Communications of the ACM
Demand For Cybersecurity Jobs Is Soaring
Credit: TASC
Demand for cybersecurity specialists is expanding at 3.5 times the pace of the overall information technology (IT) job market, and grew 73 percent from 2007 to 2012, according to a Burning Glass International study.
Burning Glass CEO Matthew Sigelman sees a close correlation between this trend and the growth in demand for big data skills. "As companies are focusing more and more on big data and the value that's accrued within their customer databases . . . they have also come to focus more attention on managing the risks and the vulnerabilities," he says. Cybersecurity experts also are earning considerably more compensation than most IT workers, with the former averaging $101,000 in salary to the latter's approximately $89,000.
Engineers constituted the bulk of all cybersecurity jobs at 32 percent, followed by analysts with 24 percent. Sigelman observes that although large IT firms and defense contractors still account for a large share of demand for cybersecurity expertise, "much of the growth in demand . . . is driven by a more diversified range of businesses," including healthcare, education, public administration, and retail.
The greatest growth for cybersecurity jobs is concentrated in the Washington, D.C., region, reflecting growth of nearly 50 percent in Washington itself.
From The Wall Street Journal
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