The first industry in a new republic has one job: earn money (or save it) faster than imports drain it, while your town is still small. The game does not have one right answer, because export prices are partly randomised at the start of every game, per the wiki's notes on vehicle values. What we can compare from the official figures is what each early industry costs you: workers, inputs, and tonnes that have to move every day. Then the Steam forum's long-running threads tell us what players found works.
The short answer
Clothes are the forum favourite. One clothing factory needs 80 workers and moves only 3.6 t a day (2.4 t of fabric in, 1.2 t of clothes out), which is "not more than one or two trucks", as one player put it in a 2023 thread. Import the fabric at first.
Oil is the other classic. Players in the 2019 getting-started thread recommend a refinery, or oil wells, for fuel and bitumen exports. It needs 500 workers and about 450 t of traffic a day, so it is a second-stage industry for most starts.
Coal and power: one player started with a coal mine, a coal processing plant and a power plant, then exported the surplus electricity at the border for steady income.
Construction materials (gravel, bricks, boards) do not earn much, but every tonne you make is a tonne you do not import for your own building sites.
Early industries side by side
Figures per building per day at full staffing, from each building's wiki page. "Traffic" is input plus output tonnes, the load your trucks or trains have to carry.
| Building | Workers | Inputs per day | Output per day | Traffic t/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clothing factory | 80 | 2.4 t fabric | 1.2 t clothes | 3.6 |
 Fabric factory | 100 | 20 t crops, 0.5 t chemicals | 5 t fabric | 25.5 |
 Food factory | 170 | 42 t crops | 20 t food | 62 |
 Distillery | 100 | 30 t crops | 6 t alcohol | 36 |
 Brick factory | 75 | 33 t coal | 51 t bricks | 84 |
| Coal power plant | 20 | 24 t coal | 1,400 MWh | 24 |
 Steel mill | 500 | 200 t iron, 357 t coal | 43 t steel | 600 |
| Oil refinery | 500 | 250 t oil | 125 t fuel, 75 t bitumen | 450 |
The explosives factory is the other low-traffic option the forum mentions. Its wiki page lists 75 workers and 1.2 t of explosives a day, made from chemicals and gravel, but gives no daily input amounts, so it is not in the table. Every building is in the full buildings table.
Working out the money for your own game
Open the Economy and trade window and read the sell price of the output and the buy price of each input. Daily value of one building = output tonnes × sell price, minus input tonnes × buy price for anything you import. To show the method, here are the prices visible in the official Steam screenshot above (one game, rubles per tonne; yours will differ):
- Food factory: 20 t × 3,122.95 = about 62,500 ₽ a day before crops, or about 367 ₽ per worker.
- Fabric factory: 5 t × 8,599.81 = about 43,000 ₽ a day before crops and chemicals, about 430 ₽ per worker.
- Explosives factory: 1.2 t × 30,122.02 = about 36,100 ₽ a day from 75 workers, about 482 ₽ per worker.
- Oil refinery on imported oil: fuel sells for 125 t × 4,886.61 = about 610,800 ₽, but 250 t of oil costs 250 × 2,299.63 = about 574,900 ₽ to import. That leaves about 35,900 ₽ plus whatever the bitumen fetches. A refinery pays when it runs on your own pumpjacks (about 36 of them at 7 t each), not on imports.
- Clothing factory: clothes are not on this page of the price list, but imported fabric costs 2.4 t × 9,505.05 = about 22,800 ₽ a day, so check that the clothes sell price times 1.2 t beats that by a margin.
That last point is the caveat from the 2023 thread: one player broke down a clothing factory's real costs (fuel, maintenance, wages) and found the profit much lower than the headline. Run the sum with your own prices before you commit.
Start at the end of the chain
The most repeated advice, and the marked answer in the 2019 getting-started thread: build the last factory first, import its inputs, then replace imports one link at a time, working back toward the mine or field. A food factory on imported crops costs 170 workers. Growing those crops yourself takes about 51 big fields with seasons on, plus farms, tractors and fuel. That can wait until the factory is paying.
Use the production chain calculator with fabric imported to see one clothing factory's numbers, then untick the import to see what the full chain back to the fields costs in workers.
Power as income
A coal power plant makes 1,400 MWh a day from 24 t of coal with 20 workers, so a small crew can run it. Electricity cannot go through a customs house; the wiki's trade page says it is sold only through electrical connections at the border, so check your map has one before planning around it. Size the plants with the power and heating calculator.
Questions
What is the best first industry in Workers & Resources?
Players most often recommend a clothing factory on imported fabric, because it needs 80 workers and very little transport. An oil refinery or coal power for export are the other common picks once you have more workers.
How do I make money early?
Export something with a high sell price that needs few workers and trucks, import its inputs, and keep imports of everything else low. Check the Economy and trade window for current prices in your game.
Is the oil refinery worth it on imported oil?
Often barely. In the official screenshot's prices, fuel from 250 t of imported oil earns only about 36,000 ₽ a day more than the oil cost, before bitumen. With your own pumpjacks the oil is free.
Should I build farms first?
Usually not. One food factory needs about 51 big fields with seasons on. Import crops until you have the workers and vehicles, then see the farm setup guide.
Are explosives a good start?
Forum players list them as decent because they need few vehicles: 1.2 t a day from 75 workers. The wiki does not give daily input amounts, so read them from the factory window in game.