Popularity of Java is Rising in Ireland

In a new report by Stack Overflow, it has been discovered that the coding language, Java, has seen a surge in interest in Ireland.

The Developer Ecosystem: 2018 Predictions also notes how, due to the rise in interest, it has moved up to be the second most in-demand programming language wanted by businesses after JavaScript, which is used to create interactive web pages.

Java currently has 24% of the market shares in the country and has remained relevant in Ireland despite its popularity wavering across the US. It is believed that coding in newer languages, such as Kotlin, account for some of the loss of Java usage in America, but that this hasn’t had an impact on the Java community in Ireland.

The report by Stack Overflow focuses on the data collected from visitors to their community hub, analysing which languages were mentioned the most often in Irish job listings on their site. The authors of the report stated that “each month, 50 million people use our platform to learn, share, and build their careers”.

Experiencing the biggest rise in-demand from companies over the second half of 2017, Stack Overflow also used their analysis of which programming languages were used the most to gauge which was the most sought-after methods of coding for employers.

“The most notable change since Q2 is the jump in demand for Java by 8 percent. Although it comes second place to JavaScript, it’s a skill which has grown most rapidly in popularity in the second half of the year”.

Additionally, they looked at which programming language-tags developers had been looking at across Ireland in order to assess the overall popularity of each language. Java was the 4^th most-visited technologies page on Stack Overflow, with 8.4% of visits to the site to look at Java-related information.

The report also found how, in the development of Android applications, Java has experienced a significant decrease of 13%. It is suggested that, although it is the official programming language, it is not exclusive to Java and coding on C, C++ and the Google-backed language Kotlin all having the capabilities to write apps supported on Android.

Overall, Stack Overflow found that the most popular language based on the most-visited technology page on their website was Python, with JavaScript coming second. However, 24% of the jobs posts recorded in the report were looking for JavaScript developers.

Here at Eolas Recruitment, we have a range of Java jobs in Ireland available for you to apply to if you’re looking for a new job in the industry. We have a team of expert consultants whose knowledge of the Irish IT market is second to none. If you want to start your job search, reach out to a member of our team for more information about how we can help you today!