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I've applied for these jobs before, most of them are in the banking or transaction-processing-in-general (I applied at a place that processed gift cards) sector, they are usually complete scam jobs.The reason why they can't fill them at all is not that COBOL is somehow hard for your average software developer, it is that these jobs pay far below the market rate. Another issue with these jobs that I encountered was they are constantly looking for 6 month-contract programmers who have 10+ years experience. Essentially they are looking for retired COBOL people they can hire on to add a feature, or fix a thing, or help with the conversion away from COBOL, that they can then toss aside.
Oh that is the other thing, there are firms that specialise in converting businesses away from COBOL, that kind of consulting ends up actually being pretty lucrative. Most of these places are just small consulting shops of like 1-6 people. They are rarely hiring, they are mostly just groups of retired COBOL guys who hire their buddies. Often don't hire anyone without 10+ years experience with COBOL.
tldr; Don't fucking waste your time learning COBOL you brainlet.
