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 20 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
20 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 764 924 1146
Rank change year-on-year +160 +222 -246
Permanent jobs citing COBOL 120 51 96
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.12% 0.051% 0.059%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.36% 0.12% 0.11%
Number of salaries quoted 103 21 50
10th Percentile £52,500 £49,750 £42,125
25th Percentile £56,809 £56,250 £51,063
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,805 £63,000 £67,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.15% -5.97% +41.05%
75th Percentile £84,964 £77,715 £73,938
90th Percentile - - £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £73,805 £66,500 £67,000
% change year-on-year +10.98% -0.75% +41.05%

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 33,218 43,078 87,895
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 33.25% 43.31% 53.99%
Number of salaries quoted 24,863 27,599 43,697
10th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £37,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £49,375 £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 20 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 20 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 +67 118 £73,805 +10.98% 4
England +148 108 £73,805 +17.15% 6
Work from Home +162 95 £73,805 +6.27%
North of England +91 69 £73,805 +6.27% 1
North West +15 27 £73,805 +6.27%
Yorkshire +103 24 £73,805 -26.74% 1
South East +31 23 £55,000 +22.22%
London +124 20 £55,000 -12.00% 2
North East - 18 £73,805 - 1
West Midlands +12 12 £73,805 +57.03% 2
Midlands -11 12 £73,805 +29.48% 2
Scotland -56 12 £71,991 - 1
East of England +4 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 (30.83%) Tuxedo
2 12 (10.00%) CICS
Applications
1 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 48 (40.00%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.83%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (15.83%) Relational Database
2 14 (11.67%) DB2
3 1 (0.83%) Easytrieve
3 1 (0.83%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 11 (9.17%) ChangeMan
2 5 (4.17%) Eclipse
General
1 15 (12.50%) Finance
2 11 (9.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 11 (9.17%) Law
2 11 (9.17%) Marketing
3 5 (4.17%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.67%) Banking
Job Titles
1 66 (55.00%) Lead
1 66 (55.00%) Technical Leader
2 50 (41.67%) Senior
3 26 (21.67%) Developer
4 21 (17.50%) COBOL Developer
5 19 (15.83%) Mainframe Developer
6 12 (10.00%) Mainframe Software Engineer
6 12 (10.00%) Software Engineer
7 8 (6.67%) Architect
7 8 (6.67%) Senior Architect
7 8 (6.67%) Senior Solutions Architect
7 8 (6.67%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.17%) Applications Support
8 5 (4.17%) IBM Mainframe Developer
8 5 (4.17%) Senior Developer
8 5 (4.17%) Senior Software Developer
8 5 (4.17%) Software Developer
9 3 (2.50%) Analyst
9 3 (2.50%) Applications Support Analyst
9 3 (2.50%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (30.83%) RESTful
2 5 (4.17%) EDI
2 5 (4.17%) OSGi
2 5 (4.17%) Spring
3 1 (0.83%) .NET
3 1 (0.83%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 32 (26.67%) Mainframe
2 12 (10.00%) VSAM
3 11 (9.17%) Reference Data
4 5 (4.17%) IBM Mainframe
5 2 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.83%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 19 (15.83%) Linux
2 8 (6.67%) VME
3 5 (4.17%) Unix
4 2 (1.67%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (72.50%) Agile
2 74 (61.67%) Coaching
2 74 (61.67%) Mentoring
2 74 (61.67%) Product Roadmap
2 74 (61.67%) Roadmaps
3 66 (55.00%) Strategic Thinking
4 42 (35.00%) Front End Development
5 41 (34.17%) Software Engineering
6 38 (31.67%) Continuous Integration
7 37 (30.83%) Re-Platforming
8 29 (24.17%) Architectural Design
8 29 (24.17%) Feasibility Study
8 29 (24.17%) Open Source
9 19 (15.83%) Decision-Making
9 19 (15.83%) ITIL
9 19 (15.83%) Service Delivery
10 11 (9.17%) Artificial Intelligence
10 11 (9.17%) Machine Learning
10 11 (9.17%) Operational Stability
10 11 (9.17%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 80 (66.67%) Micro Focus COBOL
2 54 (45.00%) Java
3 32 (26.67%) C
4 29 (24.17%) C++
4 29 (24.17%) Python
5 13 (10.83%) JCL
6 7 (5.83%) SQL
7 5 (4.17%) C#
8 2 (1.67%) 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 (15.83%) CTC Cleared
1 19 (15.83%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.17%) GDPR
System Software
1 12 (10.00%) Time Sharing Option
2 1 (0.83%) RACF
Systems Management
1 1 (0.83%) CA Endevor
1 1 (0.83%) MAINVIEW
Vendors
1 80 (66.67%) Micro Focus
2 48 (40.00%) Oracle
3 19 (15.83%) Unisys
4 7 (5.83%) IBM
5 1 (0.83%) BMC
5 1 (0.83%) CA
5 1 (0.83%) Microsoft