GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for GSEC qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 589 707 836
Rank change year-on-year +118 +129 -168
Contract jobs citing GSEC 9 12 13
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.021% 0.020% 0.015%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.068% 0.073% 0.068%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 8 10
10th Percentile £458 £541 £418
25th Percentile £463 £603 £613
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £638 £625
Median % change year-on-year -21.57% +2.00% +31.58%
75th Percentile £600 £711 £638
90th Percentile £730 £820 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GSEC is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,270 16,337 19,076
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.65% 27.32% 21.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,165 10,899 12,575
10th Percentile £300 £325 £325
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% +4.76% +8.25%
75th Percentile £650 £650 £625
90th Percentile £738 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £530 £500
% change year-on-year - +6.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,067 858 776
10th Percentile £13.86 £15.25 £13.46
25th Percentile £17.80 £20.06 £19.33
Median hourly rate £40.00 £54.00 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.93% +30.12% +5.06%
75th Percentile £61.60 £68.25 £56.31
90th Percentile £75.25 £80.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.28 £50.00 £31.89
% change year-on-year -19.45% +56.79% -14.39%

GSEC
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing GSEC as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing GSEC.

Daily rate trend for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GSEC over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing GSEC.

Hourly rate trend for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Top 5 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing GSEC within the UK over the 6 months to 27 April 2024. 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
England +127 9 £500 -23.08% 4
London +103 7 £475 -42.07% 2
UK excluding London +63 2 £600 -4.00% 3
Midlands - 2 £600 -
West Midlands - 2 £600 -

GSEC
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (11.11%) Confluence
1 1 (11.11%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 1 (11.11%) AWS
1 1 (11.11%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 3 (33.33%) Firewall
2 2 (22.22%) Network Security
3 1 (11.11%) HTTP
3 1 (11.11%) HTTPS
3 1 (11.11%) Intrusion Detection
3 1 (11.11%) Kerberos
3 1 (11.11%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (11.11%) MySQL
1 1 (11.11%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (11.11%) JIRA
General
1 3 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 2 (22.22%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (22.22%) Finance
2 2 (22.22%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 6 (66.67%) Analyst
1 6 (66.67%) Security Analyst
2 3 (33.33%) Cybersecurity Analyst
2 3 (33.33%) Security Engineer
3 2 (22.22%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 2 (22.22%) SOC Engineer
4 1 (11.11%) Applications Architect
4 1 (11.11%) Applications Engineer
4 1 (11.11%) Architect
4 1 (11.11%) Cyber Threat Analyst
4 1 (11.11%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (22.22%) Regular Expression
2 1 (11.11%) JSON
2 1 (11.11%) RESTful
2 1 (11.11%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (88.89%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 3 (33.33%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (22.22%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (22.22%) Cloud Native
3 2 (22.22%) Taxonomies
4 1 (11.11%) Cyber Defence
4 1 (11.11%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (11.11%) Linux
1 1 (11.11%) Unix
1 1 (11.11%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (88.89%) MITRE ATT&CK
2 7 (77.78%) Cybersecurity
2 7 (77.78%) Threat Modelling
3 6 (66.67%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 6 (66.67%) Threat Intelligence
4 4 (44.44%) Risk Management
5 3 (33.33%) SIEM
6 2 (22.22%) Change Control
6 2 (22.22%) Cloud Security
6 2 (22.22%) High Availability
6 2 (22.22%) Incident Management
6 2 (22.22%) ITIL
6 2 (22.22%) Network Architecture
6 2 (22.22%) Offensive Security
6 2 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
7 1 (11.11%) Application Security
7 1 (11.11%) Dynamic Application Security Testing
7 1 (11.11%) Interactive Application Security Testing
7 1 (11.11%) Proactive Monitoring
7 1 (11.11%) Static Application Security Testing
Programming Languages
1 1 (11.11%) PowerShell
1 1 (11.11%) Python
Qualifications
1 7 (77.78%) CISSP
2 6 (66.67%) GREM
2 6 (66.67%) OSCP
3 3 (33.33%) GIAC
4 2 (22.22%) BC Cleared
4 2 (22.22%) CASP
4 2 (22.22%) CompTIA Security+
4 2 (22.22%) GCED
4 2 (22.22%) SC Cleared
4 2 (22.22%) Security Cleared
5 1 (11.11%) CCNP
5 1 (11.11%) CEH
5 1 (11.11%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (11.11%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (11.11%) Degree
5 1 (11.11%) GCIA
5 1 (11.11%) GCIH
Systems Management
1 1 (11.11%) Ansible
Vendors
1 2 (22.22%) Citrix
1 2 (22.22%) Cybereason
1 2 (22.22%) LogRhythm
1 2 (22.22%) Palo Alto
1 2 (22.22%) TippingPoint
1 2 (22.22%) Trend Micro
2 1 (11.11%) Atlassian
2 1 (11.11%) Intel