A Comparison of the PHP and Java Job Markets
October 15th, 2004This is a followup on Marco Tablini’s discussion of the PHP programmer availablity and my earlier attempt at defining enterprise PHP.
Out of curiosity, I cataloged the required skills for 10 Java web developer positions and 10 PHP web developer positions from monster.com. I wanted to make the point that the constellation of skills for Java developers is very different than for PHP developers.
Here are some selected results:
Java : avg 4.5 years of required IT Experience
PHP : avg 2.3 years of required IT experience
Java minimum education requirements:
4 of 6 CS Degree (100%)
2 of 6 Bachelors degree (33%)
4 of 10 unspecified
PHP minimum education requirements:
2 of 10 CS Degree (30%)
2 of 10 Bachelors degree (20%)
6 of 10 Associates degree (60%)
Hardly any demand of CS degrees with PHP. Perhaps that makes CS degree holders unwilling to go into PHP, and thus makes the few more advanced jobs there are harder to fill? where are the career advancement opportunities in PHP?
Page Authoring Java PHP
---- ----
JavaScript 4 6
HTML 4 6
CSS 2 8
Applets 1 0
Graphic Design 1 3
Photoshop 0 4
Flash 0 5
PHP jobs focus much more on page authoring with photoshop experience desired, CSS, and Flash.
Java jobs were much more server oriented. 8 Out of the 10 Java jobs required experience with a specific application server. There is really no equivalent on the PHP side.
Practices/Libraries Java PHP
---- ----
MVC 2 0
Object Oriented 4 3
Patterns 2 0
UML 4 0
Version Control 3 3
Testing 2 0
Struts 6 0
Smarty 0 2
UML isnt even on the PHP job radar, sadly, neither is testing or patterns. Struts is one of the more required skills on the java side. Smarty was one of the few product specific mentions on the PHP side.
Databases Java PHP
---- ----
Oracle 4 2
DB2 1 0
SQL Server 1 1
MySQL 0 7
PostgreSQL 0 1
UDB 2 0
No surprise MySQL dominates in the PHP world.
The PHP Jobs had 33 different skill requirements:
Apache, CSS, CVS, ColdFusion, Crystal Reports, DNS, Database Design, Dreamweaver, Flash, Graphic Design, HTML, IIS, JavaScript, LDAP, Linux, MySQL, Object Oriented, Oracle, PL/SQL, Perl, Photoshop, PostgreSQL, SEO, SOAP, SQL, SQL Server, Shell Scripts, Smarty, Unix, XML, XSLT, e-commerce, illustrator
The Java Jobs had 70 different skill requirements:
Applets, ATG Dynamo, Apache, Application servers, CSS, CVS, ClearCase, DB Design, DB2, EJB, Graphic Design, HTML, IIS, IntelliJ IDEA, J2EE, JAAS, JBOSS, JBuilder, JDBC, JDeveloper, JMS, JMX, JNDI, JSF, JSP, JSTL, JUnit, Java beans, JavaMail, Javascript, LDAP, MVC, NT, OLAP/Datawarehouse, Object Oriented, Oracle, PL/SQL, Patterns, Perfoce, RMI, RUP, Rational Rose, SOAP, SQL Navigator, SQL Server, Servlets, Shell scripting, SitemInder, Solaris, StarTeam, Struts, Sun certification, Testing, Tiles, Together J, Tomcat, UDB, UML, Unix, WSAD, Web Serviecs, Web frameworks, Weblogic, Websphere, Websphere Studio, XML, XSLT, e-commerce, iPlanet, optimizeIT
There was far more variance for Java web developers
There were 502 results on monster for “PHP web”
There were 5000+ results for “Java web”
Nothing here is scientific.
All Posts
October 15th, 2004 at 10:50 pm
I agree with you 100% BUT while jobs for PHP programmers are sparse PHP, happens to be the freelancer’s paradise due to its generally gentle learning curve and ease of deployment… may be the freelancer’s paradise part somewhere lends to PHP being a pariah in Enterprise
October 16th, 2004 at 3:32 am
I guess the latest figure matches also “javascript” and leads to such high numbers.
October 16th, 2004 at 5:25 am
It is not surprising IMHO. Java (using J2EE) is used for EAI, PHP is and will for a long time be, web-related… Logic that “webskills” like css/javascript etc. Too bad that analysis/design/testing etc. is less demanded in the PHP area, but this is also no surprise to me… :-/
October 16th, 2004 at 6:36 am
Turning those results on their head, it’s amazing that there’s such large demand for PHP at all and that the demand is something like 10% of the “Java Web” job market. Consider the marketting $ that’s gone into Java, compared to PHP.
Running a similar search of jobserve.com places PHP at about 15% of the demand for “Java web”.
September 27th, 2005 at 10:45 am
The following is a personal opinion , no one has to agree.
I use both php (with mysql) and java
To the comparison of the two
1. PHP is extremely easy to learn
2. Extremely easy to make database oriented servers in a short time.
Java
1. If real time complexity is involved with fast data output after tedious processing java is undoubtedly better.
2. Also applet can do url connection for reading data and give mathematicaly related graphical output like complex charts etc
An example would be a chess engine where u can play against a machine and is web oriented and time to time these real time based problems do arise in the industry and php is insufficient.
Disadvantage : To what I notice for large data stream output or extremely larger type database php and mysql has so far given me the best results with the least complexity.
NOW HERE IS TEH GOOD NEWS !
You can call jar files from php by tweaking the ini file. This is very easy to do. That way you can use all the java classes for heavy computation. Moreover once the output is generated it can be caled by php put in a txt file and be called from applet via url connection.
Moreover you might need servers interact with client programs - such as a small bot in some channel in a video game. PHP clearly is insufficient specially to servers which require binary connections and hashing and in the real world this type of problems do exist. A good programmer knows exactly how to solve them.
My suggestion is to learn : PHP , MYSQL and Java and I find all of them uselful.
Stuff like Flash , GUI , interface make the website look nice but has no solid funcionality. For core engineering jobs http , html is sufficient but sure adding them looks your website look “nice” so why not ?
But if you are getting paid around $800 - $1200 each of thse or probably $40,000 - $80,000 a year you can buy flash templates ranging from $20 to $200 a piece and plug in all the things you want. And I would say the ones ranging above $100 look really good. It saves a load of time and I’d rather take up two projects at once instead of building GUIs
The above is my personal opinion - no one has to agree.
August 19th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
I believe that php is a powerfull tool, you can easily find ready made code and a server to host. while this is not available in other language scripts.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:31 am
PHP is still going while Java has come to saturation point. I sense, PHP will have all what java has, in coming future, keeping its easiness intact.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:15 am
ACCORDING TO MY POINT OF VIEW ,
JAVA AND J2EE IS BEST.
BECAUSE IT INVOLVES MORE SECURITY.
NOTE IMPORTANT POINT,IT IS NOT LEARN BY ALL.
BUT PHP ANY ONE CAN LEARN.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
There is a new online tool that allows Java professionals to compare information concerning salary, job skills, and roles based on geographic location using Google Maps. It also gives you an ideal of demand based on the number of Java jobs advertised. Check out these Java Job Market Stats.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
There is a new online tool that allows Java professionals to compare information concerning salary, job skills, and roles based on geographic location using Google Maps. It also gives you an ideal of demand based on the number of Java jobs advertised. Check out these Java Job Market Stats.