Java Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Java
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands 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 44 47 67
Rank change year-on-year +3 +20 -27
Contract jobs citing Java 145 50 45
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 4.95% 3.78% 2.31%
As % of the Programming Languages category 20.08% 15.15% 10.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 32 33
10th Percentile £418 £402 £315
25th Percentile £429 £422 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £477 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.26% -9.14% -4.55%
75th Percentile £564 £538 £581
90th Percentile £649 £575 £675
England median daily rate £518 £578 £575
% change year-on-year -10.30% +0.43% -6.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 5
10th Percentile - - £40.20
25th Percentile - - £40.50
Median hourly rate - - £55.00
75th Percentile - - £56.25
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £58.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +10.64% -6.00% -3.85%

All Programming Languages
West Midlands

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 West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 722 330 431
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 24.65% 24.96% 22.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 533 208 310
10th Percentile £340 £281 £260
25th Percentile £413 £405 £351
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +1.32% +5.56% -14.29%
75th Percentile £542 £580 £575
90th Percentile £619 £689 £639
England median daily rate £501 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.67% -2.42% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 12 13
10th Percentile £41.25 £16.78 £32.30
25th Percentile £53.88 £17.00 £40.50
Median hourly rate £58.00 £20.24 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +186.56% -64.02% +122.77%
75th Percentile £72.67 £28.32 £58.75
90th Percentile £77.50 £28.75 £69.75
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 West Midlands

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

Java job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Java
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Java.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Java

Java
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Java in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 2 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Java in the West Midlands

Java
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Java.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Java

Java
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Java within the West Midlands 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
Shropshire -7 74 £467 -2.06% 2
Birmingham -9 28 £500 -4.76% 10
Solihull -4 14 £450 +7.14% 1
Warwickshire -9 9 £514 +14.32% 4
Coventry -21 7 £670 +34.00% 2
Herefordshire -12 6 £575 +9.52%
Java
England

