Hartfordruns 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
Insurance & financial services
The Hartford, Travelers, Aetna (CVS Health), Cigna, Voya Financial, Lincoln Financial, Nassau Financial Group
The industry was founded here — Hartford insurers wrote fire policies for a young republic and never left — and it is still the reason the downtown skyline exists. Actuarial, underwriting, claims, risk and the technology behind them are the region's defining professional job market.
Aerospace & advanced manufacturing
Pratt & Whitney (RTX) in East Hartford, Collins Aerospace in Windsor Locks, a dense supply chain of precision machine shops across the Connecticut River valley
Jet engines are made across the river in East Hartford, and the state's precision manufacturing base — machining, castings, tooling — feeds them and the submarine yards down the coast. It is a skilled trades economy that pays well and is chronically short of people.
Health care & bioscience
Hartford HealthCare, Trinity Health Of New England, Connecticut Children's, UConn Health in Farmington, The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine
Two large hospital systems run most of the beds in the region, with the state's academic medical centre and a genomics institute ten miles west in Farmington. Health care is the largest employment sector in the metro.
State government & law
Connecticut General Assembly, Office of the Governor, state agencies, Connecticut Supreme Court, UConn School of Law
This is the state capital, and the legislative session — which runs from January and is longer in even-numbered budget years — sets the rhythm for a whole ecosystem of agency staff, lobbyists and public-affairs firms.
Higher education
Trinity College, UConn Hartford, University of Saint Joseph, Capital Community College, UConn School of Law
Trinity's campus sits in the south of the city and UConn moved its Hartford campus downtown in 2017, which put several thousand students back into the centre and changed the evening economy around Front Street.
Logistics & distribution
Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, distribution and fulfilment operations along I-91 and I-84, freight rail
Hartford sits at the crossing of I-91 and I-84 between New York and Boston, with New England's second-busiest airport fifteen miles north — a genuinely useful position for distribution, and the reason so much warehousing has gone up along the valley.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.