I keep hearing the same pitch from IBM i ISVs:
“RPG developers are retiring in droves. Nobody’s learning RPG anymore. Good luck finding talent.”
It’s compelling. It’s scary. It sells modernization projects.
It’s also not entirely accurate.
What Vendors Don’t Tell You
The narrative has a hidden qualifier: in North America.
That’s true. North American RPG expertise is aging. Retirement rates are real. Pipeline for new North American RPG developers is thin.
But that’s not the whole picture.
The Actual Data
As of April 2026:
Remote RPG availability in North America:
- Indeed: 14,000+ open remote IBM i / RPG developer positions
- Dice, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor: thousands more
- New contracts appearing weekly
Who’s posting these jobs? U.S. and Canadian organizations actively hiring remote RPG talent. They exist. They’re available. They’re just not in the office next to you.
The gap isn’t a talent shortage. It’s a presence gap. Experienced RPG developers—who spent 20 years in offices and worked on systems that required local infrastructure—are now open to remote work but not actively job hunting offline.
The second piece: global talent pipelines.
Outside North America, IBM i skills development is actually growing:
- Philippines: Dedicated IBM i and RPG training schools, active IBM i consulting community, talent pipeline producing 100+ new developers per year
- India: IBM’s December 2025 commitment to skilling millions in India includes specific IBM i tracks
- France: Established IBM i ecosystem with structured training programs
- Vietnam: Growing IBM i and mainframe talent pool
These aren’t hypothetical. Companies are hiring from these regions right now. The talent exists, it’s trained, and it costs 40–60% less than North American talent.
Why Vendors Sell Fear
Here’s what’s economically interesting to a software vendor:
If you believe “RPG talent is disappearing,” you’ll panic. And panicked customers make fast decisions. Panicked customers buy modernization products without rigorous evaluation.
If you believe “RPG talent is distributed and remote,” you’ll think strategically. Strategic customers evaluate options carefully and often find ways to keep their existing systems running rather than ripping them out.
The first narrative is better for vendors. The second narrative is often better for customers.
What’s Actually True
North America specifically has real generational transition—many experienced RPG developers are 55+ and younger developers trained on RPG are fewer than in the past, with a cultural bias toward modern tech stacks among newer developers. Globally, IBM i talent is growing in Asia, parts of Europe, and Latin America, making cost arbitrage economically interesting. Time zone distribution actually helps—you can work 24/7 across time zones with a globally distributed team. For organizations that embrace remote work, the talent pool is much larger than “what’s in our region.” Onboarding remote team members is well-established now post-2020, and distributed teams are the norm rather than the exception.
The Strategy That Actually Works
If you’re facing an apparent talent shortage, here’s what successful IBM i organizations are doing:
1. Tap remote North American expertise first.
There are 14,000+ open remote RPG positions. That means there are job seekers in the market. They’re actively looking for remote work. They know your systems because they’ve been working on them for 20+ years.
Post a remote position. You’ll get applicants. Many will be experienced, many will be looking specifically for remote arrangements because they want flexibility or have relocated.
2. Build relationships with global talent networks.
Companies like Accenture, Deloitte, and smaller consulting firms have built talent pipelines in India, the Philippines, and other regions. If you’re looking for capacity, contracting with these firms for specific work (modernization projects, application support, integration work) is economically efficient.
3. Invest in your existing team’s growth.
Your mid-career developers (35–45 years old) are in a unique position: they have experience, they’re still early in their career, and they’re interested in learning. Investment in their continued growth—training in modern RPG, cloud integration, DevOps—pays off.
4. Consider hybrid: remote + modernization.
You don’t have to choose between “hire more people” and “modernize the system.” You can do both. Hire remote RPG developers to maintain core systems while you gradually modernize the pieces that need it. The expertise you hire helps with both operational continuity and modernization validation.
What Not To Do
Don’t panic and rip out your entire system based on “we can’t find RPG talent.” That’s letting fear sell you an expensive solution.
Don’t assume “offshore = low quality.” Good offshore talent is well-trained and professional. Bad offshore talent exists everywhere. The question is how you structure the relationship and manage quality, not whether the geography works.
Don’t ignore local talent just because it’s remote. Remote developers are developers. If they live in a different state or country, that’s logistics, not capability.
The Economic Reality
Here’s what actually changes your economics:
Talent shortage = real wages increase, headcount pressure, operational risk
You counter that by:
- Paying competitive remote rates (which are lower than local rates in many markets)
- Accessing global talent pools
- Using automation where it makes sense
- Structuring work so you need fewer people doing higher-value work
The vendors who sell you “panic = buy our product” are selling fear.
The organizations that win sell reality-based strategies:
- Distributed hiring
- Skills development investment
- Thoughtful modernization (not panic-driven rip-and-replace)
- Automation where appropriate
The Honest Take
Is North American RPG talent aging? Yes.
Is there a generational transition happening? Yes.
Is the talent completely gone? No.
Is talent globally available? Yes.
Is it more distributed and remote than it used to be? Absolutely.
The vendors selling “crisis, buy now” are correct that things are changing. They’re wrong about the direction. The change is from “local expertise” to “distributed, global expertise.” That’s actually more opportunity, not less—it’s just different.
If you’re genuinely concerned about talent and wondering whether it makes sense to invest in maintaining your IBM i systems versus modernizing, let’s talk. We can help you assess the real talent landscape for your situation and build a strategy based on data, not fear.