diff --git a/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/Client.java b/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/Client.java
index 96fddafc..56ef970e 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/Client.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/Client.java
@@ -102,9 +102,7 @@ private static void validateOptions(Options options) {
                 int oldPid;
                 try {
                     oldPid =
-                            NumberUtils.toInt(
-                                    new String(Files.readAllBytes(pidFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8),
-                                    0);
+                            NumberUtils.toInt(Files.readString(pidFile, StandardCharsets.UTF_8), 0);
                 } catch (IOException e) {
                     throw new UncheckedIOException("Failed to read PID file " + pidFile, e);
                 }
@@ -146,9 +144,7 @@ private static void validateOptions(Options options) {
         if (options.password == null && options.passwordFile != null) {
             try {
                 options.password =
-                        new String(
-                                        Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(options.passwordFile)),
-                                        StandardCharsets.UTF_8)
+                        Files.readString(Paths.get(options.passwordFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)
                                 .trim();
             } catch (IOException e) {
                 throw new UncheckedIOException("Failed to read password from file", e);
diff --git a/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/LabelFileWatcher.java b/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/LabelFileWatcher.java
index bd76b542..9598e00f 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/LabelFileWatcher.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/LabelFileWatcher.java
@@ -54,9 +54,7 @@ public LabelFileWatcher(URL url, Options options, String name, String... args)
         this.url = url;
         this.options = options;
         this.name = name;
-        this.labels =
-                new String(
-                        Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(options.labelsFile)), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+        this.labels = Files.readString(Paths.get(options.labelsFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
         this.args = args;
         logger.config("Labels loaded: " + labels);
     }
@@ -242,9 +240,7 @@ public void run() {
             }
             try {
                 sTempLabels =
-                        new String(
-                                Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(options.labelsFile)),
-                                StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+                        Files.readString(Paths.get(options.labelsFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
                 if (sTempLabels.equalsIgnoreCase(labels)) {
                     logger.log(
                             Level.FINEST,
@@ -255,9 +251,8 @@ public void run() {
                         // through the plugin APIs
                         softLabelUpdate(sTempLabels);
                         labels =
-                                new String(
-                                        Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(options.labelsFile)),
-                                        StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+                                Files.readString(
+                                        Paths.get(options.labelsFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
                     } catch (SoftLabelUpdateException e) {
                         // if we're unable to
                         logger.log(
diff --git a/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/SwarmClient.java b/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/SwarmClient.java
index 082c469f..57a49ea7 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/SwarmClient.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/swarm/SwarmClient.java
@@ -112,9 +112,7 @@ public SwarmClient(Options options) {
             logger.info("Loading labels from " + options.labelsFile + "...");
             try {
                 String labels =
-                        new String(
-                                Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(options.labelsFile)),
-                                StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+                        Files.readString(Paths.get(options.labelsFile), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
                 options.labels.addAll(Arrays.asList(labels.trim().split("\\s+")));
                 logger.info("Labels found in file: " + labels);
                 logger.info(
@@ -355,7 +353,8 @@ private static synchronized Crumb getCsrfCrumb(
                         url
                                 + "crumbIssuer/api/xml?xpath="
                                 + URLEncoder.encode(
-                                        "concat(//crumbRequestField,\":\",//crumb)", "UTF-8"));
+                                        "concat(//crumbRequestField,\":\",//crumb)",
+                                        StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
         try (CloseableHttpResponse response = client.execute(httpGet, context)) {
             if (response.getCode() != HttpStatus.SC_OK) {
                 logger.log(
@@ -589,7 +588,7 @@ static synchronized void postLabelAppend(
     private static synchronized String encode(String value) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
         logger.finer("encode() invoked");
 
-        return URLEncoder.encode(value, "UTF-8");
+        return URLEncoder.encode(value, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
     }
 
     private static synchronized String param(String name, String value)