COBOL coders urgently required for unemployment claims systems in the US

US state governers are looking for COBOL coders to run its dated unemployment claims systems.

COBOL programming language which runs on dated government systems require engineers to deal with the unemployment claims overload. (Pixabay (Representative image))

Demand for COBOL, the 60-year-old programming language, is coming back as state governors in the US are looking for volunteers to run unemployment systems. With people running out of jobs and having to claim unemployment benefits, state governments need these systems to function.

Governors from different US states like New Jersey and Connecticut are looking for volunteers with COBOL knowledge to run the unemployment systems, Input Mag reported. Since these systems run on COBOL which is outdated now, there aren't people who can use them. Also, new-age programmers aren't taught COBOL as it's not used anymore. COBOL was replaced by Python and C as these programming languages don't require much coding to get work done.

To help run these systems, IBM will release a free training course on COBOL next week. It will also launch an online forum where people with COBOL knowledge can get in touch with companies who need such help. The company is also planning to expand its COBOL training classes to online platforms like Coursera so more people have access to them.

The situation is really bad right now and the requirement for COBOL engineers has reached a desperate level. There's also no alternative right now as moving to a new software would require a lot of time which isn't available now. According to a New York Times report, the Covid-19 pandemic has left over 16 million people unemployed in the US which is more than 2007 recession produced in two years.