GSEC Contracts

GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for GSEC qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 518 573 706
Rank change year-on-year +55 +133 +137
Contract jobs citing GSEC 2 9 12
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.007% 0.021% 0.020%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.022% 0.068% 0.074%
Number of daily rates quoted 0 7 8
10th Percentile - £458 £541
25th Percentile - £463 £603
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) - £500 £638
Median % change year-on-year - -21.57% +2.00%
75th Percentile - £600 £711
90th Percentile - £730 £820
UK excluding London median daily rate - £600 £625
% change year-on-year - -4.00% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

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.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 8,993 13,316 16,299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.72% 30.57% 27.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,686 8,190 10,861
10th Percentile £288 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £707 £743 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £501 £533 £530
% change year-on-year -6.10% +0.57% +6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 509 1,076 849
10th Percentile £18.13 £13.87 £15.25
25th Percentile £22.00 £17.88 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £40.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year - -25.93% +29.16%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.60 £68.25
90th Percentile £80.20 £75.24 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £40.94 £49.57
% change year-on-year +3.81% -17.41% +53.14%

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
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 3 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 1 May 2025. 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
Work from Home - 2 - - 40
England +49 1 - - 16
London +32 1 - - 9

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:

Communications & Networking
1 1 (50.00%) Firewall
1 1 (50.00%) Network Security
General
1 1 (50.00%) Finance
1 1 (50.00%) Manufacturing
1 1 (50.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 1 (50.00%) Analyst
1 1 (50.00%) Cybersecurity Manager
1 1 (50.00%) IT Manager
1 1 (50.00%) IT Security Manager
1 1 (50.00%) Security Manager
1 1 (50.00%) SOC Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Cyber Threat
1 1 (50.00%) Life Science
1 1 (50.00%) Management Information System
1 1 (50.00%) Operational Technology
1 1 (50.00%) Renewable Energy
1 1 (50.00%) Security Operations Centre
1 1 (50.00%) Security Posture
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
1 2 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
1 2 (100.00%) Security Operations
1 2 (100.00%) SIEM
1 2 (100.00%) Threat Intelligence
2 1 (50.00%) Business Continuity
2 1 (50.00%) Cloud Security
2 1 (50.00%) Data Loss Prevention
2 1 (50.00%) Decision-Making
2 1 (50.00%) Disaster Recovery
2 1 (50.00%) Identity Access Management
2 1 (50.00%) Identity Management
2 1 (50.00%) Incident Response
2 1 (50.00%) Malware Analysis
2 1 (50.00%) Mentoring
2 1 (50.00%) MITRE ATT&CK
2 1 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (50.00%) Regulatory Compliance
2 1 (50.00%) Risk Management
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Management
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) CISSP
1 2 (100.00%) GCIH
1 2 (100.00%) GIAC
2 1 (50.00%) CEH
2 1 (50.00%) CISM
2 1 (50.00%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (50.00%) Degree
2 1 (50.00%) GCIA
2 1 (50.00%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (50.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (50.00%) NIST
Vendors
1 1 (50.00%) Splunk