Skip to main content
Research and analysis

Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2021

Research detailing skills needs and job vacancies across the UK cyber security sector.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (2017 to 2023) and Matt Warman
Published:
23 March 2021
Last updated:
20 December 2021
Show all updates

  1. Report amended to correct inaccurate diversity figures in the main report (on pages 7 and 8 in the PDF; marked as pages 3 and 4 in the document.) Also minor amendments on pages 22, 52, 76, 81 and 84 of the PDF. Amended infographic detailing cyber skills gaps in the UK cyber sector.

  2. Added technical report.

  3. Added infographics

  4. First published.

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Documents

Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2021

PDF, 1.21 MB, 84 pages

Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2021- technical report

PDF, 979 KB, 72 pages

Cyber skills gaps across UK businesses - infographic

PDF, 708 KB, 2 pages

Cyber Security Skills Gaps and Shortages in the UK Cyber Sector in 2021

PDF, 934 KB, 2 pages

Details

The Cyber Security Skills in the UK Labour Market 2021 report explores the nature and extent of cyber security skills gaps (people lacking appropriate skills), skills shortages (a lack of people available to work in cyber security job roles) and job vacancies in the UK.

The research uses a mixture of:

  • representative surveys with cyber sector businesses and the wider population of UK organisations (businesses, charities and public sector organisations – with a focus on businesses)
  • qualitative research with training providers, cyber firms and large organisations in various sectors
  • a secondary analysis of cyber security job postings using the Burning Glass Technologies database

A related report exploring the supply of cyber security skills, Understanding the Cyber Security Recruitment Pool, is also available.

Last year’s version of this survey, Cyber Security Skills in the UK Labour Market 2020 from March 2020 is also available.

Sign up for emails or print this page

Related content