Cybersecurity Jobs Claim Increasing Share of Tech Hiring Activity

Cybersecurity is more essential than ever before. Every organization across every industry requires security experts to support and improve its IT security infrastructure.

U.S. News & World Report cites that an information security analyst job is ranked No. 4 in the list of best technology jobs, No. 10 in the list of best STEM jobs, and No. 15 in the top 100 best overall jobs.

According to the most recent Burning Glass "The State of Cybersecurity Hiring" report, the rate of new cybersecurity job positions is three times the rate of general IT positions.

Need more convincing?

U.S. technology companies added new workers for the tenth consecutive month in September and an estimated 140,000 tech occupations were added throughout the economy, an analysis by CompTIA finds.

Tech companies expanded staffing by 18,700 in both technical and non-technical positions, according to the “Employment Situation” report released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Tech sector employment has increased by 134,600 jobs this year.

IT occupations in all sectors of the U.S. economy expanded by 140,000, to nearly 5.6 million.

Demand for cybersecurity workers continues to trend upward. CompTIA’s analysis of employer job posting data for IT occupations shows that so far this year cybersecurity positions account for 20% of postings compared to 18% in 2020 and 17% in 2019.

US Employer Cybersecurity Job Postings

(January-September)

2021 | 529,123

2020 | 456,363

2019 | 448,853

“It’s been an especially challenging period on the cybersecurity front with attacks on critical infrastructure, the growing threat of ransomware, and of course, new vulnerabilities brought on by the pandemic” said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. “The persistently tight labor market for cybersecurity professionals means employers must cast an even wider net and look internally to develop talent from within their own ranks.“

Employer job postings for all new IT occupations totaled approximately 295,000 in September. Industries with the largest numbers of openings included professional, scientific, and technical services (47,630), manufacturing (29,966), finance and insurance (28,549), information (20,985) and retail trade (10,944).

The IT occupation job posting data re-affirms that employers’ need for tech talent – and career opportunities for individuals – is present in nearly every state and metropolitan market.

Among the states, while California, Texas and New York had the largest number of job openings last month, Arkansas, North Dakota and Mississippi recorded the strongest month-over-month increase in tech job postings. New York, Washington, and Dallas led metro areas in total tech job postings. Fayetteville, Ark., Boise, Idaho, and Little Rock, Ark., were the top three markets in the monthly increase in jobs postings.

Source: CompTIA