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 2 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
2 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 790 890 1180
Rank change year-on-year +100 +290 -271
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 115 56 84
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.11% 0.059% 0.050%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.34% 0.14% 0.091%
Number of salaries quoted 98 24 46
10th Percentile £52,500 £46,520 £40,625
25th Percentile £56,809 £52,125 £53,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,805 £62,500 £67,250
Median % change year-on-year +18.09% -7.06% +41.58%
75th Percentile £84,964 £74,125 £73,938
90th Percentile - £77,715 £88,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,805 £63,000 £67,500
% change year-on-year +17.15% -6.67% +42.11%

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 33,947 40,085 91,945
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 32.25% 42.29% 54.38%
Number of salaries quoted 25,291 26,714 43,327
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £37,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £48,750 £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 £85,688 £82,500
90th Percentile £98,750 £107,500 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -1.82% +4.76% +5.00%

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 2 June 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 2 June 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 +30 113 £73,805 +17.15% 3
England +119 103 £73,805 +18.09% 5
Work from Home +121 91 £73,805 +10.16% 2
North of England +90 69 £73,805 +6.27%
North West +4 27 £73,805 +6.27%
Yorkshire +84 24 £73,805 +10.98%
South East 0 18 £55,000 +22.22% 1
North East - 18 £73,805 -
London +117 16 £55,000 -12.00% 3
West Midlands -11 12 £73,805 +57.03% 1
Midlands -17 12 £73,805 +10.16% 1
Scotland -59 12 £71,991 - 1
East of England -7 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 (32.17%) Tuxedo
2 12 (10.43%) CICS
Applications
1 1 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (41.74%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.87%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (13.04%) Relational Database
2 14 (12.17%) DB2
3 1 (0.87%) Easytrieve
3 1 (0.87%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 11 (9.57%) ChangeMan
2 5 (4.35%) Eclipse
General
1 14 (12.17%) Finance
2 11 (9.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 11 (9.57%) Law
2 11 (9.57%) Marketing
3 5 (4.35%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.74%) Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (57.39%) Lead
1 66 (57.39%) Technical Leader
2 50 (43.48%) Senior
3 22 (19.13%) Developer
4 17 (14.78%) COBOL Developer
5 15 (13.04%) Mainframe Developer
6 12 (10.43%) Mainframe Software Engineer
6 12 (10.43%) Software Engineer
7 8 (6.96%) Architect
7 8 (6.96%) Senior Architect
7 8 (6.96%) Senior Solutions Architect
7 8 (6.96%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.35%) IBM Mainframe Developer
8 5 (4.35%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.35%) Senior Software Developer
8 5 (4.35%) Software Developer
9 4 (3.48%) Applications Support
10 2 (1.74%) Analyst
10 2 (1.74%) Applications Support Analyst
10 2 (1.74%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (32.17%) RESTful
2 5 (4.35%) EDI
2 5 (4.35%) OSGi
2 5 (4.35%) Spring
3 1 (0.87%) .NET
3 1 (0.87%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 28 (24.35%) Mainframe
2 12 (10.43%) VSAM
3 11 (9.57%) Reference Data
4 5 (4.35%) IBM Mainframe
5 1 (0.87%) Distributed Computing
5 1 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 18 (15.65%) Linux
2 8 (6.96%) VME
3 4 (3.48%) Unix
4 2 (1.74%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (75.65%) Agile
2 74 (64.35%) Coaching
2 74 (64.35%) Mentoring
2 74 (64.35%) Product Roadmap
2 74 (64.35%) Roadmaps
3 66 (57.39%) Strategic Thinking
4 42 (36.52%) Front End Development
5 41 (35.65%) Software Engineering
6 38 (33.04%) Continuous Integration
7 37 (32.17%) Re-Platforming
8 29 (25.22%) Architectural Design
8 29 (25.22%) Feasibility Study
8 29 (25.22%) Open Source
9 19 (16.52%) Decision-Making
10 15 (13.04%) ITIL
10 15 (13.04%) Service Delivery
11 11 (9.57%) Artificial Intelligence
11 11 (9.57%) Machine Learning
11 11 (9.57%) Operational Stability
11 11 (9.57%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 80 (69.57%) Micro Focus COBOL
2 54 (46.96%) Java
3 31 (26.96%) C
4 29 (25.22%) C++
4 29 (25.22%) Python
5 13 (11.30%) JCL
6 6 (5.22%) SQL
7 4 (3.48%) C#
8 2 (1.74%) REXX
9 1 (0.87%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.87%) PHP
9 1 (0.87%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.87%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 15 (13.04%) CTC Cleared
1 15 (13.04%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.35%) GDPR
System Software
1 12 (10.43%) Time Sharing Option
2 1 (0.87%) RACF
Systems Management
1 1 (0.87%) CA Endevor
1 1 (0.87%) MAINVIEW
Vendors
1 80 (69.57%) Micro Focus
2 48 (41.74%) Oracle
3 15 (13.04%) Unisys
4 7 (6.09%) IBM
5 1 (0.87%) BMC
5 1 (0.87%) CA
5 1 (0.87%) Microsoft