COBOL Contract Job Trends in the North of England

COBOL
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring COBOL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 189 154 179
Rank change year-on-year -35 +25 +51
Contract jobs citing COBOL 23 6 7
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.48% 0.17% 0.15%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.66% 0.67% 0.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 2 1
10th Percentile £291 £389 -
25th Percentile £313 £391 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £400 £500
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% -20.00% +12.68%
75th Percentile £419 £409 -
90th Percentile £451 £411 -
England median daily rate £370 £500 £469
% change year-on-year -26.00% +6.67% -2.34%

All Programming Languages
North of England

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 the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 1,384 893 1,164
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 28.96% 25.13% 25.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 959 580 858
10th Percentile £325 £350 £325
25th Percentile £386 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £479
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% -0.73% -8.86%
75th Percentile £538 £556 £575
90th Percentile £625 £650 £650
England median daily rate £513 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -5.09% -1.82% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 24 55
10th Percentile £41.22 £33.13 £37.88
25th Percentile £52.50 £45.01 -
Median hourly rate £57.50 £57.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +0.88% +23.43% +3.36%
75th Percentile £70.00 £86.00 £50.13
90th Percentile £74.26 £98.99 £67.75
England median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +3.17% +0.80% -0.79%

COBOL
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

COBOL job vacancy trend in the North of England

COBOL
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing COBOL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing COBOL

COBOL
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing COBOL in the North of England over the 6 months to 25 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for COBOL in the North of England

COBOL
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing COBOL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing COBOL

COBOL
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing COBOL within the North of England region over the 6 months to 25 December 2025. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Yorkshire -31 13 £360 - 1
North West -22 10 £325 -18.75% 1
COBOL
England

COBOL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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:

Application Platforms
1 12 (52.17%) CICS
2 11 (47.83%) CMS
Business Applications
1 11 (47.83%) VisionPLUS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (8.70%) Adabas
1 2 (8.70%) DB2
Development Applications
1 6 (26.09%) ChangeMan
General
1 16 (69.57%) Social Skills
2 10 (43.48%) Banking
3 7 (30.43%) Finance
4 4 (17.39%) Legal
5 2 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (4.35%) Financial Institution
6 1 (4.35%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 14 (60.87%) Developer
2 8 (34.78%) Administrator
3 4 (17.39%) COBOL Developer
4 1 (4.35%) Adabas Natural Developer
4 1 (4.35%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (39.13%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 20 (86.96%) Mainframe
2 6 (26.09%) VSAM
3 2 (8.70%) IBM Mainframe
4 1 (4.35%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (4.35%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.35%) VME
1 1 (4.35%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (47.83%) DevOps
2 8 (34.78%) Change Management
3 7 (30.43%) Release Management
3 7 (30.43%) Storage Management
4 6 (26.09%) Agile
4 6 (26.09%) Batch Scheduling
4 6 (26.09%) Problem-Solving
4 6 (26.09%) SDLC
5 4 (17.39%) Cybersecurity
5 4 (17.39%) Risk Management
6 3 (13.04%) Continuous Improvement
7 2 (8.70%) High Availability
7 2 (8.70%) Requirements Gathering
7 2 (8.70%) Root Cause Analysis
7 2 (8.70%) Stakeholder Management
8 1 (4.35%) Data Protection
8 1 (4.35%) Migration
8 1 (4.35%) Platform Engineering
8 1 (4.35%) Problem Management
8 1 (4.35%) Software Delivery
Programming Languages
1 17 (73.91%) JCL
2 10 (43.48%) REXX
3 9 (39.13%) CLIST
4 2 (8.70%) Natural
Qualifications
1 1 (4.35%) BPSS Clearance
System Software
1 9 (39.13%) Time Sharing Option
2 8 (34.78%) ACF2
2 8 (34.78%) RACF
Systems Management
1 14 (60.87%) CA Endevor
2 7 (30.43%) Tivoli
2 7 (30.43%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 1 (4.35%) OMEGAMON
Vendors
1 4 (17.39%) Microsoft
2 3 (13.04%) IBM