The German federal ministries are finding it increasingly difficult to find staff to defend against threats from cyberspace. On average, every fifth position in the area of IT security is currently vacant. This emerges from the federal government’s response to a parliamentary question from the left, which was published in Berlin on Wednesday. This means a deterioration compared to the previous year, when no suitable candidate could be found for only every sixth position.
IT security jobs: situation is getting worse
The bad numbers in the occupation are due, among other things, to the fact that the federal government is trying to strengthen the cyber defense staff. The number of advertised IT security positions has been growing continuously since 2020. Last year alone, 332 jobs were added, which corresponds to an increase of nine percent.
Most positions are assigned to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, also because the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) belongs to the ministry of Nancy Faeser (SPD). Almost 400 new jobs were created in Faeser’s ministry in 2022, after 58 jobs had been cut the year before. There are a total of 2165 positions for IT security, 513 of which are vacant. This corresponds to almost two thirds of all vacancies in this area in the federal government.
Volker Wissing’s (FDP) newly tailored Ministry of Digital and Transport also has major problems filling new positions in the field of IT security. Here every second position in the field of cyber security is vacant, also because many new permanent positions have been created here. In percentage terms, Karl Lauterbach’s (SPD) Ministry of Health comes off worst at first glance. Here 80 percent of all vacancies in the field of IT security could not be filled. However, the absolute numbers are very small: Only 2.5 positions are occupied by IT security experts, 8.8 positions are vacant.
(dmk)
