This sector can be divided up in the sectors of industry, construction and trade.

Traditionally, the term industry is used to describe the part of the economy that refers to mining and quarrying as well as manufacturing. Craft trade comprises many sectors of the economy, with the construction industry and the manufacturing industry increasingly being represented, but it can also be found in trade and other service sectors.

Crafts are particularly hard hit by the shortage of skilled workers. By this branch one understands all occupations with which a product is usually manufactured on order or a service on demand takes place. From the industrial supplier enterprise over craftsman up to the medium-size handicraft enterprise.

Through its surveys, the construction industry provides indispensable statistical information on economic developments and structural changes in the construction industry. These represent an essential basis for the work of the federal and state governments, the parliament, the chambers, as well as the building and crafts associations.