These databases will give you good overviews of specific industries, including major trends, important companies, and representative economic positions.
Industry codes are used to categorize businesses operating into similar lines of business. These codes define industries broadly, and narrowly, using hierarchical numbering schemes in most cases. Industry codes can be very useful when it comes to researching competitors.
NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) and SIC (Standard Industry Classification) are codes that group together companies of similar industries and sectors, such as retail trade, manufacturing or information technology.
Note: SIC was used by the Canadian and United States governments until 1987, when both countries adopted NAICS. SIC codes are still used in a number of the databases that BCIT Library subscribes to and print reference resources. In some cases, the SIC codes used in Canada differ from those used in the U.S. A print version of the SIC table of codes is found in the Canadian Key Business Directory
