📊 Cybersecurity Skill Inflation Index (CSII)

Industry-wide intelligence engine tracking skill inflation across all cybersecurity domains powered by real job listings, updated automatically.

Scores measure industry-wide requirement trends from public job data. No editorial judgement is made about any individual employer.

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⚠️ Industry Signal — April 2026

🔴 HIGH INFLATION — Global score 3.49, above the 3.0 threshold. 40% of all listings flagged for requirement signals.

Metric	Value	Signal
📈 Global Skill Inflation Score	3.49	🔴 High — above threshold
📅 Avg Years Required	4.9 yrs	🔴 Rising across all domains
🧠 Avg Certifications Demanded	3.1	🟡 Cert creep industry-wide
🛠️ Avg Tools Required	2.0	🔴 High tool complexity
⚠️ Requirement Signal Rate	40%	🟡 Nearly half flagged
💰 Avg Salary (USD)	~$79,951	🟡 Varies significantly by market
💼 Total Jobs Analyzed	106	✅ 10 domains · 6 countries

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📈 Global Inflation Trend

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🏛️ Domain Intelligence

Inflation Score by Domain

Domain	Avg Years	Avg Certs	Score	Signal	Jobs
Data Privacy	5.4	4.6	🔴 4.26	$43,680 avg vs 5+ yrs — below market; 80% of listings flagged	5
DFIR	4.8	3.8	🔴 3.96	80% of listings flagged	5
Network Security	5.6	3.0	🔴 3.86	6 yrs + 3.0 certs now baseline	5
OT/ICS Security	4.8	3.8	🔴 3.63	5 yrs + 3.8 certs now baseline	6
IAM	4.6	2.2	🔴 3.48	5 yrs + 2.2 certs now baseline	13
Cloud Security	4.2	3.4	🔴 3.39	4 yrs + 3.4 certs now baseline	11
AppSec	4.6	2.4	🔴 3.27	5 yrs + 2.4 certs now baseline	11
GRC	4.1	3.2	🔴 3.00	4 yrs + 3.2 certs now baseline	20
SOC	3.9	2.5	🟡 2.99	most balanced — 4 yrs avg, 2.5 certs	15
Penetration Testing	3.9	2.1	🟡 2.93	most balanced — 4 yrs avg, 2.1 certs	15

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Job Distribution by Domain

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Exploitation Signal Rate by Domain

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Seniority Distribution by Domain

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Salary vs Inflation Score

Domains in the top-left (high salary, low score) represent better market value. Bottom-right (low salary, high score) indicates high requirement pressure relative to compensation.

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🌍 Country Intelligence

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🏆 Certification Demand — Industry-Wide

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🛠️ Tool Demand — Industry-Wide

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⚠️ Requirement Signal Flags

Flag	Triggered When
EXPERIENCE_INFLATION	Junior title + 5+ years demanded
CERT_OVERLOAD	5+ certifications in one posting
TOOL_STACK_ABUSE	4+ tools demanded simultaneously
UNDERPAID_EXPERIENCED	3+ yrs required + salary < $30K USD
SENIOR_EXPLOITATION	8+ yrs + 3+ certs + 2+ tools

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💰 Salary vs Experience

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📅 Historical Index

Month	Avg Years	Avg Certs	Avg Tools	Skill Score	Jobs
2026-02	4.15	2.59	2.37	3.14	41
2026-03	4.20	3.03	2.43	3.32	35
2026-04	4.90	3.13	1.97	3.49	30

🔍 What Is CSII?

The Cybersecurity Skill Inflation Index measures whether employers across cybersecurity domains are raising job requirements faster than compensation — a structural market trend that affects career planning, hiring, and salary benchmarking.

Domains Tracked:

Domain	Focus
🔵 GRC	Governance, Risk, Compliance, Audit
🔴 SOC	Threat Detection, Incident Response, SIEM
🟠 Penetration Testing	Offensive Security, Red Team, Vulnerability Assessment
🩵 Cloud Security	AWS/Azure/GCP Security, DevSecOps, CSPM
🟣 AppSec	Secure SDLC, SAST/DAST, Code Review
🟢 IAM	Identity Governance, PAM, SSO, Zero Trust
🔶 Network Security	Firewall, IDS/IPS, SASE, Network Architecture
🟤 DFIR	Digital Forensics, Malware Analysis, Incident Response
⚫ OT/ICS Security	SCADA, Industrial Control Systems, Critical Infrastructure
🩷 Data Privacy	GDPR, DPDP Act, DLP, Data Governance

Scoring Formula:

Skill_Score = (Avg_Years × 0.4) + (Avg_Certs × 0.3) + (Avg_Tools × 0.3)

Score	Signal
< 2.0	🟢 Healthy market
2.0 – 3.0	🟡 Moderate inflation
> 3.0	🔴 High inflation — requirements rising faster than value

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⚙️ Pipeline

data/raw/YYYY-MM/*.txt
        ↓ extract_metrics.py
          → Domain auto-classifier (6 domains)
          → Seniority classifier (Junior / Mid / Senior)
          → Salary normalizer (→ USD)
          → Country extractor (20+ markets)
          → Requirement signal detector (5 flags)
        ↓ calculate_index.py
          → Global index
          → Domain index (per-domain scores)
          → Country index (per-market scores)
        ↓ generate_report.py
          → 12 charts (dark theme, auto-generated)
          → README badges auto-updated
          → Monthly report committed
        ↓ GitHub Actions (daily 6am UTC)

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📂 Structure

Cybersecurity-Skill-Inflation-Index/
├── data/
│   ├── raw/YYYY-MM/              ← Job listings (auto-collected + manual)
│   └── processed/
│       ├── YYYY-MM.csv           ← Per-job metrics
│       ├── monthly_index.csv     ← Global scores over time
│       ├── domain_index.csv      ← Per-domain scores over time
│       └── country_index.csv     ← Per-country scores over time
├── reports/                      ← 12 auto-generated charts + monthly report
├── scripts/
│   ├── collect.py                ← Multi-source job collector (Adzuna, JSearch, Remotive, Arbeitnow)
│   ├── extract_metrics.py        ← Domain-aware extraction engine
│   ├── calculate_index.py        ← Global + domain + country scoring
│   └── generate_report.py        ← 12-chart report generator
├── requirements.txt
└── .github/workflows/csii.yml    ← Daily automation

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📋 Job File Format

Title: SOC Analyst Level 2
Company: Company Name
Location: City, Country
Salary: USD 90,000 annually
Domain: SOC
Source: Adzuna
Collected: 2026-02-24

Job Description:
Full text here.

Supported domains: GRC · SOC · Penetration Testing · Cloud Security · AppSec · IAM · Network Security · DFIR · OT/ICS Security · Data Privacy

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🗺️ Roadmap

• 6-domain tracking engine
• Domain auto-classifier
• Seniority classifier (Junior / Mid / Senior)
• Salary normalizer (→ USD, multi-currency)
• Country segmentation (20+ markets)
• Requirement signal detector (5 flags)
• 12 automated dark-theme charts
• README badge auto-update
• Daily automated collection (Adzuna + JSearch + Remotive + Arbeitnow)
• 6-month trend forecast model
• GitHub Pages live dashboard
• Domain-specific cert ROI scoring

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Built by Regan Temudo · Tracking the cybersecurity job market · Auto-updated daily via GitHub Actions