> Easy to Understand, Anywhere You Like
Cobol is trivial to learn, read and write. The difficulty comes from the lack of abstractions and sheer volume of legacy code. Lets be clear, there is virtually zero green field development using newer Cobol standards, and the vast majority of code out there are the massive Cobol 85 applications that have evolved over decades to encompass and encode processes for entire industries.
We've consistently seen reports of a shortage of Cobol developers the past few years. Cobol applications are cost centers and the companies that have them have been seeking to minimize their costs for a long, long time. Over the past 20 years there have been waves of offshoring that have gutted the ranks of the system experts. There are tens of thousands of laid of Cobol developers in the US alone. The jobs went offshore. The only shortage is in Cobol developers with domain expertise, precisely the ones that were fired many years ago, who will work for low wages on offer.