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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 47 49
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 -13
Contract jobs citing Java 209 123 202
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.51% 4.13% 3.70%
As % of the Programming Languages category 18.63% 15.45% 16.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 64 136
10th Percentile £204 £362 £364
25th Percentile £309 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £580
Median % change year-on-year -0.05% -13.75% +10.48%
75th Percentile £591 £631 £678
90th Percentile £656 £663 £738
England median daily rate £525 £550 £593
% change year-on-year -4.55% -7.29% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 5 15
10th Percentile £52.25 £32.51 £44.00
25th Percentile £60.00 - £60.63
Median hourly rate £66.25 £50.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.50% -23.08% -7.14%
75th Percentile £69.06 - £67.02
90th Percentile £70.00 £53.00 £74.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% -0.76%

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 1,122 796 1,218
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 18.85% 26.76% 22.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 773 536 846
10th Percentile £307 £350 £325
25th Percentile £403 £431 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £501 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.10% +0.10% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £688 £663 £675
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 29 76
10th Percentile £34.01 £40.05 £35.00
25th Percentile £46.25 £48.99 £46.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year - -10.71% +12.00%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £67.14
90th Percentile £82.25 £65.62 £76.25
England median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +3.17% +0.80% -

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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
Thames Valley -50 58 £425 -15.00% 102
Surrey +12 51 £500 -9.09% 12
Hampshire +3 48 £575 +15.58% 66
Berkshire -42 41 £385 -23.00% 20
West Sussex -4 36 £355 -24.47% 5
Buckinghamshire -28 13 £513 -10.87% 3
Sussex - 6 £475 - 25
Middlesex - 5 £725 - 2
Oxfordshire -18 4 £665 - 79
East Sussex +2 2 £525 +40.00% 11
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 8 (3.83%) Apache Spark
2 5 (2.39%) NetWeaver
2 5 (2.39%) SAP EP
3 4 (1.91%) IIS
4 3 (1.44%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.96%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.96%) Apache
6 1 (0.48%) CMS
6 1 (0.48%) OpenStack
Applications
1 1 (0.48%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (2.39%) SAP CRM
2 1 (0.48%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 56 (26.79%) AWS
2 45 (21.53%) Azure
3 26 (12.44%) GCP
4 22 (10.53%) GitHub
4 22 (10.53%) OpenShift
5 14 (6.70%) Amazon S3
6 12 (5.74%) GitHub Actions
7 10 (4.78%) Serverless
8 9 (4.31%) AWS Lambda
9 7 (3.35%) Snowflake
10 6 (2.87%) Amazon ECS
10 6 (2.87%) SaaS
10 6 (2.87%) Sauce Labs
10 6 (2.87%) SuccessFactors
11 5 (2.39%) Amazon EKS
11 5 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
12 3 (1.44%) Amazon SQS
13 2 (0.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 2 (0.96%) Amazon EC2
13 2 (0.96%) AWS CodePipeline
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.44%) HTTP
1 3 (1.44%) HTTPS
2 2 (0.96%) FTP
2 2 (0.96%) Wireshark
3 1 (0.48%) DHCP
3 1 (0.48%) DNS
3 1 (0.48%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (18.66%) Relational Database
2 22 (10.53%) NoSQL
3 20 (9.57%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (9.09%) MySQL
5 12 (5.74%) Big Data
6 11 (5.26%) DynamoDB
7 7 (3.35%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (3.35%) SQL Server
8 5 (2.39%) MongoDB
9 3 (1.44%) BigQuery
9 3 (1.44%) Pinecone
9 3 (1.44%) Weaviate
10 2 (0.96%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.96%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.96%) Metadata
10 2 (0.96%) RDBMS
11 1 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
11 1 (0.48%) Apache Cassandra
11 1 (0.48%) DB2
Development Applications
1 31 (14.83%) Git
2 22 (10.53%) Jenkins
3 14 (6.70%) Maven
3 14 (6.70%) SonarQube
4 11 (5.26%) Gradle
5 10 (4.78%) Eclipse
6 9 (4.31%) JIRA
6 9 (4.31%) Selenium
7 8 (3.83%) JUnit
8 7 (3.35%) Android Studio
9 6 (2.87%) Bitbucket
9 6 (2.87%) Browser DevTools
9 6 (2.87%) WebDriver
9 6 (2.87%) Xcode
10 5 (2.39%) GitLab
11 4 (1.91%) Cucumber
11 4 (1.91%) Postman
11 4 (1.91%) Subversion
12 3 (1.44%) REST Assured
12 3 (1.44%) TeamCity
General
1 55 (26.32%) Social Skills
2 21 (10.05%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (6.70%) Finance
4 5 (2.39%) Public Sector
5 4 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
5 4 (1.91%) Marketing
6 2 (0.96%) Banking
7 1 (0.48%) Advertising
