Yes—but learning COBOL, Ada, or Perl is not a job guarantee. COBOL has the clearest evidence of current enterprise use: IBM says organizations continue to rely on it for critical processing and maintains current compiler documentation. That proves the language is still supported and used, not that there are abundant openings or easy entry-level jobs. For Ada and Perl, the career descriptions often associated with them should be treated as leads to verify against current local listings, not established hiring forecasts.
What “still used” does—and does not—tell you
A programming language can remain embedded in important systems without generating a large, accessible job market. Employers may need people to maintain existing software, but hiring can depend on a particular platform, industry knowledge, years of experience, or security and safety requirements. Before choosing a language, check whether employers near you—or employers offering remote roles you can take—are hiring for it and what else their listings require.
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The phrase “long-dead” is misleading for these examples: the evidence supports continued use or career relevance, but it does not support treating any of the three as a guaranteed route to a good job. The strength of that evidence differs substantially by language.
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IBM describes COBOL as a business-oriented language that enterprises continue to use for mission-critical mainframe processing. IBM’s COBOL resource page says that “The day-to-day logic used to process our most critical data is frequently done using COBOL” (IBM Developer).
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IBM also maintains Enterprise COBOL for z/OS documentation, including versioned compiler materials. Its English-language references for version 6.5 were updated as recently as October 5, 2026. Current documentation is evidence of maintained tooling; it is not a count of job openings.
In an overview published in 2025 and updated in February 2026, IBM reported that COBOL supports more than 40% of online banking systems, 80% of in-person credit-card transactions, and 95% of ATM transactions, and that systems using it generate more than US$3 billion in commerce each day (IBM Think). These are IBM-published figures, not independently audited statistics established here. They help explain why COBOL remains relevant to some organizations, but they should not be read as a direct measure of hiring demand.
What to look for in COBOL listings
- Whether the role involves z/OS and mainframe systems, and which tools or versions it names.
- Whether the employer expects experience with banking, insurance, government, or another business domain.
- Whether the opening is for maintenance, modernization, operations, or new development; these are different kinds of work.
- Whether the role is genuinely entry-level or requires prior production-system experience.
COBOL is the most defensible choice of the three if your local search turns up relevant openings and you are willing to learn the surrounding platform and business context. Learning the language alone may not meet an employer’s requirements.
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Ada: a possible niche, but verify the market
The article associated with this topic describes Ada as relevant to high-assurance embedded and real-time software, including safety-critical sectors (Yahoo Tech’s syndicated How-To Geek article). The evidence available here does not independently confirm that description with primary Ada documentation or current employment data. Treat it as a starting point for searching, not proof that jobs are numerous or accessible.
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If you are considering Ada, look for live listings that name the language and examine the full requirements. In a specialized field, knowledge of the application domain, development process, and target platform may matter as much as language familiarity. Do not infer a hiring outlook from the language’s association with safety-critical systems alone.
Perl: an existing footprint is not a hiring forecast
The same article describes Perl as a general-purpose scripting language used for text processing and in legacy web environments (Yahoo Tech’s syndicated How-To Geek article). Current primary-source documentation and job-posting evidence were not established here, so those descriptions do not show how many Perl roles are open today.
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For a practical assessment, search for roles that explicitly require Perl and check whether it appears as a core skill, a maintenance responsibility, or one item in a broader stack. A historic footprint can explain why an organization may still need maintenance work; it cannot tell you whether suitable jobs exist in your location.
How to decide whether one is worth learning
- Search current postings first. Use your location and acceptable remote-work range. Search each language name, then read complete listings rather than relying on a job-count headline.
- Record the surrounding requirements. Note platform or runtime, industry knowledge, experience level, and any other languages or tools. Separate requirements repeated across several suitable listings from one-off preferences.
- Check access to training. Find learning material for the specific platform or version employers name. For COBOL, IBM provides a developer resource page and versioned Enterprise COBOL documentation; a generic language tutorial may not cover a target employer’s environment.
- Assess transferability. Consider whether the platform, systems, or domain skills you would gain also fit other roles you might pursue. A narrow language skill is a riskier investment if few relevant openings appear.
- Recheck before committing. Job listings change. Make the decision from current opportunities in your market, not a general claim that a language is “in demand.”
Why salary and job-count claims need caution
The article linked above attributes salary estimates to Franklin University and PayScale and a company count to TheirStack, but the available details do not establish comparable role definitions, geography, observation periods, sample sizes, or methodology. Those figures were not independently verified here. They are not a sound basis for ranking COBOL, Ada, and Perl by current pay or job prospects.
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No comparable official statistic for current job volume across the three languages is established here. To evaluate a specific opportunity, prioritize live listings you could actually apply for and verify the employer, location, seniority, and required skills.
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