Labour market and industries
The potential labour force in the towns numbers around 28,000. For some years around 5.5% of the potential labour force has been unemployed. The highest numbers of unemployed are found notably in the winter season and in those towns where the Arctic climate has its greatest impact. The largest number of employees, around 13,000, work for the public administration.

The fishing industry
The fishing industry itself has some 1,400 full-time employees. It is uncertain how many em-ployees there are to be found in related industries like shipyards and trade companies, etc. Fishing is extremely important as a source of supplementary income for individual households.

The fishing fleet consists of more than 850 vessels, mainly coastal vessels as well as a number of ocean-going trawlers. Greenlandic fishermen fish with-in their own 200-miles exclusive fisheries zone and also have access to fisheries in other zones and international waters. The majority of the hauls in Greenlandic waters are landed in Greenland for further processing. There are landing centres in both towns and villages. In 2006, the total catch of fish and shellfish was 109,959,000 tons, of which approximately 55% was prawns, 23% Greenland halibut, 9% lumpfish, 8% cod, and 5% other fish, with crab accounting for 57%.

Royal Greenland A/S, owned by the Home Rule, is the largest company of its kind in the whole kingdom, with around 2,000 em-ployees, approximately 1,000 in Greenland and 400 in Denmark.
Polar Seafood Greenland A/S is the largest privately owned company and one of the largest fish exporters in the kingdom. The company has around 400 employees in Greenland and another 200 outside the country.

The tourism industry
The fishing industry has so far been the largest economical sector in Greenland, but tourism has also become a major economic factor.
The Greenland Tourism and Business Council is the country's official industrial development enterprise and owned 100% by the Home Rule. Its chief target groups are entrepreneurs and small companies in the fields of land-based trade, industry and tourism.
Greenland Travel is the most successful travel agency, selling the largest number of tickets to and from Greenland. The company has offices in Nuuk, Sisimiut, Ilulissat and Copenhagen.

Non-renewable resources
On July 1, 1998 the Copenhagen-based Danish Mineral Resources Administration for Greenland was closed and replaced by the Home Rule Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP) with headquarters in Nuuk. Since then, the BMP has held political responsibility for all matters relating to the administration of Greenland's mineral and hydrocarbon resources, including the issuing of all licences relating to exploration and exploitation.

The types of licences available to commercial companies, as well as their contents, remained unchanged, as did the judicial procedures for granting licences under the Act on Mineral Resources in Greenland. All licences continued to be granted by the Danish–Greenland Joint Committee on Mineral Resources in Greenland.

The Mineral Act of 1999 created favourable licensing terms and investment rules. There is widespread political consensus that the primary economic sector should be the exploitation of non-renewable resources.
Gold, diamonds, rubies, olivine, copper, platinum, silver, lead, zinc, iron, marble and oil are already known resources in Greenland.
South Greenland had a gold mine until late 2008, when the international finance crisis hit the country, and this mine and other prospected mining activities have been put on hold.

The hydro-electricity industry
The vast lakes and melting ice cap provide enormous potential for electricity free from fossil fuel. The first hydroelectric power plant was built in 1993, and other plants have been built since.
The Greenland government is negotiating with Alcoa, an aluminium company, to build the world's second-largest smelter close to Maniitsoq, a city on the West coast. In connection with the proposed aluminium smelter there are plans to build two hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 650 MW in the period 2010-14.

Greenland Development is a company established to support Home Rule initiatives to develop the hydroelectric power potential for commercial purposes.

Ice and water for export
The inland ice and the melt-off provide abundant water resources that can be used for producing energy and drinking water for both the local population and export. In 2004, the government launched an export strategy for ice and water. The aim of the strategy is to promote ice and water as a new industry.

The Hunting and fur industry
Today less than 20% of the population live directly or indirectly from hunting. It is primarily individual households that use the meat from caught seals. Some households also use seal skin for clothing, but the majority of skins are sold to the many small production units that manufacture products for the domestic market as well as to Great Greenland A/S. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) categorises whaling in Greenland as Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling and grants hunting quotas. The Home Rule sets the quotas for hunting smaller whales.