As a developer you know that working in the same code day-in-and-day-out can get a little stale, to say the

least. Adding new programming skills to your IT toolbox is essential in the struggle to stay relevant in the fast-paced tech world, but knowing which technology to choose isn't always obvious. Your time is limited and with the multitude of languages and environments picking the wrong area to focus your efforts can prove costly. Indeed.com, a job aggregation website, shared recent stats with CIO.com to help identify where the jobs and the money are. Using recent job listings, we've identified the programming languages that are in demand by employers as well as the top cities for particular programming languages and which top-tier companies are hiring.

SQL
Most businesses and websites have databases that work behind the scenes and many of those databases rely on SQL. Structured Query Language is what is referred to as a specialized programming language in that it was designed for editing and querying data residing in relational database management systems.

Java
Java is an object-oriented programming language developed in 1995 by Sun Microsystems. In less than 20 years, Java has become among the most popular programming languages in the world (ranked no.2 as per TIOBE Programming Community Index, no.1 on JobsTractor). Java is platform independent, which means that programs made for Mac OS X can be run on Windows and Linux, and vice versa. This feature is one of the reasons why Java is the go-to language for most enterprise applications. Demand for Java engineers is exceptionally high, with Indeed.com counting 62,589 Java vacancies in its database. Most senior developer positions require a working knowledge of Java and/or C.

HTML
HTML is one of the fundamental technologies that the Web is built upon. When combined with JavaScript and CSS, you can use HTML to create impressive Web pages and apps with interactive features such as geo-location capabilities, better forms, video and canvas capabilities and Web storage. HTML5s core aim is to improve the language that supports the latest multimedia. It is readably by humans and consistently understood by web browsers, parsers and other devices. It is not only intended to subsume HTML 4, but also XHTML1 and DOM2HTML.

JavaScript
JavaScript, like HTML is a part of the fabric of the Web. It's been around forever, but it has recently shown resurgence with the jQuery libraries. It's used in pretty much every Web browser to make Web pages more interactive among other things.

C++
C++ was originally created in 1983 to address the shortcomings of the C language. It is an intermediate-level language with object-oriented programming features. C++ powers some of the most popular desktop applications in the world, including the entire suite of Adobe software (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.), Mozilla Firefox, Google Chromium, and Winamp. Demand for C++ programmers is perpetually high, with 29,225 vacancies according to Indeed. It also ranks no.4 on TIOBE index, and no. 10 on JobsTractor.

C#
C# (pronounced C-Sharp) was developed by Microsoft in 2000 as a fundamental part of its .NET framework. C# is an object-oriented, multiparadigm programming language that combines the best of C and C++. Learning C# is a must for any programmer who wants to develop for Microsoft platforms (including Windows). C# ranks no. 6 on TIOBE index and no. 8 on JobsTractor. There are 29,557 C# jobs on Indeed.com.

XML
Extensible Markup Language, or XML, is a markup language used to define document encoding that has gone on to become the default for many office productivity suites. Where HTML is about how information is displayed, XML is about transporting and storing data. The format is such that the code is readable by both humans and machines.

C
C is arguably the most widely used and currently the most popular programming language, according to the Tiobe Programming Community Index. A host of other programming languages have borrowed from this general purpose language including, C#, Python, Java, PHP and Perl.

Perl
Larry Wall created Perl in 1987; it originally got its start as a general purpose Unix scripting language. It has a hodge-podge of features from C, shell script, AWK and sed that is designed to allow developers to work more easily with text data.

Python
Python was created in 1991 by Guido van Rossum. This high-level programming language emphasizes readability and simplicity and is a great language for beginners to start their programming journey. Python has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the last few years and now powers some of the most popular websites in the world, like Instagram.com, Pinterest.com, and Rdio.com through its associated web framework, Django. Google has invested especially heavily in Python development in the last decade or so, which has further added to the languages popularity (in fact, Python founder van Rossum was a Google employee from 2005 to 2012). Python ranks no.9 on the JobsTractor job availability list and no.8 on the TIOBE index. Indeed counts 19,533 Python jobs online.

Objective-C
Objective-C was developed in 1983 by Tom Love and Brad Cox at Apple to address the objected-oriented deficiencies of C language. Objective C is the primary language used in Apple OS X and iOS operating systems. The surge in popularity of Macs and Apple i devices (including iPad and iPhone) has created a huge demand for Objective-C programmers. A working knowledge of Objective-C will help you develop apps for iOS, which paves the way for thousands of jobs in startups as well as big tech companies (17,702 jobs, as per Indeed). As an Objective-C programmer, you can also freelance and create apps for iOS on your own. Objective-C ranks no.3 on both JobsTractor and the TIOBE index.

PHP
PHP (Hypertext Processor) is a server-side scripting language that powers more than 244m websites online, including the popular publishing platforms WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Created in 1995, PHP is one of the younger languages on this list. PHP is relatively easy to learn and can be readily embedded within HTML pages, which has made it the go-to general purpose programming language online. The high demand for web application developers has led to a huge surfeit in PHP jobs. Mastering PHP is often the first step to becoming a full-fledged web developer. Incidentally, PHP ranks no.2 on JobsTractor monthly job stats, and no.5 according to TIOBE index. There are also 17,627 PHP jobs online, according to Indeed.com.

Ruby
Ruby was developed in 1995 by Yukihiro Matsumoto by combining elements from Perl, Lisp, and Eiffel. It is an object-oriented, dynamic language that emphasizes simplicity and automation. Ruby powers the Ruby on Rails framework, which is used on popular websites like Yammer, Scribd, Github, Groupon, and Shopify. Many students new to programming also find Ruby comparatively easy to learn because of its simple syntax and English-like readability. Ruby ranks no.5 on JobsTractors jobs list, and no.11 on the TIBOE index. Indeed counts 11,435 Ruby jobs in its database.

Conclusion
The JobsTractor company analyzed more than 60,000 job vacancies during 2012 to produce a chart of the most sought-after technologies:

Conclusion contd.
Despite developer complaints, demand for PHP and Java (server/Android) remains strong. You would also expect those jobs to require some SQL knowledge although that has a strong showing in its own right. ActionScript is a dying art so its rapidly falling off the chart. But there are a number of surprises:
Even if we combine ASP.NET and C# figures, why is Microsofts technology stack so low? Why is Objective C demand almost double that of Android when iOS devices are less popular? Why is JavaScript relatively low given all the HTML5 hype?

Conclusion contd.
Part of this can be explained if we look at the relative changes in demand from the beginning of 2012 to the end:

Advice
Never use job vacancy statistics as a reason for learning a language! If demand for a particular technology is low, fewer developers are willing to learn it and the market adjusts accordingly. QBasic and COBOL developers may earn more than Objective C colleagues because their skills are increasingly rare! Ultimately, pick technologies which interest you and never stop learning. Programming skills are always transferable and itll make you a better candidate when a suitable job eventually arises.