IBM Mainframe Job Trends

IBM Mainframe
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term IBM Mainframe in permanent job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited IBM Mainframe over the 6 months leading up to 5 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 647 672 706
Rank change year-on-year +25 +34 +303
Permanent jobs citing IBM Mainframe 3 35 19
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.005% 0.065% 0.036%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.015% 0.17% 0.096%
Number of salaries quoted 3 29 17
10th Percentile £50,800 - -
25th Percentile £52,000 - £26,045
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,000 £50,000 £34,854
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% +43.46% -46.38%
75th Percentile £59,500 - £65,250
90th Percentile £62,800 £54,660 £80,574
UK excluding London median annual salary £59,500 £85,253 £34,854
% change year-on-year -30.21% +144.60% -46.38%

All Generic Skills
UK

IBM 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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 20,536 20,060 19,712
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 34.70% 36.98% 37.17%
Number of salaries quoted 10,287 9,461 14,329
10th Percentile £27,750 £33,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -7.69%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £82,548
90th Percentile £100,000 £110,000 £106,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,000 £54,063 £54,500
% change year-on-year -13.06% -0.80% -0.91%

IBM Mainframe
Job Vacancy Trend

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

IBM Mainframe job vacancy trend in the UK

IBM Mainframe
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IBM Mainframe.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing IBM Mainframe

IBM Mainframe
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing IBM Mainframe over the 6 months to 5 January 2026.

Salary histogram for IBM Mainframe in the UK

IBM Mainframe
Top 5 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing IBM Mainframe within the UK over the 6 months to 5 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
England +48 2 £59,500 +19.00%
UK excluding London +46 2 £59,500 -30.21%
East Midlands - 1 £54,000 -
Midlands - 1 £54,000 -
South East - 1 £65,000 -

IBM Mainframe
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 1 (33.33%) Apache Spark
1 1 (33.33%) CICS
1 1 (33.33%) SAS
1 1 (33.33%) WebSphere
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (33.33%) Adabas
1 1 (33.33%) DB2
1 1 (33.33%) Hadoop
General
1 2 (66.67%) Banking
1 2 (66.67%) Finance
2 1 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (66.67%) COBOL Developer
1 2 (66.67%) Developer
1 2 (66.67%) IBM Mainframe Developer
1 2 (66.67%) Mainframe Developer
1 2 (66.67%) Senior
1 2 (66.67%) Senior COBOL Developer
1 2 (66.67%) Senior Developer
1 2 (66.67%) Senior Mainframe Developer
2 1 (33.33%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) JSON
1 1 (33.33%) WebSphere MQ
1 1 (33.33%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 3 (100.00%) Mainframe
2 1 (33.33%) Data Structures
2 1 (33.33%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 1 (33.33%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (33.33%) Computer Science
1 1 (33.33%) Data Analysis
1 1 (33.33%) Data Engineering
1 1 (33.33%) Data Modelling
1 1 (33.33%) Data Pipeline
1 1 (33.33%) ETL
1 1 (33.33%) Performance Tuning
1 1 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 2 (66.67%) COBOL
1 2 (66.67%) SQL
2 1 (33.33%) JCL
2 1 (33.33%) Natural
2 1 (33.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (33.33%) Degree
1 1 (33.33%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (33.33%) Data Quality
Vendors
1 3 (100.00%) IBM