New York Area Employment – May 2012

Job Count Up 1.3 Percent over the Year in Area, Up 2.0 Percent in New York City

Total nonfarm employment for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area rose by 107,800 or 1.3 percent from May 2011 to May 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Deborah A. Brown noted that the rate of job growth in the area was little different from the national rate of 1.4 percent, with most of the area's growth concentrated in New York City. (See table 1. and chart 1. The Technical Note contains metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

The New York metropolitan area is made up of four metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. Three of the four divisions gained jobs over the year. New York-White Plains-Wayne recorded the largest increase, 89,500 jobs. Newark-Union and Nassau-Suffolk each gained about 10,000 jobs. Edison-New Brunswick was the only area to lose jobs, down 1,400.

At 1.7 percent, New York-White Plains-Wayne also had the largest percent increase in employment and was the only division to exceed the national growth rate of 1.4 percent in May 2012. Jobs in Newark-Union grew at a rate of 1.1 percent and in Nassau-Suffolk, at 0.7 percent. Employment in Edison-New Brunswick edged down 0.1 percent over the year. (See chart 2.)

Industry employment

Professional and business services added 53,500 jobs from May 2011, accounting for half the New York area's employment gain. (See table 1.) This marked the 26th consecutive month of over-the-year job growth in this supersector. Jobs in professional and business services grew at a faster-than-average pace from the previous May, 4.1 percent. In professional and business services, most of the growth occurred in New York City, where the fastest growing industries were accounting, tax preparation and bookkeeping, up 20.9 percent, and employment services (which includes temporary help), up 17.3 percent over the year. (See table 2. and chart 3.)

Two other supersectors registered job gains of at least 20,000 from May a year ago: leisure and hospitality (23,900) and trade, transportation, and utilities (23,100). Over three-quarters of the area's increase in leisure and hospitality occurred in New York City, where food services and drinking places, and performing arts and spectator sports added the most jobs—9,000 and 6,800, respectively.

In trade, transportation and utilities, the increase in employment was largely attributable to gains in retail trade, up 20,200.

Education and health services added 17,300 jobs from May a year ago. Employment gains in this supersector were led by health care and social assistance, with ambulatory health care services in New York-White Plains-Wayne expanding by almost 10,000 jobs. Still, growth in education and health services (1.1 percent) trailed the national pace (2.5 percent).

The addition of 13,900 jobs in financial activities in the New York area represented growth of 1.9 percent from May 2011, which outpaced the national rate of 0.5 percent for this supersector. Employment gains in financial activities were concentrated in New York City which saw an increase of 8,500 jobs, 7,300 in the finance and insurance industries.

Four supersectors registered a decrease in jobs from May 2011 to May 2012. The largest employment decline in the metropolitan area, as well as the steepest, occurred in mining, logging, and construction, down 18,600, or 6.2 percent. In Nassau-Suffolk and Edison-New Brunswick combined, specialty trade contractors' employment accounted for almost half of the area losses.

Government lost 10,100 jobs over the year, distributed roughly equally between the federal, state, and local governments. It was the only other supersector in the area to register a double-digit job loss from May a year ago.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island area was 1 of the nation's 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in May 2012. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job gains during the period, though the rates of growth were varied. Employment growth was strongest in Houston, up 3.4 percent—more than twice the U.S. average. Five other areas—San Francisco, Detroit, Dallas, Boston, and Washington—were also above the national rate of increase of 1.4 percent, though none had a growth rate exceeding 2.0 percent. The three slowest growing areas, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Miami, all had rates of growth below 1.0 percent. (See chart 4. and table 2.)

Among the 12 areas, New York added the most jobs since May 2011, up 107,800. Houston and Los Angeles followed with the addition of 88,000 and 63,800 jobs, respectively. Employment in three other areas grew between 55,000 and 40,000. Only Philadelphia gained fewer than 10,000 jobs over the 12-month period.

Two industry supersectors accounted for most of the job growth in the 12 metropolitan areas from May a year ago. Professional and business services registered the largest employment gains in six areas (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco), and education and health services experienced the largest gains in four other areas (Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, and Washington).

Widespread employment declines were recorded in the public sector over the year. Government experienced the largest loss of jobs in six areas (Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia) and the second largest loss in three other areas (Chicago, Miami, and New York). Employment losses in the public sector exceeded 10,000 in three areas—Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York. Only Washington added jobs in government, up 3,300 from the previous May.

Metropolitan area employment data for June 2012 are scheduled to be released on August 1, 2012.

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 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 a 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 for state CES data at the supersector level are available online at www.bls.gov/sae/790stderr.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Additional information. 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 www.bls.gov/sae/.

For personal assistance or further information on the Current Employment Statistics program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the New York-New Jersey Information Office at (646) 264-3600 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.

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 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties in New York State; Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, and Union Counties in New Jersey; and Pike County, Pennsylvania.

• The Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division consists of Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Somerset Counties in New Jersey.
• The Nassau-Suffolk Metropolitan Divison consists of Nassau and Suffolk Counties in New York.
• The New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division consists of Bronx, Kings, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, and Westchester Counties in New York State; and Bergen, Hudson, and Passaic Counties in New Jersey.
• The Newark-Union Metropolitan Division consists of Essex, Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, and Union Counties in New Jersey; and Pike County in Pennsylvania.