Cybersecurity Job Statistics 2026: Growth, Pay and the Hiring Squeeze

Information security analysts held 192,900 jobs across the United States in 2025. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that count to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. All occupations together are projected to grow 3% over the same decade, so security work remains one of the fastest-expanding corners of the labor market. Pay held up as well, with a median annual wage of $129,180 in May 2025.

The hiring picture did not follow the same line. Job postings fell in the United Kingdom for a second straight year, and entry-level demand shrank. Security leaders now name budget, not talent scarcity, as the reason their teams stay short-staffed. The cybersecurity job statistics below cover employment, pay, openings, skills gaps, and workforce sentiment across both markets.

Key Takeaways

• Employment of information security analysts is projected to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035, against 6% for computer occupations overall.
• The occupation’s $129,180 median wage sits roughly two and a half times the $50,980 median for all US workers.
• CyberSeek counts 514,359 online cybersecurity job postings against a workforce of 1,337,400, a supply ratio of 74%.
• UK demand for entry-level candidates with under a year of experience fell from 25% in 2022 to 17% in 2024.
• ISC2 found 33% of security professionals lack the resources to staff their teams, ahead of the 29% who cannot afford the skills they need.
• Nearly half (49%) of UK businesses report a basic cybersecurity skills gap covering tasks such as firewall configuration and malware detection.

Editor’s Choice

• Employment, 2025: 192,900 information security analyst jobs in the United States.
• Projected growth: 21% from 2025 to 2035, described by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as much faster than average.
• Median pay: $129,180 per year, or $62.11 per hour, as of May 2025.
• Annual openings: about 14,100 projected each year, on average, over the decade.
• Open US roles: 514,359 online job postings for cybersecurity-related positions.
• UK workforce: approximately 143,000 individuals, with a workforce gap of 3,800.

US Cybersecurity Job Statistics: Employment and Growth Outlook

Compiled from 8 sources: 5 tier-1 government entries (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, UK DSIT) and 3 tier-2 industry entries (CyberSeek, ISC2). Source publication dates run from December 2025 to September 2026. Only official statistical releases and named survey publishers qualified, and figures are updated when those bodies publish new editions.

• Information security analysts held 192,900 jobs in the United States in 2025.
• Employment is projected to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations.
• The decade’s projected employment change totals 40,600 additional roles.
• About 14,100 openings for information security analysts are projected each year, on average, over the decade.
• Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
• The typical entry route remains a bachelor’s degree with less than 5 years of work experience in a related occupation.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2026

According to BLS documentation, these figures come from the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Employment counts come from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, and the growth rate comes from the Employment Projections program. ISC2 and CyberSeek measure the same workforce from the employer side, using survey and job-posting data rather than federal payroll records.

The replacement-demand line matters more than the growth rate. Most projected annual openings come from churn rather than new roles, so yearly hiring volume holds up even in a slower decade. Readers tracking the threat side will find the incident volumes behind this demand in our cybersecurity threat data.

Cybersecurity Salary Statistics by Industry

• The information sector paid information security analysts a median of $138,650 in May 2025, the highest of the top five industries.
• Computer systems design and related services followed at $132,410.
• Finance and insurance paid $130,630, narrowly ahead of management of companies and enterprises.
• Management, scientific, and technical consulting services sat lowest of the five at $125,420.
• Every one of those medians runs more than double the $50,980 median annual wage for all workers in May 2025.
• Most information security analysts work full time, and some work more than 40 hours per week.

Per BLS wage data, those medians come from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. That survey is the benchmark CyberSeek and the UK’s DSIT both measure against. The spread across the five industries is narrow. Pay differentiation here comes from seniority and specialization rather than sector choice.

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Recent Developments

• August 2026: The Bureau of Labor Statistics published its 2025-35 employment projections, reporting that the U.S. economy is projected to add 5.9 million jobs from 2025 to 2035.
• August 2026: That release put total employment on a path from 170.3 million to 176.2 million, growth of 3.5%, slower than the 10.9% recorded over the 2015-25 decade.
• August 2026: Alongside the projections, BLS introduced a new data product that provides information about how occupations compare to one another based on their theoretical and observed exposure to artificial intelligence.
• August 2026: Among major industry sectors, utilities is projected to have the fastest job growth at 9.8% over the 2025-35 decade.
• September 2026: The CyberSeek workforce panel, run with the NICE program, showed a supply versus demand ratio of 74% for the 2025 reference period.
• December 2025: ISC2 released its 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, which surveyed a record 16,029 cybersecurity professionals.

Cybersecurity Job Openings and the Workforce Gap

• CyberSeek recorded 514,359 job postings for cybersecurity-related positions nationally for 2025.
• The same panel estimated 1,337,400 workers employed in cybersecurity-related jobs.
• Its supply versus demand ratio, the percentage showing available cybersecurity workers relative to employer demand, stood at a national average of 74%.
• Openings are mapped to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework categories, which keeps role definitions consistent across states and metros.

