1 Areas in the six New England states are defined as Metropolitan New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs), while areas in other states are county-based and identified as metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions. However, for comparative purposes, the Boston NECTA and its divisions have been referred to as a metropolitan area and metropolitan divisions. See technical note for more information on the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy NECTA.
Metropolitan divisions
The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area is comprised of nine metropolitan divisions - separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy division, the largest of the nine, accounted for 69 percent of area employment in April 2008, but 85 percent of its growth with the addition of 20,800 jobs. The remaining eight divisions each accounted for less than 7 percent of the workforce.
Two industry supersectors accounted for most of the employment growth in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy division-professional and business services, up 7,200 from April 2007, and educational and health services, up 6,800.
Industry employment
The largest industry supersector in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metropolitan area was educational and health services, which added 11,400 jobs from April 2007 to April 2008, an increase of 2.4 percent. This was below the national increase of 3.0 percent for this industry. Educational and health services employment accounted for about one-fifth of the jobs in the Boston area in April 2008, but the over-the-year increase was responsible for nearly half of the total job growth. Locally, over-the-year gains in this supersector have continued uninterrupted since April 2001.
From April a year ago, the professional and business services supersector in the Boston area added 6,900 jobs, increasing 1.7 percent. This was the 51st consecutive month with an over-the-year gain in this industry supersector. Nationwide, professional and business service jobs grew at a slower pace over the year, 0.8 percent.
Locally, the leisure and hospitality supersector added 4,500 jobs in April 2008, which was the 52nd consecutive month with an over-the-year increase. The recent advance represented an increase of 2.1 percent, just below the national growth rate of 2.3 percent.
Government employment rose by 3,900, a gain of 1.3 percent over the year, bringing the total of public sector jobs in the greater Boston area to 309,200 in April 2008. Nationwide, government employment was up 1.0 percent.
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>Employment in information (which includes such industries as software publishing, traditional publishing, broadcasting, telecommunications, and data processing) rose by 1,100 in the greater Boston area since April 2007, a gain of 1.5 percent. Employment in this sector decreased 0.8 percent over the year nationally.
Two supersectors in the Boston metropolitan area lost 1,000 or more jobs from April 2007 to April 2008 - manufacturing and financial activities. Manufacturing continued its downward slide in April 2008 with a loss of 1,600 jobs, bringing its employment level to 219,800, a decline of 0.7 percent. The last time manufacturing payrolls added at least 1,000 jobs over a 12-month period was February 2001. Nationally, employment in the manufacturing supersector was down 2.4 percent.
Financial activities employment in the greater Boston area declined by 1,100 from April a year ago, a loss of 0.6 percent. As of April 2008, there were 187,500 financial activities jobs locally. Nationwide, jobs in financial activities declined at a faster pace over the year, down 1.1 percent.
Employment in the four remaining supersectors - trade, transportation, and utilities; natural resources and mining; other services (which includes such industries as equipment and machinery repairing, dry cleaning and laundry, personal care, death care, pet care, and photofinishing); and construction - was little changed over the year.
Twelve largest metropolitan areas
The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in April 2008. Eight of these areas experienced over-the-year job growth greater than the national increase of 0.3 percent. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, registered the fastest rate of gain, up 2.8 percent from April 2007 to April 2008, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, up 2.3 percent. The other six areas with above-average growth were: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga. (1.2 percent), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va., and Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H. (1.0 percent each); San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif. (0.8 percent), New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa. (0.7 percent), and Philadelphia-Camden, Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del. (0.4 percent). Job growth in Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis., equaled the national increase of 0.3 percent. (See chart B.)
Three areas lost jobs from April 2007: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif., (-0.3 percent), Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla. (-0.6 percent), and Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich. (-2.6 percent).