Java
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 16 (11.03%) WebLogic
2 13 (8.97%) Confluence
3 12 (8.28%) Apache
4 4 (2.76%) JBoss
4 4 (2.76%) SAS
5 3 (2.07%) Apache Spark
6 2 (1.38%) Drupal
6 2 (1.38%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.69%) Apache Geronimo
7 1 (0.69%) Apache ServiceMix
7 1 (0.69%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.69%) nginx
7 1 (0.69%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.69%) Red Hat Fuse
7 1 (0.69%) SAP EP
7 1 (0.69%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.69%) WebSphere
Applications
1 3 (2.07%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.38%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.38%) SAP FI
2 1 (0.69%) SAP CRM
2 1 (0.69%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 64 (44.14%) AWS
2 23 (15.86%) Azure
3 19 (13.10%) Amazon S3
4 15 (10.34%) Amazon EC2
5 12 (8.28%) Amazon SQS
6 11 (7.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 11 (7.59%) AWS KMS
6 11 (7.59%) Route 53
7 10 (6.90%) GCP
8 7 (4.83%) Serverless
9 5 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
9 5 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (3.45%) Entra ID
9 5 (3.45%) GitHub
9 5 (3.45%) Tricentis Tosca
10 4 (2.76%) Cloud Computing
10 4 (2.76%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 4 (2.76%) OpenShift
10 4 (2.76%) Power Platform
11 3 (2.07%) Cloud Composer
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.76%) Network Security
2 1 (0.69%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (15.17%) MongoDB
1 22 (15.17%) PostgreSQL
2 19 (13.10%) Amazon RDS
3 13 (8.97%) Relational Database
4 11 (7.59%) Amazon Aurora
4 11 (7.59%) DynamoDB
5 10 (6.90%) MySQL
6 6 (4.14%) Pentaho
7 5 (3.45%) Amazon Redshift
7 5 (3.45%) Oracle Database
8 4 (2.76%) BigQuery
8 4 (2.76%) InfluxDB
8 4 (2.76%) Power BI
9 3 (2.07%) Apache Hive
9 3 (2.07%) BusinessObjects
9 3 (2.07%) Hadoop
9 3 (2.07%) Impala
10 2 (1.38%) Ingres
11 1 (0.69%) Oracle Reports
11 1 (0.69%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 38 (26.21%) Git
2 30 (20.69%) JUnit
3 25 (17.24%) Jenkins
4 23 (15.86%) JIRA
5 20 (13.79%) Maven
5 20 (13.79%) Mockito
6 17 (11.72%) GitLab
6 17 (11.72%) Selenium
7 13 (8.97%) SonarQube
8 12 (8.28%) Cucumber
9 9 (6.21%) DbUnit
9 9 (6.21%) jMock
10 7 (4.83%) Bitbucket Server
11 6 (4.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 4 (2.76%) Eclipse
12 4 (2.76%) Gatling
12 4 (2.76%) IntelliJ
12 4 (2.76%) JMeter
12 4 (2.76%) Toad
13 3 (2.07%) REST Assured
General
1 39 (26.90%) Social Skills
2 35 (24.14%) Public Sector
3 23 (15.86%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (9.66%) Finance
5 7 (4.83%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (3.45%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (2.07%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.38%) Banking
8 2 (1.38%) Legal
8 2 (1.38%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.38%) Retail
8 2 (1.38%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.69%) Advertising
9 1 (0.69%) Electronics
9 1 (0.69%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 46 (31.72%) Developer
2 39 (26.90%) Java Developer
3 29 (20.00%) Lead
4 27 (18.62%) Java Engineer
5 14 (9.66%) Data Engineer
6 12 (8.28%) Senior
7 9 (6.21%) Lead Java Engineer
7 9 (6.21%) Software Engineer
8 7 (4.83%) SC Cleared Java Developer
8 7 (4.83%) Senior Developer
8 7 (4.83%) Senior Java Developer
9 6 (4.14%) Analyst
9 6 (4.14%) Architect
9 6 (4.14%) SailPoint Engineer
10 5 (3.45%) Lead Data Engineer
10 5 (3.45%) Site Engineer
10 5 (3.45%) Site Reliability Engineer
11 4 (2.76%) Cloud Engineer
11 4 (2.76%) Lead Cloud Engineer
11 4 (2.76%) Lead Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (40.69%) Spring
2 47 (32.41%) Spring Boot
3 28 (19.31%) REST
4 23 (15.86%) SOAP
5 21 (14.48%) JPA
6 19 (13.10%) Hibernate
7 18 (12.41%) RESTful
7 18 (12.41%) Web Services
8 16 (11.03%) JSON
9 14 (9.66%) Spring Batch
10 13 (8.97%) Node.js
10 13 (8.97%) Spring Integration
11 12 (8.28%) Spring Cloud
11 12 (8.28%) XML
12 11 (7.59%) ActiveMQ
12 11 (7.59%) AngularJS
13 10 (6.90%) Gherkin
13 10 (6.90%) React
14 9 (6.21%) Playwright
14 9 (6.21%) PowerMock
Miscellaneous
1 14 (9.66%) Distributed Systems
2 4 (2.76%) Clustering
2 4 (2.76%) Data Centre
2 4 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
2 4 (2.76%) Onboarding
3 3 (2.07%) Cloud Native
3 3 (2.07%) Product Ownership
4 2 (1.38%) Derivative
4 2 (1.38%) Linux Command Line
4 2 (1.38%) Mobile App
5 1 (0.69%) Data Structures
5 1 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (0.69%) Mobile Banking
5 1 (0.69%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 27 (18.62%) Linux
2 10 (6.90%) Unix
3 6 (4.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (2.76%) Windows
5 3 (2.07%) Android
6 1 (0.69%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (39.31%) Agile
2 47 (32.41%) Microservices
3 45 (31.03%) CI/CD
4 41 (28.28%) Scrum
5 34 (23.45%) Software Engineering
6 32 (22.07%) Problem-Solving
7 28 (19.31%) DevOps
8 25 (17.24%) TDD
9 24 (16.55%) Containerisation
10 22 (15.17%) Continuous Improvement
11 20 (13.79%) Mentoring
12 19 (13.10%) Stakeholder Management
13 18 (12.41%) Test Automation
14 16 (11.03%) Kanban
15 14 (9.66%) BDD
15 14 (9.66%) Continuous Integration
16 12 (8.28%) Open Source
16 12 (8.28%) Roadmaps
17 11 (7.59%) Batch Scheduling
17 11 (7.59%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 78 (53.79%) SQL
2 23 (15.86%) PL/SQL
3 21 (14.48%) Python
4 18 (12.41%) Shell Script
5 6 (4.14%) Perl
6 5 (3.45%) BeanShell
6 5 (3.45%) JavaScript
6 5 (3.45%) Kotlin
6 5 (3.45%) PowerShell
6 5 (3.45%) Scala
7 4 (2.76%) Go
8 3 (2.07%) Groovy
8 3 (2.07%) HiveQL
8 3 (2.07%) VB
9 2 (1.38%) PHP
9 2 (1.38%) Ruby
10 1 (0.69%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.69%) C
10 1 (0.69%) C++
10 1 (0.69%) VB6
Qualifications
1 78 (53.79%) Security Cleared
2 72 (49.66%) SC Cleared
3 9 (6.21%) Degree
4 8 (5.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (3.45%) AWS Certification
5 5 (3.45%) CISM
5 5 (3.45%) CISSP
5 5 (3.45%) DV Cleared
5 5 (3.45%) ISTQB
5 5 (3.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 4 (2.76%) Azure Certification
7 2 (1.38%) ISEB
7 2 (1.38%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
8 1 (0.69%) Six Sigma Black Belt
8 1 (0.69%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (7.59%) QA
2 7 (4.83%) WCAG
3 5 (3.45%) Accessibility
3 5 (3.45%) Data Quality
4 3 (2.07%) FATCA
5 2 (1.38%) SLA
6 1 (0.69%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.69%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 27 (18.62%) Docker
2 8 (5.52%) Postfix
3 6 (4.14%) Active Directory
4 3 (2.07%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 36 (24.83%) Kubernetes
2 26 (17.93%) Grafana
3 10 (6.90%) Ansible
3 10 (6.90%) Terraform
4 9 (6.21%) Kibana
4 9 (6.21%) Prometheus
5 6 (4.14%) Puppet
6 4 (2.76%) Progress Chef
7 3 (2.07%) HP ALM
8 2 (1.38%) Docker Swarm
8 2 (1.38%) HP Quality Center
8 2 (1.38%) Podman
9 1 (0.69%) Argo
9 1 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.69%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 26 (17.93%) Oracle
2 17 (11.72%) ServiceNow
3 11 (7.59%) Jaspersoft
4 9 (6.21%) Atlassian
5 8 (5.52%) Google
5 8 (5.52%) Microsoft
5 8 (5.52%) SAP
6 6 (4.14%) Red Hat
6 6 (4.14%) Talend
6 6 (4.14%) webMethods
7 4 (2.76%) Denodo
8 3 (2.07%) Ariba
8 3 (2.07%) HP
8 3 (2.07%) Informatica
8 3 (2.07%) Splunk
9 2 (1.38%) Actian
9 2 (1.38%) Calypso
10 1 (0.69%) Dynatrace
10 1 (0.69%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.69%) PagerDuty