COBOL
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for COBOL skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that have cited COBOL over the 6 months to 18 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
18 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 769 926 1142
Rank change year-on-year +157 +216 -260
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 121 51 102
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.12% 0.051% 0.063%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.36% 0.12% 0.12%
Number of salaries quoted 104 21 53
10th Percentile £52,500 £49,750 £42,750
25th Percentile £56,809 £56,250 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,805 £63,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.15% -6.67% +42.11%
75th Percentile £84,964 £77,715 £77,500
90th Percentile - - £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,805 £66,500 £68,750
% change year-on-year +10.98% -3.27% +44.74%

All Programming Languages
UK

COBOL is in the Programming Languages category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for coding skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 33,216 42,952 86,858
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 33.25% 43.31% 54.04%
Number of salaries quoted 24,896 27,477 43,381
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £37,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £49,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +4.00% +13.64%
75th Percentile £77,500 £86,250 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £107,500 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -1.82% +4.76% +5.00%

COBOL
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing COBOL as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for COBOL in the UK

COBOL
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing COBOL.

Salary trend for COBOL in the UK

COBOL
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing COBOL over the 6 months to 18 May 2024.

Salary histogram for COBOL in the UK

COBOL
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing COBOL within the UK over the 6 months to 18 May 2024. 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
UK excluding London +47 119 £73,805 +10.98% 4
England +153 109 £73,805 +17.15% 4
Work from Home +152 96 £73,805 +6.27%
North of England +108 70 £73,805 +6.27% 1
North West +22 28 £73,805 +6.27%
Yorkshire +104 24 £73,805 -26.74% 1
South East +22 23 £55,000 +22.22%
London +125 20 £55,000 -12.00%
North East - 18 £73,805 - 1
West Midlands +11 12 £73,805 +57.03% 2
Midlands -13 12 £73,805 +29.48% 2
Scotland -54 12 £71,991 - 1
East of England +2 2 £42,000 -28.81%

COBOL
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 37 (30.58%) Tuxedo
2 13 (10.74%) CICS
Applications
1 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (39.67%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.83%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (15.70%) Relational Database
2 15 (12.40%) DB2
3 2 (1.65%) Easytrieve
4 1 (0.83%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 11 (9.09%) ChangeMan
2 5 (4.13%) Eclipse
General
1 15 (12.40%) Finance
2 11 (9.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 11 (9.09%) Law
2 11 (9.09%) Marketing
3 5 (4.13%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.65%) Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (54.55%) Lead
1 66 (54.55%) Technical Leader
2 50 (41.32%) Senior
3 26 (21.49%) Developer
4 21 (17.36%) COBOL Developer
5 19 (15.70%) Mainframe Developer
6 12 (9.92%) Mainframe Software Engineer
6 12 (9.92%) Software Engineer
7 8 (6.61%) Architect
7 8 (6.61%) Senior Architect
7 8 (6.61%) Senior Solutions Architect
7 8 (6.61%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.13%) Applications Support
8 5 (4.13%) IBM Mainframe Developer
8 5 (4.13%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.13%) Senior Software Developer
8 5 (4.13%) Software Developer
9 3 (2.48%) Analyst
9 3 (2.48%) Applications Support Analyst
9 3 (2.48%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (30.58%) RESTful
2 5 (4.13%) EDI
2 5 (4.13%) OSGi
2 5 (4.13%) Spring
3 2 (1.65%) XML
4 1 (0.83%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 32 (26.45%) Mainframe
2 13 (10.74%) VSAM
3 11 (9.09%) Reference Data
4 5 (4.13%) IBM Mainframe
5 2 (1.65%) Distributed Computing
5 2 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 19 (15.70%) Linux
2 8 (6.61%) VME
3 5 (4.13%) Unix
4 3 (2.48%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (71.90%) Agile
2 74 (61.16%) Coaching
2 74 (61.16%) Mentoring
2 74 (61.16%) Product Roadmap
2 74 (61.16%) Roadmaps
3 66 (54.55%) Strategic Thinking
4 42 (34.71%) Front End Development
5 41 (33.88%) Software Engineering
6 38 (31.40%) Continuous Integration
7 37 (30.58%) Re-Platforming
8 29 (23.97%) Architectural Design
8 29 (23.97%) Feasibility Study
8 29 (23.97%) Open Source
9 19 (15.70%) Decision-Making
9 19 (15.70%) ITIL
9 19 (15.70%) Service Delivery
10 11 (9.09%) Artificial Intelligence
10 11 (9.09%) CI/CD
10 11 (9.09%) Machine Learning
10 11 (9.09%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 80 (66.12%) Micro Focus COBOL
2 54 (44.63%) Java
3 32 (26.45%) C
4 29 (23.97%) C++
4 29 (23.97%) Python
5 14 (11.57%) JCL
6 8 (6.61%) SQL
7 5 (4.13%) C#
8 3 (2.48%) REXX
9 1 (0.83%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.83%) PHP
9 1 (0.83%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.83%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 19 (15.70%) CTC Cleared
1 19 (15.70%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.13%) GDPR
System Software
1 13 (10.74%) Time Sharing Option
2 2 (1.65%) RACF
Systems Management
1 2 (1.65%) MAINVIEW
2 1 (0.83%) CA Endevor
Vendors
1 80 (66.12%) Micro Focus
2 48 (39.67%) Oracle
3 19 (15.70%) Unisys
4 8 (6.61%) IBM
5 2 (1.65%) BMC
6 1 (0.83%) CA
6 1 (0.83%) Microsoft