Total nonfarm employment in the Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Mass.-N.H. Metropolitan New England City and Town Area stood at 2,813,000 in July 2018, up 62,200 from one year ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Deborah A. Brown noted that local nonfarm employment rose 2.3 percent from July a year ago. During the same period, the national job count increased 1.6 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 49,500 jobs from July 2017 to July 2018. The other divisions for which data are published also added jobs over the year, with the exception of the Framingham Division.

Industry employment

Professional and business services had the largest annual employment gain in the Boston area from July 2017, adding 23,800 jobs. The 4.8-percent rate of job growth in Boston’s professional and business services supersector exceeded the 2.6-percent nationwide gain.

Education and health services, the largest industry in the Boston area, had the second-largest local employment gain, adding 12,400 jobs from July 2017 to July 2018. The 2.2-percent rate of local job growth in this supersector exceeded the national gain of 1.8 percent.

The leisure and hospitality industry added 11,300 jobs locally from July 2017 to July 2018. The 3.9-percent rate of local job gain was higher than the 1.6-percent gain for the nation.

Three other supersectors in the Boston area gained at least 1,000 jobs over the year— manufacturing (+4,300), trade, transportation, and utilities (+1,900) and other services (+1,800). The local rate of job growth in the other services supersector outpaced that of the nation, while the local rates of job growth in trade, transportation and utilities and manufacturing lagged that of the nation.

One supersector in the Boston area lost jobs over the year. The local area’s financial activities supersector lost 1,300 jobs, a 0.7-percent rate of decline. Nationally, financial activities gained jobs, up 1.3 percent from July a year ago.

Employment in the twelve largest metropolitan areas

Boston-Cambridge-Nashua was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in July 2018. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with the rates of job growth in 8 areas exceeding the national increase of 1.6 percent. Houston (+3.4 percent), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (+3.3 percent), and Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale (+3.1 percent) had the fastest rates of job growth. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (+1.1 percent) and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (+1.3 percent) had the slowest rates of job growth. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

New York-Newark-Jersey City added the largest number of jobs over the year, 143,000, followed by Dallas (+118,200) and Houston (+101,800). San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 39,400 jobs. Annual gains in the remaining eight metropolitan areas ranged from 77,100 in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria to 45,800 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.

Over the year, professional and business services added the most jobs in five areas: Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, and Washington. Construction gained the most jobs in three areas: Chicago, Miami, and Phoenix.

Information recorded the largest employment loss in four areas: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington. Dallas and Washington were the only metropolitan areas to record no losses in any supersector.

Metropolitan area employment data for August 2018 are scheduled to be released on Friday, September 21, 2018, 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.