The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is based on responses from 2,102 UK employers. It asks whether employers intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter. It is the most comprehensive, forward-looking employment survey of its kind and is used as a key economic statistic by both the Bank of England and the UK government.

The upbeat national picture is being fuelled by Britain’s booming business and finance services sector, at +10%, and particularly high tech areas such as cyber security. Recent high profile data breaches such as those at TalkTalk and Sony, have created a surge in demand for cyber security experts. Manpower Group has seen a record number of requests received for specialists with IT security expertise in 2015, four times the demand that it saw last year.

Mark Cahill, Manpower Group UK Managing Director: “There are millions of cyber attacks every day with a total cost to the global economy of up to $575 billion a year.1 Companies are having to invest heavily to protect themselves and they now believe that cyber breaches are inevitable, with their focus moving to responding to attacks rather than just prevention. We expect the biggest growth area next year to be in ‘cyber security crisis management’, with large organisations bolstering their own in-house security teams as well as calling on specialist contractors.”

“The UK Government announced recently that it would increase spending on cyber security to nearly £2 billion by 2020. This will include improving the level of teaching of cyber skills at schools, which will equip the next generation with the right skillset but there is a pressing demand right now. The shortage of people with the required skills means salaries for this new breed of specialists are vast - Christmas really has come early for this in-demand group. Some individuals can command daily rates in excess of £3,000, and some top cyber security specialists can even earn five-figure sums daily. With the potential risk to companies so significant and no signs of demand falling, those sky high salaries look set to continue.”