Manchesterruns 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
Media & broadcasting
BBC, ITV, Dock10, Endemol Shine, MediaCityUK tenants
The BBC's move to MediaCityUK in Salford relocated whole divisions north and created the largest media cluster in the UK outside London — Salford Quays is where a great deal of British television is actually made.
Technology & digital
Booking.com, Auto Trader, THG, Cisco, AND Digital
Manchester has the largest technology workforce of any UK city outside London, weighted toward e-commerce, adtech and enterprise software rather than deep tech.
Advanced materials & graphene
National Graphene Institute, Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, Versarien
Graphene was isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004 and the resulting Nobel Prize anchored a materials research cluster the city has built around deliberately.
Health innovation & life sciences
Citylabs, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Qiagen, Health Innovation Manchester
Greater Manchester has devolved control of its health and social care budget, which makes it an unusually willing testbed for health technology at population scale.
Financial & professional services
Barclays, Bank of New York Mellon, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, DWF
Substantial back- and middle-office operations relocated from London, plus a genuine regional legal market — Manchester is the second largest legal centre in England.
Higher education & research
University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan, University of Salford, RNCM
Greater Manchester has one of the largest campus-based student populations in Europe, which shapes the housing market, the nightlife and the graduate labour supply.
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