Buffaloruns 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
Health care & cancer research
Kaleida Health, Catholic Health, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, UB Jacobs School of Medicine, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
Roswell Park, founded in 1898, was the first institution in the United States dedicated to cancer research, and it anchors a medical campus that has been the city's main redevelopment engine for two decades. Health care is the region's largest employment sector.
Banking & financial services
M&T Bank, KeyBank, Northwest Bank, Evans Bank, Delaware North's finance operations
M&T Bank is headquartered in Buffalo and is one of the larger US regional banks, with its downtown tower and a newer technology hub. Financial back-office and technology work is a genuine white-collar employment base here in a way it is not in most cities this size.
Higher education
University at Buffalo (SUNY), Buffalo State University, Canisius, D'Youville, Niagara University, Erie Community College
The University at Buffalo is the largest campus in the State University of New York system, spread across a downtown medical campus and a large suburban one in Amherst, and it is among the region's biggest employers.
Advanced manufacturing & energy
Moog, Ford Buffalo Stamping, General Motors Tonawanda, Curtiss-Wright, Tesla's RiverBend plant, Linde
Western New York kept more of its manufacturing base than most Rust Belt regions, helped by cheap hydroelectric power from Niagara. Moog's precision motion control and the two big automotive plants are the anchors.
Food, hospitality & consumer brands
Rich Products, Delaware North, Perry's Ice Cream, Lactalis, Tops Markets
Rich Products and Delaware North are both large, privately held, globally active companies headquartered in Buffalo — an unusual concentration of corporate head offices for a metro of this size, and a real source of professional jobs.
Cross-border trade & logistics
Peace Bridge Authority, customs brokerages, warehousing and third-party logistics operators, CN and CSX rail
The Buffalo–Niagara crossings are among the busiest on the northern border, and a whole services economy of customs brokers, freight forwarders and bonded warehouses exists here to move goods between the two countries.
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