Total nonfarm employment in the Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH Metropolitan New England City and Town Area stood at 2,582,000 in November 2020, down 258,300 from one year ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner William J. Sibley noted the local rate of job loss, 9.1 percent, compared to the 6.0-percent national decline.  (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 divisions¾separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA Metropolitan Division, which made up 68 percent of the workforce, lost 188,500 jobs from November 2019 to November 2020. The other divisions for which data are published also lost jobs over the year.

Industry employment

In the greater Boston area, employment declined in 7 of 9 private industry supersectors. Leisure and hospitality had the largest lost (-102,400). (See chart 2.) Nine of the 10 divisions recorded significant losses within the leisure and hospitality supersector. The Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA Division was the only division that did not report a significant decline over the year. The 37.4-percent decline in Boston’s leisure and hospitality supersector compared to the 19.8-percent loss on a national level.

Education and health services, the largest industry supersector in the Boston area, lost 44,000 jobs over the year. The 7.3-percent decline in this supersector compared to a 4.4-percent decline nationally. The Boston-Cambridge-Newton division lost 32,200 jobs, or 73 percent of the local area’s employment loss in this industry. Within the supersector, employment in the educational services sector was down 20,500 for the division.

Trade, transportation, and utilities lost 33,300 jobs over the year in the local area. Six of the 10 divisions reported significant declines within this supersector. The local area had a 7.7-percent loss compared to the 3.3-percent decline for the nation. The other services supersector in the Boston area lost 22,600 jobs over the year, with 81 percent of the job losses in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton division (-18,400). The local area had a 22.0-percent loss compared to the 7.0-percent decline for the nation.

Significant job losses in three other supersectors ranged from 15,900 in professional and business services to 10,900 in manufacturing.

Employment in the twelve largest metropolitan areas

Boston-Cambridge-Nashua was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in November 2020. All 12 areas lost jobs over the year. New York-Newark-Jersey City had the largest decline (-999,600). Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale had the smallest loss (-57,300) among the largest areas. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

New York had a 9.9-percent rate of job loss, followed by San Francisco-Hayward-Oakland (-9.3 percent) and Boston (-9.1 percent). The rates of job losses in the remaining nine areas ranged from 8.1 percent in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim to 2.5 percent in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.

The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment release for December 2020 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, 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 at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/ces-20110307.pdf.

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 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. Changes in metropolitan area nonfarm payroll employment are cited in the analysis of this release only if they have been determined to be statistically significant at the 90-percent confidence level. Measures of sampling error for the total nonfarm employment series are available for metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions at www.bls.gov/web/laus/790stderr.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 https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/790stderr.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions is available online at www.bls.gov/web/laus/bmrk_article.htm.

Area definitions  The substate area data published in this news release reflect the delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on April 10, 2018.

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 divisions¾subdivisions 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, MA-NH NECTA include: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA; Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA; Framingham, MA; Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury town, MA-NH; Lawrence-Methuen town-Salem, MA-NH; Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH; Lynn-Saugus-Marblehead, MA; Nashua, NH-MA; Peabody-Salem-Beverly, MA; Taunton-Middleborough-Norton, MA; and select cities and towns within. (See https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/msa_def.htm#71650 for full definitions.)

Additional information

Employment data from the CES program are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202)-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800)-877-8339.