Hybrid/Remote COBOL Job Trends

COBOL
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for remote or hybrid work requiring COBOL skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 449 420 455
Rank change year-on-year -29 +35 +55
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 7 5 48
As % of all permanent jobs with remote/hybrid work options 0.030% 0.031% 0.20%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.11% 0.095% 0.51%
Number of salaries quoted 7 2 47
10th Percentile - £67,750 £52,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £70,000 £56,809
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £75,000 £65,465
Median % change year-on-year -40.00% +14.57% -10.32%
75th Percentile £47,500 £80,000 £84,964
90th Percentile - £82,250 -
UK median annual salary £60,000 £80,000 £65,465
% change year-on-year -25.00% +22.20% +3.91%

All Programming Languages
Work from Home

COBOL falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with remote or hybrid options requiring coding skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 6,095 5,281 9,355
As % of all permanent jobs with a WFH option 26.09% 32.22% 38.49%
Number of salaries quoted 4,576 3,640 6,859
10th Percentile £38,750 £37,500 £39,750
25th Percentile £47,500 £47,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £64,000 £62,879
Median % change year-on-year -2.34% +1.78% -3.26%
75th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £115,000 £115,000
UK median annual salary £65,000 £62,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%

COBOL
Job Vacancy Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing COBOL and offering remote or hybrid work options relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

COBOL job vacancy trend for remote/hybrid jobs

COBOL
Salary Trend for Remote/Hybrid Jobs

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing COBOL.

Salary distribution trend for jobs with remote/hybrid work options citing COBOL

COBOL
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Remote/Hybrid Jobs 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:

General
1 3 (42.86%) Public Sector
1 3 (42.86%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (57.14%) .NET Team Leader
1 4 (57.14%) 3rd Line Support
1 4 (57.14%) Application Support Team Leader
1 4 (57.14%) Applications Support
1 4 (57.14%) Lead
1 4 (57.14%) Support Team Leader
1 4 (57.14%) Team Leader
2 3 (42.86%) QA Tester
2 3 (42.86%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (57.14%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 3 (42.86%) Legacy Applications
1 3 (42.86%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 3 (42.86%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (42.86%) Batch Processing
1 3 (42.86%) Coaching
1 3 (42.86%) Line Management
1 3 (42.86%) Mentoring
1 3 (42.86%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 4 (57.14%) C#
1 4 (57.14%) Java
1 4 (57.14%) SQL
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (42.86%) QA