Florenceruns 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
Fashion & leather
Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli, Emilio Pucci, Prada and LVMH Tuscan operations
Gucci's operational headquarters is at Scandicci on the city's edge and Ferragamo has been headquartered on Via Tornabuoni since 1938. The leather workshops of the Oltrarno and Santa Croce still supply the maisons, and the Polimoda school feeds the whole cluster.
Energy technology & mechanical engineering
Baker Hughes (Nuovo Pignone), El.En., Targetti
Nuovo Pignone at Rifredi has built turbines and compressors in Florence since the nineteenth century and is now the core of Baker Hughes' turbomachinery business — the city's largest industrial employer and its main engineering career path.
Pharmaceuticals & life sciences
Menarini, Eli Lilly Sesto Fiorentino, Kedrion, Abiogen
Menarini is headquartered in Florence and is Italy's largest privately held pharmaceutical group, and the Sesto Fiorentino belt hosts significant manufacturing and research operations.
Higher education & research
Università di Firenze, European University Institute, Polimoda, Scuola Normale Pisa campus, dozens of US study-abroad programmes
The European University Institute at Fiesole is an EU-funded postgraduate and research institution with its own international legal status, and Florence hosts one of the largest concentrations of American university programmes anywhere outside the United States.
Tourism & hospitality
Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, Opera del Duomo, hotel groups and tour operators
Around ten million visitors a year in a city of under 370,000 residents. It is the dominant employer and also the force that reshaped the housing market — which is why the comune's short-let regulation matters so much locally.
Art restoration & craft
Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Oltrarno workshops, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio
The Opificio is one of the world's leading restoration institutes and trains conservators internationally. The Oltrarno's artisan trades — gilding, bookbinding, marbled paper, cabinetmaking — remain a real if small labour market.
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