New Hampshire is one of the most industrialized states in the US, ranking well above the national median in proportion of labor force employed in manufacturing and in value added by manufacture. Between 1977 and 1982, manufacturing employment rose 13%, to 107,500, as many high-technology firms moved into the southern portion of the state. Since World War II, tourism has been one of the state's fastest-growing sources of income. Coming into the 21st century, the New Hampshire economy was booming, posting annual growth rates of 8.2% in 1998, 7% in 1999, and 9.3% in 2000. It was clearly headed for a correction, and in the national recession and slowdown of 2001 it was one of the few states that experienced a contraction for the year, albeit a small –0.4% contraction. Due to the large growth of information technology (IT) related jobs in southern New Hampshire in the 1990s, this was the region of New England that saw the greatest fall in personal income between mid-2000 and mid-2002.
New Hampshire's gross state product in 2001 was $47.2 billion, the 38th highest among the states, to which financial services contributed $11.8 billion; general services, $10.2 billion; trade, $8.3 billion; manufacturing, $7.6 billion; government, $3.8 billion; transportation and public utilities, $2.8 billion, and construction, $2.3billion. The public sector in 2001 constituted 9.1% of gross state product, the 4th-lowest percent among the states.