Columbusruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Insurance & finance
Nationwide, JPMorgan Chase, Huntington Bancshares, Bread Financial, Root, State Auto legacy
Nationwide and Huntington are headquartered downtown, and JPMorgan Chase's Polaris campus makes it one of the largest private employers in central Ohio. It is a genuine back-office and technology finance centre rather than a trading one, which means steady hiring rather than cyclical booms.
Health care & research
OhioHealth, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Mount Carmel
Nationwide Children's is one of the largest paediatric hospitals and research institutes in the United States, and the Wexner Medical Center anchors a substantial research economy. Health care is the sector most likely to be hiring regardless of what the rest of the economy is doing.
Higher education & public sector
The Ohio State University, State of Ohio government, Franklin County, Columbus State Community College
Ohio State is the largest single employer in the region, with one of the biggest single campuses in the country, and Columbus is the state capital — so the university and government together provide an unusually large stable employment floor.
Semiconductors & advanced manufacturing
Intel's Ohio One site in Licking County, Honda (Marysville and Anna), the Honda–LG Energy Solution battery joint venture, Worthington Enterprises
Honda has built cars in Ohio since 1982 and remains the deepest manufacturing employer in the region. Intel's chip fabrication campus east of the city has been repeatedly rescheduled since it was announced in 2022 — check the current timeline before treating it as a reason to move, because it has moved several times.
Retail, consumer brands & logistics
Cardinal Health, Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret & Co, Abercrombie & Fitch, Designer Brands, Safelite, Wendy's, White Castle, Bob Evans
An unusual density of consumer brand head offices for a city this size, plus Cardinal Health in the top tier of the Fortune 500. Columbus's long-standing role as a national test market comes from the same demographic profile that attracted them.
Data centres & logistics
Amazon Web Services, Google, Meta and Microsoft campuses around New Albany and Hilliard, Rickenbacker inland port
Central Ohio has become one of the country's larger data-centre clusters — cheap land, cheap power and a location within a day's drive of half the US population. Rickenbacker's cargo airport and the intermodal terminals make logistics a large local employer in its own right.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.