When it comes to cybersecurity jobs, some U.S. regions offer more openings than others—and one region in particular has an enormous demand for cybersecurity talent.
If you guessed that Washington, D.C. and its surrounding environs featured the most organizations seeking cybersecurity pros over the past 12 months, you’d be right. According to a breakdown by Emsi Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country, that tech hub has more than twice as many openings as its nearest competitor, the New York City metro area. Check out the chart:
Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and southern Maryland host an enormous number of federal contractors, tech companies, and U.S. government offices—all of which need cybersecurity experts capable of building and maintaining systems hardened against internal and external threats. But as you can see from the chart, tech hubs across the country all want cybersecurity help.
That demand for talent is likely to continue for quite some time, especially with cyber-threats proliferating and growing more sophisticated. Cyber Seek, a job-tracking database developed by the Department of Commerce and CompTIA, estimates there are 465,000 open cyber-positions across the U.S., with about 36,000 of these positions open across federal, state and local government agencies.
The federal government and the nation’s largest tech companies all recognize this growing need. Earlier in 2021, President Joe Biden not only signed an extensive executive order focused on cybersecurity, but also hosted a meeting at the White House with several companies that promised to train and hire more security professionals. IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft are just a few of the companies that have committed to large-scale training.
Biden’s recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also earmarks billions of dollars toward cybersecurity initiatives, which could spike hiring at both private businesses and government agencies. The Act includes $100 million over five years for the creation of a cyber-response and recovery fund for businesses and infrastructure operators hit by a cyberattack, for example.
If you’re interested in a cybersecurity position, meanwhile, jobs are available in a number of tech hubs across the country—but the area around Washington, D.C. is notable for its outsized number of openings.
