Demand for cybersecurity workers in the United States has nearly doubled since 2013 and is growing three times as fast as other IT roles, according to a new report from the labor market analytics firm Burning Glass Technologies.

In addition, the report finds that despite a significant increase since 2013 in the number of cybersecurity postsecondary programs and graduates, one key indicator of supply and demand – the pool of available talent to job openings – has hardly budged since 2015.

"As demand for cybersecurity workers has boomed, the supply of these workers has struggled to keep pace," said Burning Glass CEO Matthew Sigelman. "This cybersecurity challenge shows no sign of slowing, either for government or business. Unless we can rapidly expand the pipeline of workers into cybersecurity, we will face an ever-widening gap in the number of workers available for jobs."

Importantly, the nature of cybersecurity hiring is shifting in significant ways. As data are moving into the cloud and as more work is being undertaken through distributed networks, there has been rapid growth in demand for cybersecurity talent with knowledge of cloud technologies and the Internet of Things, with projected growth in demand of 170% and 140% respectively.

Burning Glass Technologies has been tracking the cybersecurity job market since 2013 through a database of nearly one billion current and historical job postings. The company has built a definition of the cybersecurity job market that includes all job openings with cybersecurity-related job titles, skills, or certifications, enabling a comprehensive and granular view of the cybersecurity jobs landscape. 

According to the Recruiting Watchers for the Virtual Walls: State of Cybersecurity Hiring report:

The number of cybersecurity job postings has grown 94% since 2013, three times faster than IT jobs overall.

For each cybersecurity opening in 2018, there was a pool of only 2.3 employed cybersecurity workers for employers to recruit. That is almost exactly the same ratio of openings-to-employed workers as in 2015-16. Yet federal data shows the number of postsecondary programs in key cybersecurity areas has increased 33%, and the number of conferrals rose 44% between 2013-17. By comparison, there are 5.8 employed workers per job opening across the economy in general.

Cybersecurity jobs account for 13% of all information technology jobs. On average, however, cybersecurity jobs take 20% longer to fill than other IT jobs. The tight hiring market is driving up salaries: the average advertised salary for a cybersecurity job is $93,540 —16% more than the average for all IT jobs.

The industry is increasingly turning to automation for solutions. Demand for automation skills in cybersecurity roles has risen 255% since 2013 and demand for risk management rose 133%.

Public cloud security (+170% projected growth) and knowledge of the Internet of Things (+140%) are projected to be the fastest-growing skills in cybersecurity over the next five years.

Burning Glass data also powers Cyberseek.org, a website to support local employers, educators, guidance and career counselors, students, current workers, policy makers, and other stakeholders interested in building and maintaining the U.S. cybersecurity workforce. Cyberseek.org was created by CompTIA and Burning Glass Technologies through a grant awarded by NIST, a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.