SIC stands for Standard Industrial Classification code and NAICS stands for North American Industry Classification System. The United States Dept. of Commerce uses these codes to classify every company into industries and products. The SIC codes are no longer officially in use. The NAICS codes were created to both improve on and replace the SICs and to meet the requirements of NAFTA. However, in many business research databases you will likely see both SICs and NAICS in use. Several Ryan-Matura library databases can help you determine the SIC or NAICS for a particular company. Knowing a company’s SIC/NAICS code will help you better understand that company’s industry and can also be a helpful database navigational tool in gathering additional industry information. Keep in mind that many companies, particularly large conglomerates operate in multiple industries and therefore list many codes.
The example below shows you where to find SIC and NAICS codes from Business Insights: Essentials.
Search for your company, once you pull up the company profile, you will see the NAICS codes listed on the right side of the page.
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