Total nonfarm employment in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Ill.-Ind.-Wis. Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 4,583,600 in August 2015, up 44,400 or 1.0 percent over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, the national job count increased 2.0 percent. Regional Commissioner Charlene Peiffer noted that the Chicago metropolitan area has had over-the-year employment increases each month since October 2010. (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 Chicago metropolitan area is made up of four metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, Ill. Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 80 percent of the area’s workforce, added 35,900 jobs from August a year ago. Employment in the Elgin, Ill. and Gary, Ind. Metropolitan Divisions each increased by 3,300, while employment in the Lake County-Kenosha County, Ill.-Wis. Metropolitan Division grew by 1,900 over the year.

Industry employment

The largest over-the-year employment increase in the Chicago metropolitan area in August 2015 was in trade, transportation, and utilities, up 14,500 or 1.6 percent. This industry supersector also accounted for the largest share of employment in the area. All four local area divisions posted employment gains of 1,700 or more in this supersector from August 2014, with the Chicago division adding 9,000 jobs over the year. Nationwide, employment in trade, transportation, and utilities rose 2.1 percent from the previous August. (See chart 2.)

Locally, education and health services employment increased by 10,800, a 1.6-percent gain from August 2014 to August 2015. The Chicago division was up 7,000 or 1.3 percent over the year. Nationwide, employment in this supersector rose 2.7 percent from August a year ago.

Professional and business services, the second largest supersector in the Chicago area, added 10,100 jobs, a 1.2-percent gain from August a year ago. The Chicago division added 9,300 of these jobs. Nationally, employment in the professional and business services supersector increased 3.4 percent from August 2014.

Construction added 6,500 jobs over the year in the Chicago area. The 3.9-percent annual job growth rate was the highest among the local area supersectors that posted annual employment gains. Nationwide, construction employment grew at a 3.5-percent pace.

Two other supersectors added more than 4,000 jobs over the year in the Chicago area. Leisure and hospitality employment increased by 4,700 or 1.0 percent and government employment rose by 4,400 or 0.8 percent. Nationwide, employment in leisure and hospitality increased 3.0 percent and government employment rose 0.5 percent from August 2014.

Two supersectors lost more than 2,000 jobs in the local area over the year—manufacturing (-2,900) and financial activities (-2,500). Employment declines were concentrated in the Chicago division. Nationally, the manufacturing and financial activities supersectors gained jobs.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Chicago was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in August 2015. All 12 areas experienced over-the-year job growth during the period, with 7 exceeding the national average of 2.0 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was in San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, up 3.2 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, up 3.1 percent. The slowest growth rates occurred in Chicago (1.0 percent) and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (1.1 percent). (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The New York-Newark-Jersey City area added the largest number of jobs, 161,800 since August 2014. Employment increased by over 100,000 in two other areas— Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (124,800) and Dallas (103,500). Philadelphia experienced the smallest gain, adding 30,400 jobs over the 12-month period.

Education and health services recorded the most job growth in 5 of the 12 metropolitan areas from August a year ago—Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Professional and business services added the most jobs in four other areas—Atlanta, Dallas, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, and San Francisco.

Manufacturing recorded the largest over-the-year loss of jobs in five areas—Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Philadelphia. Los Angeles was the only area to experience no job losses greater than 1,000 for any supersector since last August.

Metropolitan area employment data for September 2015 are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, October 28, 2015.

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 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.

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 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 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Ill.-Ind.-Wis. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties in Illinois; Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties in Indiana; and Kenosha County in Wisconsin.

• The Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, Ill. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kendall, McHenry, and Will Counties in Illinois.
• The Elgin, Ill. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes DeKalb and Kane Counties.
• The Lake County-Kenosha County, Ill.-Wis. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Lake County in Illinois and Kenosha County in Wisconsin.
• The Gary, Ind. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties in Indiana.

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/.

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.