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

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 52 49
Rank change year-on-year +10 -3 -17
Contract jobs citing Java 237 108 198
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 4.29% 3.66% 3.51%
As % of the Programming Languages category 22.46% 13.24% 16.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 149 62 130
10th Percentile £204 £322 £363
25th Percentile £313 £450 £436
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% - +4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £688
90th Percentile £650 £663 £738
England median daily rate £518 £578 £575
% change year-on-year -10.30% +0.43% -6.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 1 13
10th Percentile £40.00 - £40.00
25th Percentile £52.50 £20.85 £61.25
Median hourly rate £60.00 £21.90 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +173.97% -66.31% -
75th Percentile £68.75 £22.95 £67.02
90th Percentile - - £73.40
England median hourly rate £65.00 £58.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +10.64% -6.00% -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 1,055 816 1,195
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 19.10% 27.63% 21.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 746 536 827
10th Percentile £313 £350 £325
25th Percentile £406 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £511 £501
Median % change year-on-year -2.20% +2.05% -4.57%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £608
90th Percentile £688 £675 £688
England median daily rate £501 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.67% -2.42% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 52 30 73
10th Percentile £34.01 £41.28 £35.00
25th Percentile £45.90 £47.87 £46.25
Median hourly rate £53.50 £59.13 £59.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.51% +0.21% +7.27%
75th Percentile £68.75 £64.52 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.82 £68.78 £73.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £62.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year +3.59% +4.58% -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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +18 70 £515 +3.52% 12
Thames Valley -40 62 £450 -21.74% 37
Surrey +21 50 £444 -31.07% 20
Berkshire -30 48 £396 -31.09% 21
West Sussex -3 38 £355 -28.21% 4
Buckinghamshire -16 12 £550 -9.28% 8
Sussex - 6 £475 - 1
Middlesex - 5 £725 - 1
East Sussex 0 4 £525 +55.56% 3
Oxfordshire -14 2 £515 - 8
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 (3.38%) Apache Spark
2 6 (2.53%) Apache
3 5 (2.11%) NetWeaver
3 5 (2.11%) SAP EP
4 3 (1.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 3 (1.27%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (1.27%) IIS
4 3 (1.27%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.84%) CMS
6 1 (0.42%) Confluence
6 1 (0.42%) JBoss
6 1 (0.42%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.42%) WebLogic
Applications
1 3 (1.27%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (2.11%) SAP CRM
2 3 (1.27%) Oracle BRM
3 2 (0.84%) Maximo
3 2 (0.84%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.42%) Oracle CRM
Cloud Services
1 64 (27.00%) AWS
2 44 (18.57%) GitHub
3 39 (16.46%) Azure
4 30 (12.66%) OpenShift
5 24 (10.13%) GitHub Actions
6 23 (9.70%) GCP
7 13 (5.49%) Amazon S3
8 12 (5.06%) Serverless
9 11 (4.64%) AWS Lambda
9 11 (4.64%) SaaS
10 8 (3.38%) Sauce Labs
11 5 (2.11%) Amazon EC2
11 5 (2.11%) Azure DevOps
11 5 (2.11%) Entra ID
11 5 (2.11%) Snowflake
11 5 (2.11%) SuccessFactors
12 4 (1.69%) Datadog
12 4 (1.69%) Tricentis Tosca
13 3 (1.27%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (1.27%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 5 (2.11%) Wireless
2 3 (1.27%) Broadband
2 3 (1.27%) GPRS
2 3 (1.27%) GSM
2 3 (1.27%) HTTP
2 3 (1.27%) HTTPS
2 3 (1.27%) Kerberos
3 2 (0.84%) Bluetooth
3 2 (0.84%) FTP
3 2 (0.84%) SSL
3 2 (0.84%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.42%) DHCP
4 1 (0.42%) DNS
4 1 (0.42%) Firewall
4 1 (0.42%) NFC
4 1 (0.42%) PPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (18.14%) Relational Database
2 38 (16.03%) PostgreSQL
3 27 (11.39%) NoSQL
4 26 (10.97%) MySQL
5 13 (5.49%) DynamoDB
5 13 (5.49%) MongoDB
6 11 (4.64%) Big Data
7 6 (2.53%) HBase
7 6 (2.53%) SQL Server
8 5 (2.11%) Data Warehouse
8 5 (2.11%) Pinecone
8 5 (2.11%) Weaviate
9 3 (1.27%) BigQuery
9 3 (1.27%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.84%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.84%) Couchbase
10 2 (0.84%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.84%) Elasticsearch
11 1 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
11 1 (0.42%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 42 (17.72%) Jenkins
2 31 (13.08%) Git
3 26 (10.97%) JUnit
4 24 (10.13%) Gradle
5 19 (8.02%) Cucumber
6 17 (7.17%) Maven
7 15 (6.33%) Sonatype Nexus
8 13 (5.49%) Android Studio
8 13 (5.49%) Eclipse
8 13 (5.49%) JIRA
8 13 (5.49%) SonarQube
9 11 (4.64%) JMeter
10 8 (3.38%) Browser DevTools
10 8 (3.38%) Selenium
10 8 (3.38%) Xcode
11 7 (2.95%) GitLab
12 6 (2.53%) Artifactory
13 5 (2.11%) Bitbucket
