Main content starts
Work in Surrey
See also Surrey job searching
About Surrey
The county of Surrey has leafy lanes, gentle hills, rolling countryside and river valleys - all within a stone’s throw of central London. The varied landscape of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ranges from chalk downs and woodland to flowery grasslands and heaths. The peaceful and accessible countryside, so close to the capital, plus a wealth of historic houses and gardens make Surrey a popular destination for day visitors and tourists.
Surrey is strategically well placed, with easy access to both London Heathrow and London Gatwick Airports and to the motorway network (M25, M3, M23), and fast rail connections into central London from the major towns.
The Economy
The Surrey economy greatly benefits from the county’s proximity to London and to both London Heathrow and London Gatwick airports. Surrey has a huge concentration of company headquarters, research and development facilities, and sales and marketing centres. There are over 300 of the world’s premier multinational blue chip companies sitting alongside many thousands of high value adding, knowledge based small and medium sized enterprises. In total over 50,000 businesses operate in Surrey.
The knowledge economy is highly significant, accounting for 27 per cent of employment in the county. This is reflected both in the number of large multinational companies in Surrey and also in business clusters and specialist sectors in e.g. advanced electrical and electronics engineering, air transport, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and food research. Manufacturing, especially high technology and engineering, accounts for around 10 per cent of employment. Surrey has a healthy labour market, high employment rates and a highly qualified workforce. The county is faring better than some other parts of the UK and South East during the current economic downturn but is feeling the impact, particularly in business confidence.
Major employers
Major national and international companies in Surrey include :
Engineering, manufacturing and supply : Aim Aviation (aircraft components), Air Products plc and BOC Group – industrial gases, Arcoelectric Ltd, Bisley Office Equipment Ltd (office furniture), Alexander Dennis (vehicle chassis), Earlex Ltd (powered decorating equipment), Efco Ltd, Fluor Daniel Ltd (engineering design), S C Johnson Ltd (household products), Johnston Sweepers Ltd) McLaren International Ltd (automotive), Novar plc (energy management solutions), Southco UK, Vision Engineering Ltd (optical systems)
Financial: Allianz, Legal and General, esure Insurance Ltd, Friends Provident
Food: Dairy Crest, Unilever Icecream and Frozen Foods, Tesco Stores Ltd
Health and beauty products: Proctor & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive (UK) Ltd
IT and telecommunications: Atos Origin IT Services Ltd, British Telecom plc, Ericsson Ltd, IBM UK Ltd, Sony UK Ltd, Surrey Satellite Technology, Toshiba Information Systems
Leisure: David Lloyd Centres (several sites), Thorpe Park
Petroleum: Exxon Mobil, Pace Petroleum Ltd
Pharmaceuticals: GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly and Company Ltd, Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd, Pfizer
Other research and development companies/organisations in the county include: BBC R&D, Bio-compatibles, BP, Leatherhead Food International, Nokia Ltd, Philips Research, Proctor & Gamble, Sanofi-aventis, Siemens, Syngenta European Regional Centre (agribusiness).
The University of Surrey’s Surrey Research Park (close to the university’s Guildford campus) is home to over 110 companies engaged in research, development and design activities.
In the public sector Surrey County Council, a range of educational institutions including four universities, and the healthcare trusts are major employers.The county is also home to the Veterinary Laboratories Agency at Weybridge and the Institute for Animal Health, Purbright Laboratory, near Guildford.
The county’s main centres of employment and retail activity are Camberley, Dorking, Guildford, Leatherhead, Reigate, Staines and Woking.
Higher education institutions within the county include:
-University of Surrey , Royal Holloway College London , University of the Creative Arts (Farnham campus), Kingston University and Runnymede campus of Brunel University
