Demand for COBOL programmers nowadays

COBOL or Common Business-Oriented Language, as its name indicates, is a high-level programming language for business applications. It was created in 1959 by CODASYL, a consortium of computer industries whose main goal was to regulate the development of a programming language suitable for use on different computers. The consortium based its work on Rear Admiral Grace Hopper's work on the FLOW-MATIC programming language in the 1940s.

It was the first popular language designed for business computer programs that could also be used on any computer. Before it, all operating systems had their own associated programming languages, which was a problem for companies using multiple computer brands. Besides, like FLOW-MATIC and unlike many high-level programming languages, COBOL uses English words and phrases to make it easier for any business user to understand.

Thanks to its ease of use and portability, COBOL quickly became one of the most widely used programming languages in the world, and it is still used in the systems of important organizations worldwide.

COBOL nowadays

Although this language was created 60 years ago, today millions of lines of COBOL code are still maintained and most of the commercial transactions that take place in the world involve its use. It is everywhere and we interact with it daily without realizing it, whether we are using an ATM or even buying a product online.

This language is still used in government agencies of different countries, such as the Social Security Administration and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as in many of the oldest banks, whose core banking applications were written decades ago.

However, currently few people are trained in COBOL. Senior programmers are retiring every day and younger ones are no longer interested in learning this language, so there is no one to replace them, generating a growing skills gap that has become a current crisis.

Talent shortage crisis

Although there has been talk of a lack of specialized COBOL programmers since the early 2000s, the skills gap has become even more evident this year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the US, some states have found themselves in crisis due to the lack of COBOL experts after a collapse in the computer systems in charge of processing unemployment claims. Due to the large number of claims that have been processed over the past few months, the software has begun to fail and there are not enough trained people to maintain such an old system.

However, this is not the first time something like this has happened. At the end of 1998, the Y2K bug appeared, a bug in the programming of date storage in old computer systems. Before the year 2000, the systems were programmed according to the date format of the 20th century and, therefore, when the 00s began, the system would go back to the year 1900. If this problem was not solved quickly, it would cause a major crisis worldwide. To solve this bug, it was necessary to hire COBOL programmers, who, already by that date, were scarce.

But why are programmers not learning COBOL?

Although there is great demand and an opportunity for job stability for those who can handle the language, young programmers do not want to learn it. One of the reasons students point out is that this language is focused on very specific tasks closely related to the financial sector and not so much to the technology sector. Many programmers even consider it an outdated language with obsolete and unattractive programming paradigms.

Another reason why programmers are not learning the language could be the low number of institutions that currently teach it, since most universities have not included it in their computer science curricula since the late 80s.

However, it is not impossible to learn COBOL. Nowadays there is a large catalog of online courses through which it is possible to get certified in almost any language without leaving home. That is why this year, given the crisis due to the lack of programmers, IBM has begun to offer free training to those who are interested in learning the language.

Conclusion

More than 5 decades after the birth of COBOL, the lines written in this language represent the majority of the code that is currently maintained in the world and IBM is in charge of constantly updating it. Therefore, despite not being one of the most popular languages among the youngest programmers, it remains in good shape well into the 21st century and will probably remain current for a long time to come; there is only a lack of people interested in it.