GSEC Contract Job Trends in the South West

GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South West with a requirement for GSEC qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 16 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 - -
Rank change year-on-year - - -
Contract jobs citing GSEC 1 0 0
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.040% - -
As % of the Qualifications category 0.073% - -
Number of daily rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £519 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 - -
75th Percentile £556 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £538 £525 £488
% change year-on-year +2.38% +7.69% -22.00%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South West

GSEC falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the South West.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,377 1,062 1,586
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 55.75% 54.27% 54.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 877 658 996
10th Percentile £294 £287 £372
25th Percentile £450 £450 £489
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.39% +0.04%
75th Percentile £675 £650 £675
90th Percentile £738 £734 £738
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 76 162
10th Percentile £17.69 £25.26 £36.40
25th Percentile £19.74 £53.94 £50.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £65.00 £61.95
Median % change year-on-year -61.31% +4.93% -4.70%
75th Percentile £63.75 £68.75 £76.25
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £50.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% -7.64% +11.11%

GSEC
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing GSEC relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

GSEC job vacancy trend in the South West

GSEC
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing GSEC.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing GSEC

GSEC
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing GSEC within the South West region over the 6 months to 16 January 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Wiltshire - 1 £538 - 1
GSEC
England

GSEC
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Communications & Networking
1 1 (100.00%) BGP
1 1 (100.00%) Cisco ASA
1 1 (100.00%) Cisco IOS
1 1 (100.00%) MPLS
1 1 (100.00%) Network Security
1 1 (100.00%) TACACS
1 1 (100.00%) VPN
General
1 1 (100.00%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 1 (100.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
1 1 (100.00%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (100.00%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 1 (100.00%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 1 (100.00%) Linux
1 1 (100.00%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (100.00%) Agile
1 1 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
1 1 (100.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
1 1 (100.00%) Penetration Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 1 (100.00%) PHP
1 1 (100.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 1 (100.00%) APMG
1 1 (100.00%) CompTIA Security+
1 1 (100.00%) DV Cleared
1 1 (100.00%) GIAC
1 1 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 1 (100.00%) Security Cleared
1 1 (100.00%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
1 1 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 1 (100.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (100.00%) NIST
System Software
1 1 (100.00%) VMware ESXi
1 1 (100.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (100.00%) SCOM
1 1 (100.00%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 1 (100.00%) Cisco
1 1 (100.00%) VMware