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 23 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 53 52
Rank change year-on-year +10 -1 -18
Contract jobs citing Java 232 116 191
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.04% 3.88% 3.42%
As % of the Programming Languages category 21.40% 14.55% 15.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 147 62 125
10th Percentile £204 £364 £375
25th Percentile £313 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £515 £575
Median % change year-on-year -7.68% -10.52% +9.52%
75th Percentile £581 £638 £688
90th Percentile £643 £663 £738
England median daily rate £523 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -9.13% - -5.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 3 13
10th Percentile £40.00 £26.68 £40.00
25th Percentile £52.50 £35.43 £61.25
Median hourly rate £60.00 £50.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -23.08% -7.14%
75th Percentile £68.75 £52.50 £67.02
90th Percentile £69.75 £54.00 £73.40
England median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +18.18% -12.00% -3.85%

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 1,084 797 1,198
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 18.89% 26.65% 21.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 755 530 833
10th Percentile £313 £350 £325
25th Percentile £401 £431 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -4.76%
75th Percentile £599 £600 £608
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £503 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.29% -2.78% -4.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 29 73
10th Percentile £34.01 £40.05 £35.00
25th Percentile £46.25 £48.99 £46.25
Median hourly rate £53.75 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.29% -5.42% +9.09%
75th Percentile £68.75 £64.52 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £66.19 £74.75
England median hourly rate £65.00 £62.75 £62.18
% change year-on-year +3.59% +0.92% -0.52%

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 23 April 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 23 April 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 23 April 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
Hampshire +17 66 £523 +5.03% 12
Thames Valley -43 63 £400 -20.08% 32
Surrey +18 49 £500 -15.79% 19
Berkshire -37 48 £380 -24.08% 17
West Sussex +1 37 £355 -28.21% 2
Buckinghamshire -18 13 £525 -8.70% 6
Sussex - 6 £475 -
Middlesex - 5 £725 - 6
East Sussex +5 4 £525 +40.00% 2
Oxfordshire -20 2 £530 - 10
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 10 (4.31%) Apache Spark
2 5 (2.16%) Apache
2 5 (2.16%) NetWeaver
2 5 (2.16%) SAP EP
3 3 (1.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 3 (1.29%) Apache Airflow
3 3 (1.29%) IIS
4 2 (0.86%) CMS
4 2 (0.86%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.43%) Confluence
5 1 (0.43%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.43%) WebLogic
Applications
1 3 (1.29%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (2.16%) SAP CRM
2 2 (0.86%) Maximo
2 2 (0.86%) Oracle BRM
2 2 (0.86%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.43%) Oracle CRM
Cloud Services
1 67 (28.88%) AWS
2 45 (19.40%) Azure
3 37 (15.95%) GitHub
4 30 (12.93%) GCP
5 28 (12.07%) OpenShift
6 21 (9.05%) GitHub Actions
7 15 (6.47%) Amazon S3
8 14 (6.03%) Serverless
9 13 (5.60%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (3.02%) SaaS
10 7 (3.02%) Snowflake
11 6 (2.59%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (2.59%) Sauce Labs
12 5 (2.16%) SuccessFactors
13 4 (1.72%) Amazon EC2
13 4 (1.72%) Tricentis Tosca
14 3 (1.29%) Amazon Cognito
14 3 (1.29%) Amazon SQS
14 3 (1.29%) AWS CloudFormation
14 3 (1.29%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.29%) HTTP
1 3 (1.29%) HTTPS
2 2 (0.86%) Bluetooth
2 2 (0.86%) Broadband
2 2 (0.86%) FTP
2 2 (0.86%) GPRS
2 2 (0.86%) GSM
2 2 (0.86%) SSL
2 2 (0.86%) Wireless
2 2 (0.86%) Wireshark
3 1 (0.43%) DHCP
3 1 (0.43%) DNS
3 1 (0.43%) Firewall
3 1 (0.43%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (19.40%) Relational Database
2 36 (15.52%) PostgreSQL
3 27 (11.64%) NoSQL
4 25 (10.78%) MySQL
5 13 (5.60%) Big Data
5 13 (5.60%) DynamoDB
6 11 (4.74%) MongoDB
7 7 (3.02%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (2.59%) SQL Server
9 5 (2.16%) Pinecone
9 5 (2.16%) Weaviate
10 4 (1.72%) HBase
11 3 (1.29%) BigQuery
11 3 (1.29%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.86%) Amazon Redshift
12 2 (0.86%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.86%) Elasticsearch
13 1 (0.43%) Amazon Aurora
13 1 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
13 1 (0.43%) Redis
Development Applications
1 38 (16.38%) Jenkins
2 34 (14.66%) Git
3 23 (9.91%) Gradle
3 23 (9.91%) JUnit
4 17 (7.33%) Maven
5 15 (6.47%) Cucumber
5 15 (6.47%) JIRA
6 14 (6.03%) SonarQube
7 11 (4.74%) Android Studio
7 11 (4.74%) Sonatype Nexus
8 10 (4.31%) Eclipse
8 10 (4.31%) Selenium
9 9 (3.88%) JMeter
10 7 (3.02%) Bitbucket
10 7 (3.02%) GitLab
11 6 (2.59%) Browser DevTools
11 6 (2.59%) Xcode
12 5 (2.16%) WebDriver
13 4 (1.72%) Subversion
13 4 (1.72%) Toad
General
1 71 (30.60%) Social Skills
