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

6 months to
28 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 798 898 1150
Rank change year-on-year +100 +252 -264
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 116 54 87
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.11% 0.055% 0.052%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.35% 0.13% 0.096%
Number of salaries quoted 99 22 47
10th Percentile £52,500 £49,875 £41,000
25th Percentile £56,809 £56,250 £51,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,805 £62,750 £67,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.62% -6.34% +41.05%
75th Percentile £84,964 £77,661 £73,875
90th Percentile - £77,715 £88,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,805 £66,500 £67,250
% change year-on-year +10.98% -1.12% +41.58%

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 33,562 41,867 90,496
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 32.71% 43.01% 54.20%
Number of salaries quoted 25,071 26,942 43,619
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 £53,772 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -2.23% +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 28 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 28 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 +49 114 £73,805 +10.98% 3
England +129 104 £73,805 +17.62% 6
Work from Home +139 91 £73,805 +10.16% 2
North of England +104 69 £73,805 +6.27% 1
North West +22 27 £73,805 +6.27%
Yorkshire +101 24 £73,805 -11.74% 1
South East +16 19 £55,000 +22.22%
North East - 18 £73,805 -
London +154 16 £55,000 -12.00% 4
West Midlands +9 12 £73,805 +57.03% 1
Midlands -10 12 £73,805 +10.16% 1
Scotland -48 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 (31.90%) Tuxedo
2 12 (10.34%) CICS
Applications
1 1 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (41.38%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.86%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (12.93%) Relational Database
2 14 (12.07%) DB2
3 1 (0.86%) Easytrieve
3 1 (0.86%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 11 (9.48%) ChangeMan
2 5 (4.31%) Eclipse
General
1 15 (12.93%) Finance
2 11 (9.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 11 (9.48%) Law
2 11 (9.48%) Marketing
3 5 (4.31%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.72%) Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (56.90%) Lead
1 66 (56.90%) Technical Leader
2 50 (43.10%) Senior
3 22 (18.97%) Developer
4 17 (14.66%) COBOL Developer
5 15 (12.93%) Mainframe Developer
6 12 (10.34%) Mainframe Software Engineer
6 12 (10.34%) Software Engineer
7 8 (6.90%) Architect
7 8 (6.90%) Senior Architect
7 8 (6.90%) Senior Solutions Architect
7 8 (6.90%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.31%) Applications Support
8 5 (4.31%) IBM Mainframe Developer
8 5 (4.31%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.31%) Senior Software Developer
8 5 (4.31%) Software Developer
9 3 (2.59%) Analyst
9 3 (2.59%) Applications Support Analyst
9 3 (2.59%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (31.90%) RESTful
2 5 (4.31%) EDI
2 5 (4.31%) OSGi
2 5 (4.31%) Spring
3 1 (0.86%) .NET
3 1 (0.86%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 28 (24.14%) Mainframe
2 12 (10.34%) VSAM
3 11 (9.48%) Reference Data
4 5 (4.31%) IBM Mainframe
5 2 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.86%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 19 (16.38%) Linux
2 8 (6.90%) VME
3 5 (4.31%) Unix
4 2 (1.72%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (75.00%) Agile
2 74 (63.79%) Coaching
2 74 (63.79%) Mentoring
2 74 (63.79%) Product Roadmap
2 74 (63.79%) Roadmaps
3 66 (56.90%) Strategic Thinking
4 42 (36.21%) Front End Development
5 41 (35.34%) Software Engineering
6 38 (32.76%) Continuous Integration
7 37 (31.90%) Re-Platforming
8 29 (25.00%) Architectural Design
8 29 (25.00%) Feasibility Study
8 29 (25.00%) Open Source
9 19 (16.38%) Decision-Making
10 15 (12.93%) ITIL
10 15 (12.93%) Service Delivery
11 11 (9.48%) Artificial Intelligence
11 11 (9.48%) Machine Learning
11 11 (9.48%) Operational Stability
11 11 (9.48%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 80 (68.97%) Micro Focus COBOL
2 54 (46.55%) Java
3 32 (27.59%) C
4 29 (25.00%) C++
4 29 (25.00%) Python
5 13 (11.21%) JCL
6 7 (6.03%) SQL
7 5 (4.31%) C#
8 2 (1.72%) REXX
9 1 (0.86%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.86%) PHP
9 1 (0.86%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.86%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 15 (12.93%) CTC Cleared
1 15 (12.93%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.31%) GDPR
System Software
1 12 (10.34%) Time Sharing Option
2 1 (0.86%) RACF
Systems Management
1 1 (0.86%) CA Endevor
1 1 (0.86%) MAINVIEW
Vendors
1 80 (68.97%) Micro Focus
2 48 (41.38%) Oracle
3 15 (12.93%) Unisys
4 7 (6.03%) IBM
5 1 (0.86%) BMC
5 1 (0.86%) CA
5 1 (0.86%) Microsoft