Allentown Metropolitan Area Job Count in September 2007
Rose by 7,100 Over the Year (PDF)

Total nonfarm employment for the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Pa.-N.J. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) stood at 351,000 in September 2007, 7,100 above the job count one year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment growth in the Allentown area, at 2.1 percent, outpaced the 1.2-percent gain for the nation as a whole in September 2007. Regional Commissioner Sheila Watkins noted that over-the-year employment gains in the Allentown metropolitan area extended back to September 2003 without interruption—the 49th consecutive increase in local payrolls. (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 percent change in the United States and the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Pa.-N.J. metropolitan area, September 1997-2007

In the Allentown metropolitan area, four industry supersectors (trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; professional and business services; and leisure and hospitality) gained 1,000 or more jobs from September 2006 to September 2007. In contrast, manufacturing was the only industry to lose at least 1,000 jobs over the year. Employment in the remaining five supersectors was little changed. (See table 1.)

The trade, transportation, and utilities supersector was the job-growth leader in the Allentown area in September 2007, up 2,700 from September a year ago. This industry has had 34 consecutive months of over-the-year gains. The recent advance represented a 3.9-percent increase, well above the 1.1-percent growth rate for trade, transportation, and utilities employment in the United States during the same period. As of September 2007, there were 72,800 trade, transportation, and utilities jobs in the Allentown area, making this its largest supersector with over one-fifth of total nonfarm employment.

Over the last 12 months, the education and health services supersector added 2,200 jobs in the Allentown area, an increase of 3.6 percent. During the same period, U.S. employment in this industry grew at a rate of 3.3 percent. In Allentown, over-the-year gains in education and health services extended back to August 1999 (98 consecutive months) without interruption. Local employment in education and health services stood at 63,600 in September 2007. Since September 1990, the first year this data series was available, 24,500 jobs have been added in this industry, an increase of 62.7 percent.

The professional and business services supersector gained 1,500 jobs in the Allentown area from September 2006. Allentown’s 3.4-percent growth rate was above the national increase of 1.8 percent in this industry supersector. In September 2007, there were 45,100 professional and business services jobs in the Allentown area, up 16,700, or 58.8 percent, from the September 1990 level.

Employment in the leisure and hospitality industry in Allentown rose by 1,100 from September 2006 to September 2007, a 3.6-percent advance. On the national level, employment in this industry increased 2.9 percent over the year. In the Allentown metropolitan area, leisure and hospitality employment stood at 32,000 in September 2007, an increase of 9,700, or 43.5 percent, since September 1990.

Job counts in natural resources, mining, and construction; financial activities; information; government; and other services, varied by less than 1,000 from last year’s levels in the metropolitan area.

Manufacturing was the only supersector in the Allentown area to lose more than 1,000 jobs over the year, falling by 1,300, or 3.2 percent. In the United States as a whole, manufacturing employment declined 1.4 percent. Decreases in manufacturing employment in the Allentown area extended back nearly six years with little interruption—the last over-the-year increase of at least 1,000 jobs in this industry occurred in May 2001. Manufacturing employed 38,800 in the Allentown area in September 2007, 26,900 fewer than in September 1990, a decline of 40.9 percent over the 17-year period.

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.

Definitions. Employment data refer to persons on establishment payrolls who receive pay for any part of the pay period which 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 2002 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 approximately 10 percent of CES published series.

Annual revisions. Employment estimates are adjusted annually to a complete count of jobs, called benchmarks, derived principally from tax reports which 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 and administrative data 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 are also 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 special 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 for state CES data at the supersector level are available on the BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/sae/790stderr.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available at http://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, dated December 18, 2006. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is published annually in the May issue of Employment and Earnings.

The Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Pa.-N.J. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Carbon, Lehigh, and Northampton counties in Pennsylvania and Warren County in New Jersey.

Additional information

More complete information on the technical procedures used to develop these estimates and additional data appear in Employment and Earnings, which is available by subscription from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 (telephone 202-512-1800).

Industry employment data for states and metropolitan areas from the CES program are also available in the above-mentioned news releases and from the Internet at (http://www.bls.gov/sae/).

For personal assistance or further information on the Current Employment Statistics program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Mid-Atlantic Information Office at 215-597-3282 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET.