Total nonfarm employment for the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 1,332,000 in September 2020, down 6.3 percent over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, the national job count decreased 6.4 percent. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the Baltimore area had seven consecutive months of over-the-year job losses. (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

Leisure and hospitality had the largest annual job loss among Baltimore’s supersectors, losing 26,400 jobs since September 2019. The supersector’s 18.9-percent local rate of job loss compared to the national rate of 21.7 percent. (See chart 2.)

Employment in education and health services and government decreased by 22,300 and 20,400, respectively, in the local area since September a year ago. The rate of local job decline for the education and health services supersector (-8.0 percent) was almost twice the national rate (-4.7 percent). The Baltimore area’s government supersector had a 9.2-percent decline in employment, more than double the nation’s 3.7 percent loss.

Two other Baltimore area supersectors lost more than 5,000 jobs each over the year—professional and business services (-8,300) and trade, transportation, and utilities (-6,600).

Metropolitan area employment data for October 2020 are scheduled to be released on Friday, November 20, 2020, 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 2017 version of the North American Industry Classification System.

Method of estimation. CES State and Area employment data are produced using several estimation procedures. Where possible these data are produced using a "weighted link relative" estimation technique in which a ratio of current-month weighted employment to that of the previous-month weighted employment is computed from a sample of establishments reporting for both months. The estimates of employment for the current month are then obtained by multiplying these ratios by the previous month's employment estimates. The weighted link relative technique is utilized for data series where the sample size meets certain statistical criteria.

For some employment series, the sample of establishments is very small or highly variable. In these cases, a model-based approach is used in estimation. These models use the direct sample estimates (described above), combined with forecasts of historical (benchmarked) data to decrease volatility in estimation. Two different models (Fay-Herriot Model and Small Domain Model) are used depending on the industry level being estimated. For more detailed information about each model, refer to the BLS Handbook of Methods.

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 the total nonfarm employment series are available for metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions at www.bls.gov/sae/additional-resources/reliability-of-state-and-area-estimates.htm. Measures of sampling error for more detailed series at the area and division level are available upon request. Measures of sampling error for states at the supersector level and for the private service-providing, goods-producing, total private and total nonfarm levels are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/sae/additional-resources/reliability-of-state-and-area-estimates.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions is available online at www.bls.gov/sae/publications/benchmark-article/annual-benchmark-article.pdf.

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 April 10, 2018. 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. Detailed industry employment data for metropolitan areas from the CES program are available from the State and Area Employment databases at www.bls.gov/sae/data/.

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	Sep 2019	Jul 2020	Aug 2020	Sep 2020(1)	Sep 2019 to Sep 2020(1)
						Net change	Percent change
United States
Total nonfarm		151,556	139,076	140,718	141,855	-9,701	-6.4
Mining and logging		738	630	620	619	-119	-16.1
Construction		7,700	7,427	7,461	7,415	-285	-3.7
Manufacturing		12,880	12,175	12,212	12,224	-656	-5.1
Trade, transportation, and utilities		27,575	26,095	26,403	26,591	-984	-3.6
Information		2,860	2,583	2,601	2,607	-253	-8.8
Financial activities		8,775	8,681	8,703	8,682	-93	-1.1
Professional and business services		21,479	20,010	20,220	20,239	-1,240	-5.8
Education and health services		24,257	22,646	22,835	23,125	-1,132	-4.7
Leisure and hospitality		16,759	13,152	13,231	13,124	-3,635	-21.7
Other services		5,894	5,409	5,445	5,433	-461	-7.8
Government		22,639	20,268	20,987	21,796	-843	-3.7
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area
Total Nonfarm		1,421.6	1,332.4	1,333.7	1,332.0	-89.6	-6.3
Mining, logging, and construction		82.4	87.9	87.6	87.1	4.7	5.7
Manufacturing		59.7	57.1	57.4	57.9	-1.8	-3.0
Trade, transportation, & utilities		246.1	236.0	236.8	239.5	-6.6	-2.7
Information		17.2	14.6	14.7	14.7	-2.5	-14.5
Financial activities		79.2	74.7	76.3	75.7	-3.5	-4.4
Professional & business services		246.6	236.7	238.9	238.3	-8.3	-3.4
Education & health services		278.0	253.9	253.1	255.7	-22.3	-8.0
Leisure & hospitality		139.5	114.2	116.0	113.1	-26.4	-18.9
Other services		51.3	48.5	49.9	48.8	-2.5	-4.9
Government		221.6	208.8	203.0	201.2	-20.4	-9.2
Baltimore City
Total Nonfarm		374.4	327.6	331.5	336.1	-38.3	-10.2
Mining, logging, and construction		11.4	10.7	10.8	10.8	-0.6	-5.3
Manufacturing		11.2	9.7	9.8	9.7	-1.5	-13.4
Trade, transportation, & utilities		41.2	36.2	36.9	37.2	-4.0	-9.7
Information		5.0	4.4	4.4	4.5	-0.5	-10.0
Financial activities		17.5	16.2	17.0	17.5	0.0	0.0
Professional & business services		56.2	48.7	49.1	49.3	-6.9	-12.3
Education & health services		119.6	109.8	109.0	111.5	-8.1	-6.8
Leisure & hospitality		30.2	18.9	20.8	20.4	-9.8	-32.5
Other services		12.3	10.1	10.3	10.1	-2.2	-17.9
Government		69.8	62.9	63.4	65.1	-4.7	-6.7
Footnotes (1) State and regional data for the most recent month are preliminary; U.S. data are preliminary for two months.