Job trends for the popular languages – Java, C++ and PHP

Recently I read an article which talked about the Programming Languages which the current Jobs Require. After reading that post, I thought of analysing that further to figure out how the job trend is for the top three programming languages, namely Java, C++ and PHP.

The popularity of programming languages:

Doubtlessly, Java is one of the leading development language, accepted and widely used by many enterprises around the world. Java still continues to hold on it’s position as the most popular programming language, as per TIOBE’s programming index, with the popularity percentage of ~20.5%. Java is closely followed by C++ with ~10% popularity(actually C has more popularity than C++, but for this post I’ll be considering C++ alone) and PHP comes in the next place with the popularity of ~9%. Below is the summarized table showing the above data set, taken from TIOBE’s web site.

Language Popularity

The Job trends for the top languages

Let’s compare how the popular programming languages are doing the job market. The job search site Odinjobs provides a tool for comparing the job trends of multiple programming languages or technologies. The comparision is based on the job opportunities listed in Odinjobs website, so it may not reflect the entire job market. Still, the comparsion gives a clue about how the job trends outside Odinjobs may look like.

Jobs trendline for Java, C++ and PHP

Generated by : Odinjobs

From the above picture, it is evident that the number of jobs are considerably reduced, irrespective of the programming language, mainly due to recession. Especially the Java job opportunities are fallen sharply, but still leading in the total number of opportunities.

So, Java still leads the market which is closely followed by C++ and PHP. If you are a Java developer, give a hi5 to yourself.