How Is Repair of Computers, Personal Goods and Motor Vehicles Classified?

Repair of computers, personal and household goods and motor vehicles in ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, covers fixing and maintaining those items so they work again. Computer repair includes fixing hardware and related equipment, while personal and household goods repair includes fixing items such as shoes, furniture, clothing and household appliances. Motor vehicle repair has a particular history: Rev. 4 division 45, which combined trade and repair of motor vehicles, was removed in Rev. 5, so readers should check the UNSD structure for the current placement of each motor vehicle activity rather than assuming the old division still applies.

Restoring something that already exists

Repair has a simple core idea that covers a wide range of workshops: fixing and maintaining an item so it works again, rather than making a new one or selling one. That idea is what unites a phone workshop, a cobbler, a furniture restorer and a car garage in one scope, even though their tools, skills and customers differ. In each case, the customer arrives with an item that is broken, worn or out of adjustment, and leaves with the same item, restored. The item’s identity survives the work. Computer repair includes fixing hardware and related equipment, while personal and household goods repair includes fixing items such as shoes, furniture, clothing and household appliances. Motor vehicle repair has a particular history that readers must not skip: Rev. 4 division 45, which combined trade and repair of motor vehicles, was removed in Rev. 5, so the current placement of each motor vehicle activity must be checked in the UNSD structure rather than assumed from the old division.

The workshops inside the scope

• Repair and maintenance of computers and communication equipment, including hardware faults and related equipment
• Repair of personal goods, including shoes, clothing and leather goods
• Repair of household goods, including furniture and appliances
• Repair and maintenance of motor vehicles, as described in the UNSD structure for Rev. 5

A workshop that replaces a faulty phone battery, tests the phone and returns it to its owner shows the first strand in miniature: diagnosis, a part fitted, testing, and the same phone back in the owner’s hand. A cobbler resoling shoes shows the second: worn soles removed, new soles fitted, stitching repaired, and the same pair of shoes wearable again. A workshop servicing a car engine shows the motor vehicle strand: inspection, adjustment or replacement of worn parts, testing, and the same vehicle returned to the road. Each activity restores an existing item, and Rev. 5 describes that restoration, not the manufacture of a new item and not the sale of a replacement.

Four things that look like repair but are counted elsewhere

Manufacturing a new computer, appliance or vehicle creates a new item, even if the factory uses similar tools to a repair workshop. Retailing a repaired item as a new sale is trade, because the transaction is a sale of an object, not a service performed on the customer’s own item. Selling spare parts without a repair service is trade as well, because no restoration is performed for that customer. Scrapping a vehicle or appliance without repair is waste and recycling work, because the item is dismantled or destroyed rather than restored. The dividing line in every case is whether the customer’s own item comes back working. If it does, the work is repair. If a different item is handed over, or no item comes back at all, the work belongs elsewhere, however similar the workshop floor may look.

Why repair totals matter to reuse, rights and skills

Repair statistics support circular economy policy, consumer rights and skills planning, and they do so in a way that no other total can. A society that repairs more throws away less and needs different skills: diagnosticians, technicians and craftspeople rather than only assembly workers and sales staff. If repair were counted as manufacturing or retail, the reuse story would disappear. Policy makers could not tell whether longer product lives came from better products or from better repair services, and they could not judge whether repair businesses were growing, what skills they needed, or whether consumers could actually get things fixed locally. Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, contains 22 sections from A to V, with 87 divisions, 258 groups and 463 classes in total, so a repair entry placed in the wrong group or class would blur exactly the trend that circular economy policy needs to see clearly. Verification means reading, not guessing: locate the activity in the UNSD structure, note the exact wording at each level, and confirm the result before it is used in a return or a register.

This guide is statistical classification only, and it cannot decide the code, principal activity or registration of any particular workshop, cobbler, restorer or garage. Those questions should be put to the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record for that business, before any code is used.