Total nonfarm employment for the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 4,316,500 in February 2013, up 55,400 or 1.3 percent, over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, the national job count increased 1.6 percent. Regional Commissioner Charlene Peiffer noted that the Chicago area has recorded over-the-year job growth of at least 51,000 for 20 consecutive months. (See chart 1 and table 1. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

The Chicago metropolitan area is made up of three metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 85 percent of the area’s workforce, added 55,000 jobs from February a year ago. (See table 1.) In the other two metropolitan divisions, employment in Lake County-Kenosha County fell by 2,600 over the 12-month period, and in Gary, Ind., employment rose by 3,000.

Industry employment

The largest over-the-year employment increase in the Chicago metropolitan area in February 2013 was in professional and business services, up 19,500. The local area’s 2.8-percent rate of job growth in this supersector was less than the 3.1-percent gain nationwide. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Chicago’s professional and business services supersector, the area’s second largest supersector, has recorded over-the-year employment gains of more than 13,000 each month since June 2010.

Education and health services recorded the second-largest employment gain expanding by 10,100 or 1.5 percent, which was smaller compared to the national growth rate of 1.7 percent. Locally, this supersector has experienced consecutive over-the-year employment gains of more than 10,000 since January 2010.

Leisure and hospitality employment rose by 8,100, a 2.1-percent increase. Nationally, the rate of job growth for this supersector was 2.7 percent. Locally, this supersector has experienced over-the-year employment gains of more than 6,000 since December 2011.

Trade, transportation, and utilities, the largest supersector in the Chicago area, added 5,200 jobs from February a year ago. The 0.6-percent rate of local job growth was less than the 1.8-percent increase nationwide. Over-the year employment gains in trade, transportation, and utilities in the Chicago area have been greater than 5,000 since November 2010.

The financial activities and the manufacturing supersectors gained 5,200 (1.8 percent) and 4,400 (1.1 percent) jobs respectively, in the Chicago area from February 2012 to February 2013. Nationwide, financial activities employment rose 1.4 percent and manufacturing employment increased 1.1 percent from February a year ago.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Chicago was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in February 2013. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job gains during the period, though the rates of growth varied. Employment growth was strongest in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, up 4.5 percent, almost triple the national rate of 1.6 percent. Two other areas—Dallas-Fort Worth and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont—had growth rates above 3.0 percent, and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana broke the 2.0-percent mark. All remaining areas had job growth of at least 1.0 percent, with the exception of Detroit-Warren-Livonia, at 0.6 percent. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

Among the 12 areas, Los Angeles added the most jobs since February 2012, up 124,600, followed by Houston at 118,700. Employment in two other areas—New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island and Dallas—also grew by more than 100,000. Detroit experienced the smallest gain, adding 10,500 jobs over the 12-month period.

Professional and business services topped area gains in seven metropolitan areas (Atlanta, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco). Trade, transportation, and utilities registered the largest employment gains in Houston and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano. Education and health was the leading growth industry in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington and leisure and hospitality experienced the largest gains in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Manufacturing registered the highest employment growth in Detroit.

Government experienced the largest loss of jobs in four areas (Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia), and information in two areas (Dallas and New York). Leisure and hospitality and other services each led employment declines in one area. In Boston, Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco there were no job losses over 1,000 for any supersector since February 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 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 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 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 dated December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Ill.-Ind.-Wis. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties in Illinois; Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties in Indiana; and Kenosha County in Wisconsin.

• The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Ill. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, and Will Counties in Illinois.
• The Lake County-Kenosha County, Ill.-Wis. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Lake County in Illinois and Kenosha County in Wisconsin.
• The Gary, Ind. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties in Indiana.

Additional information

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.  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.

Last Modified Date: April 12, 2012