The Largest Employers in Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein has one of the most concentrated labour markets in Europe: a handful of industrial and financial companies hold a third of all positions, while the rest is spread across more than four thousand small firms.

The other side is just as striking: 88.2 percent of all companies have between one and nine jobs. Together these micro-enterprises account for 10’291 positions — more than a fifth of the labour market. Looking only at the big names means missing a good three quarters of all employers.

The largest employers fall into three blocks — industry, finance and food — plus the public sector. Sorted by location:

• Eschen: thyssenkrupp Presta AG, automotive supplier and world market leader for steering systems — with around 2’500 employees in Liechtenstein the country's largest employer.
• Schaan: Hilti (fastening and construction technology, around 1’900 to 2’200 in Liechtenstein), Ivoclar (dental products, around 970 at its headquarters), Hilcona (food), Neutrik (connectors) and Telecom Liechtenstein.
• Vaduz: LGT Group, the Liechtenstein National Bank (LLB) and VP Bank, plus Hoval (heating and ventilation) and the national administration.
• Balzers: Oerlikon Balzers, a specialist in surface technology.
• Bendern: the Ospelt group, one of the country's largest food producers.

Headcounts appear here only where a documented Liechtenstein figure exists. Why that is not possible for the others is in the next section — it is not an omission but the actual difficulty with this topic.

Almost every ranking of Liechtenstein's largest employers compares apples with oranges: it quotes group totals, meaning everyone a corporation employs worldwide — not the positions inside the country. The difference is enormous.

• Hilti employs more than 34’000 people worldwide and around 2’000 in Liechtenstein. Taking the group figure overstates the local employer seventeenfold.
• Ivoclar has several thousand employees worldwide; at its headquarters in Schaan there are around 970.
• Corporations without a breakdown: many companies publish no figure per site at all. A Liechtenstein number then cannot be documented, only estimated — and an estimate that looks like a statistic is worse than no number.

The only reliable overall view is therefore the official one: the Office of Statistics counts jobs by place of business inside the country, not by corporate affiliation. That is exactly where the figures in the first section come from.

The sector split explains why the list above looks the way it does: Liechtenstein is far more industrial than its neighbours — and finance is smaller than its reputation suggests.

Open positions at the large industrial firms are grouped under industry and machinery, those of the financial centre under banking and financial services and trust and wealth management. What these sectors pay is in the salary guide.

The large firms sit in a handful of municipalities — Schaan and Vaduz in the Oberland, Eschen and Bendern in the Unterland, plus Balzers in the south. For cross-border commuters that decides the commute: from Sargans or Buchs, Balzers is minutes away, while Eschen lies at the other end of the country.

What is currently open you can see by municipality in Schaan, Vaduz, Eschen and Balzers — or grouped under all jobs in Liechtenstein.

Two of the companies named above advertise their positions directly on joblie: Hoval in Vaduz and Telecom Liechtenstein in Schaan. Both profiles show the open positions, the location and a contact person.

Large firms offer structured career paths, training and as a rule above-average pay — in return their selection processes take longer and run through central HR departments. Small firms decide faster and often directly with the person you would be working for.

In practice: if you are aiming at one of the big names, apply early and in full. The form is the same either way — the complete dossier following Swiss convention. How it is structured is shown in the application guide; for the overview of the whole labour market, see the “Working in Liechtenstein” guide.