FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: FOR RELEASE: Cheryl Abbot, Regional Economist August 27, 2008 (214) 767-6970 DALLAS-FORT WORTH-ARLINGTON JOB GROWTH HIGHEST IN THE NATION Total nonfarm employment in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 3,000,600 in July 2008, an increase of 68,000 jobs over the year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. From July 2007 to July 2008, nonfarm employment rose 2.3 percent in the local area compared to a decline of 0.1 percent nationwide. Among the 12 largest metropolitan areas in the country, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington registered the fastest rate of job growth during the past year and added the largest number of jobs. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that while the rate of job growth in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has slowed during the last year, the July advance continued the trend of over-the-year employment increases that began in February 2004. (See chart A and table 1; Technical Note at end of release contains metropolitan area definitions. 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 net change in the Dallas metropolitan area and its components, July 2000-July 2008 The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area is comprised of two metropolitan divisions -- separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. Both metropolitan divisions gained jobs from July 2007 to July 2008, the distribution of new jobs being roughly proportional to their employment concentrations. The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 71 percent of the greater metropolitan area's workforce, had 76 percent of the growth with the addition of 51,800 jobs from July a year ago. The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division made up 29 percent of those employed in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area and accounted for 24 percent of its overall growth with the addition of 16,200 jobs during the period. Industry employment In the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area, 6 of 10 industry supersectors added at least 7,000 jobs from July 2007 to July 2008. The educational and health services supersector experienced the largest employment gain, adding 15,500 jobs over the year. Both metropolitan divisions contributed to the advance, but the growth was stronger in Dallas-Plano-Irving (5.4 percent) than in Fort Worth-Arlington (3.9 percent). Still, job growth in both divisions exceeded the national rate of gain in education and health services of 3.1 percent. (See table 1 and chart B.) Government added 13,500 jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area from July a year ago. Almost all of the growth in public sector employment occurred in the Dallas-Plano-Irving division, which added 11,600 jobs. Locally, government employment rose at a 3.8-percent pace area-wide, more than double the national average of 1.7 percent. Chart B. Over-the-year percent change in employment by industry supersector, United States and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area, July 2008 Employment in natural resources, mining, and construction increased 11,100 over the year in the greater Dallas area, growing by 5.9 percent. The Dallas- Plano-Irving division accounted for most of the growth in this supersector, with the addition of 8,100 jobs. Trade, transportation, and utilities added 10,800 jobs from July a year ago. Locally, employment was up 1.7 percent in this industry while nationally, it fell 0.9 percent. Rounding out the top six industries in job gains, employment in leisure and hospitality in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area rose by 8,700 or 3.1 percent and in professional and business services, jobs increased by 7,200, a gain of 1.6 percent. Nationally, leisure and hospitality added jobs at a slower pace, 1.3 percent, while professional and business services registered a 0.4- percent decline. Job losses in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area were limited to two supersectors. Manufacturing had the largest decrease, down 3,100 jobs over the year; the decline occurred in the Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division. The information supersector lost 1,100 jobs since July 2007, with the majority of the loss also taking place in the Dallas-Plano-Irving division. Employment in the 12 largest areas Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington was one of the nation's 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in July 2008. Of the 12, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington registered the fastest rate of employment growth, up 2.3 percent from July 2007, closely followed by Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, up 2.2 percent. Four other areas experienced job growth during the 12-month period: Washington-Arlington- Alexandria (1.2 percent), Boston-Cambridge-Quincy (0.8 percent), New York- Northern New Jersey-Long Island (0.3 percent), and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (0.1 percent). Employment in another area, Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, was unchanged over the year. Nationally, however, jobs were on the decline, slipping by 0.1 percent. (See chart C.) Chart C. Over-the-year percent change in employment, United States and 12 largest metropolitan areas, July 