Kansas Cityruns 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
Engineering, architecture & construction
Burns & McDonnell, Black & Veatch, HNTB, JE Dunn Construction, Terracon
An unusual concentration of large employee-owned engineering firms for a metro this size — Burns & McDonnell and Black & Veatch design power, water and infrastructure projects worldwide from offices here. It is the region's most distinctive white-collar sector and the one most likely to hire an engineer relocating internationally.
Animal health & agriculture
Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, Elanco, Merck Animal Health, Ceva, Bayer Crop Science, the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor
The corridor running from Manhattan, Kansas through Kansas City to Columbia, Missouri holds the largest concentration of animal health companies in the world — a genuinely globally significant cluster that almost nobody outside the industry has heard of. Kansas State's veterinary and biosecurity research anchors the western end.
Federal government & national security
The Kansas City National Security Campus operated by Honeywell FM&T, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the IRS service centre, the USDA, the General Services Administration complex at Bannister
Kansas City is one of the largest federal employment centres outside Washington. The National Security Campus manufactures non-nuclear components for the National Nuclear Security Administration and is a large, stable, security-cleared employer; the Federal Reserve Bank here is one of the twelve district banks.
Health care & life sciences
Saint Luke's Health System, the University of Kansas Health System, Children's Mercy Kansas City, HCA Midwest, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Cerner sites now under Oracle Health
Children's Mercy is one of the country's leading paediatric hospitals and a genuine reason families choose this metro. The Stowers Institute is a privately endowed basic-research institute of a kind few cities have. Note that the health systems straddle the state line and insurance networks do not always follow.
Transport, logistics & manufacturing
Canadian Pacific Kansas City, BNSF, Ford's Kansas City Assembly Plant at Claycomo, General Motors Fairfax Assembly in KCK, the Kansas City SmartPort inland hub
Kansas City handles more rail freight tonnage than almost anywhere in the United States and sits at the crossing of four interstate highways. Two large car assembly plants — Ford on the Missouri side, GM on the Kansas side — anchor manufacturing employment, and CPKC's merger created the first single-line railway linking Canada, the US and Mexico.
Technology, telecoms & consumer brands
Garmin in Olathe, T-Mobile's campus on the former Sprint site in Overland Park, H&R Block, Hallmark Cards, Cerner sites under Oracle Health, Commerce Bancshares, UMB Financial, Evergy
Kansas City was the first city in the world to get Google Fiber, in 2012, and the resulting broadband competition is still unusually real here. Garmin, Hallmark and H&R Block are all headquartered in the metro, and the old Sprint campus in Overland Park remains one of the largest single office sites in the region.
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