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

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 779 919 1115
Rank change year-on-year +140 +196 -244
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 117 51 117
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.12% 0.049% 0.076%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.35% 0.11% 0.14%
Number of salaries quoted 99 22 55
10th Percentile £52,500 £49,875 £40,750
25th Percentile £54,655 £56,250 £51,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,805 £66,750 £67,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.57% -0.37% +21.82%
75th Percentile £84,964 £77,715 £77,500
90th Percentile - £116,070 £90,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,805 £67,000 £67,500
% change year-on-year +10.16% -0.74% +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 33,106 45,516 82,656
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 33.77% 43.49% 53.63%
Number of salaries quoted 24,929 28,962 44,133
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 £106,250 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,635 £55,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year -2.48% +2.80% +7.00%

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 27 April 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 27 April 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 +84 115 £73,805 +10.16% 9
England +172 105 £73,805 +10.57% 12
Work from Home +163 90 £73,805 +6.27% 6
North of England +101 67 £73,805 +6.27% 7
North West +27 27 £73,805 +6.27% 3
South East +52 24 £55,000 -
Yorkshire +110 22 £73,805 -26.74% 3
London +148 20 £55,000 -12.00% 1
North East - 18 £73,805 - 3
Scotland -55 12 £71,991 - 1
West Midlands +24 10 £73,805 +57.03% 1
Midlands +3 10 £73,805 +29.48% 1
East of England +11 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 (31.62%) Tuxedo
2 14 (11.97%) CICS
Applications
1 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (41.03%) AWS
2 2 (1.71%) CloudBees
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.85%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (16.24%) Relational Database
2 16 (13.68%) DB2
3 3 (2.56%) Easytrieve
4 2 (1.71%) OLTP
5 1 (0.85%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 11 (9.40%) ChangeMan
2 5 (4.27%) Eclipse
3 2 (1.71%) Git
3 2 (1.71%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.71%) JIRA
General
1 14 (11.97%) Finance
2 11 (9.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 11 (9.40%) Law
2 11 (9.40%) Marketing
3 7 (5.98%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.71%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (0.85%) Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (56.41%) Lead
1 66 (56.41%) Technical Leader
2 44 (37.61%) Senior
3 25 (21.37%) Developer
4 20 (17.09%) COBOL Developer
5 19 (16.24%) Mainframe Developer
6 12 (10.26%) Mainframe Software Engineer
6 12 (10.26%) Software Engineer
7 5 (4.27%) Applications Support
7 5 (4.27%) IBM Mainframe Developer
7 5 (4.27%) Senior Developer
7 5 (4.27%) Senior Software Developer
7 5 (4.27%) Software Developer
8 3 (2.56%) Analyst
8 3 (2.56%) Applications Support Analyst
8 3 (2.56%) DB2 DBA
8 3 (2.56%) DBA
8 3 (2.56%) Support Analyst
9 2 (1.71%) IT Support Analyst
9 2 (1.71%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (31.62%) RESTful
2 5 (4.27%) EDI
2 5 (4.27%) OSGi
2 5 (4.27%) Spring
3 3 (2.56%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (29.06%) Mainframe
2 14 (11.97%) VSAM
3 11 (9.40%) Reference Data
4 5 (4.27%) IBM Mainframe
5 3 (2.56%) Distributed Computing
6 2 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 15 (12.82%) Linux
2 5 (4.27%) Unix
3 4 (3.42%) zOS
4 2 (1.71%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (70.09%) Agile
2 68 (58.12%) Coaching
2 68 (58.12%) Mentoring
2 68 (58.12%) Product Roadmap
2 68 (58.12%) Roadmaps
3 66 (56.41%) Strategic Thinking
4 42 (35.90%) Front End Development
5 41 (35.04%) Software Engineering
6 39 (33.33%) Continuous Integration
7 31 (26.50%) Re-Platforming
8 29 (24.79%) Architectural Design
8 29 (24.79%) Feasibility Study
8 29 (24.79%) Open Source
9 19 (16.24%) ITIL
9 19 (16.24%) Service Delivery
10 13 (11.11%) CI/CD
10 13 (11.11%) Decision-Making
11 11 (9.40%) Machine Learning
11 11 (9.40%) Operational Stability
11 11 (9.40%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 74 (63.25%) Micro Focus COBOL
2 54 (46.15%) Java
3 32 (27.35%) C
4 31 (26.50%) Python
5 29 (24.79%) C++
6 15 (12.82%) JCL
7 8 (6.84%) SQL
8 6 (5.13%) REXX
9 5 (4.27%) C#
10 3 (2.56%) Shell Script
11 2 (1.71%) HLASM
12 1 (0.85%) Objective-C
12 1 (0.85%) PHP
Qualifications
1 19 (16.24%) CTC Cleared
1 19 (16.24%) Security Cleared
2 2 (1.71%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.27%) GDPR
2 2 (1.71%) QA
System Software
1 14 (11.97%) Time Sharing Option
2 3 (2.56%) RACF
Systems Management
1 3 (2.56%) MAINVIEW
2 1 (0.85%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 74 (63.25%) Micro Focus
2 48 (41.03%) Oracle
3 19 (16.24%) Unisys
4 9 (7.69%) IBM
5 3 (2.56%) BMC
6 1 (0.85%) CA
6 1 (0.85%) Microsoft