Source: CyberSeek, national 2025

By the numbers: CyberSeek counts 514,359 job postings for cybersecurity-related positions against 1,337,400 workers employed in cybersecurity-related jobs, a national average supply versus demand ratio of 74%. That shortfall sits alongside a federal projection of about 14,100 openings each year, on average. Aggregate scarcity and individual hiring difficulty coexist here.

Is cybersecurity a high-demand job?

Yes, by the standard federal measure. The Bureau of Labor Statistics rates the occupation as growing 21% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 14,100 openings each year. Aggregate demand is high; competition for any single posting is a separate question.

How Cybersecurity Growth Compares With Other Occupations

• Information security analysts are projected to grow 21% between 2025 and 2035.
• Computer occupations as a group are projected to grow 6% over the same period.
• Total employment across all occupations is projected to grow 3%.

That three-way gap is the clearest argument for the field as a career bet. Security is outgrowing the rest of the technology workforce by a factor of more than three, at a point when computer occupations overall have slowed to roughly twice the national average. The same divergence shows up on the automation side of the labor market, which we track separately in our AI employment statistics.

Cybersecurity Salary Distribution From Entry Level to Top Earners

• The lowest 10% of information security analysts earned less than $75,090 in May 2025.
• The highest 10% earned more than $199,850.
• The median sat at $129,180 per year, or $62.11 per hour.
• Information security analysts sometimes have to be on call outside of normal business hours in case of an emergency, which is part of what the premium buys.

Can I make $200,000 a year in cyber security?

The top decile threshold sits just under that mark. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the highest 10% earned more than $199,850 in May 2025. Compensation at that level exists but describes a tenth of the occupation, and reaching it generally means seniority, specialization, or a high-paying industry.

UK Cybersecurity Workforce and Talent Pipeline Statistics

• The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology estimated approximately 143,000 individuals in the UK cybersecurity workforce, reflecting moderately accelerated growth driven by increasing graduate numbers.
• The workforce gap has stabilised in this 2025 report at 3,800 individuals, after falling sharply between the 2023 and 2024 reports.
• Roughly 6,000 graduates are entering the cyber security labour market each year.
• Approximately 2,500 additional individuals are entering the cyber recruitment pool through certification and private training providers.
• Apprenticeships contribute approximately 600 new starts flowing into the labour market.
• Non-UK and non-EU students accounted for 67% of all cyber security postgraduate students in 2022/23, the most recent available data.

A gap of 3,800 individuals against a workforce of approximately 143,000 is far tighter than global shortage headlines suggest. The UK case is useful precisely because the government measures supply and demand with the same instrument each year.

Worth noting: The UK workforce gap has stabilised in this 2025 report at 3,800 individuals not because supply surged but because demand cooled. The same study recorded a second consecutive annual fall in postings while approximately 6,000 graduates are entering the cyber security labour market each year. A shrinking gap can signal a weakening employer market rather than a fixed pipeline.

Cybersecurity Job Posting and Entry-Level Demand Trends

• The UK saw an average of 2,698 core cyber security job postings per month in 2024, with a median salary of £55,000.
• Postings for core roles declined 33% from 2023, the second consecutive annual fall.
• Across all cyber security roles, including those not formally labelled as such, postings fell 41%.
• Demand for entry-level candidates with less than one year of experience has fallen from 25% in 2022, to 22% in 2023, to 17% in 2024.
• A quarter (26%) of cyber security vacancies were advertised as remote or UK-wide last year.
• The London salary premium has narrowed to £11,000 compared to the UK average, at £69,800 against £58,800 across the regions.

The entry-level line is the one worth watching. A market can post strong long-run growth projections while quietly closing the door that new entrants walk through, and that is what these three data points describe. The share of fully remote listings matters here too, since it widens the applicant pool for every posting, a dynamic we examine in our remote work security data.

Cybersecurity Skills Gap Statistics

• Nearly half (49%) of businesses had a basic skills gap, struggling with essential tasks including setting up firewalls, managing personal data securely and detecting malware.
• Charities were more likely to report one, at 59%.
• Public sector organisations were much less likely, at 14%.
• Around 3 in 10 businesses (30%) had gaps in advanced skills including forensic analysis, interpreting malicious code, and penetration testing.
• Charities reported advanced gaps at 29% and public sector organisations at 21%.

Public sector organisations invert the pattern, reporting a lower basic gap than advanced gap. Smaller organizations carry the heaviest basic-skills burden, a pattern that also runs through our small business breach statistics.

Cybersecurity Budget Cuts and Hiring Constraints

• ISC2 found reports of budget cuts at 36% and layoffs at 24%, each decreasing by one percentage point in 2025.
• 33% of respondents stated their organizations do not have the resources to adequately staff their teams.
• 29% said they cannot afford to hire staff with the skills they need to adequately secure their organizations.
• 72% of respondents agree that reducing security personnel significantly increases the risk of a breach in their organizations.
• Strained cybersecurity workforce budgets remain a key driver of staff shortages, according to the study.