7 1 (0.48%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.48%) Back Office
7 1 (0.48%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.48%) Electronics
7 1 (0.48%) Front Office
7 1 (0.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.48%) Legal
7 1 (0.48%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.48%) Retail
Job Titles
1 77 (36.84%) Developer
2 63 (30.14%) Java Developer
3 30 (14.35%) Java Engineer
4 27 (12.92%) Software Engineer
5 18 (8.61%) Technical Support
6 15 (7.18%) Lead
6 15 (7.18%) Senior
7 13 (6.22%) Architect
8 12 (5.74%) Technical Engineer
9 11 (5.26%) Support Engineer
10 10 (4.78%) Applications Developer
10 10 (4.78%) Technical Architect
10 10 (4.78%) Technical Support Engineer
11 9 (4.31%) DevOps Engineer
11 9 (4.31%) SC Cleared Java Developer
11 9 (4.31%) Senior Developer
12 7 (3.35%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 6 (2.87%) Java Software Engineer
13 6 (2.87%) Senior Java Developer
13 6 (2.87%) UX Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (17.70%) Spring
2 30 (14.35%) AngularJS
3 27 (12.92%) REST
4 26 (12.44%) Spring Boot
5 24 (11.48%) React
6 20 (9.57%) Kafka
7 17 (8.13%) GraphQL
8 14 (6.70%) Quarkus
9 12 (5.74%) CSS
9 12 (5.74%) RESTful
10 9 (4.31%) SOAP
11 8 (3.83%) .NET
12 7 (3.35%) HTML
12 7 (3.35%) Node.js
13 6 (2.87%) Ajax
13 6 (2.87%) Vue
13 6 (2.87%) Web Services
14 5 (2.39%) SAP Fiori
14 5 (2.39%) SAPUI5
14 5 (2.39%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (13.88%) Distributed Systems
2 16 (7.66%) Cloud Native
3 11 (5.26%) Mobile App
4 7 (3.35%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.39%) Data Centre
5 5 (2.39%) Product Ownership
6 4 (1.91%) Data Structures
7 3 (1.44%) Algorithms
7 3 (1.44%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (0.96%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (0.96%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.48%) Clustering
9 1 (0.48%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.48%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.48%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (0.48%) Life Science
9 1 (0.48%) Marketing Technology
9 1 (0.48%) Robotics
9 1 (0.48%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 27 (12.92%) Linux
2 23 (11.00%) Unix
2 23 (11.00%) Windows
3 10 (4.78%) Android
4 5 (2.39%) Windows Server
5 3 (1.44%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.96%) VMS
7 1 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (36.36%) CI/CD
2 66 (31.58%) Agile
3 63 (30.14%) Software Engineering
4 43 (20.57%) DevOps
5 40 (19.14%) Microservices
6 39 (18.66%) Test Automation
7 38 (18.18%) Scrum
8 34 (16.27%) Problem-Solving
9 28 (13.40%) Unit Testing
10 26 (12.44%) Containerisation
10 26 (12.44%) OOP
11 24 (11.48%) OO
12 23 (11.00%) High Availability
13 20 (9.57%) Computer Science
13 20 (9.57%) Fintech
13 20 (9.57%) SDLC
14 19 (9.09%) DevSecOps
14 19 (9.09%) Sprint Planning
15 18 (8.61%) Front End Development
16 16 (7.66%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 60 (28.71%) Python
2 46 (22.01%) SQL
3 42 (20.10%) JavaScript
4 24 (11.48%) Go
5 18 (8.61%) C#
6 17 (8.13%) Perl
7 11 (5.26%) Kotlin
7 11 (5.26%) PowerShell
8 8 (3.83%) Bash
9 6 (2.87%) TypeScript
10 5 (2.39%) ABAP
11 4 (1.91%) Scala
11 4 (1.91%) Shell Script
12 3 (1.44%) C++
13 2 (0.96%) BeanShell
13 2 (0.96%) R
13 2 (0.96%) VBScript
14 1 (0.48%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.48%) Groovy
14 1 (0.48%) VB
Qualifications
1 69 (33.01%) Security Cleared
2 66 (31.58%) SC Cleared
3 24 (11.48%) Degree
4 20 (9.57%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.96%) AWS Certification
6 2 (0.96%) ISTQB
6 2 (0.96%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 1 (0.48%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (0.48%) OCP
7 1 (0.48%) Oracle Certification
7 1 (0.48%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (9.09%) QA
2 3 (1.44%) Accessibility
2 3 (1.44%) Data Quality
3 2 (0.96%) GDPR
3 2 (0.96%) NCSC
4 1 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.48%) Software Quality Assurance
4 1 (0.48%) WCAG
System Software
1 23 (11.00%) Docker
2 4 (1.91%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 53 (25.36%) Kubernetes
2 15 (7.18%) Argo
3 7 (3.35%) Terraform
4 6 (2.87%) Ansible
5 3 (1.44%) Grafana
5 3 (1.44%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.96%) Kubeflow
6 2 (0.96%) Puppet
7 1 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.48%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.48%) SCCM
Vendors
1 19 (9.09%) Oracle
2 13 (6.22%) Red Hat
3 12 (5.74%) Microsoft
4 10 (4.78%) Splunk
5 6 (2.87%) Ariba
5 6 (2.87%) Google
5 6 (2.87%) SAP
6 5 (2.39%) Ab Initio
6 5 (2.39%) Teradata
7 4 (1.91%) Atlassian
8 3 (1.44%) Blue Prism
8 3 (1.44%) OpenAI
8 3 (1.44%) UiPath
9 2 (0.96%) Adobe
9 2 (0.96%) Databricks
9 2 (0.96%) Dynatrace
9 2 (0.96%) VMware
10 1 (0.48%) Citrix
10 1 (0.48%) HP
10 1 (0.48%) Salesforce