US cybersecurity job postings fall 26.4% to a four-year low through September
CyberSN counted 235,786 US cybersecurity job postings for January through September 2026, down 26.4% on 2025, Help Net Security reported. That is the lowest total for those months in four years of tracking, but 2025 was unusually strong and against 2024 the gap is about 4%.
The Watch · Security desk
Key figures: 235,786 US cybersecurity job postings in January through September 2026, against 320,210 in the same months of 2025, an unusually strong year. Against 2024, the gap is about 4%.
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| US cybersecurity job postings, Jan-Sep 2026 | 235,786 postings | 1 | |
| Same months, 2025 | 320,210 postings | 3 | |
| Gap against 2024, about | 4% | 4 |
What happened
- Governance, risk and compliance rose from 9.4% of listings in 2023 to 14.8%, while defense fell from 47.1% to 41.5%.
- Postings for penetration testers fell by nearly half against 2025.
- CISO postings fell 38.9% from 2025's record and landed close to 2024 levels.
- September was the only month of the nine to beat its 2025 figure, and it did so by fewer than 400 postings.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision Headcount plans that take 2025 as the baseline will read a peak year as a collapse; 2024 is the closer comparison.
- What it limits constraint Because attorneys carry much of the GRC gain, a plan for audit or risk-analyst hires cannot treat the category's rising share as evidence of demand for those roles.
- Who's exposed exposure Job seekers in hands-on technical roles are applying into a smaller market, according to Help Net Security's reading of the data.
The gap to the same nine months of 2025 is 84,424 postings [19]. The count covers the US only [5]. CyberSN, a staffing and workforce intelligence firm [16], pulled the listings from JobSpikr, removed duplicates and sorted each one by the security work it described [6].
The mix moved by about the same amount in both directions. Defense gave up 5.6 points of share since 2023 and GRC gained 5.4 [21][20]. About four in ten listings are still for defense roles [9]. Privacy and cybersecurity attorneys account for much of the GRC gain. Of the ten largest role categories, theirs is the only one with more listings this year than last [10].
A few small specialties grew. AI security engineer postings more than tripled, but at about 2,400 they are roughly 1% of the total [12][22].
Deidre Diamond, CyberSN's CEO [17], leans toward executive turnover as the explanation for the swings in CISO hiring. Those postings climbed 19.5% between the second and third quarters [14]. "I believe the volatility we're seeing in security leadership hiring may have more to do with disruption across the C-suite than a fundamental decline in the need for security leaders," Diamond said [23]. "When a CEO, CIO, CFO or other executive sponsor changes, security hiring can stall," she told Help Net Security [24]. She also allowed that some organizations may have eliminated security leadership positions and then found they could not operate without them [26].
On the compliance shift she said: "Risk is the biggest conversation in the room right now, so it's not surprising to see the risk category grow" [25]. The count and the explanation both come from CyberSN.
Help Net Security's framing is that CISOs drawing up 2027 headcount plans are hiring in a field where demand has moved [28]. In our view the data supports that for the mix of listings. It cannot show it for hires, because the count tracks postings, which measure what employers advertised and not how many people were hired [18].
What to watch
- Whether CISO postings keep climbing in the fourth quarter after the 19.5% rise from the second quarter to the third.
- Whether October's count beats 2025 as September did, and by more than fewer than 400 postings.
- Whether GRC growth spreads past privacy and cybersecurity attorneys to other roles in the category.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives30
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
US employers posted 235,786 cybersecurity jobs from January through September 2026.
- [2]
The 235,786 total is the lowest for those months in the four years that CyberSN has tracked.
- [3]
Postings fell 26.4% from 320,210 in the same months of 2025.
- [4]
2025 was an unusually strong year, and against 2024 the gap narrows to about 4%.
- [5]
The count covers the US only.
- [6]
CyberSN pulled the listings from job data provider JobSpikr, removed duplicates and sorted each one by the security work it described.
- [7]
Since 2023, GRC's share of postings has grown from 9.4% to 14.8%.
- [8]
Since 2023, defense's share of postings fell from 47.1% to 41.5%.
- [9]
Defense still accounts for about four in ten listings and holds the largest share, but that share is shrinking.
- [10]
Much of GRC's gain comes from privacy and cybersecurity attorneys, the only one of the ten largest role categories to post more listings this year than last.
- [11]
Postings for penetration testers fell by nearly half against 2025.
- [12]
AI security engineer postings more than tripled, though they still number only about 2,400.
- [13]
Listings for CISOs fell 38.9% from 2025's record and landed close to 2024 levels.
- [14]
CISO postings climbed 19.5% between the second and third quarters of 2026.
- [15]
September was the only one of the nine months to beat its 2025 figure, by fewer than 400 postings.
- [16]
CyberSN is a staffing and workforce intelligence firm.
- [17]
Deidre Diamond is the CEO of CyberSN.
- [18]
The count tracks postings, which measure what employers advertised, not how many people were hired.
- [19]
The 2026 January-September total is 84,424 postings below the same months of 2025.
- [20]
GRC's share of postings rose 5.4 percentage points since 2023.
- [21]
Defense's share of postings fell 5.6 percentage points since 2023.
- [22]
AI security engineer postings, at about 2,400, are roughly 1% of the 235,786 total.
- [23]
Deidre Diamond said: "I believe the volatility we're seeing in security leadership hiring may have more to do with disruption across the C-suite than a fundamental decline in the need for security leaders."
- [24]
Diamond told Help Net Security: "When a CEO, CIO, CFO or other executive sponsor changes, security hiring can stall."
- [25]
Diamond said: "Risk is the biggest conversation in the room right now, so it's not surprising to see the risk category grow."
- [26]
Diamond also allowed that some organizations may have eliminated security leadership positions only to realize they could not effectively operate without that expertise.
- [27]
Job seekers in hands-on technical roles are applying into a smaller market.
- [28]
CISOs drawing up 2027 headcount plans are hiring in a field where demand has moved.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- helpnetsecurity.comThe cyber talent shortage? Job postings just hit a four-year low
1 article · October 15, 2026
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Topics
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Entities
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