Mainframe Job Trends in the North of England

Mainframes
England > North of England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Mainframe in permanent job vacancies in the North of England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Mainframe over the 6 months leading up to 22 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 286 286 239
Rank change year-on-year 0 -47 +155
Permanent jobs citing Mainframe 11 20 59
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 0.12% 0.16% 0.73%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.33% 0.58% 1.87%
Number of salaries quoted 4 3 33
10th Percentile £70,575 £46,000 £63,353
25th Percentile £74,063 £62,500 £63,631
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £78,250 £90,000 £79,632
Median % change year-on-year -13.06% +13.02% +33.78%
75th Percentile £81,188 £94,237 £84,056
90th Percentile £83,325 £96,779 -
England median annual salary £78,250 £50,000 £65,351
% change year-on-year +56.50% -23.49% -9.24%

All Generic Skills
North of England

Mainframe falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in the North of England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 3,380 3,442 3,163
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 37.15% 27.05% 39.02%
Number of salaries quoted 1,567 1,454 2,330
10th Percentile £26,250 £31,250 £32,000
25th Percentile £32,000 £41,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,000 £52,500 £57,291
Median % change year-on-year -12.38% -8.36% +5.12%
75th Percentile £64,500 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £85,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% -4.00% -

Mainframe
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

Mainframe job vacancy trend in the North of England

Mainframe
Salary Trend in the North of England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Mainframe.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Mainframe

Mainframe
Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Mainframe within the North of England region over the 6 months to 22 October 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North West -6 8 £76,500 -15.00% 1
Yorkshire +12 3 £80,000 - 2
Mainframe
England

Mainframe
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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (9.09%) AWS
1 1 (9.09%) Azure
1 1 (9.09%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (18.18%) DB2
General
1 9 (81.82%) Finance
2 6 (54.55%) Banking
3 5 (45.45%) Investment Banking
4 3 (27.27%) Marketing
4 3 (27.27%) Retail
5 1 (9.09%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 7 (63.64%) Design Engineer
2 3 (27.27%) Application Development Manager
2 3 (27.27%) Applications Development Manager
2 3 (27.27%) Applications Manager
2 3 (27.27%) Development Manager
3 2 (18.18%) Data Integration Engineer
3 2 (18.18%) Integration Engineer
3 2 (18.18%) Middleware Engineer
4 1 (9.09%) Architect
4 1 (9.09%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (18.18%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 4 (36.36%) Distributed Systems
2 3 (27.27%) Enterprise Software
2 3 (27.27%) Legacy Applications
3 2 (18.18%) Management Information System
4 1 (9.09%) IBM Mainframe
4 1 (9.09%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (9.09%) Public Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (27.27%) Agile
1 3 (27.27%) Coaching
1 3 (27.27%) Customer Experience
1 3 (27.27%) ITIL
1 3 (27.27%) ITSM
1 3 (27.27%) Logistics
1 3 (27.27%) PRINCE2
1 3 (27.27%) Project Delivery
1 3 (27.27%) Project Management
1 3 (27.27%) Resource Management
1 3 (27.27%) Service Delivery
1 3 (27.27%) Service Management
2 2 (18.18%) Data Integration
2 2 (18.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 1 (9.09%) Decision-Making
3 1 (9.09%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (45.45%) COBOL
Vendors
1 1 (9.09%) IBM