I stumbled into this Java chart recently, by Indeed.com, which shows job posting trends for Java as a programming language and what can I say… Java has obviously lost some market share as a language requirement in job posting since few years back: 2009-2012 where the share was 3% compared to current 1.5% figure.
Original source: http://www.indeed.com/jobanalytics/jobtrends?q=java&l=
Can we assume Java is a declining programming language?
Well… An article at CIO magazine states that one of the developer related trends in 2016 is the accelerated decline of Java as language. And by reviewing some of the active job posts available, they usually state the a relation to maintaining a legacy application or maintaining Java codebase.
On the other hand we should think about the impact Java has had and still has towards many of the programming languages, trending coding platforms, meaning the Java knowledge and expertise does not really hurt… Right? Think about examples such as Scala or Go or even Swift – they do have object oriented approach with similar syntax. Or then scripting languages such as JavaScript or Groovy. Sometimes the relation is a bit gray but knowing “de facto” programming language such as Java would not hurt but other way around.
Mobile application programming for Android is built on top of Java with the Android platform. Knowing Java in this context would allow using cross-platform tools to compile your application even for iOS (iPhones and iPads) such as using RoboVM. Then Node.js, the trendy back-end platform uses Javascript which is syntax-wise related to the Java (even otherwise completely different 😉 ).
Conclusion: Java may be declining but Java is not dead. I would still count Java knowledge as a Plus in your professional resume. Especially when included with flavours of some trending programming languages such as Node.js or one of its’ variants. See for yourself in this study – Java still being the number one in the most popular languages. And is definitely a good foundation for any other modern programming languages out there. Thus, I highly recommend to learn it today!
Don’t shoot me… I am an old-Java programmer and may not be 100% objective in this matter. 🙂