2008 The percentage loss in jobs exceeded that for the nation in five of the largest metropolitan areas: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta (-0.2 percent), Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach (-0.5 percent), San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (-0.6 percent), Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (-0.8 percent), and Detroit- Warren-Livonia (-1.9 percent). Dallas, the area with the fastest annual growth rate in July 2008, also added the largest number of jobs over the year, 68,000, followed by Houston with the addition of 57,100 jobs. Washington, D.C. was a more distant third, adding 35,400 to its count. The largest numeric declines in employment occurred in Los Angeles (-45,000) and Detroit (-36,700). Additional information For personal assistance or further information on the Current Employment Statistics program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Southwest Information Office at 214-767-6970 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-877-8339. Technical Note This release presents nonfarm payroll employment estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program. The CES survey is a Federal-State cooperative endeavor in which State employment security agencies prepare the data using concepts, definitions, and technical procedures prescribed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment Definition. 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. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise Counties in Texas. The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall Counties in Texas. The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Johnson, Parker, Tarrant, and Wise Counties in Texas. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Area and Industry |
July 2007 |
May 2008 |
June 2008 |
July 2008(p) |
Change from July 2007 to July 2008 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Percent | |||||
U.S. |
||||||
Total nonfarm |
137,410 | 138,405 | 138,694 | 137,236 | -174 | -0.1 |
Natural resources and mining |
740 | 761 | 778 | 793 | 53 | 7.2 |
Construction |
7,941 | 7,306 | 7,425 | 7,459 | -482 | -6.1 |
Manufacturing |
13,926 | 13,567 | 13,629 | 13,532 | -394 | -2.8 |
Trade, transportation, and utilities |
26,610 | 26,396 | 26,478 | 26,367 | -243 | -0.9 |
Information |
3,041 | 3,011 | 3,022 | 2,993 | -48 | -1.6 |
Financial activities |
8,401 | 8,227 | 8,273 | 8,285 | -116 | -1.4 |
Professional and business services |
18,086 | 17,983 | 18,100 | 18,017 | -69 | -0.4 |
Educational and health services |
18,012 | 18,868 | 18,686 | 18,564 | 552 | 3.1 |
Leisure and hospitality |
14,142 | 13,906 | 14,248 | 14,328 | 186 | 1.3 |
Other services |
5,565 | 5,553 | 5,595 | 5,591 | 26 | 0.5 |
Government |
20,946 | 22,827 | 22,460 | 21,307 | 361 | 1.7 |
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX |
||||||
Total nonfarm |
2,932.6 | 3,005.5 | 3,015.4 | 3,000.6 | 68.0 | 2.3 |
Natural resources, mining, and construction |
188.6 | 194.8 | 198.9 | 199.7 | 11.1 | 5.9 |
Manufacturing |
298.2 | 294.6 | 295.1 | 295.1 | -3.1 | -1.0 |
Trade, transportation, and utilities |
621.0 | 628.1 | 631.1 | 631.8 | 10.8 | 1.7 |
Information |
89.6 | 89.4 | 90.2 | 88.5 | -1.1 | -1.2 |
Financial activities |
234.6 | 237.0 | 238.3 | 237.8 | 3.2 | 1.4 |
Professional and business services |
442.5 | 444.7 | 446.5 | 449.7 | 7.2 | 1.6 |
Educational and health services |
314.4 | 330.9 | 328.4 | 329.9 | 15.5 | 4.9 |
Leisure and hospitality |
284.8 | 292.1 | 295.8 | 293.5 | 8.7 | 3.1 |
Other services |
108.1 | 109.9 | 111.8 | 110.3 | 2.2 | 2.0 |
Government |
350.8 | 384.0 | 379.3 | 364.3 | 13.5 | 3.8 |
Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX |
||||||
Total nonfarm |
2,067.9 | 2,118.9 | 2,128.3 | 2,119.7 | 51.8 | 2.5 |
Natural resources, mining, and construction |
126.1 | 130.5 | 133.6 | 134.2 | 8.1 | 6.4 |
Manufacturing |
199.2 | 195.6 | 195.7 | 196.1 | -3.1 | -1.6 |
Trade, transportation, and utilities |
414.1 | 417.7 | 420.5 | 421.2 | 7.1 | 1.7 |
Information |
73.0 | 73.0 | 73.7 | 72.1 | -0.9 | -1.2 |
Financial activities |
186.5 | 188.4 | 189.6 | 189.2 | 2.7 | 1.4 |
Professional and business services |
338.8 | 341.8 | 343.0 | 345.8 | 7.0 | 2.1 |
Educational and health services |
218.8 | 230.5 | 229.6 | 230.6 | 11.8 | 5.4 |
Leisure and hospitality |
195.3 | 200.4 | 202.9 | 201.2 | 5.9 | 3.0 |
Other services |
75.3 | 76.6 | 77.9 | 76.9 | 1.6 | 2.1 |
Government |
240.8 | 264.4 | 261.8 | 252.4 | 11.6 | 4.8 |
Fort Worth-Arlington, TX |
||||||
Total nonfarm |
864.7 | 886.6 | 887.1 | 880.9 | 16.2 | 1.9 |
Natural resources, mining, and construction |
62.5 | 64.3 | 65.3 | 65.5 | 3.0 | 4.8 |
Manufacturing |
99.0 | 99.0 | 99.4 | 99.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Trade, transportation, and utilities |
206.9 | 210.4 | 210.6 | 210.6 | 3.7 | 1.8 |
Information |
16.6 | 16.4 | 16.5 | 16.4 | -0.2 | -1.2 |
Financial activities |
48.1 | 48.6 | 48.7 | 48.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
Professional and business services |
103.7 | 102.9 | 103.5 | 103.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
Educational and health services |
95.6 | 100.4 | 98.8 | 99.3 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
Leisure and hospitality |
89.5 | 91.7 | 92.9 | 92.3 | 2.8 | 3.1 |
Other services |
32.8 | 33.3 | 33.9 | 33.4 | 0.6 | 1.8 |
Government |
110.0 | 119.6 | 117.5 | 111.9 | 1.9 | 1.7 |