Reykjavíkruns 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
Tourism & hospitality
Icelandair, Play, Blue Lagoon, Arctic Adventures, Icelandia
Tourism overtook fishing as Iceland's largest export earner in the 2010s and reshaped Reykjavík's economy, its housing stock and its labour market in about a decade.
Fisheries & marine technology
Brim, Samherji, Marel, Hampiðjan, Skaginn 3X
Iceland's fishing industry is small in headcount but exceptionally productive, and Marel — spun out of the University of Iceland — became a global leader in food processing equipment on the back of it.
Energy-intensive industry
Rio Tinto ISAL, Norðurál, Alcoa Fjarðaál, PCC BakkiSilicon
Cheap geothermal and hydroelectric power made Iceland a site for aluminium smelting and silicon production, and these plants consume the majority of the country's electricity.
Energy & data centres
Landsvirkjun, Orkuveita Reykjavíkur, atNorth, Verne Global
Almost all Icelandic electricity is renewable and Reykjavík is heated geothermally, which is why data centres and high-performance computing found their way here — cold air, cheap green power and short latency to both continents.
Pharmaceuticals & biotech
Alvotech, deCODE genetics, Coripharma, Kerecis
deCODE built one of the world's most complete population genetics datasets from Iceland's unusually documented ancestry, and Alvotech is a substantial biosimilars manufacturer headquartered here.
Software & gaming
CCP Games, Controlant, Meniga, Videntifier
CCP has run EVE Online from Reykjavík since 2003 and is the anchor of a small but real software scene, alongside supply-chain and fintech companies exporting from an island of 400,000 people.
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