Access To Talent

Skilled and Diverse City

Manchester is unique in that it has strengths in numerous core industries and sectors, offering companies that are new to or expanding in the city region a large quantity of high-quality potential employees.

The city’s distinctive geography of concentrated industry clusters has helped develop a varied, qualified, skilled and sustainable labour pool.

Manchester is also an incredibly multicultural city and boasts more than 200 languages spoken, the UK’s highest number of overseas students and almost 230,000 foreign professionals in the North West region.

Net Importer of Talent

The city is recognised as being a leading European business destination across a number of industries and is fast becoming a magnet for attracting international talent.

Manchester is the Best UK City to Live (The Economist, 2019) and its outstanding quality of life offer has led it to become second in the world for attracting talent from London – only New York City attracts more people per year (LinkedIn Talent Insights, 2019).

Graduate Talent

More than 100,000 students are enrolled across the city region’s five universities, which produce around 36,000 high quality graduates every year.

More than 60% of graduates who study in the North West stay in the area to work – 46% specifically in Manchester – providing businesses with a sustainable pool of graduate talent.

Supported by the city region’s five universities and a strong civic focus on developing the future talent pipeline, Manchester is rich in the talent and specialist skills that every business needs to thrive.