Richmond Area Employment – June 2012

Local and National Employment Rise at the Same Rate Over the Year

Total nonfarm employment for the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 623,400 in June 2012, up 8,100 or 1.3 percent over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, the national job count also rose 1.3 percent. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the June 2012 employment increase was the 24th consecutive over-the-year rise in the Richmond metropolitan area and the 22nd nationwide. (See chart 1 and table 1. The Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definition. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

In the greater Richmond metropolitan area, the trade, transportation, and utilities supersector gained 3,100 jobs from June 2011 to June 2012, more than any other industry. The recent advance represented a 2.7-percent employment increase from last June, more than twice the national growth rate of 1.1 percent for this industry.

Four other industries in the Richmond area recorded job gains of 1,000 or more over the year: leisure and hospitality and professional and business services (2,600 each), financial activities (1,500), and government (1,000). Nationwide, three of these four supersectors added jobs since June a year ago with only government recording a loss. (See chart 2.)

In the Richmond area, manufacturing was the only supersector to lose 1,000 or more jobs over the year, down 1,300 or 4.1 percent since June 2011. Locally, the supersector has posted consecutive over-the-year declines in employment for more than 12 years. Nationally, the manufacturing supersector reported over-the-year job gains, up 2.0 percent.

 

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 between State employment security agencies and 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 2007 version of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

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 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 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 www.bls.gov/sae/790stderr.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available at www.bls.gov/sae/.

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 online at www.bls.gov/opub/ee/home.htm. Industry employment data for states and metropolitan areas from the Current Employment Statistics program are also available in the above mentioned news releases and from the Internet at www.bls.gov/sae/.

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 Richmond, Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Amelia, Caroline, Charles City, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, King and Queen, King William, Louisa, New Kent, Powhatan, Prince George, and Sussex Counties and Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg, and Richmond cities in Virginia.

Table 1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry supersector, U.S. and Richmond, Va. Metropolitan area, not seasonally adjusted (numbers in thousands)

Area and Industry	Jun 2011	Apr 2012	May 2012	Jun 2012(1)	Jun 2011 to Jun 2012(1)
					Net Change	Percent Change
United States
Total nonfarm	132,340	132,945	133,725	134,116	1,776	1.3
Mining and logging	794	827	841	852	58	7.3
Construction	5,704	5,389	5,550	5,717	13	0.2
Manufacturing	11,806	11,873	11,931	12,038	232	2.0
Trade, transportation, and utilities	25,098	25,060	25,271	25,383	285	1.1
Information	2,684	2,626	2,644	2,645	-39	-1.5
Financial activities	7,725	7,694	7,723	7,785	60	0.8
Professional and business services	17,437	17,794	17,840	18,031	594	3.4
Education and health services	19,655	20,415	20,359	20,089	434	2.2
Leisure and hospitality	13,921	13,509	13,824	14,198	277	2.0
Other services	5,407	5,353	5,382	5,442	35	0.6
Government	22,109	22,405	22,360	21,936	-173	-0.8
Richmond, Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area
Total nonfarm	615.3	615.2	617.5	623.4	8.1	1.3
Mining, logging, and construction	32.9	31.7	32.3	32.4	-0.5	-1.5
Manufacturing	31.9	30.5	30.5	30.6	-1.3	-4.1
Trade, transportation, and utilities	113.1	114.8	115.9	116.2	3.1	2.7
Information	9.2	8.9	8.8	8.9	-0.3	-3.3
Financial activities	43.9	45.5	45.7	45.4	1.5	3.4
Professional and business services	97.1	97.5	98.1	99.7	2.6	2.7
Education and health services	85.9	84.9	84.3	85.1	-0.8	-0.9
Leisure and hospitality	57.1	55.8	56.8	59.7	2.6	4.6
Other services	30.2	29.9	30.2	30.4	0.2	0.7
Government	114.0	115.7	114.9	115.0	1.0	0.9
Footnotes: (1) State and regional data for the most recent month are preliminary; U.S. data are preliminary for two months.

Last Modified Date: July 30, 2012