JCL Job Trends

Job Control Language (JCL)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring JCL skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 637 710 698
Rank change year-on-year +73 -12 +353
Permanent jobs citing JCL 17 32 12
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.030% 0.052% 0.024%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.15% 0.15% 0.058%
Number of salaries quoted 14 9 11
10th Percentile £72,500 - £46,250
25th Percentile £75,938 £59,098 £57,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £87,500 £85,253 £71,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.64% +20.07% +19.28%
75th Percentile £88,750 £93,778 £82,548
90th Percentile - - £91,934
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £85,253 £71,000
% change year-on-year -12.03% +20.07% +19.28%

All Programming Languages
UK

JCL 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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 11,579 20,744 20,666
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 20.53% 33.39% 40.95%
Number of salaries quoted 8,450 12,486 17,013
10th Percentile £32,500 £37,500 £39,750
25th Percentile £45,000 £47,500 £48,103
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £65,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% - -
75th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £107,500 £108,750 £106,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000

JCL
Job Vacancy Trend

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

JCL job vacancy trend in the UK

JCL
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing JCL.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing JCL

JCL
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing JCL over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Salary histogram for JCL in the UK

JCL
Top 10 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing JCL within the UK over the 6 months to 13 December 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
England +97 14 £87,500 +23.94% 5
London +79 11 £87,500 +16.67% 1
UK excluding London +69 5 £75,000 -12.03% 6
Midlands +37 2 £64,500 -
Northern Ireland - 2 - -
Work from Home +72 1 - - 6
North of England +17 1 £75,000 -12.03% 3
East Midlands +14 1 £54,000 -
Yorkshire -7 1 £75,000 -12.03%
West Midlands - 1 £75,000 -

JCL
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 3 (17.65%) CICS
2 1 (5.88%) WebSphere
Cloud Services
1 9 (52.94%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 9 (52.94%) Fibre Channel
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (29.41%) DB2
2 2 (11.76%) IMS/DB
3 1 (5.88%) Adabas
Development Applications
1 9 (52.94%) Jenkins
General
1 14 (82.35%) Finance
2 10 (58.82%) Financial Institution
3 2 (11.76%) Banking
3 2 (11.76%) Legal
3 2 (11.76%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 12 (70.59%) Storage Engineer
2 9 (52.94%) IBM Storage Engineer
3 2 (11.76%) Developer
3 2 (11.76%) Digital Product Manager
3 2 (11.76%) IBM Mainframe Developer
3 2 (11.76%) Mainframe Developer
3 2 (11.76%) Product Manager
3 2 (11.76%) Senior
4 1 (5.88%) COBOL Developer
4 1 (5.88%) Consultant
4 1 (5.88%) Mainframe Consultant
4 1 (5.88%) Mainframe Programmer
4 1 (5.88%) Programmer
4 1 (5.88%) Senior COBOL Developer
4 1 (5.88%) Senior Consultant
4 1 (5.88%) Senior Developer
4 1 (5.88%) Senior Mainframe Developer
4 1 (5.88%) Senior Mainframe Programmer
4 1 (5.88%) Senior Programmer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (70.59%) YAML
2 1 (5.88%) JSON
2 1 (5.88%) WebSphere MQ
2 1 (5.88%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (70.59%) Data Centre
2 9 (52.94%) Enterprise Storage
3 5 (29.41%) Mainframe
4 2 (11.76%) VSAM
5 1 (5.88%) IBM Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 16 (94.12%) zOS
2 1 (5.88%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (70.59%) Storage Management
2 9 (52.94%) Cost Optimisation
3 6 (35.29%) Agile
4 3 (17.65%) Project Management
5 2 (11.76%) AI
5 2 (11.76%) Backlog Management
5 2 (11.76%) Backlog Prioritisation
5 2 (11.76%) Capacity Planning
5 2 (11.76%) Data-Driven Decision Making
5 2 (11.76%) Decision-Making
5 2 (11.76%) Digital Marketing
5 2 (11.76%) Disaster Recovery
5 2 (11.76%) Human-Centred Design
5 2 (11.76%) Machine Learning
5 2 (11.76%) Performance Tuning
5 2 (11.76%) Product Backlog
5 2 (11.76%) Product Management
5 2 (11.76%) Telematics
5 2 (11.76%) User Experience
5 2 (11.76%) UX Design
Programming Languages
1 13 (76.47%) REXX
2 12 (70.59%) Python
3 4 (23.53%) COBOL
4 1 (5.88%) Assembly Language
4 1 (5.88%) Natural
4 1 (5.88%) PL/1
4 1 (5.88%) SQL
System Software
1 13 (76.47%) Time Sharing Option
2 2 (11.76%) RACF
Systems Management
1 9 (52.94%) Ansible
2 2 (11.76%) CA Endevor
2 2 (11.76%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 15 (88.24%) IBM
2 12 (70.59%) Broadcom
2 12 (70.59%) Dell
3 1 (5.88%) Syncsort