Total nonfarm employment for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 3,217,400 in January 2017, up 54,800, or 1.7 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 Washington area’s January increase was its 34^th consecutive over-the-year employment gain. (See chart 1 and table 1; Technical Note at end of release contains metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area is made up of two metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the greater metropolitan area. The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Division, with 82 percent of the area’s employment, gained 46,000 jobs over the year. The Silver Spring-Frederick-Rockville, Md. Metropolitan Division, which represented the remaining 18 percent of area employment, added 8,800 jobs since January 2016.

Industry employment

In the greater Washington metropolitan area, professional and business services had the largest employment gain from January 2016 to January 2017, adding 17,700 jobs. The Washington area’s 2.5-percent growth in professional and business services employment was slightly below the 2.8-percent increase nationally. Local job gains in this industry were mostly centered in the Washington division. (See chart 2.)

Three other supersectors added at least 7,000 jobs over the year in the local area: leisure and hospitality (16,300); government (9,600); and education and health services (7,000). The local growth rate in leisure and hospitality (5.4 percent) was more than double the 1.9 percent rate for the nation. Government employment rose 1.4 percent compared to the 0.8-percent increase for the nation. In education and health services, the Washington area increased 1.6 percent, which was slower than the national rate of 2.3 percent.

Only the information supersector lost jobs in the Washington area from January 2016 to January 2017, declining by 3,300.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in January 2017. All 12 areas add jobs over-the-year, with 9 areas exceeding the national average of 1.5 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, up 4.0 percent, followed by Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell at 3.7 percent. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land (0.3 percent) and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (0.5 percent) had the slowest rates of job growth. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The New York-Newark-Jersey City area added the largest number of jobs over the year, 158,000, followed by Dallas (+135,400) and Atlanta (+96,800). Houston had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 9,300 jobs, followed by Chicago, which added 22,600 jobs.

Over the year, education and health services added the most jobs in six areas: Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, New York, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward. Manufacturing lost the most jobs over the year in four areas: Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York.

Metropolitan area employment data for February 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, March 24, 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 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 surveys, 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/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 standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated February 28, 2013. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes the District of Columbia; Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren Counties, and Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park Cities in Virginia; Calvert, Charles, Frederick, Montgomery, and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland; and Jefferson County in West Virginia.

• The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. Metropolitan Division includes the District of Columbia; Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren Counties, and Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park Cities in Virginia; Calvert, Charles, and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland; and Jefferson County in West Virginia.
• The Silver Spring-Frederick-Rockville, Md. Metropolitan Division includes Frederick and Montgomery Counties 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.