Since I do have Cobol experience - it was on my very first job - I looked into this but they give no relevant link at all.
On Mon, Apr 6, 2020 at 12:51 PM Skip Cave <[email protected]> wrote: > Why Covid-19 has resulted in New Jersey desperately needing COBOL > programmers > April 5, 2020 - By Steve Mollman -Quartz Weekend editor > > Remaining COBOL coders were already hard to find 20 years ago during the > Y2K crisis. > > The corona virus crisis has sparked all manner of unexpected consequences, > including the Tokyo summer Olympics being postponed and auto insurers > reaping extra profits as people stay home. In New Jersey, it's resulted in > something that few people outside that state's tech department would have > foreseen: a dire need for COBOL coders. > > Standing for Common Business-Oriented Language, COBOL's day came and went > long ago. It initially made a splash by giving coders a programming > language that could work across the proprietary computers of multiple > manufacturers. That was in the early 1960s. After becoming a staple of > mainframes, it eventually came to represent dusty legacy code, including > during the Y2K crisis 20 years ago. > > In New Jersey, experts are now needed to fix COBOL-based unemployment > insurance systems-more than four decades old-that are overwhelmed due to > pandemic-related job losses. At a press conference yesterday, governor Phil > Murphy asked for the help of volunteer coders who still knew how to work in > COBOL. > > Of course, as cyber-security expert Joseph Steinberg noted on his blog, > such volunteers are likely well over 60 years old, making them especially > vulnerable to Covid-19. Whether they would risk venturing out (or work on a > volunteer basis, for that matter) to fix creaky systems that should have > been updated decades ago is an open question. > > Meanwhile, New Jersey residents are clamoring about delays on their > unemployment claims. The state recently experienced a 1,600% increase in > claims volume in a single week, said labor commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo > during yesterday's briefing (video below, at 46:35), noting that "over the > prior two weeks we saw more than 362,000 people apply for unemployment as a > result of this public health emergency." He added, "We've made no secrets > about the inflexibility of our legacy technology" > > Video: https://youtu.be/HSVgHlSTPYQ > > Skip Cave > Cave Consulting LLC > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Devon McCormick, CFA Quantitative Consultant ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
