Java SE Contracts

Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE, JSE)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Java SE skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Java SE over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 514 - 709
Rank change year-on-year - - +132
Contract jobs citing Java SE 6 0 9
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.020% - 0.015%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 0.090% - 0.065%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 0 9
10th Percentile £374 - -
25th Percentile - - £700
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 - £729
Median % change year-on-year - - +25.04%
75th Percentile £469 - £758
90th Percentile £480 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £431 - £744
% change year-on-year - - +18.96%

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
UK

Java SE falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 6,644 8,946 13,890
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.70% 20.54% 23.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,558 6,207 10,141
10th Percentile £363 £338 £400
25th Percentile £425 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -
75th Percentile £650 £650 £675
90th Percentile £780 £771 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 233 153
10th Percentile £27.14 £21.25 £31.60
25th Percentile £48.25 £40.00 £48.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £46.18 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.75% -28.95% +32.65%
75th Percentile £68.75 £65.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £82.87 £74.89 £80.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £64.00
% change year-on-year +36.84% -25.78% +30.61%

Java SE
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Java SE as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Java SE in the UK

Java SE
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Java SE.

Daily rate trend for Java SE in the UK

Java SE
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Java SE.

Hourly rate trend for Java SE in the UK

Java SE
Top 6 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Java SE within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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
UK excluding London - 5 £431 - 3
Scotland - 4 £431 -
England - 2 £363 - 5
London - 1 £363 - 3
South East - 1 - - 2
Work from Home - 1 £475 - 5

Java SE
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (66.67%) OpenROAD
2 3 (50.00%) JBoss
Cloud Services
1 5 (83.33%) Azure
2 2 (33.33%) AWS
3 1 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (33.33%) MySQL
1 2 (33.33%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (33.33%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 4 (66.67%) Git
General
1 2 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
1 2 (33.33%) Public Sector
1 2 (33.33%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 6 (100.00%) Developer
2 5 (83.33%) Java Developer
3 2 (33.33%) OpenROAD Developer
3 2 (33.33%) SC Cleared Java Developer
4 1 (16.67%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (33.33%) AngularJS
1 2 (33.33%) Hibernate
1 2 (33.33%) Java EE
1 2 (33.33%) JSON
1 2 (33.33%) React
1 2 (33.33%) RESTful
1 2 (33.33%) Spring
1 2 (33.33%) Spring Boot
1 2 (33.33%) Struts
1 2 (33.33%) Web Services
1 2 (33.33%) XML
Operating Systems
1 4 (66.67%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (50.00%) DevOps
1 3 (50.00%) Integration Testing
2 2 (33.33%) Agile
2 2 (33.33%) API Integration
2 2 (33.33%) Clean Code
2 2 (33.33%) Code Quality
2 2 (33.33%) Microservices
2 2 (33.33%) Performance Optimisation
2 2 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (33.33%) Scrum
3 1 (16.67%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 6 (100.00%) Java
2 4 (66.67%) Shell Script
3 2 (33.33%) JavaScript
3 2 (33.33%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (33.33%) Degree
1 2 (33.33%) OCP
1 2 (33.33%) Oracle Certification
1 2 (33.33%) SC Cleared
1 2 (33.33%) Security Cleared
1 2 (33.33%) Sun Certification
Vendors
1 2 (33.33%) Oracle