Employers are most commonly seeking IT security specialists and security engineers, according to Indeed.
Globally operating employment-related search engine Indeed has completed research showing that Ireland’s skills gap continues to increase, particularly in the area of cybersecurity, where there’s growing demand for roles year on year.
Due to the shortage of suitable candidates across the cybersecurity industry, many companies could be at risk. According to Indeed, there has been an 18pc jump in demand for roles relating to cybersecurity, while the supply has only increased by 7pc year on year.
By tracking the number of cybersecurity roles advertised on Indeed with the number of clicks from candidates, Indeed established that the cyber skills gap in Ireland has only widened in recent years.
Meanwhile, Ireland has been attempting to establish itself as a hub of cybersecurity excellence. Last year, Cyber Ireland was founded with the mission to bring together “industry, academia and Government to represent the needs of the cybersecurity ecosystem in Ireland”, while aiming to “enhance the innovation, growth, and competitiveness of the companies and organisations which are part of the cluster”.
Cyber Ireland sees a massive opportunity for the country to contribute to the rapidly growing industry as the unemployment rate in cybersecurity hits 0pc, with a predicted 3.5m unfilled jobs by 2021. Ireland’s role in cybersecurity could be particularly promising, as the top five worldwide security software companies are located here, as are leading technology companies Microsoft, Intel and Google.
Although Cyber Ireland does not connect individuals, membership is open to “all of the companies and organisations in Ireland which are deemed to provide, or consume to some extent, cybersecurity products and/or services, or play an important role in Ireland’s cybersecurity sector, including education providers, research centres and Government agencies”.
At present, Cyber Ireland’s main goal, with the support of the IDA, is to roll out a major initiative to train an additional 5,000 people in Ireland in cybersecurity skills.
While Indeed was conducting its research on Ireland’s skills gap in cybersecurity, it noted that the companies most focused on recruiting cybersecurity talent in this country were Amazon and KPMG. In particular, these employers were most commonly seeking IT security specialists and security engineers, as well as IT auditors, security analysts and informational security analysts.
Just last week (28 June), cybersecurity firm Symantec released research it had commissioned, which found that aside from the issue of threat actors having an edge over companies, cybersecurity professionals often have a workload their team is not equipped to handle.
Dr Chris Brauer, director of innovation at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: “Highly stressed workers are far more likely to be disengaged and ultimately quit. In an industry already plagued by a skills shortage, this is a significant risk to businesses.”
While Amazon (6.7pc of job postings in cybersecurity) and KPMG (5.5pc) were the top two companies hiring in this field in Ireland, the top five was rounded off by Forcepoint (2.8pc), Salesforce (2.3pc) and Fidelity Investments (2.3pc).
