Total nonfarm employment for the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 1,399,500 in March 2017, up 18,600, 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 1.5 percent. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the Baltimore area had over-the-year job gains each month since April 2010. (See chart 1 and table 1; the Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definition. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

Industry employment

Education and health services had the largest annual job gain among Baltimore’s supersectors, adding 11,500 jobs since March 2016. The 4.3-percent local rate of job growth was faster than the national rate of 2.3 percent. (See chart 2.)

Employment in professional and business services increased by 8,200 in the local area since March a year ago. The rate of local job growth for this supersector (3.6 percent) was greater than the national rate (3.2 percent).

Three other supersectors—leisure and hospitality; mining, logging, and construction; and government—gained more than 1,000 jobs each in the Baltimore area from March 2016 to March 2017. The rate of local job growth for leisure and hospitality (2.3 percent) was faster than the nation’s (1.6 percent), while Baltimore’s employment growth in government was 0.5 percent, compared to the national rate of 0.6 percent.

In the Baltimore area, trade, transportation, and utilities employment declined by 4,300 from March 2016 to March 2017. The local rate of decline for trade, transportation, and utilities employment was 1.8 percent; nationally, this supersector’s employment increased 0.6 percent.

Metropolitan area employment data for April 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, May 19, 2017, at 10:00 a.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 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 2012 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 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/additional-resources/reliability-of-state-and-area-estimates.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 delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on February 28, 2013. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, and Queen Anne’s Counties and Baltimore City in Maryland.

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 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/.

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.

Table 1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry supersector, United States and the Baltimore metropolitan area,
not seasonally adjusted (in thousands)

Area	Back data	Mar 2016	Jan 2017	Feb 2017	Mar 2017(1)	Mar 2016 to Mar 2017(1)
						Net change	Percent change
United States
Total nonfarm		142,814	143,273	144,279	144,949	2,135	1.5
Mining and logging		681	662	672	684	3	0.4
Construction		6,402	6,415	6,479	6,586	184	2.9
Manufacturing		12,288	12,263	12,302	12,329	41	0.3
Trade, transportation, and utilities		26,855	27,241	26,998	27,025	170	0.6
Information		2,776	2,720	2,747	2,739	-37	-1.3
Financial activities		8,181	8,339	8,339	8,360	179	2.2
Professional and business services		19,704	20,098	20,216	20,336	632	3.2
Education and health services		22,590	22,707	23,072	23,111	521	2.3
Leisure and hospitality		15,143	15,018	15,167	15,390	247	1.6
Other services		5,642	5,641	5,673	5,698	56	1.0
Government		22,552	22,169	22,614	22,691	139	0.6
Baltimore-Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area
Total Nonfarm		1,380.9	1,379.9	1,385.7	1,399.5	18.6	1.3
Mining, logging, and construction		75.0	76.4	75.6	76.3	1.3	1.7
Manufacturing		53.3	52.6	53.3	52.9	-0.4	-0.8
Trade, transportation, & utilities		243.4	242.4	237.2	239.1	-4.3	-1.8
Information		16.6	16.2	16.3	16.4	-0.2	-1.2
Financial activities		78.7	78.3	77.9	77.3	-1.4	-1.8
Professional & business services		226.2	227.8	229.9	234.4	8.2	3.6
Education & health services		269.2	274.9	279.2	280.7	11.5	4.3
Leisure & hospitality		129.7	131.7	129.0	132.7	3.0	2.3
Other services		57.0	56.4	56.6	56.8	-0.2	-0.4
Government		231.8	223.2	230.7	232.9	1.1	0.5
Baltimore City
Total Nonfarm		363.5	361.1	366.6	370.8	7.3	2.0
Mining, logging, and construction		11.0	11.2	11.2	11.3	0.3	2.7
Manufacturing		10.6	10.4	10.6	10.5	-0.1	-0.9
Trade, transportation, & utilities		42.7	42.6	42.2	42.2	-0.5	-1.2
Information		4.5	4.4	4.5	4.5	0.0	0.0
Financial activities		17.8	17.9	18.0	17.9	0.1	0.6
Professional & business services		45.9	46.7	46.6	47.9	2.0	4.4
Education & health services		116.2	116.3	119.4	121.3	5.1	4.4
Leisure & hospitality		28.1	29.0	28.7	29.5	1.4	5.0
Other services		14.5	14.5	14.5	14.6	0.1	0.7
Government		72.2	68.1	70.9	71.1	-1.1	-1.5
Footnotes (1) State and regional data for the most recent month are preliminary; U.S. data are preliminary for two months.
SOURCE: Current Employment Statistics - National - State and Metropolitan Area The Current Employment Statistics (CES) Survey is a monthly survey of business establishments which provides estimates of employment, hours, and earnings data by industry for the nation as a whole, all States, and most major metropolitan areas since 1939. The CES survey is a Federal-State cooperative program in which State employment security agencies prepare the data using concepts, definitions, and technical procedures prescribed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Return to Mid-Atlantic Information Office Homepage menu