Skills, jobs

Applicant surge reduces cybersecurity skills gap

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Image: Stockfresh

20 June 2017

Ireland has experienced a surge in applicants for cybersecurity jobs, in the wake of major incidents and attacks, according to job site Indeed.

Despite this, Indeed says that a risk remains, as there are still not enough applicants to fill vacant roles.

Having identified Ireland as having the second greatest demand for cybersecurity professionals after Israel earlier this year, Indeed said that new data reveals the shortage of people with the most in-demand skills has eased, as the ratio of clicks to posts increased by 19% over the last 12 months.

The company said by tracking the number of cybersecurity roles advertised on its site and the number of clicks from candidates, it was possible to gauge the mismatch between demand and supply. The mismatch during the first three months of 2017 was 44%, compared to 37% during the same period in 2016. The higher mismatch score at the start of this year, it said, indicates a healthy increase in jobseeker interest in the advertised cyber security roles.

Indeed aggregates job postings from thousands of sources across the Web, as well as hosting its own listings, including jobs from small business. By this measure, it is the largest, single source,by some margin, of jobs globally.

Between the first quarter of 2016 and the same period this year, the share of cybersecurity job postings rose by 35%, but the share of candidate clicks rose by 60%.

The rapidly rising level of interest helped narrow the skills gap dramatically at the end of 2016 and start of 2017, said Indeed, even if the 44% mismatch shows that demand is still almost double supply.

According to the research, network security was the area of highest demand mismatch at 23%.

The roles in greatest demand are security engineers/architects and cybersecurity consultants, which have seen the highest number of postings between January and April 2017. Network security and risk, the two areas that saw high profile issues in May, continue to be the fields which look for talent the most.

“From May’s global ransomware attack to data breaches at major corporations and even the US presidential election campaign, cybercrime has frequently hogged the headlines,” said Mariano Mamertino, EMEA economist, Indeed. “As a result, cybersecurity has been thrust centre stage, and an increasing number of people are considering it as a career.”

“The jump in interest from candidates is offering some relief to the thousands of Irish businesses struggling to find people with the skills and experience they need to keep cybercriminals at bay.”

“But while the skills gap has narrowed,” Mamertino asserts, “demand from recruiters is still almost double the supply of candidates, forcing many at risk companies to offer increasingly attractive packages to woo the talent they need to protect one of their most precious assets—data.”

 

 

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