The cybersecurity skills shortage is more severe than that of the wider IT sector, according to a new report from Experis Ireland.
A new report provides insights into the talent shortages in the Irish IT employment market, particularly emphasising the shortage of cybersecurity personnel. The report was published by the Irish branch of Experis, a global tech recruitment specialist.
It found that while the IT industry here has trouble filling vacancies in general, the challenge becomes more severe in cybersecurity which has been the number one staffing priority in the past year. Other priorities are tech support and customer experience. More than three-quarters (79pc) of Irish tech employers are struggling to find the right talent in Ireland, the report claims.
The top cybersecurity employers in Ireland are Dell Technologies, Fidelity Investments, ESB, HP and State Street, according to the report. There is a pronounced split in terms of the gender distribution of men and women in cybersecurity. According to the report, just 22pc of the those working in the industry in Ireland are women, while 78pc are men.
According to the data, which was retrieved from LinkedIn talent insights, Indeed hiring insights, Manpower global thought leadership material and other market data partners of Experis, there was a slight decrease in tech talent here over the past 12 months. While the gender divide is weighted in favour of men – 68pc men versus 32pc women – it is not as pronounced as the cybersecurity gender gap.
In a bid to boost talent, Experis said 43pc of companies plan to increase their IT hiring budgets in the coming year. Close to a third (32pc) are planning on hiring new staff in Q3, 2023. Employers are also focusing more on upskilling and retraining programmes in-house. Some of the most in-demand skills at the moment include customer experience, Microsoft Azure, analytical skills, AWS and Jira. For cybersecurity professionals, the most looked-for skills are network security, information security, Linux and Python.
In order to attract cybersecurity talent, Experis advised companies to ensure their employee value proposition “stacks up” as “the power is with the candidate when it comes to choice”. It warned employers not to delay when they find a good worker and to offer them competitive benefits packages.
A report from earlier this year by Hays found that 90pc of cybersecurity leaders said the skills gap was affecting their ability to implement their cybersecurity strategy.
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