Winnipegruns 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 & wealth management
Canada Life and Great-West Lifeco, IGM Financial, Wawanesa Mutual, Johnston Group
One of Canada's insurance capitals and the city's largest white-collar employment base. Great-West Lifeco has been headquartered here since 1891 and Wawanesa moved its head office into the city — between them they anchor thousands of stable, well-paid downtown jobs.
Aerospace & advanced manufacturing
Boeing Winnipeg, StandardAero, Magellan Aerospace, Cormer Group
Manitoba's aerospace sector is among the largest in Canada and specialises in engines and composites rather than airframes. Boeing's plant here is the largest composite aerospace manufacturing facility in the country.
Bus & vehicle manufacturing
NFI Group (New Flyer, MCI), Motor Coach Industries, Friesens
New Flyer is the largest transit bus manufacturer in North America and is headquartered here — a substantial share of the buses running in US and Canadian cities were built in and around Winnipeg.
Agriculture, grain & logistics
Richardson International, Cargill Canada, the Canadian Grain Commission, Paterson GlobalFoods, CentrePort Canada
Winnipeg has been the centre of Canada's grain trade since the railway arrived, and Richardson and the Grain Commission still sit at Portage and Main. CentrePort Canada, on the city's northwest edge, is the country's largest inland port and a trimodal foreign trade zone.
Health research & life sciences
National Microbiology Laboratory, Shared Health, University of Manitoba Bannatyne campus, Emergent BioSolutions
Canada's only Containment Level 4 laboratory is in Winnipeg, which makes the city a national centre for infectious disease research and pulls in a specialised scientific workforce.
Technology & digital
SkipTheDishes, Ubisoft Winnipeg, Bold Commerce, Payworks, North Forge
Small relative to Toronto or Montreal but genuinely growing, with SkipTheDishes' head office and Ubisoft's studio as the two anchors and North Forge as the startup incubator. Salaries are lower than in the big centres and so, dramatically, is the cost of living.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.