Global Industry Classification System

The financial services industry is eager to see a global system in place for classifying companies and industries. This is important to economic development because it will impact how you define future target industries and clusters.

Standard & Poor's and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) jointly launched the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®) in 1999, which is aimed at easing the investment research and management process for financial professionals worldwide. The system is revised often to reflect company and industry changes.

Effective on April 30, 2003 the Global Industry Classification Standard consists of 10 economic sectors aggregated from 24 industry groups, 62 industries, and 132 sub-industries. All economic sectors have a two-digit identification code, all Industry Groups have a 4-digit identification code, all Industries have a 6-digit identification code and all Sub-Industries have an 8-digit identification code.

S&P 500 GICS® Sectors

-Consumer Discretionary, S5COND
-Consumer Staples, S5CONS
-Energy, S5ENRS
-Financials, S5FINL
-Health Care, S5HLTH
-Industrials, S5INDU
-Information Technology, S5INFT
-Materials, S5MATR
-Telecommunication Services, S5TELS
-Utilities, S5UTIL

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