Cyber security job roles are in high demand, with an estimated 33-51% of all businesses in the UK having a basic or advanced cyber security skills gap in their current workforce. With the majority of businesses having some kind of online resource, cyber security is a requirement to keep businesses and customers safe.
We wanted to find out which industries have the biggest job market for cyber security roles, which ones have the highest advertised salaries, and which industries specify salaries most often.
Industries with the Most Cyber Security Opportunities
The industry with the most open roles for cyber security is the IT industry, accounting for 27% (209 roles) of the 768 job roles analysed. The industry with the second highest number of open cyber security roles is Management & Consulting, accounting for 17% of the roles analysed. This is followed by Finance accounting for 15% of roles.
On the other hand, the industries with the lowest number of open job roles are Property & Arts and Entertainment & Recreation accounting for just 0.26% of roles or 2 open roles each. The second is Legal with 0.91%, or 7 open positions. The low number of open positions in these industries brings into question whether these industries have all their cyber security needs met. It could highlight that these industries are they largely unaware of their cyber security needs.
Industries with the Highest Cyber Security Salaries
Next, we analysed the average salary across the various industries, with roles in Insurance offering the most at an average of £79,167 per year. This is followed by Legal with a £75,000 salary on average and then Finance with a £74,998 salary on average.
At the bottom of the salary offering is the Non-profit & NGO industry with an average salary of £40,750. Offering slightly more is Government & Public Administration offering £44,739 on average.
Industries Least Likely to Advertise Cyber Security Salaries
Salary transparency varied across industries. From our data, we found that Government & Public Administration lead with 100% of job adverts providing salaries. This is followed by Education with 93% of roles disclosing salaries and HR with 91% of roles providing salaries.
At the other end of the scale, the industries which offer no salary transparency are Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Restaurants & Food, Arts, Entertainment & Recreation and Property – none of the job roles in these sectors provided salaries.
Other roles that are more likely to hide salary information are Management & Consulting with just 3% of roles and Retail & Wholesale with just 6% of open positions providing the information.
Conclusion
With 768 current cyber security roles open, the job market is quite large, with the biggest gaps identified in IT (27% of roles) and Management & Consulting (17% of roles). Some industries have far fewer open positions, with just two roles identified in the Property and Arts, Entertainment & Recreation industries respectively.
Our data revealed that roles in the Finance, Legal and Insurance industries have the best advertised salaries while industries that tend to offer a lower salary are Non-profit and NGO with an average of £40,750 and Government & Public Administration offering an average of £44,750.
Finally, we reviewed how transparent each industry is, with the Government & Public Administration industry offering salary information 100% of the time. The Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, Restaurants & Food, Arts, Entertainment & Recreation, and Property industries didn’t disclose salary information on any job listings.
Methodology
We analysed 768 current cyber security job listings sourced from Indeed. Each role was assigned to one of 23 sectors—including Aerospace, Finance, Legal, Energy, Retail, and others—using AI-assisted classification, which was then manually reviewed for accuracy.
Salary data was recorded where provided. Where a range was listed, the midpoint was used as the average. For hourly rates, annual salaries were estimated based on a 160-hour month over 12 months. The final dataset provides a detailed snapshot of real cyber security hiring practices, highlighting both transparency levels and sector-specific demand.
