
10 7 (4.27%) Java Architect
10 7 (4.27%) SC Cleared Java Developer
11 6 (3.66%) Java Solutions Architect
11 6 (3.66%) Site Reliability Engineer
11 6 (3.66%) Solutions Architect
12 5 (3.05%) Support Engineer
12 5 (3.05%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (23.78%) REST
2 31 (18.90%) Spring
3 29 (17.68%) AngularJS
4 26 (15.85%) Spring Boot
5 19 (11.59%) Kafka
6 18 (10.98%) .NET
6 18 (10.98%) Quarkus
7 14 (8.54%) GraphQL
7 14 (8.54%) React
7 14 (8.54%) RESTful
8 13 (7.93%) CSS
9 11 (6.71%) HTML
9 11 (6.71%) SOAP
10 9 (5.49%) Node.js
10 9 (5.49%) Web Services
11 8 (4.88%) Hibernate
12 7 (4.27%) JSON
12 7 (4.27%) OAuth
13 6 (3.66%) ADO
13 6 (3.66%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 26 (15.85%) Distributed Systems
2 16 (9.76%) Cloud Native
3 7 (4.27%) Data Protection Act
3 7 (4.27%) Enterprise Software
4 6 (3.66%) Product Ownership
5 4 (2.44%) Distributed Architecture
5 4 (2.44%) Mobile App
5 4 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.83%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.22%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.61%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.61%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.61%) Data Structures
8 1 (0.61%) EMV
8 1 (0.61%) Enterprise Cloud
8 1 (0.61%) IoT
8 1 (0.61%) Java Card
8 1 (0.61%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.61%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 15 (9.15%) Unix
2 11 (6.71%) Windows
3 10 (6.10%) Linux
4 6 (3.66%) Android
5 1 (0.61%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.61%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (41.46%) Agile
2 62 (37.80%) CI/CD
3 56 (34.15%) Test Automation
4 55 (33.54%) Software Engineering
5 42 (25.61%) Microservices
6 41 (25.00%) DevOps
7 38 (23.17%) SDLC
8 30 (18.29%) Scrum
9 28 (17.07%) Unit Testing
10 27 (16.46%) Sprint Planning
11 23 (14.02%) Problem-Solving
11 23 (14.02%) Sprint Review
12 20 (12.20%) DevSecOps
12 20 (12.20%) Front End Development
13 18 (10.98%) Event-Driven
14 17 (10.37%) Continuous Improvement
14 17 (10.37%) High Availability
15 15 (9.15%) Containerisation
16 13 (7.93%) Design Patterns
16 13 (7.93%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 39 (23.78%) Python
2 32 (19.51%) SQL
3 25 (15.24%) JavaScript
4 14 (8.54%) Go
5 10 (6.10%) C#
6 8 (4.88%) ABAP
6 8 (4.88%) PowerShell
6 8 (4.88%) Shell Script
6 8 (4.88%) TypeScript
7 5 (3.05%) C++
7 5 (3.05%) Perl
7 5 (3.05%) PL/SQL
8 4 (2.44%) Bash
8 4 (2.44%) Kotlin
8 4 (2.44%) VB.NET
9 3 (1.83%) C
9 3 (1.83%) Lua
9 3 (1.83%) Scala
10 2 (1.22%) BeanShell
10 2 (1.22%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 66 (40.24%) Security Cleared
2 54 (32.93%) SC Cleared
3 14 (8.54%) Degree
4 9 (5.49%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (4.88%) DV Cleared
6 5 (3.05%) AWS Certification
6 5 (3.05%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (2.44%) DBS Check
8 3 (1.83%) Azure Certification
9 2 (1.22%) CISM
9 2 (1.22%) CISSP
9 2 (1.22%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.61%) CCNA
10 1 (0.61%) CEH
10 1 (0.61%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.61%) ISEB
10 1 (0.61%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.61%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 1 (0.61%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (22.56%) QA
2 5 (3.05%) GDPR
2 5 (3.05%) NCSC
3 3 (1.83%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.61%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 23 (14.02%) Docker
2 5 (3.05%) Active Directory
3 4 (2.44%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 45 (27.44%) Kubernetes
2 20 (12.20%) Argo
3 3 (1.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 3 (1.83%) Grafana
3 3 (1.83%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.22%) Ansible
4 2 (1.22%) Puppet
5 1 (0.61%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (0.61%) Podman
5 1 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (12.20%) Microsoft
2 17 (10.37%) Red Hat
3 14 (8.54%) Oracle
4 10 (6.10%) SAP
5 7 (4.27%) Google
5 7 (4.27%) Splunk
6 5 (3.05%) webMethods
7 4 (2.44%) IBM
7 4 (2.44%) VMware
8 2 (1.22%) Ab Initio
8 2 (1.22%) Sparx
8 2 (1.22%) Teradata
9 1 (0.61%) Concur
9 1 (0.61%) Conga
9 1 (0.61%) Cramer
9 1 (0.61%) Databricks
9 1 (0.61%) Dynatrace
9 1 (0.61%) GoCardless
9 1 (0.61%) NetCracker
9 1 (0.61%) Solace