The Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2023 report found that 50% of businesses don’t have the staff to carry out basic tasks laid out in the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Essentials scheme.

Specifically, these tasks include setting up configured firewalls, storing or transferring personal data, and detecting and removing malware.

Comparatively, in last year’s report, it was found that 51% of UK businesses had a basic cybersecurity skills gap.

The latest report also highlighted that around 33% of businesses have an advanced cybersecurity skills gap, lacking the ability to conduct forensic analysis of breaches, interpret malicious code, and undergo penetration testing.

Meanwhile, the demand for cybersecurity professionals has continued to increase year-on-year.

In the whole of 2022, there were around 160,000 related job postings — roughly 71,000 of which were across core cyber roles, and around 89,000 were other job postings which stipulated cybersecurity skills.

Compared to the figures for 2021, the demand for all roles which require a level of cybersecurity knowledge has increased by 30%, and core cybersecurity job postings increased by 33%.

Positively, the number of students graduating in cybersecurity courses has risen by 19% year-on-year, from roughly 3,700 to around 4,400.

This increase comes as a range of new cybersecurity skills programmes are offered and as existing programmes draw interest, not least the UK Government’s “Upskill in Cyber” programme, which has received a record number of applications in 2023.

In order to meet demand, the report suggests that approximately 13,500 new people are required each year, in addition to the around 4,700 people needed to replace those exiting the sector.

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When it comes to the lack of women in cybersecurity, the government’s latest data shows that just 17% of the workforce are female, marking a 5% decrease from the figure of 22% stated in last year’s report. In the 2021 report, the figure was 16%, and in the 2020 report it was 15%.

“Although there were signs of an upward trend last year, this has not been sustained,” the most recent report stated.

The report also underscored that there’s less diversity in senior cybersecurity roles, with women accounting for 14% of those in senior roles. In the 2022 report the figure was 13%, and in the 2021 report it was 3%.