COBOL Job Trends in the UK excluding London

COBOL
UK > UK excluding London

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

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 517 541 520
Rank change year-on-year +24 -21 +207
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 8 22 29
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.019% 0.060% 0.090%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.12% 0.20% 0.25%
Number of salaries quoted 6 8 26
10th Percentile £57,000 £57,382 £45,625
25th Percentile - £58,938 £49,800
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £65,465 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.35% +19.03% -8.33%
75th Percentile £72,000 £71,991 £71,063
90th Percentile £78,000 £78,527 £74,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £65,465 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.35% +19.03% +3.29%

All Programming Languages
UK excluding London

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

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 6,591 11,270 11,808
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 15.66% 30.85% 36.54%
Number of salaries quoted 4,948 6,103 9,183
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,404 £35,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
75th Percentile £70,000 £72,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £81,400 £83,750 £81,250
UK median annual salary £62,500 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -3.85%

COBOL
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

COBOL job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

COBOL
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing COBOL.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing COBOL

COBOL
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

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

Salary histogram for COBOL in the UK excluding London

COBOL
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 within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 6 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East - 3 £60,000 -
North of England +3 2 £78,000 +19.15% 1
Yorkshire -13 2 £78,000 +19.15% 1
Northern Ireland - 2 - -
Midlands +17 1 £54,000 -12.17%
East Midlands +1 1 £54,000 -
COBOL
UK

COBOL
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 3 (37.50%) CICS
2 1 (12.50%) WebSphere
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (37.50%) DB2
2 1 (12.50%) Adabas
General
1 8 (100.00%) Finance
2 4 (50.00%) Marketing
3 2 (25.00%) Legal
3 2 (25.00%) Retail
4 1 (12.50%) Banking
Job Titles
1 4 (50.00%) COBOL Developer
1 4 (50.00%) Developer
2 3 (37.50%) C Developer
2 3 (37.50%) C# Developer
2 3 (37.50%) Full-Stack C# Developer
2 3 (37.50%) Full-Stack Developer
3 2 (25.00%) Application Development Manager
3 2 (25.00%) Applications Development Manager
3 2 (25.00%) Applications Manager
3 2 (25.00%) Development Manager
3 2 (25.00%) Digital Product Manager
3 2 (25.00%) Product Manager
4 1 (12.50%) IBM Mainframe Developer
4 1 (12.50%) Mainframe Developer
4 1 (12.50%) Senior
4 1 (12.50%) Senior COBOL Developer
4 1 (12.50%) Senior Developer
4 1 (12.50%) Senior Mainframe Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (12.50%) JSON
1 1 (12.50%) WebSphere MQ
1 1 (12.50%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 5 (62.50%) Mainframe
2 2 (25.00%) Distributed Systems
2 2 (25.00%) Enterprise Software
2 2 (25.00%) Legacy Applications
2 2 (25.00%) VSAM
3 1 (12.50%) IBM Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 3 (37.50%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (50.00%) Agile
2 3 (37.50%) Full-Stack Development
3 2 (25.00%) Backlog Management
3 2 (25.00%) Backlog Prioritisation
3 2 (25.00%) Capacity Planning
3 2 (25.00%) Coaching
3 2 (25.00%) Containerisation
3 2 (25.00%) Customer Experience
3 2 (25.00%) Data-Driven Decision Making
3 2 (25.00%) Decision-Making
3 2 (25.00%) Digital Marketing
3 2 (25.00%) Human-Centred Design
3 2 (25.00%) Product Backlog
3 2 (25.00%) Product Management
3 2 (25.00%) Product Strategy
3 2 (25.00%) Project Delivery
3 2 (25.00%) Resource Management
3 2 (25.00%) Telematics
3 2 (25.00%) User Experience
3 2 (25.00%) UX Design
Programming Languages
1 3 (37.50%) C
1 3 (37.50%) C#
1 3 (37.50%) JCL
2 1 (12.50%) Natural
2 1 (12.50%) SQL
System Software
1 2 (25.00%) RACF
Systems Management
1 2 (25.00%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 1 (12.50%) IBM