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

6 months to
23 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 777 900 1147
Rank change year-on-year +123 +247 -250
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 118 52 92
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.12% 0.053% 0.056%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.35% 0.12% 0.10%
Number of salaries quoted 101 21 49
10th Percentile £52,500 £49,750 £41,750
25th Percentile £56,809 £56,250 £51,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,805 £62,500 £67,000
Median % change year-on-year +18.09% -6.72% +41.05%
75th Percentile £84,964 £77,715 £73,750
90th Percentile - - £88,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,805 £64,750 £67,000
% change year-on-year +13.98% -3.36% +41.05%

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 33,326 42,611 88,712
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 33.02% 43.26% 54.15%
Number of salaries quoted 24,946 27,225 43,437
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £37,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £49,000 £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 £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 23 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 23 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 +83 116 £73,805 +13.98% 4
England +157 106 £73,805 +18.09% 5
Work from Home +137 93 £73,805 +10.16%
North of England +95 69 £73,805 +6.27% 2
North West +17 27 £73,805 +6.27%
Yorkshire +103 24 £73,805 -11.74% 2
South East +27 21 £55,000 +22.22%
London +129 18 £55,000 -12.00% 2
North East - 18 £73,805 - 1
West Midlands +7 12 £73,805 +57.03% 1
Midlands -13 12 £73,805 +29.48% 1
Scotland -49 12 £71,991 - 1
East of England +6 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 (31.36%) Tuxedo
2 12 (10.17%) CICS
Applications
1 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (40.68%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.85%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (14.41%) Relational Database
2 14 (11.86%) DB2
3 1 (0.85%) Easytrieve
3 1 (0.85%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 11 (9.32%) ChangeMan
2 5 (4.24%) Eclipse
General
1 15 (12.71%) Finance
2 11 (9.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 11 (9.32%) Law
2 11 (9.32%) Marketing
3 5 (4.24%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.69%) Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (55.93%) Lead
1 66 (55.93%) Technical Leader
2 50 (42.37%) Senior
3 24 (20.34%) Developer
4 19 (16.10%) COBOL Developer
5 17 (14.41%) Mainframe Developer
6 12 (10.17%) Mainframe Software Engineer
6 12 (10.17%) Software Engineer
7 8 (6.78%) Architect
7 8 (6.78%) Senior Architect
7 8 (6.78%) Senior Solutions Architect
7 8 (6.78%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.24%) Applications Support
8 5 (4.24%) IBM Mainframe Developer
8 5 (4.24%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.24%) Senior Software Developer
8 5 (4.24%) Software Developer
9 3 (2.54%) Analyst
9 3 (2.54%) Applications Support Analyst
9 3 (2.54%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (31.36%) RESTful
2 5 (4.24%) EDI
2 5 (4.24%) OSGi
2 5 (4.24%) Spring
3 1 (0.85%) .NET
3 1 (0.85%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (25.42%) Mainframe
2 12 (10.17%) VSAM
3 11 (9.32%) Reference Data
4 5 (4.24%) IBM Mainframe
5 2 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.85%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 19 (16.10%) Linux
2 8 (6.78%) VME
3 5 (4.24%) Unix
4 2 (1.69%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (73.73%) Agile
2 74 (62.71%) Coaching
2 74 (62.71%) Mentoring
2 74 (62.71%) Product Roadmap
2 74 (62.71%) Roadmaps
3 66 (55.93%) Strategic Thinking
4 42 (35.59%) Front End Development
5 41 (34.75%) Software Engineering
6 38 (32.20%) Continuous Integration
7 37 (31.36%) Re-Platforming
8 29 (24.58%) Architectural Design
8 29 (24.58%) Feasibility Study
8 29 (24.58%) Open Source
9 19 (16.10%) Decision-Making
10 17 (14.41%) ITIL
10 17 (14.41%) Service Delivery
11 11 (9.32%) Artificial Intelligence
11 11 (9.32%) Machine Learning
11 11 (9.32%) Operational Stability
11 11 (9.32%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 80 (67.80%) Micro Focus COBOL
2 54 (45.76%) Java
3 32 (27.12%) C
4 29 (24.58%) C++
4 29 (24.58%) Python
5 13 (11.02%) JCL
6 7 (5.93%) SQL
7 5 (4.24%) C#
8 2 (1.69%) REXX
9 1 (0.85%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.85%) PHP
9 1 (0.85%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.85%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 17 (14.41%) CTC Cleared
1 17 (14.41%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.24%) GDPR
System Software
1 12 (10.17%) Time Sharing Option
2 1 (0.85%) RACF
Systems Management
1 1 (0.85%) CA Endevor
1 1 (0.85%) MAINVIEW
Vendors
1 80 (67.80%) Micro Focus
2 48 (40.68%) Oracle
3 17 (14.41%) Unisys
4 7 (5.93%) IBM
5 1 (0.85%) BMC
5 1 (0.85%) CA
5 1 (0.85%) Microsoft