Total nonfarm employment in the Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Mass.-N.H. Metropolitan New England City and Town Area stood at 2,797,400 in October 2017, up 62,300 from one year ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Deborah A. Brown noted that nonfarm employment rose 2.3 percent locally from October a year ago. During the same period, the national job count increased 1.4 percent.(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 Boston-Cambridge-Nashua area includes 10 metropolitan divisions — separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Boston-Cambridge-Newton metropolitan division, which made up 68 percent of the workforce, gained 50,300 jobs from October 2016 to October 2017. All the other divisions for which data are published also added jobs over the year.

 

Industry employment

Education and health services, the largest industry in the Boston area, had the largest local employment gain, adding 18,300 jobs from October 2016 to October 2017. The 3.2-percent rate of local job growth in this supersector exceeded the 2.0-percent gain nationally.

Professional and business services had the next largest annual employment gain in the Boston area from October 2016, adding 14,900 jobs. The 3.1-percent rate of job growth in Boston’s professional and business services supersector outpaced the 2.6-percent nationwide gain.

The other services supersector added 9,000 over the year. The 8.9-percent rate of job growth was greater than the nationwide gain of 1.4-percent.

 

Four other supersectors in the Boston area gained at least 1,000 jobs over the year—financial activities (+4,600), trade, transportation, and utilities (+4,400), leisure and hospitality (+2,900) and government (+2,700). The local rates of job growth outpaced their national averages in three out of the four supersectors except leisure and hospitality, whose 1.1-percent gain lagged the nationwide increase of 1.8-percent.

Employment in the twelve Largest Metropolitan Areas

Boston-Cambridge-Nashua was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in October 2017. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with rates of job growth in 6 areas exceeding the national increase of 1.4 percent. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington had the fastest rate of job growth, up 2.7 percent, followed by Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, up 2.4 percent each. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin had the slowest rate of job growth, up 0.5 percent. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

 

The Dallas area area added the largest number of jobs over the year, 94,400, followed by New York (+91,300) and Atlanta (+91,300). Chicago had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 21,700 jobs.

Over the year, education and health services added the most jobs in seven areas: Boston, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Miami, New York, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward. Professional and business services gained the most jobs in four areas: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria.

Metropolitan area employment data for November 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, December 22, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

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 are available for metropolitan areas or metropolitan divisions upon request. Measures of sampling error for states down to the supersector level is 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/benchmark2017.pdf.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget July 15, 2015. A detailed list of geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

Areas in the six New England states are defined as Metropolitan New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs), while areas in other states are county-based and identified as metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions.  However, for comparative purposes, the Boston NECTA and its divisions have been referred to as a metropolitan area and metropolitan divisions. 

The Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Mass.-N.H. Metropolitan New England City and Town Area (NECTA) includes 10 NECTA divisions--subdivisions of the larger NECTA which function as distinct social, economic, and cultural areas within the larger region. The NECTA divisions that compose the Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Mass.-N.H. NECTA include:  Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA; Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, Mass.; Framingham, Mass.; Haverhill- Newburyport-Amesbury town, Mass.-N.H.; Lawrence-Methuen town-Salem, Mass.-N.H.; Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, Mass.-N.H.; Lynn-Saugus-Marblehead, Mass.; Nashua, N.H.-Mass.; Peabody-Salem-Beverly, Mass.; Taunton-Middleborough-Norton, Mass.; and select cities and towns within.  

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.