Although many other towns and villages in England also make the claim to being the country's longest established settlement, Abingdon is the only one that is also the home of MG. The MG factory and headquarters may be long gone now, but the easy access to both Oxford and London continues to make Abingdon an attractive place for businesses and companies to establish offices and headquarters.
The area has a large proportion of employment deriving from the Financial and IT services, with many science and health based companies based in the town. Vertex Pharmaceutical, Ortho Europe, Penlon, and GE Healthcare are all based in or around the town, many of them at Abingdon Science Park. Miele GB has its head offices in Abingdon, as do Sophos, the anti-virus software company, and Northern Rock.
Although manufacturing is no longer the predominant employer as it was once in Abingdon thanks to the presence of MG, the town remains a hive of innovation and a host to many major employers. As such the unemployment rate is significantly lower than in other parts of the country.
With the specialist nature of much of the employment based in Abingdon it is imperative that anyone looking for work in the area do so through specialist recruitment agencies who will be certain to know both the local area and the major industries and employers. Any employers in the area looking to hire new staff will be sure to advertise such vacancies through recruitment agencies.
