Zurichruns 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
Banking & wealth management
UBS, Julius Bär, Pictet, Vontobel, Zürcher Kantonalbank
Zurich is one of the world's principal private-banking and asset-management centres, concentrated around Paradeplatz and Bahnhofstrasse.
Insurance & reinsurance
Swiss Re, Zurich Insurance, Swiss Life
A globally significant reinsurance cluster — Swiss Re is one of the two largest reinsurers on earth.
Technology & research
Google, IBM Research, Disney Research, Microsoft, ETH spin-offs
Google's largest engineering office outside the US is here, drawing on ETH Zürich's exceptional computer-science pipeline.
Pharmaceuticals & life sciences
Roche, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson
Headquartered mainly in Basel but with substantial Zurich-region presence and a dense biotech ecosystem.
Commodities trading
Glencore, Trafigura and Zug-based traders
Neighbouring Zug is one of the world's biggest commodity-trading hubs, twenty-five minutes from Zurich by train.
Academia
ETH Zürich, University of Zurich
ETH is consistently ranked among the best technical universities in the world and is a major employer in its own right.
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