The search for cybersecurity talent has ramped up across the nation and across Alabama within the last year. From May 2021 to April 2022, the U.S. had nearly 715,000 cybersecurity positions advertised. Alabama had 10,531 cybersecurity job openings within that same time frame. The state’s total cybersecurity workforce is estimated at 15,712, according to date from CyberSeek, a joint initiative between the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, Emsi Burning Glass and CompTIA.
On a national level, almost 40% of the cybersecurity job openings were posted within the first four months of 2022.
“The growth of job openings and steady increases of people employed in cybersecurity-related roles is an indication that cybersecurity is becoming more important and urgent for enterprises as they protect their organizations and consumers from risk precipitated by the increase in remote workers, supply chain concerns and world events,” said Rodney Petersen, director of NICE, which is led by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In Alabama, the Huntsville metropolitan statistical area experienced the most cybersecurity job postings with 5,525 jobs. It was followed by the Birmingham MSA at 1,788 and Montgomery MSA at 1,315 job postings.
On a national level, in April, the data indicates that the most cybersecurity job postings came from the finance and insurance industry. It is also notable that for the first time in more than a decade another sector had outpaced the professional, scientific and technical services industry in the number of cybersecurity job postings. Two other industries experiencing large increases were manufacturing, which recorded a 172% increase in cybersecurity job postings from April 2021 to April 2022, and real estate, which experienced a 273% increase over the same period.
