Standard Industrial Classification - SIC Code
Categories: Metrics
In any bureaucratic system, you can’t just have regular names. It’s not bureaucratic enough. You can’t be Chandler Highfinger Foolbottom IV, even if you're really proud of having such an august name. The government doesn't really care about names. They want to turn everything into a number. So you get issued a social security number, and that becomes your ID.
The Standard Industrial Classification plays into that trend. Only, in this case, we're not dealing with individual people. Instead, the numbers related to entire industries.
The SIC code represents a four-digit number assigned to different industries. Sporting and recreational camps is 7032. If you run the Lamar Odom Basketball Camp for Wayward Youth, you'd be interested in that one. Motion Picture and Video Tape Production is 7812...including both George Clooney and whoever might still be producing things on video tape.
The codes, first established in the 1930s, are meant to help in gathering economic data. When the government statisticians compile stats on employment and wages, and correlate them with various industries, they use the SIC codes as part of the process.
