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Why This 1995 Programming Language Is Suddenly Back
In 2025, while developers chase the latest JavaScript frameworks, a 60-year-old language is quietly staging a comeback: COBOL.
Job postings for COBOL programmers surged 300% since 2020 (Indeed)
Banks are offering $150k+ salaries for COBOL expertise
Governments are scrambling to fix aging systems
Why is a language older than the internet suddenly in demand? And should you learn it? Let’s dig in.
💡 Why COBOL Is Everywhere (And Won’t Die)
1. It Runs the Financial World
43% of banking systems still use COBOL (Reuters)
$3 trillion in daily transactions rely on COBOL (IBM)
95% of ATM swipes touch COBOL code
2. The Maintenance Crisis
Most COBOL devs are retiring (avg. age: 55+)
New Jersey paid $55M to fix unemployment systems in 2020
Australia’s banks are offering $180k salaries for COBOL skills
3. It’s Surprisingly Future-Proof
Cloud COBOL (yes, that exists) now runs on AWS/Azure
AI tools like ChatGPT can barely write COBOL correctly
Zero competition – new devs ignore it
💰 How to Cash In on the COBOL Comeback
1. Who’s Hiring?
| Employer | Salary Range | Job Example |
|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase | 120k−180k | Mainframe Modernization Engineer |
| U.S. Social Security Admin | 90k−140k | COBOL Systems Analyst |
| Commonwealth Bank (AU) | 130k−200k | Legacy Systems Specialist |
2. How to Learn COBOL in 2024
Free IBM Course: COBOL Programming Basics
Open Mainframe Project: COBOL Working Group
Practice Online: COBOL Playground
3. The Dark Side
Tedious debugging (no modern tooling)
Legacy spaghetti code (some systems are 50+ yrs old)
Boring work (mostly maintenance, not innovation)
🤔 Should You Actually Learn COBOL?
✔ Yes, If You:
Want a recession-proof career
Don’t mind working remotely for banks/governments
Like high pay with low competition
❌ No, If You:
Crave cutting-edge tech
Prefer startup culture
Hate working with ancient systems
FAQs
1. Is COBOL really worth learning in 2024?
Yes, but only for job security—not passion projects.
2. Can AI replace COBOL programmers?
No. AI struggles with COBOL’s rigid syntax and lack of training data.
3. How long does it take to learn?
~3 months to become employable (it’s simpler than modern languages).
4. Will COBOL die eventually?
Not soon. Even planned replacements take 10+ years.
COBOL won’t win any popularity contests—but in an era of layoffs, knowing it guarantees paychecks. Whether you learn it or not, its comeback proves one thing:
In tech, “old” doesn’t mean “useless.”
Liked your article point 3a check out tool XPEDITER for debugging COBOL on the mainframe I used this for many years.