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 16 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 43 40
Rank change year-on-year -17 -3 +3
Contract jobs citing Java 221 155 237
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.39% 4.58% 4.25%
As % of the Programming Languages category 16.69% 17.26% 18.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 140 94 165
10th Percentile £224 £304 £364
25th Percentile £357 £393 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £486 £575
Median % change year-on-year +4.88% -15.43% +9.52%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £675
90th Percentile £689 £612 £738
England median daily rate £525 £533 £600
% change year-on-year -1.41% -11.25% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 10 9
10th Percentile £53.25 £43.71 £35.00
25th Percentile £62.50 - £57.50
Median hourly rate £68.75 £50.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +37.50% -20.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £70.00 £53.75 £73.75
90th Percentile - £55.00 £76.00
England median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year +35.00% -25.93% +2.89%

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 1,324 898 1,284
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 20.32% 26.56% 23.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 865 614 886
10th Percentile £310 £325 £325
25th Percentile £403 £414 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £512
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -2.30% -2.52%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £608
90th Percentile £685 £650 £672
England median daily rate £520 £520 £540
% change year-on-year - -3.70% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 73 25 76
10th Percentile £33.70 £35.15 £35.00
25th Percentile £43.81 £46.25 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £52.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +23.81% -16.00% +13.64%
75th Percentile £70.00 £58.75 £70.94
90th Percentile £82.25 £64.21 £76.25
England median hourly rate £65.00 £57.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +13.04% -11.54% +4.00%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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 16 July 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
Surrey +11 58 £511 +7.63% 5
Thames Valley -52 55 £518 +15.00% 24
West Sussex +5 52 £354 -24.47% 4
Hampshire -27 46 £600 +2.56% 16
Berkshire -49 34 £413 -14.51% 9
Buckinghamshire -35 13 £513 +34.87% 8
Oxfordshire -21 8 £665 - 7
Sussex - 6 £475 - 1
East Sussex -3 1 £600 +88.24% 1
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 (3.62%) Apache Spark
2 7 (3.17%) Documentum
3 4 (1.81%) NetWeaver
3 4 (1.81%) SAP EP
3 4 (1.81%) SharePoint
4 3 (1.36%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.90%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.90%) Apache
6 1 (0.45%) CMS
6 1 (0.45%) Confluence
6 1 (0.45%) IIS
6 1 (0.45%) OpenStack
Applications
1 4 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.45%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.81%) SAP CRM
1 4 (1.81%) SAP PSCD
2 2 (0.90%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.45%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 55 (24.89%) AWS
2 54 (24.43%) Azure
3 28 (12.67%) GCP
4 27 (12.22%) OpenShift
5 22 (9.95%) GitHub
6 14 (6.33%) Amazon S3
7 12 (5.43%) Azure DevOps
8 11 (4.98%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (4.07%) Serverless
10 8 (3.62%) AWS Lambda
11 7 (3.17%) Amazon ECS
11 7 (3.17%) Snowflake
12 5 (2.26%) Amazon EKS
12 5 (2.26%) Power Platform
12 5 (2.26%) SuccessFactors
13 4 (1.81%) Amazon SQS
14 3 (1.36%) AWS CodePipeline
14 3 (1.36%) SaaS
14 3 (1.36%) Sauce Labs
15 2 (0.90%) Amazon OpenSearch
Communications & Networking
1 4 (1.81%) HTTP
1 4 (1.81%) HTTPS
1 4 (1.81%) Wireshark
2 2 (0.90%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (13.57%) Relational Database
2 23 (10.41%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (9.95%) NoSQL
4 14 (6.33%) MySQL
5 13 (5.88%) Big Data
6 11 (4.98%) DynamoDB
7 8 (3.62%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (3.62%) SQL Server
8 7 (3.17%) Data Lake
9 6 (2.71%) Apache Cassandra
9 6 (2.71%) Couchbase
10 5 (2.26%) Power BI
11 4 (1.81%) Metadata
12 3 (1.36%) Amazon Redshift
12 3 (1.36%) MongoDB
12 3 (1.36%) RDBMS
13 2 (0.90%) BigQuery
13 2 (0.90%) Db2
13 2 (0.90%) Pinecone
13 2 (0.90%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 39 (17.65%) Git
2 26 (11.76%) Jenkins
3 19 (8.60%) SonarQube
4 15 (6.79%) JUnit
5 14 (6.33%) Maven
6 10 (4.52%) Gradle
7 8 (3.62%) JIRA
7 8 (3.62%) Selenium
8 7 (3.17%) Eclipse
9 6 (2.71%) GitLab
10 5 (2.26%) Bitbucket
10 5 (2.26%) WebDriver
11 4 (1.81%) Android Studio
11 4 (1.81%) Cucumber
11 4 (1.81%) Postman
11 4 (1.81%) Subversion
11 4 (1.81%) Visual Studio
12 3 (1.36%) Browser DevTools
12 3 (1.36%) SpecFlow
12 3 (1.36%) TeamCity
General
1 58 (26.24%) Social Skills
2 23 (10.41%) Analytical Skills
2 23 (10.41%) Finance
3 7 (3.17%) Banking
3 7 (3.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 7 (3.17%) Public Sector
4 3 (1.36%) Influencing Skills
4 3 (1.36%) Marketing
