Java development was the most sought-after software-building skill by employers searching Dice.com in the first quarter of 2014, the company said on Wednesday.

Employers searched Dice thousands of times to look for software developers, engineers, architects and leads, Dice President Shravan Goli said in a statement. "The number one request by a large margin: Java/J2EE," Goli said. "For a programming language that started to be commercialized about 20 years ago, its stranglehold on modern development is unshakable."

Following Java/J2EE as the most in-demand software development skills were .Net, C++, C#, senior development skills, SQL, HTML, C, Web and Linux. "Experience is clearly of value, with many hiring mangers seeking senior developers," Goli said. But new graduates should not fret, as hiring managers searching for "computer science" ranked number 33 on Dice's site -- a trend that should equate to demand for those with recent diplomas, he said. Dice's survey covered from January 1 to April 15.

For technologies specifically geared to Web development, JavaScript came in at 12th on Dice's list, followed by ASP.Net (17th), HTML5 (19th), PHP (20th), and CSS (32nd). (A recent report by WalletHub found Web application developer to be the best entry-level job.) Mobile platform skills were mostly ranked below Web skills in Dice's assessment, with Android ranking 31st and iOS coming in 35th place.

Looking into what the future holds, Dice anticipates increased demand for developers and designers with skills pertaining to wearable electronics, the Internet of Things, and drones and robots.

The job market in general is rosy for software developers, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting a 2.8 percent unemployment rate for this sector in the first quarter, Dice said. This compares to 5 percent in the same quarter five years ago and 5.5 percent four years ago. Overall, Dice posted 80,784 available technology jobs on May 1, including 48,202 full-time positions.

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