COBOL
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for COBOL skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that have cited COBOL over the 6 months to 9 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
9 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 780 920 1123
Rank change year-on-year +140 +203 -241
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 122 52 106
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.12% 0.051% 0.068%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.37% 0.12% 0.13%
Number of salaries quoted 105 22 54
10th Percentile £52,500 £49,875 £40,250
25th Percentile £56,809 £56,250 £51,063
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,805 £64,750 £67,250
Median % change year-on-year +13.98% -3.72% +22.27%
75th Percentile £84,964 £77,715 £77,500
90th Percentile - £112,234 £90,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,805 £66,750 £68,750
% change year-on-year +10.57% -2.91% +44.74%

All Programming Languages
UK

COBOL is in the Programming Languages category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for coding skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 33,162 43,852 84,744
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 33.46% 43.27% 54.01%
Number of salaries quoted 24,974 27,985 43,449
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £37,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £49,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +4.00% +13.64%
75th Percentile £77,500 £86,250 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £106,275 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,000 £55,000 £53,112
% change year-on-year -1.82% +3.55% +6.22%

COBOL
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing COBOL as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for COBOL in the UK

COBOL
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing COBOL.

Salary trend for COBOL in the UK

COBOL
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing COBOL over the 6 months to 9 May 2024.

Salary histogram for COBOL in the UK

COBOL
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing COBOL within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 2024. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
UK excluding London +80 120 £73,805 +10.57% 7
England +163 110 £73,805 +13.98% 12
Work from Home +150 97 £73,805 +6.27% 5
North of England +109 71 £73,805 +6.27% 6
North West +31 29 £73,805 +6.27% 2
Yorkshire +110 24 £73,805 -26.74% 3
South East +20 23 £55,000 +22.22%
London +120 20 £55,000 -12.00% 1
North East - 18 £73,805 - 3
West Midlands +12 12 £73,805 +57.03% 1
Midlands -13 12 £73,805 +29.48% 1
Scotland -57 12 £71,991 -
East of England +18 2 £42,000 -28.81%

COBOL
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 37 (30.33%) Tuxedo
2 14 (11.48%) CICS
Applications
1 1 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (39.34%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.82%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (15.57%) Relational Database
2 16 (13.11%) DB2
3 3 (2.46%) Easytrieve
4 1 (0.82%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 11 (9.02%) ChangeMan
2 5 (4.10%) Eclipse
General
1 15 (12.30%) Finance
2 11 (9.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 11 (9.02%) Law
2 11 (9.02%) Marketing
3 5 (4.10%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.64%) Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (54.10%) Lead
1 66 (54.10%) Technical Leader
2 50 (40.98%) Senior
3 26 (21.31%) Developer
4 21 (17.21%) COBOL Developer
5 19 (15.57%) Mainframe Developer
6 12 (9.84%) Mainframe Software Engineer
6 12 (9.84%) Software Engineer
7 8 (6.56%) Architect
7 8 (6.56%) Senior Architect
7 8 (6.56%) Senior Solutions Architect
7 8 (6.56%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.10%) Applications Support
8 5 (4.10%) IBM Mainframe Developer
8 5 (4.10%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.10%) Senior Software Developer
8 5 (4.10%) Software Developer
9 3 (2.46%) Analyst
9 3 (2.46%) Applications Support Analyst
9 3 (2.46%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (30.33%) RESTful
2 5 (4.10%) EDI
2 5 (4.10%) OSGi
2 5 (4.10%) Spring
3 3 (2.46%) XML
4 1 (0.82%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 32 (26.23%) Mainframe
2 14 (11.48%) VSAM
3 11 (9.02%) Reference Data
4 5 (4.10%) IBM Mainframe
5 3 (2.46%) Distributed Computing
6 2 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 19 (15.57%) Linux
2 8 (6.56%) VME
3 5 (4.10%) Unix
4 4 (3.28%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (71.31%) Agile
2 74 (60.66%) Coaching
2 74 (60.66%) Mentoring
2 74 (60.66%) Product Roadmap
2 74 (60.66%) Roadmaps
3 66 (54.10%) Strategic Thinking
4 42 (34.43%) Front End Development
5 41 (33.61%) Software Engineering
6 38 (31.15%) Continuous Integration
7 37 (30.33%) Re-Platforming
8 29 (23.77%) Architectural Design
8 29 (23.77%) Feasibility Study
8 29 (23.77%) Open Source
9 19 (15.57%) Decision-Making
9 19 (15.57%) ITIL
9 19 (15.57%) Service Delivery
10 11 (9.02%) Artificial Intelligence
10 11 (9.02%) Machine Learning
10 11 (9.02%) Operational Stability
10 11 (9.02%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 80 (65.57%) Micro Focus COBOL
2 54 (44.26%) Java
3 32 (26.23%) C
4 29 (23.77%) C++
4 29 (23.77%) Python
5 15 (12.30%) JCL
6 9 (7.38%) SQL
7 5 (4.10%) C#
8 4 (3.28%) REXX
9 1 (0.82%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.82%) PHP
9 1 (0.82%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.82%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 19 (15.57%) CTC Cleared
1 19 (15.57%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.10%) GDPR
System Software
1 14 (11.48%) Time Sharing Option
2 3 (2.46%) RACF
Systems Management
1 3 (2.46%) MAINVIEW
2 1 (0.82%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 80 (65.57%) Micro Focus
2 48 (39.34%) Oracle
3 19 (15.57%) Unisys
4 9 (7.38%) IBM
5 3 (2.46%) BMC
6 1 (0.82%) CA
6 1 (0.82%) Microsoft