Leedsruns 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
Financial, banking & professional services
Bank of England northern hub, National Wealth Fund, Lloyds, Virgin Money, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, EY
Leeds is the largest financial and professional services centre in the UK outside London, with a genuine head-office presence rather than only back-office functions — the Bank of England opened a northern hub here and the National Wealth Fund is headquartered in the city.
Health technology & the NHS
NHS England (Quarry Hill), Leeds Teaching Hospitals, TPP, EMIS Health, Nexus at the University of Leeds
NHS England is run from Leeds, not London, and the health-data estate that grew up around it makes this the UK's health-tech capital. TPP in Horsforth builds one of the two clinical record systems most English GP practices use.
Law
Addleshaw Goddard, Walker Morris, DLA Piper, Squire Patton Boggs, the Business and Property Courts in Leeds
The largest legal centre in England outside London, with the Business and Property Courts sitting here — so commercial litigation that would otherwise go to the Rolls Building is heard in Leeds.
Retail, consumer & e-commerce
Asda, Jet2, Card Factory, Burberry (Castleford), Morrisons (Bradford)
Asda and Jet2 are both headquartered in Leeds, and Marks & Spencer began here in 1884 as a penny bazaar stall in Kirkgate Market. Retail head-office work is a much larger share of the graduate market than outsiders expect.
Media & screen
Channel 4 national HQ, ITV Yorkshire, Sky, Screen Yorkshire, Emmerdale's production base
Channel 4 moved its national headquarters to Leeds in 2019, which pulled commissioning decisions — not just production — out of London and seeded a genuine independent production sector around it.
Higher education & research
University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett, Leeds Trinity, Leeds Arts University, Leeds Conservatoire
The University of Leeds is one of the founding red bricks and among the largest in the UK by student numbers, and the combined student population shapes the rental market, the nightlife and the graduate labour supply in equal measure.
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