New York Area Employment – August 2012

Job Count Up 1.4 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 117,900 or 1.4 percent from August 2011 to August 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Chief Regional Economist Martin Kohli noted that the rate of job growth in the area matched 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. All four divisions gained jobs over the year. New York-White Plains-Wayne recorded the largest increase, 92,900 jobs. Newark-Union gained 16,300 jobs. Edison-New Brunswick and Nassau-Sufflok each added 6,000 or fewer jobs.

At 1.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively, New York-White Plains-Wayne and Newark-Union both exceeded the nation's 1.4-percent growth rate, while Edison and Nassau-Suffolk had growth rates of less than 1.0 percent. (See chart 2.)

Industry employment

The largest employment gain among New York area industries occurred in professional and business services, which expanded by 54,300, or 4.1 percent, over the year. (See table 1.) New York City added over two-thirds of the nearly 30,000 new area jobs in professional and technical services. Most of the City growth occurred in services related to accounting and bookkeeping, management and technical consulting, advertising, and computer systems design. Administrative and waste services, which include temporary help agencies, accounted for the rest of the New York area's growth (+23,300) in this supersector.

Three other supersectors registered job gains of at least 20,000 from August a year ago: leisure and hospitality (33,000), education and health services (31,600), and trade, transportation, and utilities (22,300).

Leisure and hospitality employment expanded in the New York area by 4.4 percent, twice the national rate of growth. (See chart 3. Accommodation and food services accounted for most of the increase, with New York City adding 15,400 jobs in food services and drinking places.

In education and health services, ambulatory health care services added over 15,000 jobs from last August. In trade, transportation, and utilities, employment gains were largely concentrated in retail trade, which added 16,000 jobs. Both New York City and the Newark-Union Metropolitan Division experienced sharp increases in store hiring. Local rates of job growth in education and health services and trade, transportation, and utilities were about the same as those nationwide.

A 17,000 increase in information employment was largely due to workers returning to company payrolls following an August 2011 strike in the telecommunications industry.

Partly offsetting area gains, three New York area supersectors had job losses of at least 5,000 over the year. New York City apparel manufacturers accounted for one out of every four of the manufacturing jobs lost (-5,500). Specialty trade contractors shed over 18,000 jobs throughout the area, accounting for virtually all of the loss in mining, logging, and construction. Government employment declined by 26,700, or 2.2 percent, with most of the drop occurring in local government. Nationally, government payrolls shrank by 0.7 percent.

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 August 2012. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job gains during the period, though the rates of growth were varied. Employment growth was more than double the national rate of 1.4 percent in Houston and San Francisco, up 3.5 and 3.2 percent, respectively. Three areas—Boston, Dallas, and Los Angeles—had a growth rate of 2.0 percent or more. The three slowest-growing areas, Miami, Philadelphia, and Chicago, 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 August 2011, up 117,900. Los Angeles and Houston followed with the addition of 103,000 and 89,500 jobs, respectively. Employment in three other areas—Dallas, San Francisco, and Boston—grew between 62,000 and 52,000. Only Miami gained fewer than 10,000 jobs over the 12-month period, up just 4,900.

Three industry supersectors accounted for the highest job growth in the 12 metropolitan areas from August a year ago. Professional and business services registered the largest employment gains in eight areas (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco). Education and health services experienced the largest gains in two other areas (Miami and Washington), while trade, transportation, and utilities had the most growth in the remaining two areas (Atlanta and Houston).

Widespread employment declines were recorded in the public sector over the year. Government experienced the largest loss of jobs in six areas (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, and New York) and the second largest loss in three other areas (Atlanta, Miami, and Philadelphia). Employment losses in the public sector exceeded 25,000 in New York. Both Washington and San Francisco added more than 2,500 jobs in government over the year.

Metropolitan area employment data for September 2012 are scheduled to be released on October 19, 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 Division 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.