Zapopanruns 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
Semiconductors & electronics design
Intel, HP, Continental, Flex, Jabil, Sanmina
Intel's Guadalajara Design Center is in Colonia El Bajío, Zapopan, doing silicon design and validation rather than assembly. The electronics manufacturing plants themselves are strung along the corridor between Zapopan and El Salto, which is why the metro area got the 'Mexican Silicon Valley' label.
Software, IT services & shared services
Oracle, IBM, Wizeline, Globant, Luxoft, Encora
Jalisco's electronics, software and ICT sector employs well over 130,000 people, and a large share of the office space it occupies is in Zapopan's Andares–Puerta de Hierro corridor rather than in Guadalajara's centre.
Corporate headquarters & professional services
Grupo Omnilife, banking and consultancy regional offices, the Big Four
The tower clusters at Andares, Puerta de Hierro and Real Acueducto are the metro area's premium office market, which is why so many multinational regional roles are Zapopan-based even when the job advert says Guadalajara.
Higher education & research
Tec de Monterrey campus Guadalajara, Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, UdeG CUCEA and CUTonalá network
Tec's Guadalajara campus and the UAG — Mexico's oldest private university — are both in Zapopan, and UdeG's economics and administration campus CUCEA sits on the Zapopan side of Periférico. Between them they feed the engineering and business pipeline the multinationals came for.
Retail, malls & consumer
Andares, Galerías, La Cima, Plaza Patria, Farmacias Guadalajara stores
Andares is one of Mexico's highest-end shopping and mixed-use developments and anchors an entire submarket of offices, hotels and apartments around it. Zapopan's retail property market is the reason a lot of the metro area's new residential supply is built where it is.
Sport, events & entertainment
Estadio Akron (Chivas), Auditorio Telmex, Expo and convention venues
Chivas' Estadio Akron and the Auditorio Telmex concert hall are both in Zapopan, which means the traffic and hotel demand on a match or concert night is a Zapopan problem rather than a Guadalajara one.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.