JCL Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Job Control Language (JCL)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring JCL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 377 341 338
Rank change year-on-year -36 -3 +125
Contract jobs citing JCL 24 9 58
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.13% 0.063% 0.30%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.52% 0.23% 1.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 6 34
10th Percentile £311 £388 £404
25th Percentile £322 £428 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £354 £466 £430
Median % change year-on-year -24.08% +8.43% +6.17%
75th Percentile £491 £508 £500
90th Percentile £502 £546 £588
UK median daily rate £463 £475 £430
% change year-on-year -2.63% +10.47% -9.47%

All Programming Languages
UK excluding London

JCL 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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 4,614 3,932 4,954
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 25.19% 27.32% 25.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,990 2,359 3,392
10th Percentile £316 £335 £325
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.84% -2.20% -2.91%
75th Percentile £572 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £670 £675
UK median daily rate £503 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.29% -4.55% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 306 183 328
10th Percentile £41.94 £21.40 £38.14
25th Percentile £52.50 £46.09 £48.40
Median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.17% -3.08% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £85.00 £83.06
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +4.00% - -0.13%

JCL
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing JCL relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

JCL job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

JCL
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing JCL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing JCL

JCL
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing JCL in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 2 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for JCL in the UK excluding London

JCL
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing JCL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing JCL

JCL
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing JCL within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 2 January 2026. 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
North of England -19 20 £350 -28.39% 1
North West - 11 £350 - 1
Yorkshire -42 9 £413 -15.60%
East of England -18 2 £475 -
East Midlands - 1 £497 -
Midlands - 1 £497 -
Wales - 1 £265 -
JCL
UK

JCL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 7 (29.17%) CICS
2 6 (25.00%) CMS
3 1 (4.17%) SAS
Business Applications
1 6 (25.00%) VisionPLUS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (16.67%) DB2
2 2 (8.33%) Adabas
2 2 (8.33%) IMS/DB
Development Applications
1 1 (4.17%) ChangeMan
General
1 12 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 8 (33.33%) Finance
3 4 (16.67%) Banking
3 4 (16.67%) Legal
4 2 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (8.33%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (4.17%) Financial Institution
5 1 (4.17%) Retail
5 1 (4.17%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 10 (41.67%) Developer
2 8 (33.33%) Administrator
3 2 (8.33%) Analyst
3 2 (8.33%) COBOL Developer
3 2 (8.33%) Mainframe Developer
3 2 (8.33%) Security Analyst
4 1 (4.17%) Adabas Natural Developer
4 1 (4.17%) Automation Engineer
4 1 (4.17%) Data Centre Operator
4 1 (4.17%) Mainframe Analyst
4 1 (4.17%) Mainframe Systems Engineer
4 1 (4.17%) Platform Engineer
4 1 (4.17%) Programmer
4 1 (4.17%) Systems Engineer
4 1 (4.17%) Systems Programmer
4 1 (4.17%) z/OS Systems Programmer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (54.17%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 21 (87.50%) Mainframe
2 6 (25.00%) VSAM
3 4 (16.67%) IBM Mainframe
4 1 (4.17%) Data Centre
4 1 (4.17%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (4.17%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 5 (20.83%) zOS
2 2 (8.33%) MVS
3 1 (4.17%) Linux
3 1 (4.17%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (33.33%) Change Management
1 8 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
1 8 (33.33%) Release Management
2 7 (29.17%) Storage Management
3 6 (25.00%) DevOps
3 6 (25.00%) SDLC
4 5 (20.83%) Risk Management
5 4 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
5 4 (16.67%) Cybersecurity
5 4 (16.67%) Root Cause Analysis
6 2 (8.33%) Batch Scheduling
6 2 (8.33%) Collaborative Working
6 2 (8.33%) Data Mapping
6 2 (8.33%) High Availability
6 2 (8.33%) ITIL
6 2 (8.33%) Migration
6 2 (8.33%) RBAC
6 2 (8.33%) Requirements Gathering
6 2 (8.33%) Runbook
6 2 (8.33%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 16 (66.67%) COBOL
2 14 (58.33%) REXX
3 12 (50.00%) CLIST
4 2 (8.33%) Natural
4 2 (8.33%) PL/1
5 1 (4.17%) Assembly Language
5 1 (4.17%) Korn
5 1 (4.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 1 (4.17%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (8.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (50.00%) Time Sharing Option
2 10 (41.67%) RACF
3 8 (33.33%) ACF2
4 1 (4.17%) Job Entry Subsystem
Systems Management
1 12 (50.00%) CA Endevor
2 7 (29.17%) Tivoli
2 7 (29.17%) Tivoli Storage Manager
3 2 (8.33%) OMEGAMON
3 2 (8.33%) zSecure
4 1 (4.17%) Control-M
Vendors
1 8 (33.33%) IBM
2 2 (8.33%) Microsoft
2 2 (8.33%) Syncsort
3 1 (4.17%) BMC
3 1 (4.17%) Micro Focus
3 1 (4.17%) Oracle
3 1 (4.17%) Splunk