Clevelandruns 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
Healthcare and medical research
Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, MetroHealth, Case Western Reserve University
The Cleveland Clinic is the largest employer in Ohio and its heart programme has topped the national rankings for three decades. Health care is not one sector of this economy so much as its centre of gravity — an unusually large share of professional jobs here sit inside or alongside it.
Coatings, polymers and specialty chemicals
Sherwin-Williams, Lubrizol, RPM International, Avient
Sherwin-Williams has been headquartered here since 1866 and opened a new downtown headquarters tower in 2025. North-east Ohio's polymer and coatings cluster runs from Cleveland down through Akron and is genuinely world-scale.
Manufacturing and materials
Lincoln Electric, Parker Hannifin, Eaton, Cleveland-Cliffs, Nordson
Several Fortune 500 industrial companies are headquartered in the metro rather than merely present. Lincoln Electric in Euclid is famous for a guaranteed-employment policy it has honoured since 1958.
Banking, insurance and asset management
KeyCorp, Progressive Insurance, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Cohen & Company
KeyBank is headquartered downtown and Progressive is one of the largest motor insurers in the US, based in Mayfield Village. Between them they anchor a substantial white-collar employment base that has little to do with heavy industry.
Law and professional services
Jones Day, BakerHostetler, Squire Patton Boggs, Ernst & Young, Thompson Hine
Jones Day, BakerHostetler and what became Ernst & Young were all founded in Cleveland. The city retains an outsized legal market for its population, largely serving the industrial and healthcare bases.
Great Lakes logistics and rail
Port of Cleveland, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Cleveland-Cliffs
The Port of Cleveland runs the only scheduled container service between the Great Lakes and Europe, and the St. Lawrence Seaway keeps the harbour working from spring to the winter ice.
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