(NOTE: This release was reissued on Thursday, June 28, 2012, to correct estimates that were incorrectly published in the database due to a data processing error. Table 1 has corrected January employment levels for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, the New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division, and New York City. Table 2 has corrected January employment levels for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area. The text of the release is correct as originally posted.)

Total nonfarm employment for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area rose by 117,700 or 1.4 percent from February 2011 to February 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Deborah A. Brown, the Bureau's acting regional commissioner, noted that the rates of job growth in the area and in New York City (1.7 percent) nearly matched the national rate of 1.6 percent. (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 had the largest increase, 78,700 jobs, followed by Nassau-Suffolk, up 19,700. The two other divisions, Newark-Union and Edison-New Brunswick, each gained just under 10,000 jobs.

While Nassau-Suffolk had a smaller numeric increase, it had a slightly larger percentage change than New York-White Plains-Wayne—1.6 percent versus 1.5 percent. Edison and Newark each had increases of 1.0 percent. (See chart 2.)

Industry employment

In the New York area, the largest increase in employment occurred in professional and business services, which posted a 57,200-job gain over the year. (See table 1.) Job growth in the supersector was largely concentrated among professional, scientific, and technical services, which added 37,100 jobs, the largest expansion recorded in over a decade. New York City and the Newark-Union Metropolitan Division experienced sharp increases in these services, adding 24,100 and 4,700 employees, respectively. These increases more than offset declines in Edison-New Brunswick. All four metropolitan divisions also added jobs in the administrative and support and waste management and remediation services industry.

Four other supersectors registered job gains of at least 10,000: leisure and hospitality (21,900), trade, transportation, and utilities (21,300), financial activities (14,200), and education and health services (13,800). In leisure and hospitality, accommodation and food services accounted for virtually all of the increase, with New York City adding 13,200 jobs in food services and drinking places.

The increase in trade, transportation, and utilities was attributable to gains in retail trade, up 20,800. The 1.4-percent growth rate for the trade, transportation, and utilities supersector was similar to the national rate of 1.5 percent. (See chart 3.)

In financial activities, New York City accounted for over half of the area's increase, due in part to adding 3,500 jobs in the securities industry. Financial activities grew more rapidly in the New York area (2.0 percent) than the nation (0.4 percent).

In education and health services, ambulatory health care services and hospitals were the primary growth industries. In the Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division, employment in education and health services increased 5,300 in February, the largest over-the-year increase since June 2002. Still, the New York area's 0.9-percent growth rate trailed the national pace of 2.4 percent.

Government employment declined by 13,400, or 1.1 percent. Roughly half of this contraction occurred in local government. In two other New York area supersectors, information and manufacturing, employment declined by 0.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Nationally, information employment also declined, by 0.8 percent, while manufacturing gained jobs, up 2.0 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 February 2012. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job gains during the period, though the rates of growth were varied. Four of these areas expanded at a pace above the 1.6-percent national average and three others grew by less than 1.0 percent. Employment growth was strongest in Houston, up 3.7 percent—more than twice the U.S. average—and slowest in Philadelphia, up 0.3 percent. (See chart 4. and table 2.)

Among the 12 areas, New York added the most jobs since February 2011, up 117,700. Houston and Dallas followed with the addition of 93,400 and 79,400 jobs, respectively. Five other areas added between 44,000 and 34,000 jobs. Only Philadelphia gained fewer than 10,000 jobs over the 12-month period.

Two industry supersectors accounted for most of the job growth in the 12 metropolitan areas from February a year ago. Professional and business services registered the largest employment gains in six areas (Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco) and education and health services led in five other areas (Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, and Washington).

Widespread losses were recorded in the public sector over the year. Government experienced the largest loss of jobs in eight areas and had the second largest drop in three additional areas. Only Washington added public sectors jobs from the prior February, up 5,800. The decline in government employment was largest in New York, down 13,400, followed by Los Angeles (-9,300), and Philadelphia (-9,000).

Metropolitan area employment data for March 2012 are scheduled to be released on May 2, 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.

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 Divison 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.