Total nonfarm employment in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 3,370,500 in April 2015, up 125,800 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. From April 2014 to April 2015, local nonfarm employment rose 3.9 percent, well above the national increase of 2.2 percent. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that among the 12 largest metropolitan areas in the country, Dallas ranked first in the rate of job growth and third in the number of jobs added. (See chart 1 and table 1; the Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

 

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of two metropolitan divisions – separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 70 percent of the area’s workforce, added 93,600 jobs from April a year ago, a gain of 4.1 percent. The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division, which accounted for the remaining 30 percent of the area’s workforce, added 32,200 jobs during the 12-month period, a 3.3-percent increase.

Industry employment

Trade, transportation, and utilities, the metropolitan area’s largest supersector, registered the largest annual employment gain in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, adding 31,900 jobs since April 2014. (See table 1 and chart 2.) The local rate of job growth, 4.8 percent, was more than double the national rate of 2.1 percent. Local employment expanded in all three industry subsectors, led by the addition of 11,300 retail trade jobs. Wholesale trade added 10,500 jobs and employment in transportation and utilities rose by 10,100 during the period.

The professional and business services supersector added 27,900 jobs from April 2014, a 5.3-percent increase; nationally, employment was up 3.6 percent in this supersector. Local growth was concentrated in the Dallas-Plano-Irving division, which added 26,000 jobs during the period, a 6.2-percent increase, compared to Fort Worth-Arlington where annual growth was 1,900 or 1.7 percent.

The Dallas area’s education and health services supersector added 18,500 jobs, a 4.7-percent gain over the year. Nationwide, this industry registered a 2.7-percent increase from April a year ago.

Employment in leisure and hospitality rose by 17,700 from April 2014, an increase of 5.3 percent. Both metropolitan divisions contributed to the increase, with Dallas adding 11,700 jobs and Fort Worth adding 6,000 jobs. Nationwide, leisure and hospitality employment rose 3.1 percent during the period.

 

The financial activities supersector added 12,400 jobs since April 2014, a 4.7-percent increase. Local growth was greatest in the insurance carriers industry, which gained 4,000 jobs over the year, a 9.9-percent increase. Nationally, the rate of job growth for the financial activities supersector was 1.9 percent.

Three other local supersectors recorded employment gains of at least 1,800 from April 2014: mining, logging, and construction (9,000); government (7,900); and other services (1,800). Within the mining, logging, and construction sector, both metropolitan divisions added jobs, with Dallas-Plano-Irving adding over three times as many jobs (6,900) as Fort Worth-Arlington (2,100). Within the government sector, local government in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area accounted for the largest share of the rise (6,700), with state government also contributing (1,200); federal government employment was unchanged over the year. Locally, total government employment rose 2.0 percent, compared to a 0.3-percent national gain. In the other services sector, nearly all of the over-the-year local expansion occurred in the Dallas-Plano-Irving division, up 1,700 since April 2014.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Dallas was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in April 2015. All 12 areas experienced over-the-year job growth, with 7 areas exceeding the U.S. average of 2.2 percent. Dallas had the fastest rate of job growth, 3.9 percent, followed by Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach; and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, at 3.4 percent each. The slowest rates of job growth were in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (1.1 percent) and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (1.3 percent). (See chart 3 and table 2.)

 

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim added the largest number of jobs, 160,100. New York-Newark-Jersey City and Dallas added more than 125,000 jobs. Philadelphia recorded the smallest employment gain (31,600), followed by Boston-Cambridge-Nashua (44,300).

Professional and business services registered the largest over-the-year employment gains in 6 of the 12 metropolitan areas from April a year ago—Boston, Chicago, Miami, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, San Francisco, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Education and health services added the most jobs in three areas—Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia.

Manufacturing recorded the largest job losses in Chicago, New York, and Phoenix. Houston and Miami recorded no over-the-year job losses in any supersector.

Metropolitan area employment data for May 2015 are scheduled to be released on Friday, June 19, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

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 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 sample surveys, 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 are available for state CES data at the total nonfarm and supersector level and for metropolitan area CES data. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available on the BLS Web site at 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 on December 1, 2009. A detailed list of geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise Counties in Texas.

• The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall Counties in Texas.
• The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division includes Hood, Johnson, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise Counties in Texas.

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; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.