What is the future of the cybersecurity job market in 2024? The cyber security industry is and will continue to remain the most dynamic and critical industry in the world today. Continue to read as we talk about the latest market and hiring outlook of the 2024 cyber security job market.
Are Cybersecurity Jobs in Demand?
If anyone has told you that the demand for cyber security jobs has peaked or is decreasing, they’re wrong!
There’s very little chance the need for cyber security professionals will go away anytime soon. So yes, cyber security jobs are still very much in demand!
To give you a better idea of how much demand there is, ISACA conducted a survey from a pool of 2,031 respondents.
They found, the demand for cyber security personnel, regardless of position had only increased over the past five years.
This means it didn’t matter if you were a cyber analyst, IAM engineer, security manager, or even CISO, the need for your skills is only growing.
What’s even better?
They found that 82% of respondents expected to see an increase in the demand for technical cyber security positions for 2024!
In fact, a report by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics even mentioned that the position of Information Security Analysts alone is expected to grow 35% by 2031.
That means the number of analyst jobs is expected to expand from 163,000 to 220,000!
Are There Many Jobs in Cyber Security?
Of course! There’s no shortage of jobs in this industry. Now, you might have heard of something known as the hidden jobs market.
This is referring to number of jobs that aren’t publicly advertised on jobs boards. I’ve read that these “hidden jobs” can reach as high as 70% – 80%.
These percentages, which are unconfirmed, are quite staggering and often in dispute. The reality is that no one really know for sure how many jobs aren’t being advertised.
Unfortunately, this does highlight that many jobs aren’t made easily available to public job boards leaving it up to job seekers to hunt for them.
What we can say for sure, as of the date of this article, is that over 750,000 cyber security job openings are currently available.
That number represents an amazing 68% of the total employed cyber workforce!
How Many Cyber Security Professionals Are There?
With about 1.1 million employed cyber security professionals in the United States, the list below indicates the top 9 cyber security job titles (in no particular order):
- Cyber Security Analyst
- Cyber Security Consultant
- Cyber Security Manager
- Network Engineer
- Penetration & Vulnerability Tester
- Senior Software Developer
- Software Developer
- IT Director
- Systems Engineer
Click here to read about the best job in cyber security!
The Cybersecurity Job Market in 2024
According to Grand View Research, the cyber security market reached a value of $179.96 billion in 2021 and is estimated to grow to $372.04 billion by 2028. Many businesses today understand the importance of cyber security. As cybercrimes continue to increase, they are investing heavily to improve and secure their digital infrastructures.
Hence, driving the market growth. Other factors that drive the growth of the global cyber security market include:
- Growth of ransomware, data breaches, and cybercrimes
- Discovery of new security threats and attack vectors
- Increased cyber security investment
- Increasing demand for cyber security professionals
- Demand for data protection and compliance regulations
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
- Increasing sophistication in cyber threats
Cybercrimes increased over 600% in 2021, while the average cost of a single data breach was a record breaking $4.24 Million. As we enter 2024, the global cyber security market landscape will get even more hostile and unstable. Businesses will struggle to keep up with the continuously shifting cyber security and digital transformation requirements.
Hiring Challenges in the Cybersecurity Job Market
The global cyber security job market is an exponentially growing market with a huge demand for security professionals.
As companies work to modernize, they are also hiring a greater number of cyber security experts to design, engineer, and maintain their cyber security solutions and digital infrastructures.
However, the rising demand for cyber security professionals far outstrips supply which a good reason to consider a career in cybersecurity.
A 2019 study by Burning Glass revealed that the number of cyber security job postings has grown by 94% in just six years, and cyber security jobs now account for 13% of all information technology jobs.
However, there are multiple challenges that today’s modern businesses are facing when it comes to hiring cyber security professionals. Let’s talk about a few.
Cybersecurity Talent Drought
The cyber security skills shortage is a reality, and the talent gap is becoming wider every year. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the number of unfilled cyber security jobs grew by 350 percent, from one million positions in 2013 to 3.5 million in 2021.
63% of businesses say they currently have unfilled cyber security positions on their team.
Organizations looking to hire cyber security professionals need to offer attractive benefits coupled with learning and development opportunities. Effectively, these encourage younger generations to choose cyber security as a career path, reducing the global cyber security talent shortage.
Employee Burnout
Employee stress and burnout are one of the major reasons why employees leave their jobs. According to a Forrester survey, 2021 data shows that 51% of cyber security professionals experienced extreme stress or burnout, with 65% saying they had considered leaving their job because of job stress.
Due to the cyber security talent gap, employees may leave for a better opportunity due to heavy workloads and poor employee satisfaction. Therefore, in addition to offering a competitive salary, the right set of benefits will fight burnout and help retain your employees.
The Gender Pay Gap
According to Infosecurity Magazine, women in the cyber security industry are paid significantly less than men—an average of 21% less globally. As a business organization, consider hiring women for your security team to help transform today’s male-dominated cyber security job market.
Additionally, providing equal pay for women in cyber security and encouraging parity will ultimately help your organization set diversity standards. This benefits the industry by bringing more diverse ideas to the table regarding preventing attacks and creating secure environments.
Education Requirements for Cyber Security
As the need for more talented professionals begins to expand, companies are now forced to rethink the caliber of employees that are hired within the organization.
This means changing the education requirements for cyber security hires. Whereas before it was considered standard practice to hire individuals with a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree (or even Associate’s degree), companies are now switching to equivalency models where a formal education can be substituted with experience.
While this is a movement in the right direction, it doesn’t completely address the talent shortage. Companies are taking it a step further by trying to eliminate college from the hiring process altogether.
By removing the college requirement, employers are now able to expand the talent pool allowing candidates to succeed in cyber security even without a degree!
Looking to upgrade your career?
View our listing of cybersecurity jobs!
Final Thoughts
In today’s digital world, cyber security has become a critical component of every organization’s sustainability, security and growth strategy. As companies continue to evolve, the demand for cyber security talent will only continue to grow in 2024 and beyond.
However, there are many challenges that need to be addressed in order to tackle the ever-widening talent gap in the global cyber security job market.
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