Slightly more than half of Java shops surveyed (51%) have plans to add more Java developers in the coming year, down from 60% in 2024, according to a report by Perforce, a provider of Java development and devops tools. And while 34% plan to increase the Java tool budget in 2025, that compares to 42% that planned to do so in 2024.
These findings were cited in the company’s 2025 Java Developer Productivity Report, published March 4. Perforce, which offers the JRebel Java development tool, this year surveyed 731 developers, team leads, managers, and executives who work in the Java realm. While 51% said they planned to add Java developers in 2025, 16% had no plans to add to developer headcount and 32% were unsure. Thirty-four percent planned to increase the Java tool budget this year, compared to 42% last year.
In other findings, only 12% of respondents said they do not use AI tools, while 12% responded that their companies do not allow tje use of AI tools. Top AI tools among respondents included “generic juggernaut“ ChatGPT (used by 52%) and GitHub Copilot (used by 42%), with IDE-integrated AI tools trailing (used by 25%). Developers were most likely to turn to AI tools for code completion (60%) and refactoring (39%). Error detection (30%), documentation generation (28%), debugging assistance (26%), and automated testing (21%) were also cited as common use cases.
