SIC 3961 Costume Jewelry and Costume Novelties, Except Precious Metals

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT.
• ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE.
• BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT.
• CURRENT CONDITIONS.
• INDUSTRY LEADERS.
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 3961

This category encompasses businesses primarily engaged in manufacturing costume jewelry, costume novelties, and ornaments made of all materials, except precious metal, precious or semiprecious stones, and rolled gold paste and gold-filled materials. The products manufactured within this category include such items as necklaces, rings, artificial pearls, compacts, cuff links, and rosaries. Businesses primarily engaged in manufacturing jewelry of precious and semiprecious material are classified in SIC 3911: Jewelry, Precious Metal; those manufacturing leather compacts and vanity cases are classified in SIC 3172: Personal Leather Goods, Except Women's Handbags and Purses; and those manufacturing synthetic stones for gem stone and industrial use are classified in SIC 3299: Nonmetallic Mineral Products, Not Elsewhere Classified.

NAICS CODE(S)

339914

Costume Jewelry and Novelty Manufacturing

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

There were slightly more than 650 firms actively manufacturing costume jewelry in the United States in the early 2000s. Many of the older companies were still based in Rhode Island, which hosts the vast majority of the firms in this industry. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, total jewelry and silverware product shipments for 2003 were valued $4.7 billion, of which $820 million was attributed to costume jewelry. In 2004, retail sales of costume jewelry increased more than 5 percent, which brought its levels nearly to that of fine jewelry.

Only about 8 percent of the industry's total production was exported to other countries, including Canada, Japan, and Korea, the top three importers of American-made costume jewelry. Some of the firms were only involved in the manufacture of pieces using purchased components. The items were then sold to costume jewelry retailers, especially department stores. Other firms, however, both fabricate and market their own product lines.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

American costume jewelry companies manufacture products in various ways, primarily using base metals like tin and lead to fashion such findings as clasps and pin-backs—the basic components of a finished piece. One manufacturing process used is stamping, a labor-intensive method that produces a finer and more polished piece of metal. The more typical method in the shaping of metal for costume jewelry, however, is casting, which involves pouring molten metal into a mold. This process lends itself more readily to mass production of the jewelry. Manufacturers also utilize...