24 In the ANZSIC classes are created if certain conditions are met. The most important of these are that they represent recognisable segments of Australian and New Zealand industry, meet user requirements for statistics, are homogeneous in terms of industrial activity, are economically significant, and align as closely as practicable with the international standard.
25 The basic design principle underlying the formation of categories in the ANZSIC is that the categories should reflect as realistically as possible the way in which activities are actually organised within business units.
26 The homogeneity requirement reflects the need to form classes which are made up of units that undertake similar economic activities. Homogeneity of classes is measured by the calculation of specialisation and coverage ratios.
27. The specialisation ratio measures the extent to which units belonging to a particular class engage in the activities designated as primary to that class. The coverage ratio measures the extent to which the activities designated as primary to a particular class are undertaken by units belonging to that class. For individual classes to be recognised in the ANZSIC specialisation and coverage ratios generally had to exceed 70 per cent.
28. Individual classes had to be economically significant. The economic significance limit was set at a minimum of $200m turnover for Australia or $40m for New Zealand, or employment of 3,500 for Australia or 700 people for New Zealand. It was agreed that a class would be formed where it was economically significant in either country. 1989-90 was used as the reference period for assessing significance. No maximum size limit was set.
29. Alignment with ISIC was considered to be highly desirable, but this was departed from where following the ISIC was inappropriate for local conditions and requirements.
Abbreviations
30. Abbreviations used in this classification are:
n.e.c. - not elsewhere classified
Concordances
31. Concordances between classifications show the relationship between the various categories in them, and therefore the degree of comparability in data classified to them.
32. This publication includes broad concordances between the ASIC and the ANZSIC, the NZSIC and the ANZSIC, and the ISIC and the ANZSIC.
Index of Primary Activities
33. The Index of Primary Activities covers only those activities listed in the detailed classification. Many individual activities may be covered by the one description. This alphabetic index is suitable for finding the appropriate class to which an activity is primary when using broad or generic descriptions. For tasks involving regular coding to ANZSIC classes, users should consider the computer assisted ANZSIC Coder, discussed in the next topic.
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