Total nonfarm employment for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,316,200 in March 2013, an increase of 34,300, from one year ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Miami’s rate of job gain, at 1.5 percent, matched the national increase from March 2012 to March 2013. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that over-the-year employment gains in the local area extended back to August 2010. (See chart 1 and table 1; All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

Metropolitan divisions

The Miami area is made up of three metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area, all of which gained jobs over the year. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach division which accounted for 32 percent of Miami’s workforce, added 14,500 jobs from March a year ago. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, the largest of the three divisions with 45 percent of the area’s employment, added 10,500 jobs. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach division, with 23 percent of the workforce, added 9,300 jobs over the 12-month period.

Industry employment

In the Miami metropolitan area, the trade, transportation, and utilities supersector experienced the largest employment increase, up 16,300 or 3.1 percent from March a year ago. The expansion of trade, transportation, and utilities jobs in March 2013 was spread across the three metropolitan divisions. Nationwide, employment in this industry grew 1.5 percent over the 12-month period. (See chart 2 and table 1.)

Leisure and hospitality had the second largest over-the-year increase in jobs locally in March 2013, growing by 7,800 or 2.8 percent. This job growth was concentrated in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale metropolitan divisions. Nationally, this industry grew 2.3 percent since March 2012.

Professional and business services added 5,200 jobs in the Miami area from March 2012, growing at a 1.5-percent pace. Both the West Palm Beach and Miami divisions gained jobs, while the Fort Lauderdale division registered an employment decline in this industry. Nationwide, professional and business services increased 3.2 percent over-the-year.

Three other industries gained at least 2,000 jobs over the year in the local area—construction (4,100), education and health services (3,200), and financial activities (2,400). The construction and financial activities industries recorded rates of job growth that were faster than their respective national rates.

Two industry supersectors in the Miami area had employment declines of at least 1,500 from March 2012 to March 2013. Government lost 2,500 jobs, or 0.8 percent, marking more than four years of consecutive over-the-year employment declines locally. Nationally, government lost jobs at a rate of 0.3 percent over the year. Manufacturing posted the second largest loss of jobs in the Miami area, down 1,800 or 2.3 percent. Nationally, this industry added jobs over the 12-month period, increasing 0.7 percent. (See chart 2)

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Miami was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in March 2013. Employment rose over the year in 11 of the 12 areas, with 6 areas registering growth rates equal to or above the 1.5-percent national advance. Among the 12 areas, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown experienced the fastest rate of expansion, up 3.8 percent; Detroit-Warren-Livonia was the only area to experience a decline as employment slipped 0.1 percent. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana area added the largest number of jobs from the previous March, rising 116,000. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington followed, each with gains of more than 100,000. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington registered the smallest 12-month increase, up 12,500, while employment declined 1,200 in Detroit.

Professional and business services registered the largest over-the-year employment gains in 6 of the 12 metropolitan areas–Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont. The public sector experienced the largest job losses in five areas–Atlanta, Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York; public sector losses were greatest in Los Angeles, down 11,800 over the year.

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. Industry employment data for all states and metropolitan areas from the CES program are available on the Internet at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Employment 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 places 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 2012 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. More complete information on the technical procedures used to develop these estimates and additional data appear in Employment and Earnings, which is available on line at www.bls.gov/opub/ee/home.htm

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

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/.

Current and historical information on the Current Employment Statistics program and other surveys are also available on our regional Web site at www.bls.gov/ro4/home.htm. 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 on December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla., Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
includes the counties of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach in Florida.

The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla., Metropolitan Division (MD)
includes Broward County in Florida.

The Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla., Metropolitan Division (MD)
includes Miami-Dade County in Florida.

The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, Fla., Metropolitan Division (MD)
includes Palm Beach County in Florida.

 

Last Modified Date: May 1, 2013