Demand for C and SQL skills is falling while the proportion of jobs seeking Java, agile development and ASP programming talent is on the rise.

The biggest drop in demand appears to be for C — with the programming language asked for far less frequently in UK job vacancies this year. Mentions of the language in IT jobs posted during the second quarter of this year were down 15 percent year on year,according to the figures from CWJobs.co.uk.

Meanwhile, demand for Java knowhowhas grown faster than any other IT-related skill, with the number of times Java featured in job specs during the quarter increasing 10 percent over the second quarter of 2012.

Employers continue to seekagile development techniques, with the approach referenced nine percent more times in job postings than during the same period last year.

Web developer skills are also being keenly sought, with ASP garnering nine percent more mentions than the year before, usually as part of ads looking for people with experience of theserver-side web application framework ASP.NET.

While the number of mentions of SQL fell by five percent from the second quarter of 2012, the query language was cited 19,875 times in postings, making it the IT skill most frequently mentioned. Its relative popularity could be explained by the breadth of roles demanding SQL knowledge, ranging from developers to business analysts.

The programming language C# is the second most in-demand skill, according to the figures, mentioned 14,192 times, a rise of five percent year on year.

Unsurprisingly, software houses and consultancies sought more IT workers than any over industry during the quarter, posting 48,217 adverts, followed by financial services companies, which sought to fill 15,993 IT posts. These two sectors also saw the largest increase in demand for IT workers since 2009, with the number of posts advertised by software houses up 33 percent and financial vacancies up 34 percent. Roles available in the public sector fell by 65 percent during the same period.

Regionally, the number of vacancies posted across most areas of the UK is at a five year high. Vacancies in London have seen modest growth year-on-year with 9,886 job vacancies posted in the quarter, a rise of 2.4 percent.

CWJobs says regional IT hubs have sprung up across the UK, with Bristol in the west of England being positioned as a centre for computer gaming and the concentration of high tech firms in Cambridge's "Silicon Fen", which is home to the headquarters of chip designer ARM.

Number of times skills mentioned in job adverts

Software

Q2 2013

Q1 2013

Q4 2012

Q3 2012

Q2 2012

Q1 2012

SQL

19,875

20,142

20,660

20,960

20,853

21,143

C#

14,192

14,073

13,901

13,780

13,549

13,629

C

13,179

13,661

13,781

14,201

15,387

15,794

.NET

13,157

12,932

12,780

12,388

12,271

12,354

Java

10,373

10,300

10,138

9,856

9,382

9,372

ASP

9,001

8,918

8,918

8,334

8,217

8,359

SQL Server

8,289

8,788

8,824

9,079

8,949

9,069

JavaScript

7,102

7,065

6,983

6,948

6,887

6,985

Agile

6,843

6,735

6,702

6,441

6,272

6,243

HTML

6,672

6,724

6,670

6,570

6,447

6,403

Source: CWJobs.co.uk

Further reading about IT skills