Finding the Sic / Naic Code

FINDING THE SIC/NAICS CODE

Before you begin your research, you must determine what you know and what you need to know. For example, are you researching a company or an industry? Are you comparing one company to the rest of the industry? Do you have a brand name versus the company name? If you know the company name, does this company produce products in different industries? If so, which products or industries will you examine?

To find information on an industry, we must first find the numeric classification for that industry or the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. SICs are four-digit numerical classifications that the U.S. government assigns to companies to identify their

primary business or industry. The codes give us a progressive layer of detail, from industry type to product or service, e.g. footwear manufacturing, broadly, to running shoes, specifically. The first two digits represent the broad industry for the business and the last two digits narrow that industry. To find the SIC for an industry, conduct a keyword search on the

Department of Labor's SIC website: http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html

For example, let's search for the shoe industry and use "footwear" or "shoe industry" as our keyword. From the list of results, select the appropriate industry to get a full description of what is covered in that industry. For our example, let's select SIC 3021: Rubber and Plastics Footwear. Clicking on that link gives us a full description of what is covered in that industry.

Now, that we have identified the SIC code 3021 for our industry, we can use that code to do an industry search in the databases below. The SIC allows you to narrow your focus and be more exact. It is important to note, however, that in addition to the Standard Industrial

Classification