Kathmanduruns 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
Development, INGOs & the UN system
UN agencies, World Bank, ADB, ICIMOD, Save the Children, Oxfam, and a very large domestic NGO sector
This is the dominant employer of foreign professionals in Kathmandu and it shapes the city — the rental market around Patan and Lazimpat, the international schools, and much of the restaurant scene exist because of it.
Tourism, trekking & mountaineering
Expedition operators, Yeti Airlines and Buddha Air, the hotel sector, Nepal Tourism Board
Nepal's signature industry and one of its largest foreign-currency earners. The sector is intensely seasonal — the autumn and spring windows carry most of the year — and Thamel is its commercial centre.
IT services & outsourcing
CloudFactory, Leapfrog Technology, Fusemachines, Deerwalk, Verisk Nepal
A genuinely growing software services sector, helped by the government removing the minimum foreign investment threshold for the IT sector in 2023 — a change that made small foreign-backed software ventures viable here for the first time.
Hydropower & energy
Nepal Electricity Authority, Butwal Power, Chilime, independent power producers
The end of load shedding in 2018 and the shift to exporting power to India have made hydropower Nepal's most significant infrastructure sector, with substantial engineering and project finance employment.
Banking, remittances & microfinance
Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Mega Bank, Standard Chartered Nepal, Prabhu Group, IME
Remittances from Nepalis working abroad are a very large share of national income, which makes payments, foreign exchange and microfinance unusually developed sectors relative to the size of the economy.
Handicrafts, carpets & pashmina
Boudha and Jawalakhel carpet workshops, pashmina exporters, Nepali fair-trade cooperatives
The Tibetan carpet industry around Boudha and Jawalakhel remains a real export sector with deep craft skills, and the fair-trade and social-enterprise scene attached to it draws a particular kind of foreign professional.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.