GovInfoSecurity.com

Some 37,000 individuals in the United States consider themselves information security analysts, and according to a government survey published Friday, they all have jobs.

The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics for the first time included an IT security occupation - information security analysts - among the job categories its survey takers ask when compiling the data used to determine the nation's unemployment rate.

Those 37,000 information security analysts represent a fraction of the overall number of people in the United States holding IT security and information assurance jobs. An estimated 150,000 people work in IT security just at government agencies, in the military and for operators of the nation's critical IT infrastructure, says Alan Paller, research director at the SANS Institute, an IT security research and education organization. Paller's estimate does not include IT security practitioners working for non-government and non-critical infrastructure industries.

"Because there are more than 15 separate roles in the security space, the numbers for the term information security analysts are low but possible," Paller says. "Most people who do security tasks - especially technical tasks - consider themselves security engineers or systems engineers or auditors or assessors, or technical support specialist or similar titles included elsewhere. So these are just the people who have the policy and planning roles."

Indeed, in defining the information security analysts occupation, the government specifically mentioned it did not include computer network architects, many of whom include security measures in their designs.

The government broadly defines information security analysts as those who plan, implement, upgrade or monitor security measures for the protection of computer networks and information. Information security analysts may ensure appropriate security controls are in place that will safeguard digital files and vital electronic infrastructure as well as respond to computer security breaches and viruses.

To put information security analysts employment into perspective, the U.S. workforce - those employed and the unemployed looking for work - topped 151.6 million people during the first three months of 2011. That means the 37,000 employed as IT security analysts represented a microscopic 0.0024 percent of the overall workforce.

And, IT security analysts represent just over 1 percent of all non-managerial computer professionals. Analyzing the BLS data, the IT unemployment rate for the first quarter stood at 4.7 percent, compared with an overall jobless rate of 8.8 percent. If computer and information systems managers are included in the calculation of all computer-tied occupations, the IT workforce number reaches 4.013 million, with an IT unemployment rate of 5 percent.

The number of IT security analysts working in the U.S. as well as the apparent zero percent unemployment rate should not be taken as gospel. The government surveys 60,000 households each month, so only a minute number of households would have an IT security analyst living in them. BLS does not provide an unemployment rate for any occupation group; Information Security Media Group arrives at unemployment figures by analyzing BLS data. BLS does not post the quarterly employment data on its website, though it's available upon request.

Still, the data BLS provides on information security analysts in its quarterly report shed some light onto one segment of the IT security profession. Whether or not the unemployment rate is truly zero, IT security analysts belong to a profession that employers say they can't find enough workers with those skills, and nearly everyone with them can find a job.

The survey also reveals that the vast majority of information security analysts working in the United States are white men. According to the data, the IT security analyst profession is made up of 12 percent women, 10 percent African-Americans, 7 percent Asians and 15 percent Latinos. Perhaps reflecting the small sample size, the survey failed to record any Asian or Hispanic women employed as information security analysts. Among African-Americans, women represented half of the IT security analysts. Women accounted for 11 percent of white IT security analysts.