COBOL Developer Job Trends in the UK excluding London

COBOL Developer
UK > UK excluding London

The median COBOL Developer salary in the UK excluding London is £60,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 6 May 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 576 - 735
Rank change year-on-year - - 0
Permanent jobs requiring a COBOL Developer 6 0 20
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.009% - 0.029%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.010% - 0.031%
Number of salaries quoted 6 0 20
10th Percentile £55,750 - -
25th Percentile £58,125 - £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 - £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - +19.57%
75th Percentile £61,875 - £57,500
90th Percentile £63,750 - -
UK median annual salary £60,000 - £55,000
% change year-on-year - - +17.02%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 61,752 25,208 64,488
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.28% 88.95% 94.71%
Number of salaries quoted 39,756 14,676 47,087
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £26,750
25th Percentile £35,250 £36,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £68,283 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £76,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £59,000 £52,777
% change year-on-year -6.78% +11.79% -12.04%

COBOL Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'COBOL Developer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

COBOL Developer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

COBOL Developer
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for COBOL Developer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for COBOL Developer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

COBOL Developer
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing COBOL Developer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 6 May 2026.

Salary histogram for COBOL Developer in the UK excluding London

COBOL Developer
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing COBOL Developer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 6 May 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East - 5 £60,000 - 3
East Midlands - 1 £54,000 -
Midlands - 1 £54,000 -
COBOL Developer
UK

COBOL Developer Skill Set
Top 23 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 6 May 2026, COBOL Developer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring COBOL Developer in the job title.

1 6 (100.00%) COBOL
2 3 (50.00%) C
2 3 (50.00%) C#
2 3 (50.00%) Full-Stack Development
3 2 (33.33%) CICS
3 2 (33.33%) DB2
3 2 (33.33%) JCL
3 2 (33.33%) Migration
3 2 (33.33%) SQL
3 2 (33.33%) zOS
4 1 (16.67%) Adabas
4 1 (16.67%) Agile
4 1 (16.67%) CA Endevor
4 1 (16.67%) ChangeMan
4 1 (16.67%) Data Analysis
4 1 (16.67%) IBM
4 1 (16.67%) JSON
4 1 (16.67%) Mentoring
4 1 (16.67%) Natural
4 1 (16.67%) Release Management
4 1 (16.67%) WebSphere
4 1 (16.67%) WebSphere MQ
4 1 (16.67%) XML

COBOL Developer Skill Set
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 2 (33.33%) CICS
2 1 (16.67%) WebSphere
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (33.33%) DB2
2 1 (16.67%) Adabas
Development Applications
1 1 (16.67%) ChangeMan
General
1 4 (66.67%) Finance
2 1 (16.67%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (16.67%) JSON
1 1 (16.67%) WebSphere MQ
1 1 (16.67%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 1 (16.67%) IBM Mainframe
1 1 (16.67%) Legacy Code
1 1 (16.67%) Mainframe
1 1 (16.67%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 2 (33.33%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (50.00%) Full-Stack Development
2 2 (33.33%) Migration
3 1 (16.67%) Agile
3 1 (16.67%) Data Analysis
3 1 (16.67%) Mentoring
3 1 (16.67%) Release Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (100.00%) COBOL
2 3 (50.00%) C
2 3 (50.00%) C#
3 2 (33.33%) JCL
3 2 (33.33%) SQL
4 1 (16.67%) Natural
Systems Management
1 1 (16.67%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 1 (16.67%) IBM