Java SE Contract Job Trends

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

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Java SE skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 642 518 -
Rank change year-on-year -124 - -
Contract jobs citing Java SE 6 6 0
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.012% 0.021% -
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 0.062% 0.091% -
Number of daily rates quoted 2 5 0
10th Percentile £443 - -
25th Percentile £470 £400 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £420 -
Median % change year-on-year +23.51% - -
75th Percentile £570 £469 -
90th Percentile £599 £480 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £519 £420 -
% change year-on-year +23.51% - -

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 9,652 6,603 9,025
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 19.64% 22.87% 21.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,335 4,534 6,269
10th Percentile £363 £361 £350
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £535
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -2.80% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 283 110 254
10th Percentile £31.33 £28.91 £21.96
25th Percentile £51.63 £38.16 £43.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £48.43
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +29.05% -25.49%
75th Percentile £73.00 £68.75 £66.25
90th Percentile £81.00 £81.05 £74.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £50.47
% change year-on-year - +28.80% -22.36%

Java SE
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Java SE relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Java SE job vacancy trend in the UK

Java SE
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Java SE.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Java SE

Java SE
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Java SE over the 6 months to 30 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Java SE in the UK

Java SE
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Java SE.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Java SE

Java SE
Top 7 Contract Job 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 30 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
England -125 3 £519 +23.51% 1
Work from Home -61 2 £613 +28.95%
UK excluding London -98 2 £519 +23.51%
Midlands -60 1 £425 +1.19%
North West - 1 £613 -
London - 1 - - 1
North of England - 1 £613 -

Java SE
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 3 (50.00%) Apache
1 3 (50.00%) nginx
1 3 (50.00%) Tomcat
2 2 (33.33%) WebLogic
Cloud Services
1 1 (16.67%) Azure
1 1 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
1 1 (16.67%) Azure Key Vault
1 1 (16.67%) MinIO
1 1 (16.67%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 3 (50.00%) HTTP
2 1 (16.67%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (50.00%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (50.00%) GIS
2 2 (33.33%) SQL Server
2 2 (33.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (16.67%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (16.67%) GitLab
1 1 (16.67%) JIRA
1 1 (16.67%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 2 (33.33%) Finance
1 2 (33.33%) Public Sector
2 1 (16.67%) Banking
2 1 (16.67%) Financial Institution
2 1 (16.67%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (33.33%) Developer
1 2 (33.33%) Java Engineer
1 2 (33.33%) Platform Engineer
1 2 (33.33%) Senior
2 1 (16.67%) Cryptography Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Java Developer
2 1 (16.67%) Java Software Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Oracle Developer
2 1 (16.67%) Performance Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) SC Cleared Java Developer
2 1 (16.67%) Security Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Senior Developer
2 1 (16.67%) Senior Java Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Senior Oracle Developer
2 1 (16.67%) Senior Performance Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (50.00%) EJB
1 3 (50.00%) JSP
1 3 (50.00%) OpenLayers
2 2 (33.33%) Java EE
2 2 (33.33%) Middleware
3 1 (16.67%) AngularJS
3 1 (16.67%) Apache Camel
3 1 (16.67%) Hibernate
3 1 (16.67%) JCE
3 1 (16.67%) JDBC
3 1 (16.67%) JMS
3 1 (16.67%) JPA
3 1 (16.67%) OAuth
3 1 (16.67%) ODBC
3 1 (16.67%) OpenID
3 1 (16.67%) REST
3 1 (16.67%) Servlets
3 1 (16.67%) SOAP
3 1 (16.67%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 3 (50.00%) Legacy Applications
1 3 (50.00%) Legacy Systems
2 2 (33.33%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (16.67%) Cloud Native
3 1 (16.67%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (16.67%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 4 (66.67%) Linux
2 3 (50.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 3 (50.00%) Solaris
2 3 (50.00%) Windows
2 3 (50.00%) Windows Server
2 3 (50.00%) Windows Server 2008
2 3 (50.00%) Windows Server 2016
2 3 (50.00%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (83.33%) CI/CD
2 4 (66.67%) Test Automation
3 3 (50.00%) Containerisation
3 3 (50.00%) ETL
3 3 (50.00%) Platform Engineering
3 3 (50.00%) Refactoring
4 2 (33.33%) Agile
4 2 (33.33%) Data Integration
4 2 (33.33%) Decision-Making
4 2 (33.33%) Design Patterns
4 2 (33.33%) DevOps
4 2 (33.33%) Knowledge Transfer
4 2 (33.33%) Line Management
4 2 (33.33%) Mentoring
4 2 (33.33%) Scrum
4 2 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
5 1 (16.67%) Performance Optimisation
5 1 (16.67%) SDLC
5 1 (16.67%) Secure Coding
5 1 (16.67%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 6 (100.00%) Java
2 4 (66.67%) SQL
3 3 (50.00%) PL/SQL
3 3 (50.00%) Python
4 1 (16.67%) JavaScript
4 1 (16.67%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 3 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 3 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (16.67%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (16.67%) Accessibility
1 1 (16.67%) QA
1 1 (16.67%) WCAG
System Software
1 3 (50.00%) Docker
1 3 (50.00%) VMware ESXi
2 2 (33.33%) Oracle RAC
2 2 (33.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (16.67%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 2 (33.33%) Oracle RMAN
2 1 (16.67%) Kubernetes
2 1 (16.67%) SELinux
2 1 (16.67%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (16.67%) systemd
Vendors
1 5 (83.33%) Oracle
2 3 (50.00%) IBM
2 3 (50.00%) VMware
3 2 (33.33%) Red Hat
4 1 (16.67%) ServiceNow
4 1 (16.67%) Sonatype
4 1 (16.67%) Veracode