Total nonfarm employment for the Detroit-Warren-Livonia Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 1,879,900 in September 2014, up 4,700 or 0.3 percent over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During this same period, the national job count increased 2.0 percent. Regional Commissioner Charlene Peiffer noted that the increase in Detroit area employment followed a gain of 32,000 (1.7 percent) in the previous 12-month period ended in September 2013.  (See chart 1 and table 1; the Technical Note at the end of this release contains metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

The Detroit metropolitan area is made up of two metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills division, which accounted for 62 percent of the metropolitan area's employment, added 7,500 jobs from September a year ago, a gain of 0.7 percent. The Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn Metropolitan Division, the area’s other employment center, experienced a decline of 2,800 jobs over the 12-month period, a 0.4 percent drop.  (See table 1.)

Industry employment

Professional and business services gained the largest number of jobs in the Detroit metropolitan area over the year, up 7,000 or 1.9 percent from last September. Both Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills (up 5,100 or 2.1 percent) and Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn (up 1,900 or 1.6 percent) experienced annual increases in this supersector. Nationwide, professional and business services rose 3.8 percent over the previous year in September. (See chart 2 and table 1.)

Employment in the trade, transportation, and utilities supersector increased by 4,400 from September 2013-September 2014, a 1.3-percent gain. The bulk of this increase occurred in the Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills area where employment grew by 3,800 (1.8 percent) over the year. Nationwide, employment in this supersector increased 1.9 percent.

Manufacturing,  the only other supersector in Detroit to record a measurable increase in employment, gained 2,500 jobs, up 1.1 percent in the year ended September 2014. The employment gain in this supersector was concentrated in the Warren division which added 6,000 jobs. Nationally, manufacturing payrolls rose 1.3 percent in the same period.

In the Detroit metropolitan area, financial activities experienced the largest employment decrease from September 2013-September 2014, down 5,300 or 5.2 percent. In contrast, employment in financial activities increased 1.2 percent nationally over the year.

Leisure and hospitality employment in Detroit fell by 3,300 or 1.8 percent from September a year ago. The Warren division shed 3,900 jobs in this supersector over the year. Nationally, leisure and hospitality posted a 2.6 percent rate of job growth from September 2013.

Government payrolls declined 3,100 or 1.7 percent compared to last September in the Detroit metropolitan area. The Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn division was responsible for the loss with a decline of 3,200 jobs in government over the year. Nationwide, government payrolls were little changed over the year.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Detroit was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in September 2014. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job growth during the period, with 5 exceeding the national average of 2.0 percent.. (See chart 3 and table 2.)   The fastest rate of job growth was registered in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, up 4.3 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, up 3.2 percent. The slowest rate of expansion, 0.3 percent, was experienced in both Detroit and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria.

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island added the largest number of jobs from the previous September, up 130,500. Three other areas added more than 100,000 jobs over the year–Houston, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, and Dallas. Five areas had employment increases ranging from 69,200 to 45,000. Detroit registered the smallest 12-month increase, up 4,700 during the period.

Professional and business services led employment growth in 5 of the 12 metropolitan areas—Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont.  (See table 2.) Education and health services recorded the largest gains in three areas—Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Houston, and New York.

Over the year, manufacturing recorded the largest loss of jobs in three areas–Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. The Boston, Houston, and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach areas experienced no annual job loss in any supersector.

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. Industry employment data for all states and metropolitan areas from the CES program are also available on the Internet at www.bls.gov/sae.

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. 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.

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 Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, and Wayne Counties in Michigan.

• The The Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Wayne County in Michigan.
• The The Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, and St. Clair Counties in Michigan.

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.