Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment

April 29, 2009
Unemployment rates were higher in March than a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan areas. Of the 310 metropolitan areas for which nonfarm payroll data were available, 282 areas reported over-the-year declines in employment, 22 reported increases, and 6 had no change. More...
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Regional and State Employment and Unemployment

April 17, 2009
In March, 46 states recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, North Dakota and the District of Columbia registered rate decreases, and 3 states had no change in their rate. Nonfarm payroll employment decreased in 48 states and the District of Columbia and rose in 2 states. More...
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Current SAE Economic News Releases

• Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment
• Regional and State Employment and Unemployment
• Upcoming Release Dates for the rest of this calendar year.

Archived

• Archived Regional and State Employment and Unemployment News Releases (1993 forward)
• Archived Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment News Releases (1998 forward)

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Tutorials: For help, try these tutorials
Employment, Hours, and Earnings - State and Metro Area (Current Employment Statistics - CES)

More Tools

• Series Report — Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.

All SAE Databases

Monthly Tables

• Experimental All-Employee Estimates of Hours and Earnings by State
• Monthly Tables
  • B-7 Employees on nonfarm payrolls by State and major industry, seasonally adjusted (PDF)
  • B-14 Employees on nonfarm payrolls in States and selected areas by major industry (PDF)
  • B-15 Employees on nonfarm payrolls by state, selected metropolitan areas, and metropolitan divisions (PDF)
  • B-19 Average hours and earnings of production and non-supervisory workers on manufacturing payrolls, by State (PDF)

  2008 Annual Average Tables

  • Employees on nonfarm payrolls in States and selected areas by major industry (PDF)
  • Employees on nonfarm payrolls by state, selected metropolitan areas, and metropolitan divisions (PDF)
  • Average hours and earnings of production workers on manufacturing payrolls in States and selected areas (PDF)

• Monthly Labor Review Articles by CES staff
  • Job growth in the 1990s: a retrospect (Abstract) (Excerpt) (PDF 71K)
  • Job growth in television: cable versus broadcast (Abstract) (Excerpt) (PDF 71K)
  • The impact of strikes on current employment statistics (Technical note 45K)
• Technical Notes
  • Employment and Earnings Technical Notes
  • Handbook of Methods, Chapter 2
  • 2007 North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes from the Census Bureau
• CES Report Forms for Establishments
• Related Research
  • Reliability of State and Area Estimates --Notes on variance and benchmark revisions; and standard errors associated with 1-, 3-, and 12-month changes for employment estimates.
• Current Benchmark Information
  • Revisions in State Establishment-based Employment Estimates Effective January 2009
  • Archived Benchmark Information

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I receive a copy of the State and Area press release?
2. Please explain the seasonal adjustment process.
3. What is the CES definition of employment?
4. On what basis are the industries in the CES Survey classified?
5. What kinds of hours and earnings data are available?
6. How are the data in the Current Employment Statistics Survey collected?
7. How are estimates in the CES Survey derived?
8. Why are estimates in the CES Survey benchmarked?
9. Are CES Estimates Revised? If so, how?
10. Are CES data subject to administrative mandates?
11. What distinguishes the CES geographic data from other economic data? Are there potential problems with using the data?
12. I have a question, but it is not on this list...
13. I want to learn more about the CES survey; can you provide me with some references so I can explore on my own?

All SAE FAQs »

• NEW Changes to Procedures for Producing Current Employment Statistics (CES) State Estimates
• Experimental All-Employee Estimates of Hours and Earnings by State
• IMPORTANT Reductions to Current Employment Statistics Metropolitan Area Series
• List of Published State and Metropolitan Area Series
• Changes to Current Employment Statistics Survey
• IMPORTANT Effects of Hurricane Katrina on BLS Data Collection and Estimation
• Notice of Series Changes with the Update to 2007 North American Industry Classification and Annual Benchmark Release on March 11, 2008
• Details and Documentation on the Conversion to the 2007 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) from 2002 NAICS
• Recent Corrections to State and Metro Area Current Employment Statistics Series

Other BLS Programs

• Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National)--monthly national data by detailed industry on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on the payrolls of nonfarm establishments.
• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages --comprehensive employment and wage data by industry and geographic area for workers covered by State Unemployment Insurance laws.
• Local Area Unemployment Statistics--monthly and annual employment, unemployment, and labor force data for Census regions and divisions, States, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence.
• Sources of BLS Employment Data

Other Useful Links

• Bureau of the Census
• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
• FEDSTATS --Searchable gateway to statistics from over 100 Federal agencies

CES State and Area Contacts

Further information may be obtained by contacting the Current Employment Statistics State and Area program via email or calling (202)691-6559 from 8:45 am through 4:45 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday.

The cooperating State Employment Security Administrations (SESAs) have labor market information offices which publish and disseminate CES data for their State.