Halifaxruns 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
Defence & shipbuilding
Irving Shipbuilding at Halifax Shipyard, CFB Halifax, Lockheed Martin Canada, Thales Canada, Babcock Canada
The region's largest single economic anchor. Halifax Shipyard holds the combat-vessel work under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, a programme measured in decades, and CFB Halifax is Canada's largest military base and home to Maritime Forces Atlantic.
Ocean technology & marine science
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, COVE, Kraken Robotics, Ultra Maritime, DeepSense
The Bedford Institute in Dartmouth is Canada's largest ocean research establishment, and COVE turned a former Coast Guard base into a working cluster of ocean-tech companies on the water. It is a genuine specialism this city has and few others do.
Higher education & health research
Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's, Mount Saint Vincent, NSCAD, Nova Scotia Community College, QEII Health Sciences Centre, IWK Health
Dalhousie anchors research for the whole Atlantic region and the universities together make students a large share of the peninsula's population — which is also why the rental market empties and refills every September.
Financial services & operations
RBC, Manulife, Medavie Blue Cross, Marsh, Citco, Sun Life
A long-standing operations and back-office centre for national and international financial firms, attracted by Atlantic time, a large graduate pool and a cost base well below Toronto's.
Technology & digital
IBM, Ubisoft Halifax, REDspace, Dash Hudson, Proposify, Volta
Small but real and growing. Ubisoft opened a studio here in 2015, Volta is the hub the startup scene organises around, and salaries trail Toronto's — as, dramatically, does everything else.
Port, logistics & energy
Port of Halifax, PSA Halifax, Emera, Nova Scotia Power, CN
An ice-free deep-water harbour that is the first inbound and last outbound North American call on European routes, and can take the largest container ships year-round. Emera, a utility holding company operating well beyond the province, is headquartered downtown.
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