Why it matters: Budget has displaced talent scarcity as the constraint on security hiring. ISC2 found 33% of respondents stated their organizations do not have the resources to adequately staff their teams, while 29% said they cannot afford to hire staff with the skills they need. 72% of respondents agree that reducing security personnel significantly increases the risk of a breach.

Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Consequences

• Nearly nine in 10 respondents (88%) have experienced at least one significant cybersecurity consequence in their organizations because of a skills shortage.
• 69% have experienced more than one.
• The majority of respondents (95%) reported that they have at least one skill need, a 5% increase from 2024.
• 59% cited critical or significant skill needs, a 15% increase from 2024.
• Half (51%) of cyber sector businesses had tried to recruit someone into a cyber role since the beginning of 2023.

Skill needs rising faster than headcount needs is the structural story in this data. Teams are not simply asking for more people; they are asking for different people, and the gap between those two requests explains much of the hiring friction candidates encounter.

Cybersecurity Job Satisfaction and Burnout Statistics

• 68% are satisfied in their current job, up two percentage points from 2024.
• 87% believe there will always be a need for cybersecurity professionals and 81% are confident the profession will remain strong.
• 80% are passionate about their work.
• 75% are likely to stay at their current organization for the next 12 months, dropping to 66% when asked about their outlook over the next two years.
• Almost half (48%) of respondents feel exhausted from trying to stay current on the latest cybersecurity threats and emerging technologies.
• 47% feel overwhelmed by the workload.

Source: ISC2 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study

Why do people quit cybersecurity?

Workload pressure and retention intent move together in the ISC2 data. Almost half (48%) of respondents feel exhausted from trying to stay current on the latest cybersecurity threats, and 47% feel overwhelmed by the workload. Intent to stay drops from 75% over the next 12 months to 66% when asked about the outlook over the next two years.

AI and the Cybersecurity Job Market

• 41% of respondents cited AI as a top skill needed, followed by cloud security at 36%.
• 66% say AI will require broader skill sets across the workforce.
• Nearly half (48%) of respondents are already working to gain more generalized AI knowledge and skills.
• Another 35% are educating themselves on AI solutions at risk to better understand vulnerabilities and exploits.
• Two-thirds (65%) of cyber sector businesses expected their need for AI skills among employees to increase over the next 12 months.
• Increased use of artificial intelligence and the rise of e-commerce have increased the need for enhanced security, contributing to the projected employment growth of these workers over the decade.

Source: ISC2 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study; DSIT Cyber Security Skills in the UK Labour Market 2025

The more credible risk is task displacement inside the role rather than replacement of it. Security work built on triage volume is the obvious candidate, and that is where autonomous tooling has moved fastest. The deployment trajectory behind that shift appears in our AI agent adoption data.

Will cybersecurity be replaced by AI?

The federal projection points the other way. The Bureau of Labor Statistics names increased use of artificial intelligence as contributing to the projected employment growth of these workers over the decade, and still projects 21% growth from 2025 to 2035. Practitioners largely agree, with 87% believing there will always be a need for cybersecurity professionals.

Why Is It So Hard to Get a Cybersecurity Job Right Now?

Two forces pull against each other in this market. Long-run projections stay strong, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics recording 21% projected growth from 2025 to 2035 and about 14,100 openings projected each year, on average, while the live posting market has contracted in the one country that measures it annually with a consistent instrument.

UK postings for core cyber security roles declined 33% from 2023, and postings for all cyber security roles fell 41%. Entry-level demand has fallen from 25% in 2022, to 22% in 2023, to 17% in 2024. Employers also became more selective as budgets tightened, with budget cuts reported by 36% and 29% saying they cannot afford to hire staff with the skills they need. Aggregate demand and accessible demand are not the same number.

What Are the Odds of Getting a Cybersecurity Job?

No source publishes a per-applicant success rate, and any figure claiming one should be treated with suspicion. The closest defensible proxy is the ratio CyberSeek publishes, the percentage showing available cybersecurity workers relative to employer demand, at a national average of 74%.

That ratio favors candidates in aggregate, not individually. An applicant’s odds depend on the role tier. The 514,359 job postings for cybersecurity-related positions are a national total that CyberSeek does not break down by seniority, and entry-level demand has been shrinking.

Candidates with certifications and a defined specialization face a materially different market from generalist newcomers. Live incident volumes that shape which specializations employers chase are tracked in our threat index.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity employment still grows faster than almost anything else in the labor market, with 192,900 jobs in 2025, 21% projected growth from 2025 to 2035 and a median annual wage of $129,180 against the $50,980 median annual wage for all workers in May 2025. The counterweight is a hiring market that has tightened at the entry point, where core cybersecurity postings declined 33% from 2023, and entry-level demand fell to 17% in 2024, while 36% reported budget cuts.

The current market rewards specialists and experienced practitioners while asking more of newcomers than the growth headlines imply. Anyone weighing the field should read the projection and the posting data together rather than separately, and watch whether the next BLS release and the next DSIT study move in the same direction or keep diverging.