COBOL Contract Job Trends in Manchester

COBOL
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring COBOL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
11 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 86 -
Rank change year-on-year +1 - -
Contract jobs citing COBOL 9 1 0
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 0.77% 0.096% -
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.35% 0.36% -
Number of daily rates quoted 5 1 0
10th Percentile £311 - -
25th Percentile £313 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £400 -
Median % change year-on-year -18.75% - -
75th Percentile £350 - -
90th Percentile £365 - -
North West median daily rate £325 £400 -
% change year-on-year -18.75% - -

All Programming Languages
Manchester

COBOL falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills in Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 383 276 482
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 32.90% 26.39% 31.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 201 391
10th Percentile £325 £363 £325
25th Percentile £381 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £463
Median % change year-on-year - -2.70% -11.90%
75th Percentile £529 £525 £550
90th Percentile £614 £588 £650
North West median daily rate £447 £450 £475
% change year-on-year -0.67% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 2 8
10th Percentile - - £60.50
25th Percentile £52.50 - £64.06
Median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -5.45% +44.74%
75th Percentile £63.50 - £77.81
90th Percentile £70.00 - £79.88
North West median hourly rate £61.00 £65.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year -6.15% +40.75% +15.45%

COBOL
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing COBOL relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

COBOL job vacancy trend in Manchester

COBOL
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing COBOL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing COBOL

COBOL
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing COBOL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing COBOL

COBOL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

General
1 7 (77.78%) Social Skills
2 2 (22.22%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (22.22%) Banking
2 2 (22.22%) Finance
Job Titles
1 8 (88.89%) Administrator
2 1 (11.11%) COBOL Developer
2 1 (11.11%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (88.89%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 8 (88.89%) Mainframe
2 1 (11.11%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 1 (11.11%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (88.89%) Change Management
2 7 (77.78%) Release Management
2 7 (77.78%) Storage Management
3 6 (66.67%) Problem-Solving
4 1 (11.11%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 8 (88.89%) CLIST
1 8 (88.89%) JCL
1 8 (88.89%) REXX
Qualifications
1 1 (11.11%) BPSS Clearance
System Software
1 8 (88.89%) ACF2
1 8 (88.89%) RACF
1 8 (88.89%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 8 (88.89%) CA Endevor
2 7 (77.78%) Tivoli
2 7 (77.78%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 1 (11.11%) Microsoft
COBOL jobs