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Newly released historical gross domestic product by industry data based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) reaffirm the important contribution of information technology industries to the economic expansion of the late 1990’s, confirming the trends found in the previously published industry data.

The Bureau Of Economic Analysis’s release of data on GDP-by-industry for 1987-2000 completes a major step in its ongoing effort to provide historical industry data based on NAICS. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico jointly developed NAICS to provide improved comparability in industrial statistics across North America. It improves on the Standard Industrial Classification system by providing more detail on high-technology industries in both the goods- and services-producing sectors of the economy.

BEA developed the 1987-1997 estimates using a new methodology that provides historical annual estimates that are consistent over time and that incorporate the latest results from BEA's input-output accounts and the national income and product accounts. These new estimates are consistent with the NAICS GDP-by-industry estimates for 1998-2003 released in June as part of the integrated annual industry accounts. BEA continues to investigate options for providing NAICS-based GDP-by-industry estimates for years prior to 1987.

The new GDP-by-industry data for 1987-2000 also show:

• Real GDP growth accelerated during the 1995-2000 period to an average annual rate of 4.1 percent compared to 2.7 percent in the 1987-1995 period. The fastest-growing industry groups during the later period were durable goods manufacturing (8.9 percent) and information (8.0 percent). The computer and electronic products industry led the growth in durable goods manufacturing; and the publishing industry, which includes software, drove the growth in the information sector.

• The largest contribution to the economywide acceleration in growth--which takes into account the size of an industry group--was made by finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing, mostly due to growth in the securities, commodity contracts, and investments industry.

• Private services industries’ share of GDP expanded from 61.2 percent in 1987 to 66.5 percent in 2000. Over the same period, the share for private goods industries fell from 24.9 percent to 21.2 percent. Manufacturing’s share declined from 17.1 percent to 14.5 percent.

• Within the services sector, the share of the professional and business services industry group, which includes computer systems design and related services, increased the most, from 8.7 percent in 1987 to 11.6 percent in 2000. The finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing industry group had the next largest increase in share, from 17.7 percent to 19.7 percent.

All of these data are available without charge on BEA's Web site:

<www.bea.gov>