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GENERAL INFORMATION: (312) 353-1880	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MEDIA CONTACT: Paul LaPorte	Thursday, October 2, 2008
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August 2008 Job Count for the Chicago Area Declined Slightly Over the Year

Total nonfarm employment for the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 4,587,900 in August 2008, 5,700 below its year-ago level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.  Regional Commissioner Jay Mousa noted that the Chicago area’s job count edged down 0.1 percent over the past 12 months, less than the 0.3-percent national drop.  (See chart A and tables 1 and 2.  All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

Chart A. Total nonfarm employment, over-the-year percent change in the United States and the Chicago metropolitan area, August 2002-2008

The Chicago metropolitan area is made up of three metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area.  Virtually all of Chicago area job losses from August 2007 occurred in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet Metropolitan Division (-8,000), which accounted for 85 percent of the area’s workforce.  (See table 2.)  In the remaining two metropolitan divisions, which represented 15 percent of the area’s overall employment, the job count was little changed in Gary, Indiana, and up 2,600 in Lake County-Kenosha County.

Industry Employment

The construction supersector experienced the area’s largest over-the-year employment decline, dropping 7,900 jobs.  Almost all of the job loss occurred in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet division.  Though construction lost more jobs than any other supersector in the Chicago area, its rate of decline, at 3.5 percent, was slower paced than the 5.6-percent drop experienced nationally.  The construction industry in the Chicago area has recorded over-the-year declines in 19 of the past 20 months, with the last increase of more than 1,000 jobs occurring in December 2006.

After construction, the largest employment reductions in the Chicago area were in manufacturing, down 5,700 or 1.2 percent, and financial activities, which lost 4,600 jobs, falling 1.4 percent.  Locally, the rate of job loss in manufacturing was well under the national rate of 3.0 percent; in contrast, the percentage loss in financial activities was close to the national average of 1.2 percent.

  
Three industries in the Chicago area had growth over the year:  education and health services (8,600), trade, transportation, and utilities (5,200), and professional and business services (1,900).  Both locally and nationally, education and health services was the fastest growing supersector, though the rate of growth in the Chicago area, at 1.5 percent, was much slower than the nationwide gain of 3.2 percent.

 
Elsewhere, government and leisure and hospitality industry employment counts were relatively unchanged in the Chicago area from August a year ago.

 
Employment in the 12 Largest Areas

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet was one of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in August 2008.  Six of these 12 areas experienced over-the-year job losses, and five of these had reductions exceeding the national rate of decline of 0.3 percent.  Detroit-Warren-Livonia registered the largest percentage decline from August 2007, 3.0 percent, followed by Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, down 1.0 percent.  The other three areas with greater than average job loss were: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (both at -0.8 percent), and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (-0.7 percent).  Chicago-Naperville-Joliet also lost jobs, but at a slower pace (-0.1 percent). (See chart B and table 3.) 

Employment gains were reported in five of the remaining six areas:  New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (0.4 percent), Boston-Cambridge-Quincy (0.6 percent), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (1.5 percent), Dallas-Forth Worth-Arlington (2.0 percent), and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown (2.1 percent).  Employment in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington was virtually unchanged from August a year ago.

Dallas, the area with the second-fastest growth rate in August 2008, added the largest number of jobs over the year, 59,800.  Houston ranked second with the addition of 53,400 jobs, and Washington, D.C. was third with 44,600.  The largest declines in employment occurred in Detroit (-58,900) and Los Angeles (-43,400).

 

Chart B. Over-the year percent change in employment, 12 largest areas and the United States, August 2008

 

Technical Note

This release presents nonfarm payroll employment estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program for the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet Metropolitan Statistical Area, one of the 12 largest metropolitan areas. The rankings were based on population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007. The CES program is a Federal-State cooperative endeavor.

Employment

Definitions. Employment data refer to persons on establishment payrolls who receive pay for any part of the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. Persons are counted at their place of work rather than at their place of residence; those appearing on more than one payroll are counted on each payroll. Industries are classified on the basis of their principal activity in accordance with the 2007 version of the North American Industry Classification System.

Method of estimation. The employment data are estimated using a "link relative" technique in which a ratio (link relative) of current-month employment to that of the previous month is computed from a sample of establishments reporting for both months. The estimates of employment for the current month are obtained by multiplying the estimates for the previous month by these ratios. Small-domain models are used as the official estimators for the approximately 39 percent of CES published series which have insufficient sample for direct sample-based estimates.

Annual revisions. Employment estimates are adjusted annually to a complete count of jobs, called benchmarks, derived principally from tax reports that are submitted by employers who are covered under state unemployment insurance (UI) laws. The benchmark information is used to adjust the monthly estimates between the new benchmark and the preceding one and also to establish the level of employment for the new benchmark month. Thus, the benchmarking process establishes the level of employment, and the sample is used to measure the month-to-month changes in the level for the subsequent months.

Reliability of the estimates

The estimates presented in this release are based on sample survey, administrative data, and modeling and, thus, are subject to sampling and other types of errors. Sampling error is a measure of sampling variability—that is, variation that occurs by chance because a sample rather than the entire population is surveyed. Survey data also are subject to nonsampling errors, such as those which can be introduced into the data collection and processing operations. Estimates not directly derived from sample surveys are subject to additional errors resulting from the specific estimation processes used. The sums of individual items may not always equal the totals shown in the same tables because of rounding.

Employment estimates. Measures of sampling error are available for state CES data at the total nonfarm and supersector level and for metropolitan area CES data. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on November 20, 2007. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/bulletins/fy2008/b08-01.pdf.

Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties in Illinois; Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties in Indiana; and Kenosha County in Wisconsin.

The Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, and Will Counties in Illinois.

The Lake County-Kenosha County, Ill.-Wis. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Lake County in Illinois and Kenosha County in Wisconsin.

The Gary, Ind. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties in Indiana.

Additional information

For personal assistance or further information on the Current Employment Statistics program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Midwest Information Office at (312) 353-1880 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CT.

 

 

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