IBISWorld usage mirrors news trends

I was just

scanning a usage report on our IBISWorld database and was struck by how the most downloaded industry reports over the last two months closely mirror major news events.

The single most popular report was on Dairy Product Production in Canada -- possibly peaking due to talk of supply management in our dairy industry playing a major role in the NAFTA (or "USMCA" as of last night) negotiations.  The significant demand for reports on Auto Parts Stores, Wholesaling, and Manufacturing in Canada might also be seen as being connected to NAFTA/USMCA negotiations.

The second most frequent download was a report on Oil Pipeline Transportation in the US. Given all the talk of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, I would have thought that Oil & Gas Pipeline Construction in Canada would have ranked higher, but I'm still going to view the demand for the US report among SFU researchers as being related to local protests, major court cases, and our federal government's purchase of the pipeline.

Perhaps also related to pipeline news is the high interest in Thermal Power in Canada, although that report's focus on energy generation via nuclear and fossil-fuel power plants could also be related to trends in our LNG sector or climate change concerns.

The many recent downloads of the IBISWorld report on Online Event Ticket Sales in the US might be connected to the CBC/Toronto Star investigation of Ticketmaster practices. (There is no Canadian equivalent of that industry report in IBISWorld, or I'd expect that title to have been high on the list as well.)

A few of the remaining titles at the top of our usage list could be due to interest in trade tariffs & trade wars between the USA and, well, everyone... but at this point I may be stretching to make a connection that isn't there... 

• Prefabricated Home Manufacturing in the US 
• Semiconductor & Circuit Manufacturing in the US
• Life Insurance & Annuities in Canada
• Wireless Telecommunications Carriers in Canada
• Cough & Cold Medicine Manufacturing OTC in the US
• Fast-Food Restaurants in China
• Ski & Snowboard Resorts in Canada

These are just 16 of the 2000+ IBISWorld industry reports available to SFU researchers via the SFU Library.  To learn more about this useful database, check out these blog posts, or just log into the database and explore!

-- Mark
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Mark Bodnar
Business & Economics Librarian
mbodnar@sfu.ca