President Joe Biden has urged U.S. companies to “harden your cyber defenses immediately” amid a growing risk of Russian cyberattacks. For many, that won’t be easy.
The war for talent has been well-telegraphed throughout the country, but it’s particularly acute in cybersecurity. And it’s only worsened as competition in the broader labor market has heated up, heightening both companies’ potential vulnerability to hackers and the urgency to boost the workforce.
About one million people work in cybersecurity in the U.S., but there are nearly 600,000 unfilled positions, data from CyberSeek shows. Of those, 560,000 are in the private sector. In the last 12 months, job openings have increased 29%, more than double the rate of growth between 2018 and 2019, according to Gartner TalentNeuron, which tracks labor market trends.
