I think my phrasing was a bit poor. To my knowledge, there aren’t many COBOL jobs out there. I don’t believe there’s much of anyone using it for active development anymore. But there’s plenty of places running on legacy back ends that have nobody to turn to when it breaks. The folks who wrote it retired years ago, and there’s fewer and fewer people left with the skills to maintain it (some of whom may or may not have been in the latest round of layoffs for Company X). The value, IMO, is being The Guy when something goes pear-shaped, and someone says, “Hey, I know a guy…” Then you get to go in as a consultant/contractor and look at un-commented spaghetti code last modified in 1973 and go to town. Do a good job and they’ll call you first next time. And if it breaks enough, then they might offer a position.
Meanwhile, the one who wrote it is off somewhere sipping Metamucil, possibly musing about how back in '96 they submitted a report that said the company really should migrate off of the platform, but nooooooo that was too expensive/complex/inconvenient.