Commerce, trade, industry and public service, tourism, and agriculture are the major sources of employment.

Potentials.

Jinja city has several potentials that can be harnessed for its development. They include the following:

• Presence of diverse fairly skilled, welcoming and accommodative human resources that can be harnessed for development. 
• Availability of well-developed social infrastructure such as Educational Institutions including; top Primary and Secondary schools, Universities, Tertiary institutions, Technical institutions and health facilities. 
•  Jinja  city location on the shore of lake Victoria and the source of River Nile 
• Jinja  city is also a regional hub, with transport connectivity to other towns. It is an emerging metropolitan city servicing other small towns such Kamuli, Buwenge ,Njeru, Iganga, Luuka among others.
• Jinja city houses the regional administrative centres including the referral hospital, the regional police, Judiciary, land registry and the Bank of Uganda currency centre among others. It therefore offers a one stop centre for many services, creates jobs and incomes.
•  Favorable climate with two rainy seasons a year, the good alluvial soils that can support agricultural production