14 4 (1.69%) Cypress.io
14 4 (1.69%) WebDriver
General
1 69 (29.11%) Social Skills
2 28 (11.81%) Finance
3 26 (10.97%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (5.91%) Public Sector
5 8 (3.38%) Marketing
6 4 (1.69%) Billing
6 4 (1.69%) Electronics
6 4 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (1.27%) Banking
7 3 (1.27%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.27%) Telecoms
8 2 (0.84%) Aerospace
8 2 (0.84%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.42%) Advertising
9 1 (0.42%) Back Office
9 1 (0.42%) Front Office
9 1 (0.42%) Legal
9 1 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.42%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 102 (43.04%) Developer
2 76 (32.07%) Java Developer
3 28 (11.81%) Software Engineer
4 25 (10.55%) Java Engineer
5 19 (8.02%) Full-Stack Developer
5 19 (8.02%) Lead
5 19 (8.02%) Technical Support
6 16 (6.75%) Senior
7 12 (5.06%) Technical Engineer
8 11 (4.64%) Architect
8 11 (4.64%) Full-Stack Java Developer
8 11 (4.64%) Senior Developer
8 11 (4.64%) Support Engineer
9 10 (4.22%) Technical Support Engineer
10 9 (3.80%) Applications Developer
10 9 (3.80%) AWS Developer
10 9 (3.80%) DevOps Engineer
10 9 (3.80%) Senior Java Developer
11 8 (3.38%) UX Engineer
12 7 (2.95%) Android Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (22.78%) Spring
2 41 (17.30%) Spring Boot
3 34 (14.35%) AngularJS
3 34 (14.35%) React
4 32 (13.50%) Kafka
5 31 (13.08%) REST
6 19 (8.02%) CSS
6 19 (8.02%) RESTful
7 17 (7.17%) GraphQL
8 15 (6.33%) Hibernate
9 12 (5.06%) HTML
9 12 (5.06%) Quarkus
9 12 (5.06%) XML
10 11 (4.64%) SOAP
11 10 (4.22%) Node.js
12 8 (3.38%) .NET
12 8 (3.38%) Ajax
12 8 (3.38%) Vue
13 6 (2.53%) JPA
13 6 (2.53%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.28%) Distributed Systems
2 14 (5.91%) Mobile App
3 11 (4.64%) Cloud Native
4 7 (2.95%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.11%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.69%) Data Structures
6 4 (1.69%) Product Ownership
7 3 (1.27%) Algorithms
7 3 (1.27%) Distributed Architecture
7 3 (1.27%) IPTV
8 2 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (0.84%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (0.84%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.42%) AI Agents
9 1 (0.42%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (0.42%) Low-Code
9 1 (0.42%) Marketing Technology
9 1 (0.42%) Onboarding
9 1 (0.42%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 1 (0.42%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 35 (14.77%) Linux
2 30 (12.66%) Windows
3 25 (10.55%) Unix
4 16 (6.75%) Android
5 4 (1.69%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.27%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.84%) VMS
8 1 (0.42%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (35.86%) CI/CD
2 71 (29.96%) Agile
3 56 (23.63%) Software Engineering
4 49 (20.68%) Test Automation
5 45 (18.99%) DevOps
6 44 (18.57%) Microservices
7 39 (16.46%) Scrum
8 38 (16.03%) Problem-Solving
9 26 (10.97%) OO
10 25 (10.55%) Full-Stack Development
11 24 (10.13%) Containerisation
12 23 (9.70%) Unit Testing
13 22 (9.28%) AI
13 22 (9.28%) User Experience
14 21 (8.86%) Fintech
14 21 (8.86%) OOP
15 19 (8.02%) DevSecOps
15 19 (8.02%) Front End Development
15 19 (8.02%) SDLC
15 19 (8.02%) Sprint Planning
Programming Languages
1 65 (27.43%) Python
2 56 (23.63%) JavaScript
3 55 (23.21%) SQL
4 20 (8.44%) C#
5 19 (8.02%) Go
6 18 (7.59%) Perl
7 15 (6.33%) PowerShell
8 10 (4.22%) Kotlin
9 9 (3.80%) C++
10 7 (2.95%) Bash
10 7 (2.95%) TypeScript
11 5 (2.11%) ABAP
12 4 (1.69%) PL/SQL
13 3 (1.27%) BeanShell
13 3 (1.27%) Groovy
13 3 (1.27%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.84%) C
14 2 (0.84%) Jython
14 2 (0.84%) R
14 2 (0.84%) Scala
Qualifications
1 67 (28.27%) Security Cleared
2 62 (26.16%) SC Cleared
3 20 (8.44%) Degree
4 17 (7.17%) Computer Science Degree
5 7 (2.95%) OCP
5 7 (2.95%) Oracle Certification
6 5 (2.11%) ISTQB
7 4 (1.69%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.84%) DV Cleared
9 2 (0.84%) ISEB
9 2 (0.84%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 1 (0.42%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (6.75%) QA
2 5 (2.11%) Data Quality
3 3 (1.27%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.42%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.42%) WCAG
System Software
1 22 (9.28%) Docker
2 6 (2.53%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 54 (22.78%) Kubernetes
2 16 (6.75%) Ansible
3 12 (5.06%) Argo
4 8 (3.38%) Progress Chef
4 8 (3.38%) Terraform
5 6 (2.53%) Grafana
6 2 (0.84%) Kubeflow
6 2 (0.84%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.42%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.42%) SCCM
Vendors
1 28 (11.81%) Oracle
2 18 (7.59%) Microsoft
3 13 (5.49%) Splunk
4 12 (5.06%) Red Hat
4 12 (5.06%) SAP
5 10 (4.22%) VMware
6 7 (2.95%) Ariba
7 6 (2.53%) Google
7 6 (2.53%) ServiceNow
8 4 (1.69%) Atlassian
9 3 (1.27%) Ab Initio
9 3 (1.27%) Adobe
9 3 (1.27%) Blue Prism
9 3 (1.27%) OpenAI
9 3 (1.27%) Teradata
9 3 (1.27%) UiPath
10 2 (0.84%) Databricks
10 2 (0.84%) Dynatrace
10 2 (0.84%) Salesforce
10 2 (0.84%) webMethods