The fastest growing industry supersector did not vary a lot among the 12 largest areas from April 2007 to April 2008. Education and health services had the highest percentage increase in employment in seven areas among those industries adding at least 1,000 jobs: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia. In Washington, D.C., education and health services tied with other services as the fastest-growing industry. Among those industries losing at least 1,000 jobs from April a year ago, manufacturing had the largest percentage decline in 5 of the 12 areas (Boston, Dallas, Detroit, New York and Philadelphia), and financial activities in 3 others (Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Francisco).
The two metropolitan areas with the fastest rates of growth – Houston and Dallas – also added the most jobs. Employment grew by 71,100 in Houston and 66,800 in Dallas from April 2007 to April 2008. The only other area in which employment rose by more than 50,000 over the year was New York (57,600). By contrast, one area lost over 50,000 jobs--Detroit, down 50,900 since April 2007.
In 9 of the 12 areas – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia – education and health services added the most jobs. In San Francisco and Washington, the professional and business services supersector had the largest numerical increase. The trade, transportation, and utilities supersector added the most jobs in the Houston area.
Chart B. Over-the-year percent change in employment, United States and 12 largest metropolitan areas, April 2008
Additional information
More complete information on the technical procedures used to develop these estimates and additional data appear in Employment and Earnings Online.
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 England Information Office at 617-565-2327 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.
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 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 2002 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 approximately 10 percent of CES published series.
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/.
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 November 20, 2007. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is published annually in the May issue of Employment and Earnings.
The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H. Metropolitan New England City and Town Area (NECTA) includes Taunton city, and Berkley, Dighton, Easton, Mansfield, Norton, and Raynham towns in Bristol County; Beverly, Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn, Methuen, Newburyport, Peabody, and Salem cities, and Amesbury, Andover, Boxford, Danvers, Essex, Georgetown, Groveland, Hamilton, Ipswich, Lynnfield, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Marblehead, Merrimac, Middleton, Nahant, Newbury, North Andover, Rockport, Rowley, Salisbury, Saugus, Swampscott, Topsfield, Wenham, and West Newbury towns in Essex County; Cambridge, Everett, Lowell, Malden, Marlborough, Medford, Melrose, Newton, Somerville, Waltham, Watertown, and Woburn cities, and Acton, Arlington, Ashland, Ayer, Bedford, Belmont, Billerica, Boxborough, Burlington, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Framingham, Groton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hudson, Lexington, Lincoln, Littleton, Maynard, Natick, North Reading, Pepperell, Reading, Sherborn, Shirley, Stoneham, Stow, Sudbury, Tewksbury, Townsend, Tyngsborough, Wakefield, Wayland, Westford, Weston, Wilmington, and Winchester towns in Middlesex County; Franklin and Quincy cities, and Avon, Braintree, Brookline, Canton, Cohasset, Dedham, Dover, Foxborough, Holbrook, Medfield, Medway, Millis, Milton, Needham, Norfolk, Norwood, Randolph, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, Wellesley, Westwood, Weymouth, and Wrentham towns in Norfolk County; Brockton city, and Abington, Bridgewater, Carver, Duxbury, East Bridgewater, Halifax, Hanover, Hanson, Hingham, Hull, Kingston, Lakeville, Marshfield, Middleborough, Norwell, Pembroke, Plymouth, Plympton, Rockland, Scituate, West Bridgewater, and Whitman towns in Plymouth County; Boston, Chelsea, and Revere cities, and Winthrop town in Suffolk County; Berlin, Bolton, Harvard, Hopedale, Mendon, Milford, Southborough, and Upton towns in Worcester County, Mass.; Nashua city, and Amherst, Brookline, Greenfield, Greenville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, Lyndeborough, Mason, Merrimack, Milford, Mont Vernon, Pelham, and Wilton towns in Hillsborough County; Atkinson, Brentwood, Chester, Danville, Derry, East Kingston, Epping, Exeter, Fremont, Hampstead, Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, Londonderry, Newfields, Newton, Plaistow, Raymond, Salem, Sandown, Seabrook, South Hampton, and Windham towns in Rockingham County, N.H.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
