Demand is growing for both cybersecurity professionals and cyber skills in other technology roles, according to new data from the “CyberSeek” partnership led by NIST’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, CompTIA and Emsi Burning Glass.
“The growth of job openings and steady increases of people employed in cybersecurity-related roles is an indication that cybersecurity is becoming more important and urgent for enterprises as they protect their organizations and consumers from risks precipitated by the increase in remote workers, supply chain concerns and world events,” NICE Director Rodney Petersen said.
Peterson said the growth in demand offers an opportunity to increase the diversity of the cybersecurity workforce and to equip more American workers with the skills needed for a high-paying career path.
“Emsi Burning Glass has been tracking cybersecurity jobs since 2012, and demand in the first four months of 2022 has outpaced anything we’ve ever seen,” Will Markow, the company’s vice president of applied research, said in a press release. “Employers are desperate to find enough skilled workers to counter constantly growing digital threats.”
The data, announced Tuesday at the NICE Conference & Expo in Atlanta, was collected by CyberSeek. It found 714,548 cyber job postings between April 2021 and April 2022, underscoring the ongoing policy challenge of demand outstripping the supply of cybersecurity professionals.
CyberSeek is a public-private partnership dedicated to tracking the cybersecurity job market and providing tools used by employers, job seekers and others.
The new data has been added to CyberSeek’s data tools. According to the CyberSeek website: “There are 534,548 additional openings requesting cybersecurity-related skills, and employers are struggling to find workers who possess them. On average, cybersecurity roles take 21% longer to fill than other IT jobs.”
Job postings for more general technology positions are also increasingly looking for candidates with cybersecurity skills, according to the data. Demand for cyber skills in IT manager and director jobs has grown by 224 percent over 2021, for example; for software developer and engineer jobs, it has grown by 92 percent.
According to the CyberSeek data, a diverse range of public and private entities are currently seeking to hire cybersecurity professionals. For the first time, the leading field for hiring was the finance and insurance industry; it surpassed the traditional leader, the professional and technical services industry.
“Two other industries experienced large increases in cybersecurity demand between April 2021 and April 2022. Manufacturing recorded a 172% increase in cybersecurity workforce demand, while real estate saw demand increase by 237%,” the press release said.
Cybersecurity workers were most in demand in California, Texas, and Virginia. In the Dallas metro area, there was one cybersecurity job opening for every 53 workers in the sector; in the Washington, DC area, there was an opening for every 59 workers. Nationally, the “supply-demand ratio” is one opening for every 66 workers. -- Jessica Karins (jkarins@iwpnews.com)