2 27 (11.64%) Finance
3 26 (11.21%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (5.60%) Public Sector
5 8 (3.45%) Marketing
6 4 (1.72%) Electronics
6 4 (1.72%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (1.29%) Banking
7 3 (1.29%) Billing
7 3 (1.29%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.29%) Telecoms
8 2 (0.86%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.43%) Advertising
9 1 (0.43%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.43%) Front Office
9 1 (0.43%) Legal
9 1 (0.43%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.43%) Retail
Job Titles
1 102 (43.97%) Developer
2 77 (33.19%) Java Developer
3 26 (11.21%) Software Engineer
4 25 (10.78%) Java Engineer
5 18 (7.76%) Full-Stack Developer
5 18 (7.76%) Technical Support
6 16 (6.90%) Lead
7 15 (6.47%) Senior
8 11 (4.74%) Full-Stack Java Developer
8 11 (4.74%) Technical Engineer
9 10 (4.31%) Applications Developer
9 10 (4.31%) Architect
9 10 (4.31%) Senior Developer
9 10 (4.31%) Support Engineer
10 9 (3.88%) Technical Support Engineer
11 8 (3.45%) DevOps Engineer
12 7 (3.02%) Android Developer
12 7 (3.02%) AWS Developer
12 7 (3.02%) SC Cleared Java Developer
12 7 (3.02%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (23.28%) Spring
2 40 (17.24%) Spring Boot
3 34 (14.66%) AngularJS
4 32 (13.79%) React
5 28 (12.07%) Kafka
5 28 (12.07%) REST
6 20 (8.62%) RESTful
7 18 (7.76%) CSS
8 16 (6.90%) GraphQL
9 13 (5.60%) Hibernate
9 13 (5.60%) HTML
9 13 (5.60%) Quarkus
10 10 (4.31%) Node.js
11 9 (3.88%) SOAP
11 9 (3.88%) XML
12 8 (3.45%) .NET
12 8 (3.45%) Vue
13 6 (2.59%) Ajax
13 6 (2.59%) JPA
13 6 (2.59%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 28 (12.07%) Distributed Systems
2 12 (5.17%) Cloud Native
2 12 (5.17%) Mobile App
3 7 (3.02%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (2.16%) Data Centre
5 4 (1.72%) Data Structures
5 4 (1.72%) Distributed Architecture
5 4 (1.72%) Product Ownership
6 3 (1.29%) Algorithms
7 2 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.86%) IPTV
7 2 (0.86%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.43%) AI Agents
8 1 (0.43%) Clustering
8 1 (0.43%) Life Science
8 1 (0.43%) Marketing Technology
8 1 (0.43%) Robotics
8 1 (0.43%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 1 (0.43%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 30 (12.93%) Linux
2 28 (12.07%) Windows
3 25 (10.78%) Unix
4 14 (6.03%) Android
5 4 (1.72%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.29%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.86%) VMS
8 1 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.43%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (38.36%) CI/CD
2 72 (31.03%) Agile
3 57 (24.57%) Software Engineering
4 50 (21.55%) Test Automation
5 42 (18.10%) Microservices
6 41 (17.67%) DevOps
6 41 (17.67%) Problem-Solving
6 41 (17.67%) Scrum
7 27 (11.64%) Containerisation
8 26 (11.21%) Unit Testing
9 25 (10.78%) OO
10 24 (10.34%) OOP
11 23 (9.91%) Full-Stack Development
11 23 (9.91%) High Availability
12 21 (9.05%) AI
12 21 (9.05%) Fintech
13 20 (8.62%) Computer Science
13 20 (8.62%) Front End Development
13 20 (8.62%) SDLC
13 20 (8.62%) Sprint Planning
Programming Languages
1 68 (29.31%) Python
2 59 (25.43%) SQL
3 51 (21.98%) JavaScript
4 24 (10.34%) Go
5 17 (7.33%) C#
5 17 (7.33%) Perl
6 11 (4.74%) Kotlin
6 11 (4.74%) PowerShell
7 8 (3.45%) C++
8 7 (3.02%) Bash
8 7 (3.02%) TypeScript
9 5 (2.16%) ABAP
10 3 (1.29%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.29%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.86%) Jython
11 2 (0.86%) PHP
11 2 (0.86%) R
11 2 (0.86%) Scala
11 2 (0.86%) VBScript
12 1 (0.43%) Swift
Qualifications
1 70 (30.17%) Security Cleared
2 67 (28.88%) SC Cleared
3 23 (9.91%) Degree
4 20 (8.62%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (2.16%) ISTQB
5 5 (2.16%) OCP
5 5 (2.16%) Oracle Certification
6 4 (1.72%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 3 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.86%) ISEB
8 2 (0.86%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 1 (0.43%) DV Cleared
9 1 (0.43%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (8.19%) QA
2 5 (2.16%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.29%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.43%) Software Quality Assurance
4 1 (0.43%) WCAG
System Software
1 25 (10.78%) Docker
2 4 (1.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.29%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 59 (25.43%) Kubernetes
2 13 (5.60%) Argo
3 12 (5.17%) Ansible
4 6 (2.59%) Progress Chef
4 6 (2.59%) Terraform
5 3 (1.29%) Grafana
6 2 (0.86%) Kubeflow
7 1 (0.43%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.43%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.43%) SCCM
Vendors
1 25 (10.78%) Oracle
2 15 (6.47%) Microsoft
3 12 (5.17%) Red Hat
3 12 (5.17%) SAP
4 10 (4.31%) Splunk
5 7 (3.02%) Ariba
5 7 (3.02%) VMware
6 6 (2.59%) Google
7 5 (2.16%) Ab Initio
7 5 (2.16%) Teradata
8 4 (1.72%) Atlassian
9 3 (1.29%) Adobe
9 3 (1.29%) Blue Prism
9 3 (1.29%) OpenAI
9 3 (1.29%) UiPath
10 2 (0.86%) Databricks
10 2 (0.86%) Dynatrace
10 2 (0.86%) Salesforce
10 2 (0.86%) ServiceNow
10 2 (0.86%) webMethods