Grazruns 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
Automotive engineering & contract manufacturing
Magna Steyr, AVL List, ACstyria cluster members
Magna Steyr in Graz-Thondorf builds complete vehicles under contract for several global brands on one line, and AVL List — headquartered here — is the world's largest independent powertrain and mobility engineering firm. Between them they anchor a supplier cluster of several hundred companies.
Semiconductors & sensors
ams-OSRAM (Premstätten), NXP Semiconductors (Gratkorn), Infineon design teams
The corridor immediately outside Graz is one of Central Europe's denser sensor and secure-chip clusters — ams-OSRAM is headquartered on the city's southern edge and NXP's Gratkorn site is a global centre for smart-card and identification silicon.
Industrial plant & machinery
Andritz AG, Knapp AG, Anton Paar, Binder+Co
Andritz, headquartered in Graz, is one of Austria's largest listed industrial groups; Knapp in Hart bei Graz builds warehouse automation for retailers worldwide; Anton Paar's precision measuring instruments are a quiet global monopoly in several niches.
Higher education & research
University of Graz, TU Graz, Medical University of Graz, KUG, FH Joanneum
Four public universities and several Fachhochschulen in a city of around 300,000 — TU Graz's engineering faculties feed the automotive cluster directly, and the medical university runs the LKH-Univ. Klinikum, one of Austria's largest hospitals.
Health & life sciences
LKH-Univ. Klinikum Graz, Human.technology Styria, VTU, Biobank Graz
The state hospital complex is among the biggest single employers in Styria, and the Biobank Graz is one of Europe's largest clinical biobanks — the reason a distinct biotech and medtech scene exists here at all.
Design, culture & tourism
UNESCO City of Design office, Kunsthaus Graz, Styriarte, Steirischer Herbst
Graz's old town and Schloss Eggenberg are UNESCO World Heritage, and the city was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2011 — an unusually institutionalised creative sector for a city this size.
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