New Mexico was primarily an agricultural state until the 1940s, when military activities assumed major economic importance. Currently, major industries include manufacturing, petroleum, and food. Tourism also continues to flourish. Major employers range from Wal-Mart, Intel, Kirtland Air Force Base, to Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Honeywell, Inc. New Mexico's economy has an unusually large public sector, accounting for over 18% of total state product in 2001, compared to the state average of 12%. The state was relatively unaffected by both the boom of the late 1990s and the bust of 2001. In 1998 and 1999, the state posted anemic growth rates of 1.4% and 1.5%, and although this picked up to a strong 6.8% in 2000, growth continued at 5.4% in the recession year of 2001. The basis for the improvement—growth in general services, the government, transportation and utilities sector, and financial services offsetting steady losses in mining, manufacturing and construction—continued into 2002. As was true with the previous national recession in the early 1990s, New Mexico has not experienced net job losses.
New Mexico's gross state product in 2001 was $55.4 billion, the 37th highest among the states. General services contributed $25.4 billion; government, $10 billion; manufacturing, $7.5 billion; financial services, $7.4 billion; trade, $7.2 billion; transportation and public utilities, $4.1 billion, and construction, $2.4 billion. The public sector in 2001 constituted 18.1% of gross state product, the 3rd-largest among the states, after Hawaii and Alaska.