5 2 (0.90%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (0.90%) Military
6 1 (0.45%) Advertising
6 1 (0.45%) Aerospace
6 1 (0.45%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (0.45%) Pharmaceutical
6 1 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (0.45%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 74 (33.48%) Developer
2 57 (25.79%) Java Developer
3 34 (15.38%) Java Engineer
4 27 (12.22%) Senior
4 27 (12.22%) Software Engineer
5 25 (11.31%) Architect
6 14 (6.33%) Technical Architect
7 11 (4.98%) Lead
7 11 (4.98%) Senior Developer
8 9 (4.07%) Applications Developer
8 9 (4.07%) SC Cleared Java Developer
8 9 (4.07%) Technical Engineer
8 9 (4.07%) Technical Support
9 8 (3.62%) DevOps Engineer
9 8 (3.62%) Java Architect
9 8 (3.62%) Support Engineer
10 7 (3.17%) Consultant
10 7 (3.17%) Documentum Architect
10 7 (3.17%) Senior Java Engineer
10 7 (3.17%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (19.46%) REST
2 40 (18.10%) Spring
3 30 (13.57%) Spring Boot
4 29 (13.12%) AngularJS
5 22 (9.95%) .NET
6 19 (8.60%) Kafka
6 19 (8.60%) Quarkus
6 19 (8.60%) React
7 16 (7.24%) SOAP
8 15 (6.79%) GraphQL
8 15 (6.79%) RESTful
9 14 (6.33%) CSS
10 12 (5.43%) HTML
11 9 (4.07%) Hibernate
12 8 (3.62%) OAuth
12 8 (3.62%) SAP PI
12 8 (3.62%) Web Services
13 6 (2.71%) ADO
13 6 (2.71%) Spring MVC
13 6 (2.71%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (15.38%) Distributed Systems
2 21 (9.50%) Cloud Native
3 8 (3.62%) Mobile App
3 8 (3.62%) Product Ownership
4 7 (3.17%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (2.71%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (2.71%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (2.26%) Algorithms
6 5 (2.26%) Data Structures
6 5 (2.26%) Distributed Architecture
7 4 (1.81%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.90%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.45%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.45%) Life Science
10 1 (0.45%) Low-Code
10 1 (0.45%) Marketing Technology
10 1 (0.45%) Robotics
10 1 (0.45%) Team-Oriented Environment
10 1 (0.45%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 21 (9.50%) Unix
2 19 (8.60%) Linux
3 16 (7.24%) Windows
4 9 (4.07%) Android
5 4 (1.81%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.45%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (35.29%) CI/CD
2 76 (34.39%) Agile
3 66 (29.86%) Software Engineering
4 57 (25.79%) DevOps
5 52 (23.53%) Test Automation
6 49 (22.17%) Microservices
7 42 (19.00%) Scrum
8 34 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
9 33 (14.93%) SDLC
9 33 (14.93%) Unit Testing
10 30 (13.57%) Sprint Planning
11 26 (11.76%) Event-Driven
12 25 (11.31%) High Availability
13 24 (10.86%) Sprint Review
14 23 (10.41%) DevSecOps
14 23 (10.41%) Front End Development
15 20 (9.05%) Containerisation
16 18 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement
16 18 (8.14%) OOP
17 16 (7.24%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 51 (23.08%) Python
2 46 (20.81%) SQL
3 33 (14.93%) JavaScript
4 22 (9.95%) Go
5 18 (8.14%) C#
6 12 (5.43%) Kotlin
7 10 (4.52%) PowerShell
8 9 (4.07%) Shell Script
9 8 (3.62%) ABAP
9 8 (3.62%) Perl
10 7 (3.17%) C++
11 6 (2.71%) PL/SQL
11 6 (2.71%) TypeScript
12 5 (2.26%) Bash
13 4 (1.81%) Scala
13 4 (1.81%) VB.NET
14 3 (1.36%) C
14 3 (1.36%) Groovy
15 2 (0.90%) BeanShell
15 2 (0.90%) Lua
Qualifications
1 88 (39.82%) Security Cleared
2 75 (33.94%) SC Cleared
3 19 (8.60%) Degree
4 14 (6.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (3.62%) DV Cleared
6 5 (2.26%) AWS Certification
6 5 (2.26%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (1.81%) DBS Check
8 3 (1.36%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.90%) CISM
9 2 (0.90%) CISSP
9 2 (0.90%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.45%) CCNA
10 1 (0.45%) CEH
10 1 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.45%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.45%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 1 (0.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 1 (0.45%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (14.48%) QA
2 6 (2.71%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.26%) GDPR
3 5 (2.26%) NCSC
4 3 (1.36%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.45%) Software Quality Assurance
5 1 (0.45%) WCAG
System Software
1 23 (10.41%) Docker
2 5 (2.26%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 49 (22.17%) Kubernetes
2 20 (9.05%) Argo
3 5 (2.26%) Terraform
4 4 (1.81%) Grafana
4 4 (1.81%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.90%) Ansible
6 2 (0.90%) Kubeflow
6 2 (0.90%) Puppet
7 1 (0.45%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.45%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 18 (8.14%) Red Hat
2 15 (6.79%) Microsoft
3 14 (6.33%) Oracle
4 9 (4.07%) SAP
4 9 (4.07%) Splunk
5 8 (3.62%) Google
6 5 (2.26%) Ariba
7 4 (1.81%) Ab Initio
7 4 (1.81%) Atlassian
7 4 (1.81%) Teradata
7 4 (1.81%) webMethods
8 3 (1.36%) Blue Prism
8 3 (1.36%) Databricks
8 3 (1.36%) Dynatrace
8 3 (1.36%) UiPath
8 3 (1.36%) VMware
9 2 (0.90%) Adobe
9 2 (0.90%) IBM
9 2 (0.90%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.90%) Sparx