Total nonfarm employment for the Kansas City, Mo.-Ks., Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) stood at 983,900 in February 2013, up 4,900 or 0.5 percent, from February 2012 to February 2013 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, nonfarm employment nationwide rose 1.6 percent. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that this was the 29th consecutive month of over-the-year job gains in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The Kansas City metropolitan area is comprised of two separately identifiable employment centers—the Missouri portion and the Kansas portion of the MSA. The Missouri portion, which had 55 percent of the area’s workforce, lost 2,600 jobs (-0.5 percent) from February 2012. The Kansas portion, with 45 percent of the area’s workforce, gained 7,500 jobs (1.7 percent). (See chart 1 and table 1; Technical Note at end of release contains metropolitan area definitions. Data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, analysis is based on over-the-year comparisons.)

Over the year, two supersectors in the Kansas City metropolitan area registered increases of more than 2,000 jobs. Professional and business services experienced the largest increase in employment, gaining 3,200 jobs from February 2012 to February 2013. The Kansas portion was responsible for this expansion with the addition of 4,700 jobs while the Missouri portion lost 1,500. This supersector’s rate of job growth was 2.1 percent in the local area compared to the national rate of 3.1 percent. The leisure and hospitality supersector had the second largest gain in employment in the Kansas City area, up 2,200 jobs from February a year ago. Leisure and hospitality added 4,100 jobs in the Missouri portion of the area and was the only supersector on the Missouri side to record growth over the year. Conversely, the Kansas portion of the area lost 1,900 jobs. The metropolitan area’s rate of job growth for this supersector was 2.4 percent compared to the 2.7-percent rate for the nation.

Education and health services registered employment changes of more than 1,000 in each portion of the metropolitan area. However, a gain of 1,300 jobs in the Kansas portion was more than offset by a loss of 2,000 jobs in the Missouri portion. Two additional supersectors–manufacturing and government– experienced job losses of 1,000 on the Missouri side.

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 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 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 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 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 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 on December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Kansas City, Mo.-Ks. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Bates, Caldwell, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Lafayette, Platte, and Ray Counties in Missouri; Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, and Wyandotte Counties in Kansas.

• The Kansas City, Mo. portion includes Bates, Caldwell, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Lafayette, Platte, and Ray Counties in Missouri.
• The Kansas City, Ks. portion includes Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, and Wyandotte Counties in Kansas.

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/.

Last Modified Date: April 11, 2013