Working in Münster
The chances of finding a job in Münster are good: the unemployment rate is only five per cent (in comparison: in NRW as a whole, it is 6.8 per cent as of January 2020). The business location of Münster also attracts many people from the surrounding area. The almost 170,000 employees subject to social insurance contributions include more than 100,000 commuters; conversely, only around 43,000 people, or around one fifth, commute from Münster to work in the surrounding area. This is why Münster has the lowest commuter rate in the whole of NRW.
Münster is also a stronghold in the services sector. 86.8 per cent of jobs subject to social insurance contributions are in this sector, 12.8 per cent in manufacturing and 0.4 per cent in agriculture and forestry.
The finance and insurance sector is relatively well represented with 6.8 per cent of all jobs. Among others, NRW-Bank, LVM-Versicherung, VR-Bank Westfalen-Lippe and Provinzial-NordWest-Versicherungsgruppe are based in Münster, as are Sparkasse Münsterland-Ost and Vereinigte Volksbank Münster. In Münster, 8.5 per cent of employees subject to social security contributions work in public administration, for example in the city administration, the district government and the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe. 13 per cent of employees work in the healthcare sector, for example in the nine hospitals (including the university hospital), 35 outpatient care facilities and 43 care homes.
The nine universities with a total of 65,000 students are also important employers. In addition, completely new research centres and collaborations have emerged from the cooperation between the university, city and industry, for example the Center for Nanotechnology Münster (CeNTech) and the Nano-Bioanalytics Centre Münster (NBZ). In the "Digital Hub münsterLAND" competence centre, science, companies, start-ups and other institutions are networking to jointly advance digital innovations and develop new business models. At the end of June 2019, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced that Münster had been selected as the location for the planned "Battery Cell Research Production Centre". The application was launched under the leadership of the MEET Battery Research Centre at the University of Münster (WWU). The state and federal government are thus investing around 700 million euros in NRW.
The small and medium-sized industrial companies in Münster include a number of well-known companies, for example the paint and varnish manufacturer Brillux GmbH & Co KG, the agricultural trader Agravis Raiffeisen AG, BASF Coatings GmbH (varnish division of the BASF Group), the liquid gas supplier and petrol station operator Westfalen AG and Hengst SE, a global developer and manufacturer of technologically leading filtration solutions.
You can find an overview of job portals, job vacancies, careers advice and training on the website of the City of Münster, for example.
