What Is an SIC Code?

Video Transcript

"Do you own your own company? Hi, this is Roger Groh at Groh Asset Management. If you do, and you filled out a tax return at some point in the past, you may have seen a box in there labeled SIC code. What does that mean? Well, it's the Security Identification Code, which lumps businesses in the same general group together, meaning all the restaurant companies are in one, and the car manufacturers are in another, and the builders are in another, and the data companies, and the drug companies, and so forth. Is it helpful? Well, I suppose when you start to think about data collection in dissemination at the government level it might be helpful. Certainly, when you read the government statistics on health of industries and trends, it's all broken down by SIC code. So, there seems to be some benefits. On the analytical side, does it help? Maybe. In the screening programs that you can get on the Internet, generally businesses are broken down by industry group, which really means SIC code. So it's here to stay. Remember, SIC them, SIC. I'm Roger Groh at Groh Asset, thank you very much for spending time with me."