Information may be found in news, business or trade publications, company or industry profiles, annual reports, SEC filings, investment or analyst reports, consulting firms information and from industry experts.
Industry overviews with snapshots that include recent developments, business challenges, trends & opportunities, insight from executives, financial information, forecasts and ratings. Also, industry profiles for North American states and provinces.
IBISWorld provides industry research that covers more than 700 industries as well as specialized industry reports on emerging industries. Reports include the industry at a glance, performance, outlook, life cycle, competitive landscape and more.
The Federal government classifies manufacturing and service industries and assigns each a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code number in order to promote the comparability of statistics. The SIC/NAICS codes are used in many online and print resources to classify establishments in the same industry. The codes can be very helpful in doing industry research.
The SIC code has been revised over the years and some code numbers have changed. It is important to be careful when comparing data from different publishers and over a long period of time. Beginning with the 1997 Economic Census, the Census Bureau began using a new North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) (pronounced "nakes") which is more closely aligned with international codes. Many commercial publications have converted to NAICS, but some still use SIC codes.
Various state and federal governmental organizations track statistical information industries. The NAICS code can assist you in data collection for research by industry.