Is Australia Facing a Privacy Skills Shortage? The Numbers May Surprise You

Is there a privacy skills shortage in Australia?  Many privacy professionals would say ‘yes’ – but is that right? And is the perceived shortage more nuanced than a simple imbalance in supply and demand?

As the first in our series of articles considering issues around the privacy skills shortage, this post will look at:

• How many privacy jobs are advertised in Australia?
• What can we learn from the fluctuations in jobs advertised?
• Where are those jobs advertised?

As explained in more detail below we do not have data on the total number of  jobs advertised.  However, we have been tracking the number advertised on a quarterly basis since 2018 (including LinkedIn ads from 2021) and can compare quarter on quarter results to support our analysis.

How many privacy jobs are advertised in Australia?

Over the last four years, the average number of privacy jobs advertised based on our sample taken at the end of each quarter is between 37 – 45 jobs per month – which is an average of 40.25 jobs per month across the 4-year period.  

The average for each year is included in the following table:

Some observations on the number of job ads:

• Privacy jobs increased for three years from 2021 – 2023 but dropped in 2024.
• The year-on-year increase was around 10% before the 20% drop in 2024.

• This drop is consistent with a general trend in 2024.  According to SEEK, the number of national job ads on SEEK Australia reduced by 7.5% from February 2024 to February 2025. (SEEK Australia Employment Report, February 2025).   LinkedIn data also showed a reduction in hiring rates in Australia by 16% from August 2023 to August 2024 (LinkedIn Global Talent Trends, October 2024). This could be a reflection of increased hiring in the immediate post COVID period with a drop back to ‘normal’ level in 2024.

• The highest number of ads recorded was 70 jobs advertised in September 2023.  However this was followed by the lowest number of jobs over the 4-year period in December 2023 at only 18.  
• On average, the highest number of jobs are advertised in September of each year, with the lowest number in December.  This probably reflects budget re-sets and new head account allocations at the start of the new financial year in July.  December is a traditionally quiet time in Australia.
• The high number of jobs ads in September 2023 may have reflected an expectation of privacy legislation reforms – at both the State and Federal level-  and organisations moving to ensure they had skills in place.  It is worth was also a jump in the number of government advertisers in that month.  Usually averaging around 10 advertisements (for all federal, state and local government agencies) there were 26 advertisements from government agencies in September 2023 which pushed that number up.
• Many of the jobs advertised are repeat ad’s each month suggesting that it takes some time to fill roles.  It is likely that organisations stop advertising at some point when they have been unable to fill a role.
• The drop in the number of advertised positions and the need to re-advertise jobs over long periods suggests that organisations may not be finding the skills they need.

Where are advertised privacy jobs in Australia?

Sydney has always led as the most popular location for advertised jobs.  On average, around one-third of all privacy jobs are in Sydney, with 40% overall.  The highest number of jobs advertised in Sydney was 25 jobs in September 2023 (the same month we had the highest overall number of jobs advertised across the period).

Melbourne ranks as the second most popular location for privacy jobs, coming behind Sydney in every quarter other than June 2024.  The highest number of jobs advertised in Melbourne was 17 jobs in June 2023 (there were only 19 jobs advertised in Sydney in the same period).

Many positions are advertised with flexibility as to the location although in most instances this is limited to East Coast capitals – Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.  Flexible work options were most prevalent in 2022 and 2023, in the post-COVID period.  The number of positions advertised as flexible in terms of location has declined over the last 18 months.

Brisbane followed Sydney and Melbourne with Canberra coming in fourth (or fifth if ‘flexible’ is regarded as a location).  Around 7% of advertised positions were in Canberra, while around 8.5% were in Brisbane.

There are few privacy roles in other capital cities or regional locations.  Where there are regional roles these tend to be with State government agencies or local councils.

Conclusion

According to surveys, nine out of ten organisations report a lack of talent necessary to drive successful digital transformation projects. The areas with the biggest skills gap include AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and automation (TEKsystems, State of Digital Transformation Report, March 2025).   

The privacy job ad’s over the last years are consistent with this trend.  Privacy is a fundamental part of digital transformation. It is likely that with the continued drive for digital transformation, the demand for privacy skills will continue to rise, and the contest for scarce resources will continue.  And we should be preparing for that change now …

Our Methodology

Since December 2018, Privacy 108 has been collecting data on privacy jobs advertised in Australia.  

Our research takes job’s advertised on a quarterly basis – aggregating all the jobs advertised around the 25th of the last month of the quarter.  This allows us to compare data on a quarterly basis.  We do not collect the total number of jobs advertised each quarter – just the ad’s published on a particular date each quarter which we compare to similar data from the previous quarter.   

We take jobs advertised on Seek.com and Indeed.com. From September 2021 we added in jobs added on LinkedIn.  This did make a different to the total number of jobs and means that analysis is best done on data from September 2021 (where LinkedIn data is included).

Using that data we regularly publish:

• Quarterly job reports.  Our report on jobs July to September 2024 is available here.
• Annual job reports, looking at what the job ad’s tell us about privacy skills recruitment over 12 months.  Our 2024 Privacy Jobs Report is available here.