New York Area Employment – November 2012

Job Count Up 0.8 Percent over the Year in Area, Up 1.7 Percent in New York City

Total nonfarm employment for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area rose by 66,800 or 0.8 percent from November 2011 to November 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Martin Kohli, the Bureau’s chief regional economist, noted that this was the area’s smallest rate of over-the-year job growth since May 2011, when it was also 0.8 percent. In New York City, employment increased by 66,200 or 1.7 percent from November a year ago. (See table 1.) Nationally, employment increased by 1.4 percent from November 2011. (See chart 1. The Technical Note at the end of this release 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. Two divisions gained jobs during the year. New York-White Plains-Wayne had the largest increase, 70,500 jobs, though this was the smallest 12-month gain since April. Newark-Union added 3,700 jobs. In Edison-New Brunswick, employment was little changed. By contrast, in Nassau-Suffolk, employment dropped by 8,100, the largest over-the-year decline since March 2010.

New York-White Plains-Wayne also had the largest percentage increase in employment, 1.3 percent. Newark-Union and Edison-New Brunswick had modest increases of 0.4 and 0.1 percent, respectively. Nassau-Suffolk shed 0.6 percent of its employment. (See chart 2.)

Industry employment

Employment in professional and business services swelled by 64,100 to reach a series high of 1,387,500. The area’s increase included 44,300 jobs in New York City, with a gain of 13,700 jobs in employment services, which includes temporary help services. Strong growth was also reported in the City among professional and technical services, with about 10,000 jobs added in advertising, management consulting, computer systems design, and accounting. Professional and business services expanded by 4.8 percent in the New York area, outpacing the national average of 2.9 percent. (See chart 3.

Three other industries added at least 10,000 jobs in the area, led by education and health services, which grew by 15,800. Employment growth in colleges and home health care in New York City contributed to gains. Nevertheless, the area’s rate of job growth in education and health, 1.0 percent over the year, lagged that of the nation, 1.9 percent.

Other services added 12,500 jobs over the year. Trade, transportation, and utilities expanded by 11,600, virtually all in retail trade.

Employment in both financial activities and in leisure and hospitality rose by 2,000. For leisure and hospitality, this was the smallest increase in 36 months. In each of these two industries, the pace of job growth in the area lagged the national rate.

Three supersectors lost jobs. Mining, logging, and construction dropped 21,100 jobs in the New York area, with almost 15,000 jobs lost among specialty trade contractors. Government employment declined 13,900; the bulk of the loss occurred in local government, which shrank by almost 5,000 jobs in Nassau-Suffolk. Manufacturing employment contracted by 6,200 in the New York area, while expanding nationally.

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 November 2012. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job gains during the period, though the rates of growth were varied. In Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, employment increased by 3.2 percent, more than double the national rate of 1.4 percent. Three areas—San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, and Boston-Cambridge-Quincy—had growth rates of 2.0 percent or more. The five slowest-growing areas (Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, New York, Detroit-Warren-Livonia, and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach) all had rates of growth of less than 1.0 percent.. (See chart 4. and table 2.)

Among the 12 areas, Houston added the most jobs since November 2011, up 85,300. Los Angeles followed closely with the addition of 84,800 jobs. Employment in two other areas—Dallas and New York—grew between 73,000 and 66,000. The smallest gains were seen in Miami and Detroit, each gaining fewer than 13,000 jobs over the 12-month period.

Professional and business services registered the largest employment gains in five areas (Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco). Education and health services experienced the largest gains in three other areas (Dallas, Houston, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria), while trade, transportation, and utilities had the most growth in an additional two areas (Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta and Miami). The manufacturing industry registered the highest job growth in Detroit, and leisure and hospitality recorded the largest employment gain in Los Angeles.

Nine of the twelve metropolitan areas experienced employment declines in the public sector over the year. Government experienced the largest loss of jobs in six areas (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Miami) and the second largest loss in three other areas (Houston, New York, and Philadelphia). Los Angeles recorded the largest loss in government employment, down 17,800. In contrast, Washington added more than 6,500 jobs in government over the year.

Metropolitan area employment data for December 2012 are scheduled to be released on January 30, 2013.

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/.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request: voice phone: (202)-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (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.